This year marks the 30th anniversary of SEGA Corporation as the company has started out as both arcade and consumer businesses. To celebrate their years of service, Famitsu mangazine managed to speak with Sega’s third CS Research and Development producer, Yosuke Okunari about his work.
Seems that some kickstarters (sometimes) run on pure nostalgia, case in point: Boogerman. Do you remember this 90’s not so classic video game? I mean, I get nostalgic when I see the box but I know the contents inside that box were garbage.
Boogerman wants to celebrate its 20th anniversary in style, so they are featuring a better 90’s hero in the game’s co-op mode: Earthworm Jim. Who doesn’t love the worm?
Boogerman 20th Anniversary kickstarter says that the game is a brand new HD adventure by the original creators. Worth funding? Let us know in the comments.
In order to inspire prospective participants in our re-launched art contest, we’ll be running a featured centered around SEGA art throughout the contest! We’ll be starting off with one of SEGA’s most artistically amazing games of all time, NiGHTS into Dreams. We’ll be featuring a sampling of the concept art you can currently find on NiGHTS into Dreams.com. If the art below interests you, I recommend checking them out, as they are a great repository of all things NiGHTS!
SEGA is releasing their animated film, Bayonetta: Bloody Fate in theaters over in Japan by the end of next month. If you where a fan of their 2010 action game Bayonetta, you will want to see this trailer.
The animation studio behind this film is Gonzo who also did Afro Samurai. If that wasn’t enough, the director for Afro Samurai will also be doing this film. Expect it to be over the top. It comes out in Japanese theaters on November 23rd.
We already know that SEGA got ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth out on Xbox, but the game was originally being worked on for Dreamcast. This isn’t the only game, lots of early SEGA 3rd party games where mean’t to be Dreamcast titles, like Shinobi and Gunvalkyrie. Seems like the unfinished Dreamcast versions of these games never see the light of day, thankfully there are people that find them. That is what happen here.
The person that found the rare gem is a forum member from Assemble Games that goes by the handle ZakhooiTM. Mr. ZakhooiTM is starting a fund raiser to get the code online, for all public to freely download and try. You can find more information here. Above is over 30 minutes of gameplay from the beta and after the jump we have 2-player mode footage. Enjoy
How would you like to win some fabulous SEGA merchandise, much of which will never be released to the public? I am happy to announce that now you can, and all you have to do is participate in a little art contest to express your SEGA love. If you think you can draw, shoot a good video, or even if you just fancy yourself a good writer, all you have to do is create a piece of SEGA art and send it into segabitscontest at gmail dot com. From there we will pick our favorite piece of art! Of course, since art is subjective, we will also have five runner up prizes.
The grand prize will consist of:
A set of Valkyria Chronicles 2 pins, a set of Jet Set Radio pins, 2 different Castle of Illusion pins, the original Valkyria Chronicles art book, the Eyes of Bayonetta art book and DVD, the original Jet Set Radio Future soundtrack, the Jet Set Radio soundtrack, a commission from Sonic comic artist Tracy Yardley.
We will also be offering five runner up prizes consisting of all the pins listed above. The contest will be ending November 26th. Unlike Summer of Art, don’t count on any extensions.
You can find some more information about this contest (as well as what happened to the Summer of Art contest) below.
Hello SEGABits readers, Kori-Maru here back from my trip from New York Comic Con with coverage of SEGA and Hardlight Studios panel titled “SEGA Through Out The Years” with special guests from SEGA attending the panel such as Ethan Einhorn, Chris Olsen, and Masayoshi Kikuchi-san as they explain SEGA’s history, focus on mobile, a few announcements, and the company’s future followed by Q/A and trivia contest. During the Q/A session, there were a lot of interesting questions from the audiences that may interest a lot of SEGA fans, so stay tuned for that. I also have tons of pictures of a few SEGA cosplayers and employees for our readers to look at. To view the video of the panel and pictures from the convention, hit the jump!
Western Sakura Wars, anime, and hardcore SEGA fans alike can now rejoice as Sakura Wars the Movie makes it’s grand return today on Blu-Ray disc for $34.98 in retail stores and $17.49 with 50% savings on Funimation’s store page. The Blu-Ray version contains tons of special features such as interviews with the creators, promotional videos, Japanese commercials and more. Hit the jump for the summary of the movie.
To celebrate the Mega Drive’s 25th anniversary, we’re teaming with SEGA to give away cool new in-game Kingdom Conquest II cards based on the Golden Axe and Altered Beast franchises made famous on SEGA’s 16-bit console. We’re giving away 10 Altered Beast Werewolf Monster Cards and 10 Golden Axe Gilius Thunderhead Commander Cards.
HOW TO ENTER:
Follow us on Twitter, tweet us an answer to this question: “What is your favorite SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis game?” with the hashtag #SBMD25 and if you’re selected, we’ll send you a code via direct message!
or
Like us on Facebook, reply to the dedicated Facebook post with an answer to this question: “What is your favorite SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis game?” and if you’re selected, we’ll send you a code!
Contest ends 10/31/13, codes will be given randomly.
