Retro Community Day for PC Version of Sonic Transformed Today


Watch live video from VidyaRetro on TwitchTV

Watch the aftermath of what we did instead of watching the VGX. It involves Yogscast, Sonic Adventure DLC, bad Sonic rap and more for six hours.

Its free weekend for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed on Steam once again and its Saturday night, which means its time for another Retro Community Day. We’ll be kicking off at 5 PM central with the return of the pre-game show the hour before. You can expect Yogscast DLC characters to appear. Of course its either this or Pewdiepie on VGX. It’s your choice really.

Start sending in your friend requests to VidyaRetro on Steam now! We’ll periodically send out requests to join a two round game for each person added to the friends list. See you there!

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Yogscast PC DLC releases today

ss_85bbd499cf26235f9ea01fe21768f608fb7f084e.1920x1080
 
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed has added another guest racer to the roster by way of the Yogscast. What is the Yogscast? The Steam page for the DLC describes Yogscast as “the UK’s most watched YouTube channel”. The DLC, which is priced at $4.99/€3.99, came about though a partnership with SEGA to raise money for the YouTube channel’s annual charity drive. The racer is Yogscast’s very own Simon Lane, aka Honeydew. 100% of all SEGA and Yogscast proceeds are being donated to the SpecialEffect charity.

You can purchase the DLC and learn more about the content on the dedicated Steam page. After the break, check out a gallery of the guest racer.

EA admits defeat to SEGA’s Football Manager, no more FIFA Manager series

footballmanager14ea
Before SEGA owned Sports Interactive and the Football Manager series, SEGA fought against EA Sports with their brand called ‘SEGA Sports’. Seems that SEGA finally gets a small victory (especially after they took the NFL license and was forced to sell Visual Concepts and its 2K brand of sports titles to Take Two). EA Sports has announced that they will not longer publish their own FIFA Manager series.

FIFA Manager 14 will be the last entry in the franchise, here is lead designer Gerald Köhler explaining the reason for leaving the Football sim market.

“The football manager genre at this level of sophistication is highly specialised and primarily played in two countries (England and Germany), in which – on top of everything – one game has practically dominated the market in recent years. The niche market and general trend toward online and mobile games were also contributing factors. Moreover, FM had reached a crossroads at which a new engine and/or corresponding online technology would be the only way to give the series a boost. When all these factors were evaluated, it led us to the decision to blow the final whistle. We hope you’ll keep playing FM as long as possible, and that the fan sites will go all out to expand and improve the game wherever they can. For all your years of support and all your passion for our game, we thank you.”

I hope the FIFA Manager team finds jobs developing other games, I don’t like people losing their jobs. But hey, at least SEGA didn’t pull a grimy move and buy some sort of sports license to kill the competition, right?

Shining Force Online: a fan-made MMO enters beta testing this week

shining-force-pc-pathfinding
Shining Force Online will be a ‘free to play’ MMO based on the Sega classic series and is set to enter beta on the 28th of November. The game is set to be released for free via Arcade County and will feature a ‘alternative universe’ with a brand new storyline and familiar characters.

Sadly the game isn’t 100% free, as the developers included micro-transactions called ‘Shining Force Platinum User Upgrade’, charging about $23 dollars for ’25 tickets’.  Even though the developers assure players that their game will never be ‘pay to win’, it seems that its already leaning that way since being a platinum user gives you two skill points per day instead of one and ‘full experience earned from combat’. Many big name Shining Force supporters have gotten angry at Arcade County for wanting to profit off of a fan game, including ‘friskydeath’ who wrote on their forum and has reported the game to SEGA’s legal team.

So what are your thoughts? Does the person have to cover costs of servers? Is this the wrong way to go around it? Let us know if you’ll be playing the MMO on the 28th!

