SEGA News Bits: Sonic Utopia Fan Game Trailer and Demo Reaction

Sonic Utopia is the brand new Sonic the Hedgehog fan game from Mr Lange, Murasaki Fox, Tpot and PicsAndPixels. Making its debut at SAGE 2016, Sonic Utopia features open world 3D Sonic the Hedgehog gameplay. On this SEGA News Bits, George and Barry share their reaction to the initial trailer and give their thoughts on the demo as well as how the gaming media has responded to the game.

Want to try Sonic Utopia for yourself? You can download it here!

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SEGA Talk: Our Favorite OutRun Spin-offs

The SEGA Talk Podcast hit the open road last week with the first episode featuring SEGA’s iconic OutRun. Now, as promised, we have our first SEGA Talk video highlighting our discussion of our favorite OutRun spin-offs! The OutRun franchise is unique, as while there are really only two main series games, there have been a whole assortment of spinoffs – all existing in the racing/driving genre. Learn our favorites in the video above, and in the comments below sound off on YOUR favorite OutRun spin-off.

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SEGAbits at New York Comic Con 2016: Interview with Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Comic Colorist Matt Herms

While covering New York Comic Con 2016, SEGAbits writer FlareHabanero had a chance to talk to Archie Comics freelance colorist Matt Herms. Matt has worked on a variety of Archie’s video game books, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Universe, Mega Man and the incredibly popular Sonic Mega Drive. Check out the interview for yourself to learn about how Matt got his start in the industry and what it’s like to work in comics as a colorist!

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After the break, check out a bonus video of Matt drawing Sonic!

SEGAbits at New York Comic Con 2016: Shenmue 3 Interview with Cédric Biscay

SEGAbits attended New York Comic Con 2016 and had the opportunity to speak about Shenmue 3 with Cédric Biscay, president and CEO of Shibuya Productions. Cédric was kind enough to sit down with our own Kori-Maru to tell us how he got his start in the industry, what it’s like to work with Yu Suzuki and more!

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The SEGA Five: SEGA published games that deserve more attention

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If you discuss Streets of Rage, Super Monkey Ball, or even anything Sonic, chances are you can hear that 90’s jingle of retro goodness (SEGAAAAAAAAAAA!). The company helped create some wonderful games and franchises and are still going strong to this day. That being said, most of the games published by SEGA are sometimes often forgot about and usually sit on store shelves to collect dust and/or be pauper’s pennies.

While I haven’t played every single game SEGA has helped publish, some of those games stick out to me in a very unique and interesting way. And SEGA, being the quirky company they are, brought me wonderful memories and breathes a one-of-a-kind charm to those certain games. So in no particular order (with the first one being my favorite out of the five), here are some games that rightfully deserve more attention than they get!

Review: Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice (Nintendo 3DS)

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Prior to sitting down to write out this review for Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice, the third Sonic Boom game and the second to appear on the Nintendo 3DS, I told myself I would not fall into the reviewers trap of carting out some year that pinpoints when the Sonic series “went bad”. Not only have far too many reviewers done this already, but often I feel they are incredibly misinformed. Sonic Boom was, and is, a product of SEGA of America. While Sonic Team members do have their names attached to the multimedia project, credit really should go to select SEGA of America staff, OuiDo! Productions, Big Red Button and Sanzaru Games. Past games like Colors, Generations and Lost World were completely separate, both in canon and production, and as such I think it is unfair to say that the failings of Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric should sully the main brand.

Sonic Boom was a chance for SEGA of America to fully control a piece of the Sonic pie, and while some elements of the multimedia experiment fell flat, others were and are actually quite enjoyable, namely the TV series and the short lived Archie Comics adaptation. When Sonic Boom is at its best, it evokes the old Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon and early Archie Comics. Light, funny and self-aware whilst retaining the sense of adventure. Does Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice fall into this category? Did Sanzaru Games learn from their previous title? Am I going to ask questions with the promise of answers if you click “Continue Reading”? Find out in my review of Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice!

SEGAbits at Tokyo Game Show 2016 Preview: Puyo Puyo Chronicles (Nintendo 3DS)

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Going into Tokyo Game Show, this was the one title I wasn’t expecting at least not in the form it took. SEGA have tried numerous methods to keep the Puyo Puyo franchise fresh from new aesthetics, gameplay modes and even mixing it with Tetris but the combination of RPG and the traditional gameplay was something I didn’t see coming. As a fan of the franchise I was interested to see how well the new play style would suit the gameplay we all know and love, hit the jump to read my impressions on latest Puyo Puyo Chronicles!

