Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii – New Game Details, Naval Combat Info Revealed

SEGA’s Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has released new details for Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, providing a closer look at combat elements such as “dark instruments,” as well as more insight on life on the high seas, including ship customization and tips for emerging victorious in battle!

Taking place after the events of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the game follows Goro Majima as he reclaims his memories, forms his own pirate crew, and conquers the open sea in search of legendary treasure.

Check out the next section of the article for further details and screenshots on battle styles, navel combat, and dark instruments.

Pre-Order on Amazon

Standard Edition: PlayStation 4 | PlayStation 5 | Xbox Series X

Collector’s Edition: PlayStation 5 | Xbox Series X

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Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance Demo Available Today on Steam and PlayStation

Today ATLUS announced that a free demo for the demon-collecting RPG Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is now available on Steam, and will also be available for PlayStation today at 9pm PT.

In the demo, players can choose between two story paths, the brand-new story “Canon of Vengeance” or the original story from SMTV “Canon of Creation”. Explore a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, now reduced to an expansive wasteland called Da’at that is torn apart by a conflict between angels and demons. Progression from the demo will carry over to the full game, so players can continue their journey right from where they left off. Both story paths can be experienced for those interested in exploring each.

The free demo release follows the patch released earlier this month on all available platforms that includes the following.

  • New Demon Kishin Marici

  • Addition of Fan-selected Demon Navigators (Hell Biker, Idun, Fionn mac Cumhaill, Mothman, Mara, and Cleopatra)

  • The New Elite Difficulty for the Virtual Trainer

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is the definitive version of the critically acclaimed RPG, which introduces a new storyline, brand-new characters, a new area to explore, a new dungeon, more accessible gameplay, an improved battle system, new demon experiences and currently has a metascore of 90 (PC) and 87 (PS5) on Metacritic as of today.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance is available now for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and Windows.

Retro-Bit postpones pre-orders for all-new Toaplan Genesis/Mega-Drive game reprint collection over licensing issues

In a rare moment in which Retro-Bit bit off more than they could chew, they have announced that they will need to postpone pre-orders for their recently announced Toaplan Shooters Vol. 2 Collectors Cartridge set, which was originally meant to run all throughout November 2024. This was a collector’s set compiling official cartridge reprints of Genesis/Mega-Drive Toaplan classics Twin Cobra (1991)Slap Fight MD (1993), and Grind Stormer (1994). Unfortunately, their licensor, Tatsujin, seems to have noticed an unspecified snag with one of the games in that collection, preventing pre-orders from continuing until further notice.

To anyone who has already pre-ordered this set or any of the individual games, your pre-order seems like it will still be honored. However, if you do want to have your money refunded to you, Retro-Bit recommends you take it up with whichever online retailer you pre-ordered from. We hope you ordered from an understanding outlet. Retro-Bit cannot share any more information than this at the moment, so for now, we’ll all just need to show some patience.

Were you planning on pre-ordering the Toaplan Shooters Vol. 2 Collector’s Cartridge set? Are you seeking a refund now? Let us know in the comments below.

SEGA and Louis De Guzman Announce Sonic the Hedgehog Collection

Today, SEGA announced a new collaborative collection with artist Louis De Guzman in celebration of Sonic the Hedgehog, which will debut this month.

The collection will include a range of apparel and merchandise including t-shirts, a work jacket, fleece sweatshirts, kids tops, a tin lunchbox, and a printed throw pillow. Alongside these goods, the collection will include hyper limited fine art screen prints and collectible sculptures standing at 11.5” tall.

The collaboration will bring an activation to ComplexCon Las Vegas on November 16-17, and will also be included in a retail/gallery pop-up in Chicago from December 10 to 17 where fans can meet the artist, view Sonic the Hedgehog-inspired paintings, take pictures with life size sculptures, and play SEGA’s latest Sonic game, SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS™.

Hit the next section of the article to check out press release and screenshots of the Louis De Guzman x Sonic the Hedgehog collection.

Several VHS recordings of never before seen Sega Channel footage found and preserved online

The Sega Channel, a long dormant online games-on-demand service for the Sega Genesis/Mega-Drive, has long been an enigma in the years since its official sunset in 1998. Very little material from the service has been preserved or documented, and there is still so much that only those who subscribed to the service and have vivid memories of it would know for sure. Thankfully, @Ghostsencore and prolific Genesis romhacker Billy Time Games have come across a smorgasbord of archived VHS tapes containing recordings of someone, presumably the person who recorded the footage in the first place, perusing the menus of Sega Channel during a few months where the service was still alive and well.

Login to get through the break and see all the videos.

Mega Drive Tracker website set up to catalogue upcoming physical indie game releases for Genesis/Mega-Drive

Brand new games for Genesis/Mega-Drive, coming from talented indie enthusiast developers, are a common occurrence today. It is rather exciting, but it might be a little tough to keep track of them all. Of course, you can search SegaBits for our own articles about new Genesis game releases, but what if I told you there’s now a website with an easy to read catalogue of upcoming releases to look out for?