Review: The Typing of the Dead Overkill

totdO-003

Droppin’ F-bombs like a mother…

The original The Typing of the Dead was a misunderstood sleeper hit when it came out for the Dreamcast. The keyboard accessory may have been useful in the eyes of consumers for games like Quake III Arena, but it didn’t immediately become apparent that a typing game spin-off would make for an amazing, fast paced alternative. The original game appeared in Japanese arcades prior, and when it arrived on PC shortly after it had done well enough to spawn several more sequels and updates on the platform, in Japan. Outside of Japan it would be seen as an outdated arcade game that would be shunned, yet had become the cult hit which emitted an outcry of diehard fans in their never ending list of seemingly implausible demands for a new entry in the series. Years later, after SEGA and Headstrong’s release of The House of the Dead: Overkill on the Wii, it had seen an update with The House of the Dead: Overkill Extended Cut on Playstation 3 and on the week of Halloween has seen an update on Steam for PC as part of a semi two game bundle, literally out of the blue with no fanfare and nearly cancelled by now defunct Blitz Games. Despite these hurdles, it was still the ideal platform to put out this modern update to the franchise that encompasses its cheesiness and over the top absurdity to much higher levels, probably higher than people would expect or possibly want.

Typing of the Dead: Overkill now available to buy on Steam for $9.99

ss_d2b0335e5afeb17e16f91ad4535aaf57d993901b.1920x1080
 
Yup, you head the headline correctly. Typing of the Dead: Overkill is now available to purchase on Steam for $19.99! Also, thanks to the Halloween sale, it’s only $9.99. Here’s Steam’s full description:

Typing of the dead: Overkill fuses the horror and comedy of the legendary House of the Dead series with unique typing mechanics in order to deliver a truly original gaming experience!

This gruesome shooter puts you in the middle of a mutant outbreak in Bayou county. Blast pieces out of the zombie horde across 9 stages, one keystroke at a time, in order to save you and a friends life as you work to uncover the mystery behind the outbreak.

Features:

• Randomised kill-words to make every game experience unique;

• Your keyboard is the weapon – type bullet holes into those zombie hordes!

• Three difficulty levels included to test your typing skills to the max as well as a special ‘hardcore’ level for true keyboard warriors!

• Redefined HOTD gameplay to complement the new typing mechanics;

• Full Steam integration

• Full and faithful port of the original PS3 edition of HOTD included in game

• Plus more to come*

*Two-Player co-op multiplayer coming shortly after launch as free DLC

PEGI ratings reveals Typing of the Dead: Overkill for PC

HouseofTheDeadOverkill2
 
GUTS WILL BE SPELLED thanks to the PEGI ratings site which reveals Typing of the Dead: Overkill on PC. The release date is said to be today, but other release dates on the site do not line up with the actual release dates of games. It also appears that the game will support online play: “This game allows the player to interact with other players ONLINE”.

SEGA’s twitter has recently been teasing that “GUTS WILL BE _______.” today, and given the PEGI rating it appears that those who guessed “SPELLED” were right. We’ll have more details on the game once SEGA officially reveals it. [Note: the screenshot above is from the console version of the game]

Relic’s Warhammer 40K: Space Marine was meant to be a trilogy

warhammer_40k_space_marine-wide

“Better crippled in body than corrupt in mind.”

Relic Entertainment, one of the newest studios that SEGA bought from the now defunct THQ says that their Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine game was meant to be a trilogy but THQ going bankrupt stopped those plans.

“I had some big plans for Titus. The second part of his story was to focus on a ‘Titus Unleashed’ plot–basically there were forces arrayed against him that would see his loyalty to the Adeptus Astartes pushed to its limit, and his reaction would be to kind of ‘go rogue,’ and we’d see a different Titus, not quite as in control as we saw him in Space Marine. He would be kicked out as a consequence–exiled, which would basically be a death sentence for him.” – Raphael van Lierop, director 

If you haven’t played Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, you should give it a go. It has a lengthy single player campaign that gets a bit repetitive but the world just oozes charm and really captures the Warhammer universe. To read what what Raphael van Lierop had in mind for the sequels, check out the PA report. Would you want SEGA to continue the trilogy?

Ikaruga successfully greenlit for Steam

32680

Today’s Steam Greenlight round up features 37 games that have been voted on by the Steam community, and for Ikaruga fans can rejoice as the game was among them!

There is currently no release date set, and there is no other news about this version other than what is already known, however the developer, according to their official Twitter, has expressed interest in adding more of their games to Steam.

There are already games by the developer on Steam such as Dynamite HeaddyGunstar Heroes and Alien Soldier. However this is their first attempt at self publishing on the service.

