Interview: Scott West, Hardlight Studio Senior Designer of Crazy Taxi City Rush

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SEGAbits: Hi Scott, thank you for answering our questions about the upcoming mobile game Crazy Taxi City Rush! What is your role at SEGA, and what is your favorite SEGA game?

Scott West: Hi there, I’m a Senior Designer at Hardlight Studios. As for favourite SEGA game, it would be impossible to name just one! I’d have to break it down into favourites throughout the course of the Consoles that I grew up with. From the Mega Drive days, I spent my childhood playing the likes of Golden Axe, Sonic, Streets of Rage and Outrun. Then on the Saturn it was Burning Rangers and Virtua Fighter 2 then of course the Dreamcast and House of the Dead, Jet Set Radio and Shenmue! That’s not to mention the hours I spent sinking into the Arcades on games like Rad Mobile and Crazy Taxi!

Phantasy Star Online 2 Es starts open beta on Android

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Phantasy Star Online 2 might be well and out in Japan on PC and Vita, but their mini-version of the game called ‘Phantasy Star Online 2 Es‘ has met many delays. But don’t worry, the mobile version of the game has now hit open beta in Japan, at least on Android with a iOS version coming in the near future.

You can download here!

The mobile version is unique in the way it lets you connect to the Vita/PC version to download you character data and takes place at the same time as the story in full Phantasy Star online 2 and some items and experience you gain in the mobile version transfers back.

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Hardlight Studio developing Crazy Taxi: City Rush for iOS and Android devices

Update: We’ve added footage of the game in action above, check it out!

SEGA’s Hardlight Studio in cooperation with Kenji Kanno, the man behind the original Crazy Taxi, are back to make more crazy money in Crazy Taxi: City Rush – coming later this year to iOS and Android devices. In an interview with Polygon, producer Stephen Ye described the upcoming free-to-play game as something for “casual players and die-hard Crazy Taxi fans in the mobile space”. A teaser trailer, found after the break, reveals that B.D. Joe has set up shop and is employing players to drive customizable cabs. The game will feature music from some licensed music from indie bands as well as offering players the ability to create their own playlists from their device’s music library.

During their hands on with the game, Polygon noted that the gas pedal is permanently floored and breaking for passengers is done via tapping the screen. Turning requires swiping or moving your finger in a specific direction. Despite the simplified controls, the game was described as being “as frantic as console versions, thanks to the need to dodge cars or quickly switch lanes”. Being a mobile title, daily challenges will be available, and if players connect to Facebook they will be able to pick up their friends as customers within the game. And, as Ye told Polygon, “the more Facebook friends you have, the more social missions you have in the game”. Players can even visit their friends garages to view their cars, and clean them to earn in-game currency.

Crazy Taxi: City Rush will release later this year worldwide, and will be released in Canada and Australia this month as part of a soft launch to prepare the game for a worldwide audience. After the break, more screens and a teaser trailer!

Vidya Retro Highlights: Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Mobile and More

If you’ve missed our live stream shows, you’ll be happy to know that we archive (most) of our videos including our first look at Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed running on iOS as led by Guess Who. We’ve also got first looks of Sonic Dash and Crazy Taxi running on Android that showcase game features and commentary from the staff at Sonic Retro.

Be sure to follow our Vidya Retro on Twitch and YouTube for more first looks and other gameplay videos.

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Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed hits iOS and Android tomorrow with Ryo Hazuki joining the race!

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While the rest of us nurse our hangovers, SEGA has announced that Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is set to hit iOS and Android devices tomorrow, January 2nd. What more, SEGA has also been teasing Ryo Hazuki the past week as an impending addition to the racing roster. While we knew about Ryo since Yogscast spilled the beans in a PC stream in mid December, the addition of Ryo to the mobile version is new to us. It is likely that the PC version will update tomorrow as well with Ryo added to the roster.

