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SEGA Tunes: Alien Front Online’s Alien and Army themes

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SEGA’s WOW Entertainment has a very eclectic resume, featuring games like the simulation-style racer SEGA GT, the dating sim Candy Stripe, the mutants teaching typing game The Typing of the Dead (co-developed with Smilebit), and today’s Tuesday Tunes spotlighted title, the online aliens versus army game Alien Front Online.

Initially released worldwide to arcades as Alien Front, Alien Front Online was soon released to the Dreamcast. Despite being Japanese developed, Alien Front Online was made to strongly connect with Western audiences. The game was simple, featuring online combat with voice communication allowing players to take on opposing sides of an army versus aliens war. Unfortunately, the game’s release was poorly planned out as Alien Front Online was released to North America six months after SEGA made the announcement that they were discontinuing the Dreamcast. The game ended up not releasing to other territories, and to make matters worse, shortly after release SEGA shifted to a pay to play model for their online games. I recall renting Alien Front Online when it released, and even through the game was just a few weeks old, the online community was incredibly small.

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MAGFest 13 Interview: DJ Cutman talks to us about his new album “Spindash”

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At MAGFest, one of our colleagues Gunstar had a chance to talk with DJ Cutman about the new “Spindash” album, a 16-track remix tribute album to the Sonic series, recently put out through Cutman’s own label, Gamechops. We took the time to discuss song selection, how it helps both video game remix artists and Sega, and the goals of the label itself.

If you’d like to check out the album, you can check out the entire album through Gamechops’s youtube channel, and many other awesome video game remixes.

You can also pick up the album through Loudr or any other major music site.

Finally, you can check out the Gamechops website to see all the albums and remixes they’ve done, as well as find all their social media outlets.

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Swingin’ Report Show #75: Interview with Lisle Wilkerson – Shenmue II, Virtua Fighter and Crazy Taxi voice actress

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We celebrate 75 episodes in style on this week’s Swingin’ Report Show podcast! Joining us for an interview is Lisle Wilkerson, best known to SEGA fans for her voice work on Shenmue II, Virtua Fighter and Crazy Taxi. Learn what it’s like growing up in Japan and recording for some of SEGA’s greatest Dreamcast and arcade titles. Lisle also tells us about her correspondence work and her acting work on Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation with Bill Murray.

Then, George and Barry discuss the recent news of SEGA of America’s restructuring, dissecting SEGA Sammy’s official document to figure out what exactly we can expect in the future from SEGA. So what are you doing still reading this? We have a special guest and big SEGA news! Click play and enjoy our 75th show!

Don’t forget to follow Lisle Wilkerson on Twitter and Facebook!

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2-Man Scramble plays Batman Forever for the SEGA Genesis – Holy co-op, Batman!

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Andrew Rosa and Mickey Mac must team up to beat one of the worst movie-licensed video games ever produced; Batman Forever on SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive.

Before this foul-mouth duo can take fight the puzzling Riddler and maniacal Two-Face, they must first overcome a seemingly endless onslaught of jackasses like “Blood Fire”, “Anti-Freeze” and “Charlie”, as well as some tough platform jumping.

For an in-depth review, watch Andrew go it alone in My Life with SEGA.

Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel.

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Classic SEGA Ads: Take a peek above deck at these Japanese Skies of Arcadia commercials

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When it comes to Japanese games being localized for the West, I tend to like it when they stick as closely to the original release as possible. I like to hear the original Japanese dialogue, have the names of characters and locations retained, see the original cover art used, and I hate it when they change the game’s title (hey, I just noticed that Jet Grind Radio broke all of these rules!). Skies of Arcadia, however, is a rare exception. When it was revealed in the pages of The Official Sega Dreamcast Magazine that Eternal Arcadia was to be retitled Skies of Arcadia, I was not only okay with this, I actually much preferred it.

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My Life with SEGA riddles his way through Batman Forever for Genesis/Mega Drive

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Batman Forever (1995) is often viewed as being one and the same with Schumacher’s second go with the dynamic duo, Batman & Robin (1997), but I feel this is unfair. Batman Forever retains a heartfelt core and dark edge, though it’s all masked with neon, subpar computer generated graphics and nipples. Still, it led to Batman & Robin. Sad face.

Batman Forever, like its prequels, was given a whole slew of merchandise to wrap their capes around, including video games! Enter Batman Forever for SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive. By this point, SEGA fans had already experienced Batman: The Video Game and Batman Returns on Genesis and SEGA CD. Neither game reinvented the genre, but they were reasonably solid and largely enjoyable. How does Batman Forever stack up?

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My Life with SEGA looks back on the SEGA CD – Sherlock Holmes, Sol-Feace, Rock Paintings, & More!

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This week on My Life with SEGA, Andrew Rosa takes a request from YouTube viewer Darius Truxton and looks back on the North American SEGA CD pack-in bundle from 1992. This includes the side-scrolling space shooter Sol-Feace, SEGA Classics Arcade Collection, Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective and Rock Paintings (CD+G disc).

Yes, we got a lot of software back in the day. Six games and an audio CD that contains graphics! That sounds pretty sweet, right? We’re lucky if we get ONE game with our consoles these days. I can’t imagine how much a similar package would cost now. Now join me in 1992 when my brother blew $300 on a CD add-on that GamePro magazine listed as the “7th-worst selling video game console of all time”….

