Hideki Sato talks about creating SEGA Saturn hardware and Sony asking SEGA to go third party

SEGA’s Hideki Sato is a big figure in SEGA history, he was the mastermind behind all of SEGA’s major console hardware including the SG-1000, SEGA Master System, SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis, SEGA Saturn and SEGA Dreamcast.He later served as SEGA President from 2001-2003. Earlier this month he was part of an ‘oral history research project’ that is documenting the game industry in Japan. The transcript is over 150 pages long and all in Japanese. I can’t read Japanese, can you?

Well it seems that Gryson on the SEGA-16 boards knows some Japanese and he translated some of his favorite tid-bits, I’ll include the one about how he changed the SEGA Saturn to respond to PlayStation and of course the story about how PlayStation CEO

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown free on Xbox via Games with Gold in July

If you are an Xbox gamer, you are in for a real treat. For the month of July, if you are an Xbox Gold member you will be able to download the following games:

  • Assault Android Cactus (July 1- 31)
  • Death Squared (July 16-Aug.15)
  • Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown (July 1-15)
  • Splinter Cell Conviction (July 16-31)

Though if you look through the YouTube video, it seems most Xbox fans are not happy with the games being chosen and I guess a lot of these Xbox fans put more value on the price of the games being given away instead of how good the games are. Basically they are disappointed that they are doing Xbox 360 games and not Xbox One.

But of course these games are playable on Xbox one via backwards compatibility

[Source: .Major Nelson]

SEGA wants to return to the hardware market with the Sonic Toaster

SEGA wants to return to the hardware market with the Sonic toaster, but to make that happen they’ll need to hit 1,000 pre-orders within the next 13 days. As revealed on yesterday’s Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube stream, shipping has expanded to include several European countries. The full list of countries include:

U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, France, Germany, Honduras, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Spain, and Sweden.

The toaster itself burns in a classic Sonic silhouette, and has a variety of settings from defrost to bagel. Check it out for yourself at the SEGA Shop!

Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove to be self published, releasing this year

Funded back in March of 2015, Toejam and Earl: Back in the Groove promised not only the return of the aliens from Funkotron, but a return of the 2D gameplay style fans loved from the original game. It has been a long road to release, with the expected Kickstarter delays and the announcement of Adult Swim Games publishing. But the latest update reveals that the game will no longer be published by Adult Swim Games.

IDW Games announces premium collector Sonic the Hedgehog jigsaw puzzles

IDW Games, a branch of IDW Publishing, will be releasing premium collector jigsaw puzzles soon. September, 2018 to be exact. Sonic the Hedgehog and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be kicking off the line, with 1000-piece puzzles targeting puzzle hobbyists and fans. The Sonic puzzle art comes from the issue 4 cover of the comic series by Tyson Hesse. The Ninja Turtles art is by co-creator Kevin Eastman, so Tyson is in good company indeed!

You can pre-order the puzzle today for $19.99!

SEGAbits at E3 2018: Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom Hands-On Preview

The Wonder Boy series creator, Ryuichi Nishizawa, returns for an all new heavily inspired 2D platformer title, Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom. Co-developed by France based Game Atelier and Germany based publisher FDG Entertainment, the gameplay is largely the same and bears a striking similarity to Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap. Two demo levels were available to play allowing you to play as Monster Boy or as a transformed anthropomorphic creature. I played through the latter. You can hit the jump to read on, check out the image gallery and hit up links for the trailer.

Udon publishing ‘The Eyes of Bayonetta 2’ art book in the West this fall


Udon Entertainment is set to release ‘The Eyes of Bayonetta 2‘ art book in the West this upcoming November 20, 2018. Udon is mostly known for its work on the Street Fighter comic book series and even going as far as doing the HD sprites for the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix re-re-re-re-(infinite amount of re)-release. But they’ve also released a ton of vide game art books for IPs such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Persona, Mega Man, Dark Souls, Border Break, Shining series, Valkyria Chronicles, and even the first ‘The Eyes of Bayonetta’ book!

SEGA’s Alien: Isolation team working on new IP, a ‘First Person Tactical Shooter’

While SEGA’s Creative Assembly is mostly known in PC circles, the company has tried its hand at making console games. First in the mid-2000s with Spartan: Total Warrior, then a few years later with Viking: Battle for Asgard and most recently with the critically acclaimed Alien: Isolation. We already knew that Creative Assembly was working a ‘multi-platform AAA blockbuster’ way back in 2015 and it seems they are still hard at work on this big title considering they are looking for a Senior UI artist for this new IP.

According to Creative Assembly’s job listing:

Sonic Forces’ soundtrack getting a official vinyl release next month


It looks like Sonic Forces’ soundtrack will be getting a vinyl release next month, being titled the ‘the vinyl cutz’ version. If you are one of the many fans that kept saying that the best thing Sonic Forces had going for it was its soundtrack, congratulations! You get to own it on wax. The Sonic Forces‘ ‘The Vinyl Cutz’ will come with two vinyls and include 19 songs (you can get the full listing after the jump). The vinyl comes out July 31, 2018 and is being printed by Wayo Records and sold through Amazon Japan. Yep, its a Japanese release. According to the Wayo Records website they ship worldwide and will cost approximately $37 USD.