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Watch Vidya Retro’s Recorded Sonic 2 Livestream

When Sonic the Hedgehog 2 came out on iOS and Android, we hosted a livestream showing off the game for a whole four hours showing off the the new features. Obviously there are spoilers present in these videos, so watch at your own risk. We get the emeralds, stumble upon Hidden Palace, look at unused content and run a few races online.

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Debug Mode] [2 Player Mode]

Sonic 2 Coming to iOS and Android Tomorrow With Hidden Palace Zone Intact

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After missing it’s November release date, Taxman and Stealth’s remastering of Sonic 2 is finally coming to iOS and Android tomorrow. The delay is made worthwhile though with the addition of perhaps the most well known of the scrapped levels found in the beta versions: the Hidden Palace Zone. If you’ve played the duo’s Sonic 1 iOS/Android remastering, you probably know that they like to add other new stuff to the game. So you can probably expect other new features in this release as well.

If you already own the former Sonic 2 iOS port, you’ll be able to download this new version as a free update. This is the first time the game is released on Android though, so your only option is to buy it new when it comes to that platform. You can find a couple more screenshots of the remastering below.

Amazon giving free copies of Sonic the Hedgehog on Android

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Hey, not all Black Friday deals make you stand in line with a super violent mob of soccer moms, at least not when you are dealing with Amazon. The online store giant really wants you to buy Android applications through them instead of Google Play Store and to show how much they want your business they are giving a slew of Android games for free. Usually the lists are full of stuff like Fruit Ninjas and some revision of Angry Birds (they’re still there) but this time they also added Sonic the Hedgehog for free.

Now you have something to be thankful for, free Hedgehog action.

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Sonic Dash is out now on Android

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For those Android users that waited forever, you can now download Sonic Dash from the Playstore! So what’s the skinny? Well, you will need to have at least Android 2.3.3 and over to play the game! The download size for this game is only 42mb.

It seems that the main complaint in the game are the ads, which are annoying. I guess that’s the small price you pay for having a free game. What are your thoughts?

SEGA’s facebook teases Sonic Dash for Android

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SEGA shared the following image that is obviously a Sonic Dash related image and if you look closely at Sonic he is shaped like the Android robot. What could this mean? Well, if it wasn’t apparent, Sonic Dash will soon be headed to your Android powered phone.

Yep, so now non-ios users will be able to experience the Sonic skinned Temple Run clone for themselves. How soon is soon?

 

Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing finally debuts on Android

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Seems like SEGA took their sweet time porting over Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing to Android, especially when you consider the fact that the game came out two years ago. But hey, it’s here now and you can own it for $1.99! This is port of the DS version, cleaned up for higher resolution phones.

The game just came out and reviews aren’t that positive. Out of three reviews, two of them have been one stars and the other was three. Hopefully SEGA addresses issues of lag and other complaints.

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SEGA announces new Sakura Wars game, fans not very pleased

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People have been wanting a new Sakura Wars game for awhile, the franchise might not be huge but it has a nice cult following. SEGA and RED (developer) have been teasing that it would be coming back. So we finally get it announced and it turns out to be a Mobage game.

“The yet untold story of the other battle faced by the young maidens!”

Mobage (Mobile Games) is a social portal used for games,  focusing on freedium sort of experiences where the user gets the based game for free but pays for ‘extras’. This is very typical in the mobile landscape. Also looks like Kōsuke Fujishima won’t be designing characters for this project, the first ever for a  Sakura Wars game. Japanese fans are not happy with the announcement, hit the jump to read some of their angry comments they left on Jin115.

Crazy Taxi is out now on Android – Make that craaaaazy money!

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I know that SEGA doesn’t really promote these mobile releases, all they pretty much do is send a tweet or a blog post telling you that the title is out. But they really missed the mark with the Crazy Taxi port for Android, since they didn’t even tell anyone it was coming today. Well, don’t worry, we got you. Crazy Taxi is now on Android.

This port is a lot like the iOS version with Arcade Mode and Original Mode playable and music by Bad Religion and The Offspring. You can purchase your copy today for $4.99.