Similar to how Sonic Mania had its ‘Plus’ DLC leaked by a SteamDB listing, now the Streets of Rage 4 SteamDB listing has let the cat out of the bag that one of our favorite games of last year will be getting some upcoming DLC.
Considering that the DLC that is upcoming has minor spoilers, hit the jump to see what it is:
If you’re a long time SEGA fan on Xbox and have been looking forward to Yakuza 6: The Song of Life on the Xbox and/or Xbox Game Pass for PC, then you’re in luck! In a little less than 2 weeks you’ll be able to finish the Kazuma Kiryu storyline.
It looks like March is a big month for Game Pass as its also getting:
Since Yakuza 6 will support the ‘cloud’ that means you’ll be able to stream it to compatible devices including your phone.
If you haven’t been following the YouTube channel PtoPOnline run by Andrew Borman, you’re missing out on a channel that shows games that were cancelled, in-development or purely conceptual. As is the case for a video recently uploaded showcasing Climax’s development of a Crazy Taxi game, Crazy Taxi Twenty Four – Seven. The purpose of the video isn’t fully known nor how far the deal between Climax and SEGA proceeded, however the video was likely a demonstration to be shown to SEGA that outlines the general workflow of the game’s development had they decided to proceed with the project. Climax, now known as Climax Studios who are into VR development these days, are more famous for titles such as Sudeki on the original Xbox as well as the developer behind Silent Hill titles such as Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.
The Xbox One is in an interesting place in the current games generation. Lacking the exceptional first party support and third party exclusives of the PlayStation 4, the Nintendo Switch, or even the long-passed Wii U, the Xbox One carves its niche out as a competent home media center and place to play your workhorse multi-platform games. Many players have noted however, that this is not a niche that needs filling. The PlayStation 4 provides your home media wants as strongly as the One, with attractive exclusive features and games besides, as well as a generous “get free games when you subscribe to our online multiplayer” scheme, something the One mirrors with its Games with Gold feature. But there is a niche the One fills that its contemporaries skip out entirely on: backwards compatibility. Today we talk about that, an amazing hidden gem from the original Xbox, and how awesome that game is.
Xbox One continues to expand its Xbox and Xbox 360 backwards compatible titles, this month they will add Sonic Generations and Panzer Dragoon Orta (best looking Xbox title)! Both are great games and glad they get to be played on new consoles.
Sonic Generations is out today and even playable in 4K if you have one of those fancy Xbox One Xs. As for Panzer Dragoon Orta, that one launches on April 17th! There are still plenty of great SEGA Xbox and Xbox 360 games that need to hit the Xbox One, including Jet Set Radio Future!
[Via: Sega Driven]
Over on the infamous video game messaging board, NeoGAF the CEO of Just Add Water confirmed that the Shenmue HD Remasters of the first two titles are real. First you’d ask yourself who the development team ‘Just Add Water’ really is. Well, I did some journalistic google searching and found their wikipedia page:
Just Add Water (Development) Ltd., doing business as Just Add Water, is an independent video game developer based in Otley, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Founded by Stewart Gilray in 2006, Just Add Water has worked on different titles for the PlayStation 3 and PC, notably the Oddworld series. They have teamed up with Oddworld Inhabitants, to recreate the series in high definition as well as working on new installments in the series.
The Just Add Water CEO didn’t confirm anything outside of a short ‘Oh, it’s real… :-)’ message, so we made this a rumor considering that he could just be kidding with fellow board members. Though you’d think someone that is a CEO of a company that specifically ports old games wouldn’t be joking about Shenmue HD Remasters being the works. Considering Shenmue news is serious business to fans that have been waiting for SEGA to port the games since forever. Maybe Shenmue HD Remasters will be shown off in some form come E3 next month? What are your thoughts about SEGA possibly doing Shenmue HD Remasters of the first two games? Would you purchase them again? Let us know in the comments below.
It’s fifteen years later and we’re still trying to understand the concept of love. That’s right, on this date SEGA and Smilebit’s Jet Set Radio Future released in Japan to Microsoft’s Xbox! Just a few days later, on February 25th, the game hit the Americas (thankfully not retitled Jet Grind Radio Future) and then on March 14th those in Europe got to see what those in Japan and the Americas were raving about.
Jet Set Radio Future was a dramatic shift for the franchise for a number of reasons. As the first direct sequel (the Game Boy Advance game was more of a downgraded – but still highly enjoyable – remake), JSRF looked and played very differently. The entire universe had a new art style, characters were very different both in look and allegiance, and the game played less like an arcade game and more like an open world adventure. But hey, what can you expect? It was the future!
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Ten years ago the 15th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog left us with a pretty sour taste. But did you know that there was one game that came out to celebrate the heritage with a racing game boasting an extreme attitude, extreme air and some extreme gear. Tune in 7PM Centra/1AM GMT for the livestream of Sonic Riders as the Retro crew and Unleashed Project’s own S0LV0 tour through the game in extreme style!
Sonic the Hedgehog’s 25th anniversary officially kicked off on June 23rd, which was of course the release date of the eponymous game that started it all. In this SEGA News Bits, George and Barry look back on 25 years of Sonic by spin dashing through all the main series Sonic Team developed console games. There are quite a few to get through, so consider this more of a SEGA News Smörgåsbord. Why are you still reading this? Click play and enjoy!
