Welcome to our new video series The Weekly Five, a top five list covering a wide range of SEGA topics. We are celebrating The Year of Developers over at SEGAbits.com, that means that each month throughout the year we will be covering notable notable SEGA developers. This month is all about a developer that is close to my heart, SEGA-AM2. What better way to kick off the new series than to discuss five ways SEGA-AM2 changed video gaming.
SEGA AM2 is just one of those developers that always puts a smile on my face whenever I talk about their games. Not only do they have one of the most vast libraries, but they also revolutionized gaming in general multiple times over the past decades. Let’s look at the developer that popularized sprite-scaling in the 80s, gave us modern 3D with their Virtua series and created one of the most expensive games ever as we walk through their legacy.
Don’t forget to join us all month long while we talk more about SEGA AM2 and all their legendary franchises.
Red Bull Music Academy has announced it is producing a new video series, “Diggin’ in the Carts,” discussing the influence of video game music on how we know music today, and looking at the people that produced it.
The series is to be six episodes long, and also features several well-known musicians and bands such as Anamanaguchi, Flying Lotus and Joker (who recently produced a Mega Drive inspired album) providing commentary.
For us SEGA fans, legendary composers Takenobu Mitsuyoshi (Daytona USA, OutRunners, Shenmue) and Yuzo Koshiro (The Revenge of Shinobi, Streets of Rage/Bare Knuckle Series) are to be featured in the series, which is music to our ears! In the trailer, Space Harrier and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 can be seen, possibly giving us hints about what to expect.
Also featured is Nobuo Uematsu, famed composer of the majority of the Final Fantasy series, and Manami Matsumae, composer of the original Mega Man game’s soundtrack (and also the composer of the upcoming Mighty No. 9), amongst many others.
The first episode premiers on Red Bull Music Academy’s site on September 4th, so be sure to check it out!
I love arcade racing games and no one does them better then SEGA. So it is good to see a inforgraphic, from the good people at Liberty Games, released detailing all the fun and crazy SEGA arcade games that have been huge hits for the company. So what are you waiting for? Hit the jump to see the image!
In this month’s Tuesday Tune, we’re going to upload some familiar Sega racing tunes to our readers as Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed will be hitting our local game stores in two weeks. To fill your racing mood for November, the first Sega tune will be the remix “Let’s Go Away -H. version” sung by none other than Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, composer for Sega Corporation who is known for his awesome musical scores on several Sega titles since 1990 such as Virtua Fighter & Shenmue. Mitsuyoshi-san uploaded this video to promote the rerelease of Daytona USA for digital platforms. One thing that has been bugging me for a while, why hasn’t Sumo have this awesome man to sing a theme song for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed? That would fill the mood for me to race players online. How about you guys?
Update 2: Sumo Digital producer S0L has said the following over at The Sonic Stadium forums:
You know, when they (SEGA) pitched us the idea we went ‘The fans will go wild…’ I think they didn’t get what we meant from that though
End of the day she hasn’t replaced any SEGA characters, she’s an extra and we’re very happy with the vehicle design we’ve done for her, which incidentally isn’t the one you might think it is
UPDATE: Game Trailers just revealed that Nascar driver Danica Patrick will be in All-Stars Racing Transformed. Remember her from that one SEGA game? Wait, she’s not a SEGA character. But she is racing in a SEGA branded racer which will be revealed at SEGA’s E3 booth. Danica and her SEGA branded Nascar will, in turn, be in the game. I’ll admit, it’s really freakin’ weird, but it does feel very much like when Pepsiman appeared in AM2’s Fighting Vipers. Which is a good, if not odd, thing.
SEGA Blog has posted up some booth pics, including a massive car shaped thing right in the center of the Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed booth. Doesn’t appear to be Sonic’s car, I can only imagine a custom made Speed Star would cost a load. But it could very well be the Hornet. Daytona USA’s star racer joining the All-Star roster? What do you think is under there? We’ll know in one hour. There is a small chance that Segata Sanshiro can take the form of a car, and he’s silently waiting to burst out from beneath the sheet to put the Wii U in a headlock.
Meatbun have some crazy talent designing their gaming related tees, and I get the feeling they may have a bit of a Sega fan streak in them judging by how 3 out 4 of their latest designs are Sega inspired. Many are quite surprising mash ups too! First up, Passing Breeze. This looks like it could have come directly out of a mid to late 80s Japanese indie fan magazine, right down to the manga like toning. A gorgeous illustration that nails the vibe of the classic Outrun.
If you log into your XBLA account, you will be able to purchase the fabulous Daytona USA and SEGA Rally Online Arcade ports for only 400 MS. These usually go for 800 MS. The sale will be good all the way till April 3rd.
What are you guys waiting for? No excuses, pick these games up now.
With Binary Domain set to be released next week, SEGAbits was given an exclusive interview with one of SEGA’s finest developers, Toshihiro Nagoshi. Having joined SEGA in the late 1980s with a degree in media, Nagoshi has been involved in several high profile games for SEGA early in his career, from working on Virtua Racing to having worked on the biggest arcade game in the industry, Daytona USA. Moving up the ranks, Nagoshi soon found himself leaving his job at AM2 to head up Amusement Vision in the late 90s during the Dreamcast era. There his teams made two of SEGA’s most well loved series in the modern era, Super Monkey Ball and Yakuza.
Now heading the newly formed Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, we get a chance to talk to Nagoshi after the release of his new studio’s first title, Binary Domain.
Daytona USA has long been one of the first games I think of when I think of SEGA’s arcade games. You guys picked up Daytona USA from XBLA or PSN yet?
SEGA has revealed that the same team that ported Virtua Fighter 5, Virtual On Oratorio Tangram, After Burner Climax and Virtual On Force will be porting Daytona USA to XBLA and PSN. I think it has been stated around here and other places that AM2 were behind the ports, but it seems this is not 100% true. According to producer Toru Murayama, the team is being called “AM Port Team”. Sounds good to me!
The blog post that the producer posted says they want to keep the same atmosphere and controls of the original. Even though the game will keep the same 3D models, they changed the rest of the visuals to be enhanced for HD.
[Source: AndriaSang]
One of SEGA’s all time arcade classics, Daytona USA, has been announced for XBLA and PSN. The title has for sometime been confirmed to be coming through the ratings board and a competition video SEGA made last week, but the company today officially confirmed that Daytona USA will be coming out with its original name to boot.
The game will be priced at $9.99 for XBLA and PSN and the publisher has confirmed that the original soundtrack will be available. Online multiplayer, racing wheel and widescreen support has all been confirmed. Click after the break to get the full press release and release dates.
SEGA has a massive stable of iconic characters. From the normal (Ryo Hazuki) to the bizarre (ToeJam and Earl) and everything in-between. But what about the characters you never see? They’re just as iconic, yet they have never had a face to put to the voice. In this week’s five, we will be shining the spotlight on the best unseen SEGA characters. The characters who can define a game without the need for a visit to SEGA’s character design department.
Sorry I didn’t get this up sooner. Youtube was being really slow for me. For anyone who hasn’t seen this video yet, I hope you enjoy it! Songs that Takenobu sings include what looks like a Yakuza song, a Hatsune Miku song, and Daytona USA – Let’s go Away.
Seeing Sonic and the whole crowd dancing is awesome.