Want more ways to win? SEGA is holding their own contest on the SEGA Blog, as well as on the Kingdom Conquest II Facebook page or enter on Twitter by following @KingdomConqGame and Tweeting #KC2MD
Those who follow us on our social networks have likely seen our seasonal spooky posts and know full well that the Sonic the Hedgehog series and Halloween-inspired creatures and settings have crossed paths numerous times. Thanks to the common platforming trope of a scary setting, we’ve seen ghosts in Sonic & Knuckles Sandopolis Zone, referred to as Hyudoro. We’ve also seen ghosts in Sonic Adventure 2, though this time the ghosts were called Boo and they had a leader named King Boom Boo. These Boo ghosts were Knuckles’ worst nightmare as he ventured into Pumpkin Hill, a stage which featured fantastic music accompanied by some pretty funny lyrics including “I’m walkin’ through valleys cryin’ pumpkin in the alley”. Most recently, Sonic Lost World saw the return of Sonic Adventure 2‘s Boo ghosts.
Despite all of these spooky stages and enemies, no Sonic stage came closer to Halloween than 2004’s Sonic Heroes which featured a full haunted house stage called Hang Castle. Featuring invisible walkways, levitating platforms, pumpkin-headed ghosts, and changing gravity, Hang Castle was truly bizarre. To this day, it is the only Sonic stage that scared me thanks to a creepy skeleton that peeked around a corner. Run towards where the skeleton should be and… he’s gone! Silent Hill has nothing on Hang Castle. Accompanying Hang Castle is a great soundtrack that fuses hip-hop samples and instruments that wouldn’t be out of place in a 1930’s cartoon featuring a haunted house and dancing skeletons. Give the track above a listen, and after the break… Pumpkin Hill. Because we can’t do a Halloween themed Tuesday Tunes without it!
Seems that today is all Alien: Isolation as a source by Kotaku spills the beans on the upcoming Creative Assembly Aliens shooter being called ‘Alien: Isolation‘. According to the source, the game is inspired by Bioshock and Dishonored. Also according to the source, SEGA is taking critical reception of Aliens: Colonial Marines seriously and are doing what they can to make Alien: Isolation a great game. Even though Isolation hasn’t been formally announced, it has already been met with delays. I assume this is why the game didn’t show up at Gamescom or other gaming events this year.
The source says that you play as Amanda Ripley, who is the daughter of Ellen Ripley. Amanda Ripley is mentioned in the Aliens special edition as having died while Ellen was frozen in space, so her character is part of the Alien universe. Besides this mention, she doesn’t appear in the Alien extended universe (yet). Unlike Aliens: Colonial Marines, you won’t be taking down armies of Aliens in endless waves. The source says that you spend most of the time in the station and fight only one alien for “most” of the game.
Doesn’t mean there won’t be clones and other soldiers to shoot at though. Vents, lockers and melee weapons play a big role in Isolation. Keep in mind this information is six months old. Much of the game could have changed. Alien: Isolation is said to debut on both current and next generation consoles.
If you didn’t know Twentieth Century Fox has been really trying to push the Aliens brand and really wants to break through into the video game industry. Their latest effort was with SEGA on Aliens: Colonial Marines. Now they’re tradmarking the name “Alien: Isolation” for another game. Who is developing it? Who knows. Could this be that ‘Creative Assembly’ Aliens game?
Even if Creative Assembly did an Aliens game, would you still want to play it after Colonial Marines?
Relic Entertainment, one of the newest studios that SEGA bought from the now defunct THQ says that their Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine game was meant to be a trilogy but THQ going bankrupt stopped those plans.
“I had some big plans for Titus. The second part of his story was to focus on a ‘Titus Unleashed’ plot–basically there were forces arrayed against him that would see his loyalty to the Adeptus Astartes pushed to its limit, and his reaction would be to kind of ‘go rogue,’ and we’d see a different Titus, not quite as in control as we saw him in Space Marine. He would be kicked out as a consequence–exiled, which would basically be a death sentence for him.” – Raphael van Lierop, director
If you haven’t played Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, you should give it a go. It has a lengthy single player campaign that gets a bit repetitive but the world just oozes charm and really captures the Warhammer universe. To read what what Raphael van Lierop had in mind for the sequels, check out the PA report. Would you want SEGA to continue the trilogy?
SEGA has posted up a new teaser site, with the phrase ‘The new story will begin’. So what do we know? That this could be an ‘action card battling game’ due to the site’s tag and that it will most likely be a Playstation Vita game (its in the HTML tag).
Regardless, it seems will will know more on October 28th or sooner (depending if Famitsu leaks it first). What are your thoughts?
Update: A press release has arrived, and with it clarification of the platforms! The story has been revised to reflect the new information.
Fans of mobile SEGA titles will be excited to hear that a bunch of releases are on the horizon! Today, SEGA has revealed that Sonic the Hedgehog 2 remastered will headline the mobile releases. Also coming is an iOS version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, a mobile adaptation of the 2012 Nintendo 3DS title Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure entitled Rhythm Thief & The Paris Caper, and the Japanese action RPG Demon Tribe. As of now, we’re only hearing about iOS releases, if we learn of other mobile operating systems getting the games, we’ll be sure to update this story.
After the break, learn more about each of the titles and check out some snazzy screenshots.