SEGA Talk Podcast #13: Virtua Fighter (1993)

Welcome to another episode of our SEGA Talk podcast, where we pick a SEGA game  and have a talk on various subjects regarding said game. On this episode we discuss  SEGA-AM2’s iconic 3D fighter Virtua Fighter! George and Barry talk about the games’ development,  success, and our personal thoughts on how the game has stood the test of time. If you are a big SEGA or Virtua Fighter fan, give the podcast a listen. You might learn a few new thinks regarding Virtua Fighter’s history and even if you don’t, its nice to support us… Right? Let us know what you love about Space Harrier in the comments below!

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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!

New Sonic the Hedgehog toys and figures coming from Diamond Select Toys

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Diamond Select Toys & Collectibles have announced that they have teamed with SEGA to create a line of Sonic the Hedgehog collectibles for, in their words, fans “young and old” (which to me translates to modern and classic Sonic). The first products will be unveiled at the International Toy Fair in New York City which is in just a few days on February 17. Product categories include Gallery PVC dioramas (9-inch scale PVC sculpted statues), Minimates block figures, Vinimates vinyl figures (4-inch block-style figures) and PVC mini-figures with collect-and-connect racetracks.

The new products are expected to release holiday 2018. We’ll be sure to share images of the new products as soon as they leak from the toy fair!

SEGA News Bits: Dreamcast Games Are Coming Back Online – Its Still Thinking?

Our beloved SEGA Dreamcast was known to be the first console to promote online gaming as a feature thanks to having a modem packed into every console. We got a pretty decent array of online playable games, but sadly after SEGA pulled the life support from the Dreamcast, these beloved games went offline. But now they are being resurrected and on this episode of the SEGA News Bits we look at all the Dreamcast games playable online, Dreamcast games that might come back soon and talk about some of the ones that are still offline. Let us know what online Dreamcast games you played back in the day and which ones you wish where back online in the comments below!

If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a thumbs up so it shows up on more like-minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that YouTube algorithm is.

Wii Shop Channel Guide for SEGA Fans – Controller Adapters, Mega Drive & Genesis

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The Wii Shop Channel is beginning it’s operations to shut down the service on the 30th of January in 2019. Nintendo put out a reminder that the service will prevent you from being able to add points to purchase games from their service March 26th.

Not only will you be unable to redownload games you purchased from the service after the shutdown date, this will take away several games that include titles that are very difficult to find in the after market. Leading up to the closure of the service we will be posting articles featuring games that SEGA fans will want to keep their eyes on. SEGA has been a major supporter for the service since the beginning of Nintendo’s foray into the digital market. Starting off with titles from the Mega Drive and the Genesis, the service grew to provide cult favorites, rare and valuable titles and even imports from Japan. There are also a few WiiWare titles to consider, exclusive games that were hampered by small file size limits for developers and lack of advertising. We won’t exactly be recommending recommend Sonic 4 Episode 1, but it is worth mentioning since it will no longer be on sale.

Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom getting physical release on PS4 and Switch

According to Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom publisher FDG Entertainment, they have teamed up with SEGA to get a physical version of Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom on both PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. The physical version is set to release day one along with the digital versionMonster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom has been massively delayed, above we have a interview with the game director Fabien Demeulenaere back in 2016! From what I read, the game has been delayed to improve the overall quality and its set to finally launch this summer!

While we got two remakes of Wonder Boy games, including the incredible Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap, Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom is set to be an all new adventure for the franchise.

Streets of Rage, Altered Beast and Rent-A-Hero getting miniature figures

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A new series of miniature SEGA figures are launching in Japan, being titled “Video Game Heroes” this collection will launch with Streets of Rage, Altered Beast and Rent-A-Hero figures. It seems that these figures will be limited, according to Famitsu they sold 50 sets at the Wonder Festival 2018 event and will be selling 250 sets this upcoming May.

These miniature figures aren’t pre-painted, so its up to you as the purchaser to paint them. Some people like these sorts of projects, some don’t. Hit the jump to see all the photos of the figures in action!

Sonic the Hedgehog: Battle Racers board game Kickstarter launches

A new officially licensed Sonic the Hedgehog board game has just hit Kickstarter, titled Sonic the Hedgehog: Battle Racers. Developed by Shinobi 7, the board game sees 2-5 players using re-painted miniatures to race past Badniks and bosses, while collecting rings in a sprint to the finish. While the game will see a commercial release outside of Kickstarter, there are bonuses to entice collectors. The bonuses, however, come at a cost as the only tier is $100 + shipping.

Yakuza 4 and 5 join PlayStation Now streaming platform

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Sony has announced February’s big PlayStation Now update bringing both Yakuza 4 and Yakuza 5 to its streaming platform. If you don’t know, PlayStation Now is a streaming service that lets you play PlayStation games on various devices including mobile, PlayStation 4 and PC. These games join a library of over 600 playable games on the service. Personally not into it due to having great internet speeds. The service requires a constant internet connection of at least 5mb up and down. Of course you will also have to have good ping. But if you have a good internet set-up, you can get the first month for $9.99 and $19.99 after that (or a one year subscription for $99).

