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Yu Suzuki shares details of Shenmue III and beyond in new Shenmue Dojo interview

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In a new interview from the Shenmue Dojo, the series creator and SEGA legend spoke at length about the development process of Shenmue and Shenmue II, and revealed a bit more about the long awaited third game in the series. A bulk of the interview delves into information shared at GDC 2014’s Shenmue postmortum, clarifying and expanding on development details shared at the event. Suzuki also answered some Shenmue III questions, sharing some very interesting pieces of information. Suzuki revealed that how the third game begins is undecided, but he thinks it will start from Shenhua’s home. Suzuki also defended SEGA, stating “About Shenmue, Sega is not a problem at all. For Shenmue III, we need to define a specific budget and if I can gather enough for it, Sega will allow me to do it.” Regarding the question of if Shenmue III would end the series, Suzuki answered “Yes indeed, the story is far away from being completed and to be honest, I do not think that it’s possible to end it during Shenmue III. If I had to do it my way, players would experience the ending during Shenmue V. But that seems to be a lot so I’m going to try to finish it within the next 2 games.”

For the full interview head on over to Shenmue Dojo, and in the comments below share your thoughts on what Suzuki revealed. Should the series continue past a third title? Or should Suzuki focus on one more game to complete the story?

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SEGAbits & Sonic Retro present Boom Talkalaka #1: Sonic Boom Begins

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SEGAbits and Sonic Retro team up to bring you a podcast focused on SEGA’s new Sonic Boom franchise! Hosted by Barry the Nomad of SEGAbits.com and David the Lurker of SonicRetro.org, Boom Talkalaka features discussion of the many aspects of Sonic Boom – from comics and episodes of the cartoon, to the video games and toys.

Give the show a listen and in the comments tell us what you think! If you have any questions or comments you want David to read on the next episode, leave your message here with the subject line “Boom-Grams”: https://segabits.com/contact/

[Download] [RSS]

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My Life with SEGA celebrates twenty years of Saturn with Virtua Fighter

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The SEGA Saturn celebration continues as Andrew Rosa and Mickey Mac with special guest Erica Winter “enjoy” one of the very first games released for the SEGA Saturn…. Virtua Fighter! Stay tuned for next week’s part two as AJ, Mickey Mac, and Erica tackle another Saturn classic. We’re not going to spoil it, but here’s a hint: it rhymes with “Smirtua Spider Shoe”.

Like this video? Subscribe to the SEGAbits YouTube channel.

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“Hi☆sCool! Seha Girls” anime Episode 6 is here, Impressions

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Believe it folks! Hi☆sCool! Seha Girls episode 6 is on Crunchyroll, and along with it comes an appearance from everybody’s favourite spiny blue hedgehog!

In this week’s episode, the Girls are tasked with an exam, in which they enter the world of SEGA’s online arcade mech shooter, Border Break! Furthermore, if they manage to destroy the core of the area, they’ll be awarded 25 credit medals; and 50 if they do it without a mech!

Having all the luck in the world, Saturn gets thrown into battle without a mech, whilst Dreamcast and Saturn get the armour. Dreamcast then struggles to get used to the controls, and ends up going missing, to the annoyance of the other Girls. Dreamcast only gets into further trouble when she discovers an enemy, and tries talking out their issues; at which point Mega Drive steps in to deal some sharp justice. Then, tactics become involved, as the girls use a decoy (in the form of poor Saturn!) to lure out the enemy, and promptly slaughter them. Or at least, Mega Drive slaughters them, as Dreamcast continues to fumble about.

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Sales of Valkyria Chronicles PC Port has “Blown all predictions” say SEGA

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For those worried that the sales for SEGA’s PC port of their classic Valkyria Chronicles may fall short of any sale targets can rest easy. SEGA have confirmed that not only did Valkyria Chronicles meet expectations, it ‘blown all predictions out of the water’ quite the accomplishment for a 6 year old port of a Playstation 3 exclusive. Speaking to MCV, SEGA Europe’s senior VP of commercial publishing John Clark had to say;

“During its first 24 hours on sale, blew all forecasts and predictions out of the water. The award-winning Strategy RPG, originally released in 2008 for PlayStation 3, forced its way to the top of the Steam download charts, beating a host of brand new games to reach number one,”

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the fans for their support in the phenomenal success of this launch. We’re also delighted at the response from the Steam community which indicates that newcomers to the series are finding it as enchanting and engaging as those who have played it before.

