Sega

New Japanese Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed footage surfaces ft Takenobu Mitsuyoshi

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SEGA of Japan has recently uploaded a new game play footage of the Japanese edition of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. This time showing off more changes such as Takenobu Mitsuyoshi as the announcer as announced before, game play modes and several characters voiced by their Japanese seiyuu . Many SEGA racing fans would be pleased to hear Mitsuyoshi-san exciting voice as they cross the finish line. At the end of the video, the SEGA All-Stars Premium Sound Collection will be available upon release. The Japanese edition of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed will cross the finish line in Japan on May 15th on PS3 and WiiU.

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Guilty Gear Xrd Coming to Japanese Arcades February 20th

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Arc System Works’ Guilty Gear Xrd website and a recent Dengeki Online posting confirm that Guilty Gear Xrd will be arriving on Japanese arcades on February 20. An earlier rumor suggested that wide arcade release in Japan would not arrive until March, but that can now be put to rest. Check out the above video to see the arcade opening featuring some gameplay in its cel-shaded, 2D-imitation glory.

Guilty Gear Xrd concluded its last round of location tests this past week. PS3 and PS4 releases are currently planned for the game, though there is not much word on a release schedule for the platforms beyond “2014.” Localization of some form for the games has also not been announced, but most every Guilty Gear release, namely the main entries and version updates, have not missed localization, and Arc System Works’ US Twitter account last year took note of a petition to develop a Wii U version, so the fan demand for some localization seems to be recognized.

Guilty Gear Xrd’s arcade version was developed using SEGA’s RingEdge2 arcade system board, and was regularly location tested at SEGA arcades. SEGA will also have a role in publishing the arcade version. SEGA owned the rights to Guilty Gear for a couple of years once SEGA and Sammy merged since Sammy owned the franchise, though now Arc System Works has claimed complete ownership of the IP.

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My Life with SEGA kills some time on the SEGA Genesis with “Time Killers”

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Introduction by A.J. Rosa: When Strata’s weapon-based fighter Time Killers hit arcades in 1992, my brother and I soon monopolized the cabinet. It was funny, violent, gory and ridiculously entertaining. Being SEGA boys, we were itchin’ to see this bloody whore ported to the Genesis, or even better, the SEGA CD. Hey, that was our new toy, and we thought it was AWESOME!

By the time it landed on our favorite 16-bit hero, 4 years had passed. SEGA Saturn, Sony’s PlayStation and the Nintendo 64 were already duking it out. On top of that, Time Killers had been surpassed by other fighters. Unlike its contemporaries, such as Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, it didn’t receive an annual sequel to keep the franchise alive.

So, was this port worth the wait? Lauren and I will share our feelings with you as we try to hack each other into pieces. Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel!

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SEGAbits Summer of Art/Season of Colors Contest: the Silver and Bronze winners

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Oboro in snow

There can only be one winner, but that doesn’t mean we can’t also have stuff for the people who got second and third place. Above is one of the many entries sent into us by SEGA Nerd’s Kopke, aka Manuel Garcia Melgar. This awesome depiction of Hotsuma from SEGA’s criminally underappreciated Shinobi PS2 was one of several entries that nearly won him the grand prize. Here’s the one that came the closest. Please click it to see it in its full resolution glory!

Check below the fold for Manuel Garcia’s silver winning entry, as well as our bronze winner, Chase Svent!

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Virtua Fighter 20th Anniversary Website Launches

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With this year marks the 20th Anniversary of the Virtua Fighter series, SEGA launches a new website with the first blog which roughly translates “20 years have passed since the release of Virtua Fighter. Thank you very much to our fans.” “This special site will be sequentially updated to celebrate this milestone, looking back at every step of the path to present day.”

In Famitsu’s article on the 20th Anniversary of Virtua Fighter, the site will update with the development of the games and tournament history.

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SEGA Talks Atlus acquisition, Free to use Dormant SEGA IPs

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SEGA-ATLUS
In a recent Famitsu interview, SEGA Sammy’s Chief Operating Officer, Naoya Tsurumi, talks a little bit more about the future of Atlus brands and its relationship with SEGA Corporation.

There are some interesting tidbits in the Famitsu interview as Tsurumi-san explains that Atlus will continue developing their brands, making them bigger and for SEGA to sell them. The interview also mentions a line of SEGA IPs such Sakura Wars, Jet Set Radio, and Space Channel 5 as Tsurumi explains that the company has just started but definitely will give it more thought.

