SEGA AGES Puyo Puyo Review – A Great Surprise for Puzzle Fans (Nintendo Switch)

M2, in collaboration with SEGA, has been doing a great job with the SEGA AGES series of arcade and Genesis ports. Despite being rereleases, there are quite a few new options and features not found in the original releases of games. Add in the portability factor, and you have an attractive new way to play classic SEGA titles. This latest release for the SEGA AGES series sees a never localized port of Puyo Puyo from the arcade will take some puzzle lovers by surprise.

SEGA AGES Space Harrier Review – The Best Version of the Game Yet! (Nintendo Switch)

SEGA has been on a roll lately with their releases of past arcade titles on the Switch. What is unique about these rereleases however is that they come with a variety of different and new options never been done on original release or as a port. And with both TV and portability uses to be had, some might pick up a few if not all the titles available, as they enhance the game play in wonderful fashion. That’s why it is easy for me to say that this port of Space Harrier is the best version of the game.

Takashi Iwade, Veteran Designer for the Panzar Dragoon series, passes away

According to a Twitter post by James Mielke, creative director at Tigertron and founder of BitSummit, Takashi Iwade, known for his work on the Panzar Dragoon series as a designer as an ex-Andromeda team member and SEGA, had recently passed away last week due to an illness.

One of his notable roles in the Panzar Dragoon series was character model production, title logo designer, and art director at SEGA for over 25 years. He had also worked on many other SEGA franchises such as Jet Set Radio and Yakuza. May we pay respect for his hard work on the iconic gaming franchise that debuted on the SEGA Saturn since 1995.

New gameplay trailer for upcoming Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD

You might go bananas once you see the new Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD gameplay trailer. The one-minute trailer shows off some courses and bosses from the original Wii version, in beautiful 1080p and 60 FPS to boot. Since this is a multi-platform release, motion controls have been taken out to give the game a more classic control setup that Monkey Ball is known for. If you pre-order the game, you also get a sticker set of Aiai and his friends. The game is coming out October 29, 2019 for Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch with a PC Steam release slated for later.

New showcase trailer for SEGA Genesis Mini revealed

SEGA of America’s Youtube channel released a short showcase video or the upcoming SEGA Genesis Mini, which is slated to release next month. In the video it opens with a little “blast from the past”, with 90’s Claymation Sonic from the classic Japanese commercial with the “SEGAAAA” jingle accompanying it. It follows up with a brief showing of the size difference between the original & the mini and what games are to come, including Tetris and Darius. The latter also brings it its’ first North American release, although it is an in-house port by M2 and SEGA of Japan since it was an arcade cabinet originally.

SEGA to show off unannounced AAA project at Gamescom 2019

SEGA has been teasing their Gamescom 2019 line-up which will include stuff we already know including the SEGA Mega Drive Mini (this is a German even) and Catherine: Full Body. One of the things that did surprise us was that they are planning on showing off an announced project at the event as well, which SEGA is billing as a AAA project for unspecified platforms.

So what could this AAA project be? My guess will be the already teased Creative Assembly team-based shooter that was teased all the way back in 2015. Why this instead of something like ‘the next Sonic’ game? Easy, Creative Assembly is one of SEGA’s biggest teams and they are a British developer. Makes sense to show off their upcoming game at Europe’s version of E3. We will find out what it is later this month since Gamescom will be running from August 20-24th.

Update: According to The Creative Assembly’s worker Grace, this isn’t a game from their studio. Could this be CA just playing cute? What do you think?

[Source: SEGA Press]

 

Fan-made open beta of Sonic Runners underway

2015 was an interesting year for Sonic. Before the ignition that started with the 25th anniversary party, the Sonic Mania hype, and SEGA Forever, we were gifted as with a few lovely mobile apps for SEGA to dip their toes into the market. With Sonic Jump and Sonic Dash being both moderate and raving successes respectfully, it was time that Sonic Team took a slightly different approach to the next mobile game, leading to Sonic Runners. However, within over a year of its launch, the game was shut down. Now fans have worked their magic again to revive the long-forgotten game app, which was a favorite among the community. Click the jump to find out more.

SEGABits At E3 2019: Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth Hands-On Preview

Although the game has already been out worldwide, Persona Q2 is one of the last games to be released on the Nintendo 3DS. SEGA and ATLUS usually has a demo every year to promote a title that may not get a whole lot of recognition. And while Persona is one of the companies’ fastest growing series in terms of popularity, I would be easy to miss this title on a dying handheld system. However, Persona and RPG fans alike should dust off their 3Ds’s one more time to check out this unique adventure. Click the jump to find out more about the 5-minute hands-on demo.