If you are a hater, like myself, that didn’t think much of the full length Sonic Forces soundtrack, then you can continue hating. Hey, you want to hate together?

Preview: IDW Sonic the Hedgehog #9

The latest previews have released for IDW’s Sonic the Hedgehog comics, and while we await issue 6 we have details on issue 9. This issue will kick off a new multi-part story entitled “The Battle for Angel Island” and will Sonic and friends taking on a treat to the Master Emerald. Unlike past issues which have been debuting characters one at a time, this issue promises everybody to team up. Interestingly, one cover features Emerl from Sonic Battle and Sonic and Knuckles riding their extreme gear from the Sonic Riders games.

The full solicit can be read after the break.

Sonic the Hedgehog toys now at Subway restaurants


Video credit: Treasure Hunting Sonic [ Facebook | Instagram ]

Sonic the Hedgehog celebrated 27 years over the weekend, and one of the stranger bits of news to come out of the celebrations (stranger than Big the Cat) was that Subway restaurants in the US would have a Sonic themed kid’s meal. Sonic is no stranger to kid’s meals in the US, having appeared as a Happy Meal for Sonic 3, a McDonald’s train car for the Happy Meal anniversary, two waves of McDonald’s LED toys, a Jack in the Box SEGA PC meal, and two Sonic Boom promotions (one for Del Taco and another for Carl’s Jr.).

This latest promotion sees four gear toys that assemble into a weird optical illusion machine. Not as exciting as some past promotions, but still fun to see in action. You can buy them for yourself without the meal for the low price of between $1 and $1.50 each, though the shame in asking a sandwich artist if they have Sonic toys is costly. Trust me.

Thanks to Treasure Hunting Sonic for making a video of the toys in action, you can check him out on Facebook and Instagram.

Arc System Works hints at future Persona Arena Fighting Games


Arc System Works seems to be more popular as time goes on, now known to millions of new fighting game fans due to their work on the ultra popular Dragon Ball FigtherZ. But back in 2012, Arc System Works and Atlus teamed up to do Persona 4 Arena and later in 2013 (arcade) they released the direct sequel Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. Since then Arc System Works has been mostly busy releasing updated versions of their in-house IPs like BlazBlue and Guilty Gear.

Now Arc System Works is advertising their latest fighting game BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle which features cross over characters from Persona, BlazBlue (duh), RWBY and Under Night in-Birth. Kotaku recently got a interview/opinion piece with the director of that game, Toshimichi Mori on the thought process of designing that game, but at the same time he teased the future of Persona Arena Fighting games.

BREAKING: Sonic Birthday Party RUINED – Silver Sonic MIA and ME Shattered

We just learned some tragic news. As many of our readers know, Sonic’s birthday Party was scheduled earlier today. The blue blur himself invited everybody – friend and foe – or so he thought. Unfortunately due to a mixup with the invites, Silver the Hedgehog received two invites and Sonic received one of his own (for his own party). Why is this? The intent was to invite Silver Sonic! Due to the mistake, Sonic’s old foe was missing in action. If this was bad enough, Knuckles arrived late because on his way to the party he tripped and shattered the Master Emerald, which he was carrying.

Another Team Sonic Racing team has been revealed …Froggy, where are you?

Sonic the Hedgehog turns 27 today! And as part of the festivities, the official Sonic social media accounts have revealed a new Team Sonic Racing team. In our many speculative videos we assumed that the game would be following the Sonic Heroes team arrangements. While they do feature Team Sonic and Team Dark, it looks like Team Rose is returning with some changes. First off, Amy Rose is back. Secondly, BIG THE CAT IS BACK AND HE IS DRIVING A FROGGY CAR! Thirdly, Cream the Rabbit got the boot in favor of four Chao in a car, which is very similar to the Chu Chu Rocket car in Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing.

Overall, it’s a nice addition to the game. Amy was all but assured, but I will admit that I was uncertain if Big would be back. While he is a fan favorite, Sonic Team said in the past that the character had been retired. Guess not! As for Cream, I really do not miss her and I think she would have likely been the least popular racer. The real question is, will we see Blaze the Cat? Female representation is low in the roster, and she’s a popular character that would make for a great racer.

Sonic Mania Adventures Episode 4 reunites Mighty and Ray

Sonic Mania Plus releases next month, and leading up to the release SEGA has been posting a five part animated Sonic series to YouTube entitled Sonic Mania Adventures. The last episode featured Knuckles flinging Ray, and this episode sees where Ray ended up. The new music by Tee Lopes and the writing and directing by Tyson Hesse are top notch and expand on what made the Sonic Mania game such a love letter to Classic Sonic fans. Check the latest episode out for yourself and be on the lookout for the fifth and final episode next month!