Ulala confirmed for All-Stars Racing Transformed, plus more screens and a new trailer!

What a day it has been for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed reveals! First we learned about Sky Sanctuary being a track, then a batch of new screens release confirming the return of Ulala to the racer roster as well as what appears to be a The House of the Dead Curien Mansion track. Also, a new trailer entitled “Ways to Race” shows off the many game modes including world tour, multiplayer and missions, as well as our first look at what I assume is the Shinobi track. Great news for The House of the Dead fans: the franchise is also represented as a battle arena. Also, Sonic’s Starlight Carnival, Jet Set Radio and After Burner will have their own arenas.

After the break, screens featuring Ulala and the NiGHTS track!

Sonic Adventure 2 and NiGHTS hit PSN today, XBLA on October 5th, PC in “coming months”

SEGA has released a launch trailer to celebrate the release of two more SEGA Heritage collection releases: Sonic Adventure 2 and NiGHTS Into Dreams. Both titles hit PSN today, and XBLA gets them on October 5th. Also available at launch will be Battle Mode DLC for Sonic Adventure 2, while NiGHTS will have Christmas NiGHTS content included at no extra cost. Those who buy a copy on PSN will receive a free exclusive NiGHTS or Sonic Adventure 2 theme for their PS3. As for the PC versions, SEGA says to stay tuned for more info and that they should arrive in the coming months.

SEGA announces Zaxxon Escape for iOS and Google Play devices!

Suddenly a new Ecco doesn’t seem so crazy now that SEGA has announced a sequel to an arcade and Master System classic. Zaxxon Escape, coming soon to iPhone, iPad, and Google Play devices, will be the fifth title in SEGA’s shooter series. The first Zaxxon originated in the arcade, but soon was ported to nearly every gaming console and home computer in the early 80’s. Zaxxon was revolutionary for its time, as it was the first game to feature isometric projection (pixel art that gave the illusion of 3D gameplay). Zaxxon was also one of the first games to display shadows, to show the relation of the ship to the surface of the levels, and was the first arcade game to be advertised on television. An arcade sequel, Super Zaxxon, was released as well as a third title aptly named Zaxxon 3-D, which took advantage of the Master System’s 3D glasses. A fourth, and until now, final sequel was released to the 32X by the name of Zaxxon’s Motherbase 2000. If you want to learn more about that game, check out the My Life With SEGA review.

So with all that history in mind, Zaxxon Escape is quite a big deal. So far, SEGA has only announced the game, released the above video, and a few screens which can be seen after the break. So until more information is given, I say celebrate the return of a SEGA classic. Does it hurt that the title is, at the moment, a smartphone game? Hell no! Having played a number of great space shooters on my iPad, including Space Invaders Infinity Gene and Shogun, I feel that with the right developers behind it, this could be a great game.

Project X Zone gets a new frantic gameplay trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXbalVMNliY

Check out the latest Project X Zone trailer, this one is showing off the in-game’s crazy fighting engine. It looks pretty intense. Sadly the game has only been announced for release in Japan. I guess we can look at it and envy them Japanese people.

“Gods, what have we done?” See the first Total War: ROME II gameplay trailer

SEGA has released an epic trailer for Total War: ROME II showing some pretty amazing in-game footage. Ships! Shouting! Giant statue heads! Elephants!

For the first in-game look at the next title in the award-winning series, The Creative Assembly present a glimpse of the epic warfare and phenomenal detail players can expect when Total War™: ROME II arrives in 2013.

The year is 146BC, brilliant tactician Scipio Aemilianus is dispatched by Rome to break the three-year-long siege of Carthage, an unforgivable blight on the glory of the growing Empire. Ruthless determination and an almost suicidal amphibious assault is required, but the young consul is uncomfortably aware that the price of victory may be much higher than the senate realizes.

These two new Yakuza 5 trailers will make you shout “bring this West, SEGA!”

Two new Yakuza 5 trailers have released, and holy crap are they awesome. The first trailer highlights the many mini-games and gameplay modes within the game. The five cities are highlighted, and mini-games including baseball, hunting, taxi cab racing, Virtua Fighter 2 and more are on display. Really fun looking time wasting stuff! The second trailer, seen after the break, goes into the story. What do you all think? Are you ready for more Yakuza? Thanks to Aki-at for the heads up!

