Multiplayer Showcase Faces Sudden Death in Saturn Bomberman

Its the final minutes until the big 25h anniversary party for our good buddy, Sonic, but wait! Those aren’t rings falling from the sky, its a bunch of weights and a myriad of bombs which means its the last few rounds of Saturn Bomberman before we share our verdict on the game. In the last part of the episode, the group talks about the sudden death mode, discovers a connection with Bomberman and wrestling and share our strategies of playing the game. Also how did people play the game in the mid to late nineties? The round table discussion features my friends Chance, Krys, Randy and Chelsea.

Did you play Saturn Bomberman back in the day? How did you set up the game to play with friends? Do you think other Bomberman games do the job better? Be sure to sound off in the comments!

Roll in tomorrow before Sonic the Hedgehog’s 25th Anniversary Party for the Sonic Retro and SEGAbits Meetup!

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Heading to San Diego tomorrow for the Sonic 25th Anniversary Event or are just in town for Comic-Con? Meet up with your favorite SEGAbits and Sonic Retro folks at The Local Eatery and Drinking Hole at 3 p.m. Friday to hang out, chat about nerdy Internet things in the real world, share rampant speculation and pre-game for having to deal with a bunch of Sonic fans for a few hours. From there, we’ll head over together to the House of Blues, which is just two blocks away.

Not joining us in San Diego? Tune in to the official livestream at 6 PM PT/9 PM ET/1AM Saturday GMT! In addition to all the antics, who knows—you may even see a familiar face or two.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episodes I & II hitting Xbox One backwards compatibility today

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Larry Hryb aka Major Nelson of Microsoft announced via Twitter that Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode ISonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II would be hitting Xbox One Backward Compatibility today, meaning you can play the Xbox 360 games on your Xbox One. The recent additions means that Xbox One owners can now play the original Sonic SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive games as well as Sonic CD and the Sonic 4 duology on their Xbox One… as they truly imagined it! For as much flack as the Sonic 4 games get, they’re worth checking out – especially Episode II and Episode Metal.

Then again, with Sonic’s anniversary party tomorrow, we just may see a game announcement that is so amazing it wipes Sonic 4 from our memories (let’s hope!).

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A look at the Sonic 25th Anniversary Party Swag Bag

The Sonic 25th Anniversary Party is a mere days away and Aaron Webber along with Matt from Tails Channel have showed what you can expect to get in your very own  Sonic 25th Anniversary Party swag bag. If you attend the Sonic 25th Anniversary Party don’t forget to grab your swag bag, you won’t want to miss the collectibles inside. Can’t attend? You can watch the party via the Sonic the Hedgehog twitch channel

Can’t play the video at work? Don’t worry, hit the jump for a detailed breakdown on what you get.

SEGA asking for Easter Eggs in “new mobile game”

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In one of the oddest requests for fan input in a while, the SEGA Facebook page is asking for fans to submit ideas for Easter Eggs for a “new mobile game that will include many of your favorite SEGA characters.” Responses seem to vary from character cameos to sly references, but at the least everyone has done one thing; share some love for their favorite franchises.

The “new mobile game” referred to here is possibly SEGA Blast Heroes, the recently leaked SRPG crossover game dug up by Segalization. The fact that they’re asking for franchises in general and the header image above features Sonic alongside Streets of Rage, Shinobi, and Crazy Taxi not only points to the game being a crossover, but also likely teases their inclusion in whatever game SEGA has planned. It is possible SEGA Blast Heroes was nothing more than a testing the waters from SEGA Networks, with only mock-up screens created, and other concepts are also being developed internally. It is also possible that SEGA Blast Heroes was not even created by SEGA Networks. If any more direct or indirect info on SEGA Blast Heroes – or whatever the mobile game is – should surface, we’ll let you know.

Persona 5 shows off opening movie, first 18 minutes, new characters, anime, and more

Persona5OpeningMovieI warned you the other day that Atlus was teasing seven new announcements for Persona 5 during its Premium Event Niconico stream. Well, that happen earlier today and what did they announce for Persona 5? A ton of stuff, including showing off the first 18 minutes of gameplay from the game. Want to catch all the action?

Hit the jump for all the new information:

[Via: Gematsu]

SEGA Tunes: How Thunder Force III’s OST made the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive shine

SEGATunesTHUNDERFORCEIIIOn this entry of our ongoing SEGA Tunes series, we will be looking at how Thunder Force III‘s fantastic soundtrack cemented the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive as a musical powerhouse. The SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive’s sound usually gets negative responses from gamers due to some big games having bad sound, thus they assume its the system’s fault. If you know some gamers that have that opinion about the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive, pop in Thunder Force III. If they don’t change their minds, find new friends. Of course, there are many other SEGA games that had fantastic sound on the SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive, but today we will be looking at Thunder Force III.

Let’s look at some of my favorite Thunder Force III tracks:

Atlus shows off 15 minutes of Persona 5 gameplay

Atlus has officially premiered 15 minutes of Persona 5 gameplay during its live stream this morning. This is just a teaser for tomorrow’s big Persona 5 Premium Event being held in Japan, that promises SEVEN new announcements! The footage above shows returning skills, fishing mini-game (froggy?!, movie date with Futaba Sakura and lots more.

Persona 5 hits the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 on September 15 in Japan, February 14, 2017 in the Americas. Persona 5 does have plans to release in Europe with publisher Deep Silver, like discussed before, but they haven’t announced a release date.

[Via: Gematsu]

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Discotek Media announces Sonic X seasons 1 and 2 English dub release date

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Earlier today, American based anime and asian films DVD and blu-ray company Discotek Media announced on Facebook details on their upcoming “Sonic X” DVD. First revealed back in April of 2015, Discotek Media plans to release the first two seasons of the “Sonic X” English dub to DVD in a 52 episode collection with a release date of September 27th, 2016. Season 3, containing the remaining 26 episodes, will be released in another collection at a later date. I really love the SEGA Mega Drive inspired cover art, which has been confirmed to carry over to the menus.

