We just talked about how Microsoft is giving away Sonic Generations on March 2020 for their ‘Games with Gold’, now PlayStation Plus has announced that they will be giving away Sonic Forces. Sure the game is newer, but I think a lot of hardcore Sonic fans would agree that Sonic Generations is better.
You will be able to download Sonic Forces if you have PlayStation Plus from March 3rd through April 6th.
We are in a brand new decade and SEGA has had a huge turn around in the last five years since they announced their last big rebuild and bought Atlus. It seems that SEGA’s Road to 2020 was a success in a lot of aspects. But like every company, there are always weak points that haven’t quite been ironed out.
On this Round Table we will discuss how SEGA can improve in 2020, if you have any ways that you think SEGA can improve in this new year, let us know in the comments below.
Today marks the 1 year anniversary of Sonic Forces, so to celebrate SEGA Japan has now released the Sonic Forces on Spotify. The OST in separate collections, most of the tracks appear in the ‘A Hero Will Rise‘ collection which has 87 total tracks. The other collection is the ‘Vocal Traxx – On the Edge‘ collection which has 10 total tracks.
As for what I think of this being a ‘one year’ surprise, eh? Like, you would just assume that SEGA would put these soundtracks on streaming services because its easy money for them. Like is this really worth waiting a whole year for? Personally would have liked to see Sonic Team release a patch and fix up some of Sonic Forces in-game issues. Shoot maybe add a couple of free DLC chapters fleshing out the story more. I know there is no patch that will make the game amazing, but a patch fixing bugs and other things would have gone a long way in the PR front for SEGA. But I guess a soundtrack is nice too.
It looks like Sonic Forces’ soundtrack will be getting a vinyl release next month, being titled the ‘the vinyl cutz’ version. If you are one of the many fans that kept saying that the best thing Sonic Forces had going for it was its soundtrack, congratulations! You get to own it on wax. The Sonic Forces‘ ‘The Vinyl Cutz’ will come with two vinyls and include 19 songs (you can get the full listing after the jump). The vinyl comes out July 31, 2018 and is being printed by Wayo Records and sold through Amazon Japan. Yep, its a Japanese release. According to the Wayo Records website they ship worldwide and will cost approximately $37 USD.
If you are a hater, like myself, that didn’t think much of the full length Sonic Forces soundtrack, then you can continue hating. Hey, you want to hate together?
Sonic the Hedgehog launched in glorious 3D back on the Dreamcast (at least officially, there where other attempts prior) and since 1998 it seems that the blue blur has had some trouble really defining what a 3D Sonic the Hedgehog game should be. We have went from the Adventure style games to the boost gameplay that we know now.
But what is the best 3D Sonic the Hedgehog game?
To me this is hard to answer, like the retro Sonic the Hedgehog games that first came out all had a feel and flow to them, but the 3D ones seem to be all over the place. Even Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 are completely different in tone. For me, it has to be Sonic Adventure and that probably has to do with nostalgia, the fact that I preferred the flow of the game compared to Adventure 2 (letting you pick who you wanted to play instead of forcing you to switch between characters). Is Sonic Adventure perfect? Nah, but no game is. I will also like to give a special shout out to Sonic Generations, which I enjoyed quite a bit. What about you?
SEGA and Atlus are having a digital sale on mostly Nintendo 3DS titles. If you missed some of the more recent (last few years) SEGA 3DS games, then you are in for a treat. I totally recommend titles like Stella Glow, SEGA 3D Classics Collection, 7th Dragon III Code: VFD, and even Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX (if you like rhythm games).
Nintendo Switch:
Nintendo 3DS
Anything you are picking up?
[Via: Go NIntendo]
Seeing that Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night and Persona 5: Dancing Star Night release next month over in the land of the rising son, its weird that SEGA will finally make a poll asking fans what franchise should get cross over outfits for these Persona Dance games. I will assume that SEGA already approved the outfits a long time ago and this is just a way to get fans excited.
Here is the official SEGA Japanese twitter poll:
It seems that SEGA is really working hard to turn their console publishing arm around, with recent changes on how they localize games which included announcing three Yakuza games coming to the West. This of course has fans like me very excited and yesterday SEGA-Sammy posted their financial report that ended on December 31st, 2017. It was filled with good and bad news.
Let’s take a look at what SEGA-Sammy had to say about their performance in the last nine months.