What are your favorite Sonic games? Let us know the comments below and like always thanks for watching! If you like our SEGA News Bits videos, make sure to subscribe to us on our YouTube channel.
2016 is a big year for milestone SEGA anniversaries, and while the Jet Set Radio franchise didn’t make our mega list (which you can check out right here), I’d be remiss as a Jet Set Radio fan if I didn’t tip my hat to the sequel Jet Set Radio Future which turns 14 today in North America. As an all-encompassing SEGA fan, I don’t really pledge allegiance to one franchise. Everything from Space Channel 5 to Guardian Heroes to Valkyria Chronicles pull at my SEGA fan heartstrings. But one franchise that gets to me more than any other is Jet Set Radio. Playing the first game on the Dreamcast was more than your typical “yay, a new game” experience. Jet Set Radio introduced me to a crazy new world where bright colors, catchy music and offbeat street culture melded together into a game that I couldn’t stop playing. It wasn’t so much the gameplay the grabbed me, as it was the world of Tokyo-to. Popping the game into my Dreamcast was another free trip to explore my favorite video game world.
So you can imagine my excitement when Jet Set Radio Future was announced, featuring a much larger world and even better graphics. The only catch? It was on a console I had never intended to buy at the time, Microsoft’s Xbox.
The executive team, Hideki Okamura (Left), Hisao Oguchi (Middle) and Takayuki Kawagoe (Right).
In 2005, Sega was back in the black in all areas for the first time in a long time. The Sega Sammy structure was completed, and the next generation home consoles were ahead. Like in the formation of twelve new R&D studios in 1998, executive management had a reset. Long time executives Hideki Sato and Hisashi Suzuki retired from Sega, after their thirty – or even in Suzuki’s case – forty years of service.
As mentioned in Part 3, Hisao Oguchi would atain the highest executive position which he held until 2008 where he received even wider responsibilities as Chief Creative Officer of Sega Sammy.
Then there is Masano Maeda, who joined in 1991. Madea was responsible for building a new Western management team that made crucial partnerships and buyouts of Western companies, like Creative Assembly, Sports Interactive and Secret Level On a side note: the amount of games developed for Xbox 360 amount to roughly forty games, and on PC to about sixty games. On the Dreamcast, the amount comes to fourteen, and old PC releases amount to sixteen.
In the West, SEGA’s Smilebit has become synonymous with the Jet Set Radio games, and for good reason. Like Sonic The Hedgehog to the Genesis and NiGHTS into Dreams to the Saturn, the original Jet Set Radio became one of the Dreamcast’s defining games, showcasing unique graphics and reinventing a video game genre. As SEGA left the hardware market in 2001, internal developers announced which consoles they would favor and Smilebit fittingly ended up with Microsoft’s Xbox.
I say “fittingly” because it only made sense that a developer known for pushing the graphical envelope would choose the Xbox, given Smilebit members’ propensities for expansive worlds in past titles like Team Andromeda’s Panzer Dragoon Saga and the first Jet Set Radio. While Jet Set Radio tried to conceal the fact that the game actually consisted of several small areas linked by clever tricks allowing the Dreamcast to load the next area as the player skated to the another section of the map, on the Xbox Smilebit could truly create expansive and detailed worlds. Utilizing the Xbox’s power, Smilebit did just that with Jet Set Radio Future, Panzer Dragoon Orta, and Gunvalkyrie.
Image credits: Will of the Ancients
As one of my favorite video game franchises, Panzer Dragoon contains many memorable experiences for me. From my first time flying through the sunken ruins in the original to my final battle in Saga, this series will always hold a unique place in my collection of gaming experiences.
With Team Andromeda Month winding down, I wanted to share some of these experiences. In the interest of keeping things interesting, since most Panzer games tend to end on a high note, I won’t be talking much about final stages or boss battles. I will also be spreading them across all of the games in the franchise in order to avoid favoring any one game too much over the others, as they are all worth talking about. Keep in mind this is a personal list, so feel free to chime in with your own top five moments in the comments!
It’s hard to believe Panzer Dragoon Orta is more than 12 years old. Looking back, Orta has aged incredibly well. Its visuals are still gorgeous and its gameplay still feels just as smooth and polished as it did in 2003. In an age where all sorts of obscure games are seeing digital re-releases and all sorts of franchises and genres are finding new life in the realm of digital, I think it’s a missed opportunity that Panzer Dragoon hasn’t received any sort of new release while digital gaming has been booming.
So today I thought I’d write up an article exploring the many ways Panzer Dragoon could (and should) fit into SEGA’s renewed focus on digital and mobile gaming.
Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove is a Kickstarter campaign from Greg Johnson, video game designer and co-founder of ToeJam & Earl Productions. On this week’s Swingin’ Report Show podcast, Greg joins us to talk about how he plans to bring the funky aliens back in a new game, and how he and Mark Voorsanger pitched and developed the original three games of the series for SEGA.
Learn how Toejam and Earl made the transition from Greg’s subconscious to video games, what it was like working with SEGA throughout the 90s, his thoughts on the sequels Panic on Funkotron and Mission to Earth, and how Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove is set to reimagine and build upon the famous first game. If you’re a game developer, or simply want to know more about how games are made, this episode is a must listen!