It should be noted that there are no plans at this time for the original Japanese version of the show. Discotek Media also has plans to release the complete English subbed “Sega Hard Girls” to DVD, and once we learn more about that release we will be sure to news it.

SEGA Retrospective: Virtua Fighter 5 – Ten Years Too Early

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Virtua Fighter 5 turned 10 years old on Tuesday, July 12th. Community members Oliver “oneida” Leland, Mikél “BLACKSTAR” Grissett and VFDC co-creator Mike “Myke” Abdow reflect on how the entry fits into the series at large, and how its community ebbed over the course of a decade.

On July 12th 2006, Virtua Fighter 5 was released in Japanese arcades – that’s ten long years ago this past Tuesday. To put that time-frame in perspective, Soul Calibur III had been in arcades for three months. “X-Men: The Last Stand” was in theaters, “The Sopranos” was still on the air, and there was no such thing as an iPhone. SonicFox, fighting game tournament champion, was in the third grade. Put simply, Virtua Fighter 5 was released a long, long time ago.

Ten years ago fighting games were in that period of purported dormancy which spanned from the release of Capcom vs SNK 2 to Street Fighter IV, during which 3D fighters like Dead or Alive and Tekken saw sequels and revisions. And although Dead or Alive 4 technically brought fighters to “next-gen” on the Xbox 360 the previous November, Virtua Fighter 5 shouldered the responsibility of ushering the high-definition era to the arcades, which is where the franchise has flourished since its inception in 1993.

Garou: Mark of the Wolves coming to PS4 and PS Vita

28188666492_30270b131d_zIt seems that Sony Interactive Entertainment America Third Party Production team have teamed up with SNK Playmore to bring Garou: Mark of the Wolves to the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita as a digital release. The PlayStation blog post says that it is the ‘Neo Geo’ classic meaning that this will be a port of that version being coded by Code Mystics, inc. The game will feature cross play functionality and promises high quality netcode. It seems that their last port, The Last Blade 2 used Code Mystic’s proprietary netcode and was well received. This release will also feature a gallery mode that allows you to collect artwork from the history of the Fatal Fury franchise and a sound testing mode that will allow you listen to the game’s soundtrack whenever you want.

Earlier this year SNK Playmore revealed that there was a sequel to Garou: Mark of the Wolves planned (then scrapped) and there was even some artwork released. Personally I played the game quite a bit on my SEGA Dreamcast, there have of course been various ports. Who knows if this release sells well we might finally get that sequel we all wanted. No release date announced yet. How many of you are going to check out this release? Let me know in the comment section!

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The King of Fighters XIV demo hits PSN on July 19

The-King-Of-Fighters-XIVBeen waiting to try The King of Fighters XIV? You won’t have to wait long, Atlus and developer SNK Playmore have announced that The King of Fighters XIV demo will be out July 19 on the North American PSN.

The King of Fighters XIV demo will allow you to try seven of the game’s 50 playable fighters. The demo will be strictly offline, but the full version of The King of Fighters XIV will have online play. SNK Playmore have also announced a new mode for the full retail version titled Cooperative Online Multiplayer. In Cooperative Online Multiplayer you can match against two teams of three players. Meaning instead of you playing the three characters on your team, its a team of three separate players.

Atlus will publish the North American version of The King of Fighters XIV for PlayStation 4 on August 23rd!

[Via: Gematsu]

Blade Arcus from Shining EX releasing to PC on July 28th in the west

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Blade Arcus from Shining EX, a fighting game featuring characters from SEGA’s Shining series, has been announced to be coming west to the PC through Steam thanks to the developer Studio Saisenzen, who is also acting as publisher. The game originally released in Japan in late November of 2015 for the PS3 and PS4 and was published by SEGA. Fans of the original Genesis/Mega Drive era games should put a damper on their excitement as the Shining characters appearing in this game are from the recent titles in the series. Still, it is very cool to see titles that typically would never release west receiving localizations. The game will be re-titled Blade Arcus from Shining: Battle Arena and is set to release on July 28th.

You can learn all about the game on the Steam page, and stay tuned to SEGAbits for a potential review once the game releases.

What SEGA can learn from Nintendo’s NES Classic Edition

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You are reading the title, dumbfounded that a SEGA fanboy like myself would tell the glamorous SEGA to take notes from Nintendo. You might be more confused after I made a jab at the NES Classic Edition on twitter the other day. While personally, I don’t care about a replica box that only plays a set amount of emulated games, I know there is a huge market for it in the states. These things are the Tiger Electronic toys of our time (maybe that’s too harsh)! But Nintendo has announced a few things with this project that I think SEGA should seriously take a closer look at, especially if they will be taking this whole ‘plug-in-play’ market a bit more seriously. 

So let’s talk about the SEGA’s emulated machines, the NES Classic Edition and what SEGA can do to capitalize on the attention that these devices will receive because Nintendo joined the ranks. 

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X PS4 demo out now in Japan

3077071-gameplay_hatsunemikuprojectdivax_20160606_gsHave you been counting the long days for the release of Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X and need something to tide you over the long wait? If you have a Japanese PSN account, you can try Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X on your PlayStation 4 right now! SEGA’s Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X  demo is out now and weighs in at 525mb!

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X demo features:

Not a bad set of songs for a free demo. Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X hits the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in North America on August 30th. As for Japan, the PlayStation 4 version hits them a few days early on August 25th, they already got the PlayStation Vita version back in March. Who is giving this demo a try?

[Via Gematsu]

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