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Shenmue III delayed to November 19, 2019

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Today, Shenmue III Kickstarter backers received a simple update informing them that the game would be delayed from August 27, 2019 to November 19, 2019. The message also said: “Whilst almost ready, the game simply needs a little more refinement before being truly finished. We feel that the extra time we have will help us deliver the true Shenmue experience players around the world deserve!”

A delay felt almost inevitable, given how little press has gone out for a game that was to be due out in less than three months. At least it isn’t a significant delay, just a little under three months tacked on to the release date. I will admit, I think the content of the updates and lack of any real behind the scenes information has been really disappointing. I don’t doubt that the game is being worked on and will release within 2019, but the amount of information shared with backers and the interaction between the development team and supporters has been really underwhelming. Hopefully as November nears, we learn and see a lot more of the game and see the supposed trial version.

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Unreleased beta for SEGA Saturn game Star Wars: Rebel Strike uncovered!

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Thanks to a post on the Obscure Gamers forum, we have our first look at an unreleased Star Wars game from SEGA for the SEGA Saturn! It has long been known that SEGA had planned a port of their Star Wars Trilogy Arcade game for the Saturn (a game I actually played through just yesterday at the Galloping Ghost Arcade). But in addition to this, SEGA had planned another game exclusive to the console. Titled Star Wars: Rebel Strike, gaming magazines at the time guessed that the game would be an amalgamation of all three Star Wars films, though that sounds very much like what Star Wars Trilogy Arcade already was. My guess is journalists confused the two projects for one, as the recently released beta footage for Rebel Strike shows a very different game.

The footage shows a speeder bike with lock-on targeting, and while free roaming it does very much resemble SEGA’s on-rails shooter Panzer Dragoon. Personally, I think it looks like Luxoflux’s Star Wars: Demolition. It is unknown who exactly developed this, and if it was truly internally developed by SEGA, but based on the test menu mentioning the name “Scott” I’m going to guess it was developed in the west. We’ll be sure to share more information as it is uncovered! It’s very cool to see another Star Wars game uncovered, especially for the SEGA Saturn which lacked any Star Wars games in its library.

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Sonic Mania will be free for PlayStation Plus users this June

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Did you buy Sonic Mania on every platform besides the PlayStation 4? You are in luck if you are a PlayStation Plus user since Sonic Mania, the base game, will be free to play this June. Looks like SEGA is hoping users spend some bucks on the ‘Plus’ DLC. Kinda strange that Sonic Mania Plus wasn’t given away on PlayStation Plus, that would have made a nice headline. I guess two positives do equal a negative.

How many of you guys haven’t played Sonic Mania yet? I doubt there are very many of you.

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SEGA Talk #19: Sonic Adventure (1998)

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SEGA Talk returns to the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise with Sonic’s first 3D platformer: Sonic Adventure! George and Barry discuss the Dreamcast classic from development to release, sharing little known factoids and their own memories of the game.

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If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add  them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!

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SEGA’s Fish Life Preserved at Musée Bolo in Switzerland, Publically Released

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The Dreamcast based virtual aquarium, Fish Life, has been given new life thanks to Musée Bolo, the Switzerland based video game museum. Thanks to approval from SEGA of Europe, they have also allowed for the release of the disc images that would run on on the specialized hardware. To help show off the hardware in a broader sense, the museum has also crafted a webpage full of valuable resources that cover this uncommon part of SEGA’s Amusement history.

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PtoPOnline Reveals Climax’s Prototype Footage of Unreleased Crazy Taxi Game

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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.

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Arcade Love: Plus Pengo! coming to Nintendo Switch on August 22nd in Japan

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Mebius has announced that Arcade Love: Plus Pengo! will come to the Nintendo Switch on August 22nd in Japan. Previously this collection of games was released in 2012 for the arcades, then later ported to Steam and Xbox 360. Arcade Love: Plus Pengo! contains 4 games, including two minigame collections that tests your skills via Action-Game Skill Test and Shmup Skill Test respectively that were originally released in 2007, and a shmup called Combat Zeal that uniquely focuses on split screen multiplayer with the goal of trying to get the highest score.