More as it develops.

Treasure’s good news is Ikaruga on Steam Greenlight

ikaruga_wallpaper_1

Back in late September, it was reported that Treasure was going to bring good news for fans of Ikaruga. Which turns out to not only be a port of their arcade game, but that it would be the developer’s first foray into Steam Greenlight. While this means they require fan demand for the PC version, they promise to deliver on an updated version of the Xbox 360 release which also includes XInput controller support.

Head on over to Steam Greenlight if you’d like to see this game, possibly along with their other titles, on their service. Maybe this could also lead to Guardian Heroes or Bangai-O on Steam?

 

Check out Phantasy Star Online 2’s super hard mode in action


Above is a video showing off the October update for Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode 2. The start of the video shows off the new Super Hard mode.

You also get to see new skill levels since they bumped leveling up to 65. This means that if you max out your skills you get two additional skills to play with. Along with all this they have new rare enemies and new rare interrupt events. Interrupt events is basically an event that happens randomly and the player can choose to attack, defend and other objective to finish the quest.

This game looks so great, its a shame that its not out here in the West. SEGA needs to get up off their ass and confirm if its coming out, if not we can just play the damn Japanese version with the English patch.

Review: Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (XBLA)

coirev

Before Sonic the Hedgehog, there was Mickey Mouse. In November 1990, Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse released almost simultaneously in America, Europe, and Japan to the SEGA Genesis and Mega Drive consoles. At the time, the game was visually stunning, described in one video preview as “beautiful”, “brilliant” and continuing the tradition of Disney animation. On top of that, the platforming was brimming with inventive platforming elements accompanied by catchy, whimsical music. The game was great at the time, and replaying it in 2013 it is easy to see why it is deemed a platforming classic.

As far back as April of this year there were rumors that a remake was on the way, thanks to digital box art that had leaked. The idea of a Castle of Illusion remake really was an unexpected surprise. Sure the original is fantastic, but few fans were demanding a remake and even fewer fans ever expected SEGA to team with Disney to make it happen. But here we are, the summer is coming to an end, and we have a re-imagining of the SEGA classic. Was a remake really necessary, and does it maintain the magic that made the original so great?

SEGA Australia’s crazy pitch for remaking SEGA classics

GoldenAxeSEGAReborn
[Above is SEGA Australia’s pre-alpha prototype pitch for Golden Axe remake under their label ‘SEGA Reborn’]

SEGA Australia isn’t known as the type of studio that had too many hits, but it seemed that the team was finally hitting their stride with the Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse remake that is coming out in early September. Sadly that will be the studio’s last game, since it was announced that they will be closing by the end of the year.

Seems that the studio pitched for a series of remakes, most notably ‘Golden Axe’ and all to be in a new label called ‘SEGA Reborn’. That’s not all though, the company thought that all these classics should take place in the same universe. Yes, we are talking about Marvel movie treatment with retro games. That would mean that a game like Out Run takes place hundreds of years after Golden Axe.

Much like its remake of Castle of Illusion, they where open to going in and adding new content and fixing issues the originals had. Some of the other games they talked about remaking included Streets of Rage and Shinobi. Hit the jump to see video of the ‘Golden Axe’ remake that the studio pitched to SEGA. 

Saints Row IV pays tribute to Streets of Rage

206420_screenshots_2013-08-21_00015
[Warning: Spoilers]

The latest entry of the Saints Row franchise came out last month and in the full game there is a part in the story mode where you play as a retro side-scrolling beat ’em up arcade game called ‘Saints of Rage‘. Sound familiar?
If you want to see gameplay, hit the jump but I warn you the gameplay reminds me more of ‘Double Dragon‘ than Streets of Rage.

Eurogamer runs a Condemned: Criminal Origins retrospective

DectectiveCondemned

SEGA’s Condemned: Criminal Origins was one of the Xbox 360’s launch titles, and later the game received a sequel on both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. I loved this game when I first played it, and it has even made some of our lists of sequels we want to see. The fine people over at Eurogamer seem to like the game as well, since they posted up a retrospective article on it.

Did any of you guys enjoy the first game? If so, why? Let us know!