This past week, George and I were asked to guest on SYFY Wire’s The Fandom Files podcast. The main topic of conversation was our reaction to the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, and we also talked about the redesign, the overall story of the movie’s development, and our own beginnings in SEGA blogging.
You can listen to the February 24, 2020 episode here or search The Fandom Files on Google Play or Apple Podcasts.
Following up from the previous article, there are more SEGA merchandise revealed at this year’s New York Toy Fair featuring Sonic the Hedgehog.
From Diamond Select’s booth, they are showcasing a statue of “Movie” Sonic on top of Dr. Robotnik Tech and the Ultimate “Classic” Sonic figure with customizable parts. Over at the Jakks Pacific’s booth, the booth has plushes of multiple Sonic the Hedgehog characters including Mighty the Armadillo.
Planning to collect some of the Sonic & SEGA merchandise sometime this year? Let us know in the comments below. Check out images of the merchandise after the break.
In a new 4Gamer Japanese 20th year anniversary Space Channel 5 interview with some of the original members of the team, which most are now working on Space Channel 5 VR over at Gounding Inc (A team made up of ex-SEGA employees including some from the Panzer Dragoon Team) the team discusses the origins of Space Channel 5 and even the project before the game was even thought of.
During the interview they asked the team about the game that came before Space Channel 5, which was at the time called “Eye” (Using Google Translate, so bear with me):
Takumi Yoshinaga: “(Eye) was an adventure game set in the near future, with a setting like “AKIRA” and you progressed through hacking. The main character was a boy, which is completely different from Space Channel 5. Actually the icon of “Eye” project is included in the end credits for Space Channel 5, which is a secret to the game’s origin!”
You can see the Project “Eye” logo from the Space Channel 5 credits after the jump:
Fellow Super Monkey Ball voice actor @Briantokyojapan posted on his instagram that there will be a interesting Super Monkey Ball announcement, that something is in the works and to stay tuned. He also hashtagged #monkeyball and #SEGA. But the interesting thing is that he used a photo that just says “Super Monkey Ball” on it, leading me to believe that this might be a port or remake of the original game. Or maybe another ‘Super Monkey Ball Deluxe‘ with the first two, but who knows.
“This is going to be interesting. Something IS in the works but I’ll miss the meeting on the 25th as I’m going overseas for a week. Stay tuned! #monkeyball#sega“
It makes sense since the last released game in the franchise, Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz HD was also a ‘remake’ of the original Wii game. They could also be creating a brand new game, since the official Super Monkey Ball twitter account ran a poll in September of last year asking fans what they want from the franchise next, in first place was a brand new game with 49.2% of the votes and in close second was a remake of the first two games with 42.1% . What do you think this Super Monkey Ball announcement will be?
Storm Collectibles recently announced tons of licensed merchandise that their working on at their booth during New York’s Toy Fair 2020 event. Two of the licensed SEGA related products set for released is Streets of Rage 4 and Golden Axe.
One of the first line up of action figures for Streets of Rage 4 is a 1/12 scale action figure of Axel Stone in his current attire for the upcoming game with the release TBD. For Golden Axe, the line up will feature 1/12 action figures of Ax Battler and the Skeleton warriors set for release on March 20th for $130.
Check out photos taken at the booth after the break. Credits to Streets of Rage Brasil and Bleeding Cool for providing photos.
Streets of Rage 4‘s publisher Dotemu has teased that they will be showing off a fifth playable character for the game. According to them the new character will be revealed with a “little” surprise… maybe? They have also confirmed that Streets of Rage 4 and Windjammers 2 will be playable at PAX East Boston.
Some people would suggest it might be Eddie “Skate” Hunter, but seeing as this game already has Cherry Hunter, Eddie’s sister and Adam Hunter; how many Hunters do we need? Some say this could be the return of Max Thunder, but he isn’t little at all. Maybe a Streets of Rage 3 character like Dr. Gilbert Zan or Roo? Eh. We shall see.
Who do you think the fifth playable character for Streets of Rage 4 will be?
The official House of the Dead twitter account has recently made an announcement that the latest House of the Dead installment will receive an brand new attraction called House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn: The Attraction at Tokyo Joypolis in Japan which will be playable on March 19th.
The attraction will replace The House of the Dead 4 Special, an updated version and side story to the fourth game, which stopped its operation recently this month and will feature a shooting ride theater type attraction with the capacity of 12 players (4 players each on 3 screens). The objective of the attraction is to work together as a team by shooting down incoming creatures and bosses in a building while obtaining the highest ranked score.
I hope we hear more news on the attraction regarding the story because I would love to see some returning AMS Agents make a comeback. Hit the jump for screen images of the attraction after the break.
