Hulkamania runs wild in Crazy Taxi City Rush

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Well ya know somethin’ Segabits?!

I was driving down Venice beach on my way to Gold’s Gym. Sayin’ my prayers and eatin’ my vitamins, when a pregnant Hulkamaniac dove into the back seat of my convertible! She screamed “Shigster! I’m about to have a little Hulkamaniac and I need to get to the hospital as fast as possible!” I knew what needed to be done. I grabbed the wheel with my 24 inch pythons and drove like a mad man! I drifted up steep inclines and weaved in and out of traffic. Oh sure, I hit a few pedestrians but they were probably Piper fans anyway!

SEGA Tunes: Space Channel 5’s Spaceport: Introducing Ulala and Mexican Flyer

It’s only fitting that the final Tuesday Tunes for Dreamcast month be about one of the Dreamcast’s legendary rhythm titles. Tonight’s track? A bombastic, jazzy little tune from Space Channel 5,You got to love when that awesome saxophone solo at the 2:55 mark, too. This is a real swinging, sexy piece of jazz that’d be absolutely great to dance to even outside of the game. Spaceport: Introducing Ulala. You got to love when that saxophone solo starts playing at the minute mark, too. This is a real swinging, sexy piece of jazz that’d be absolutely great to dance to even outside of the game. Definitely a great song to introduce one of the coolest rhythm game characters out there.

What many of you might not know is that one of Space Channel 5’s most iconic tunes wasn’t even made for the game! It’s actually a remix of an awesome song from the 1966 spy thriller movie “The Thriller Memorandum” called Mexican Flyer. The song itself is performed by Ken Woodman & His Piccadilly Brass, and the version Space Channel 5 uses seem to be ripped straight from the movie.

I don’t know what possessed Tetsuya Mizuguchi and the good people from United Game Artists to go with this as one of their game’s headline songs, but I’m glad they did. We can always use more jazz in gaming soundtracks, especially these days! Check out the original Mexican Flyer, which was also in Space Channel 5, below the fold.

Swingin’ Report Show #71: Phantasy Star Online with Susan Arendt & James Mielke

Dreamcast Month comes to an end at SEGAbits with a special episode of the Swingin’ Report Show podcast in which we celebrate one of the most memorable Dreamcast games – Phantasy Star Online.

Joining Barry and George on this episode are two gaming industry greats! Taking a telepipe to the Pioneer 2 is Susan Arendt – Managing Editor of Joystiq.com, former Editor-In-Chief at The Escapist, and former contributor to GameShark, Shojo Beat Magazine, and Wired. And back from busting a blue rappy it’s James Mielke – Founder of BitSummit, former Editor-In-Chief of Electronic Gaming Monthly and 1UP.com, and former producer at Q Entertainment and Q-Games.

Join us for a special round table looking back on PSO, from pre-release hype, to launch, and memories of the many versions and episodic sequels. As a bonus, James reveals that he has an army of super soldiers and he shares some inside info on where Phantasy Star Online 2 is at in English translation and what may be holding up a Western release.

[Download] [RSS] [iTunes] [Archive]

SEGA’s extended TV ad for Alien: Isolation looks great


I think they went for a more subtle approach in this ad than I thought they where going to go with. No pop up scare tactics and sets up the mood for the game rather well. It is also nice to see that SEGA is going to actually advertise this game (not that they didn’t with the last Alien game).

So what do you guys think of the advert?

SEGA releases 15 minute extended trailer for Yakuza Zero


SEGA has published their extended trailer for Yakuza Zero (or Yakuza 0), the extended look was featured on their Nico Nico broadcast and is now up on Youtube for all of us to enjoy.

No western release date for Yakuza Zero has been announced, but the game is heading to Japan this upcoming Spring 2015 on both Playstation 3 and Playstation 4.

Classic SEGA Ads: Shenmue! It’s so good, you’ll dream about it during sex!

