Sonic Forces debuts first glimpse at gameplay

Sonic Forces is the new name for Project Sonic 2017, the next big budget Sonic the Hedgehog game by Sonic Team. While we know its coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows PC and newly announced for Nintendo Switch. The reason that showing off Sonic Forces’ gameplay is important is because of the difference in gameplay between the consoles. Sonic Force’s is also running on a new game engine, an evolution of the old engine they used. The new engine is being titled ‘Hedgehog Engine 2’.

So now we can see a sneak peek at Sonic Forces gameplay and you can judge for yourself. What do you think of Sonic Forces gameplay? Let us know in the comments below. They warned that this is a work in progress and the game play can change in the final product.

Sonic Forces official name of Project Sonic 2017

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SEGA’s Aaron Webber took the stage with Takashi Iizuka, Roger Craig Smith and Mike Pollock to talk all things Sonic the Hedgehog at a panel at SXSW. At the panel they finally revealed the actual name for Project Sonic 2017, which is called Sonic Forces. The panel was filled with jokes, memes and a wealth of information. Including the first look at the Sonic Forces’s trailer, which was the old trailer with the new logo which you can see.

According to the SEGA stream, the name ‘Sonic Forces’ is based on the fact that the game will have ‘forces’ going against each other like Sonic the Hedgehog‘s group of friends and Eggman’s group of baddies. Aaron Webber also showed off another piece of concept art for Sonic Force’s, but have kept mute on further details. We do know that they have recorded most of the voices for Sonic Forces. What are your thoughts on the name? Let us know in the comments below.

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Sonic Mania teases Flying Battery stage from Sonic & Knuckles

While we know that Sonic Mania is delayed, we got a tease that Flying Battery stage from Sonic & Knuckles will be remixed and featured in Sonic Mania. We got a short clip of the game in action (which you can see the direct footage above). The game will feature a new tune remixed by Tee Lopes who is responsible for the Sonic Mania soundtrack.

What is your thoughts on Sonic Mania remixing old stages like Flying Battery Stage from Sonic & Knuckles? What other stages do you want to see?  Let us know in the comments below.

Sonic Mania release date moved to Summer, teases vinyl album

C7Er5AqUwAAxvA9Sonic Mania release date has been moved to Summer 2017, it has been revealed in the SXSW panel. While its not an exact Sonic Mania release date, it is postponed and the reason was to get more time to develop the game. While it sucks that we won’t be getting the game during the spring time, at least SEGA is delaying games to make them a more complete package.

Another thing that SEGA did was tease a Sonic Mania vinyl. He said he wanted to gauge the community and see if its something they want. Seeing the response on the SXSW stream and the fact that they already had mockups (below), i’d say its pretty much confirmed that there will be a Sonic Mania vinyl. As for the game’s digital price point, SEGA isn’t ready to reveal that. Will it be more than $15? Time will tell.

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New Shenmue 3 developer update gives us a peek at the game in action

A new Shenmue 3 developer diary has finally hit for Kickstarter backers, and as seen above the game is indeed being made! Yeah yeah, I know, there was little doubt that the game is happening but I still have this suspicion that Yu Suzuki’s plan is to run off to a remote island with a luxury car. The latest video tells little but shows quite a bit. We see a developer working on a QTE arcade machine displaying Playstation buttons and arrows. We then see Ryo pushing something and then the player accessing the iconic in-game diary. A peek at a small village is given and the room appears to be littered with concept drawings of NPCs.

During a dialogue meeting, somebody is paging through the Japanese Shenmue 2 guide book and we see more NPC drawings on a white board. Quest test play shows off a messy room covered in dirt and debris. Ryo is seen from behind opening a cabinet and it is noted that all characters are tentative and are from older resources – so don’t judge the back of Ryo’s head! We then go to a meeting with Yu Suzuki where we see him talking with his staff and in the background there is a screen showing off what looks like Ryo outside and then a scene inside a small room with an arcade machine. We again see Ryo outside and a quick shot of a village at dusk with lights lit.

All in all, not much is revealed but it is very exciting to see the game being made! What did you think of this peek at Shenmue 3?

Unreleased Dreamcast version of Millennium Racer: Y2K Fighters uncovered

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A new Dreamcast game has been recently discovered, specifically a Dreamcast port of the PC game Millennium Racer: Y2K Fighters. Millennium Racer: Y2K Fighters is a racing game created by a company called Creat Studio back in 1999, most comparable to the wipEout series on Sony consoles. The game was found in a Dreamcast devkit, playable and seemingly complete, yet strangely never received any type of publicity. The PC version was released, but the Dreamcast version was quietly cancelled for unknown reasons.

