Expand your mind as My Life with SEGA reviews Saturn expansion carts

Import Month continues with my review of the SEGA Saturn expansion cartridges from two arcade masters; Capcom and SNK. In addition, we’ll be looking at several arcade classics that utilize these carts, such as X-Men vs Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, Metal Slug, Amakusa’s Revenge: Samurai Showdown IV and King of Fighters ’95.

The Saturn was a capable 2D machine upon release. Is it even possible to improve on it without resorting to a more power console? See for yourself.

The SEGAbits 3rd anniversary contest is going on now – win prizes like a SEGA Genesis, Genesis games and brand new My Life With SEGA DVD’s! All the details can be found here.

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Import Month: My Life with SEGA sinks his teeth into Dracula X

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was a sleeper hit in North America when it landed on the Sony PlayStation way back in 1997. Beautifully drawn 2D sprites with dazzling 3D effects, and a brilliant score. There’s a very good reason why many fans consider it the very best of the franchise. As incredible as the game already is, Konami released an expanded version for the SEGA Saturn….only in Japan.

That’s right; it’s import month on My Life with SEGA. This week, I’m reviewing Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight for SEGA Saturn. If you’re a fan of the American version, as well as the Saturn, you’re probably thinking, “Holy shit! The Saturn is one of the best 2D gaming machines ever created. This is gonna’ blow the PlayStation outta’ the water!”

Also, a reminder that the SEGAbits 3rd anniversary contest is going on now – win prizes like a SEGA Genesis, Genesis games and brand new My Life With SEGA DVD’s! All the details can be found here.

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Retro Review: Sakura Taisen


Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars) is a Strategy RPG adventure series that features a unique sim-based story system developed by AM7 Team Shinobi (Overworks) from SEGA along with Red Entertainment. The series first began in 1996 for the Sega Saturn and spawned several sequels, including OVA adaptations, TV anime series, a movie, and other merchandises. While the game was a successful Sega IP in Japan, it never had a release in the West until the release of the fifth game, which was released and published by NIS America. However, the series has had a cult following within the Sega & anime community fan base with english releases of anime videos. Want to know what I think about the game and how awesome it is? Read on to find out.

My Life With SEGA dives into the Saturn classic Deep Fear

Halloween month continues with another creepy video review from AJ, this time he dives into the Saturn classic Deep Fear.

You wanna’ see something really scary? Watch The Shinning, or A Nightmare on Elm Street, or Problem Child 3. Now, if you want something dark, moody and interactive, look no further….

This is Deep Fear for Sega Saturn. Sega’s answer to Capcom’s popular Resident Evil/Bio Hazard franchise. You may be saying to yourself, “I had a Saturn back in the day. Why haven’t I heard of it?” That’s easy; it was only released in Japan, England and Europe. There ya’ have it.

Did we miss out? The answer to that question lies in this video.

Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel. As a video bonus, after the break check out the Japanese commercial for the game starring Segata Sanshiro!

My Life With SEGA gets face hugged in Alien Trilogy

AJ celebrates Halloween month by showing off creepy games all through October!

Okay, it’s October. It’s high-time My Life with SEGA got down with some thrills and chills.

First up; Alien Trilogy for the SEGA Saturn, based on the Alien film franchise. It doesn’t matter how many shitty sequels or spin-offs this bitch lays, nothing can tarnish Ridley Scott’s original or it’s amazing action-heavy follow-up written and directed by James Cameron….

But what about this game? Can I honestly recommend this one to fellow gamers without regrets, or will I be shouting GET AWAY FROM IT, YOU BITCH?! Let’s find out.

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Check out the first screens for Sakura Wars Social

Red Entertainment will be bringing you Sakura Wars socially through the mobile game Sakura Wars: Allstar Collection. The game will be released through GREE later this month and feature “LIPS” (Live & Interactive Picture System) conversation system that has made the series famous since the SEGA Saturn era.

The system will work the same as it did in the Saturn era, during conversations you have choices that effect the path of the story and moods of the characters. Hit the jump to see the other photos.

My Life With SEGA hits the streets in The Crow: City of Angels

Ah yes, that age old question: does an awful movie yield an awful video game? Find out in this week’s My Life With SEGA episode, as AJ suffers though (blast! I already gave it away) the SEGA Saturn game The Crow: City of Angels.

“Abashed the Devil stood and felt how awful….well, AWFULNESS is!”

Yeah, I know that’s not the line, but it’s so much more appropriate. Why, you ask? How can the one and only game based on the craptacular sequel to one of the greatest comic-to-film adaptations be anything less than incredible?