Lots of fans took to twitter to ask SEGA why Yakuza 3 wasn’t included since a lot of new fans have jumped on the Yakuza train after the release of Yakuza 0. According to localization producer Sam Mullen, Yakuza 3 didn’t release on PlayStation Now because there isn’t a digital version of the game available. Hopefully SEGA fixes this as the game has increased in price due to the franchises jump in popularity last year.

[Source: PlayStation Blog]

SEGA reports video game division doing well, everything else not so much

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It seems that SEGA is really working hard to turn their console publishing arm around, with recent changes on how they localize games which included announcing three Yakuza games coming to the West. This of course has fans like me very excited and yesterday SEGA-Sammy posted their financial report that ended on December 31st, 2017. It was filled with good and bad news.

Let’s take a look at what SEGA-Sammy had to say about their performance in the last nine months.

Space Channel 5 VR to get downloadable demo later this year

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Space Channel 5 VR Arakata Dancing Show  isn’t a new game, it was actually shown at the Tokyo Game Show back in 2016. It is interesting is that SEGA has changed the name of the VR experince, before they called it ‘Ukiuki Viewing Show’, now its ‘Arakata Dancing Show’. The VR ‘experience’ was up for people to try out and then SEGA stopped talking about it. According to a recent tweet, gamers will be able to give the demo another go at Game Party Japan 2018, which happens to be the first official tournament held by JeSU (Japan e-Sports Union) on February 10th and 11th.

While Japanese site Panora got the official scoop that Space Channel 5 VR Arakata Dancing Show will get demos in VR stores this spring and get a download version later this year. For what I gather, the download version will be the ‘demo experience’ shown at events and not a full game. Bummer. The demo experience will still be shown off using HTC VIVE headsets and SEGA still hasn’t mentioned if they have plans on showing it off on PlayStation VR. I think this is SEGA testing the market, see if the general public still has interest in Space Channel 5 with a demo release. Hit the jump to see screenshots of the game.

SEGA starts teasing Puyo Puyo Tetris for PC release

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The other day we reported that Puyo Puyo Tetris on Nintendo Switch sold almost one million units on the platform alone. Today it seems SEGA Europe is readying for a PC release of the same game, if their teasing is anything to go by. Today a bunch of SEGA game pages updated with an announcement tease, using text symbols to draw out Puyo blobs and Tetris blocks.

Hit the jump below to see SEGA’s teases on various PC game releases and tell us what other games you would enjoy to see on your PC. Huh, SEGA Europe, if you are reading this, get Valkyria Chronicles 4 PC announced already.

Puyo Puyo Tetris Switch has sold almost a million units

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It looks like Puyo Puyo Tetris is one of Sega’s biggest success stories of last year! Mizuki Hosoyamada of SEGA revealed on the Puyo Puyo Anniversary TV Show 2018 that the Nintendo Switch version of Puyo Puyo Tetris S will soon surpass over a million units worldwide, no doubt that when you combine the other versions of the game (Which also include but not limited to Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Playstation Vita) it’s already a million seller but to see one platform do so fantastically for the game must be a great source of joy for Sega. Hopefully with this news means that future Puyo releases are a lock for localisation, perhaps it might even be a good idea to try and come up with a way to port Puyo Puyo Chronicle onto the Switch? Either way, great news for Puyo fans!

Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology demo hits 3DS, DLC schedule revealed

Atlus has been on a roll promoting the upcoming remake of Radiant Historia, which was originally released on the Nintendo DS back in 2010. Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology is set to offer the original game story with a ton of extra modes. Above you see the unboxing of the Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology launch edition.

But we also got a demo for the game, out now in the e-shop. The demo lets you play the start of the story and will even let you transfer saves to the full game if you pre-ordered. No reason not to give the title a shot. The 3DS e-shop is also offering a free Radiant Historia theme, for those that want to further ‘Radiant Historia-pimp out’ their 3DS. After the jump we will detail the DLC schedule for the game.

Sonic the Hedgehog twitter teases collaboration with Razer for SXSW?

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The Razer and Sonic the Hedgehog social media accounts have been going back and forth lately on twitter, giving each other smiling nods as they collaborate on content. This is usually nothing too new, but today the Sonic the Hedgehog social media account replied with the above image showing Knuckles in Razer gear with the message “By the way… do you guys make keyboards for Echidnas?” 

Usually it will stop there and be thought of as a good cross social platform promotion (considering that today is Hedgehog day), but the Tails Channel twitter account noticed that next to Knuckles was some morse code that translates to ‘SXSW’, making some believe that there could be some crossover promotion between Razer and the Sonic the Hedgehog brand for future products. Especially considering that the SXSW event is going to show ‘the future of Sonic the Hedgehog‘