As the Dreamcast entered its second (and final) year on the US market, SEGA moved away from their awesome “inside the Dreamcast” ads and went back to a style somewhat more conventional. These later Dreamcast ads are reminiscent of some of the better Genesis era stuff, albeit they are typically cleverer and better written.

Here, we’ve got a man who’s clearly been playing too much Shenmue. I’ll admit this is a funny ad that conveys the immersion factor of the game pretty effectively, but at the same time I can’t help but think that this would have been a game better advertised as a dramatic, epic masterpiece than as a game you’ll be thinking about in bed.

There was an ad made in this vein…though I’m unsure if it ever aired on television. It’s a direct translation of the Japanese ad and a pretty epic piece of advertisement. It features a great vocal track called “Song of the Bay”, which was only ever featured on the Shenmue orchestral soundtrack. Check out this ad below the fold!

Fighting Climax Developers Demonstrates Akira Yuki and Selvaria Bles’ Movesets In Action

Dengeki Online sat down with French-Bread battle planner Kamone and game director Takaharu Terada from Sega showcasing Akira Yuki (Virtua Fighter) and Selvaria Bles (Valkyria Chronicles) movesets for the upcoming console version of Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax at Tokyo Game Show 2014.

As you can see from the video, you can see how the two characters moves transition from their own respective franchise including a few interesting combos. Not only normals and specials, they’ve also demonstrated the support character system for each character. Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax is schedule for release on November 13, 2014 for PlayStation 3 and PS Vita.

SEGA’s Crazy Taxi: City Rush is the most downloaded iOS game for August

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It seems that Hardlight Studios has another hit on their hands with Crazy Taxi: City Rush, as it topped the most downloaded game lists on iOS for August. Even though most fans where disappointed that it wasn’t a full fledged arcade experience, SEGA and Hardlight did have the designer of the franchise (Kenji Kanno) was brought in to help in development. The new mobile take on the franchise seems to be a hit, we even gave it a good review.

Crazy Taxi franchise is 15 years old, so its nice to know that a new generation of gamers will know what Crazy Taxi is and hopefully the brand doing well on mobile will open doors for a brand new home console release. We can dream, can’t we?

SEGA celebrating Total War weekend, let’s you play Rome II for free

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SEGA and Creative Assembly have launched ‘Total War Week‘ on Steam, through September 25-29th. This means 75% discount on all Total War back catalog, including titles like Viking: Battle for Asgard and Total War: Shogun 2.

Not only that, but if you click here you’ll be able to download the full Total War Rome II and be able to play it for free all weekend. That totally beats a demo, right?

SEGA 3D Reprint Archives officially announced, with boxart by Ken Sugimori

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The retail release of the SEGA 3D Classics Line we reported on the other day has now been officially announced by Famitsu!

The details are the same as the rumour from beforehand; the collection contains 3D Space Harrier, 3D Fantasy Zone, 3D Outrun, 3D Streets of Rage, 3D Shinobi 2,and 3D Ecco the Dolphin. Also included are two bonus titles, Space Harrier 3D and Outrun 3D, two Master System games that originally made use of the SEGA Master System’s 3D Glasses peripheral.

As if that wasn’t cool enough, the boxart has been released – and it features artwork by legendary Pokemon artist Ken Sugimori! This is a surprise on one hand, but on the other hand Ken is quite a bit of SEGA fan, what with having an amazing Dreamcast case for his 3DS, and his Twitter handle being @Super_32X, the Japanese name of the SEGA 32X, amongst other things. Anywho; Space Harrier’s never looked quite so good!

Overall, this looks to be an excellent package, and one that, unlikely as it is, I’m personally hoping makes it to the West.

The archives page on the official SEGA Japan site can be found here.

Pier Solar HD coming out this week on PS4, PS3, PC and Ouya

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The HD remake of Pier Solar and the Great Architects, the 2010 SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive RPG, is finally set to release on September 30th on the PS4, PS3, Ouya and PC via Steam.

