I love the SEGA Saturn, you love the SEGA Saturn, we all love the SEGA Saturn. But why do we love the SEGA Saturn? I asked myself this very question and came up with five reasons why SEGA’s 32-bit wonder makes me all happy inside.
In celebration of Saturn month, I knew we had to feature the excellent Segata Sanshiro ad campaign from Japan. Initially I thought I’d share a few of the best commercials, but then I came across this video gem. From bestdamnpodcastever.com comes this cool mini-documentary on Segata Sanshiro. The video gives a few fun facts about the campaign, a little history, highlights some of the best commercials and ends with an awesome music video. Check it out… unless you want to be placed in a headlock.
SEGATA SANSHIRO!
Look closely at the Japanese Guardian Heroes website url. Notice how it starts with a ‘SS’, what could this stand for? The obvious? SEGA Saturn. Why would they format a URL like that for a one off title?
This could possibly mean that SEGA is most likely planning on releasing more than one SEGA Saturn title on digital services. I mean, why not? They are already doing Dreamcast releases and overdo SEGA Genesis. Seems like the smart choice.
16 years ago today, SEGA of America President Tom Kalinske took to the stage at E3 and announced that the SEGA Saturn was now available in select retailers across the United States. Though this would later be seen as one of the greatest marketing blunders in SEGA’s history, it nevertheless marked the debut of one of the greatest consoles ever made. In commemoration of this momentous birthing of this epically underappreciated game console, we at SEGAbits are committing not a day, not a week, but a full month for all things SEGA Saturn! You can expect to see plenty of reviews, articles, and a dedicated episode of the SEGAbits podcast all about the Saturn from here until E3 on June 7th.
Those of you who don’t know much about the Saturn, or think there was a big load of nothing between the Genesis and the Dreamcast, should learn something this month. The SEGA Saturn is a veritable treasure trove of SEGA hits that have yet to see the light of day on other systems due to the Saturn’s difficult to emulate architecture, and the general obscurity of its library. Sure, we’ve all heard of NiGHTS and Panzer Dragoon, and Guardian Heroes has recently risen from obscurity to be remade as an Xbox Live Arcade release. But have you ever heard of Blazing Heroes? Ever heard of Astal? Did you know the SEGA Saturn had two Die Hard games, one which was a piece of crap and one which kicked ass? Have any of you guys even seen Dragon Force?
While Nintendo spent the 32 bit generation giving its 16 bit hits the 64 bit upgrade, and Sony spent it producing games that would go on to define its Playstation brand for more than a decade to come, SEGA went through a creative renaissance, almost completely ditching the franchises that made the Genesis a hit in favor of all new franchises that, regrettably, no one would buy. Even Sonic took a backseat to NiGHTS, which became and still remains one of the best reasons to own a Saturn.
So sit back, relax, and enjoy this month long ride through SEGA’s forgotten generation.
Hey guys, welcome to Episode 16 of SEGA Sequel Saturdays. Before I get into it this week, there’s some business to take care of. I’d like to start by thanking George and Nuckles87 for contributing episodes to this feature, either when I haven’t been able to, or, in some cases, when I’ve been totally out of ideas. I’d also like to thank all of you who read these and create discussions each week by commenting. It makes writing them fun and rewarding, and I’d love to see this continue as a weekly feature. I feel that the best way to do that is, well, to open the floor to you guys. If you want to write an episode of Sequel Saturdays, drop a me a private message or say so in the comments section. You’d send me your write-up and I’d format, edit, and post it. I’d love to keep this feature going and if you would too, and if you want to write an episode, definitely let me know.
Alright, that out of the way, let’s jump into this week’s episode, this one about a good old childhood franchise of mine.
We are bringing you this week’s round table early, to celebrate the closing of Yakuza week. This time we are talking about one thing we love about the Yakuza series… while Cube_b3 lists everything he hates. What a negative Nancy.
If you guys liked what we did for Yakuza week, tell SEGA about it. I’m sure we can do this for more games if there’s positive feedback.
I have seen lots of sites covering this news, even some of them being SEGA related sites like this one. But none of them seem to point out how the PSN store will be affecting SEGA. Lets have a overview please.
