Shenmue

Yu Suzuki and Mark Cerny hang out at GDC, talk Shenmue III

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YuSuzkiMark

Hey, if you are two of my favorite game developers of all time, you obviously have to hang out together and talk about my favorite unreleased game. According to Megan Scavio, GM of GDC they are in talks about Shenmue III. You know, that game that everyone wants SEGA to release.

“Mark Cerny & Yu Suzuki talking strategy for Shenmue III. For reals you guys.” – Megan Scavio

You had me at Yu Suzuki, you sold me on Mark Cerny and you made me smile at Shenmue III. Let’s make it happen!

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My Life with SEGA returns from Yokosuka with a very special Shenmue review

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Shenmue. Yu Suzuki’s masterpiece has become something of legend. It completely redifined a genre and showed gamers around the world that Dreamcast was more than just a pretty face….

More than a decade later, the game retains a rabid cult following and fans cry out for a continuation to this incredible series. But is Shenmue truly worthy of all this praise? Should this title be revered? Watch and learn, my dear viewers.

The SEGAbits 3rd anniversary contest ENDS TODAY – 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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SEGA Tunes SEGAbits Staff Spotlight: Ben, aka “nSega54”

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segabits shenmue tuesday tunes

And so, on a quiet night, the streetlamps frosty amidst the falling snow, the locals warm and cozy inside their apartments up above the city streets, the town of Dobuita continues to sleep….

Shenmue has been lying dormant for an unspeakably long time, with not even a hint of a resolution in sight. Money, enough to have gone a long way towards funding a 3rd installment, was instead carelessly tossed off to to a Texas-based developer named Gearbox Software rather than into the hands of Yu Suzuki. After all these years, is it finally time to accept that SEGA will never allow their fanbase to continue the series that holds so much of their nostalgic gaming memories?

I’d given up hope long ago that Shenmue III would be released. But that doesn’t mean I can’t still appreciate all the great memories it offered, memories which, even over a decade later, still linger. This week’s Tuesday Tunes will highlight a couple of my favorite songs from the Shenmue games’ legendary soundtracks, so sit back and take a listen.

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Swingin’ Report Show #40: Aliens Gone Wild

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This week on the show George and Barry the Nomad sit down with the Sonic Talk duo Nuckles87 and Shigs. Listen to us talk about the new SEGA laptops, whine about Aliens: Colonial Marines and criticize the Playstation 4 announcement. Like every podcast, you can’t get us to shut up about Shenmue.

[MP3 Download] [Archive]

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First 4 Figures teases Ryo Hazuki statue

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First 4 Figures, makers of the many Sonic the Hedgehog statues, has revealed a teaser for a Shenmue Ryo Hazuki statue. The teaser, which can be seen in full after the break, shows Ryo in his iconic “wanna wrestle?” pose. Price and size have yet to be known, but given F4F’s past releases, this statue could go from $130+ and could reach 12 inches tall. Some fans have noted that Ryo’s face seems off. It could just be the lighting, or perhaps Ryo has changed a little since we last saw him in Shenmue 2. The statue’s announcement follows the release of Insert Coin’s Ryo Hazuki jacket hoodie and t-shirt, as well as Ryo’s cameo in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and his win in the All-Stars Racing DLC character poll spearheaded by fans. Could all this be building towards Shenmue 1&2 HD in 2013? After the break, the full statue teaser image.

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SEGA Tunes Holiday Special: Featuring Sakura Wars and Shenmue!

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How do you know something is big in Japan? When the above exists. I’m sure many of you have heard of Sakura Wars, SEGA’s series of strategy/dating simulator games that until recently never made it outside of Japan, but did you know that the franchise has also been used as the source material for a variety of stage shows dating all the way back to 1997?

The above video is from a Christmas stage show that the cast of the games performed back in 1998. In it, you can see many of the core cast members of the original Sakura Wars being portrayed by their voice actors as they sing a variety of Christmas tunes. Its hard to believe that there was once a SEGA franchise big enough to warrant this amount of production.