However for hardcore SEGA fans, this collection notably includes a special version of the 1982 arcade game Pengo. This version of Pengo features a similar premise to the original arcade game, where you play as the titular Pengo and you have to either break or push ice blocks, with the goal of trying to kill all of the Sno-Bees. However, it was remade from the ground up with a multiplayer focus, where players are now tasked with trying to rack up the highest score within the time limit. It’s promised that Pengo will support 8 players on the Nintendo Switch and offers the option of both free-for-all or team matches, so maybe bring a friend to try this unique spin on a fairly obscure arcade game.

[Source: 4Gamer]

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SEGA AGES Wonder Boy in Monster Land releasing on May 30th in Japan

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After SEGA has officially revealed information regarding to the upcoming SEGA AGES Wonder Boy in Monster Land, we finally have an official release date. SEGA AGES Wonder Boy in Monster Land is scheduled for a Japanese release on May 30th, or next Thursday as of this writing. As usual with the SEGA AGES titles, it will be priced at ¥925 (roughly $8.50) on the Japanese Nintendo eShop, and it will contain bonus content such as three separate challenges and options with the wiggle joystick trick, such as the ability to map it to a button or to disable it and challenge leaderboards.

[Source: Official Website]

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Sonic the Hedgehog Movie delayed into February 14, 2020

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Are you surprised to hear that the Sonic the Hedgehog movie is being delayed? You shouldn’t, if you have been keeping up the studio announced it was redesigning the blue blur after the negative backlash the debut trailer received. Jeff Fowler posted the above image saying:

“Taking a little more time to make Sonic just right.#novfxartistswereharmedinthemakingofthismovie” – Jeff Fowler va Twitter

One of the biggest backlash from online personalities was the fact that the studio was going to make VFX artist and designers work overtime to fix a design issue that shouldn’t have been approved anyway. I guess his hashtag is telling people that no one was overworked or ‘harmed’ during the making of the movie. Do I believe it? Hard to say but wouldn’t be too shocked when negative stories pour out of the movie. Here is hoping that Paramount Pictures gets it right. I will say that seeing the new art that we posted above from the studio, it does seem that Sonic is now wearing gloves?

What are your thoughts on the the movie being delayed into February 14, 2020.

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Community Gaming Night: Race with SEGAbits in Team Sonic Racing!

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Want to join SEGAbits for some online racing sessions this weekend in Team Sonic Racing? Then come on up, over and down and race with the SEGAbits team and show us what you’re made of! We will be playing Team Sonic Racing on Playstation 4 this Sunday, May 26th at 7pm EST (6pm CST). All you have to do to join is to add the following PS4 gamertags: “angelcoma” “BarrytheNomad” and “KoriSX15” for us to add you to our lobby. Race you all soon!

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SEGA Sammy unveils Virtua Fighter and House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn: Battle Genesis for Casinos

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SEGA Sammy had recently revealed two SEGA IPs at Global Gaming Expo Asia 2019 to be used as casino equipment under the Battle Genesis name which was trademarked last year by the company. The two SEGA IPs to be used under the Battle Genesis name are “Virtua Fighter” and “House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn” and will be released in Asia this summer. Besides the announcement, there are currently no news on how the casino games operates. What are your thoughts on the Battle Genesis announcements? Be sure to leave us a comment below!

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SEGA AGES Wonder Boy in Monster Land “coming soon”, new information revealed

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The Wonder Boy series has had a lot of love lately from multiple developers, such as the remake of Monster World III and the spiritual sequel Monster Boy and The Cursed Kingdom, and the SEGA AGES series will continue that with arguably the most pivotal game in the series, Wonder Boy in Monster Land.

