Dreamcast

Pier Solar out today on Wii U, coming to Xbox One on the 21st

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Pier Solar and the Great Architects HD comes out on the Wii U today, so if your reading this go on the e-shop and grab yourself a copy.

As for Xbox One owners, you guys can now expect to play the game on November 21st, which has been approved by the boys over at Watermelon Games. That would mean that the only versions we are waiting on are the Dreamcast and Playstation Vita (unless I missed a platform?).

The game is already out on Playstation 4, Playstation 3, Steam, Ouya and (as of today)  Wii U. What console are you planning to pick this up on?

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New indie SEGA Dreamcast AMEBA announced, features criminal investigation and drama

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The SEGA Dreamcast turned 15 years old this year, but that isn’t slowing it down when it comes to independent releases. An independent video game studio from Spain have just announced their upcoming detective adventure game called AMEBA. The game is set to be released on Windows, Linux, OSX, Ouya, and of course the SEGA Dreamcast.

AMEBA will be a visual novel game where you take the shoes a of a detective that is trying to solve a string of murders that might never have existed…

“How do you investigate a series of murders that may as well have never existed? Or, how can you be sure you haven’t lost it, when you’re the only cop in your city who thinks several un-connected deaths were not accidental or natural? These are the questions veteran inspector Hugo asks himself on an everyday basis.

I usually loathe visual novels. With the exception of just a few really good ones, they’re too ‘Japanese’ for my tastes, culturally speaking. So we’re taking the genre in a new direction: no anime-like art, as the teaser poster shows, obviously a more western take on storytelling and characterization, a serious story. Imagine Davind Fincher’s Seven meets Frank Miller’s Sin City comic books. Well, that’s what I’d like, but I’m not expecting to reach that kind of quality!” – Carlos from Retro Sumus (Developer of AMEBA)

The developer Retro Sumus promises more information and in-game screens before the end of the year.

Check out Retro Sumus on:

Official Site – Facebook – Twitter

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My Life with SEGA celebrates Halloween with Zombie Revenge for the Dreamcast

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‘Tis the season to be scary, SEGA fans! That’s why A.J. Rosa of My Life with SEGA is reviewing Zombie Revenge for the SEGA Dreamcast.

Zombie Revenge is a side story of the SEGA arcade smash, The House of the Dead. Point of fact, according to our wiki (SEGA Retro), the working title for Zombie Revenge was Blood Bullet: The House of the Dead Side Story…. Yeeeaaah, no.

Anyway, Zombie Revenge is a beat-’em-up/shooter, similar to Die Hard Arcade (Dynamite Deka). Gamers must punch, kick, shoot, slice and dice their way through the walking dead in order to stop a demented madman from wiping all of mankind off the face of the planet. So, how does this mash-and-bash stack up after 15 years? Turn down the lights and crank up the volume. It’s time to kill.

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SEGA Tunes: Wacky Races’ “Scarecrow Creek” and “Tombstone Pass” (SEGA Dreamcast)

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Today marks the 15th anniversary of SEGA’s Dreamcast console in Europe, and seeing as we’re in the midst of Halloween season, what better way to celebrate both than with some creepy music from a UK developed Dreamcast classic! Wacky Races is a kart racer based on the late 60s Hanna-Barbera cartoon of the same name. Developed by Infogrames Sheffield House, formerly known as Gremlin Interactive, Wacky Races could be seen as a precursor to Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. Sumo Digital, developer of the All-Stars Racing titles, was formed in 2003 by the former management of Infogrames Sheffield following its closure. Sumo Digital even used lessons learned in Wacky Races when developing their SEGA racing titles as revealed in a 2012 interview held by Sonic Retro with Executive Producer at Sumo Digital Steve Lycett:

Sonic Retro: The announcer is an element that people really loved or hated. I personally felt it was a welcome element to give the game some personality. What was the decision to include the announcer?

Steve Lycett: Wacky Races also featured an announcer type system that would call out for each specific character. The announcer came about for two reasons. Trav had seen SEGA Race TV and loved the concept of an announcer who commented the race, plus we wanted to make the player feel like there was more going off than they could see.

So you get this chatter that someone at the back is making a move up the field, or someone just had a really bad crash, and although it was happening and you couldn’t see it, it made it feel like it mattered. Plus… we’d done a similar thing a long time before making Wacky Races on the Dreamcast and PS2 in our previous guise as Gremlin/Infogrames Sheffield House. So we knew it could be made to work…!

