Sega Blog: SEGA 3D Classics – 3D Super Hang-On Interview with Developer M2

Originally published to the SEGA Blog on Nov 27, 2013 – republished here for archival purposes

We continue our SEGA 3D Classic interviews with Super Hang-On, which appears on Nintendo eShop tomorrow alongside Space Harrier. We’re really excited to get these games out to fans and hope these interviews bring all new insight into not only the creation of the games, but also the finer details inside.

Thanks again to Game Watch and Impress, Okunari-san, and Horii-san for their involvement in making these interviews available to our western audience. Thanks to Siliconera for coordinating with us to help spread the word to SEGA fans across the web. And special thanks to our producer Sam for translating these interviews for everyone’s enjoyment.

If you read and enjoy this interview, please take the time to post a comment and let us know. We’ve got a lot of folks looking on reading the feedback, so don’t hesitate to post!

SEGA Blog: SEGA 3D Classics – 3D Space Harrier Interview with Developer M2

Originally published to the SEGA Blog on Nov 25, 2013 – republished here for archival purposes

We are extremely excited to present to fans a series of interviews on our upcoming 3D Classics on the Nintendo 3DS. The interview originally took place across the Game Watch and Impress website, featuring both Yosuke Okunari from Sega of Japan and Naoki Horii from the developer M2. These interviews show not only the care that went into making the absolute best versions of these titles on the 3DS, but also a lot of the technical challenges in creating 3D versions of our classic SEGA games.

Big thanks to Game Watch and Impress, Okunari-san, and Horii-san for their involvement in making these interviews available to our western audience. We hope you enjoy these interviews and encourage you to feedback with your own questions or comments. Let’s begin with Space Harrier and information on how the project got started…

Game Watch & Impress SEGA 3D Classics interviews continue, focusing on the development of After Burner II

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The SEGA Blog has kicked off another series of translated interviews held between 3D Classics developer M2 and Game Watch & Impress, this time focusing on the upcoming 3D After Burner II which is due out on January 15th for Nintendo’s 3DS. The article, which you can find here, not only delves into the development of the 3DS remake, but also Okunari provides photos and videos of the After Burner II cabinet in SEGA of Japan’s permanent storage warehouse. Suddenly I’m having visions of the ending to “Raiders of the Lost Arc” with every crate sporting a SEGA logo.

Part one can be found at SEGA’s blog, and part two is to be released tomorrow.

Sonic 4 Episode II True Blue Initiative video goes live

When Sonic 4 Episode I released, the SEGA Blog did something quite controversial: they rewarded those who bought more than one version of the game. The nerve! It’s one thing to offer the game on multiple platforms, but it’s quite another thing to reward those who decide to spend their own money on more than one version of the game. The community team is at it again. For Sonic 4 Episode II the offer was: buy two or more versions of the game and get a mention in a video. Buy four or more versions of the game and get a mention and a Sonic 4 Episode II poster signed by those from SEGA of America who worked on the game. Seeing as we here at SEGAbits are true blue, and we like to hear the community team say our name, we sent in our digital receipts and got a mention at 56 seconds into the video. Kellie thanks the site and the entire SEGAbits crew. Thanks Kellie! SEGAbits forum member Kori, who maintains the Website of the Dead, gets a mention in the poster tier. Did your name get a mention? Sound off below.

Sega Blog posts Q&A with Rise of Nightmares developers

Today saw the release of Rise of Nightmares in North America, and to help satisfy our craving for zombie craziness, SEGA has posted an interview with the game’s producer and director (Satoshi Ito and Ryuta Ueda, respectively) to their blog. The interview covers a wide range of topics, such as those discussing the target audience, the aims of the development team, the game’s lack of firearms, the composition of the music, as well as the title’s similarities to House of the Dead.

Rise of Nightmares is being created by the team behind House of the Dead, what similarities can we expect?

Ito: Actually, I’m the only one in the Rise of Nightmares team who used to be a member of the House of the Dead team, and I worked for the first original House of the Dead title. As for “similarities” with House of the Dead, there are lots they have in common; such as: having the player stand while gameplay, first-person view, and life-size zombies are coming closer, but the major similarity is that developing a Kinect title is much alike with developing an arcade game (AC), which is one of SEGA ‘s greatest talent. When developing a new title for AC, we usually think about what to carry (or to ride on), where to place the buttons, and how to play the game. At the first phase of House of the Dead development, we have tested various things like implementing a mechanic where the player can kick by pedaling. House of the Dead has ultimately turned out to be a simple game, but we have made use of those trial-and-error experiences for this title.

The rest of the interview can be found at Sega.com.

The game comes out in Europe on Friday September 9th.