Interview

SEGA Releases New ‘Fearless’ Takashi Iizuka Interview All About Shadow

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Today, SEGA released a new, exclusive interview with Sonic Team Creative Officer Takashi Iizuka, who sat down to answer questions from fans in the Sonic community about Shadow the Hedgehog and the Fearless: Year of Shadow campaign.

Sonic Team’s Fearless: Year of Shadow campaign spotlights Shadow, who is set to star in the upcoming video game, SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS, which is set to be released on October 25, as well as the highly anticipated movie, “Sonic the Hedgehog 3”, heading to theaters on December 20 this year. The campaign celebrates what it means to be Fearless and embracing your inner Shadow by bravely facing challenges head on.

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Shadow Creator Disavows Vegeta Comparison, Not Friends with Sonic

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The comparisons between Sonic the Hedgehog and Dragon Ball aren’t new; the two series share a lot of similar aspects in terms of tropes between their characters and power-ups. At this year’s Gamescom 2024, Catherine Lewis from GameRadar asked Shadow the Hedgehog creator Iizuka if he thinks the character has been interpreted differently over the past decade than he originally conceived him. His answer didn’t surprise anyone: ‘Yes.’

“So yes, there are some ways that people interpret Shadow that are not how the team is intending,” Iizuka begins (via translator). “I think the biggest one, if you look online, everyone’s like, ‘Oh, this is Dragon Ball Vegeta.” states that Shadow is “not Vegeta in any way. Vegeta really starts out as an enemy and then later becomes a friend and an ally and kind of, like, fights for justice and trying to save the world and whatnot. Shadow is not like that. I never want him to be like that. Shadow is doing his own thing, he’s not friends with Sonic, and he’s gonna go off and, you know, do whatever he feels is correct or right, or what he needs to do. And it’s not like, ‘Well, okay, we used to be enemies, but we’re friends now. Let’s save the world.’ He’s not that kind of character, and [I don’t] want him to be that kind of character. 

“So when people are always online saying, ‘Oh, it’s Vegeta, it’s Vegeta,’ it’s like, it’s not Vegeta,” he laughs.

It’s quite interesting that he seems to be suggesting that he doesn’t agree with this sort of characterization that has been given to Shadow the Hedgehog by fans. While Shadow the Hedgehog isn’t really friends with Sonic the Hedgehog, they do save the world together when their goals align and would say they have a more ‘rival’ type of relationship, which I think Iizuka shouldn’t be afraid of promoting. I think it gives Sonic and Shadow an interesting dynamic.

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Special interview with Tim of Walaber Entertainment, creator of Parking Garage Rally Circuit

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You may remember us reporting on Parking Garage Rally Circuit, an upcoming indie racing game coming soon to Steam, which is styled after a Sega Saturn game and could actually become a Saturn game if it gets enough sales on Steam. After that article, I have reached out to Tim of Walaber Entertainment, the studio developing Parking Garage Rally Circuit, for an interview with the man behind the game. He has kindly taken time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions about the game for all our readers.

Join us after the break to hear about Tim’s history with Sega Saturn, his inspirations for Parking Garage Rally Circuit, and a bit more of what we can expect to see in this game when it launches on Steam sometime this year.

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Interview: “Like a Dragon: Yakuza” Actors Ryoma Takeuchi & Kento Kaku, Executive Producer Erik Barmack

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Thanks to the production team of the upcoming streaming series Like a Dragon: Yakuza and Prime Video, SEGAbits was given the opportunity to interview Series Lead Ryoma Takeuchi and Co-Star Kento Kaku, and series Executive Producer Erik Barmack.

In a round table setting, joined by fellow video game fan sites, we asked the creative team about how the project began and the challenges of portraying characters like Kazuma Kiryu (played by Ryoma Takeuchi) and Akira Nishikiyama (played by Kento Kaku). You can see their answers to our questions after the break or watch our video interview above, and stay tuned to SEGAbits for more coverage of the series as we near the October 24th release date on Prime Video!

