SEGA Talk #102: Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing (2010)

Buckle up because on this SEGA Talk, we put the pedal to the metal and hit the road to talk about Sumo Digital’s Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing! What are the origins of this racing franchise? What characters didn’t make the cut? What is a Bentley Jones? Click play and find out!

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SEGA Talk #86: Alpha Protocol (2010)

SEGA Talk is back, for the last show of the year! This time we cover the SEGA x Obsidian espionage RPG Alpha Protocol! Clock your weapons, turn up the volume and let’s dive deep into this spy thrilling episode!

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[iTunes – Stitcher – YouTube – RSS – Download]

If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add  them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!

SEGA PlayStation 3 PSN Titles To Buy Before Sony Shuts Down the Store

Come August 27th, 2021, the PlayStation Network Store for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita will be closed forever. That means all those great, PSN exclusives titles (and other easier to get digital titles) will be gone for good. At least, the ability to buy them legally. I thought it would be cool to look at some of SEGA’s PSN titles that are worth buying, some being exclusive, others not so much.

Sadly some of SEGA’s digital backlog has already disappeared, namely OutRun 2006: Coast to Coast (PSP) and After Burner Climax (PS3) due to licensing issues. But SEGA still has a few cult classics that are must buys, lets look at those titles:

Yakuza directors look back on Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4 and Yakuza 5 in new Interview

SEGA America got three different Yakuza directors from three different Yakuza games that are included in the Yakuza Remastered Collection. They got Daisuke Sato (Yakuza 3 director), Jun Orihara (Yakuza 4 director) and Kazuki Hosokawa (Yakuza 5 director) to sit down and look back on the series’ PlayStation 3 outings.

I really love these director, behind the scene looks into the games and its something that RGG Studios does a lot in Japan leading up to game releases. Glad we are getting the same treatment for this collection in the West. They did hint in the end that they will be doing a separate video on the stories for these games.

Alien: Isolation Nintendo Switch port gets gameplay and content reveal trailer

If you guys remember this last E3,that there was a Alien: Isolation Nintendo Switch port announced. While the original game was published by SEGA and developed in-house by The Creative Assembly studio; it seems this Switch port will be handled by Feral Interactive but the publisher isn’t be listed anywhere I checked and seeing that all updates are going through Feral Interactive, I doubt SEGA has a hand in publishing this title.

As for this version of Alien: Isolation,this version will include all 7 DLCs from the original release including the highly acclaimed ‘Last Survivors DLC which includes the original movie cast.

Isn’t it strange that this is a in-house created SEGA game but they aren’t (probably) publishing it?

Yakuza Kenzan could get a Kiwami remake teases producer

Let’s start this article with a big old Tim Taylor grunt because we got Yakuza Kenzan back in the news. If you never heard of this Yakuza series spin-off, its a samurai themed Yakuza game that features characters from historical Japan’s Edo period and follows legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi (played by Kiryu of course).

In an event in Taipei, Yakuza producer Daisuke Sato was there to celebrate the release of Yakuza 5 PS4 port over in China, which now means the whole Yakuza main series has been released in the region (when are we getting those Yakuza PS4 ports?). At this event people got to ask questions about the future of the franchise.

The following questions were brought up about a possible future Kiwami style remakes. Via Siliconera:

Alpha Protocol removed from Steam by SEGA, rights to IP going to Obsidian?

[Edit: It seems that SEGA has updated and said that the reason Alpha Protocol was pulled from Steam was because in-game music license had expired.]

After a decade of SEGA doing nothing with the Alpha Protocol IP, it finally did something. They removed it from digital sales on Steam. Not the type of move I was hoping for and according to SEGA it was due to the ‘rights expiring’.

We don’t know much about what the IP rights for Alpha Protocol where, maybe SEGA had a contract that if they didn’t use the IP after a certain amount of years it reverts back to the developer? Did Microsoft (who now owns Obsidian Software) make a deal with SEGA for the IP? According to PC Gamer, they say that SEGA’s statement about the license expiring aren’t accurate and that SEGA still owns the IP. I thought the original Alpha Protocol was a buggy game, but it had potential to be a big franchise if they followed up the sequels with a more solid made product. Outside of rumors that Microsoft/Obsidian might have made a deal with SEGA for the IP rights, there is also a pattern that when ‘remakes’ of games come out, the publisher pulls the old version of the games from sale (Dark Souls Remake, Darksiders Warmastered).

I also don’t know how I feel about SEGA being so liberal with other publishers making games for their in-house IPs they own including Bayonetta 3, Streets of Rage 4, Panzer Dragoon remakes, Shenmue III, and so on. As much as I like seeing these franchises continue, its bittersweet that it isn’t under SEGA’s publishing arm/funding.

Yakuza 4 trailer for PS4 releases showing off Masayoshi Tanimura’s changed model in action

We posted the other day that Yakuza 4 would release January 17, 2019 in Japan and that the character Masayoshi Tanimura, one of the four playable characters in Yakuza 4 would have a model and voice changed due to the original actor Hiroki Narimiya retiring from acting (which not might all be his choice). This new trailer shows the new voice and model in action, now being played by Toshiki Masuda.

