Original Content

SEGA Tunes: Sky Sanctuary

by

So, I thought I’d give us all a break from orchestrations this week, to post up an oldie but a goodie: Sky Sanctuary Zone. I loved this song back in the day, and it’s still the classic Sonic theme I best remember. I still remember when I first loaded up Sky Sanctuary and was greeted with this tune. It was so…different from anything else I had ever heard in a Sonic game before, and it instantly gave Sky Sanctuary this huge breathtaking feel that went perfectly together with it’s scope. This theme is one of the primary reasons why I wanted the level to be included in Generations.

Speaking of which, I am including two very awesome remixes of this song below the fold, one put together by Kanjika and the other from Sonic Generations. I HIGHLY encourage you listen to both. It’s really surprising what Kanjika is able to do with this.

Continue Reading ➜

1 Comment

Five Things You May Not Have Known About Jet Set Radio

by

While I may write about Sonic a lot, my favorite SEGA franchise is actually Jet Set Radio. Ever since playing the original game in 2000, my perception of games has never been the same. Jet Set Radio was more than just a fun game, it was an experience. It introduced me to a world that oozed with color, funky music and over the top characters and settings. Unlike Sonic, however, the Jet Set Radio franchise is insanely small. All fans really have to soak up are two great games, a fun handheld title and the upcoming port. Articles about the series are rare, and the amount of Jet Set Radio merchandise produced could easily fill a small shelf. As a tribute to my favorite SEGA game, I thought I’d increase the web article count by one with five things about Jet Set Radio that the regular SEGA fan may not know about. If, after reading this weekly five, you have learned nothing then consider yourself a Jet Set Radio super fan!

Continue Reading ➜

20 Comments

Binary Domain Interview With Toshihiro Nagoshi

by

With Binary Domain set to be released next week, SEGAbits was given an exclusive interview with one of SEGA’s finest developers, Toshihiro Nagoshi. Having joined SEGA in the late 1980s with a degree in media, Nagoshi has been involved in several high profile games for SEGA early in his career, from working on Virtua Racing to having worked on the biggest arcade game in the industry, Daytona USA. Moving up the ranks, Nagoshi soon found himself leaving his job at AM2 to head up Amusement Vision in the late 90s during the Dreamcast era. There his teams made two of SEGA’s most well loved series in the modern era, Super Monkey Ball and Yakuza.

Now heading the newly formed Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, we get a chance to talk to Nagoshi after the release of his new studio’s first title, Binary Domain.

Continue Reading ➜

11 Comments

The Weekly Five: Movies to watch before you play Binary Domain

by


Sometimes you have to watch a motion picture to get truly excited about a concept in a video game, at least this is the way Binary Domain has been working out for me. I have always been a big fan of Sci-Fi films, so when I heard that SEGA was tackling down some robotic action, I was all in. Time to post five of the best sci-fi films to get you all pumped up to play Binary Domain.

Continue Reading ➜

14 Comments

Get a Load of This! – Planet Harriers

by

Planet Harriers is a criminally underrated game from Sega’s history which is well over due a spotlight on SEGAbits, so here it is!

Planet Harriers is an on-rail shooter and part of the more widely recognized ‘Space Harrier’ series. It released in the year 2000 on the Sega Hikaru arcade board and while I believe plans for it to appear on the Dreamcast were afoot unfortunately it never materialized before the consoles untimely demise.

Planet Harriers uses a twin cabinet, which allows for two player Co-Op, or a networked two-player game. The cabinet has a seated configuration. Planet Harriers controls used a joystick with a missile and bullet trigger. ‘View change’ and bomb buttons were on the main panel.

So why do I think it needs to be given a spotlight on our front page? Well just look at that video! I think if there is ever a game that sums up what ‘Sega’ means to a whole host of older fans out there it’s games Planet Harriers. The game just drips with bright colours and that nostalgic ‘blue skies’ happy-go-lucky feeling a Sega game should. The graphics are beautiful too and I’m very impressed by the lighting. Not to mention the video above features the bonus character; SEGAbits’ adopted mascot OpaOpa!

Now if Sega ever wanted to bring this beauty to XBLA/PSN and Steam, this is something I could get behind!

10 Comments

SEGA Tunes: Anu Orta Veniya from Panzer Dragoon Orta

by

I love Panzer Dragoon. Panzer Dragoon Orta though? My favorite game of all time. Rail shooting gameplay honed to perfection. Graphics that to this day stand the test of time. Unique and varied locations ranging from epic air battles to lonely snow covered landscapes. Finally, its soundtrack never, ever misses a beat. I fell in love with Anu Orta Veniya the moment the credits began to roll after one of the most surprising and heart breaking endings I had seen in a video game at the time. Its amazing orchestration and beautiful vocals perfectly ended the most impressive gaming experience of my life.

An amazing end to an amazing series. Another song that stuck in my head was “Gigantic Fleet”. As usual, it’s after the break!

Continue Reading ➜

1 Comment

Dissecting the Sonic 4 Episode 2 Screens

by

Yesterday XBOX.com let slip ten Sonic 4 Episode 2 screens. Before Microsoft could pull the info, Sonic and SEGA fan sites from all over the net had saved, uploaded and shared the images to the point where SEGA might as well just allow the images back up and give us a trailer while they’re at it. [Update: it seems they have, the images are back on XBOX.com] The screens, found here, reveal a number of details that had yet to be mentioned by SEGA. After the break, let’s slice open these meaty screens and see what little details we can find!

