SEGA Memories: The Sonic Generations Hype of 2011

Back during the heights of first person shooters and gritty settings & characters, it was also at a time where Sonic looked he was on the up. After Sonic Colors, something interesting happened that hadn’t been as exciting since the unveiling of Unleashed trailers. Odd that I have 11/1/11 etched into my brain but to me this was a countdown: that at the right place, the right time, and the right feeling, turned into what became a good, if not great, if not awesome, if not outstanding, if not amazing game that would be. I would like to take you into back to 2011 and what it was like to be a fan during that time, the expectations, and the outcome of what is still considered my favorite video game of all time: Sonic Generations for the 360/PS3/PC (unless Sonic x Shadow Gens becomes better lol).

Round Table: Our Favorite SEGA Games of 2011

2011 is just about over, and looking back, it has been a great year for SEGA games. Back in 2010, it was hard to imagine what could top titles like Bayonetta, Sonic Colors, Vanquish and the English version of Yakuza 3. Then came 2011 and a slew of awesome titles arrived. SEGA upped their game in digital distribution, popular franchises saw excellent sequels and spin-offs and SEGA’s mascot truly shined. In this extra special round table, SEGAbits writers will share their favorite SEGA games of the year. What did we like? Read on!

More Yu Suzuki at Toulouse Game Show 2011

After years of being MIA it’s absolutely fantastic to see one of my heroes back in the public eye again. Here is another video of his Toulouse Game Show appearance and a lot of great questions answered! It’s subtitled in English.

Many thanks to Kenji who translated, subtitled and directed the video and Ziming for uploading it!

Yu Suzuki Interview – Toulouse Game Show 2011 (Must Watch!)

Yu Suzuki attended the Toulouse Game Show 2011 and here is an absolutely fantastic interview with Yu Suzuki from the event, possibly the best I’ve ever seen! Yu Suzuki is maybe the most iconic person to have ever worked at Sega, Suzuki is the man behind some of Segas most beloved classics such as OutRun, After Burner, Space Harrier, Hang-On, Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter and of course the ill-fated Shenmue saga.

In this interview by videoxoc.com Yu Suzuki answers some of the most important questions any Sega or Shenmue fan cold pose and they are met with some great replies from Suzuki.

Hit the jump for highlights:

Rise of Nightmares – E3 2011 Teaser

So here’s another teaser trailer for Rise of Nightmares, Segas’ next game for Kinect. As you may have guessed by now, Rise of Nightmares is going to be horror themed.

From the little we know about the game, you must make your way through a castle filled with zombies and other nasty things to find your girlfriend.

You do so in first person, dispatching enemies with brutal melee weapons Condemned style.

Come on Sega, show us some gameplay please!

Sega Announces E3 2011 Line Up

Sega have today announced their E3 2011 line up and it’s pretty packed! With some really exciting games like Binary Domain, Guardian Heroes, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Renegade Ops, Crush3D and Sonic Generations, not to mention Platinum Games’ Anarchy Reigns already announced, is it too much to ask for some surprises too?

I’m still holding out hope for Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown to console, Valkyria Chronicles 3 to West and any kind of news on Phantasy Star Online 2!

But with or without those games it’s quite a good line up for new and old Sega fans, hit the jump for the full list. I’m personally very excited about Aliens and Binary Domain!

SegaBits writers Nuckles87 and Shigs will be presant at E3 2011 and reporting feedback on all of these games and more!

GDC 2011: Yu Suzuki Career Retrospective


Are you a fan of Yu Suzuki? Of course you are! Well this video is for you.

This is the GDC career retrospective of Yu Suzuki and it’s translated into English. Full of great information regarding Suzuki’s long career with Sega and the ground breaking, revolutionary games he has created over the years including OutRun, Virtua Fighter and Shenmue amongst others.

I’m sure you’ll agree, this man is a legend.

AOU 2011 – Sega Booth Tour

Another year another AOU show and another strong show for Sega.
Let me give you a rundown of Segas most noteworthy games at the show.

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown – The newest available version of VF5.
Lets go Island 3D – Which uses 3D tech with out the need for glasses.
Star Horse and Star Boat – Simulate a betting office.
Chaos Code – A brand new 2D fighter.
MJ5 – A majong game with some pretty graphics.
Super Money Ball Ticket Blitz – Still a little lost on this one to be honest.
Sega and Sonic All-Star Racing Arcade – Port of the home console version.
Project Diva Arcade – It’s project Diva but with sexy graphics.
Shining Force Cross Raid – An online dungeon crawler.
Darts Live – It’s darts and it’s live.
Border Break: Air Burst – Team Fortress style mech action.
AnswerXAnswer Live – Multiplayer quick-fire general knowledge game.

Also at the show were UFO catchers, a Baseball Card collection booth and some obscure children’s games.

Hit the jump for more videos!

