Virtua Fighter’s Akira to appear in Smash Bros Ultimate as assist trophy


It looks like Super Smash Bros Ultimate will continue to pay tribute to the innovative Virtua Fighter franchise. During the release of Smash Bros for Wii U and 3DS, Nintendo announced that Virtua Fighter’s Akira and Jacky outfits would come to the games via DLC. Now Virtua Fighter’s Akria will appear in the game when it launches as a assist trophy. It has also been confirmed that Shadow the Hedgehog would be returning once again as a assist trophy as well, which would mark his 3rd appearance as a assist trophy. Very surprised he didn’t get a echo fighter treatment.

Nintendo also announced a ton of new content for the upcoming Super Smash Bros Ultimate release on Nintendo Switch, so check that out. Sadly not a lot of it is SEGA related, so not posting it here.

SEGA News Bits Extra: New Team Sonic Racing Track Revealed & First Persona on PlayStation Classic

On this SEGA News Bits Extra we discuss the return of the king… King Boom Boo that is who has his own spooky track in Team Sonic Racing! We also talk about Sonic’s cameo in Ralph Breaks the Internet, Phantasy Star‘s SEGA AGES release and the original Persona game appearing on the PlayStation Classic.

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Arcade Review: House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn – True Horror Returns

A classic SEGA franchise brand that spawned many sequels, spinoffs, movies and a vast global following of core and casual players since its debut in arcades in 1997. It has been 12 years since we have seen a House of the Dead game in the arcades worldwide and with SEGA CEO Haruki Satomi wanting to win older fans trust again when it comes to their brand, we finally managed to get a sample of that trust with a new entry to the classic arcade horror shooter. House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn, announced back in January 15th 2018 for Japanese arcades, is now in the west and we got a chance to play and complete it! The House of the Dead has risen beyond the grave once again but does this latest entry live up to our expectations. Hit the jump to read our review of House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn.

SEGA AGES Nintendo Switch team reveals they are working on NAOMI Arcade emulation, not specifically Dreamcast

According to a brand new SEGA AGES team interview, they have revealed that they are actually working on SEGA NAOMI emulation, not technically Dreamcast. If you didn’t already know, the SEGA Dreamcast is actually based on the SEGA NAOMI arcade board and was designed for companies to easily port their arcade games over to the SEGA Dreamcast. You can check out the full release of arcade titles to hit the SEGA NAOMI board here, but some highlights include Crazy Taxi, Dead or Alive 2, The House of the Dead 2, Samba De Amigo, Virtua Tennis , Power Stone, Marvel vs Capcom 2, and a lot more.

The team has said that these SEGA NAOMI titles will only happen if the first volume of SEGA AGES vol. 1 sells well on the Nintendo Switch. They have also said that they have a specific SEGA NAOMI arcade title in mind to launch the new series. What SEGA AGES NAOMI title would you want to see hit the Nintendo Switch?

[Source: GSK]

SEGA Genesis Classics hits Nintendo Switch on December 7

It looks like the Nintendo Switch version of the SEGA Genesis Classics compilation will hit the console hybrid portable this December 7, 2018. Looks like they really wanted to hit that holiday period. The collection will feature over 50 SEGA Genesis era titles.

Hot on the heels of the Sega Ages titles announced last week and set to launch during the Tokyo Gaming Show, SEGA continues a winter of bringing great classics to the portable Switch. Retro fans can now finally play the Genesis / Mega Drive collection on their way to school or work, in their lunch break or basically anywhere on the go! Sega Genesis Classics / Sega Mega Drive Classics has over 50 retro favorites to experience across every genre: arcade action, shooters, beat’m ups, puzzlers and hidden gems, with a raft of modern features. Exclusively for the Nintendo Switch players can now compete in same-screen local coop mode and use each Joy-Con individually if desired. Familiar features like online multiplayer, achievements, mirror modes, rewind and save states are all part of the collection for everyone to revisit and enjoy.
You can check out the list of games included after the break.

Team Sonic Racing track reveal scratches that fan service itch – enter “Boo’s House”!

We’ve been a little hard on Team Sonic Racing here at SEGAbits, but we do so out of love. Following up from the great Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing and excellent Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Team Sonic Racing felt a little flat. In dropping the other SEGA characters and making it Sonic-only, I felt that SEGA really needed to go the extra mile to appease fans. Go nuts with the callbacks to Sonic’s racing past, feature long lost characters like Fang, give us tracks that mash-up classic and modern eras. Unfortunately, from what we’ve seen the roster is limited and the tracks feel pretty basic.

Thankfully, with the announcement of a delay to May 2019, we could see a little more TLC put into the game and today’s reveal just might be an indication of that. Released on the Sonic social media accounts is a preview of the music from a new track “Boo’s House”. What’s great about the track design is that it evokes Sonic 3‘s Sandopolis and Sonic Adventure 2‘s Pyramid Cave. The track is home to Sonic Adventure 2‘s boss King Boom Boo and the music is a remix of Sandopolis by Tee Lopes & Jun Senoue featuring Tei Sena on violin. Suffice to say, this reveal makes me very happy and I hope we see this level of fan service applied to other tracks in the game.

