Lost Nintendo 64 game from Sammy, Viewpoint 2064, found and preserved online

That’s right. Another article from me regarding a Nintendo 64 game that’s now retroactively related to Sega by way of corporate merging years later. Are you doing any barrel rolls over that yet?

Viewpoint 2064 was developed exclusively for the Nintendo 64 (Oooooooh, I see what they did with the name there) as a sequel to Viewpoint (1992), an isometric scrolling shooter developed by Aicom and published by Sammy originally for the Neo-Geo family of game hardware. The original Viewpoint was ported to a few other systems, including the Genesis/Mega-Drive. (You might recall that was part of the Sega Genesis Mini 2) Viewpoint 2064 was still being published by Sammy, but was being developed by Racdym. (The same Racdym that made Snowboard Kids) It was shown to the public at Nintendo Spaceworld 1999, and was likely meant to release in stores either that year or the next, but for whatever reason it simply wasn’t meant to be.

Fast forward to 2025 and a new development cartridge containing the full game has been found and its rom dumped online for all to see. This comes after a prototype version of the game was previously found and dumped online in 2020. Not only does this new version look and feel much more complete than that prototype, but the cartridge also has a sticker with the word “Master” printed on it, implying that this might’ve been the completed version meant to be mass produced onto cartridges and shipped to stores everywhere. This master version was found and preserved by game archival YouTuber Hard4Games onto Archive.org for all to try for themselves.

Hard4Games has also prepared a video showing the game in action, including some comparisons to the prototype he found five years ago. If you would like to View that, then I will Point you beyond the break here.

SEGA in talks to acquire Rovio, developer of Angry Birds, for $1 billion dollars

As reported by the Wall Street Journal and confirmed a day later by Rovio themselves, SEGA’s parent company Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. is in talks to acquire the Finnish mobile game company Rovio for a staggering 1 billion dollars. Rovio gained worldwide fame with its smash hit franchise Angry Birds which took mobile gaming by storm at the dawn of the App Store and has since expanded into a multimedia franchise.

The acquisition could mark a strategic move for SEGA, as the company could tap into Rovio’s expertise in developing addictive and globally popular mobile games. The acquisition also grants SEGA access to Rovio’s vast user base and provides an opportunity to cross over SEGA owned franchises like Sonic the Hedgehog. Interestingly, Sonic and Angry Birds crossed paths in a Sonic Dash event in 2015.

We will likely learn more about the deal this week, and in the meantime we can only imagine what a Sonic Angry Birds game will play like…

Sammy announces Bayonetta themed pachislot machine

Pachislot Bayonetta

Sammy aka parent company of SEGA, has launched a teaser site for their upcoming gambling pachislot machines based on the ever popular Bayonetta IP. It seems that pachislot machines get a negative reaction but most people don’t understand that most of these products have nothing to do with SEGA Games division. This is nothing new, considering that Sammy has been using SEGA (and other) IPs to sell Pachislots for over a decade. It has been a very profitable business for ‘SEGA-Sammy Holdings‘.

Before everyone complains in the comment section about how “SEGA should have just funded Bayonetta 2 instead of this”, please understand that this is like saying “Sony should fund a new Tomba! video game on Playstation 4 instead of making The Interview”, both projects are competently different and the cost of doing a Bayonetta themed pachislot machine is way lower than creating a HD game from scratch.

I hope this means that SEGA and Sammy both find value in owning the Bayonetta IP and haven’t abandoned it. Would be nice to see SEGA do a extended version of Bayonetta 2 on other platforms outside of the dying Wii U.

Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity gets Sakura Wars tie-in


Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity (PSP2i) isn’t afraid to have a ton of tie-ins, there has been a great deal announced. Now that Sakura Wars has a new game, it seems like a good time to announce the PSP2i tie-in. SEGA did not provide screens or much information on what will be released, but we do know it will be ‘pay’ DLC. So if you like Sakura Wars, get your credit card ready.

Other tie-in announced was Kaito Tenshi Twin Angel 2, which happens to be a popular SAMMY Kaito Tenshi Twin Angel 2, a popular Sammy pachinko machine.

[Source: AndriaSang]