SEGA was really pushing Virtua Tennis 4 for the Playstation 3. It was first announced for the console last year and even got some cool exclusive content on disc. So why does PSN store being down effect it? SEGA promised exclusive demos for PSN. The first demo hit the PSN store on April 19th, given that it is a few days from when PSN went down, I doubt many people got a chance to try it.
SEGA was set to release their PSN version of Streets of Rage 2 port on May 3rd (tomorrow) to PSN plus users and a week later for all users. Issue is that PSN Store is down. Also set to make its debut was the SEGA Genesis dynamic theme (to America, already out in Europe).
Sony held a conference on Sunday saying that online play, Playstation Home, Trophy synching, and other related abilities will be restored during the week. As for the Playstation Store, it should be up “within the month”.
Being hardcore SEGA fans, especially during the Dreamcast era, means we played the crap out of Phantasy Star Online. Epic nights spent with our online friends, destroying monsters. Now that Phantasy Star Online 2 has gotten gameplay footage released, it means we can talk about how awesome this game is shaping up.
During this generation, I’ve seen a disturbing lack of boss fights, or at least, good boss fights. Thankfully, one of the most enjoyable aspects of any Yakuza game for me has become the boss battles. Yakuza is home to some of the most memorable boss fights in any recent SEGA title and the fourth mainline entry into the series isn’t any different. As with such articles, spoilers for the game follow, so if you happen not to have completed Yakuza 4 yet and do not wish to be spoiled, walk away now, for everyone else, please continue reading to find out my personal five!
Every week we bring up mostly retro games we want to see come back. Viking: Battle for Asgard came out in early 2008. Most gamers ignored it for other titles and SEGA fans didn’t know what to expect. Reviews where mixed. But guess what? I loved it and want Creative Assembly to continue the franchise.
In celebration of…I guess we’re calling it Yakuza Week, (rad) I figured it would be appropriate to dedicate some time to the music of the recently-released Yakuza 4. Their soundtracks have been one area that this series has always excelled in, and Yakuza 4 is certainly no exception. The adrenaline-pumping and guitar-heavy soundtrack returns, of course, as do the power balads, and let’s not forget those crazy Japanese karaoke songs. Here are some of the songs I found to be memorable in Yakuza 4, and I encourage you to post/discuss yours in the comments section below!
2001 was a great year for SEGA games, but a bad year for SEGA. While a number of amazing titles released, we played them with the knowledge that the Dreamcast was to be discontinued by March. To create a sad analogy, it was like going to Disneyland knowing you had three months left to live. Jump ahead ten years to 2011. All signs point to a great year for SEGA games AND a great year for SEGA. The comparison between 2001 and 2011 doesn’t end there, as you’ll soon learn in this week’s “Weekly Five”. Just why are we partying like it’s 2001? Read on to find out!
This week we are talking about SEGA pulling the Streets of Rage fan remake download links from the internet. SEGA fans are a passionate bunch and no others have been more passionate about Streets of Rage than the guys over at bomber games.
Hit the jump to read what we think about SEGA pulling down fan projects and give us your feedback in the comment section.
Super Monkey Ball has become one of SEGA’s strangest popular franchises over the years. Like Ridge Racer or Tetris, a console’s library almost isn’t really complete without an entry from this quirky series. I imagine it may only be a matter of time until Monkey Ball ends up on the HD consoles in some fashion.
Due to this constant stream of new entries into this series, the quality has been taking a dip. Whether it’s the declining quality of the mini games or the increasingly poor stage design of each game, this series has seen better days. So, the question for SMB3DS is: does it reverse this trend? Read on to hear my opinion.
Hello and welcome to your weekly dose of potential SEGA Sequel Awesomeness (yeah I did just say that). Before I get started on Episode 14, though, I’d like to give a shout out to another pretty amazing sequel that has nothing to do with SEGA. As anyone who has been following my Twitter likely knows by now, I’ve been seriously loving the new Mortal Kombat game. If you’ve ever been a fan of the Mortal Kombat series, especially games 1-4, I’d definitely recommend checking MK9 out on your HD system of choice, really a lot of fun.
Anyway, without further ado…this is one I’ve been wanting to write since last week, when IGN’s Martin Robinson did an article celebrating the Amusement Vision-developed F-Zero GX. After reading his piece, what I had always thought in the back of my head was brought completely to the surface: I don’t think a new F-Zero game could be as good as GX was without SEGA’s Amusement Vision back at the helm.