SEGA in the Media: Sonic makes a cameo in the upcoming sequel to Wreck-It Ralph

The embarrassingly titled sequel to Wreck-It Ralph, Ralph Breaks the Internet, releases next month. While the follow-up to the arcade and video game reference packed original is trading nostalgia for hip and trendy internet references, at least we will get some video game cameos. SEGA mascot Sonic the Hedgehog appeared a few times in the first movie, and he returns here with dialogue once again provided by Roger Craig Smith.

Footage of the cameo had been floating around the past few days, but it was a truncated and cropped version of the above video. Fans online have noted how great the animation on Sonic is, and I totally agree. He looks and sounds great! Such a shame a year from now we have that Sonic movie releasing where he will be in the real world and voiced by a different actor. Oh well, enough negativity from Old Man Barry… enjoy the clip!

PlayStation Classic to include the original Persona game

The full line-up of 20 games which will be included on the PlayStation Classic plug and play has been revealed, and surprisingly there is a reason for us to share the news! No, there aren’t any SEGA games included but an ATLUS title did make the cut. Included in the PlayStation Classic will be the first game in the Persona series, Revelations: Persona.

SEGA AGES Phantasy Star gets new release date for October 31st


Previously, SEGA AGES Phantasy Star was planned for a tentative September release date, but was quietly delayed as the SEGA AGES versions of Sonic the Hedgehog and Thunder Force IV filled in that month instead. However, now we have official confirmation as to when SEGA AGES Phantasy Star will be released, and it’s much more sooner than expected. The game is currently planned for this Halloween, October 31th 2018. An odd and sudden choice, but this is likely a side effect of these SEGA AGES delays causing the original scheduling to be messed up.

The game is slated for a ¥925 (roughly $8.50) pricing, and like the other SEGA AGES titles will come with an assortment of bonus features. In addition to the original game, players will have access to other features such as the ability to listen to both the PSG and FM sounds, an optional mapping system for dungeons, an “easy” mode for novices, and a special encyclopedia called the “Monster-Codex” that allows you to view the sprites, stats, and descriptions of different enemies.

[Source: Game Watch]

SEGA News Bits: Team Sonic Racing Delayed Until May 2019 Reaction

It has finally been confirmed that Team Sonic Racing won’t be hitting this holiday season, instead we will have to wait until May 2019 to get our hands on the upcoming Sumo Digital Sonic the Hedgehog themed racing game. On this episode of the SEGA News Bits we discuss why it might have been delayed, what they can do with the extra time to get Sonic fans more excited and more!

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Sonic the Hedgehog designer Naoto Oshima working on CGI film under working title ‘The Monkey Prince’


It looks like Japanese film company Toei Animation and Chinese giant Bona Film Group are partnering up for CGI flick under the working title ‘The Monkey Prince‘.

This film was just shown off the other day as part of the Tokyo Film Festival and will have quite a bit of big names including Sonic the Hedgehog character designer Naoto Ohshima, who is obviously going to design the film’s characters along side Takao Noguchi (Dreamworks/Sony Pictures veteran). The film will be directed by John A. Davis (Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Ant Bully) and written by J. David and David N. Weiss (Shrek 2, The Smurfs)

Chuck Williams is being brought into production of the film, Chuck has a long history with Pixar and Disney Animation working on projects such as Brother Bear and Beauty and the Beast. He had this to say:

Team Sonic Racing Delayed To May 21, 2019, Surprises No One

Have you noticed something about Team Sonic Racing? There has been very little hype and update for the game and it seems the reason for that is that the game is being delayed. There have been rumors about this delay in the past but it has officially been confirmed by the Sonic the  Hedgehog twitter account this morning:


It feels to me that this could be a good idea if this actually means we are getting a better game for it. Quite frankly, I’m pretty sure that Team Sonic Racing might have not have done too hot this holiday season with big titles like Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Fallout 76 coming soon. What are your thoughts on the delay?

7th Dragon 2020-II For Sony PSP Gets English Fan Translation

As you already know that SEGA has only localized one of the four released 7th Dragon games from Japan. That one was the last one 7th Dragon III Code: VFD on the Nintendo 3DS. But if you didn’t already know the game debuted back in 2009 on the Nintendo DS with 7th Dragon (translated here), then 7th Dragon 2020 (translated here) on PSP and then comes this newly translated title 7th Dragon 2020-II. Obviously 7th Dragon 2020-II is a direct sequel the previous PSP game and its recommended you play that first.

If you guys didn’t know 7th Dragon was requested by most hardcore SEGA fans due to the involvement of big named SEGA creators including producer Rieko Kodama (Phantasy Star, Skies of Arcadia) and composer Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage, Etrian Odyssey). I love these sort of fan translation projects because lets be honest, there is no way that these past three 7th Dragon games will get localization in the west especially considering that the Nintendo DS and PSP are both obsolete.

[Source: Romhacking]

Yakuza 4 trailer for PS4 releases showing off Masayoshi Tanimura’s changed model in action

We posted the other day that Yakuza 4 would release January 17, 2019 in Japan and that the character Masayoshi Tanimura, one of the four playable characters in Yakuza 4 would have a model and voice changed due to the original actor Hiroki Narimiya retiring from acting (which not might all be his choice). This new trailer shows the new voice and model in action, now being played by Toshiki Masuda.

Not only that, SEGA has also released a ton of screenshots including the box art for the game.