Wonder Boy in Monster Land departs from it’s predecessor by adapting RPG elements, such as currency and item management, which would become the norm for future installments. You play as Bock Lee Temjin (aka “Tom-Tom”), as you are tasked with clearing through 12 levels with their own unique set of items, monsters, and secrets. SEGA AGES Monster Boy in Monster Land adds some additional features, including the ability to exploit the “rattle joystick” trick using a single button, Money Hungry Mode where the “rattle joystick” trick is sealed off and your score is recorded, and several “challenge” modes. These modes include Sphinx Challenge where you’re tasked with killing the Sphinx in the shortest time, Monster Castle Challenge where you have to clear the final dungeon as fast as possible, and Fireball Challenge where you have to play through the game using only the Fireball weapon and can die in a single hit.

SEGA AGES Wonder Boy in Monster Land is slated for a pricing of ¥925 (roughly $8.50), but with no official release date. Curiously, the copyright mentions LAT, a seemingly unknown company unrelated to other companies like the original developers Westone (aka Escape) or developers for the recent Wonder Boy titles like LizardCube or Game Atelier.

[Source: Official Website, Twitter]

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M2: Complete Works interview/retrospective by My Life in Gaming, goes into detail over M2’s history

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M2 might be a familiar name for SEGA fans out there. Indeed, this modest development studio has worked with SEGA for more than a decade helping to bring their older titles to modern system, from the “Complete Collection” installments in the SEGA AGES 2500 series to the SEGA 3D and SEGA AGES series on Nintendo’s more recent systems. But their history goes far back, from their modest days of porting games such as Gauntlet and Gunstar Heroes back in the 90’s. The YouTube channel My Life in Gaming has recently done an interview/retrospective with key staff members such as M2 CEO Naoki Horii and Chief Programmer Tetsuya Abe to talk about their personal experiences with working at M2, including the enduring relationship between SEGA and M2 and their general philosophy of adding something extra to these re-releases. The video itself is over an hour long, so there’s plenty to digest, complete with English subtitles for convenience.

If you liked the above video, maybe also subscribe to My Life in Gaming if you’re a fan of technical aspects of video games or retrospectives.

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Cotton series to get a reboot by BEEP, Sharp X68000 version of Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams to see re-sale

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For those that like SEGA’s Japanese roster of titles, you might of heard of the Cotton games, a series of shmup titles by Success that have seen releases in arcades with SEGA’s hardware, and on SEGA’s consoles between the Mega Drive and the SEGA Dreamcast. The games typically follow the misadventures of a young witch named Cotton and her fairy companion Silk. Cotton’s most defining trait is her obsession with a special candy called Willows, to the point that she will fight tooth and nail to get as many Willows as possible, which Silk exploits to motivate Cotton to save the kingdom.

The series has been dormant for decades now, with only the odd cameo in doujin/indie titles such as Trouble Witches Origin and Umihara Kawase Fresh, but a new installment in the Cotton series has been announced by retro video game store BEEP. This new installment is tentatively called “Cotton Reboot”, and will be available on for sale at an unspecified date for Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Playstation 4. Not much information has been revealed about the game itself, but it has been described as being a remake of the Sharp X68000 version of Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams, which was chosen over the original arcade version due to it having balance changes and extra polish. In addition, the original Sharp X68000 version will also get a re-sale, both the original and a special rearrange version that features new content. New features include the ability to play as Pril from the doujin Trouble Witches series, and a new “BEEP Edition” in the options that allows for turbo fire. This re-sale version will start orders in June, packed with in it’s original Sharp X68000 disk format and a separate disk for the “arranged” version.

[Source: Official Website, Famitsu, Famitsu Interview]

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Skies of Arcadia Limited Edition Soundtrack CD & Vinyl go up for pre-order

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It looks like Wayorecords will be publishing a very impressive looking limited edition vinyl and CD for Skies of Arcadia, the cult hit Dreamcast JRPG (with it getting a port later on GameCube).

The company is set to release three versions including the CD edition, Vinyl Edition and a music box! Some of these have limited runs including a vinyl in blue will only get 500 units printed and the first ‘music box’ will only have 250! If you are a SEGA collector, you should probably act quickly and swiftly. I will say that the vinyls are a bit pricey, coming in at about 55 USD but it does have a ton of cool extras. The music box on the other hand costs 280 USD!

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