Import

Unboxing: Sonic Colors Ultimate Japanese 30th Anniversary Pack

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Sonic Colors Ultimate has rolled out to (almost) all territories, and most physical editions include some goodies. American and European fans received a Baby Sonic keychain, a cross promotion for the Sonic movie. Japanese fans, meanwhile, received an awesome 30th Anniversary Pack which evokes the 10th Birthday Pack as both contain a coin, CD and book.

In the case of the 30th Anniversary, SEGA included a classy gold coin, a CD of unique tracks including music from cutscenes, YouTube animations and past album-exclusive remixes. The book, meanwhile, is a cool look back on a year and a half of art created for the Japanese Sonic Twitter account. The art includes full commentary from the artists, sketches and easter eggs.

Overall, an awesome package and you can see it for yourself in the above video!

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Import Guide: Want the Sonic Colors Ultimate 30th Anniversary Pack or DX Pack? Here’s how to import!

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Back in 2001, SEGA announced that copies of Sonic Adventure 2 would be bundled with a Birthday Pack celebrating the 10th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog. Available worldwide, the pack was only available in limited supplies in stores for two days. I myself recall pre-ordering Sonic Adventure 2 from FuncoLand, my first ever pre-order, with the idea that it would secure me a Birthday Pack. Turns out, the store never set packs aside for pre-orders and they were all given out on a first come, first served basis. Arriving after school, I was crushed to learn there wasn’t one set aside for me which led to me ordering a pack online from, I believe, NCSX or SEGA-Parts.com. The pack contained a coin sporting the 10th anniversary logo, a gold music CD featuring select tracks from the franchise and a small booklet containing a real world timeline of notable Sonic events as well as some really bizarre revelations concerning Sonic’s origins.

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SEGA Dreamcast turns 20 years old in Japan, what are your favorite Japanese Dreamcast games?

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The SEGA Dreamcast is one of my favorite consoles released, while we got the console in North America with the iconic release day of September 9th, 1999; over in Japan they got the Dreamcast almost a year earlier on November 27, 1998! While it isn’t the 27th quite yet in North America, it is in Japan where the anniversary takes place. This anniversary got me thinking about what I would consider my favorite Dreamcast Japanese only release and I think I narrowed it down…

My favorite Dreamcast import is Napple Tale: Arsia in Daydream, a fun little 2.5D platformer developed by Chime and published by SEGA only in Japan. The game was notable for trying to cultivate a ‘feminine sensibility’ by hiring a staff of mostly females which really gives the game a very unique feel to it. One of the bese aspects of the game is also the soundtrack which was composed by Yoko Kanno which featured a ton of great tracks.

But what I really want to know is what is your favorite SEGA Dreamcast import and why? Let me know in the comments below!

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SEGA 2017 calendar celebrates their retro console releases

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tumblr_ohc0435I8N1qzp9weo2_1280SEGA Japan has released a new SEGA 2017 calendar being themed after their multiple consoles they have released in the past. While the SEGA 2017 calendar is exclusive to Japan, they do show that May will feature the SEGA Master System (released in Japan as the Mark III), which was the brand new for western markets. The SEGA 2017 calendar is available to buy via Amazon.jp, for those of you interested in purchasing your own.

What is your opinion on the way SEGA of Japan has been releasing a lot of merchandise relating to their past consoles? Is this something you would like SEGA West to do as well? Let us know in the comments below. tumblr_ohc0435I8N1qzp9weo1_500

[via: TinyCartridge]

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Blade of Arcus From Shining EX’s Japanese limited edition includes scantily clad anime girls

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SEGA has finally released all the high-resolution shots of the limited edition of Blade Arcus from Shining EX, which is a 2D arcade fighting game that is coming to the Playstation 4 and Playstation 3 in Japan this November.

The game’s limited edition is known as the “Tony Taka’s Premium Fan Box“, who is Tony Taka? He is the artist for the newer Shining series of games, specially famous for making anime girls, that well… aren’t exactly fully clothed (see the art in the image header for examples of such work).

Limited edition comes with:

  • A Tony Taka-illustrated special box
  • “Shining Heroine Works” 40-page art book
  • Shining Ark character 10-song CD
  •  Shining Blade 60-song soundtrack CD (two discs)
  • “Shining Beach Heroines” 2016 13-month swimsuit calendar

The game hits Japanese store shelves on Novemeber 26th, all first print copies come with Sonia from Shining Resonance as a playable character. No western release date has been announced, but if you want this edition of the game you can always pre-order it at Play-Asia for $110 USD. For more info, check out the game’s official website.

[Via: Gematsu]

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Dengeki Bunko: FIGHTING CLIMAX hits North America on August 25th

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We know that Dengeki Bunko: FIGHTING CLIMAX is coming to the west, we know it will be released within the year but what we didn’t know was the exact date. According to GameStop listing the game is set to release on August 25th in North America while only costing $39.99 on the Playstation 3 and $29.99 on the Playstation Vita. Even cooler is that the Vita and Playstation 3 version each have their own cover.

Dengeki Bunko: FIGHTING CLIMAX mixes popular Dengeki Bunko Magazine characters with SEGA franchises such as Virtua Fighter and puts them in an all out 2D fighting game assault. Learn more by hitting the jump and reading the product description from SEGA:

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Play as Akira Yuki in the console version of Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax!