Developed by fellow Sega fan and writer Mollie L Patterson, Mega Drive Tracker is a WordPress site keeping track of upcoming Genesis releases that are planned to come out on physical cartridges that you can buy and run on original Genesis hardware. The pages for each game include links to the websites where the games can be bought or pre-ordered, if they are still available. This includes a couple of games we have written about before too. They’re grouped by four categories:

  1. New Releases, which are brand new games being developed from the ground up for Genesis. (Examples: Phantom Gear, Earthion, ZPF)
  2. Ports, which are conversions of games that already exist on other hardware. (Examples: Black Jewel Reborn, P47 II MD, Asuka 120% Re-bon)
  3. Reprints, which are brand new printings of games that already released on Genesis years ago. (Examples: Aero The Acro-bat, Grind Stormer, Twin Cobra)
  4. Localizations, which are translated releases of games originally unreleased in English speaking countries. (Example: Eliminate Down, Slap Fight)

Take a look after the break for a link to the website for you to bookmark and look at.

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SEGA News Bits Live: Delisted Classic Games and New Pico Hardware

SEGA has announced several classic games are being delisted, but they are also releasing a new SEGA Pico and emoji pager for kids. On this SEGA News Bits Live, Barry talks about why SEGA might be removing classic games and takes a look at the new hardware from SEGA FAVE.

If you want to support this type of content, you can check out our Patreon!

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.

Endless and Humankind developer Amplitude Studios breaks from SEGA, returning to being independent

Founded in 2011 by former Ubisoft staffers and purchased by SEGA in 2016, Amplitude Studios has announced that they are a fully independent studio again. During their time under SEGA’s umbrella, the studio released several games including Humankind and Endless Dungeon, as well as a free game titled Endless Zone which was their take on Fantasy Zone. The announcement was made in a message titled “Returning to our Roots”, which included a statement from founder Romain de Waubert de Genlis.

SEGA Plans to Delist SEGA Classics Games starting December 6th

This news might be disappointing for SEGA fans who care about the preservation of the companies’ rich history of video games ranging from arcade to consoles, including myself and fellow SEGAbits writers. As of now, SEGA plans to delist a selection of games and bundles from virtual stores across gaming platforms including Steam, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and Playstation starting on December 6th at 11:59pm PST.

If you happen to own the games on the following platforms, they will still be available in your library. You can still get them all for very good prices, so be sure not to miss out on the opportunity. Do you all think that this is a bad decision from SEGA or do you think they might have something planned for the titles down the line? Let us know in the comments below and hit the next section of the article to see the list of games that are planned to be delisted.

New Virtua Fighter Game In Development According to Executive Vice President Head of Global Transmedia Group SEGA, Justin Scarpone

In a published interview about why SEGA is reviving their classic IPs across media with Executive Vice President Head of Global Transmedia Group SEGA, Justin Scarpone, with Video Game Chronicle, he was asked how challenging it would be for SEGA to revive their IPs that are nearly 30 years old to resonate with a modern audience.

He responded that the IPs would need to be reinvented with persistent slate plan, marketing initiatives, product, and more transmedia. Scarpone would also confirm that numerous SEGA Legacy IPs are currently in development, including Virtua Fighter. Here is a snippet of the interview:

“So we have a suite of titles in development right now that fall into that legacy bucket, which we announced last year at The Game Awards; Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Streets of Rage, Shinobi, and we have another Virtua Fighter being developed. And so all that’s very exciting. And then in certain instances, we’re also doing animation series, or live-action films to augment that and be part of those roadmaps.” – Justin Scarpone, Executive Vice President Head of Global Transmedia Group SEGA

It’s been sometime since we seen a new Virtua Fighter title (with the exception of VF5: Ultimate Showdown). Are you all excited to see a new Virtua Fighter game in the works? Let us know in the comments below!

SEGA Talk #151: SEGA Controllers (1983-1998)

On this SEGA TALK we go hands on with SEGA’s many controllers! We take a look at the base controller for each major console, pointing out the weirdest and most essential controllers and share our personal preference. Stick around until the end, because we will crown best SEGA controller of all time! On SEGA TALK!

[iTunes – Stitcher – YouTube – Download]

Support us on Patreon! Get early access, have your memories read on the show, select the games we talk about!

Retro-Bit opens pre-orders for all-new Toaplan Genesis/Mega-Drive game reprint collection; Pre-orders open until December 1st 2024

 

Here comes Retro-Bit once again with a new set of Genesis/Mega-Drive Collector Cartridge sets that you can pre-order right now.

Retro-Bit, in collaboration with current Toaplan rights holders Tatsujin, have revealed the Toaplan Shooters Vol. 2 Collector’s Cartridge set, consisting of Twin Cobra (1991), Slap Fight MD (1993), and Grind Stormer (1994). Not familiar with Vol. 1? That began pre-orders in 2020, consisted of Truxton (1989), Hellfire (1990), Fire Shark (1990), and Zero Wing (1991), and we somehow neglected to do a write-up about it. (Hey, I wasn’t here to cover retro news back then. Sorry.)

