SEGA News

SEGAbits at E3 2018: Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom Hands-On Preview

June 27, 2018 by Bartman

The Wonder Boy series creator, Ryuichi Nishizawa, returns for an all new heavily inspired 2D platformer title, Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom. Co-developed by France based Game Atelier and Germany based publisher FDG Entertainment, the gameplay is largely the same and bears a striking similarity to Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap. Two demo levels were available to play allowing you to play as Monster Boy or as a transformed anthropomorphic creature. I played through the latter. You can hit the jump to read on, check out the image gallery and hit up links for the trailer.

Udon publishing ‘The Eyes of Bayonetta 2’ art book in the West this fall

June 25, 2018 by George

Udon Entertainment is set to release ‘The Eyes of Bayonetta 2‘ art book in the West this upcoming November 20, 2018. Udon is mostly known for its work on the Street Fighter comic book series and even going as far as doing the HD sprites for the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix re-re-re-re-(infinite amount of re)-release. But they’ve also released a ton of vide game art books for IPs such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Persona, Mega Man, Dark Souls, Border Break, Shining series, Valkyria Chronicles, and even the first ‘The Eyes of Bayonetta’ book!

SEGA’s Alien: Isolation team working on new IP, a ‘First Person Tactical Shooter’

June 25, 2018 by George

While SEGA’s Creative Assembly is mostly known in PC circles, the company has tried its hand at making console games. First in the mid-2000s with Spartan: Total Warrior, then a few years later with Viking: Battle for Asgard and most recently with the critically acclaimed Alien: Isolation. We already knew that Creative Assembly was working a ‘multi-platform AAA blockbuster’ way back in 2015 and it seems they are still hard at work on this big title considering they are looking for a Senior UI artist for this new IP.

According to Creative Assembly’s job listing:

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Sonic Forces’ soundtrack getting a official vinyl release next month

June 25, 2018 by George

It looks like Sonic Forces’ soundtrack will be getting a vinyl release next month, being titled the ‘the vinyl cutz’ version. If you are one of the many fans that kept saying that the best thing Sonic Forces had going for it was its soundtrack, congratulations! You get to own it on wax. The Sonic Forces‘ ‘The Vinyl Cutz’ will come with two vinyls and include 19 songs (you can get the full listing after the jump). The vinyl comes out July 31, 2018 and is being printed by Wayo Records and sold through Amazon Japan. Yep, its a Japanese release. According to the Wayo Records website they ship worldwide and will cost approximately $37 USD.

If you are a hater, like myself, that didn’t think much of the full length Sonic Forces soundtrack, then you can continue hating. Hey, you want to hate together?

Preview: IDW Sonic the Hedgehog #9

June 25, 2018 by Barry

The latest previews have released for IDW’s Sonic the Hedgehog comics, and while we await issue 6 we have details on issue 9. This issue will kick off a new multi-part story entitled “The Battle for Angel Island” and will Sonic and friends taking on a treat to the Master Emerald. Unlike past issues which have been debuting characters one at a time, this issue promises everybody to team up. Interestingly, one cover features Emerl from Sonic Battle and Sonic and Knuckles riding their extreme gear from the Sonic Riders games.

The full solicit can be read after the break.

Sonic the Hedgehog toys now at Subway restaurants

June 25, 2018 by Barry

Video credit: Treasure Hunting Sonic [ Facebook | Instagram ]

Sonic the Hedgehog celebrated 27 years over the weekend, and one of the stranger bits of news to come out of the celebrations (stranger than Big the Cat) was that Subway restaurants in the US would have a Sonic themed kid’s meal. Sonic is no stranger to kid’s meals in the US, having appeared as a Happy Meal for Sonic 3, a McDonald’s train car for the Happy Meal anniversary, two waves of McDonald’s LED toys, a Jack in the Box SEGA PC meal, and two Sonic Boom promotions (one for Del Taco and another for Carl’s Jr.).

This latest promotion sees four gear toys that assemble into a weird optical illusion machine. Not as exciting as some past promotions, but still fun to see in action. You can buy them for yourself without the meal for the low price of between $1 and $1.50 each, though the shame in asking a sandwich artist if they have Sonic toys is costly. Trust me.

Thanks to Treasure Hunting Sonic for making a video of the toys in action, you can check him out on Fac ebook and Instagram.

Another Team Sonic Racing team has been revealed …Froggy, where are you?

June 23, 2018 by Barry

Sonic the Hedgehog turns 27 today! And as part of the festivities, the official Sonic social media accounts have revealed a new Team Sonic Racing team. In our many speculative videos we assumed that the game would be following the Sonic Heroes team arrangements. While they do feature Team Sonic and Team Dark, it looks like Team Rose is returning with some changes. First off, Amy Rose is back. Secondly, BIG THE CAT IS BACK AND HE IS DRIVING A FROGGY CAR! Thirdly, Cream the Rabbit got the boot in favor of four Chao in a car, which is very similar to the Chu Chu Rocket car in Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing.