The original finder of the unreleased Dreamcast port of Millennium Racer: Y2K Fighters was a Dreamcast enthusiast named Kuririn84, who found the game in dev kit and distributed the game to two people in order to extract it. Since then another user by the name of japanese_cake successfully got the game to boot and provided a downloadable link for anyone to try out. Full comments from japanese_cake can be found here.

It’s nice to see another game has been discovered and preserved for future generations, and thanks to all the dedicated Dreamcast fans for preserving a small bit of history.

[Source: The Dreamcast Junkyard]

For more screenshots and video from The Dreamcast Junkyard, click below.

Sonic Mania hitting Nintendo Switch day one, won’t cost more

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It seems a trend for Nintendo Switch games is to cost slightly more on the platform, what with Puyo Puyo Tetris costing ten dollars more physically compared to the PlayStation 4 (and yes, I know it comes with a key chain). But Nintendo fans looking forward to Sonic Mania need not fear, since the game has been confirmed to hit the Nintendo Switch the same day as other platforms and cost the same. Woot.

The news has been confirmed by SEGA and Sonic the Hedgehog social media meme master Aaron Webber during a interview with Nintendo Everything. Sadly SEGA has been mute on the release date for Sonic Mania, but we may soon find out more news concerning it since the SXSW 2017 Sonic the Hedgehog panel will happen in two days.

How many of you will be picking up Sonic Mania on the Nintendo Switch? What do you think about the news of it being priced the same as other versions? Let us know in the comments below.

SEGA News Bits: A Certain Magical Virtual-On Announced Reaction

Strap into your Virturoids and drop your manga because SEGA has announced A Certain Magical Virtual-On video game, that crosses the popular light novel franchise A Certain Magical Index with SEGA’s Virtual-On. A Certain Magical Virtual-On is set to hit Japan sometime in 2018 for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. On this episode we discuss all the released news, speculate what the final product might be and if SEGA can use popular Dengeki Bunko light novel brands to resurrect other dormant franchises. Like always, let us know what you think of the newly announced A Certain Magical Virtual-On crossover game in the comments below. Thanks for watching.

If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us. Give us a sub, if you are already subscribed you can always like the video.

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SEGA airs Sonic the Hedgehog TV commercial for their YouTube channel

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While watching a Cartoon Network show recently on DVR I happen to noticed this particularity odd Sonic the Hedgehog TV commercial which was aiming to promote the Sonic The Hedgehog YouTube channel. That’s right, it wasn’t for Sonic Boom TV Show or something that you can buy. Just a Sonic the Hedgehog TV commercial aiming at getting TV viewers to view their online content. Got to say, I’m amazed at the work Aaron at his team are putting together on promoting Sonic the Hedgehog on social media. If only the SEGA brand had someone as passionate as Aaron Webber manning the ship. You can watch it here, I tried to get the footage off my DVR but thanks to Direct TV’s crappy HDCP protection, it didn’t work out.

What are your thoughts on the Sonic the Hedgehog TV commercial? Do you think its weird that they are advertising a YouTube channel and not a product? Let us know in the comments below.

SEGA announces A Certain Magical Index / Virtual-On crossover game

SEGA has announced A Certain Magical Index / Virtual-On crossover game, which is coming in 2018 on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. The game is being based on the 2016 light novel ‘Toaru Majutsu no Virtual-On’  which was a novel having both franchises crossing over and was created to celebrate Virtual-On‘s 20th Anniversary.  It seems that SEGA loved the idea so much, that they needed to create a full blown game based on the light novel. We don’t know if the actual game will use the light novel’s story, which seems to be highly possible.

Here is the summary for the ‘Toaru Majutsu no Virtual-On, which seems to be pretty basic in terms of story.  As for what the game will be and how it will play, SEGA has been conservative on those details. If this is just a Virtual-On game with A Certain Magical Index characters playing as the Virtuaroids, I’ll be OK with that. The last Virtual-On game released was ‘Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Force‘ back in 2010 on Xbox 360. You can watch the A Certain Magical Index / Virtual-On crossover game trailer above.

What are your thoughts on A Certain Magical Index / Virtual-On crossover game? Do you like the idea of SEGA using in-house properties to relaunch franchises?

SEGA News Bits: New Sonic Mania Gameplay, Boss & More Revealed Reaction

We finally got some new Sonic Mania gameplay, boss and more revealed. So on this ‘BREAKING‘ episode of the SEGA News Bits George and Barry sit down to discuss our thoughts on the new information, what Sonic Mania means to other SEGA fan game creators and how the game is being advertised compared to Sonic the Hedgehog 4. Like always let us know what you think of the new Sonic Mania gameplay that has been revealed in the comments below. While its not a new stage, having new Sonic Mania gameplay is always nice, right?