A fantastic achievement for all at SEGA, here’s hoping that this could only lead to more future PC ports from the blue skies company.

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Phantasy Star Nova is including Valkyria Chronicles 3 outfits

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Seems that SEGA is trying to bring the Valkyria Chronicles series back to life, first with the PC port of the first game (that came out today, by the way) and now this crossover with Phantasy Star Nova.

Phantasy Star Nova gives you the option of using a Valkyria form costume of the character Riela Marcellis. We have covered other collaborations like Resonance of Fate, Star Ocean  and Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth. Phantasy Star Nova will be getting a second demo on November 13th on the Japanese PSN.

What do you guys think of all these Phantasy Star collaborations? Should this continue to be a staple of the series or is it getting out of hand?

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Rumor: Sonic Runners is an upcoming mobile game from SEGA Networks

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The Sonic fan community has been abuzz over the rumor that the next Sonic game will be titled Sonic Runners. The rumor began when a member of a message board shared inside info on Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric months before release. While at the time the person’s claims couldn’t be verified, following Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric‘s release, several of the bits of info lined up with what was in the final game. Most notably, information about Metal Sonic and Shadow which detailed not only their addition before SEGA revealed them, but also where and when they appear in the game. The tipster also revealed in-game dialogue, NPC information, and design details – again, all which lined up with the final product. In addition to Sonic Boom leaks, the person also let leak that a working title for an upcoming game titled “Sonic Runners” appeared on a whiteboard.

Today, the rumor has been strengthened by Sonic Stadium discovering that SEGA, specifically SEGA Networks Corporation, has registered and owns the SonicRunners.com domain. SEGA Networks is SEGA of Japan’s developer of high-end games for smartphones and tablets – lead by Haruki Satomi and based in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward. The company began with 211 employees and have since released Demon Tribe, Kingdom Conquest II, Go Dance, Rhythm Thief & the Paris Caper, and Super Monkey Ball Bounce. This leads us to believe that Sonic Runners will likely be a Japanese developed title for iOS and Android devices.

As usual, this is a rumor, so take it as a grain of salt until SEGA officially announces something.

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Yuji Naka’s Rodea the Sky Soldier releasing Spring 2015 in Japan to the Wii U and 3DS

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Here at SEGAbits we like to keep things focused on SEGA both past and present, but when a SEGA legend leaves the company to do their own thing, we like to keep you guys informed as to what they’re up to – especially when it’s a big project with some SEGA influences. While we love former Sonic Team head Yuji Naka, who left SEGA in 2006 to found his own studio Prope, his studio’s games really haven’t had the same impact that his works at SEGA had. Outside of Let’s Tap and Ivy the Kiwi? (the question mark is in the game’s title), Naka and his team haven’t done much aside from releasing several bland iOS titles. However, there was one upcoming Prope game that looked to be on par with Naka’s work at SEGA: Rodea the Sky Soldier for Wii and 3DS.

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SEGA releases launch trailers for Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric and Shattered Crystal

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SEGA has released the launch trailers for Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric for the Wii U and Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal for the Nintendo 3DS. Both games hit North America and Latin America today and will be in stores in Europe on November 21st. We’ll be sharing our own thoughts on the games soon, and next week expect some behind-the-scenes information on the development of the games. In the meantime, check out the Wii U trailer above and the 3DS trailer after the break!

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SEGA Tunes: Battle Garegga flies you to the leaden sky

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Battle Garegga is a fabulous vertical arcade shooter that was ported exclusively to the SEGA Saturn in Japan. Not into the genre? Who cares, you don’t have to care how a game plays to appreciate this fabulous piece of music. That’s the thing I like about Japanese games, they usually tried to hook you right at the first stage and offer you a bombastic opening track. Battle Garegga‘s Stage 1: Valley song is no different, a great opening track that has you hooked right at the first note.

