During Sony’s State of Play stream today, Konami announced it would be releasing their long awaited Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection for (at least right now) Sony’s PS4 and PS5 (it has also been confirmed for Nintendo Switch, Xbox and PC).
The collection is set to have Konami classics ranging from their Arcade hits, NES, Gameboy, SNES and yes, even TMNT: Hyperstone Heist on the SEGA Genesis!
The new games will update on the PlayStation Store on February 28th. If you haven’t you can also add EA Sports UFC 4, Planet Coaster: Console Edition and Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep: A Wonderlands One-shot Adventure right now. As you can see, March is gonna be a way better month.
Atlus has announced Soul Hackers 2 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One and PC (Steam). The first game, at the time titled Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers is actually already the ‘second game’ in the ‘Devil Summoner‘ series which itself is a side-series of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise which originally came out on SEGA Saturn and PlayStation, then getting a 3DS remake in 2012. Does all this confuse you? Probably why they decided a more simple, Soul Hackers 2 title instead of “Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers 2”
The game is set to launch pretty soon, on August 25th in Japan and the next day world wide with Japanese voice overs and English, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese subtitles. In Japan they already announced a special Soul Hackers 2 25th Anniversary Edition for PS5 & PS4 that includes a three disc soundtrack, 100 page anniversary book with artwork & interviews, and more to be announced soon.
According to Japanese website Nikkan Gendai, who has pushed the rumor that Japanese Network TV Asahi is in talks with Takuya Kimura to star as his video game character Takayuki Yagami for a real life Judgment TV series. The Japanese network had tried to get Takuya Kimura back for another season of the popular BG: Personal Bodyguard but refused, saying he wanted to do something new.
The project is sitting with a tentative title of 裁かれざるもの (Things That Cannot Be Judged) with no release date as of now. According to the description, it looks like the idea is to adapt the second game, Lost Judgment:
Atlus has dropped a new trailer for their upcoming port of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax which was developed by acclaimed fighting developer Arc System Works (Dragon Ball FighterZ, Guilty Gear, Blazblue). This is a dub trailer titled ‘Fight’.
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is heading for Steam, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch on March 17!
Its not hard to see that SEGA’s Phantasy Star Online 2 has been a massive success for the company, so much so that it recently that it got a graphical update with Phantasy Star Online: New Genesis. But the company is already ’embracing the future’ with them planning the successor, if this new rumor is to be believed. The rumor comes from Japanese user Makino180 that says:
Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis will be supported for only 5 more years.
Phantasy Star Crew’s 3rd Division is in planning stages of the next “Super Game” and is aimed to be finished in under 5 years.
Phantasy Star Online veteran Satoshi Sakai will spearhead the project
Plans are to make the next “Super Game” running on Microsoft Azure Cloud Servers.
SEGA is thinking of using NFT Blockchain technology for its monetization to prolong the value and wants to spearhead the future of Gacha Games which will implement a possible SNS Distribution of virtual items.
Initial Budget for this “Super Game” is 5 times the budget of normal SEGA AAA Games!
The main audience of the new “Super Game” is the Western audience.
While gamers dislike NFTs, Blockchain technology, it seems that companies and developers see a avenue for them to be used in games. What is your thoughts on the rumored, next, “Super Game” by the developers that made Phantasy Star Online 2?
The classic shoot ’em up for SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive, Gleylancer (I swear it was Gley Lancer?) is coming to all modern consoles on October 15, 2021. This includes PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. Sadly looks like PC gamers have been left out.
Originally the game was a Japanese exclusive but got a world wide release for the first time in 2008 via Wii’s Virtual Console. This version of the game will have even more improvements, according to the company it will feature:
Improved modes available with accessibility features and modern controls.
SEGA has revealed the official theme song for Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania with producer Masao Shirosaki along with ‘The Banana Fritters’ who are voice actors who also provide the voices for our Monkey heroes (and Baby) in the game.
The theme song for Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania is being titled ‘Hello Banana!!” and debuted as a part of the Sega Atlus Tokyo Game Show 2021 live stream.
The Banana Fritters consist of:
Koichi Yamadera (voices Dr. Bad-Boon)
Noriko Hidaka (Voices AiAi, MeeMee and YanYan)
Toshihiko Seki (Voices Jet)
But during the video, if you look closely you will start seeing cameo appearances by big name SEGA creators singing along the chorus. Two of the big names are Toshihiro Nagoshi who is the creator of Daytona USA, Super Monkey Ball and Yakuza series. Masao Shirosaki who is the current series producer also makes a cameo appearance!
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania is just around the corner, so some promotional events had to be coming. A big one is that Super Monkey Ball themed outfit will be coming to Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout.According to this tweet, “AiAi has rolled into Fall Guys!”, so its most likely just our lead monkey getting Fall Guys love. GonGon is probably highly upset at this transgression.
Usually these promotional outfits are available in the Fall Guys in-game store for a limited time and is usually bought for in-game currency (called Kudos) but always seem to have an expensive price tag for promotional items (pieces of outfits for Jungle Book cost up to 11,000 Kudos each for example). Of course, Kudos are also available to purchase for real world money, how do you think this game keeps the lights on?
AiAi and Super Monkey Ball is the second SEGA franchise to make it into Fall Guys since Sonic the Hedgehog had a big event in 2020.
SEGA’s RGG Studio has really made a name for themselves as the premier triple A studio within SEGA. What’s more impressive than the quality of the games, which have all been pretty great, is how many games the studio seems to be able to release. This year the studio has brought us a sequel to Judgment, which is a spin-off to the Yakuza franchise, where instead of playing a Yakuza, you play as Takayuki Yagami, as you can tell from his cool wallet chain, tight jeans, shaggy hair, and leather jacket, this guy doesn’t play by the rules. He’s a Ex-Lawyer, Turned Detective for Hire that just happens to be well versed in Kung Fu. The first Judgment was a enjoyable experience, but it did come off as a bit janky towards the end. Did Lost Judgement fix these issues? Let’s find out!
SEGA has released another spotlight trailer for the upcoming Sonic Colors Ultimate, this time detailing those alien power-ups the Wisps. Given the game originally released in 2009, we know the Wisps… right? WRONG! There is a new Wisp called the Jade Ghost Wisp. Learn what he’s all about in the video above!
SEGA has released a new trailer showcasing all the enhancements and additions fans can expect in the upcoming Sonic Colors Ultimate. Check out the brand new trailer above, and after the break read through a detailed list of all the enhancements!
SEGA’s Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania might be the worse kept game secret in a long time, having its platforms already leak and now box art and screenshots from TechnikNews writer Nils Ahrensmeier. I’ll be honest, that is probably some of the nicest box art I have seen from a Super Monkey Ball game and I really dig the logo.
Big spoilers, those mini-games you love from the original games? They back baby! Check out the screens shared by Nils below:
“Scheduled Launch Date: After the maintenance on June 9, 2021 (Wed)
Due to the PSO2:NGS launch, the scheduled maintenance that would have occurred on June 9 (Wed) will be moved forward by about one or two days. More information will be announced at a later date.
Global Maintenance Announcement Due to the change in the maintenance schedule, there will be changes to the dates and the content of the “The Road to NEW GENESIS Event” countdown login bonus event. More information will be announced at a later date.
Note: There are no changes to the amount of SG distributed.
We will hold campaigns to celebrate the launch, so be sure to check them out!
Thank you for your continued support of PSO2:NGS!”
It really looks like SEGA has been hitting it out of the park with all the new announcements!