Not only that, SEGA has also released a ton of screenshots including the box art for the game.

Yakuza 4 launches on PS4 January 17, 2019 in Japan, Masayoshi Tanimura being recast


Famitsu has confirmed that the PlayStation 4 port of Yakuza 4 will be launching in Japan on January 17, 2019. Yakuza 5 is set to come out during 2019 as well.

The magazine also ran a story talking about how Masyoshi Tanimura, a main character in the game, will be recast. According to the magazine, SEGA needed to revise and re-record some lines for the character and since the orginal voice actor Hiroki Narimiya has retired from voice acting SEGA decided to recast the role as Toshiki Masuda. This means that SEGA will be changing the model and voice. Quite a bit of work, I guess Japanese men take their retirements very seriously.

[Via: Siliconera]

SEGA News Bits: SEGA Survey Asks About Yakuza Kenzan & Ishin Localizations?

With the recent release of Yakuza Kiwami 2, came a brand new survey asking fans what they wanted to see for the future of the franchise. We go over the important questions of the survey on this episode of the SEGA News Bits. What are your thoughts on the possibility of Yakuza Kenzan and Yakuza Ishin making it over to the West? Any other spinoffs that deserve attention?

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SEGA survey asks fans if they want remasters of Yakuza Ishin and Yakuza Kenzan

If you guys missed the official SEGA Survey for Yakuza: Kiwami 2, you should probably give it a spin because it suggests that the company is considering Yakuza remasters of its Samurai spin-off games Yakuza Ishin and Yakuza Kenzan.

As you know SEGA already announced that they are porting or ‘remastering’ Yakuza 3 through 5 on the PlayStation 4. We already know that Yakuza 3 just released and it topped the sales charts in Japan. The latest spin-off on here, Yakuza: Ishin! came out in 2014 while Yakuza Kenzan came out way back in 2008.

Here are the questions from the survey:

Yakuza 3 PlayStation 4 re-release tops charts in Japan


While a lot of gamers are waiting for Yakuza 3, 4 and 5 to hit PlayStation 4 in the West, the first of these ports has already come out in Japan. I would say its a hit in terms that it topped the Media Create chart this week. Yakuza 3 came out in Japan on August 9th, the charts are accounting for only three days of sales which came into a grand total of 26,047 units. Okami HD came out on the PlayStation 4 the same day as Yakuza 3, that one charted number 11 selling only 14,089 units. A good start for this port.

The real reason these then PlayStation 3 exclusive Yakuza games are heading to PlayStation 4 is mostly due to demand in the west considering a lot of new Yakuza fans never got the chance to try out these titles when they came out. We shall see how they do here in the west, for the full media create sales hit the jump:

[Source: Gematsu]

Going to Evo? Enter the Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown side tournament!


If you are going to attend EVO 2018 and where looking for some Virtua Fighter action, you’re in luck. Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown will have a side tournament at EVO 2018 and you can sign up here if you want to enter. Registration to sign up closes in a week, so don’t wait.

Console: Xbox 360
Where: Evo 2018, Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas USA.
When: Friday August 3, 10AM
Entry Fee: $5 (Plus Evo 2018 Event Registration ($60).)

Here are the rules:

SEGA News Bits: Yakuza 3, 4 and 5 Coming to PlayStation 4 Reaction

It seems that SEGA have heard fans as they announce that Yakuza 3, Yakuza 4 and Yakuza 5 are heading to PlayStation 4 consoles. As of this recording, the three games have only been announced for Japanese release but I’m pretty sure they will end up coming to the West. On this episode of the SEGA News Bits we discuss our thoughts on these games getting a second chance, talk about the details regarding the releases and discuss other last generation releases that deserve ports. What are your thoughts? Will be pick them up if they come West? Let us know in the comments below.

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If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a thumbs up so it shows up on more like-minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that YouTube algorithm is.

What is the best 3D Sonic the Hedgehog video game?

Sonic the Hedgehog launched in glorious 3D back on the Dreamcast (at least officially, there where other attempts prior) and since 1998 it seems that the blue blur has had some trouble really defining what a 3D Sonic the Hedgehog game should be. We have went from the Adventure style games to the boost gameplay that we know now.

But what is the best 3D Sonic the Hedgehog game? 

To me this is hard to answer, like the retro Sonic the Hedgehog games that first came out all had a feel and flow to them, but the 3D ones seem to be all over the place. Even Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 are completely different in tone. For me, it has to be Sonic Adventure and that probably has to do with nostalgia, the fact that I preferred the flow of the game compared to Adventure 2 (letting you pick who you wanted to play instead of forcing you to switch between characters).  Is Sonic Adventure perfect? Nah, but no game is. I will also like to give a special shout out to Sonic Generations, which I enjoyed quite a bit. What about you?