You can read the entire interview here. What are your thoughts about Atlus using dormant SEGA franchises?

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Sakura Wars Mobage will feature a costume changing system and sign ups

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A few months ago, SEGA and Red Entertainment made a partnership with Mobage to develop a new Sakura Wars game which displeased many fans in Japan.  However, Sakura Wars for Mobage  will feature a original story featuring several characters from the franchise a new gameplay system that involves changing costumes.

Details about how this  will change gameplay have not been announced as of yet. Signups for Sakura Wars for  Mobage start today and if you register early you’ll get an ultra rare  Sakura Shinguji card. Service for the game is scheduled to begin sometime this winter.

Special Thanks to SEGAFAN for the tip!

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More staff layoffs at Sega of America

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Today, Sega of America confirmed that it had to lay off a small percentage of its staff. While there is not much in the way of details, a Sega Spokeswoman had this to say.

“As the gaming industry continues to evolve, companies must adapt and adjust in order to compete and succeed in an ever-changing environment. As a result of this, Sega of America has recently undergone a restructure that will enable the company to focus efficiently on developing new and existing content across digital platforms as well as continuing to focus on key brands for packaged goods.”

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Summer of Sonic 2013 – Takashi Iizuka Interview

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Over the past few years the Sonic series has hit a bit of a renaissance, with Colours and Generations achieving relative success critically as well as commercially. Typically, just as this turnaround is achieved, the newest game shows signs of radical change to the 3D Sonic formula that had finally gained acceptance. Sonic Lost World’s new design is the kind of decision that means it’s always interesting to chat to Takashi Iizuka, the man at the top of Sonic Team today and the public face of the team. He’s always cheery and approachable, but you can never quite predict the answers you’ll get from him. Read on to find out Iizuka’s take on the limitations of Sonic’s previous 3D outings, what inspired the new design of Sonic Lost World and his view of differences between working in the USA and Japan!

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Sakura Wars CG Motion Manga heading to Japan by TOMOTOON!

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SEGA and Red has collabrated with japanese animation studio TOMOTOON! to bring the manga adaptation of Sakura Wars by series creator, Ouji Hiroi, to life with CG motion, which was also translated into english towards the Western manga readers by the manga publishing company, TokyoPop.

The trailer features a few first panels of the manga in full motion CG, almost compared to the Valkyria Chronicles cutscenes. I happen to like motion comics by comic publishers like Marvel and DC Comics for example and pretty stoke to see how this turns out as a fan of the series. What are your thoughts?

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Summer of Sonic 2013 – Sonic Lost World Impressions

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Summer of Sonic features an in-development game to play every year, usually for the first time to the public outside big industry shows like E3. This year, we got Sonic Lost World, on both Wii U and 3DS, making its debut in the United Kingdom.

First, a quick summary of what was on show. The rep told us this was the Comic-Con build, so for the few Americans in the audience who were there, we played the same game you did. There were three Wii U demo pods and six 3DSes running. On the Wii U game there were 4 levels available to play: Windy Hill, Desert Ruins 1 (styled with a small letter S shoe-horned in between the s and the e on the title card to make Dessert – a pun on the fact it’s a candy/sweets level), Desert Ruins 2 (an auto-run level through honey combs) and Frozen Factory (the Sonic 2-styled casino level). On the 3DS, there were 3 available choices – a Windy Hill tutorial level, Windy Hill 1 and Desert Ruins 2 (here, an Egyptian-themed puzzle level with moving around of blocks & balls). We tried to play as much as possible, bearing in mind that because of queue lengths there was a limit of one level per person. Those of you who recall back to Summer of Sonic 2010 may remember we did a look at Sonic Colours‘ debut – this time we have opinions on the game not just from myself but several Sonic Retro forum members, so read on to see what we thought!

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Summer of Sonic 2013 – The Metal Sonic Edition

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That time of year is upon us once again – Summer of Sonic, the Sonic the Hedgehog fan convention in the UK, held its 6th show this weekend just gone; back in London again following a brief visit to Brighton last year. This year the event boasted as guests Takashi Iizuka, Jun Senoue, and Kazuyuki Hoshino; with a playable build of the upcoming new title Sonic Lost World available. So let’s dive in, shall we?

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