I’m reminded of the monkey paw segment of The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror when I report the news that we are getting a rerelease of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, but it’s the Tiger Electronics version. That’s right, Hasbro is bringing back the sort of playable LCD games with the return of four games, including SEGA’s own Sonic 3. Other titles include The Little Mermaid, Transformers: Generation 2 and X-Men Project X. The games are coming this fall for $14.99 each, and are up for pre-order right now at GameStop.
What Tiger games would YOU like to see revived? What modern games would you like to see turned into a Tiger game?
If you are a Xbox One fan that has been waiting for the release of Yakuza 0 and Two Point Hospital (maybe if you read this site, not this one) on Game Pass, your wait is almost over. According to Microsoft Yakuza 0 will hit on the 26th while Two Point Hospital will hit on the 25th of this month. Both these games will also be playable on PC, not just Xbox One! Win, win?
If you didn’t know Game Pass is Microsoft’s game service where you pay monthly for a ‘free’ catalogue of games, each month they continue to add more and more.
The official Japanese Sonic Twitter account has announced that there will be a live broadcast for Sonic news and information on the 20th of every month with the first one beginning on February 20th at 18:00 JST (4 AM EST, 3 AM CST, and 1 AM PST).
The stream will be hosted by Sonic Series Creative Director, Kazuyuki Hoshino, and Sound Director, Jun Senoue with them discussing the latest apparel, SEGA AGES: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and more. Fans can also submit newsletters for them to address during the stream.
Who’s ready for some Sonic news? Let us know in the comments below.
Shenmue III’s second DLC is now available for download on the Playstation Store and Epic Games Store for only $5.99. The content includes an optional quest not in the main game and special items once the quest is cleared.
Here is a description of the Story Pack DLC:
“One day, Ryo encounters Zhang Shuqin – a subordinate of Zhu Yuanda, who had helped Ryo out in the past. Just as Ryo thinks that he’s renewed an old friendship, he learns that Zhang has been kidnapped. But by whom – and why?”
In order to play the DLC, you must have reached Niaowu or have save data on which the game has been cleared.
Looks like the Olympics isn’t over for Sonic and his friends just yet as a new trailer for Sonic at the Olympics – Tokyo 2020 has been released by SEGA with the trailer featuring a story mode where Sonic and friends must compete against Eggman from taking over Tokyo and showcases the events, minigames, and online ranking modes to check out.
The game is available for pre-registration right now with bonus rewards and ready for download on May 7th for iOS and Android devices.
If you are planning on buying Streets of Rage 4 to play the game online with your old buddies that have moved around the world, you might want to hold that excitement because a user on the Steam forums have asked the developer behind the game if they will feature online co-op and this is what he had to say:
“Going to be local co-op actually but we’ll keep the online coop idea in mind.”
Not really much to discuss but you’d think having online co-op in 2020 would be a no brainier. I do know that Steam now has a feature called ‘Remote Play’ that allows users to play multiplayer offline games, online with the feature. I don’t think PlayStation 4, Xbox One or Nintendo Switch has these, so it seems this could be a negative for the game. Personally I play most of my games offline, but what do you think?
The Sonic the Hedgehog movie is finally releasing in less than a day, so its about that time we see more merchandise being released. Right now Build-a-Bear has listed the option of making a Sonic the Movie plush of our blue boy. You can see both listed on the North American and European websites. The prices range from $29 to $53 bucks, depending on which version you get (if he has shoes or a ring).
Like everyone else, its nice to see merchandise after they redesigned the character, I couldn’t even imagine what this poor Build-a-Bear would have looked like if they used the nightmare fuel Ken Penders design.
SEGA’s latest entry in the Sakura Wars series, Shin Sakura Wars (aka Project Sakura Wars), has finally gotten a release date for those in western territories. Simply titled Sakura Wars, the game will be available on April 28th for the PlayStation 4. In addition, initial copies of Sakura Wars will be the “Launch Edition”, which includes a reversible cover and stickers. It’s also confirmed that there will be no dub; only Japanese voice acting and subtitles in languages such as English, German, French, and Spanish.
This game focuses on a new Flower Division, a theater troupe that doubles as a protective service in case of emergancy, as you take on the role of Seijuro Kamiyama to prevent the Flower Division from being shut down and to stop a demonic invasion from destroying Tokyo. Like predecessors, the game focuses on interactions between the cast of characters using the iconic LIPS dialogue system, which is encouraged to improve the combat capabilities of each pilot and also learn more about each member of the Flower Division. Unlike past installments which used strategy elements for the combat, Sakura Wars is more action packed where you have to destroy enemies using your arsenal of attacks by piloting special steam-powered mechs called Spiricle Armor, with each pilot having their own characteristics.