Continue Reading ➜

5 Comments

SEGA Tunes: Sona Mi Areru Ec Sancitu

by

Panzer Dragoon Saga was the epic finale to SEGA’s Panzer Dragoon trilogy, and what a finale it was! Switching from the more limiting rail shooter format to a fully 3D RPG, it mixed elements from the rail shooters with RPGs in a way that is still unique even to this day. The Saturn’s magnum opus, Panzer Dragoon Saga, had a beautiful soundtrack to match its scope, the crown jewel being Sona Mi Areru Ec Sancitu. In my humble opinion this stands as one of SEGA’s best songs, period.

Another great track from this game is “Atolm Dragon”, the theme for the boss fight with said dragon, which you can listen to after the break.

Continue Reading ➜

1 Comment

Say “I Love You” SEGA Style With These SEGAbits Valentines!

by

Flowers, candy and an expensive meal got nothing on these SEGA themed Valentines! Consider these our gift to you, and your key to a successful Valentine’s Day. Once you give one of these babies to the man or woman of your dreams, they’ll be asking to join you in a game of Samba de Amigo Version 2000’s “Love Love” mode or beg you to play some Heart Attack mode in Outrun Online Arcade. What you do after that is up to you. Happy Valentine’s Day!

5 Comments

The SEGA Five: Star Wars Games on SEGA Consoles

by

When I was a kid, most of my free time involved the three S’s: SEGA, Star Wars and The Simpsons. Sometimes, though very rarely, these things would mix. Simpsons games would appear on the Genesis, The Simpsons would parody Star Wars and Sonic 2 would feature the Death Star inspired Death Egg. Despite all this intermingling of my favorite media properties, I never was able to play a Star Wars game on my SEGA Genesis due to Nintendo getting all the games. I recall seeing the Super Star Wars Trilogy in magazines and thinking “why can’t the Genesis get those!?”. As time went on, Star Wars games began to appear on SEGA consoles, and in 1999 I finally owned a console that would receive some of these games. Now, in 2012, I’ve amassed most of the SEGA consoles and all of the Star Wars games. With The Phantom Menace 3D hitting theaters this weekend, I thought it would be fitting to look back at five of my favorite Star Wars games that appeared on SEGA consoles. Do they still hold up? Let’s find out!

Continue Reading ➜

5 Comments

SEGA Tunes: Panzer Dragoon Zwei “Forest of Taboo”

by

You know you’re listening to a great theme when your moving your dragon to it. The jungle level was one of my favorite areas in Zwei. Enemies coming at you from every direction, as you fly under a forest canopy, and one of the first really good themes of the game playing the background. I was really tempted to go with the stellar menu theme here, but I really wanted to go with something from inside the actual game.

It was in Zwei that we really began to get the Panzer Dragoon music DNA that would permeate the rest of the series. In place of the epic,  westernized orchestrations of the original Panzer Dragoon was instead a soundtrack that relied heavily on music that sounded tribal in nature.  This music helped define the series as something unique and all together different from other games, and helped give Panzer’s unique world some additional, cultural flavor.

Another great example of this is “Ruins”, which you can hear below the fold.

Continue Reading ➜

1 Comment

SEGA Memories: Panzer Dragoon Orta

by

Everyone has that “one game” that defines their tastes and preferences for the rest of their lives. That one game that helped them discover or rediscover a genre. That one game they fell in love with and, to this day, hold it aloft as the best game ever made. Being a SEGA fan working on a SEGA site, it should come as no surprise to anyone that for me, that game was a SEGA game. What may come as a surprise though, is that it wasn’t a game made for a SEGA console, or some original genre-defining experience. It was instead, simply a master class release for the dying rail shooter genre: Panzer Dragoon Orta.

Continue Reading ➜

5 Comments

SEGA Sammy reports Q3 2012 earnings

by

On Friday, SEGA Sammy Holdings posted their 3rd quarter results for the fiscal year 2012. In it they gave out numbers for Sonic Generations, Mario & Sonic at the London Olympic Games 2012 and Hatsune Miku. Following the disaster that shaked Japan to its core, many Japanese business are recovering strongly but how did SEGA, in particular their consumer division, cope with the financial crisis in America and Europe? And did both their arcade operations and Sammy’s own business recover strongly from the disaster? Read on to find out.

Continue Reading ➜

18 Comments

The Weekly Five: Celebrating 18 Years of Sonic 3

by

February 2nd, dubbed Hedgehog Day, marked the 18th anniversary of the American release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Damn, does that make me feel old. Sonic 3 marked a very important point in the Sonic franchise. At the time of release, Sonic mania was in full force. The franchise had multiple TV shows airing, comic books, fast food promotions and even had a float in the Thanksgiving Day Parade. In early 1994 it was near impossible to avoid Sonic, and the release of Sonic 3 only made the franchise even more of a hot commodity. It’s no question that SEGA had a lot riding on the success of the game. Of course, 18 years later we’re still talking about it, so clearly SEGA was successful. In this week’s weekly five, we’ll take a walk down memory lane and look back on just why we love Sonic 3 so much.

Continue Reading ➜

9 Comments