Preview

E3 2012: Super Monkey Ball Banana Splitz Hands On

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Hardcore has returned to Super Monkey Ball. After being completely absent from the disappointing 3DS release, SEGA is bringing the difficulty back to the franchise in what looks to be the strongest handheld entry in the series yet.

Several modes were available in the E3 demo: Beginner’s Mode, Advanced Mode, Monkey Bowling, Love Maze and a stage generator mode. Beginner’s mode is exactly what it sounds like: easy Monkey Ball levels. People who are either new to the franchise or want to freshen up on easier levels can play this mode without worrying about being brutalized by the game’s difficulty. It is essentially like the early levels of any Monkey Ball game.

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Preview: Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed

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Sega has become synonymous with San Francisco. Station Square and the City Escape level from Sonic Adventure are loosely based on it as well as the first Crazy Taxi game. Even Sega of America itself has its offices based in the city by the bay. So it’s only natural that here is where they show off their latest game in the All-Star/Superstar series that includes both the blue-blur and B.D. Joe.

Just off the 101 freeway in good ‘ol San Fran is a Go-Kart tracing track which for one Tuesday afternoon, was taken over by Sega. In a meeting lounge, me and Nux (check out his preview at TSS) and other press were presented with the first preview of two tracks from Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed. (Sega, if you’re going to shorten the title, wouldn’t “Sonic and Sega Racing Transformed” have been better? You’re cutting out your own name!) Anyway, onto the preview!

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PAX East: Crimson Dragon Preview

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Shut up. Right now.

I realize it’s not wise to tell our readers such a thing, but I thought I’d just get that out of the way now. I don’t care if SEGA’s not on the box, nor that it wasn’t at their booth. This is a SEGA game, if not in reality then in spirit, and I’m writing about it. Ladies and gentleman, Crimson Dragon is Panzer Dragoon 5.

I confess, I haven’t been following this game too closely. I’ve seen far too many Kinect titles I’ve thought had potential crash and burn and I wasn’t about to let myself get my hopes up for a new “Panzer Dragoon”. Upon playing it though, I have to say…Crimson Dragon is the best Kinect game I’ve experienced.

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PAX East: Hell Yeah! Preview

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What happens when you take Sega’s special brand of lunacy, a Western developer, a digital platform, and toss it all in a blender? This game. I didn’t really care for Hell Yeah’s debut trailer or initial screens. Perhaps it had something to do with the opening trailer’s focus on gore, I’m not really sure. All I did know was I was disinterested. Needless to say, after playing the demo, my interest has been caught.

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PAX East: Jet Set Radio Preview

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I don’t think it’s unusual for a SEGA fan to get a warm, fuzzy feeling every time he or she remembers the Dreamcast. Everyone knows the drill: it was an amazing swan song for a dying console maker, received more quality content in two years than most other consoles receive in five. While the console itself is fondly remembered, it’s the games that truly make the console. So when SEGA first revealed their line of downloadable Dreamcast games for XBLA and PSN, many fans naturally had designs of finally playing amazing epics like Skies of Arcadia and Shenmue in high definition. Unfortunately, the first two waves of games left something to be desired. Sonic Adventure was a fairly bare-bones port of the slightly inferior PC version, lacking even widescreen. Crazy Taxi lost its entire original soundtrack in the process of being brought over and SEGA Bass Fishing is hardly what one would call a Dreamcast classic. This left Space Chanel 5 Part 2 as the only well done master class Dreamcast title, and even that was ported in lieu of the more well-known original.

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Preview: Shinobi 3D

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This was the same demo available at E3. As such, there are certain things I don’t cover in this preview. For the full picture, check out our E3 preview!

Back at E3 I previewed Shinobi 3D for the first time. I loved what I got to play, but my time with the game was limited. At last month’s New York Comic Con I was able to give the game another go, so I’d like to talk more about it.

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Sonic Generations: Sonic Team building on lessons learnt

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Sonic Generation is looking to celebrate the 20th anniversary of SEGA’s blue mascot in style. The game is set to feature a number of throwbacks, references, past levels and a complete mishmash of the history of the entire series as publisher SEGA looks to restore the quality that was once synopsis with the series. I spent an extensive time playing the levels available for the Sonic Generations demo and got to play as both classic and modern Sonic, click after the break to find out how the title fared!

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Anarchy Reigns: The new Power Stone for parties

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Platinum Games has enjoyed a beneficial relationship publisher and that is set to continue with their latest title, Anarchy Reigns. The title is set to be a number of new Intellectual Properties that publisher SEGA is set to be releasing next year and is a sort of spiritual sequel of Platinum Game’s first title, MadWorld. Although not as much as one would expect, there is still plenty that separate the titles, in particular is Anarchy Reigns heavy focus on multiplayer gaming and perhaps become to SEGA what Power Stone was for Capcom. Read on after the break to find out what I thought of the game at the recent Eurogamer Expo.

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