SEGA Tunes: Power Drift’s Like the Wind

You know what’s more awesome then classic SEGA arcade music? Obscure SEGA arcade music! I’ve never played Power Drift, but its soundtrack is still pretty damn awesome. This is just the sort of incredibly catchy, upbeat tune that I would expect from a classic SEGA title. Hope you enjoy it!

Power Drift’s soundtrack was composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi. He is one of the oldest SEGA composers still active and working within the company. You can find his website here.

SEGA Memories: How Evolution proved that one man’s trash was another’s treasure

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For those of us who love video games, I don’t think there’s any doubt that the various consoles we’ve come in contact with throughout our lives have left behind their own unique memories. Gaming is an interactive medium, afterall, and it’s an art form that you don’t simply sit there and view, but one which you fully interact with. And it’s this interaction, I feel, that can make the experience so much more personal, by and large, than going to the movies for a couple of hours.

The Dreamcast, for me, was the system where I completed what had been my gradual transition from “childhood gamer” to “hardcore gamer.” It was when I went from simply playing multiplayer games with my friends, or games that I’d seen advertised on TV, to someone who actively looked up and discussed video games on the internet. It was when I began to follow the industry more closely and discover genres that I’d never known existed. And in the case of Evolution: The World of Sacred Device, it was my first real Japanese RPG experience.

Round Table: How we feel about Yu Suzuki bringing back Shenmue III

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There are many questions about how Yu Suzuki would bring us Shenmue III. He has stated many times he just wants to end the series and now more than ever has been making headlines. First he suggested he wants to use crowd sourcing like Kickstarter and recently was spotted at GDC in talks with Sony (and former SEGA) employee Mark Cerny. Hit the jump to hear what we think of this whole thing in this week’s round table!

Retro Review: Zombies Ate My Neighbors

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The following Retro Review of Zombies Ate My Neighbors was written by SEGAbits third anniversary contest winner Nicholas C.

Our current era juxtaposes AAA titles, with huge expectations on presentation and endless cutscenes, and smaller package XBLA/PSN/Steam/etc budget titles. There’s a lot to love on both ends and in between. But a few elements many recent games lack, for me, are local co-op. The ability to not take yourself too seriously, and simply being able to pick up and play the game (sadly, there are only so many levels to Earth Defense Force 2017).

SEGA Tunes SEGAbits Staff Spotlight: Kori Maru

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“Hello SEGABits readers! I’m Kori-Maru, admin of The Website of the Dead. Some call me one of the more “hardcore” Sega fans out there for my extensive knowledge of Sega’s games and my love for HotD. I would like to share some of my favorite SEGA tunes with you guys and my experiences with them. Let’s start out with…

SEGA Tunes SEGAbits community spotlight: Brian Corey’s cover of Splash Garden

This week we’re bringing you a special Tuesday Tunes, as we’re featuring the music of a SEGAbits community member! Ungibbed, aka Brian Corey, put together this cover of the NiGHTS into Dreams tune Splash Garden from memory. Pretty impressive if you ask us! Of course, we don’t blame him for getting the tune stuck in his head, as Splash Garden is a stage that Saturn fans have surely played again and again.

Great job, Brian, on this awesome cover! We look forward to hearing more tunes from you in the future. Share your comments for Brian below, or in our dedicated topic in the SEGAbits forums.

My Life with SEGA celebrates Kenji Eno with D for SEGA Saturn

In honor of Kenji Eno, I’m reviewing the survival horror/puzzle classic; D for SEGA Saturn. This game was his first major success and helped pave the way for Enemy Zero, the SEGA Saturn exclusive, and D2 for Dreamcast. D has been subjected to a great deal of mockery and derision due in large part to it’s heavy use of FMV and slow pace….

Is it deserving of such ridicule, or has it been treated unfairly? Turn out the lights and see for yourself.

Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel! My Life with SEGA will be taking a short break, but will return on May 2nd with two zombie classics. Continue reading to check out the awesome teaser video!

SEGA Memories: SEGA debuts Sonic & Knuckles with a MTV special ‘Rock the Rock’

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Welcome to a new entry for our Monday Memories weekly (hopefully from now on) articles. This week we’ll be taking you all the way back to the year 1994, at the height of SEGA’s popularity. They had a great mascot that released three main games in his franchise, sold tons of SEGA Genesis/Mega Drives around the world, and had a new upcoming game: Sonic & Knuckles.

What better way to introduce the game to America than an MTV special entitled “Rock the Rock” on Alcatraz Island?

The Weekly Five: Genesis/Mega Drive classics that deserve the retro engine treatment

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Ever since SEGA announced the Sonic CD re-release running on the Retro Engine, I had a long list of retro titles that I wanted to see use the engine. Then after awhile SEGA stopped announcing titles for it, then out of the blue they announce Sonic 1 & 2 re-releases using the engine. As much as I love Sonic, there are plenty of SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive games that I would love to see running on the Retro Engine. Check out the five games I would want to get the Retro Engine treatment and what type of extras I would love to see for them.

My Life with SEGA enters the Last Battle

The 2-Man Scramble 2-Part Special comes to an end with Last Battle. Yes, I know; how appropriate. My final penance for Wirehead, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Universal Soldier may have been a 16-bit insult to both gamers and the 1992 film it was supposedly based on, but Last Battle is a laughably bad adventure title that never should have seen the light of day….

What, you don’t believe me? Watch this video and tell me I’m exaggerating.

Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel!

SEGA Tunes Kenji Eno Tribute: Snow

Kenji Eno, a composer who created soundtracks for a few SEGA published games, as well as his own original albums, passed away last month. I confess that I’ve never played any of the games he was involved in, so I’m afraid I am rather unfamiliar with his work. If it is anything like the above, then it seems like I’ve been missing out on some of the most beautiful and atmospheric soundtracks in SEGA’s library.

Expect to see more Kenji Eno tracks featured here as I continue to peruse his work. Until then, here’s another song from D2, “Morning Theme”. Be back next week when we finish off the SEGAbits staff spotlight with an entry from Kori Maru!