UPDATED Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed gets a release date and a new trailer

UPDATE: A US trailer has been released, revealing a US release date of November 20th, 2012. Also, we have package art for the 360, PS3, 3DS and Vita after the break.

With Comic Con comes many announcements, and not just ones pertaining to comic books. SEGA has officially announced a release date for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Trasformed, at least for the UK: November 16th, 2012. I’d guess that this means the US release date will either fall on November 13th or November 20th. Ah yes, and that lovely trailer. No real new reveals, though it does show off a bit more of the CG intro and features Sonic and friends plus Joe Musashi, Gilius Thunderhead, Vyse and other already revealed SEGA all-stars. I do like how the Panzer Dragoon track is the setting for the intro. Enjoy the trailers and mark your calendars!

“NiGHTS into dreams…” to receive an HD rerelease

Seems SEGA’s NiGHTS tease wasn’t All-Stars related after all. It is actually something much, much better: an HD rerelease of the SEGA Saturn classic “NiGHTS into dreams…”! NiGHTS fans have asked for this for years, and they’re finally getting it. The SEGA blog lists the following features:

  • Xbox LIVE Arcade, PlayStation Network, and Windows PC Digital Download this fall
  • Improved HD graphics and a 16:9 aspect ratio
  • Added support for leaderboards, trophies, and achievements
  • An optional Saturn Mode that will let players experience the game with the original graphics intact.

So, who is excited? It’s about time NiGHTS got some love from SEGA, and this rerelease is the perfect gift for fans of the franchise.

*UPDATE: Altered Beast and HotD cameos added* Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph trailer hits, check out Eggman’s cameo!

For those living under a rock, Disney has been working on a CG animated feature called “Wreck-It Ralph” which is essentially “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” with video game characters. For quite some time we’ve known that Eggman had a cameo, but it wasn’t until today that we got to see Eggman in action. He doesn’t say much, if anything, but he’s there. Try and spot other SEGA characters in the Game Central Station scene. I’d assume Eggman, being in his modern design, crawled out of the Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing arcade machine. The movie hits this fall.

After the break, another SEGA baddie spotted!

All-Stars Transformed: Joe Musashi races through Adder’s Lair

Leave it to IGN to spoil SEGA’s fun. A recent post over at the site revealed a hell of a lot of new Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed details. The BIGGEST is that, yes Shinobi fans, Joe Musashi himself is a confirmed racer! IGN has also revealed that Adder’s Lair from Golden Axe is a new track. Also appearing is Jet Set Radio’s Tokyo-to which features a gang war playing out in the background which affects the racers. Previously revealed Gilius Thunderhead finally gets his public showing, and the expected return of Shadow is confirmed. After the break, another tasty screen and the trailer!

Anarchy Reigns gets a Japanese game mode trailer

Here is the latest Japanese trailer for Anarchy Reigns. Sadly the trailer is in Japanese, if only SEGA West acted like this game existed then we’d get English trailers. Oh, can we start the Anaracy Reigns is not coming West rumors now?

Are we ever going to get tired of writing “Hell Yeah!” headlines? Hell no!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uP6QpUWs_I

A new gameplay trailer has arrived for SEGA and Arkedo Studio’s Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit. The trailer reveals a bit of the game’s plot, which I won’t spoil. You’ll have to see it in the trailer. It is – ahem – quite odd. The art style is definitely influenced by Rayman Origins and Splosion Man, complete with wacky over the top environments and lots of meat flying about. Gameplay looks very fun, it’s like if General Grievous of Star Wars went on a rampage on his wheel bike. The game is set for a summer release to XBLA, PSN and Steam.

Thanks to SEGAbits forum member max_cady for the heads up!

Rhythm Thief & The Emperor’s Treasure gets European launch trailer

Even though we recently have been hit by the recent layoff news, SEGA is set to release Rhythm Thief & The Emperor’s Treasure on April 5th in Europe. Here is the game’s launch trailer above. If you want to see the euro website, click here. Has samples of some of the awesome music you will find in the full game.

Sadly if you live in America, like me, you will have to wait all the way till July 10th to get your hands on this game. That isn’t very fair, now is it?