Concept Art

11 (Yes, Eleven) prototype builds and design documents for cancelled Vectorman PS2 sequel found and preserved

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Vectorman is a name well regarded by fans of the Sega Genesis/Mega-Drive. Vectorman (1995) and its sequel Vectorman 2 (1996) were hallmarks of that console’s twilight years, with some truly impressive pseudo-3D graphics and fluid animation, on top of also being a legitimately fun time. It’s earned it’s honor of being one of Sega’s common picks for their many Genesis game compilations in recent times. It’s just too bad that Vectorman was never able to move beyond the Genesis, though this wasn’t for lack of trying. The original developer of the two Genesis games, BlueSky Software, had envisioned a second sequel on the Saturn that never came to pass, and other developers have wanted to bring Vectorman to the Dreamcast and beyond.

The ill-faded sequel that came closest to fruition was the PS2 game being worked on by Pseudo Interactive, the creators of Full Auto (2006) and Full Auto 2: Battlelines (Also 2006 on PS3 and 2007 on PSP), both of which were actually published by Sega. Before that, Sega announced a new Vectorman title for the PlayStation 2, simply known as Vectorman, in April 2003, with intent to release the following year. The news of the game’s cancellation came before 2003 even ended, in November, despite a positive showing at E3 earlier that same year. This was during the time when then-Sega of America CEO Peter Moore was preparing his departure from the company and shortly before the company would merge with Sammy, so internally, things were tumultuous at Sega and Vectorman did not survive this transition. What did thankfully survive was a bunch of prototype and press builds, art, and documentation on the game, which was all just found and preserved by Comby Laurent on his preservation website Sega Dreamcast Info Games Preservation.

Check in past the break for more info, and a link to check out these finds in finer detail.

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Newly uncovered Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) concept art gives us an early look at a robotic Dr. Robotnik

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Way back in 1991, when Sonic the Hedgehog burst onto the scene in his debut game, the title made such an impact in the west that TV networks and animation studios scrambled to create an animated series starring the blue blur. With Sonic came his cast of video game co-stars however at the time Sonic’s stable of characters was quite small. Outside of the little animal friends and badniks, we had Sonic, Eggman (localized as Doctor Robotnik) and eventually, in 1992, Tails. The first animated series to get the green light was what fans affectionately call “Sonic SatAM” or just “SatAM” as the series aired weekly on ABC Saturday mornings. This series retained Sonic, Tails and Robotnik, but also expanded the cast to include the Freedom Fighters as well as a lackey for Robotnik named Snively.

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Streets of Rage 4 artists release Garou: Mark of the Wolves 2 concept art video, now I want this to be real…

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Garou: Mark of the Wolves is one of my favorite fighting games along with its cousin Street Fighter 3rd Strike, both games had a very unique style and as you also know Lizardcube’s games’ Streets of Rage 4 and Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap also have a unique art style. So, Lizardcube artist’s Ben Fiquet and Julian Nguyen-You released a 20 plus minute video showing how they create these retro gaming concept art pitches, this time with Garou: Mark of the Wolves 2.

Its interesting because they really got the game to resemble the original game in tone of colors but the art style that has now become signature Lizardcube is still there. I think they did a good job of having a great blend and personally would be stoked if Lizardcube made Garou: Mark of Wolves 2. Hey, SNK, you watching this?

Yeah, but Lizardcube is probably too busy with a new Shinobi, right?

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SEGA releases new concept art on Sonic Forces release day

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Sonic Forces releases today and following yesterday’s early launch trailer we have some new concept art direct from SEGA. The art shows off Sonic and friends battling Eggman’s squad of villains, Sonic in prison, the avatar character on a mission, Eggman’s lab, and more! Check out the additional concept art after the break.

Remember you can still order the Sonic Forces Bonus Edition to receive SEGA and Atlus avatar costumes, controller skins and Episode Shadow: PlayStation 4 | Xbox One | Switch | PC

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SEGA News Bits: Sonic & All-Stars Fighters and Football Concepts Reaction

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Concept art for proposed Sonic & SEGA All-Stars games were found online via the creative agency Funsolve Limited, who have also worked on Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Had they been approved by SEGA, the games would have been Sonic & All-Stars Fighters and Sonic & All-Stars Football/Soccer. On this SEGA News Bits, George and Barry take a look at this concept art and discuss the proposed games. Should SEGA have made them? Will SEGA still make them?

If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a like so it shows up on more like minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that new YouTube algorithm is.

 

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Concept Art on various SEGA games discovered including an All-Stars soccer & fighter

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A website called Fun Solve has a gallery of concept artwork on various SEGA games has been uploaded online featuring works by game developers that had helped SEGA create video games based on their classic IPs, Sumo Digital and Headstrong Games, for game development and promotional use.

The website also features tons of concept art on SEGA games such as Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, The House of the Dead Overkill, SEGA Rally Revo, and more including two SEGA All-Stars games with concepts of a soccer and fighting game. Now looking closely to the concept art of the All-Stars brawler seems to take inspiration from Capcom’s Power Stone franchise with SEGA characters in which Steve Lycett, executive producer at Sumo Digital, would love to make.

Check out the concept artwork on all of the games by clicking the jump and tell us your thoughts on the two unreleased All-Stars games. Shout out to Nibroc.Rock for making the discovery.

