It looks like SEGA wants to increase their global presence, as they just recently announced former Walt Disney executive Justin Scarpone as the Executive Vice President, Head of Global Transmedia Group for SEGA effective April 1st, 2024. Justin is probably most well known for launching a little indie title known as Kingdom Hearts. Between the Sonic movies and the New Energy, New Era lineup of video game revivals, it looks like SEGA is serious about expanding their presence. Welcome to the team, Justin. Word of advice: don’t talk to Sonic fans on social media.
After the break, check out the full press release!
Just announced earlier today at this year’s Disney D23 event, Gargoyles Remastered is a full-blown HD remake of the Sega Genesis game. That game, based on the classic Disney Afternoon cartoon series Gargoyles, originally released in November 1995, only in North America and only on Genesis. (It’s also most notable as the one game besides Virtua Racing that cannot run on a V2 model Genesis 3 console) Gargoyles Remastered launches on October 19th, 2023 and is now up for pre-order on PlayStation 4/5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Steam, and GOG.
While the game should play the same way the original did, it’s been completely rebuilt with a widescreen aspect ratio and an all new clean HD look, plus you can switch back and forth between the original pixel graphics at any time, just like Lizardcube and Dotemu’s Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap remake from 2017. There’s also a new rewind function to save you from dumb mistakes. All this is highlighted in the trailer above, which is narrated by Keith David, the original voice of series and game protagonist Goliath.
See past the break for screenshots and a rundown on the game’s other new features.
EDIT: Various physical copies of Gargoyles Remastered are going up for pre-order from Limited Run Games, including working Genesis cartridges of the original game, starting September 8th, 2023 (That’s right. Tomorrow.) Info about this is also available after the break.
We talked about SEGA losing the Mickey Mouse license this past September and having to pull Castle of Illusion from online stores, it seems something has changed since they have silently put them back on sale across all major digital platforms. When SEGA was warned about pulling Castle of Illusion they put it on sale as low as a dollar and now that its back its at regular price of $14.99. No idea what happen over at SEGA to make them change their mind or if this is some sort of mistake. Regardless Castle of Illusion is back on digital platforms, if you never picked it up I suggest get a copy while they are live.
Castle of Illusion is also available on mobile platforms, but those were published by Disney, so I didn’t mention them in the pull. Maybe SEGA has a World of Illusion remake under their belt or Disney came to their senses? If SEGA is renewing old licenses and bringing back pulled games, maybe its time to bring back Afterburner Climax and OutRun 2? What are your thoughts on Castle of Illusion coming back to digital platforms?
SEGA put out a new survey that asked fans a ton of questions of what they would like to see the company do. One of the questions that stood out to Sonic the Hedgehog fans was the on about what franchises people would be interested in seeing Sonic crossover with. The list included Adventure Time, My Little Pony, Pixar, Capcom, Looney Toons, Disney, Nintendo, and Dragon Ball Z. As you can see this list of franchise both upset and delighted most Sonic the Hedgehog fans.
We all know this isn’t the first time Sonic the Hedgehog has had a crossover game, right now the blue blur is still crossing over with Nintendo’s Mario franchise with their Mario & Sonic Olympic titles. We sit down, discuss the franchises listed and even get to the bottom of where this survey came from! Like our video content? Don’t forget to subscribe to us on YouTube.
During SEGA’s survey, they had a interesting bit where they asked fans what Sonic crossover games people were interested in. Franchises/companies included: Adventure Time, My Little Pony, Pixar, Capcom, Looney Toons, Disney, Nintendo, and of course Dragon Ball Z. I think its safe to say that Sonic the Hedgehog fans will find all these franchises appealing one way or another.
Here is the screenshot of the question: I’m 100% OK with Sonic crossover games, as long as they are handled with more care than we have seen with their Sonic & Mario At the Olympic Games titles. Can we not make them some low budget mini games compilation? That would be great.
What franchises would you like to see Sonic the Hedgehog crossover with? Let us know in the comments below.
With the remake of Castle of Illusion gracing the PSN/XBLA this past summer, it seemed only fitting to revisit its sequel, World of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, for Genesis Month. Though it featured far superior graphics and an expanded scope, along with the addition of Donald Duck and cooperative play, World of Illusion has, for whatever reason, struggled to retain the same classic status as its predecessor.
And that’s unfortunate, because World of Illusion is an incredibly capable sequel to Mickey Mouse’s first Genesis adventure; one that sends its title characters into an enchanting world and builds upon the magic of Castle of Illusion to deliver an entirely satisfying follow-up.
