Alien: Isolation developer interview highlights a new time challenge mode

 

Game Trailers have uploaded an E3 developer interview featuring The Creative Assembly’s Alistair Hope answering questions during in-game footage of the upcoming Alien: Isolation. Hope highlights the game’s lonely atmosphere, the emphasis on survival and puzzles, and reveals a new time challenge mode. The game is looking great thus far, and those who fear another Aliens: Colonial Marines need only to watch the footage and remember that this is an internally developed SEGA title, not another Gearbox Software effort.

SEGAbits writers will be hitting the show floor of E3 today, playing Alien: Isolation and interviewing the developers, so expect our own impressions soon!

Sonic Jump Fever releasing to iOS and Android soon – check out the announcement trailer!


 
SEGA has released a trailer for Sonic Jump Fever, a sequel to Hardlight Studio’s Sonic Jump, which was in turn a remake of a 2005 mobile title. Sonic Jump Fever had received a soft launch in Canada this past April to test the game, and it appears all went to plan as the game is set to release to other territories soon! The game’s description is as follows: “Prepare to feel the FEVER in an explosive race against the clock! Join Sonic and friends in high-speed bursts of vertical jumping mayhem. Play for free and rack up huge combos to blast past your friends’ high scores. Use boosters, upgrades, unique character abilities and Chao pets to maximize your score. Then kick your game into overdrive with Fever Mode and hit the top of the Leaderboard! With brand new levels and leaderboards every week, the challenge never ends!”

SEGAbits will be attending a VIP mobile event this week which will showcase SEGA’s mobile offerings including Sonic Jump Fever, so expect hands-on impressions soon!

SEGAbits at E3 2014 coverage begins – previews and interviews from the show floor coming soon

segabitse3
 
Another Electronic Entertainment Expo is upon us, and once again SEGAbits is attending on location at the Los Angeles Convention center to bring you previews of the latest SEGA games and interviews with the people behind them! No secondhand reporting here. This year, SEGA has a small but highly unique assortment of games on display which we’ll be playing and talking about as the week goes on. At the SEGA booth are Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (Wii U), Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal (3DS), Alien: Isolation (PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, PC), and Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd (PS3, Vita, PSN). We’ll also be covering Bayonetta 2 (Wii U), which will likely be on display at the Nintendo booth.

SEGA’s recent acquisition Atlus will also be receiving coverage from us, with Atlus showing off Persona 4 Arena Ultimax (PS3/360), Persona Q (3DS), Persona 4: Dancing All Night (PS Vita), Abyss Odyssey (PC, PS3, 360), Citizens of Earth (3DS, Wii U, PC, PS Vita, PS4) and an unannounced Title (PC, PS Vita, PS4). In addition to all of that, we’ll be attending a VIP event held by SEGA’s mobile division where we’ll be playing and talking to the developers of the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog, Crazy Taxi, and Super Monkey Ball mobile games.

You can view all of our E3 coverage here throughout the week, and you can find live updates on our Twitter and Facebook accounts. We also have a live from E3 podcast in the works, which we plan to release during the show. The countdown is over, welcome to E3 2014!

Classic SEGA Ads: SEGA challenges you with After Burner for the Master System!


 
Wake up and check out this crazy SEGA commercial from 1988, advertising After Burner for the SEGA Master System. As most video game ads from the era tend to do, a young boy is transported from his living room to being behind the controls of an F-14 Tomcat. After flashing a thumbs up to the camera, the boy blasts off into the pixelated blue skies, taking on enemy fighters. However instead of looking outside the windows, he is playing After Burner inside the fighter jet (cue the “yo dawg i heard you like” meme). The announcer excitedly tells players that they can execute battle rolls, nose dives, supersonic speed (5 years before Sonic the Hedgehog!), and radar lock-on. The boy then, in his best impression of an action star delivering a death blow quip, says “your turn to burn!”. The ad ends with a tagline rarely reapeated nowadays, but it sure is fantastic: “SEGA: The Challenge Will Always Be There.” – emphasis on “Aaalways”, thanks to the narrator.

Overall, this is amazing ad! Fun effects work, lots of gameplay footage and music despite the real world setting of the boy in the fighter jet, and that ending tagline is just so damn strong. I think “The Challenge Will Always Be There.” deserves a comeback, don’t you?

After the break, see how SEGA of Japan advertised After Burner for the SEGA Mark III!

Swingin’ Report Show #63: Indie SEGA Dreamcast interview with the Elysian Shadows Team


Had a chance to  chat with the developers behind the upcoming indie Dreamcast title Elysian Shadows. Lots of exclusive bits of information dropped including characters that will be in the game, differences between versions and much more. If you have been wanting to know more about this game, this is definitely the podcast to listen to. Don’t forget that August 1st will be the start of the Kickstarter!  With Elysian Shadows hitting the Dreamcast before any other platform, its easy to continue saying “It’s still thinking”.

