Sonic Team’s attempt at a Tony Hawk game

Assembler games forum member got his hands on an XBOX 1 devkit. A lot of unreleased games were unearthed, including “SONIC EXTREME”. SONIC EXTREME looks like Sonic Team’s attempt at Tony Hawk… quite literally! You can see Sonic doing Tony Hawk style skateboard tricks.

So yeah… just think. We could have had a Sonic game like this! This was an amusing video to watch and I just had to share it with you guys!

[Source: TSSZNews]

SEGA Sales: 50% off select XBLA titles (UPDATED)

CVG has just reported that from April 19th through April 25th, Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode I, Crazy Taxi, and OutRun Online Arcade will have their prices slashed by 50%. OutRun will run you 400 points, Sonic 4 will cost 600, and Crazy Taxi will set you back another 400 points. No better time to pick these titles up than now.

SEGA Europe has posted a blog about this same sale that includes ALL of their XBLA titles included in this sale. Pick these titles up NOW. Below is a of the titles on sale.

[Source: CVG]
[Source: SEGA]

5 SEGA Games Only on XBOX

Before I kick off  “The Weekly Five”, I want to say that my thoughts and support go out to our friends in Japan and other countries who were affected by the recent natural disasters. While they might be half a world away, there are still ways to help. Seek out charities or check out relief organizations like the Red Cross to donate. Every little bit helps.

When it came time for me to transition from the sixth to the seventh and current generation of consoles, I made up a list of pluses and minuses. PS3 offered blu-ray, 360 offered a strong achievement and avatar system. PS3 lacked PS2 backwards compatibility (with one exception), 360 lacked Yakuza. In the end, the 360 won out, mainly due to price but also due to the fact that the console could play a number of original XBOX games. I gained shelf space AND could still play JSRF and Panzer Dragoon Orta. Despite this, some XBOX exclusives were left in the dust when it came to 360 backwards compatibility, either due to technical reasons or lack of interest on Microsoft’s part. Today we’re looking at five of the SEGA games only found and only playable on the original XBOX. These cannot be played on a 360, thus excluding Panzer Dragoon Orta and JSRF. You dig?

Phantasy Star Online’s Elenor gets an action figure

Check out that action figure of Elenor from PSO, pretty cute? I bet you want yourself one. Well it’s Japan only as of right now, but you can get it on AmiAmi for ¥2,530 ($31).

Seems that this figure, which was shown 8 years ago at Wonder Festival, will finally be in mass production in May 2011. The figure will be made by Kotobukiya.

[Source: TinyCartridge]

Shadow the Hedgehog was aimed at US market

Takashi Iizuka’s masterpiece Shadow the Hedghog wasn’t received too well by critics, mostly because the game, well sucked. But now he explains why the game was the way it was…

“After Sonic Adventure, we had two studios, in the US and Japan. The Japanese Studio was to develop a Sonic game in the standard style, and the US studio was to develop something different which could contribute to the Sonic franchise. That background generated the Shadow game as he appeared from Sonic Adventure. We wanted to offer other game systems to attract a different audience from traditional Sonic fans. In the US, first and third-person shooters were popular and we decided to go with a character who could work with them.”

I honestly assumed that Shadow the Hedgehog was just ‘Sonic Team’ trying to put out a product like Ratchet and Clank or Jak & Dexter. Too bad the concept wasn’t why the game was bashed…

[Source:ONM]

Rumour: Shenmue coming to XBLA?

Potentially massive news if true, the person responsible for the Jet Set Radio XBLA rumour is now claiming that Sega’s epic Shenmue may be coming to the service. A photo and his Youtube account back up the claims, but it’s best to take these things with a grain (or dumptruck) of salt until we get official word. Having said that, it does fall in line with Mike Hayes’ recent interview stating that Sega will be looking to increase the amount of games available Digital Download.

Shenmue was the only console specific game directed by the legendary Yu Suzuki, many consider it to be his finest work. The game was planned to have 16 chapters, but only 5 have thus far been covered through Shenmue and Shenmue II. No doubt fans of the game (such as yours truly) would be elated to see Shenmue return in any shape or form.

Thanks to max_cady on the forums.

[SOURCE: ScrawlFX, Xbox360leak]