Anyway, all three games can be ordered separately or together in one big, bad collectors set with all three games in a nice slipcase. The collector’s set also includes a digital pocket clock, a sheet of puffy stickers, and a booklet featuring an interview with Toaplan developer and composer and current day president of Tatsujin, Masahiro Yuge. It can be had for $159.99 USD and is now up for pre-order in North America from Castlemania Games, Rondo Products, Limited Run Games, and PNP Games. Pre-orders in Europe are currently available at Just For Games, Retro Cables, Spel & Sant, Strictly Limited Games, Dragon Box Shop, Xtra Life, Zedlabz, and NedGame. Each separate game costs $59.99 and is NTSC and PAL complainant. This is a limited product and all pre-orders will only run throughout November 2024 and end December 1st, 2024.

Have a look after the break for the deets on each of the individual games.

Aero The Acro-Bat Genesis/Mega-Drive cartridge reprint now up for pre-order from Limited Run Games

Limited Run Games and Sunsoft have teamed up to bring you a new reprint of Aero The Acro-bat (1993) with a box, manual, and high quality translucent “Sparkle Black” cartridge. Pre-orders will be open all throughout November 2024 for just $59.99 USD and the game is estimated to ship to customers in June 2025. The Genesis/Mega-Drive version, as well as the Super Nintendo version, will be available simultaneously. This comes long after LRG’s reprints of Aero The Acro-bat 2 (1995) and Zero The Kamikaze Squirrel (1994). Strange that they decided to sell this trio of games in reverse order of their original releases, but at least now, if you had your chance to get these games, you can finally complete your collection if that’s what you aimed to do.

Unlike Aero 2 or Zero, however, Aero The Acro-Bat on Genesis can still be found very cheap, even complete in box, as of this writing. A brand new copy will currently cost you just over $100, so if you really gotta have a sealed, new copy of Aero The Acro-Bat, LRG’s reprints can be a bargain, as long as you don’t mind the lack of a Sega Seal of Quality. If you just want a copy of Aero for Genesis, you can get a decent copy for a decent price and not have to wait until next Summer to see it. No judgement from us if you got the other two games from LRG and just want to complete your collection of the whole trilogy, though. Fortunately, LRG seems to, at least so far, take printing quality new cartridges more seriously than printing new game discs.

To learn more about this release of Aero The Acro-bat, and to pre-order, glide right in past the break for the skinny.

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Paul W.S. Anderson set to direct and write The House of the Dead Film

According to Deadline, there is a new House of the Dead movie in the works with Paul W.S. Anderson (Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil) writing and directing the upcoming film. Anderson will produce alongside his partner Jeremy Bolt, Sega’s Toru Nakahara will produce along with Story Kitchen’s Dmitri M. Johnson, Mike Goldberg and Dan Jevons. Timothy I. Stevenson will be executive producer.

The plot of the film will be based on the third installment in the franchise, The House of the Dead III, with Lisa Rogan in search of her father and Daniel Curien, who’s the son of the man who caused this mutant outbreak in the first place and who has to deal with the sins of the father. The film will take place in an abandoned research facility where these creatures were hatched, before, as Anderson quipped, “the inmates took over the asylum.” The filmmakers say these inmates are way more capable killers than zombies.

They will pitch the project immediately, with plans to be in production by mid- to late-2025. Anderson is repped by Ken Kamins at Key Creatives & Alexander Lea at Wiggin, Bolt by Alexander Lea at Wiggin LLP, and Story Kitchen by WME and Pryor Cashman. Toru Nakahara negotiated on behalf of Sega. Check out concept art for the film in the next section of the article.

Review: Parking Garage Rally Circuit (Walaber)

If you yearn to revisit the glorious need for speed that Sega provided you with stellar 90’s arcade racers like Daytona USA, Sega Rally Championship, or Manx TT Superbike, you’re not the only one. A few developers have begun taking a crack at recapturing that spirit with some brand new games. Today, we’re putting a spotlight on one of the newest games of that bunch: Parking Garage Rally Circuit. Developed by Walaber, whom we’ve had the pleasure of speaking to about this game before, PGRC aims to be the Sega Saturn racing hit that never was. A frantic time trial racer that aims to emulate the look of 90’s 3D console racers to an extreme degree, a lot of passion for that unforgettable time in gaming history is as clear as the blue, blue skies the game graces you with, but does that passion equal a game that’s as worthy of your time as most any racer Sega had developed during that decade? Find a cozy parking spot to sit back, relax, and read through our review of Parking Garage Rally Circuit after the break.

(A Steam copy of the game was provided by Walaber for the purpose of this review. They have not influenced the review in any other way and have not read it before it went online.)