Several Sega Forever mobile games unceremoniously delisted + End of Service announcement

Remember Sega Forever, and how that started out in 2017 as Sega Europe’s initiative to bring classic Sega games to mobile app stores as free, ad-supported games? Well, Sega Forever is now “Sega For-never,” as more than half of the games released through Sega Forever have now been delisted from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store without so much as an official announcement. On top of that, the games now display an “End of Service” message like the one shown above saying that the games will remain playable, but will lose their online features, which amounted to save states being stored online, leaderboards, and offering you the option to pay $1.99 USD to play without ads. It also has a “More Info” button to show you where else the games available through Sega Forever can be played, but it only currently leads to Sega’s home page. (The above message comes from the Space Harrier II Classic app. I have not been able to confirm if the non-Genesis games display a message like this.)

Check in past the break to see what the remaining games are, as well as some more unsettling news…

SEGA Talk #102: Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing (2010)

Buckle up because on this SEGA Talk, we put the pedal to the metal and hit the road to talk about Sumo Digital’s Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing! What are the origins of this racing franchise? What characters didn’t make the cut? What is a Bentley Jones? Click play and find out!

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Shining Force: Heroes of Light and Darkness is no longer in development

SEGA along with Vespa announced it was working on Shining Force: Heroes of Light and Darkness, based on the classic Shining Force franchise, way back in August 2021. Since the announcement, they’ve announced that it was suppose to get a full launch the first half of this year, as well as a beta before this period that never happen!

Its said that the reason that Shining Force: Heroes of Light and Darkness has suspended development is because the lack of funds and how long the negotiations for the Shining Force IP have taken with SEGA. According to Game Braves, SEGA never finalized the use of the Shining Force IP or at least full use of the IP. We know many classic characters were making their return in this game but the company also wanted to make original characters. No idea where the disagreement came since we’ve seen smaller companies license IPs such as Alex Kidd, Wonderboy, Panzer Dragoon and more.

Vespa is turning its attention and development to King’s Raid 2, a popular in-house IP already developed and owned by the company. Personally I want the return of classic Shining Force SRPG goodness, but not in a mobile game. Considering Camelot Software want to make a Shining Force IV, why not go for a real follow-up with the original team?

Alien: Isolation coming to iOS and Android on December 16th

2014’s Alien: Isolation was without a doubt the best game from SEGA for that year. Since then, the game won several awards and saw release to many platforms. Now, SEGA is bringing the game to mobile phones “without compromise” (their words), promising the complete experience. The game will support game pads and sport a “bespoke, fully customizable interface”.

It’s pretty amazing that when the App Store launched, we saw a basic Monkey Ball game and now we are seeing what was once an AAA title ported to smartphones. We will share our thoughts on the port when it hits December 16th!

SEGA’s New RPG Being Teased for TGS 2021 Is a Smartphone Game


We got the news the other day that SEGA had planned on announcing a new RPG during Tokyo Game Show 2021 livestream. Of course, the internet went ablaze with them listing older RPGs they’d like to see revived, some even said they’d be open to a new franchise while many long term SEGA veterans wisely gave up early suggesting it was a mobile game. Guess what? The vets are right, SEGA has opened and teased the game via their Twitter account. The game also got a brand new teaser website as well.

A rough google translation makes it seem that the game’s tag line will be something along the lines of: “Not a straight road, let’s make a one-time trip”. The teaser on the other hand confirms, within its Japanese text that its a mobile game plus shows off some really incredible artwork.

The one complaint I see from mobile fans is that SEGA shut down the Sakura Wars mobile a game within 6 months of launching, now the company is asking gamers to trust that this new RPG will last longer? I guess we shall see, full information will be coming out on the first of October.

Taxman’s Sonic the Hedgehog 1 & 2 Definitive Mobile Ports Finally get Decompiled by Fans Allowing Unofficial PSVita and PC ports

I will admit that I’m not really well versed on how this whole reverse engineering works, but thankfully twitter user Rubberduckycooly does and has now decompiled Christian “Taxman” Whitehead’s Sonic the Hedgehog 1 & 2 mobile ports, which are considered by fans as the definitive versions of these titles.

You can check out Rubberduckycooly’s github page for future updates on this project.

This project would allow us to run Sonic the Hedgehog 1 and 2 mobile ports on other platforms natively. So far we have seen people posting that its working on Windows, Mac, Linux, and the PlayStation Vita! This could also mean we can get fan ports on other hacked handhelds or consoles as well, but we shall see where the project goes. From what I understand, rubberduckycooly used the Sonic CD SDK base to get these ports on PC, Vita; so we shall see what happens in the future.

Really though, why hasn’t SEGA released these versions on all current consoles? Am I the only one that things its a waste to keep them mobile only?

Sakura Revolution is available now in Japan for iOS and Android

Sakura Revolution, a Dramatic RPG mobile game and spin-off of the Sakura Wars series, is now available for download in Japan for iOS and Android devices!

The game takes place in an alternate version of Tokyo, in the year Taisho 100 (2011 CE). In the year Taisho 84 (1995 CE), disaster struck the capital in a calamity known as the Great Imperial Capital Disaster. The nation was able to rebuild and recover, thanks to the discovery of a new energy based on spiritual power, known only as Mirai.

Sadly, with the activation of the New Imperial Tower, the cherry blossoms stopped blooming. Moreover, demons known as “Koki” began to increase in number, lashing out to attack people across the nation. To protect the people, the government formed the Great Imperial Combat Revue B.L.A.C.K., who protect the people from evil while bringing light to their hearts with unmatched live performances.