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SEGA Tunes: Space Channel 5’s Spaceport: Introducing Ulala and Mexican Flyer

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It’s only fitting that the final Tuesday Tunes for Dreamcast month be about one of the Dreamcast’s legendary rhythm titles. Tonight’s track? A bombastic, jazzy little tune from Space Channel 5,You got to love when that awesome saxophone solo at the 2:55 mark, too. This is a real swinging, sexy piece of jazz that’d be absolutely great to dance to even outside of the game. Spaceport: Introducing Ulala. You got to love when that saxophone solo starts playing at the minute mark, too. This is a real swinging, sexy piece of jazz that’d be absolutely great to dance to even outside of the game. Definitely a great song to introduce one of the coolest rhythm game characters out there.

What many of you might not know is that one of Space Channel 5’s most iconic tunes wasn’t even made for the game! It’s actually a remix of an awesome song from the 1966 spy thriller movie “The Thriller Memorandum” called Mexican Flyer. The song itself is performed by Ken Woodman & His Piccadilly Brass, and the version Space Channel 5 uses seem to be ripped straight from the movie.

I don’t know what possessed Tetsuya Mizuguchi and the good people from United Game Artists to go with this as one of their game’s headline songs, but I’m glad they did. We can always use more jazz in gaming soundtracks, especially these days! Check out the original Mexican Flyer, which was also in Space Channel 5, below the fold.

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Swingin’ Report Show #71: Phantasy Star Online with Susan Arendt & James Mielke

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Dreamcast Month comes to an end at SEGAbits with a special episode of the Swingin’ Report Show podcast in which we celebrate one of the most memorable Dreamcast games – Phantasy Star Online.

Joining Barry and George on this episode are two gaming industry greats! Taking a telepipe to the Pioneer 2 is Susan Arendt – Managing Editor of Joystiq.com, former Editor-In-Chief at The Escapist, and former contributor to GameShark, Shojo Beat Magazine, and Wired. And back from busting a blue rappy it’s James Mielke – Founder of BitSummit, former Editor-In-Chief of Electronic Gaming Monthly and 1UP.com, and former producer at Q Entertainment and Q-Games.

Join us for a special round table looking back on PSO, from pre-release hype, to launch, and memories of the many versions and episodic sequels. As a bonus, James reveals that he has an army of super soldiers and he shares some inside info on where Phantasy Star Online 2 is at in English translation and what may be holding up a Western release.

[Download] [RSS] [iTunes] [Archive]

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Pier Solar HD coming out this week on PS4, PS3, PC and Ouya

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The HD remake of Pier Solar and the Great Architects, the 2010 SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive RPG, is finally set to release on September 30th on the PS4, PS3, Ouya and PC via Steam.

Sounds awesome but what about us that pre-ordered the Xbox One, Wii U and even the physical Dreamcast version? Publisher Watermelon Games said they will be announcing release dates on those platforms later this month.

Who will be picking up the game on these platforms?

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Retro Review: Shenmue (SEGA Dreamcast)

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Even with the ridiculous and almost unprecedented hype that surrounded the release of SEGA’s mega-budget Dreamcast title Shenmue, it’s tough to imagine that gamers first diving into the series back then would have any idea how legendary (or infamous) Ryo’s adventure would become. Who could have guessed that even nearly 15 years later, fans would be still be begging for more?

Love it or hate it, the still-unfinished saga that is Shenmue has become a legend in its own right: a mystery etched into the fabric of gaming that may never be solved. But it’s a game very much worthy of that legendary status. It may not have been for everyone, but for those who “got” Shenmue, there was simply nothing else like it.

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SEGA Retrospective: Let’s get sweaty as we celebrate a SEGA Dreamcast classic, it’s Shenmue Week!

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Welcome to a franchise week that many readers have been requesting ever since we began to dedicate seven days to classic SEGA titles, this is Shenmue Week! Like Jet Set Radio Week, we’re going focus exclusively on the first game of the franchise throughout the week. While Shenmue and its sequel are not incredibly different games from each other like Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future, we felt that both Shenmue titles are both so epic on their own that to try and cram both into seven days would do a disservice to the series. Not to mention, we love Shenmue so much that the prospect of another Shenmue Week in the future is something we’re looking forward to.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s travel back in time, before Shenmue II and before the original Shenmue. Before the series went by the codename Project Berkley, to a time in the mid 90s when SEGA’s Yu Suzuki was working on a SEGA Saturn prototype known as The Old Man and the Peach Tree.

