This week we are chatting all about SEGA/Atlus’ presence at E3 2014. We talk all about the SEGA software including what we thought about our hands on with Sonic Boom video games, Alien Isolation and even the Nintendo published Bayonetta 2.
On the Atlus side we talk about playing Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Citizens of Earth and much more.
Want to catch all our E3 2014 coverage? You can by clicking here.
Nuckles87 and I have been at odds with the Sonic Boom games at E3. While he was more forgiving of Rise of Lyric on Wii U, I found it a dull and mediocre experience overall. However, for Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal on 3DS, I really enjoyed this platformer while Nux was not as pleased. Surprisingly, I agreed with most of his complaints, but it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the game. So what’s in this game that makes me not only enjoy it much more than Sonic Boom on Wii U, but might be my favorite Sonic game on 3DS? Read on.
While at E3, Nuckles87 and I were invited to a party hosted by SEGA’s mobile division, SEGA Networks, that was dedicated to mingling and showing off SEGA’s mobile titles. It was a great chance to relax after a hard day and to get some free food and drink. Those pretzel bun sandwiches with the roast beef and bacon were out of this world! But mostly, we where there to check out these games that have only been available to the lucky few… million in the Great White North. The one I’ll be talking about in this preview is Sonic Jump Fever, a sequel to the 2012 game that is both harder, easier and more fast-paced than its predecessor. It even has Chao. Yes, Chao are back!
Until a week ago, I had never owned a Hatsune Miku game. Until two days ago I had never played one. What I’m trying to tell you is I am extremely new to this franchise, so I would like to ask you to please excuse some of my noobish glee as I acknowledge several years after everyone else that Hatsune Miku Project Diva F is a really fun rhythm game and I am glad to have finally played it, even if it took the prospect of an E3 write-up for me to finally play it.
After you’re done reading, get a second opinion from Jason Berry over at Sonic Stadium!
Sonic has been reinvented countless times over the years, to the point where the character has time and time again become unrecognizable in every way except his name, speed and trademark attitude. Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric represents the latest of these reinventions and is one of the most radical re-imaginings since Sonic made the transition to 3D fifteen years ago. Nothing has been held as sacred here, with Sonic Boom effectively acting as a near complete teardown of what past games were.
For one, this game isn’t just about speed and platforming, but also features a variety of brawling-centric levels. Though very few speed areas were on display, the final game will apparently feature a mix of speed areas and brawling areas, rather than keeping them segregated from one another as they were in the demo. Since there were no real speed areas on display, this preview will be focusing mostly on the game’s combat areas.
This is going to be an interesting year for us here at SEGAbits, as we try to get accustomed to covering Atlus games. I’ve been trying to familiarize myself with the company, but I haven’t truly begun to introduce myself to their catalog until today, when I played several of their games on the showfloor. I’m going to do my best to provide coverage of this company, but I am somewhat out of my depth here. First on my docket? Abyss Odyssey!
I had a fun time with this game. It’s essentially a Smash Bros game with rogue-like elements. So pretty much a side scrolling brawler that can be really, really hard and brutal. Allies can hit and damage each other in this game, the labyrinth quickly becomes much more difficult the deeper you go, and dying will result in you going back to your previous checkpoint, sans all of your equipment and items. Death in this game carries a serious consequence! For a rogue-like this game is actually pretty generous, as you get to keep all of your collected experience, skills and gold.
Wake up and check out this crazy SEGA commercial from 1988, advertising After Burner for the SEGA Master System. As most video game ads from the era tend to do, a young boy is transported from his living room to being behind the controls of an F-14 Tomcat. After flashing a thumbs up to the camera, the boy blasts off into the pixelated blue skies, taking on enemy fighters. However instead of looking outside the windows, he is playing After Burner inside the fighter jet (cue the “yo dawg i heard you like” meme). The announcer excitedly tells players that they can execute battle rolls, nose dives, supersonic speed (5 years before Sonic the Hedgehog!), and radar lock-on. The boy then, in his best impression of an action star delivering a death blow quip, says “your turn to burn!”. The ad ends with a tagline rarely reapeated nowadays, but it sure is fantastic: “SEGA: The Challenge Will Always Be There.” – emphasis on “Aaalways”, thanks to the narrator.
Overall, this is amazing ad! Fun effects work, lots of gameplay footage and music despite the real world setting of the boy in the fighter jet, and that ending tagline is just so damn strong. I think “The Challenge Will Always Be There.” deserves a comeback, don’t you?
