Help kickstart SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works

2013 appears to be the year of SEGA Kickstarter campaigns. We’ve had Not Enough Rings, Redux: Dark Matters, and now we have SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis: Collected Works. Darren Wall, the UK man behind the campaign, is attempting to create what he describes as the “definitive volume” of the SEGA Mega Drive. The end product will be a book, officially licensed by SEGA, containing “an unparalleled treasury of production artwork, interviews, development sketches and hardware manufacturing plans”. The project also promises:

It will also include over 20 exclusive interviews with original SEGA team members – many of whom have never been interviewed before – a foreword by industry legend Dave Perry and an insightful 10,000-word piece by Keith Stuart (Games Editor for the Guardian and regular contributor to Edge) on the machine that changed the landscape of gaming forever.

The book will showcase a wealth of SEGA’s 16-bit titles, from blockbuster games such as Bare Knuckle/Streets of Rage, Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star, Gunstar Heroes, The Super Shinobi/Revenge of Shinobi and Golden Axe through to cult gems such as Rent-a-Hero, Vectorman and DecapAttack.

Darren Wall shouldn’t have any problem with meeting his £30,000 goal, as at the time of writing this there is 27 days remaining and he is only £10 away from completion. Head on over to the campaign page and show your support! We’ll keep you updated on the project as it progresses.

Review: Sonic Lost World (3DS)

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Another major Sonic game has been released on a home console and with that, another portable version is put out by DIMPS. This time however, DIMPS will be dealing with Sonic in a full, 3-D world with all new controls and an emphasis on platforming instead of speed. DIMPS’ attempts in the past at making portable versions of Sonic console games have been fairly mediocre. Sonic Colors DS was flat out dull and Sonic Generations 3DS relied on its multiplayer and mission mode to be anything more than a rental. (I think I gave that game way too high a grade at the time.) This time however, DIMPS has actually been getting some praise for their port of Sonic Lost World with some claiming it to be the superior version. While I disagree with that, it really seems like DIMPS did their best to make a solid 3-D Sonic game that does in fact, improve over the Wii U version on some respects, but has some serious flaws as well. Read on to see why Sonic Lost World has some of the best highs and worst lows of any portable Sonic game.

Art of SEGA: Panzer Dragoon Zwei

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The Panzer Dragoon games have some of the best art SEGA has ever produced. With input from renowned artist Moebius, the world of Panzer Dragoon is one both alien and familiar. The world is epic in its scope and the unique creature designs manage to be horrific and beautiful at the same time. This art was found on the Panzer Dragoon website Will of the Ancients. You can find their art section here.

Hopefully, the art from this game will inspire anyone interested in participating in our art contest!

New DLC for Racing Transformed discovered on Steam

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Mystery DLC has been discovered on Steam for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. It has a date of November 5th. I remember a while back Steve Lycett saying there would be one more character coming this year who was rated highly on the poll. This could mean anything though. Do you think it’s Miku? Do you think its Ryo Hazuki? Do you think it’s Kazuma Kiryu? Let us know in the comments!

It might also be important to note that the past few character updates have been included as patches, yet whatever this upcoming content is seems like it’s going to be paid DLC.

View the full article to see a picture of the STEAM data.

Hatsune Miku Project Diva f PS Vita English version releasing Early 2014

Hungry for more Vita games? SEGA has heard your cries. Announcing Hatsune Miku f for PS Vita, the original Hatsune Miku Project Diva f game that was released in Japan. We never got the PS Vita version in the west, but it looks like we will be getting it now. Lots of people say the Vita version is better than the PS3 version due to no input lag on the screen and tapping the screen for the stars instead of flicking the control sticks. Not to mention that great looking OLED screen.

I guess this means the PS3 version must of sold well in the west for them to want to bring this over.. now, about PSO2…

A TSA officer told Peter Moore: “I don’t need to see your passport. You’re the asshole that gave away Shenmue to Xbox”

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This is a funny post today on ‘Today I learned’ subreddit, the section is for people to post facts that they just learned today. This one being SEGA related, I thought it would be fun to share. The source is this wikipedia entry.

‘Moore disclosed to GamingSteve.com that at a security checkpoint at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, a TSA security agent said “I don’t need to see your passport. You’re the asshole that gave away Shenmue to Xbox.”‘

If there is anything I agree with here is that Shenmue does have one of the most vocal fanbases ever. Do I think it was bad to move Shenmue 2 to Xbox? Not necessarily, I thought it was bad not releasing the Dreamcast version along with the Xbox version.

Sonic Talk #24 “Third time’s the charm.”