SEGAbits 2011 Survey closing soon

The survey will be closing very soon, but you still have a chance to take it if you haven’t yet! The survey will be closing at 12am PST February 4th. So that would be tonight for most people who live in North America.

Thank you everyone that has taken it! It helps a lot. Anyone who hasn’t taken it… we would really appreciate it if you did now! xP

2011 – An industry’s hopes


MVCUK have quizzed a number of top industry people based in the UK regarding what they are most looking forward too in 2011, on that list is everyone’s favourite western Sega CEO in god knows how long Mike Hayes and Sports Interactive head honcho Miles Jacobson. Let’s see what they are looking forward to in 2011.

Miles Jacobson – Studio Director, Sports Interactive
“Having been lucky to try out a beta version, I’m most looking forward to the new Virtua Tennis release, with a Move and a 3D TV. I’m really looking forward to March’s Nordoff Robbins Football Extravaganza dinner which is sponsored by Tesco – it’s always a great night and raised over £350k last year.

Mike Hayes – CEO, Sega Europe and Sega America
“I want 2011 to be a great year for a little blue hedgehog – as Sonic is 20 years old in June.”

If Miles is looking forward to Virtua Tennis 4, which is being developed in-house at Sega Japan for the first time since PowerSmash 3 (Arcade) then I think that’s a good sign!

As for Mike Hayes; well shit man, so do we… So do we!

You can read the others HERE.

Sega to celebrate 20 years of Sonic and Puyo Pop in 2011!

Ladies and Gentlemen… Na, who am I kidding, Gentlemen and Gentlemen! The time is almost upon us!

In a matter of hours it will be 2011, and with 2011 comes not one anniversary of great importance amongst Sega fans everywhere but two! Yes, both Sonic the Hedgehog and Puyo Pop turn 20 this year! To celebrate, on the stroke of midnight, (Japanese time)  Sega has already began the hype.

Sega have released a press statement suggesting that they have a number of projects lined up for both the Sonic the Hedgehog and Puyo Pop franchises in 2011. They weren’t specific on what these ‘projects’ entail but I suspect they will hold events as well as release celebratory games.

You can visit the Sonic anniversary site HERE.

If the next Sonic game is as good if not better then Sonic Colours and we get another great Puyo Pop game, Yakuza 4 and Yakuza of the End, Valkryia Chronicles 3, Bayonetta 2, Shogun 2, Creative Assembly’s new action game and of course Phantasy Star Online 2… Well shit, 2011 is going to be a sweet year for us Sega fans!

So happy new year from Segabits, have a good one and I’ll see you next year folks! I’m off to get wasted!

Football Manager 2011 – Demo and Trailer

Above is the official trailer for Football Manager 2011. I can’t say it is my favorite trailer I’ve seen for this series. But I think it is a good idea to go with trailers that are less about the game itself and more about the passion behind the sport. That said I have no passion for football at all.

If FM2011 is relevant to your interests, then you can now download and play the demo:

The Football Manager 2011 Demo is available to download today, free and exclusively in association with Mirror Football. Click the link below to download from Steam and follow the onscreen instructions to install. You will need a Steam account to download, but signing up is free.

Click Here to Download the Football Manager 2011 Demo!

PSO2 trailer on Sega TGS stream!

Oh shi-

So I’m watching Sega’s TGS live stream which currently is just playing trailers for their upcoming games while no press conference is going on. I was just happily playing it in the background as I catch up on some work while minding my own business.

Suddenly I head something that fills me with nostalgia and fond memories. Pioneer 2, Spread Needles, Rappys and beautiful Caves 3 come flooding back; It’s the main (vocal) theme of the original Phantasy Star Online! What the?

I quickly Alt-Tab to the stream and what do I see? Phantasy Star Online, the original, what is this? Then it shows PSOv2 and proceeds to go though each game in order of release right up to the very newest announced game, Phantasy Star Portable 2: Infinity. I’m excited about the game so I continued watching but that wasn’t all. Right at the end… My mind was blown.

Phantasy Star Online 2
Release: 2011
Known system: PC

[More info as it comes]

Live Stream HERE

Apologies, article written at 3AM in a fanboy frenzy.

SEGA to announce two more “big” games

SEGA West superimo Mike Hayes has recently revealed to CVG that the publisher is planning to announce two more “big” games by the end of the year, aimed directly at the core base of the 360 and Playstation 3 userbase, talking to CVG, Hayes commented;

“Then we’ve got two other big games that we’ll be announcing this year for 2011 and 2012. So we’re not going to be overly aggressive – but we’re going to try to have one or two games each year in that segment.”

Whether these titles happen to be developed in house either by SEGA West or one of SEGA’s Japanese teams, or an outsourced project. One thing was clear though in that Hayes was regarded the major titles to be aimed towards the core market for the HD consoles in much the same way Vanquish is. For the quote from the interview, see the link below.

[Source: CVG]