After the break, see how SEGA of Japan advertised After Burner for the SEGA Mark III!
Had a chance to chat with the developers behind the upcoming indie Dreamcast title Elysian Shadows. Lots of exclusive bits of information dropped including characters that will be in the game, differences between versions and much more. If you have been wanting to know more about this game, this is definitely the podcast to listen to. Don’t forget that August 1st will be the start of the Kickstarter! With Elysian Shadows hitting the Dreamcast before any other platform, its easy to continue saying “It’s still thinking”.
Tonight’s tune is from Shinobi 3, one of the best games on the Genesis. You should check it out if you haven’t already. It’s got a lot of great action and an awesome soundtrack. Idaten comes from a stage anyone who’s played the game will surely remember: the one where you ride the horse and kill flying ninjas. Doesn’t this just make you want to play it again?
Also, just for the hell of it, I stuck something else below the fold, a little tune called Whirlwind. Take a listen.
Hello SEGAbits readers and followers! Kori-Maru here back from Atlanta, Georgia to bring you SEGA coverage from MomoCon, one of the fastest growing all ages conventions in Georgia where anime and gaming collide. This also marks the very first time SEGA attended MomoCon to promote Hatsune Miku Project Diva F 2nd. Just to be prepared for the convention, I decided to cosplay as Akira Yuki from the Virtua Fighter series in his VF2 attire. Be sure to hit the jump for videos from the SEGA panels, pictures, and a video interview with Aaron Webber and Sam Mullen as we discuss about SEGA and Hatsune Miku Project Diva F 2nd.
We are just ending our After Burner week with this new entry to our Round Table series where people on staff talk about a specific topic. This week we will be talking about our fond and not-so-fond memories with the After Burner franchise. Like always, if you guys want to tell us about your beloved memories with this AM2 gem, we would love to here them in the comment section below. Fire!
In the mid-nineties the rise of 3D gaming left many of SEGA’s older franchises behind. While most were either abandoned or received largely forgotten two dimensional entries, some were completely reinvented for the third dimension. Though it doesn’t bear the After Burner name, Sky Target was in fact the first 3D entry in SEGA’s After Burner franchise. Released in 1995, the arcade version of Sky Target never achieved its predecessor’s success, failing to even leave Japan. Western gamers wouldn’t get to play Sky Target until SEGA ported the game to the Saturn in 1997, where it would be quickly forgotten.
At first glance, After Burner looks like the perfect candidate for a transition to the third dimension. After all, the game is already trying to simulate 3D play. In reality, Sky Target’s design decisions actually perfectly illustrate why so many SEGA franchises struggled (or failed) to make the 3D jump to begin with. Sky Target would introduce many drastic changes to the After Burner formula, many of which would find their way into 2006’s After Burner Climax. Do these design decisions work, though? Does Sky Target live up to the reputation built by its predecessor?
In an era where most home gaming consoles were couldn’t produce anything more than simple 8-bit sprites, video game companies did have to occasionally get a little…creative with their marketing. This goes double for Tiger, whose LCD games were about as immersive as…well I don’t think there is anything less immersive then a Tiger LCD game. So naturally, Tiger encouraged the kids of the eighties to imagine their own arcade experience! After all, who needs stereo surround sound, fluid super scaling graphics and a full motion cabinet when you have the power of you mind?! This kid certainly doesn’t. He even brought his own flight helmet!
To be fair though, throwing a kid into a jet fighter was a pretty common way to market the game. SEGA took it a step further with their Master System commercial. This kid didn’t just imagine flying through some hazy clouds, he imagined a whole damn plane! The kid from Suburban Commando, which we highlighted earlier this week, even took it a step further by completely changing the setting of the game, complete with some new enemies.
If there’s anything I miss about games from the 8 and 16 bit era, it’s how vague their stories and characters were. Sure, I love having deep, interesting characters and engaging stories in my games, but an unfortunate side effect of this is that we can’t let our imaginations run wild about the nature of the game’s world and characters anymore. Oh well, I guess we’ll always have the imaginary jets of our childhoods at least, right?
Like any beloved SEGA franchise, After Burner has had its share of cameos. Unfortunately, unlike Fantasy Zone and Sonic the Hedgehog, these cameos have been few, so we did have to stretch things just a little bit to fill out this weekly five. As they say though, quality matters over quantity, so even though After Burner’s cameos have been few, they’ve often been quite great. So grab a snack, sit down and enjoy as we look through After Burner’s five best only cameos.