[ MP3 Download ] [ iTunes ]

FINALLY! After 3 tries, we finally get episode 24 out the door. We start with Nuckles87 getting a little too excited over finishing a level in Sonic Lost World. We talk a bit about what we’ve been playing. Alex goes into a rant on TSSZ and Ken Penders and I talk to Lidice Garcia on Sonic Boom U.S. West Chapter and what Sonic Revolution is. Then, we end it with Comic talk. Click on the comments section for show notes.

SEGA Memories: Space Channel 5 premieres in Universal City Walk’s Cinema Plaza

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Back in the Dreamcast era, SEGA would have big promotional events for their titles. Yes, even niche stuff like Space Channel 5, which most publishers wouldn’t spend too much advertising dollars on. SEGA on the other hand had a huge E3 booth for the game, but after when the game was nearing its ‘debut’ they decided to premiere the game to the public, like it was a Hollywood picture. How would they do that? Premiere the game at an event over at Universal City Walk’s Cinema Plaza!

Review: The Typing of the Dead Overkill

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Droppin’ F-bombs like a mother…

The original The Typing of the Dead was a misunderstood sleeper hit when it came out for the Dreamcast. The keyboard accessory may have been useful in the eyes of consumers for games like Quake III Arena, but it didn’t immediately become apparent that a typing game spin-off would make for an amazing, fast paced alternative. The original game appeared in Japanese arcades prior, and when it arrived on PC shortly after it had done well enough to spawn several more sequels and updates on the platform, in Japan. Outside of Japan it would be seen as an outdated arcade game that would be shunned, yet had become the cult hit which emitted an outcry of diehard fans in their never ending list of seemingly implausible demands for a new entry in the series. Years later, after SEGA and Headstrong’s release of The House of the Dead: Overkill on the Wii, it had seen an update with The House of the Dead: Overkill Extended Cut on Playstation 3 and on the week of Halloween has seen an update on Steam for PC as part of a semi two game bundle, literally out of the blue with no fanfare and nearly cancelled by now defunct Blitz Games. Despite these hurdles, it was still the ideal platform to put out this modern update to the franchise that encompasses its cheesiness and over the top absurdity to much higher levels, probably higher than people would expect or possibly want.

Atlus games go on sale on PSN and Steam

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So you found out about SEGA acquiring Atlus and want to try a few of their games to see what they are all about? Don’t worry, they are having a sale on some of their games over on PSN and Steam.

PSN:

Steam: 

The sale ends tomorrow on PSN and on the 5th on Steam. So go and get what you want before that. I recommend Persona 4 Golden!

SEGA-Sammy’s Finicial Report: Consumer division beats expectations, generates profit

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It seems that SEGA-Sammy is on track. In recent earnings they continued to generate profit as a whole thanks to their amusement and pachinko slot machines, usually their consumer business loses money. Not this time, SEGA’s consumer business reported a income of 1.12 billion yen (about $11.35 million). What lead to SEGA’s sudden turn in profits?

  • During the three month period, their biggest title was Total War: Rome II, which moved 800,000 units.  Considering the fact that this report ends on September 30th, that would mean the game was on sale for less than a month!
  • According to the report their digital titles for Windows PC, mobile phones and smartphones ‘remained favorable’. Phantasy Star Online 2 saw 3 million registered accounts during August and 800,000 people downloaded the mobile game ‘Chain Chronicle‘ .

SEGA-Sammy as a company saw their operating income jump up 57.1 %, ranking in 12.4 billion yen. If you are one of the people that invested in SEGA-Sammy stock, congratulations!

Sakura Wars Mobage will feature a costume changing system and sign ups

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A few months ago, SEGA and Red Entertainment made a partnership with Mobage to develop a new Sakura Wars game which displeased many fans in Japan.  However, Sakura Wars for Mobage  will feature a original story featuring several characters from the franchise a new gameplay system that involves changing costumes.

Details about how this  will change gameplay have not been announced as of yet. Signups for Sakura Wars for  Mobage start today and if you register early you’ll get an ultra rare  Sakura Shinguji card. Service for the game is scheduled to begin sometime this winter.

Special Thanks to SEGAFAN for the tip!

SEGA Cinema: House of the Dead

*Warning movie is rated R: contains gore, terrible acting and nudity*

**Is the YouTube video blocked in your country?**
No worries, download the full episode here.

Welcome to another installment of SEGA Cinema, where you sit back and watch a flick with your buddies here at SEGAbits. This time we are watching Uwe Boll’s classic ‘House of the Dead‘. That’s right, just in time to celebrate your Halloween night.

We suffered through this, now you have to too!

[MP3]