SEGA News Bits: Tokyo Game Show 2016 Impressions

Another Tokyo Game Show 2016 has passed, and in this SEGA News Bits your hosts George and Barry are joined by SEGAbits’ Tokyo Game Show 2016 correspondent Steve aka ap0c. Steve shares with us his firsthand impressions of what SEGA had to show at the event. Yakuza 0, Valkyria: Azure Revolution, Puyo Puyo Chronicles and more are covered in this special SEGA News Bits!

In the comments, let us know what SEGA or Atlus titles you are most excited for from the event.

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SEGA News Bits: Yakuza 0 Business Edition Announced Reaction

Another game, another launch edition from SEGA of America. On this SEGA News Bits, George and Barry get down to business to discuss Yakuza 0 “The Business Edition” for the Playstation 4, including what it contains, how it compares to other SEGA launch editions, and how far SEGA and the Yakuza series has come since last year’s Yakuza 5.

In the comments below, let us know if “The Business Edition” makes you want to pre-order the game.

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SEGA News Bits: Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice First Impressions

It’s here, the brand new side-scrolling Sonic game! No, not Sonic Mania. It’s Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice for the Nintendo 3DS! In this SEGA News Bits, Barry shares with George, and our viewing audience, his thoughts on the game. Did SEGA and Sanzaru Games learn their lesson from Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal?

In the comments below, let us know what you think of Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice! Also, don’t hate Barry.

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SEGAbits at Tokyo Game Show 2016 Preview: Valkyria: Azure Revolution (PS4/PS Vita)

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SEGAbits attended Tokyo Game Show 2016! At the event we saw several upcoming SEGA games, presented through stage events and, in some cases, hands-on demos. One of many games we had to opportunity to play a demo of was Valkyria: Azure Revolution. Let’s get this out of the way first; this game plays nothing like Valkyria Chronicles. At all. Don’t entertain the idea that it might be a semi-sequel. Rather, this game plays like an odd mix of action RPG and squad based tactics.

With that out of the way, the demo at Tokyo Game Show consisted of attacking several enemy camps and a final boss fight with a mechanical spider. You controlled a squad of four characters with varying strengths and abilities, after being given a brief tutorial on when and how to use the various tools at your disposal.

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SEGAbits at Tokyo Game Show 2016 Preview: Rez Infinite (PS4/PSVR)

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The third iteration of Rez is only a few weeks away and Enhance Games took the PlayStation stage at Tokyo Game Show to once again demo the game. Tetsuya Mizuguchi, in his synesthesia suit garments, revisited a demo that has been shown for some time now. In it, the player travels through three out of order sections of Area 1, along with Area 4’s boss. SEGAbits was in attendance at Tokyo Game Show 2016 and had a chance to preview the game. What did we think? Read on!

SEGA Memories: The Day the HD Stood Strong

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Imagine growing up with a family who got you your first video game system, even though they have little to no knowledge of what video games are. That may sound like most of you, but for those that didn’t have that lovely experience, nine times out of ten you hoped that you got the one game system you wanted to get or you relied on friends to have the ones you didn’t have. And somehow, unfortunately, my neighborhood was all Nintendo territory.

Let’s fast forward to early 2012; I started to branch out in my gaming endeavors. I got an Xbox 360 a year before and third-party titles started to become my new favorite (I went crazy over all of the Suda51 games). Then one fateful spring morning, it was announced that three classic Sega titles were coming to the 360 and PS3 later on in the year. And while I already spoiled myself silly over the Gamecube port of Sonic Adventure 2, the other two games were ones that I was most excited about than any other game of that year: NiGHTS into Dreams and Jet Set Radio. Since there were no Sonic games coming out that year, SEGA gave us three remastered HD titles to melt over. And while some have already played these gems, this was an exciting and memorable moment for me in a time when people thought the world was going to end.

Review: Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse (3DS)

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Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse is not quite a sequel, side story, or even an expansion to the well-received Shin Megami Tensei IV.

If you took the movie Die Hard and filmed a What If ending showcasing what could happen if Reginald VelJohnson’s character Sgt. Al Powell had infiltrated the Nakatomi Plaza instead of waiting on the sidelines, then you would find yourself in a similar situation. Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse uses this What If scenario to fine-tune the gameplay from its predecessors and treat players to a very satisfying RPG for the Nintendo 3DS.

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SEGAbits at Tokyo Game Show 2016 Preview: Ryū ga Gotoku 6 / Yakuza 6

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In SEGA’s latest installment in its long running Yakuza series, a lot is riding on giving the series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu a strong send off. To accomplish that, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has made a string of changes and brought back a host of ex-characters to give the legendary gangster one last, great, final adventure. Reporting live from Tokyo Game Show for SEGAbits, I’m ready to share my hands-on impressions with Ryū ga Gotoku 6. Hit the break to find out more.

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