While peace reigns among the people thanks to Mirai and B.L.A.C.K. and many have put their trust in the government, some have come to realize that it is but a false prosperity.

These brave souls are known as the Imperial Combat Revue, and their mission is to uncover the government’s conspiracy and retake Japan!

If you want to try the game yourself but don’t live in Japan, Combat Revue Review has a guide available (for Android users) to use over on their website.

 

SEGA to shut down SEGA Heroes servers on May 21st

SEGA and Demiurge’s SEGA Heroes mobile game is one of the few titles I pop in everyday to collect all my rewards so I could fill out my SEGA roster. Its not ground breaking but the diversity of SEGA IPs really got me into it. Sadly, I will have to say goodbye to this mobile title as Demiurge studio has now become independent from SEGA. SEGA had previously worked with Demiurge on the Aliens: Colonial Marines DLC Bughunt, the same year they made their smash mobile title ‘Marvel Puzzle Quest‘ in 2013. After that, SEGA stepped in to purchase the studio.

Demiurge and SEGA’s games weren’t all hits either, the first title that the studio brought out to mobile was Puzzle & Glory in 2015, which got a soft launch in Canada and then a year later they closed the game down. Then in 2017 came the mobile title known as Crazy Taxi Gazillionaire that was then changed into Crazy Taxi Tycoon which was a top-down endless business management simulator and idle clicker game.

Now the last game they did was SEGA Heroes. But why has Demiurge studios bought the studio back from SEGA and want to go independent? According to this interview with the studios co-founder, they want to get out of the mobile market and work on supporting AAA studios like they did before they made Marvel Puzzle Quest. If you look at their history of games they worked on (which dates back to 2004), they worked on console games.

SEGA has also made a notice about the game closing, you can read that here.

SEGA Heroes launches survey asking fans to request characters

If you have been playing SEGA Heroes, a mobile cross-over game featuring SEGA IPs and have been loving it, you are in luck. SEGA seems like they will support the game going forward if a new survey asking fans what characters they want to see return.

You can take the survey here.

The list of IPs is rather massive even featuring thins like Toejam & Earl, Wrestle War, Alien Solider, Flicky, Football Manager, and even Hatsune Miku. Of course there are alot of other hardcore SEGA franchises but those really stood out as strange for various reasons. There are also some Atlus franchises listed. So SEGA/Atlus Heroes update coming?

After Burner Climax is coming to SEGA Forever


One of the most underrated mid-00s SEGA-AM 2 arcade game After Burner Climax will get one more chance to soar very soon thanks to the recent announcement at SXSW 2019 made by SEGA confirming that its the next title in SEGA Forever.

Like always SEGA Forever titles are free to play with ads or ad-free for a few dollars. This is actually a re-release of After Burner Climax on mobile since it originally came out in 2013, but its nice that its getting another re-release with (hopefully) some fixes. Can we get another re-release on PSN and finally bring it to PC?

Bayonetta crosses over into Shin Megami Tensei: Dx2 Liberation

Bayonetta coming to Shin Megami Tensei: Dx2 Liberation was first teased at this year’s Tokyo Game Show but it has now been officially shown off on the 1st year anniversary stream.

While I get why some people are a bit put off with anything that has to do with mobile games, since they are so different compared to traditional games, I think this crossover makes sense and I hope we see more SEGA own IPs make cameos in Dx2.

[Via: Persona Central]

SEGA trademarks ‘Humankind’ in Japan

The guys over at Gematsu posted up more company trademarks, as you know previously SEGA trademarked ‘Romance: Seven-Colored Adventure Story and now they are trademarking “Humankind”. Gematsu did make a note that Take-Two is going to debut a new game called Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey at The Game Awards 2018 in a few days. We know SEGA has a history of working with Take-Two in publishing and pushing their games in Japanese market. Who knows.

Sadly all these trademarks are vague without a description on what sort of platform they will be used on. At this point SEGA is so diverse it can be a Pachinko, Mobile or Console game. What do you want to see from this new trademark? What do you think it is? Let us know in the comments below.

Idola Phantasy Star Saga launches November 27th in Japan

If you are excited about the upcoming Idola Phantasy Star Saga mobile game on iOS and Android, I have good news for you. You can begin playing it on November 27, 2018 in Japan (or in Japanese, if you know how to download it outside of Japan). As for my opinions on this title, you can read those here.

If you are a Phantasy Star fan hoping for a lot of cute references to some of your favorite past games, you might want to skip out since SEGA already confirmed this entry takes place in a completely different universe from the past games. They are basing the game on a two faction system of Law and/or Chaos. You can look at some of the gameplay in the video above and see if this is the sort of mobile game you want to spend your time on.

So, what do you guys think about Idola Phantasy Star Saga now that its a few days away from launch?

Real-time strategy game Revolve8 announced globally for iOS and Android

Following the initial tease, SEGA has officially announced that Revolve8, a real-time strategy game for iOS and Android, will be releasing globally. The card based game features fairy tale characters and the staff includes Koji Igarashi (Castlevania series producer, Bloodstained) working on character designs, Masayoshi Kikuchi (Yakuza series, Dx2 Shin Megami Tensei Liberation) as senior producer,  and Ryota-H (Fate/Grand Order and Lord of Vermilion) as character artist.

registration for a closed beta starts today, and the test itself will take place from October 23rd to November 2nd. Despite the negativity mobile games get, the art looks pretty cool. I especially love Cinderella on a jack-o-lantern motorcycle.