Atlus announces Soul Hackers 2 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series/One, and PC

Atlus has announced Soul Hackers 2 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One and PC (Steam). The first game, at the time titled Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers is actually already the ‘second game’ in the ‘Devil Summoner‘ series which itself is a side-series of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise which originally came out on SEGA Saturn and PlayStation, then getting a 3DS remake in 2012. Does all this confuse you? Probably why they decided a more simple, Soul Hackers 2 title instead of “Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers 2” 

The game is set to launch pretty soon, on August 25th in Japan and the next day world wide with Japanese voice overs and English, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese subtitles. In Japan they already announced a special Soul Hackers 2 25th Anniversary Edition for PS5 & PS4 that includes a three disc soundtrack, 100 page anniversary book with artwork & interviews, and more to be announced soon.

As for what special versions, day one editions or even pre-order DLC for those outside of Japan; its unknown as of right now. But don’t worry, we will keep you guys posted. Siliconera has a good breakdown on the Japanese content though.

Watch Yakuza Creator sing the Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania theme song

(Starts at the 11:45 mark of the video above)

SEGA has revealed the official theme song for Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania with producer Masao Shirosaki along with ‘The Banana Fritters’ who are voice actors who also provide the voices for our Monkey heroes (and Baby) in the game.

The theme song for Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania is being titled ‘Hello Banana!!” and debuted as a part of the Sega Atlus Tokyo Game Show 2021 live stream.

The Banana Fritters consist of:

  • Koichi Yamadera (voices Dr. Bad-Boon)
  • Noriko Hidaka (Voices AiAi, MeeMee and YanYan)
  • Toshihiko Seki (Voices Jet)

But during the video, if you look closely you will start seeing cameo appearances by big name SEGA creators singing along the chorus. Two of the big names are Toshihiro Nagoshi who is the creator of Daytona USA, Super Monkey Ball and Yakuza series. Masao Shirosaki who is the current series producer also makes a cameo appearance!

Sonic & Friends Join Minecraft as DLC pack to celebrate 30th anniversary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE_zAoOHKHg

If you are a hybrid Sonic and Minecraft fan, SEGA and Microsoft have a big announcement for you! It looks like you’ll be able to get stage decorations for both Green Hill Zone and Chemical Plant Zone. It also seems like you’ll be joined by Sonic’s friends including Tails, Knuckles and Knuckles.

Check out the screenshots to see more. It also seems that Microsoft will have a special server event for Sonic’s birthday, which is set to last two weeks! With something special happening one of those weekends.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania officially announced, coming October 5, 2021

SEGA has officially revealed Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania! The game is releasing in time for the franchise’s 20th anniversary. The game promises 300 recreated stages from the original three Super Monkey Ball games, as well as fan favorite mini games. Expect the game to hit October 5, 2021 to PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania box art and screenshots leak online ahead of its E3 Nintendo Direct debut


SEGA’s Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania might be the worse kept game secret in a long time, having its platforms already leak and now box art and screenshots from TechnikNews writer Nils Ahrensmeier. I’ll be honest, that is probably some of the nicest box art I have seen from a Super Monkey Ball game and I really dig the logo.

Big spoilers, those mini-games you love from the original games? They back baby! Check out the screens shared by Nils below:

Unannounced Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania leaks platforms via Brazil’s classification board


We posted before how the Australian Classification Board rated Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania and now it looks like the beans (I mean, bananas) have been re-spilled by a Brazilian certification board. But this time we got more information, which platforms the unannounced game is heading for and basically every modern piece of hardware:

  • PC
  • PlayStation 4
  • Xbox One
  • Nintendo Switch
  • PlayStation 5
  • Xbox Series X/S

Crazy enough, SEGA just revealed quite a bit of games, but still no word on this Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania title…

Judgment sequel Lost Judgment releases worldwide on September 24

SEGA has officially announced that the legal action thriller Judgment from Yakuza series developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio will be receiving a sequel! Titled Lost Judgment, the game will see a simultaneous worldwide release on September 24 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One. You can check out the trailer now! We will be sure to share more details as we hear them.

Streets of Rage 4 announces Mr. X Nightmare DLC, will also come with free content update to base game

Looks like the listing from Dot Emu on SteamDB was true, the new add-on DLC for Streets of Rage 4 is being titled Mr. X Nightmare. The DLC is set to have Estel Aguirre as playable, new game modes, new moves, new weapons, and even new tracks by Sonic Mania fame Tee Lopes.