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SEGA News Bits: Sonic & Friends New Concept Art Revealed Reaction

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During the Sonic the Hedgehog 25th Anniversary Event in Japan, Sonic Team showed off some never before seen Sonic & Friends concept art prototypes. Some of these previously unreleased designs shows off early ideas for some very famous Sonic the Hedgehog characters. On this episode of SEGA News Bits, George and Barry have a look at each of the newly released Sonic the Hedgehog character designs and tell you their opinion.

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Sonic the Hedgehog and Friends concept art revealed

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SonicConcept1During the Sonic the Hedgehog 25th Anniversary event over in Japan, Sonic Team presented early concepts for Sonic the Hedgehog and Friends. Some of the weirdest early prototypes included rabbit Sonic the Hedgehog, headband wearing Silver the Hedgehog and scarred up Shadow the Hedgehog. If you are a hedgehog, you started out with some weird designs.

Check out the concept art for Sonic the Hedgehog and Friends below. Tell us what you think of these early concept art prototypes and if they did right with the final designs. Of course, these are just more of the popular Sonic the Hedgehog and Friends designs as they didn’t show a lot of the more niche characters (Fang, please Sonic Team).

[Via NeoGAF]

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Streets of Rage 4 cancelled Dreamcast concept art makes its way online

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SEGA is well aware of the cult following that their Streets of Rage series possesses, so they have tried to resurrect the franchise but it always ends up being canceled for one reason or another. It seems that SEGA had a plan to release Streets of Rage 4, we had the first prove of this by leaked footage that was released a few years ago (you can view it here). The game was to be on the Dreamcast and was being developed by Ancient & SEGA with Yuzo Koshiro returning to do the soundtrack. The game was sadly canceled.

We have finally gotten more information on the canceled project thanks to Yuzo Koshiro posting concept art on his twitter account. He posted two sketches one showing off the four lead characters, which have some resemblance to members of the original cast but are actually all new heroes. Another photo shows off ideas for combos, on this photo we actually get the names of the Axel looking guy, who is called Burn and is the son of Axel (aka Axel Jr.). We also see the female character who’s name is Erie and happens to be a ‘Shinobi’.

What do you guys think of the canceled concept art? Do you think SEGA made a mistake cancelling this project or is this something that was going to be met with backlash? Let us know in the comments!

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Resident Evil Code: Veronica never before seen concept art hits the internet

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014 - Contaminant Zombie

[Wasn’t this design later used in South Park?]

Resident Evil Code: Veronica was my favorite entries into Capcom’s long running survival horror franchise. Maybe its because I’m biased due to it being originally a Dreamcast exclusive title (which later got a Playstation 2 port). I’m also the type of person that likes to see unreleased artwork for games, especially concept art. It seems the guys over at Project Umbrella (a Resident Evil fansite) have been sitting on hundreds of pieces of unreleased concept artwork for Resident Evil Code: Veronica and Resident Evil Zero.

From the owner of Project Umbrella via NeoGAF:

We came into contact with freelance concept artist Satoshi Nakai, who was hired by CAPCOM in 1997 at the recommendation of Nextech Co., Ltd to provide concept art for the games under the directions of scenario company FLAGSHIP’s lead writers Noboru Sugimura and Hiroshi Soda.

Only a very small fraction of this artwork has been released by CAPCOM over the years. They are direct scans of the original pages. Also included is a single artwork for a scrapped game originally directed by Masaaki Yamada, featuring HUNK on a cruise ship facing against new plant/human Zombie enemies.

Hit the jump to see over  100 pieces of never before released concept art.

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Sonic dies in this new Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric trailer, also Metal Sonic and Shadow return

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This new trailer for Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric skips right to the point: Sonic dies. So there we go, franchise finished, I’d say it had a good run but every series has to stop sometime I guess. I mean, when was the last time Sonic got revived after dying? Probably in some game that never existed.

Also there are some new screenshots for this and Shattered Crystal and some concept art that reveals that Metal Sonic and Shadow are in this game with their designs unchanged, which you can see after the jump. SEGA also confirmed that both games will come out in Europe on November 21st.

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Cancelled Dreamcast era Sonic Adventure Burger King Kid’s Club concept art appears on ebay

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$_57 (34)

An incredibly cool collection of Sonic art appeared on ebay in the form of concept art for a cancelled Burger King Kid’s Club line of Sonic Adventure toys. The listings feature ten toys, with six pieces of artwork each: a clean inked drawing, two marked up versions with notes from SEGA on color and callouts, a final inked piece, and then mock-ups of the final slip of paper you’d find packaged with the toy. The seller claims they came across the concept art in a warehouse find of several pieces of concept art for various products. This claim is backed up by several other pieces of art for various products in his ebay store. These are the only SEGA related ones, however.

As ebay listings don’t last forever, and because we can’t afford to buy all ten for $150 each ($1,500 total for 60 pieces of art), we’ve saved all the images from the listing in a gallery after the break. Had the set gone through to production, we would have seen ten toys: Rip Roaring Robotnik (spelled “Robotnic” on the art and corrected in the final version), Somersaultin’ Snowboardin’ Sonic, “Go Gamma Go!”, Knuckles Goes for a Spin, Twistin’ Twirlin’ Tails, Frog-Catchin’ Cat (oddly, Big’s name isn’t mentioned on the final version), Noisy Amy, Super Sonic Sled, Turbo-Prop Tails, and Walk ‘Em Sock ‘Em Knuckles.

After the break, a full gallery of the images from these auctions.

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