Remember the homebrew port of the 1992 X-Men arcade game for Sega Saturn being worked on by hotrodx? They just came out with an all-new version of their demo adding Storm to the playable roster, as well as 3-player co-op and a new 2nd stage.
Might as well cut to the chase. Check in past the break for info on the update as well as a download link.
We’ve talked al lot about homebrew developers porting games to Genesis/Mega-Drive lately, so lets switch things up with a homebrew Saturn port this time. Developer hotrodx is working on converting the 1992 X-Men arcade beat-em-up by Konami to the Sega Saturn and now has a demo ready for the public to try out.
X-Men is one of the most beloved arcade classics of all time and one of the shining examples of classic beat-em-ups, right up there with Sega’s own Streets of Rage series, but somehow the game never received an official home port on any game console in the 90’s. Decades later, it would finally receive official home ports to PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2010, an iOS port in 2011, and its own Arcade1up home arcade cabinet in 2011. Only the latter is still available, as the digital-only 2010 port was removed from the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Marketplace in 2013 with the iOS version going away in 2014.
The port is early in development, with the demo available as of this writing being version 0.1.1. The demo only consists of the first stage and gives you access to only two characters: Wolverine and Cyclops. Developer hotrodx also has a message displayed in the demo saying that they’re not using any source code derived from the original game and are, instead, eyeballing the whole game, trying to match the arcade game’s feel as much as possible. It sounds difficult, but based on this demo, they seem to be on the right track, but you can try it with an ODE such as a Fenrir, Satiator, or Phøde on real NTSC Saturn hardware and judge for yourself.
The download link will be past the break, along with a video of the demo in action.
Marvel Super Heroes was Capcom’s follow-up to their equally successful X-Men: Children of the Atom fighting game.
Like its predecessor, Marvel Super Heroes shares much in common with Capcom’s prolific Street Fighter series with over-the-top anime-style action, combo system and so on. While the arcade game was first released in 1995, console gamers wouldn’t receive a home port until late 1997 on Sony PlayStation and, of course, SEGA Saturn.
The Saturn version is fantastic. The animation is like an explosion of color that’s very faithful to the arcade original, with an energetic soundtrack and kick-ass sound effects. Now that Lauren’s joined the League of Extraordinary Dorks, I feel it’s high-time I make her suffer for NHL ’94.
FUN FACT: The American version is the one and only game outside of Japan that supports the RAM cartridge. To learn more about this delightful peripheral, check out the episode of My Life with SEGA dedicated to it!
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A new week and a new episode of the Swingin’ Report Show. This week George, Sharky and Barry the Nomad talk about Akria Yuki in Dead or Alive 5, salvia and much more. So sit back, enjoy the ride. We have also fixed our RSS feed, you can follow the new one below. We are also submitting the new RSS to iTunes, you shouldn’t have to do anything if you are already subscribed. Hit the jump for the show notes.
I woke up this morning seeing a bunch of sites reporting that SEGA was no longer publishing Marvel games, as if this was a new discovery. Sadly, SEGA had confirmed this in an interview with Alan Pritchard for Game Informer back in December of 2010. In that interview he said that SEGA was not going to be publishing Marvel games after Thor and Captain America.
Now lets go forward to 2012, this is making rounds as something new. It isn’t. Old news, new mouth. Earlier today HollywoodReporter posted an interview with Marvel’s TQ Jefferson. TQ Jefferson is vp games production for Marvel, when asked if SEGA was going to publish any further Marvel properties he responded with.
“There are no current plans for additional Marvel games to be published by Sega.”
Again, nothing new. But hey, now we got it confirmed by both SEGA and Marvel.
Unlike the good looking Cap’n America game that SEGA is putting out, Thor has been in development for two years according to PlayStation Universe, and still looks like crap. I suggest overlooking this one. Maybe if you’re bored and up for a good laugh, check it out a few years from now when it’s cheaper than those Burger King 360 games that are everywhere at used game shops.
Anyway, I guess the story is good and somewhat original, and it has a score set by Inon Zur, who composed music for Dragon Age II. Looks like that’s it.
[Source: PlayStation Universe]
As if we needed another reason to compliment this game. It already looks miles better than the best parts of Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, and Thor: God Of Thunder. The combat and gameplay looks smooth and pretty polished. The story even looks pretty good.
And now, we find out that this title has been given a three year development cycle. Going off of SEGA’s track record with movie games, this is very rare.
Also of note is that the development company, Next Level Games (Super Mario Strikers, Transformers: Cybertron, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon), convinced SEGA and Marvel to let them write their own original story for the game. They even brought in Christos Gage, a Marvel writer, to craft it.
Captain America is coming to the 360, Wii, 3DS, DS, PS3, and PSP on July 19th in North America, and July 15th in Europe.
[Source: PlayStation Universe]
Behind the scenes with Thor
Thor: God Of Thunder
SEGA appeared at WonderCon in San Francisco last week, and showed off their two remaining Marvel games: Captain America: Super Soldier, and Thor: God Of Thunder. Above is a new behind the scenes look at Thor, and a very bad looking Thor trailer for the Wii. Over at the SEGA Blogs, they also included that awful looking Captain America Wii trailer that I previously reported on.
So, what do the SEGAbits readers think of these two games? I think Captain America is looking a lot better than Thor, and I hope SEGA will strive for this quality anytime they ever think about making another license game.
[Source: SEGA]
Here’s another trailer for the Wii version of Captain America. Graphics look like it could run on a PS1. I’d stick to the 360 or PS3 version in 3D if you’re looking to get this game.
[Source: Comics Alliance]
Thor: God of Thunder will be the game for the Thor movie, coming out next year. SEGA has given up some information regarding the title at this year’s New York Comic-Con.
Actually one of the first bits of information we know now, is the name, God of Thunder. That is new. It is also done by Liquid Entertainment (Rise of the Argonauts). We actually knew this bit of information, just refreshing your memory. The game is also being written by Matt Fraction.
[Source: PSblog]
Direct from Comic-Con, here is the teaser trailer for SEGA’s upcoming Thor game. It really doesn’t show off a whole lot, but we do at least see a bit of what could be in-game graphics.
In addition, Comics Alliance has some photos of the game’s concept art. Hit the jump for a few choice examples!
Above is the concept art for both Thor and Captain America. This is to show off what their on screen outfits will look like. I have to say, the Captain America one is passable, but I do not like the Thor one that much.
If you did not know, SEGA will also be making a Thor and Captain America game based on the upcoming motion pictures. Hopefully they turn out better than the Iron Man games.
[Source Collider & Ain’t It Cool]