The onset of a new year will inevitably brings new experiences. Though a healthy amount of fear for new experiences never hurts, do not let it control you. Embrace the experiences of the coming year and embrace the challenges that you will face. Do not fear failure, because nothing is worse then simply refusing to try.
And if you are having an especially bad day, play a Dreamcast!
Since 2010, it has been a SEGAbits tradition for our writers and editors to share their favorite SEGA games of the year. This year, we aren’t breaking that tradition but we are adding to it. We’re introducing a couple of special digital two-dimensional trophies: the gold SEGAbits Editor’s Choice Award and the platinum SEGAbits Writer’s Choice Award. The gold award is selected by George and I, Barry the Nomad, while the platinum award will go to the game selected as a favorite by the most writers (this year we had a tie!). Not only is 2013 a special year with the introduction of our digital trophies, but we also have some new writers contributing including recent arrivals from Sonic Retro, Bartman and TimmiT, and the newest contributor to our YouTube channel, Liam “Tracker” Ashcroft. What SEGA games were our favorites this year? Read on!
Marvel Super Heroes was Capcom’s follow-up to their equally successful X-Men: Children of the Atom fighting game.
Like its predecessor, Marvel Super Heroes shares much in common with Capcom’s prolific Street Fighter series with over-the-top anime-style action, combo system and so on. While the arcade game was first released in 1995, console gamers wouldn’t receive a home port until late 1997 on Sony PlayStation and, of course, SEGA Saturn.
The Saturn version is fantastic. The animation is like an explosion of color that’s very faithful to the arcade original, with an energetic soundtrack and kick-ass sound effects. Now that Lauren’s joined the League of Extraordinary Dorks, I feel it’s high-time I make her suffer for NHL ’94.
FUN FACT: The American version is the one and only game outside of Japan that supports the RAM cartridge. To learn more about this delightful peripheral, check out the episode of My Life with SEGA dedicated to it!
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As we near Christmas day, I knew a festive Tuesday Tunes was in order. The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise is filled with great wintery tunes, but I felt Sonic has been covered far too much on Tuesday Tunes (and for a good reason, Sonic music is awesome!). Christmas NiGHTS would be perfect, but it’s too obvious. Shenmue‘s Christmas tunes would be perfect, but we’ve aleady covered them. And that’s when it hit me, Sonic Team’s Ristar has an excellent winter tune. The game’s fifth stage, Planet Freon, is a planet made entirely of ice and snow. But you won’t find Imperial Walkers and Wampas on this ice planet, instead you’ll find downhill skiing and a bizarre alien enemy chucking snowballs. The music for the first portion of the stage begins almost as if you’re about to hear Jingle Bells, but what follows is a catchy tune with solid drum beats and a peppy tune perfectly suitable for a winter wonderland. So as the sun goes down on this Christmas eve, why not revisit this SEGA Genesis classic? It’s the best present you can give yourself.
I hate making an announcement of an announcement, but we’ve been getting some questions regarding this so I wanted to make a front page announcement.
This was originally supposed to happen last weekend, but I got caught up in other things and didn’t have time to choose a winner. We got some great entries after I last checked the submissions so I had to give some additional thought to who the winner will be. I will be going over all of the submissions and I will hopefully be able to announce a winner very soon. Though to answer some questions:
Any entries we got before today are valid for the contest and submissions meant for other things are also valid. See you soon with an announcement!
Welcome to the third SEGA Cinema! In celebration of the holiday season, Barry the Nomad and Sonic Retro staff members David the Lurker and Bartman settle in around the fireplace, sip eggmanog, and enjoy two episodes of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. The first is the holiday special “Sonic Christmas Blast”, which released three years after the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog aired. The special was planned to be titled “An X-Tremely Sonic Christmas” to tie in with Sonic X-treme. But when X-treme was scrapped, the title was changed to tie in with Sonic 3D Blast.
The second bonus episode is entitled “Sno Problem”, a wintery themed adventure that sees Sonic and Tails taking on Robotnik who has unleashed his Ultra Freeze-O-Matic on mobius. His grand scheme? Watch and find out!
We’ve also added a few surprises, so sit back and enjoy! Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel!
As a SEGA fan, my loyalty has been tested to the breaking point at times. Let’s face it, SEGA has had to make some tough decisions and has made some terrible games over the years, especially over the last fifteen. In 2007 SEGA had lost much of my loyalty after turning out a rash of bad games including the infamously awful Sonic the Hedgehog. Then one day, I walked into a local arcade, played After Burner Climax for the first time and all was well.
The goal of any good video game soundtrack is to compliment the atmosphere and improve the immersion. As far as I’m concerned, few soundtracks accomplish this better then Panzer Dragoon Orta’s. Given that it’s Christmas time, it seems only fitting that we feature a track from a snow level, Orta’s lonely, beautiful Eternal Glacies. Much like the level itself, the track is beautiful, subdued and majestic.
In an act of sheer epic randomness, one of my buds recently reminded me of one of SEGA’s most unlikely of past sponsors. It was back during the Dreamcast era, as many of their publicity stunts were. SEGA was trying hard to get their online service, SegaNet, to gain traction. To do so, they enlisted the help of none other than a certain popular band… one who had just made it ridiculously big with a song called Nookie.