Yeah, who cares what GamePro thinks anyway. It’s not even a magazine anymore.

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SEGA Tunes: Get moving with Virtua Fighter’s pumping soundtrack

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Virtua Fighter was a ground breaking game for its time and was going up against some of the biggest fighting games made in that era. SEGA needed the whole game to be excellent and in my opinion they got a great complementary soundtrack to go with the revolutionary gameplay.

The first theme we are looking at is Akira’s Theme, this one is more up beat than they would later use. This one doesn’t seem like a theme for a character usually shown meditating and honing his martial arts skills. This is just a good action track, that gets the blood flowing. Its what I would love to hear when I’m in a middle of a fight and any move I make can win or lose the match. Great track, but as Akira’s theme, probably not. Seems the developers agreed as they would give him a more epic tune in Virtua Fighter 2.

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This is Saturn celebrates AM2 Month with Fighting Vipers for SEGA Saturn

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Kicking off 2015 in style, This is Saturn celebrates SEGA AM2 month on SEGABits with a look at Fighting Vipers!

One of the very first episodes of This is Saturn covered Fighters Megamix, a crossover between Virtua Fighter 2 and Fighting Vipers; however, the original release of Fighting Vipers actually has some considerable differences to its representation in Fighters Megamix, and so it’s time for Liam to head back to Armstone City to punch some more people in the face, all whilst discovering the true significance of… Pepsi?

And what’s this about a sequel?

So, an overlooked classic, or a poor attempt to recreate the success of Virtua Fighter? Find out, in this episode of This is Saturn!

This is Saturn is a video series created by British teenager Liam ‘TrackerTD’ Ashcroft, aiming to give an alternative and in-depth look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of SEGA Saturn gaming, all whilst maintaining a somewhat strong accent.

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SEGA Retrospective: After Burner II – From SEGA arcade classic to SEGA 3D Classics

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After Burner is just one of those franchises by SEGA that took American arcade goers by storm due to the sheer speed of the game, the eye catching cabinet, and its highly detailed (for the time) graphics. I truly believe that After Burner is just one of those arcade games that don’t get enough credit by gamers today, so jump into your F-14 Tomcat and blast through our After Burner retrospective. You never know, you might learn something!

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SEGA Tunes: A look at SEGA AM2’s underrated Sword of Vermilion OST

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Before SEGA AM2 brought Shenmue to Dreamcast owners everywhere, they created a Japanese RPG in the late 80’s for the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive. That title would help SEGA-AM2 dip their feet into the console market, that first game was Sword of Vermilion. The game was a early Genesis/Mega Drive title and was one of the spotlight games in SEGA’s timeless “Nintendon’t: advertisement campaign.

While Sword of Vermilion was ambitious for its time, it wasn’t really known as a great game and possibly one of the lesser known games by the publisher. But regardless of that status, the soundtrack for this game is actually great. Composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi (After Burner, Out Run, and more) and Yasuhiro Takagi (Virtua Racing, F355 Challenge and more), both composers who where literally at the top of their game during this time period.

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My Life with SEGA gets his groove back with Groove on Fight for the Saturn

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SEGA and Atlus have had a long history together. Before SEGA bought the company in 2013, the companies collaborated on various titles which appeared on home console and arcade hardware. 1997’s Groove On Fight: Gouketsuji Ichizoku 3 was one of these titles, the third in Atlus’ Gouketsuji Ichizoku/Power Instinct series of fighting games.

In this week’s My Life with SEGA, AJ and Mickey Mac put Groove on Fight to the test! Is this really one of the best SEGA Saturn games you’ve never played?

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This is Saturn gets festive with Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams for SEGA Saturn

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Jingle Bells, Sonic smells, Saturn all the way! Oh what fun it is to ride in Opa Opa today…

Terrible rhyming aside, it was recently Christmas, and this calls for This is Saturn to get festive with the much-loved NiGHTS demo, Christmas NiGHTS! But are those who love it just looking through frosty, but rosy-tinted nostalgia lenses? Or is this demo really more than meets the eye? Find out, on this special Festivus episode of This is Saturn!

This is Saturn is a video series created by British teenager Liam ‘TrackerTD’ Ashcroft, aiming to give an alternative and in-depth look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of SEGA Saturn gaming, all whilst maintaining a somewhat strong accent.

Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel.

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SEGAbits & Sonic Retro present Boom Talkalaka #2: The Boom, the Bad and the Ugly

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SEGAbits and Sonic Retro team up to bring you a podcast focused on SEGA’s new Sonic Boom franchise! Hosted by Barry the Nomad of SEGAbits.com and David the Lurker of SonicRetro.org, Boom Talkalaka features discussion of the many aspects of Sonic Boom – from comics and episodes of the cartoon, to the video games and toys.

In the second episode, Barry and David review the latest episodes of the TV show through to “Eggheads”, 2014’s final episode, discuss the direction the comic book is taking, and Barry shares his thoughts on the 3DS and Wii U games.

Give the show a listen and in the comments tell us what you think! If you have any questions or comments you want David to read on the next episode, leave your message here with the subject line “Boom-Grams”: http://segabits.com/contact/

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