If you guys remember last year, we ran a story that Sonic Forces Super Sonic DLC was free for a limited time, after the initial release (January 23rd) they would be charging users $1.99 to download the ability to turn into Super Sonic. We rightfully complained about this since Super Sonic has been a free unlockable in Sonic the Hedgehog games since the transformation was introduced in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The idea of turning a long running feature of a franchise into a product didn’t sit well with us and other Sonic the Hedgehog fans.
If you guys forgot, we did a SEGA News Bits video on the Sonic Forces day one patch that had a Sanic shirt and Super Sonic. The Sanic shirt was released on November 27th for free. Well, now SEGA has made the Super Sonic transformation DLC live, at least in Europe. The page says it comes out on the 22nd, so expect it on the US PlayStation Store tomorrow.
“Speed through the levels faster than Sonic… as Super Sonic! Get the SUPER SONIC DLC for SONIC FORCES now to transform into Super Sonic across 20+ Modern and Classic Sonic. Collect the right amount of rings and Super Sonic will spring into action, giving you the ability to sprint across stages at break-neck speeds.”
According to the product description, you can’t participate in rankings with the Super Sonic DLC. If this was the end of this news story, I would say that SEGA did a great job, but sadly it isn’t. According to the Nintendo eShop page for the DLC, Super Sonic will be $2 paid DLC after January 23rd. I usually don’t mind companies adding new things to games and charging, if its worth it. But here are my issues with this…
The Nintendo Switch store has posted up the highest selling Nintendo Switch software for 2017. According to Reset Era post, this includes both digital and physical. The top 20 best selling Nintendo Switch games was mostly dominated by Nintendo games. No surprise there but it also included SEGA games like Sonic Mania and Puyo Puyo Tetris, while Sonic Forces didn’t make the top 20 list. According to people on the forum, Pokken DX sold over 500,000 units, considering Sonic Mania did better than that game its safe to assume it did over half a million digitally on the e-store.
Hit the jump to see the top 20 Nintendo Switch selling Nintendo Switch games of 2017:
The other day we discussed our favorite SEGA games of 2017, now we are hitting you with a new video with the total opposite. The most disappointing SEGA games of 2017. We discuss which games most people would consider the worse, our worse SEGA game of 2017 and of course why we chose that game. So sit back, relax and let us take you down a disappointing journey into SEGA’s worse offerings of 2017.
If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a like so it shows up on more like minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that YouTube algorithm is.
Its that time of year, when people online decide to talk about their favorite games of the year. While we here at SEGAbits play a wide arrange of games, we obviously adore SEGA games. So on this episode of the SEGA News Bits we discuss our favorite SEGA games of 2017. Which game did we decide to give our golden Opa-Opa trophy to? Watch the video and find out. What was your favorite SEGA game of 2017 and why? Let us know in the comments below!
If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a like so it shows up on more like minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that YouTube algorithm is.
It seems that Europe, specifically France, will get a ‘2 Hits Pack’ which will include both Sonic Forces and Puyo Puyo Tetris on a Nintendo Switch cartridge(s). The 2 Hits Pack will be published and released by Koch International and not self published by SEGA. According to the Amazon listing, this 2 Hits Pack will cost 49,99 EUR (about $59 USD). Which is a deal considering Puyo Puyo Tetris is listed for 34,99 EUR and Sonic Forces is listed for 29,99 EUR. That’s quite the savings, if you can put up with the bad box art.
The Amazon listing says that shipping starts January 5, 2018. My only other question is if this will come in a single cartridge or will the bundle ship with two separate cartridges? I guess we will find out in a few months. I have heard people online state that they should have included or had Sonic Mania on this ‘2 Hits Pack’ instead of Sonic Forces. Personally think Sonic Mania will do well with a stand alone release, try that before putting it in a bundle like this. But it is a bit shocking that Sonic Forces just came out and its already being bundled with another game to move copies. I mean, that can’t be a good sign, right?
[Via: Amazon.fr]
We all know that Sonic the Hedgehog isn’t a very strong brand in Japan, but I don’t think a lot of people know just how unpopular it is. According to this weeks Media Create Sales, Sonic Forces sold 10,624 units, counting both PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch versions. That’s rather low, seeing Call of Duty: WWII has a staggering second week with sales passing 60k! That’s a game based on the American viewpoint of the war Japan lost and they rather play that by a large number than Sonic Forces. That says something.
But is that a bad thing? Sonic Generations never charted in Japan when it came out in 2011. If anything Sonic Forces is selling higher in the region than expected. The Sonic brand usually makes most of its money in America and Europe, so we will have to see how it performs in those regions before we call it a bomb. You can check out the top selling software titles of the week in Japan by hitting the jump.
[Via: Gematsu]