Yes, I’m talking about Limp Bizkit. Believe it or not, they’re actually still around today, but there was a time when they were at the top of the music industry, and that time coincided with the final months of the Dreamcast.
With their album, Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water, set to release in October of 2000, Limp Bizkit was preparing to embark on a major tour. SEGA, seeing their golden opportunity, chose to serve as one of the tour’s sponsors. It might seem ridiculous now, but at the time this was actually a huge snag for them, as Limp Bizkit and their form of rap metal was on the edge of releasing what would become the fastest-selling rock album on record; an honor that it, amazingly, still holds to this day.
For more, including a quote from SEGA from back then, read on.
We wrap up Fantasy Zone week with a special SEGAbits Round Table in which we look to the future of the Fantasy Zone franchise. As this week has taught us, Fantasy Zone is a small, but highly imaginative franchise with fantastic music, difficult yet addicting gameplay, and an enduring protagonist. But what about the future of the franchise? Does Fantasy Zone‘s simplistic arcade-style gameplay have a place in 2013 and beyond?
Before Sonic, before ToeJam & Earl , before Joe Musashi and even a few months before Alex Kidd, SEGA’s mascot was a sentient little spaceship called Opa-Opa, hero of the Fantasy Zone. Though there’s some debate regarding who was the “true” mascot before Sonic came around, I personally put myself in Opa-Opa’s camp. Why? Well, aside from cameoing in a bunch of SEGA games from the ‘80s, a few of which you can read about here, Opa-Opa was also a supporting character in an anime SEGA partially funded, Zillion.
Zillion is a 1987 sci-fi anime from Tatsunoku Productions. It centers around White Knight J.J. and his fellow White Knights Apple and Champ as they defend the earth colony Maris from the evil Nozas, an alien race intent on wiping humans off the face of the planet. The White Knights battle the forces of evil with their signature weapon, the Zillion Weapon System, a Master System light gun (literally, complete with the cord) capable of destroying the Nozas, who are otherwise invulnerable to human weaponry.
Before Sonic came along in 1991, SEGA had its fair share of mascots. Ask a SEGA fan in the 1980’s who SEGA’s current mascot was, and you’d likely receive a variety of answers. Some may point to the Shinobi arcade game star Joe Musashi, while others may point to the Mario-like Master System star Alex Kidd. Opa-Opa of Fantasy Zone was another of these mascots vying for the SEGA throne, and if you ask me he was the most worthy of the crown. While Opa-Opa lacked an expressive face, a drawback that some say was the reason Alex Kidd came out ahead of the sentient spaceship, I say he made up for it with a simple yet memorable design that evoked SEGA’s quirky nature at the time. Opa-Opa is both cute with his bright colors and white wings, and hardcore with his jet propulsion and firepower. He also fits in perfectly with the “blue skies” aesthetic SEGA is well known for thanks to the fact that the skies are where Opa-Opa spends a majority of his time.
Since his debut in 1986, Opa-Opa has made cameo appearances in several SEGA games, a testament to Opa-Opa’s original design. In fact, Opa-Opa’s cameo career began the very year he debuted and his cameo appearances continue through to today. In this week’s Weekly Five we’ll be highlighting some of Opa-Opa’s greatest appearances, from playable to non-playable and from obscure to blatantly obvious. Yes, Shenmue made the list, you can stop holding your breath Ryo Hazuki fans.
This week on My Life with SEGA, we’ll be exploring Opa-Opa’s very first adventure in the Fantasy Zone.
Fantasy Zone is one of many titles brother insisted on buying for the Master System. It was so strange and other-worldly. Fantasy Zone was unlike any other he shooter he had seen before. While the gameplay is similar to something like Defender, that game was nowhere near as colorful and cheerful. I can’t remember ever seeing this fucker in the arcades, so I thought this was a Master System original for many years….
Playing it again after two decades, let’s see if it’s just as good – and frustrating – as I remember it being. Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel!
Praising SEGA arcade games for their spectacular music is kind of like applauding a cat for being furry: it’s just something you come to expect. So really, the superb quality of Fantasy Zone’s soundtrack should not shock anybody. It’s happy, laid back and a joy to listen to.
The definitive Fantasy Zone soundtrack is probably the music from Super Fantasy Zone, the obscure Genesis-only sequel to the series. A lot of people tend to insult the Mega Drive’s sound capabilities, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the machine was capable of some sick tunes, SFZ being a prime example. Though not technically an arcade game, SFZ’s soundtrack has all the trappings of a classic SEGA arcade OST, making it worth a listen to any SEGA music connoisseur.
Welcome to Fantasy Zone Week, a week in which all our features and original content will be dedicated to SEGA’s side-scrolling shoot-’em-up franchise Fantasy Zone! It’s no surprise that the franchise is near and dear to our hearts, as Opa-Opa himself is our official site mascot, always seen flying over the SEGAbits logo. Between 1986 and 2008, the original game has been released to a multitude of platforms, from the arcade and SEGA Master System to mobile phones and the Wii virtual console. This week we’ll be celebrating the music, the gameplay, the rich and diverse history of the franchise, and even look ahead to the future. But before we look ahead, let’s look back. After the jump, we shine the SEGA Retro spotlight on the many games from the Fantasy Zone franchise.