But what if you just got Streets of Rage 4? Well, Dot Emu isn’t leaving the base game behind as this update for the DLC will also include free upgrade to the base game that will include Mania + difficulty, Training mode with tutorial, New color palettes, and more stuff to be announced in the future.

The steam page for the DLC is already up, if you guys want to add it to your Wishlist. This trailer has me hyped, lets go!

Judgment Remastered announced for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Stadia

Judgment is a great game, one that I think any fan of the Yakuza franchise should give a try. While I enjoyed most of the game, there were moments within the game that could have used polished (one of those scenes is actually shown a bit in this trailer), so I hope the newly announced “Judge Eyes Remastered” (Judge Eyes being the Japanese name) fixes those issues. The new remastered version will cost you $39.99. This will also mark the debut for the game outside a Sony platform, with it being on Xbox and Stadia (who cares about that one, right?).

This is also the first time a RGG Studio game has gotten a world wide release date on the same day in Japan with the rest of the world. The game is set to come out on April 21st, 2021! Judgment Remastered is said to run at 4K at 60fps, but also include all the DLC on the disc. Hit the jump for the press release from SEGA:

Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 Review – Solid Yet Conflicting (Nintendo Switch)

Review code provided by SEGA

Puzzle games! They’re fun! They’re varied! They’re kind of strange to talk about, too, they’re very weird and specific in that way. Why do you play them? I play them because I want something fun and simple that puts my brain to work, or to put my brain against some other person’s brain and see who can work their brain better, or something. And that’s awesome! I love these games!

But there’s a lot of them. Puyo Puyo and Tetris are two of the biggest puzzle games on the planet, they have such long, storied histories, they play in such similar yet contrasting ways, it’s fascinating playing a game that has them both in one package. But it’s also not the only time they’ve been in one package. When I previewed this game, I mentioned how it was comforting how little had changed between games, because it meant I was gonna have a good time regardless of which one I booted up. But now that it’s out, I gotta ask myself: does that comfort hold up after a few weeks of playing?

Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 Preview – Comfortable Iteration

As I write this, I’m not actually sure what’s running on my Switch; Puyo Puyo Tetris, or Puyo Puyo Tetris 2. There’s almost a comfort to that, knowing that no matter what, a solid puzzle game is, waiting for me when I go get it off my nightstand. That comfort was even felt when I first booted the game, where I immediately launched into a standard 150 line Tetris challenge from the main menu and lost at line 140 due to being tired. There’s a comfort to the game being similar to my experiences to the first game, a comfort to the idea that I know what I’m getting into with a sequel, on some level.

I am not really an expert on Puyo Puyo. I’m not even really a Puyo Puyo player. My first experience with the series was the small Puyo minigame in Project Mirai DX back on the 3DS. But I am at least a big Tetris fan, I could eat Tetris for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. No library of mine is complete without a Tetris game somewhere in it. I find this puts me in an interesting position in comparison to the site’s resident Puyo fanatic, FlareHabanero, to preview, and then eventually review this crossover sequel. I have to save much of my thoughts on PPT2 for the review, but I can at least tell you from playing this game over the past few days that PPT2 is an excellent, polished, and feature-rich package I want to sink more hours into.

Microsoft Japan indefinitely delays the Xbox Series version of Yakuza Like a Dragon


It looks like if you live in Japan, you won’t be able to experience the power of X when it comes to playing Yakuza Like a Dragon. I would say in the title that SEGA delayed the game, but according to the Game.Impress article from Japan, they’re saying Microsoft Japan is delaying it and not SEGA. Probably because in Japan the game was suppose to come out digitally only.

According to Game Impress there is no reason given by SEGA to why they delayed it and if it will be one of those “Its coming…” then we never hear about it. The site says that this version was titled “Yakuza Like a Dragon” instead its Japanese name: “Ryu ga Gotoku 7 Whereabouts of Light and Darkness”. They also say that this version was set to include the English dub and subtitles (along with all the other great languages it supports). Yakuza Like a Dragon was set to be a launch title for the Xbox Series X which releases on November 10th. Oddly enough, the game page to pre-order Yakuza Like a Dragon seems to still be up on the Microsoft page.

I also heard mixed opinions online regarding past Xbox ports coming out in Japan. I heard some people suggest that Micorosft never released these titles in Japan but that doesn’t seem to be true since all Xbox releases are marked as ‘World Wide’ online. I guess if you buy a Xbox Series X or S and live in Japan, you can always just make a United States account to buy the western version or play it on Game Pass.

[Via Game Watch]