If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us. Give us a sub, if you are already subscribed you can always like the video.

 

 

Floigan Bros. SEGA Dreamcast DLC available to download for first time in sixteen years

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You may remember Floigan Bros., Visual Concepts attempt at an episodic game for the SEGA Dreamcast that wasn’t the usual sports title expected from the developer. Sadly the episodic nature of the series never saw the light of day, as only the first episode starring Moigle and Hoigle Floigan released. Despite being cut short, what we got in the first episode was a very fun and funny game that combined elements of point and click adventures, a-life and platforming mini-games.

The game also took advantage of the Dreamcast’s internet capabilities with DLC called “FMTs” (Fun Moigle Things) that released monthly and were themed to the calendar month, offering up costumes, mailbox goodies and a new mini-game. Unfortunately, by the time the game’s site shut down, only the January DLC was archived online. However, thanks to Tim Meekins, Nick Jones, and John Elliot of the original Floigan Bros. development team and fansite Dreamcast Live all the original DLC is available to download again! To download the DLC, click on over to Dreamcast Live’s blog post, and in an effort to preserve the DLC moving forward we’ve gone ahead and archived it ourself with links after the break.

You can learn more about the DLC in a video after the break. Also worth noting, the SEGAbits Swingin’ Report Show podcast had the privilege of interviewing Brian Silva, who originated the idea for the game at Visual Concepts (he also voiced Bubsy!) and if you’d like to learn more about Floigan Bros. history we highly recommend listening to the episode.

Cave Story gets an almost complete SEGA Genesis port

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We posted last year about a fan working on a port of Cave Story for the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive, which he is calling ‘Cave Story MD‘. While the developer released a proof of concept demo, which we discussed on the SEGA News Bits last year, it is now mostly fully ported over. While Cave Story might be almost fully playable on the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive, it doesn’t mean its perfect. On Cave Story MD‘s GitHub page it says to expect ‘alpha quality’ on this release and that the farthest you can reach in this game is ‘Last Boss room’, which has the hardware hang upon entry.

You can download the Cave Story MD rom over on the game’s GitHub page. The game should be playable on any major emulator or even on official SEGA hardware if you have a EverDrive. Let us know what you think of the work being done on Cave Story MD, tell us in the comments below.

 

New Sonic Mania Green Hill Zone Act 2 gameplay revealed, new badnik introduced

In the latest reveal for the upcoming Sonic Mania, Sonic the Hedgehog brand social media manager, Aaron Webber, gave a special first look at Green Hill Zone Act 2 and how transitions work between acts similar to Sonic 3 & Knuckles. The second act of Green Hill Zone demonstrates a new mechanic such as the zip line, interactivity with the elemental shields to enter secret routes, and reveals a much closer look of the mountains and waterfalls in the background.

Aaron also noted that the background layout of Act 2 is a reference to the early prototype of the original Sonic the Hedgehog. While the boss for Act 2 cannot be revealed at the time, Aaron has mentioned that are brand new badniks introduced in Sonic Mania known as the Hard Boiled Heavies and Heavy Gunner which have been revealed on the Sonic Twitter account and are detailed in a new article from Game Informer. What are your thoughts on Green Hill Zone Act 2? Feel free to leave a comment below.

For the video without the commentary and artwork of the new badniks, be sure to hit the jump below.

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Sonic Generations “Unleashed Project 2.0” project cancelled

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Bad news for people looking forward to the Sonic Generations Unleashed Project 2.0 mod, as it has been announced that the project has been cancelled. The project’s former head, S0LV0, has announced that she is stepping down from her position and canning the project as a result. According to her via a TwitLong post, it was due to a lack of passion on her end causing a lot of stress, and being unable to pass the workload onto someone else.

So, here it is. I can’t begin to express how sorry I am about this, but I’m cancelling Unleashed Project 2.0. For a long time I was really passionate about it, and I felt I had something special to share with people by working on it, but that passion is gone. I know of no one I could pass the workload onto, nor do I plan to release my “completed” work as none of it is fully polished. I’m sincerely sorry to those who were looking forward to it, but I hope you’ll understand by this far into my post that it was extremely unhealthy for me.

The project itself was designed to replicate Sonic Unleashed levels, including bonus and DLC stages, using the PC version of Sonic Generations as a base. Though intended to replicate levels, some designs were changed as a form of compromise due to technical limitations. Ultimately the project was ambitious, with over 30 levels planned for the Unleashed Project, with the ultimate goal to expand Sonic Generations with a DLC-esque experience and a way to re-introduce Sonic Unleashed levels.

As for any hope of Unleashed Project being revived in the future, it may be a possibility. Former head DarioFF may return as the head of the project, expressing interest in reviving the project. Whether or not it will happen remains to be seen.