Watch it and know my pain.

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Twelve minutes of NiGHTS into Dreams… HD!

Jeff Beckham, Digital Brand Manager at Sega of America, stopped by Gamespot’s live show to present 12 minutes of NiGHTS into Dreams… HD gameplay. Ignore the dumb host, who seems to know next to nothing about SEGA’s Saturn classic, and soak up the lovely HD visuals. Take note that the menu screen mentions “Presents” and has a few blanked out menu options. Looks like we’ll be getting Christmas NiGHTS integrated into the rerelease. Hooray! No price is set yet, but Mr. Beckham makes it sound like fans will be pleased with the price point. If it’s anything like other SEGA Heritage releases, it’ll be $10. Thanks to reader celsowm for the heads up!

My Life with SEGA goes John McClane insane with Die Hard Arcade

Another week and another video for My Life with SEGA posted on the SEGAbits YouTube channel. This week Die Hard Arcade is up for review.

“In this ‘classic’ episode, I review Die Hard Arcade (a.k.a. Dynamite Deka) for the SEGA Saturn. As a bonus, I manage to critique the cross-platform hit, Die Hard Trilogy….

Now, which one’s gonna’ find out what a TV dinner feels like?”

Like and subscribe to our channel if this video meets your high standard requirements.

Bahn from Fighting Vipers revealed for Project X Zone


Famitsu recently revealed a few new characters for Project X Zone with a ton of pictures. So, what is Project X Zone? It’s a crossover stradegy RPG using characters from Capcom, SEGA and Namco universes. The game is being developed by Banpresto and Monolith Soft. If you read the title, you know that Bahn from Fighting Vipers was announced. Who else? Tron (Mega Man), Reiji Arisu (Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier), Xiaomu (Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier), Lady (Devil May Cry), and Lindow (God Eater) are the rest of the announced characters.

If you guys want to see the screenshots posted by Famitsu, click here. Sorry, no Western announcements have been made for this title.

My Life with SEGA reviews Virtua Racing

Another week and another episode of My Life with SEGA. This week A.J looks at Virtua Racing, a fan favorite around these parts. If you have never seen the show enjoy. Three versions of the game, one video. Get to it, hit play!

“This week, we’ll be taking a long hard look at Virtua Racing. Not only will I review the Saturn version, but I’m reviewing the 32X and Genesis/Mega Drive version as well. Which is the best of the bunch? Watch and learn, friends.”

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SEGA AGES PS2 games making their way to Japanese PSN

SEGA has announced that Gunstar Heroes Treasure Box and Dynamite Dekka (Die-Hard Arcade) will soon be making its way to the Japanese PSN. They are part of SEGA’s AGES 2500 line, Playstation 2 remakes of classic SEGA games for the Playstation 2. Now SEGA is pulling a inception and putting them on PSN.

But more people here will be interested in the first game SEGA is going to release on the PSN PS2 archives service, Dragon Force (trailer). That one will hit PSN on July 25th. SEGA West, we want these, please?

Saturn launch makes Cracked’s list of worst marketing failures in video game history

Cracked.com posted an article titled “The 5 Worst Marketing Failures in the History of Video Games” and happen to use a Virtua Fighter image to promote the article. Since I’m a SEGA fan I decided it was worth a read. The SEGA Saturn comes in at number 5, with Jamie Kennedy’s E3 presentation coming in at number 4. Yeah, I guess fucking up a whole console generation is not as bad as having Jamie Kennedy talk for an hour super high at your E3 press conference.

I think SEGA got off easy, I’m sure they could have written a million ways SEGA has screwed up royally with their marketing or lack of marketing. Note: I like Clockwork Knights and Daytona USA so fuck the author of the article.

Retro Review: Sonic Jam

The SEGA Saturn was something of a black sheep in SEGA’s family of consoles. It divorced itself from many of its predecessor’s most well-known franchises, and instead focused on a slew of original IPs. Even Sonic Team would take a big break from Sonic, instead focusing on NiGHTS into Dreams and Burning Rangers, the former becoming the Saturn’s mascot. This would lead to the Saturn becoming the one and only SEGA console to not feature a wholly original Sonic platforming game. Instead, the Saturn merely saw a trio of spin offs, in the form of Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic R and the subject of today’s review, Sonic Jam. The first two were fairly mediocre spin offs created by Traveler’s Tales for the purpose of filling the cap by the canned Sonic X-Treme game. Sonic Jam was easily the best Sonic game on the Saturn, though largely because it capitalized so heavily on the past: it was a compilation of the best Sonic titles ever made.