So what are you waiting for? Hit play and fly to the leaden sky.

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Sonic gets his own Amiibo in February 2015

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Sonic fans, get ready to smash and boom this winter as Nintendo has just announced Sonic as the first Amiibo based on a third party character. Nothing much is known yet, but he’ll most likely be compatible with Smash Bros and Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. Outside of what’s in the link, no other information is known at this time, but we’ll be sure to update with new information as it comes in. I will say, he needs a bit of a nose job before they release him.

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Crazy Taxi: City Rush quizzes riders at New York Comic-con 2014

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If you’re a fan of crazy SEGA PR tactics, keep a close watch on Crazy Taxi: City Rush. Throughout October, wrestler Hulk Hogan guest starred in the mobile game, and that same month real taxis with Crazy Taxi branding invaded New York Comic-con 2014 to take attendees to their destinations for free with a bit of comic book and SEGA trivia along the way. This past week, SEGA released three videos showing off their Crazy Taxi trivia cab. Check out the overview video above, and after the break get a taste of a full ride and outtakes.

Also, don’t forget to give the game a download on your iOS or Android enabled device!

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Round Table: Our favorite SEGA Saturn imports

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It’s no secret that the SEGA Saturn did not have as strong a library as it could have had. The reason for this was that SEGA of America and SEGA Europe didn’t believe in the console like SEGA of Japan did, and thanks to a bunch onf inter-company politics, we never got to see many great titles in the West. Thankfully, the SEGA Saturn can easily play imports if you have yourself an Action Replay device – which Play Asia is conveniently having a sale on! Also, many of the Saturn’s imports are arcade titles or use minimal Japanese text, so you’re likely to find a slew of import friendly games.

Not sure where to start? Perhaps you need some ideas for additional games to add to your import library? Let the SEGAbits writers help out as we share our favorite SEGA Saturn imports!

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First footage of recently discovered Sonic X-Treme build released

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Brace yourself for this one folks, because it’s pretty big!

Recently, a previously unearthed build of the infamous cancelled Sonic game, Sonic X-Treme for SEGA Saturn, made its way into the hands of AssemblerGames member jollyroger. It was a PC executable, supposedly tying into SEGA’s SEGA PC initiative that took place at the time of X-Treme’s development and saw several Saturn titles ported to PC. This initiative was also intended to help launch nVidia’s first GPU, the NV1, which worked similarly to the Saturn: this build required the NV1, as a result. This led to the interest of our fellow site Sonic Retro; and as one thing has led to another, jollyroger and Sonic Retro members cooljerk and Andrew75 (who has been working on a Sonic X-Treme remake project, Project AXSX in the Sonic GDK engine) have worked together to try and get the code running, with Cooljerk having sent off an NV1 to jollyroger, and Andrew75 testing parts of the code in SEGA Saturn emulators. And lo and behold; they’ve succeeded, in what I can only describe as a superb team effort.

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Sonic the Comic Artist Carl Flint is at Weston Super Sonic 2015

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Upcoming UK Sonic convention Weston Super Sonic has announced the next guest in it’s line-up; and it’s none other than Sonic the Comic artist Carl Flint! 

Carl’s work includes over 50 of the comic’s covers, and was also a regular in producing artwork for the Tails and Amy-centric strips throughout the comic’s run.

This guest announcement is the latest in an impressive roster that Weston Super Sonic has built up; they previously announced that fellow Sonic the Comic legends Richard Elson, Nigel Kitching and Ferran Rodriguez will also be in attendance, and that Mike Pollock, the voice of none other than Dr Eggman, will be conducting a live Skype Q&A at the event. There’ll also be plenty of activities such as speedrun tournaments and art contests to keep you busy through the day!

And as previously stated, SEGABits will be there on the day, and bring you coverage of the event!

Plenty of details are available on the official Weston Super Sonic website, and if you want to go you’d better grab your tickets quick, as the last update on tickets stated there were only 10 left! You can register for tickets by clicking here!

If UK conventions are your thing, why not check out our write-up of the recent Sonic the Comic Con?

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