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Classic SEGA Ads: There’s a Party Going on Inside Your Dreamcast

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If there’s anything SEGA learned from the Saturn, it’s that it was important for their console to have an identity. The system wasn’t just a box that played a selection of games, it was a gateway to hundreds of worlds and thousands of characters, all of whom had the little white box in common. Through these commercials, the Dreamcast was able to establish an identity for itself as a quirky and colorful system that was more focused on fun and good times than anything else. What’s even better is that it wasn’t just SEGA characters who got into the action.

These commercials were fun and hilarious, and I’m surprised we haven’t seen more campaigns like this from the other console makers. The only company since SEGA that has really tried to sell their console in a similar fashion is Sony, with its PS3 and PS4 commercials, which is strange when you consider that Nintendo has the largest selection of recognizable characters and brands of any console maker.

The Dreamcast had numerous ads like this in its first year on the market, and all of them are still great to watch now. These commercials are filled to the brim with Dreamcast characters both notable and obscure, some of whom wouldn’t even get their games until the Dreamcast was on its death bed. How many characters can you spot in this ad? Let us know in the comments. I apologize for the poor quality of the ad, but just do your best, okay?

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SEGA by Design: Power Stone 2 and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Cover Art

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Welcome to a new SEGAbits feature: SEGA by Design. Believe it or not, SEGAbits is not my day job. When I’m not working on the site, I’m a full time graphic designer. Before I decided to make graphic design my profession, I grew up wanting to be either an animator or a cartoonist. My childhood influences included 90’s cartoons and video game cover art, and while I loved such works as the covers of the classic Sonic the Hedgehog games, I found myself even more attracted to the package designs that encapsulated the artwork. At the time, I had no idea what this sort of thing was called, I just knew that it was slick, uniform, and involved colors, shapes, and fonts. It wasn’t until the Playstation game Wipeout that I learned of what graphic design actually entailed through the work of The Designer’s Republic. From there on out, I knew I wanted to be a graphic designer and four years of college and seven years of professional experience later, here I am about to tear into the cover art of one of my most favorite SEGA Dreamcast games: Capcom’s Power Stone 2.

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Sonic Talk #28: Sonic Talk Adventure 28 DX Battle Edition Purple Monkey Dishwasher

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It’s Dreamcast month here at Segabits, so being a Sonic podcast, we’ve decided to look back at the Sonic Adventure series. Me. Nuckles87, GX Echidna and special guest Evil Dr. Reef look back at the Adventure series from its Dreamcast beginnings up to Sonic Adventure DX on the GameCube. Which in the series is our favorite? What were the best parts? What were the worst parts (besides big the Cat obviously)? Does either game hold up today? Do we want a Sonic adventure 3? We answer all these question and more in a heavy 2 & 1/2 hour discussion that’s one of our best episodes yet!

NOTE: If you wonder why GX seems to be hogging the conversation for about 20 minutes after the 58 minute mark, it’s because Nuckles87’s audio went off for a short period of time. (Also, GX tends to naturally hog up a conversation anyway.) Luckily, my awesome editing skills saved the day and it’s barely noticeable.

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What today’s Japanese RPGs can learn from SEGA’s Skies of Arcadia

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If there’s one type of game that has struggled to find its footing in the modern era, it’s been the Japanese RPG. Looking at a console generation that has seen a major RPG from the creator of Final Fantasy struggle to achieve a Western release, and one where the once-mighty RPG giant Square-Enix has become more known for Tomb Raider than for their RPG output, it’s without a doubt been an interesting ride for the genre.

In recent years it’s been the games that have deviated most from the typical format, such as the Persona series and Dark Souls, that have garnered the most mainstream appeal outside of your usual Final Fantasy releases. As the seventh console generation wound to a close, however, we’ve also seen the smallest signs of a shift back. With more traditional Japanese RPGs like the 3DS’ Bravely Default being warmly received worldwide, it’s shown that developers can look to the past to find inspiration for the future.

And if they look back at Skies of Arcadia, there’s plenty they can learn from the Dreamcast’s biggest traditional RPG.

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AmiAmi now taking pre-orders on their official SEGA Dreamcast hoodie

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Popular Japanese online figure shop AmiAmi are now taking pre-orders for their official Dreamcast hoodies, pictured above. The Dreamcast hoodie sadly only comes in white as of now. They do ship outside of Japan, if you wanted to purchase one, but will have to eat the shipping cost.

The Dreamcast hoodie isn’t set to ship till sometime in November. How much will this hoodie cost you? $58 dollars plus shipping. Yes, not cheap.

UPDATE: The hoodie is being designed by Cospa while AmiAmi is distributing the hoodie.

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