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SEGAbits Exclusive Interview with Veteran SEGA Designers Akihito Hiroyoshi & Yumiko Miyabe

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During our visit to Japan for the Tokyo Game Show, we seized the opportunity to meet and engage in conversation with former veteran SEGA Designers, Akihito Hiroyoshi—renowned as the character designer for classic SEGA AM2 arcade games such as Arabian Fight and Virtua Cop—and Yumiko Miyabe, the former art director for the Space Channel 5 series.

These interviews unveiled insights into their early lives, careers during their tenure at SEGA, and personal hobbies. By clicking the link, you can delve into the interviews and explore behind-the-scenes artwork from the games they passionately crafted during their time at SEGA.

Additionally, the interviews are available in video format, with links provided here for Akihito Hiroyoshi and Yumiko Miyabe. A special acknowledgment goes to our fellow writer, Dakota, for video recording, as well as SEGA fans, Martin Hemmingway and Scott Hamby for translating the interviews. *Please note: images provided in the interview are copyrighted and may not be reproduced without permission*

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SEGAbits @ SAGE 2022: Interview with Noah Copeland on Sonic Triple Trouble 16-BIT – PART TWO

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[READ PART 1]

Welcome back to the second part of our two parter interview with Noah Copeland, the director of Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble 16 bit. On our last interview we chatted about how Noah gained an appreciation of the SEGA Genesis and his background in the fangame development scene. Hit the break to read the rest of the interview!

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SEGAbits @ SAGE 2022: Interview with Noah Copeland on Sonic Triple Trouble 16-BIT – PART ONE

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As part of our SAGE coverage, we managed to get a hold of Noah Copeland to come have a chat with us about the development of his fangame Sonic Triple Trouble 16 bit. This love letter to the classic Game Gear game released to much fanfair last month, remaking the original games visual to fit perfectly with it’s classic Mega Drive counterparts, featuring the ability to switch between Sonic or Tails as well as multiple playable characters. Hit the break for the first of two part interview with Noah as he goes into more detail about the fan games history and development ideology!

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Interview with Yu Suzuki: Air Twister and His Return to Arcade Rail Shooters

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It goes without saying that Yu Suzuki is one of the most influential figures in video gaming. Yu Suzuki was instrumental in the development of full body motion controls, 3D racing, 3D fighting, open-world gameplay and QTE. Even if you have never played one of his titles, which you really need to rectify right now, you have played a game that includes one of his contributions to the gaming industry.

Space Harrier, one of Mr. Suzuki’s early arcade titles, was a third-person rail shooter set in a fantasy environment. The player controlled a jet propelled cool blonde dude, shooting down everything from geometric shapes to robots to one-eyed woolly mammoths. The game was such a success that it was one of Japan’s top two highest-grossing upright arcade games in 1986. The other title was Mr. Suzuki’s Hang-On, released a year prior. Now, in 2022, Yu Suzuki is returning to the world of third-person rail shooters with the Apple Arcade exclusive game Air Twister which is set to release on June 24, 2022.

Mr. Suzuki was kind enough to grant us an interview to talk about the upcoming title, and as luck would have it we are releasing this on his birthday! So before we kick things off, we would like to wish Mr. Suzuki a happy birthday and thank him again for taking the time to answer our questions.

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Yu Suzuki and Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada talk Virtua Fighter 6, cancelled Tekken Dreamcast title and Tekken x Virtua Fighter

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Yesterday the Japanese video game news site Denfaminico Gamer held an interview with SEGA-AM2 legendary arcade designer Yu Suzuki (Virtua Fighter), Tekken’s Katsuhiro Harada and Arc System Works’ Toshimichi Mori where they talked about the histories of their franchises that included Virtua Fighter, Tekken, Guilty Gear and Blazblue. There was also some talk about the possibility of creating Virtua Fighter 6!

The important bits of the interview were taken from @gosokkyu twitter account, who translates Japanese gaming news. If you like Japanese games, I suggest you give the account a follow.

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Exclusive: Panzer Dragoon Remake interview with Producer Benjamin Anseaume

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For over a year, we’ve been anticipating each bit of word, footage, and image of MegaPixel, Forever Entertainment, TA Publishing, and SEGA’s from the ground up remake of Panzer Dragoon. For those unfamiliar, Panzer Dragoon was an early SEGA Saturn title that gained acclaim for its unique setting, shake-ups in the rail shooter genre, and challenging gameplay. It spawned two more rail shooter sequels and a full role-playing game before being put to rest with the series finale, Panzer Dragoon Orta for the Xbox. For the nearly two decades since, fans have wanted to return to that science fiction fantasy world and see the series brought back with as much aplomb as possible.