Overall, it’s a nice addition to the game. Amy was all but assured, but I will admit that I was uncertain if Big would be back. While he is a fan favorite, Sonic Team said in the past that the character had been retired. Guess not! As for Cream, I really do not miss her and I think she would have likely been the least popular racer. The real question is, will we see Blaze the Cat? Female representation is low in the roster, and she’s a popular character that would make for a great racer.

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Sonic Mania Adventures Episode 4 reunites Mighty and Ray

June 23, 2018 by Barry

Sonic Mania Plus releases next month, and leading up to the release SEGA has been posting a five part animated Sonic series to YouTube entitled Sonic Mania Adventures. The last episode featured Knuckles flinging Ray, and this episode sees where Ray ended up. The new music by Tee Lopes and the writing and directing by Tyson Hesse are top notch and expand on what made the Sonic Mania game such a love letter to Classic Sonic fans. Check the latest episode out for yourself and be on the lookout for the fifth and final episode next month!

Job Listing for the New Sakura Wars Game hints on PS4 & Xbox One release.

June 22, 2018 by Kori-Maru

After SEGA CEO, Haruki Satomi, announced a new Sakura Wars game in the works a few months ago during SEGA FES in Japan, there has been a new job listing for the game that just opened up recently focusing a release on Playstation 4 and Xbox One consoles. New job listings were posted at Creative Job by SEGA that state that a staff is required for the New Sakura Wars game which includes:

Background Designers
Character Designers
Mecha Modelers

Each staff member would also need prior experience with developing on Playstation 3/4 and Xbox 360/One console hardware along with using high-end game engines. The new Sakura Wars game does not currently have any confirmed platforms or release date but SEGA has stated that the game will released by the end of the current fiscal year.

[Source: Siliconera]

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VectorMan joins the SEGA Forever mobile lineup

June 21, 2018 by Barry

The SEGA Forever mobile lineup has expanded today with the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive classic VectorMan. As with past SEGA Forever releases, you can play for free (ad-supported) on iOS and Android, or go ad-free for $1.99/€2.29/£1.99. As a bonus the SEGA Forever blog has added a special interview with Rich Karpp, the creator, coder, and designer of VectorMan! It’s a great read and here’s hoping these interviews continue as its always great to learn more about classic games from the people who made them.

Also worth noting, this week marks the one year anniversary of SEGA Forever. Since launch the lineup has hit 50 million downloads. We’re looking forward to seeing what is to come!

SEGAbits at E3 2018: Team Sonic Racing demo gameplay and developer interview

June 19, 2018 by Barry

SEGA had a variety of games on display at this year’s E3, and probably the most interesting one (namely because we didn’t have a Japanese version to compare it to) was Team Sonic Racing. Our E3 reps got a chance to demo the game as Omega from Team Dark and Sonic of Team… well, Sonic of course. Following the demo, lead designer from Sumo Digital Richard Acherki was kind enough to take a few minutes to answer some questions we had about the upcoming game.

Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami joining “PlayStation Hits” budget branding

June 19, 2018 by George

Growing up and owning the first PlayStation was a huge thing in the USA because Sony had the ‘greatest hits’ budget branding on games, making a lot of great games available for only $19.99. That tradition is now continuing with ‘PlayStation Hits’ brand games that will launch at $19.99 USD / $19.99 CAD / €19.99 / £15.99, the new budget brand hits June 28th in America and July 18th in Europe. In the past, ‘Greatest Hits’ was a badge that meant the games sold over a certain threshold in that specific market (PSone era it was 250k units in 9 months). No idea if they set one for these titles but they all seem to be rather popular games.

Hit the jump to see the full list of games, but Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza 0 will be joining the new ‘rebrand’ budget title line-up!:

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Valkyria Chronicles 4 releases September 25 – new editions announced

June 19, 2018 by Barry

SEGA has given an official date for the upcoming Valkyria Chronicles 4! The much anticipated sequel will release in the Americas, Europe and Australia on September 25, 2018 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. Also revealed is a new Launch Edition (MSRP $59.99), which in the Americas will include controller skins (not unlike what Sonic Forces included) and in the EU and UK fans will receive a sticker of the dog Ragnarok. Of course, there will also be the beautiful “Memoirs from Battle” Premium Edition (MSRP $99.99) which includes a collectors box, an art book, DLC and a statue of a freakin’ tank.

Pre-order the Valkyria Chronicles 4 “Memoirs from Battle” Premium Edition
PlayStation 4 | Xbox One | Nintendo Switch

Pre-order the Valkyria Chronicles 4 Launch Edition
PlayStation 4 | Xbox One | Nintendo Switch

SEGAbits at E3 2018: Team Sonic Racing Hands-On Preview

June 17, 2018 by Barry

E3 has come to an end, and SEGAbits representatives came, played and conquered the event! While opinion pieces based on trailers and press releases are all well and good, nothing beats a hands-on preview. After the break, hear what Bartman and Kori-Maru thought about SEGA and Sumo Digital’s latest racing title!