Sonic making his return to Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade


[Sonic the Hedgehog, rocking Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade in 1993]

Back in 1993, Sonic the Hedgehog broke ground for video games by being the first video game character to be featured in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Now SEGA has confirmed that Sonic will be returning to the parade this year.

For those readers that love their parades, this parade will take place on November 24th. If you live in New York and attend, send us pictures. We love pictures.

[Via: The SEGA Source]

Holy crap, did they just hack my SEGA Genesis?


Seems that the SEGA being hacked story has made it to the mainstream news. Isn’t that great? It sure is, it would have been better if the mainstream news actually had stock photographs of SEGA past the SEGA Genesis.

Now I know why the Saturn and Dreamcast failed. Damn you mainstream news!

[Via: Reddit]

Sonic the Hedgehog retro soundtrack compilation coming


Sonic is turning 20 years old, man! That means that this is the perfect time to re-release a ton of shit and make the mad money. Just announced? Sonic 1 and 2 compilation soundtrack. You get your favorite tracks from both games, in one collection.

The soundtrack will be out this summer and will include composer Masato Nakamura’s demo tape for Sonic 1 and 2. So far its only been announced for Japan.

[Source: TheDailyDL]

Dragon’s Crown orginally started life as Dreamcast game


The upcoming Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita game by Vanillaware started life as a Dreamcast game. Famitsu had a 4 page interview with director George Kamitani.

The project started about 13 years ago after the team released their SEGA Saturn title “Princess Crown” (Published and developed under the Atlus banner). This game was supposed to be its successor on the Dreamcast. George Kamitani says games like Golden Axe and King of Dragon have influenced this game greatly, and has confirmed 4 player co-op.

Feels good seeing people finish up Dreamcast projects, even if they’re not on Dreamcast. How about we get a polished up version of some of these great canceled DC games?

[Source: AndriaSang]

Retro Review: Sonic 3-D Blast (Saturn)

(Re-Edited from Shigs Sonic Stadium Review)

Many of you may only know Sonic 3-D Blast through the Genesis version, which you either played back in the day or on the Mega Collection. If that’s the case, then sadly, you’ve been playing the far inferior version. Yes, the level design is the same, but graphics and sound can make a big difference in your enjoyment of a game. Sonic 3-D Blast was originally intended to be a Genesis only game developed by Traveler’s Tales with some help from Sega of Japan. However, the Saturn was suffering not only in sales, but from a complete lack of any Sonic titles. Sonic Extreme was in development Hell at the time and would not make Christmas release. (Then again, it would not make ANY release, as it was cancelled shortly afterwards). In seven weeks, Sega managed to port the game over to Saturn, polish up the graphics, change the music from Jun Senoue’s tunes to new,  jazzy ones by Richard Jaques, and add what is arguably one of the best bonus stages in Sonic history.  That’s quite a feat for a seven week port!

Guardian Heroes: Saturn mode vs. HD mode

[HD vs. Saturn mode]

SEGA was under the lens when the first screens of Guardian Heroes came out: the ones that used that ugly filter. SEGA has been saying that the game was ‘re-mastered’ for HD consoles. Putting a filter on graphics isn’t re-mastered… but did they do this? SEGA has listed what has changed, been re-done and has stayed the same.

Man lip syncs to Shenmue and other bad voice overs


What is this? SEGA games having cheesy voice overs? Not on my watch. Shenmue you say?

List of SEGA Games on here:

  • The House of the Dead 2
  • Shenmue 2
  • Shining Force Neo
  • Shining Force III
  • The House of the Dead 2 (again)
  • Zombie Revenge

Seriously, who doesn’t do this when replaying classic games? I do. Should have used some Virtua Fighter, king of cheese.

SEGA announces return of Vintage Collection


SEGA Europe has announced the return of the Vintage Collection for Playstation Network and Virtual Console. This collection is going to have Wonder Boy series games, so don’t leave just yet!

Titles in the collection:

  • Monster World IV (Genesis/Mega Drive)
  • Wonder Boy in Monster Land (Arcade)
  • Revenge of Shinobi (Genesis/Mega Drive)
  • Alex Kidd in Miracle World (Master System)
  • Wonder Boy in Monster World (Genesis/Mega Drive)

Not that bad, since Monster World IV has never had a western release before. The collection is expected to come out late 2011 to early 2012.

[Source: SEGAEurope]

Yukio Sugino talks about what makes SEGA great


Yukio Sugino had an interview in the latest Famitsu magazine, where he talks about the past, present and future of SEGA. One of the quotes that I loved was when he described what made SEGA great.

“Sega’s philosophy has always been that creativity is our lifeblood and we try to reflect that not just in what we make, but in all aspects of our work. Staying consistent with this spirit is what’s allowed us to approach the world of entertainment in such a broad scope.” – Yukio Sugino

He goes on to talk about a lot of great stuff, about how they used to make games with world wide appeal and not just split it up into regions. So what about not having hardware? Yukio Sugino says it’s hard to go from a hardware company to software.

Segagaga translation project hopes to finish translation job this year

I was following this project for awhile, all the way back when I started writing for SEGA Nerds. In a new interview with RacketBoy, the team states they are 1/3rds of the way done with raw translation. Yes, far ways off. But they said that they are picking up steam now and hope to finish translating before the year ends.

“We hope to have the text translated within the year. Unfortunately, the largest obstacles to a completed patch might lie beyond the realm of translation and wordsmithing. We still need assistance working through some coding problems that will create the localization patch.”

That is all well and dandy, but they will still need to come up with a way to patch the text into the game. The team wants you, the user to play the game the way it was intended, on the Dreamcast. They say they will most likely patch it into a back up.

I for one I’m excited about this and can’t wait to take down Dogma!

[Source: Racketboy]

Round Table: Our favorite SEGA advertisments

SEGA has been around the gaming business longer than most companies and when they came into the home console business they changed the game. Especially in the 90’s with their marketing campaigns that really expanded the demographic for video games.

Now we tell you what our favorite advertisements are, you can share yours as well in the comments.

Steam has complete SEGA Genesis Cassics for $9.99

If you really want to play Genesis titles on your PC and you want to give SEGA a nod that you appreciate them putting them up on Steam for sale, you can do that on the super cheap. You get over 40 games!

The package includes classics like Streets of Rage 2, Vectorman and Ristar. Cult games like Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair and Alien Solider. The package will normally run you $112.60, but $9.99 is a better price.

[Source: Steam]