Then, at the end of 2018, it was revealed that a little-known French-based publishing company and development house MegaPixel Studio were set to release remakes of Panzer Dragoon, and its sequel, Panzer Dragoon Zwei. Since then, we’ve seen art, we’ve seen gameplay, we’ve seen its due arrival on Switch and Steam, but we still had burning questions. To sate our (and especially my) own curiosity, I reached out to Benjamin Anseaume, producer on the remake project, to ask him several things. Learn about extra game content, the process of getting the game into the developer’s hands, and even get a glimpse at what the original creator of Panzer Dragoon, Yukio Futatsugi, thinks of the new project!

All this and more, after the jump!

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SEGA Interactive interviews HOTD Director, Takashi Oda, on the series and wants to produce 3 more games

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In a recent interview uploaded on SEGA Interactive’s official website, the company interviewed The House of the Dead series director, Takashi Oda, on his life history as a junior high school student to his current role at SEGA in Japan.

The interview goes further in depth on his time developing The House of the Dead series with he and his team at AM1 were task to create a gun shooting game with horror taste after the success of Virtua Cop, his reaction to the location test version with the rejected blow back gun system, and the proposal on making The House of the Dead 5 back in 2012 before House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn was in development.

The few interesting tidbits within the interview is that Oda-san would love to continue making at least 3 more House of the Dead titles in the future, including a House of the Dead FPS to give players enough freedom to walk around stages if there was enough demand. You can read the full interview with Google Translate. What are your initial thoughts on the interview and the future of the House of the Dead series? I think HOTD FPS would be a good concept if it focuses on the aspects of virtual reality. Let us know in the comments below.

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Swingin’ Report Show #95: Developer Kiyoshi Okuma – World Series Baseball 2K2, Gauntlet Legends, Strike Blazinger

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Game developer Kiyoshi Okuma joins us on this episode of the SEGAbits Swingin’ Report Show podcast to discuss his work on N64, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC games. Kiyoshi has worked on games that include World Series Baseball 2K2, Gauntlet Legends, The Sims 2 as well as the upcoming Strike Blazinger!

Want more information on Strike Blazinger? Visit the official website!

If you want to support this type of content, you can check out our Patreon!

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

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Shenmue III will only complete 40% of Ryo’s story

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If you funded Shenmue III assuming that we would be getting a closure to a story that we (at least most of us older fans) have been following since early 2000s, but that doesn’t seem the case. We all know that Shenmue was always mean’t to be 11 chapters, but considering budgets and restrains, a lot of us assumed that Yu Suzuki had planned a more condense version of his story. I guess not:

During a interview with USgamer, Yu Suzuki revealed that Shenmue III will be about 40% of Ryo’s story:

“Whole story of this bottle, about here [sic],” Suzuki said via translator. I asked if he meant halfway. “40 percent,”

About the game’s length, Yu Suzuki had this to say in a Reddit AMA:

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M2: Complete Works interview/retrospective by My Life in Gaming, goes into detail over M2’s history

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M2 might be a familiar name for SEGA fans out there. Indeed, this modest development studio has worked with SEGA for more than a decade helping to bring their older titles to modern system, from the “Complete Collection” installments in the SEGA AGES 2500 series to the SEGA 3D and SEGA AGES series on Nintendo’s more recent systems. But their history goes far back, from their modest days of porting games such as Gauntlet and Gunstar Heroes back in the 90’s. The YouTube channel My Life in Gaming has recently done an interview/retrospective with key staff members such as M2 CEO Naoki Horii and Chief Programmer Tetsuya Abe to talk about their personal experiences with working at M2, including the enduring relationship between SEGA and M2 and their general philosophy of adding something extra to these re-releases. The video itself is over an hour long, so there’s plenty to digest, complete with English subtitles for convenience.

If you liked the above video, maybe also subscribe to My Life in Gaming if you’re a fan of technical aspects of video games or retrospectives.

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