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Akira Yuki from one of SEGA’s long running franchise, Virtua Fighter, appeared in Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax as the final boss.

Now, you can get a chance to play as the Hakkyoku-ken master in the console version of Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax along with Pai Chan as an support character. In additional news,  a complete guide for the game will be released sometime this December with details on every characters moveset.

Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax will be released on November 13, 2014. Hit the jump for artwork of the Virtua Fighters and in-game screenshots.

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Persona 4 Arena Ultimax North and South American releases not region locked, preorder bonuses revealed

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Earlier today, Atlus announced on their website for Persona 4 Arena Ultimax that the North and South American releases of the game will not be region locked. While this news is appreciated, it’s appreciable because the first iteration of the game, Persona 4: Arena, was one of a small number of region locked games on PS3. This was a move that sparked much ire especially from European gamers, who received their release of the game under publisher Zen United and several months after North American gamers had received their copy of the game. The concepts of timely releases and maintaining fan hype are especially important for fighting games; the absence of properly handled releases threaten the development of scenes.

In any case, it seems that European gamers who are unwilling to wait for a European release will be able to import the games without worry of playability. It’s worth noting that there is currently no official news on a European release, though a release may be possible. The Persona Europe Facebook page has made posts for Persona 4 Arena Ultimax among other games recently, and shared an image last September saying “More info soon!” but of course what was meant by that can’t be known for certain.

In that same news posting today Atlus also revealed the preorder bonuses for the game and the spread is thus: a Teddie bop bag, the first of two sets of Persona Tarot cards (the other set to be included with the release of Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth), and the Tohru Adachi DLC pack that unlocks both the character and an accompanying story mode episode. These goodies will also be available to first-run copies of the game

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax releases on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 in Japan on August 28 and in North America on September 30.

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Dengeki Bunko FIGHTING CLIMAX set to be released for Playstation 3 and PS Vita this fall!

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The time has come as the French-Bread and Ecole-developed crossover fighting game, Dengeki Bunko FIGHTING CLIMAX, is set for a release this fall on Playstation 3 and PS Vita systems. A good opportunity to import the game as the Sony consoles are region-free.  

First released to arcades in Japan on March 18, it launched with eight playable characters, since adding four more playable and four more support characters. Details have yet to be announced, but the console version will have new contents. Hope to see at least few more SEGA characters and levels for the console release.

SEGAbits may have something planned for FIGHTING CLIMAX when it releases in Japan this fall so stay tuned for that!

 

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Edge Online wants a western release for Yakuza 5

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Guess what? We agree with them. They did a pretty sweet article titled ‘Yakuza 5 and why it needs a western release‘.

 “Nagoshi’s housewarming is in full swing in Japan, and it’s high time the rest of the world gatecrashed the party.”

Usually I would love for the game to get a box release, but seeing as One Piece and a few other games have profited by digital only releases, I wouldn’t mind that as long as I get to play it in English. What about you?

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Up from the depths, My Life with SEGA tackles Godzilla Generations

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What’s this? My second review of a Dreamcast title? Don’t get your hopes up. It’s not Shenmue. Believe me, I wish it was. Instead, I’m reviewing Godzilla Generations. A Japanese launch title, which just so happens to be a Dreamcast exclusive….

Good. That means it can’t spread. Yeah, I know. “What are you talking about? Godzilla’s awesome!” Oh, Godzilla’s all well and fine, but this game? Just watch it and count yourself among the lucky ones.

The SEGAbits 3rd anniversary contest is going on now – win prizes like a SEGA Genesis, Genesis games and brand new My Life With SEGA DVD’s! All the details can be found here.

Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel!

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Expand your mind as My Life with SEGA reviews Saturn expansion carts

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Import Month continues with my review of the SEGA Saturn expansion cartridges from two arcade masters; Capcom and SNK. In addition, we’ll be looking at several arcade classics that utilize these carts, such as X-Men vs Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, Metal Slug, Amakusa’s Revenge: Samurai Showdown IV and King of Fighters ’95.

The Saturn was a capable 2D machine upon release. Is it even possible to improve on it without resorting to a more power console? See for yourself.

The SEGAbits 3rd anniversary contest is going on now – win prizes like a SEGA Genesis, Genesis games and brand new My Life With SEGA DVD’s! All the details can be found here.

Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel!

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San-ei reveals new Sonic the Hedgehog plushes

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Japanese company San-ei has revealed a new line of Sonic the Hedgehog plush dolls. They showed off 5 characters scaling from the blue blur himself to Knuckles, Amy, Tails, and SEGAbits favorite Shadow the Hedgehog.

A few years back the company put out similar plush dolls, but they say these will have improved patterns. According to the source San-ei is high quality when it comes to plush dolls. I wouldn’t know, I personally don’t own plush toys. Check out the product page here.

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Virtual-On Force confirmed region free, also in English

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Hardcore SEGA fans with a 360 rejoice, you can import the Virtual-On Force if you really want to, since it has just been confirmed that it is region free, not only that it comes in English.

Play-Asia has the import friendly games, even a cheaper Asia version if you don’t want to shell out a ton of money for the Japanese edition. SEGA West has not announced a release over here and I doubt we will get one.

[Source: Siliconera]

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