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

SEGA and Atlus reveal their E3 line ups

Sega-E314-Lineup-Ann

With E3 now only days away, companies are finally getting around to unveiling their E3 line-ups. Today, SEGA got around to unveiling what games they will be bringing to the show. The list isn’t exactly surprising:

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (Wii U)

Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal (3DS)

Alien: Isolation (PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360, PC)

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd (PS3, Vita, PSN)

Though the list is rather paltry, it should be noted that SEGA has occasionally had some small surprises at E3. Back in 2010 the company used the show to unveil Sonic Free Riders and their line-up of Dreamcast titles. Also notably absent are SEGA’s mobile titles, despite the company working to increase its presence in the sector.

Even if these are the only games coming from SEGA itself, we at SEGAbits won’t be getting off so easily. Though not officially confirmed, Nintendo will likely have Bayonetta 2 on display. SEGA’s newest acquisition, Atlus, has their own slate of titles for the show, which we will also be providing coverage for.

What happens if you mix Beastie Boys music with Sakura Wars?


Kori here to bring you an amazing mash up of the Sakura Wars iconic theme song “Geki! Teikoku Kagekidan!” (which roughly translates “Attack! Imperial Floral Assault Team!“) with Bestie Boys in the mix.

The original video was found on NicoNicoDouga and uploaded on YouTube. The mix is pretty amazing with the fusion of the Bestie Boys singing and Chisa Yokoyama as Sakura Shinguji as the lead singer.

If you have any thoughts on this amazing mash up video, be sure leave us a comment below

Green Man Gaming summer sale: Buy a discounted SEGA game and get Jet Set Radio HD for free

PublisheroftheDay
Its summer and those PC sales aren’t slowing down. This time the sale is coming from Green Man Gaming which is discounting tons of SEGA games up to 80% off! Not only that, if you buy any SEGA game on this page, you get Jet Set Radio HD for free. Some of the on sale items to check out:

  • Castle of Illusions – $3.74
  • Binary Domain Collection – $3.99
  • Alpha Protocol – $3.74
  • Viking: Battle for Asgard – $3.74
  • Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed – $4.99

So check out the page and pick your poison, there are plenty of great PC games on sale. Most of these games redeem via Steam!

Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team released on Steam while nobody was looking

warhammer40kkillteam

So this one flew under the radar. A PC port of Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team was suddenly released on Steam half a month ago for $9.99. Unlike other Warhammer 40k games, this is a top-down shooter originally released on XBLA and PC which was developed by the now defunct THQ Digital Studios UK. It also has a focus on co-op, though strangely it only has local multiplayer.

The new PC version was handled by Nomad Games, a small studio where people who worked on the original game work. This is also the first Warhammer 40k game published by SEGA.

Elysian Shadows developers release video update on project


We already posted about how Elysian Shadows is being published (Dreamcast version) by the wonderful guys over at Watermelon Games. That isn’t all it seems, the team recently got private investors so some of the developers can work full time on the game.

The Kickstarter will still be happening on August 1st. Have a question for the team? We will be having the developers on the Swingin’ Report Show tomorrow, so drop any questions you might have.

SEGA Tunes: Shinobi III’s Idaten

Tonight’s tune is from Shinobi 3, one of the best games on the Genesis. You should check it out if you haven’t already. It’s got a lot of great action and an awesome soundtrack. Idaten comes from a stage anyone who’s played the game will surely remember: the one where you ride the horse and kill flying ninjas. Doesn’t this just make you want to play it again?

Also, just for the hell of it, I stuck something else below the fold, a little tune called Whirlwind. Take a listen.

Phantasy Star Nova’s atmosphere is highly influenced by Phantasy Star Online

pso2nova_01
If you guys remembered that SEGA announced Phantasy Star Nova for the Playstation Vita back in September of last year. During the announcement we found out that tri-Ace (Resonance of Fate and Star Ocean) would be developing the game.  Not much information about Phantasy Star Nova has been release, till now.

It is confirmed that Phantasy Star Nova will take place in the same world as Phantasy Star Online 2 and have its own story. Characters in the game include Lutina (Maaya Uchida), Seil (Yoshitsugu Matsuoka), Izuna (Ai Kayano), Fordia (Miyuki Sawashiro).

The developers state that the game will be closer to Phantasy Star Online when you compare it to the atmosphere. ‘Survival’ is one of the visual concepts the team want to show in the game and there will be features such as costume destruction, which hasn’t been applied to a Phantasy Star game before.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Soundtrack Available on iTunes and AmazonMP3

transformedSoundtrack_BITS

SEGA and Sumo Digital have answered the demand for an official release of the soundtrack for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. While it has featured a physical release in Japan on two CDs, you can buy each CD digitally through your choice of Apple’s iTunes store or on AmazonMP3. Each CD is available for $9.99 USD, (Or $9.49 on Amazon at the time of this writing,) and£7.99 GBP, or you can purchase tracks individually.

  • iTunes (Disc 1) [US] [UK] (Disc 2) [US] [UK]
  • Amazon Mp3 (Disc 1) [US] [UK] (Disc 2) [US] [UK]

For someone like me that’s been listening to this soundtrack in the most cumbersome way possible, (Try hooking up your phone to your car stereo and hoping all four G’s of your data connection can play songs off of YouTube and not stop to buffer every so often,) this could not have come at a better time for me.

Thanks to Sumo Digital’s Steve Lycett and Sonic Retro Staff Member GerbilSoft for providing links to the soundtrack. If you’d like a complete listing of the songs, head over to VGMDB.