SEGA News Bits: Shenmue III E3 Gameplay & Epic Store Exclusive Reaction

While Shenmue III just got a delay into November, it doesn’t mean that E3 isn’t the biggest event for YS Net and Deep Silver to promote the upcoming kickstarter backed game. We got a ton of news at E3 2019 including a brand new trailer with facial animation, over 13 minutes of gameplay, a new Limited Run Games collector’s edition, and finally the game going Epic Store exclusive on PC. We share our thoughts on all the news, let us know what you think in the comments below.

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SEGA and Atlus Announce E3 2019 Line-Up and Show Floor Activities

E3 is right around the corner next week and SEGA/Atlus has revealed their E3 2019 line up and are ramping up for a packed show filled with unforgettable games and activities to enjoy during the trade show from June 11-13 at Booth #4800 in the West Hall of the Los Angeles Convention Center. Here are the games that will be playable at the show floor.

  • Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
  • SEGA Genesis Mini
  • Catherine: Full Body
  • Judgment
  • Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth

As for activities, the SEGA/Atlus booth will feature a retro-themed corner with a GIANT, functioning SEGA Genesis controller as seen in SEGA FES, in door rock-climbing, free swag, and a dedicated Catherine: Full Body Experience! event. Fellow SEGAbits writer, Dakota, and I will bring you full coverage at E3 with our hands-on impressions next week. Read the full press release after the break.

Super Monkey Ball coming back? SEGA Japan trademarks Tabegoro! Super Monkey Ball

SEGA Games has just trademarked the name Tabegoro! Super Monkey Ball in Japan, if you didn’t know Tabegoro means ‘ripe, ‘in season and/or ‘good to eat’. Makes perfect sense for a brand new Super Monkey Ball game, considering how delicious those bananas look.

Its crazy that the last ‘non-mobile’ title was Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz on the Playstation Vita way back in 2012. I remember one of the first titles we reviewed for this site was Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll on the Wii, so its been a long, long time since we had a new Super Monkey Ball. Are you excited to go ape around in the Super Monkey Ball world?

[Via: Gematsu]

Atlus announces Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers on PS4, Nintendo Switch

Atlus has just announced a spin-off for Persona 5, this one being called Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers which will NOT be developed in-house at Atlus or SEGA. The developer will be Koei Tecmo studio Omega Force (Team behind the Dynasty Warriors titles including the anime spin-offs).

You can check out the trailer above but this Persona 5 S isn’t what most Nintendo Switch fans actually wanted. A port of Persona 5… the JRPG, not a spin-off! What is your thoughts? Would you wanna play a Persona 5 themed Dynasty Warriors type game?

SEGA confirms that ‘Project Sakura Wars’ is coming West

SEGA has updated their twitter letting their fans know that the new Sakura Wars project, that just got a trailer at SEGA Fes 2019, will be coming West. Can I just say how much I love these sort of announcements that go along with Japanese reveals? I hope we have more in store.

It looks like SEGA’s Zack Reese had some tweets on how he will be working on Project Sakura Wars:

If SEGA had to go console exclusive, which console would you choose?

SEGA used to have their own platform, their own console and ecosystem that a lot of SEGA fans still fondly remember. Since the death of the Dreamcast SEGA fans have been nomads, seeking SEGA software on other platforms and for some its a big investment to play all their favorite SEGA games.

I posed this question to our audience on Twitter and this is the results:


As a joke I added the Google Stadia, but I should have really added the PC as a platform.Quite frankly I still think the PC would have lost to Nintendo. Seems that a lot of Sonic the Hedgehog fans have had fond memories with the franchise on Nintendo hardware that it swayed the results in a predictable manner. I think SEGA fans worry about going exclusive with Nintendo because they aren’t known for pushing hardware like SEGA tries to do. I mean, the new Dragon Engine in Yakuza 6 is gorgeous and is up there with Capcom’s RE Engine and Square-Enix’s Luminous. 

But what is your take? What console would work out best for SEGA in your opinion and why? Let us know in the comments below.

After Burner Climax is coming to SEGA Forever


One of the most underrated mid-00s SEGA-AM 2 arcade game After Burner Climax will get one more chance to soar very soon thanks to the recent announcement at SXSW 2019 made by SEGA confirming that its the next title in SEGA Forever.

Like always SEGA Forever titles are free to play with ads or ad-free for a few dollars. This is actually a re-release of After Burner Climax on mobile since it originally came out in 2013, but its nice that its getting another re-release with (hopefully) some fixes. Can we get another re-release on PSN and finally bring it to PC?