So pour yourself some eggnog, sit back and enjoy some pleasant Christmas-y SEGA tunes. Given that this is Christmas, we can’t exactly just give you one song now can we? Check below the fold for more Christmas music from both Sakura Taisen and Shenmue.

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Shenmue Recreated in Sleeping Dogs (Fan Video)

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Check out this parody of Shenmue 2 recreated in the game Sleeping Dogs. It’s done rather well and at times it’s very funny. The QTE battles and chases were great and I lost it when Ryo found ‘the mirror.’

Being set in Hong Kong Sleeping Dogs shares a similar aesthetic to Shenmue and so was perfect for parodying our beloved Shenmue. This also gives us a glimpse at what Shenmue HD or even Shenmue 3 might look like. (Get on with it already Sega!)

The parody was created by the youtube user DSimphonyHD, Segabits solutes you sir!

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SEGA Tunes: Shenmue Theme by Mr. Bonus Stage

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Shenmue is a soundtrack I’ve wanted to feature music from ever since I restarted this feature back in January. The very first article was a choice between Shenmue’s main theme and the piece that inspired me to start the feature, Phantasy Star Online’s Whole New World. Four months later, with this week’s feature already delayed a day thanks to a Marvel movie marathon that culminated in The Avengers, I’ve decided to finally feature a song from the game, though not in quite the way I had been anticipating.

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SEGA Five: Bein’ bad – SEGA style

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Admit it. When a game gives you the option to be bad, you go for it. Unlike the stupid real world, video games have no repercussions. While game designers may not intend for you to do these bad things, or there are in-game penalties, in the end it’s just a game so you can be bad to your heart’s content, hit the reset button and return to playing the game as it was intended. In this week’s Weekly Five, we celebrate Friday the 13th with five SEGA games which allow you to be (you guessed it) bad.

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Insert Coin shows off new SEGA shirt designs, including Ryo Hazuki inspired hoodie

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The fine folks over at Insert Coin Clothing have now released their concept art for their upcoming SEGA Reloaded shirts (and a hoodie). The hoodie above is inspired by Ryu Huzuki’s brown jacket in Shenmue. In the back it has the Hazuki tiger.

To see more of the shirt designs, hit the jump. Shenmue, Jet Set Radio, Streets of Rage, Shinobi, and Golden Axe? Yes, please.

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The Weekly Five: The Shenmue HD Wish List

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To wash the yucky taste of today’s big news story out of our mouths, let’s focus on something positive. Recently, SEGA has been hinting at an HD Shenmue 1 and 2 rerelease. Given the latest announcement of putting more focus on digital releases, Shenmue HD could become even more of a reality. As SEGA has yet to release an official announcement, we can do what Shenmue fans do best and speculate! This week’s Weekly Five will take a look at what we want to see in a Shenmue rerelease. Let’s begin, shall we? [insert sailor joke here]

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Insert Coin to add new Sega line of clothing

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UK based clothing company Insert Coin is adding more Sega franchises to their Sonic line of clothing. This includes such games as Shemue, Golden Axe, Shinobi, Streets of Rage and Jet Set Radio.

All of these games are very special to us and so it is fantastic to be able to honour them with some slick new tees and hoodies – and hopefully we’ll be able to show you what we have planned very soon!

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Rumor: Shenmue and Shenmue II HD have been completed for quite some time

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Rumors continue to heat up after a not-so-cryptic hint from SEGA’s Ben Harbone earlier this week regarding current-gen digital ports of Shenmue and Skies of Arcadia. Now a site called Gamerzines is reporting with a strong degree of certainty that not only are Shenmue and Shenmue II on the way, but they’re completed and have been for over a year.

Citing an industry source with close ties to SEGA, the rumor goes on to say that SEGA chose to wait on the release of these two digital titles “until it had a clearer picture of the future for the Shenmue franchise, namely, whether or not Shenmue III would ever see the light of day.”

That little tidbit adds a whole other level of intrigue to all of this, but of course it’s important to keep in mind that this is very much a rumor and we’ve had rumors like this before regarding the continuation of the Shenmue saga. Gamerzines does look like a legit website, however, and apparently IGN thought so too, since they’ve also reported this rumor. Thought I’d share it with all of you.

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