Sounds awesome but what about us that pre-ordered the Xbox One, Wii U and even the physical Dreamcast version? Publisher Watermelon Games said they will be announcing release dates on those platforms later this month.

Who will be picking up the game on these platforms?

“Diggin’ in the Carts” interviews Hiroshi Kawaguchi and Yuzo Koshiro

The new series from Red Bull Music Academy, Diggin’ in the Carts, that we previously reported on, has uploaded it’s fourth episode, in which we get brand new interviews with SEGA music legends Hiroshi Kawaguchi and Yuzo Koshiro.

For those unaware, Kawaguchi was behind the soundtracks to several of SEGA’s finest soundtrack work, such as OutRun, Space Harrier, After Burner, Power Drift… we could go on. To this day, he still works at SEGA, and still his output never falters. Suffice to say, he’s probably one of the most talented video game composers of all time, and his list of works is nothing to scoff at.

The same can be said for Yuzo Koshiro, whose works include the soundtracks to the Streets of Rage games, as well as The Revenge of Shinobi. In addition, he’s even worked on the new Super Smash Brothers for Wii U/3DS, and if that wasn’t enough, he too has generally kept a consistent quality throughout all of his work.

He also worked on Shenmue, which is of course no small feat, with the game boasting a breathtaking score.

The episode also mentions Masato Nakamura’s work on Sonic the Hedgehog; somewhat unsurprisingly, he was unavailable for comment. It is quite entertaining to see Flying Lotus and Thundercat’s rendition of Green Hill Zone. There’s also a bit of pretty rare SEGA merch in there, as the vinyl record “SEGA Music” with various arcade SEGA tunes turns up in the possession of J. Rocc!

Overall, it’s a fantastic episode, and one I personally recommend SEGA fans check out. And if that’s not enough, an upcoming episode also features Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, so stay tuned!

You can catch the episode by clicking here!

SEGA and The Creative Assembly announce Total War: Attila at EGX London 2014 – game to release in 2015

SEGA and The Creative Assemblyhave unveiled a new Total War title, Total War: Attila, at this years EGX London event. Described as “challenging” and designed for “Total War veterans”, Total War: Attila will obviously feature Attila the Hun, leader of the Hunnic Empire, and his one million horsemen. At the height of his reign, his control stretched from the Ural River to the Rhine River and from the Danube River to the Baltic Sea. Eurogamer, which went hands-on with the game, describes how diseases will play a part in the game. The cleaner and healthier a city you have, the less a chance you have of facing disease. The spread of disease will affect player’s soldiers, which will impact their performance in battle. Other features include a region overlay which provides regional details like wealth and disposition, the return of the family tree (a feature missing from Rome II), and dynamic fire, a new weapon which allows buildings to burn and fires to spread.

Total War: Attila is expected to release next year, and we’re certain a press release is on the way. In the meantime, enjoy the above trailer and get ready to welcome Attila into your homes.

Update: The official site for the game is live, check it out and learn more about the latest Total War title.

Update 2: Press release, screenshots, cover art, and concept art after the break.

Update 3: SEGAbits forum member JRcade19 spotted a mention on the SEGA Blog that the game is due for release in 2015 on Windows PC and Mac. An interesting development, given traditionally PC and Mac releases of SEGA titles are years apart.

Retro Review: Shenmue (SEGA Dreamcast)

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Even with the ridiculous and almost unprecedented hype that surrounded the release of SEGA’s mega-budget Dreamcast title Shenmue, it’s tough to imagine that gamers first diving into the series back then would have any idea how legendary (or infamous) Ryo’s adventure would become. Who could have guessed that even nearly 15 years later, fans would be still be begging for more?

Love it or hate it, the still-unfinished saga that is Shenmue has become a legend in its own right: a mystery etched into the fabric of gaming that may never be solved. But it’s a game very much worthy of that legendary status. It may not have been for everyone, but for those who “got” Shenmue, there was simply nothing else like it.