Before Sonic the Hedgehog, there was Mickey Mouse. In November 1990, Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse released almost simultaneously in America, Europe, and Japan to the SEGA Genesis and Mega Drive consoles. At the time, the game was visually stunning, described in one video preview as “beautiful”, “brilliant” and continuing the tradition of Disney animation. On top of that, the platforming was brimming with inventive platforming elements accompanied by catchy, whimsical music. The game was great at the time, and replaying it in 2013 it is easy to see why it is deemed a platforming classic.
As far back as April of this year there were rumors that a remake was on the way, thanks to digital box art that had leaked. The idea of a Castle of Illusion remake really was an unexpected surprise. Sure the original is fantastic, but few fans were demanding a remake and even fewer fans ever expected SEGA to team with Disney to make it happen. But here we are, the summer is coming to an end, and we have a re-imagining of the SEGA classic. Was a remake really necessary, and does it maintain the magic that made the original so great?
Game Informer have gotten their hands on a review copy of the upcoming Castle of Illusion remake and were allowed to put up a video of them playing through the first world. Along with the gameplay we also got some new details including that we can expect the game in early September and that the voice of Sully from the Uncharted series, Richard McGonagle is narrating the game. Sadly this video doesn’t feature the redone soundtrack by Grant Kirkhope.
For the last several weeks we’ve been getting some serious hints that a remake of the classic Genesis Mickey Mouse game Castle of Illusion was incoming, including leaked box art and a teaser trailer. With today’s announcement on Sony’s Playstation blog we can finally confirm it: the remake is real and it will be hitting PSN, Xbox Live and Steam this summer.
The game is being developed by SEGA Studios Australia, which will be shutting down later this year. The team has confirmed that they are working closely with the director of the original game to ensure that they not only remain true to the original, but also include new elements that were intended for the original game but could not be implemented due to the technical limitations of the day. You can find some gorgeous screenshots, as well as comments from the team, below the fold.
Rich Moore, director of many classic The Simpsons episodes and director of Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph, shared a funny SEGA anecdote while being interviewed by IGN:
“We did have kind of a check-in process, where we would show them the footage and say, ‘What do you think? Is it good?’ At one point, [Nintendo] said, ‘Bowser’s much bigger than that. He’s way bigger than Zangief.’ We were like, ‘Okay, we’ll make him bigger. How’s that?’ They’d say, ‘Yes, that’s good — but he wouldn’t drink his coffee like that. He wouldn’t make that mouth.’ [Laughs] Of course, then people from Sega said, ‘Well, Doctor Robotnik is bigger.’ [Laughs] They wanted their characters bigger and bigger. We were going to end up with these giants in a room, with Ralph as this little guy… But I think that stuff really helped. I looked back on our original animation before the Nintendo notes, and it was like, ‘You know, he does look more like Bowser now.'”
Yup, we have known about this for awhile now. But now it is confirmed by Entertainment Weekly that Doctor Ivo Robotnik aka Doctor Eggman will cameo in the upcoming Disney flick “Wreck-It Ralph”. The movie is about a videogame villain who is looking to change paths in life. I guess being evil is only cool for so long and probably doesn’t pay very well.
If you saw the leak, other villains who are set to cameo in the movie include Street Fighter‘s M. Bison and Browser from the Super Mario Brothers series. As of right now it’s not known if Eggman will be having spoken dialogue in the movie, but Eggman’s voice actor did tease a major announcement. Could this have been it? The movie is set to release in November 2012, are you excited?
Update:Entertainment Weekly wrote that Eggman mainly stays in the background however he does speak the group’s mantra in unison with the others as the scene ends: “I’m bad, and that’s good. I will never be good, and that’s not bad. There’s no one I’d rather be than me.”
When I was a kid I used to love my crossover comics, I really got obsessed with the idea of having my favorite video games in a crossover, especially after I played Fighters Megamix on the Saturn. I thought it was brilliant. Capcom has been doing this crossover thing for awhile and in a few days they will release Marvel vs. Capcom 3, which makes me wonder why SEGA doesn’t do more crossovers.
As always, if you have any crossover ideas that I didn’t list, let us know in the comments.
It looks like SEGA wants to increase their global presence, as they just recently announced former Walt Disney executive Justin Scarpone as the Executive Vice President, Head of Global Transmedia Group for SEGA effective April 1st, 2024. Justin is probably most well known for launching a little indie title known as Kingdom Hearts. Between the Sonic movies and the New Energy, New Era lineup of video game revivals, it looks like SEGA is serious about expanding their presence. Welcome to the team, Justin. Word of advice: don’t talk to Sonic fans on social media.
