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SEGA Tunes: Ecco The Tides of Time CD’s Motion E

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I really wanted to feature a track from an Ecco game this week. I thought about featuring tracks from the Genesis or Dreamcast games, but I’d really like to save those for something else later in the year. So I’ve decided to go with something from the SEGA CD!

The Ecco series is renowned for its amazing, atmospheric soundtracks and the SEGA CD tracks from Spencer Nilsen are no exception. These tracks are absolutely beautiful and go so far as to sample sounds from actual aquatic animals to compliment the game’s atmosphere. The quality of this music should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Nilsen’s work on SEGA CD. He was the same man who produced Sonic CD’s spectacular soundtrack.

To make up for a few weeks of inactivity, I’ve decided to feature another track from the game below. It’s too short to warrant its own Tuesday Tune, but serves as a nice compliment to Motion E. It’s called “The Machine”. Check it out below the fold.

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Yakuza Restoration will run at 60fps on Playstation 4

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This week’s Dengeki Playstation magazine has confirmed that the Playstation 4 version of Yakuza Restoration will run at a smooth 60 FPS.

Other than that the game will also support some special features on the Dualshock 4 controller. You can control the map using the touchpad and the light bar on the controller flashes when taking damage. Not as huge as 60 frames per second, but still nice.

The game supports Remote Play and also has a special streaming feature that shows viewer comments on the screen, sorta how they do it on NicoNico Live. But that isn’t everything, the more comments the quicker your recovery time when you’re down and also the rate your parameters fill up.

Yakuza Restoration is coming to both PS3 and PS4 on February 22nd in Japan. No Western release plans have been announced.

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SEGA Amusement to show off Storm Racer G At EAG2014

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EAG Expo 2014 is a new trade show that will be held on January 21st to the 23rd in London. SEGA has announced that they will be showing ‘14 exciting new titles plus 11 current hit games‘ at the show. One of those titles? Storm Racer G!

Storm Racer G is not being developed by SEGA, but by a Chinese company known as Wahlap. SEGA will be bringing and representing the game for the Western markets. Developer Wahlap describes the game as:

“Storm Racer G is a Classic Arcade Racing Game. The game contains of 12 Tracks with 6 Hidden Tracks; a Total of 14 Cars with 7 Hidden Cars. With full force feedback steering wheel and vibration speakers to simulate car response, it brings you a real racing car driving experience.”

The game, if you see the trailer above is looking a bit old school with those graphical effects. Who knows, maybe its a good thing?

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Hero Bank cashing in and getting an Anime series

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If you saw previews for SEGA’s 3DS game Hero Bank and thought it looked like a kid anime, guess what? Now it is, Hero Bank will be getting an animated show airing on TV Tokyo starting this April.

If you have been following our Hero Bank updates, you will know the game is about Kaito Gosho, a young kid who discovers that he is one billion yen in debt. So how would he get the money to pay off his debt? He enters the world of ‘Hero Bank’, a speedy high-tech robot battle ring, where everything you do runs on cash. Every time you do an attack you pay, every time you block you pay. You get the idea.

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UPDATE: Shenmue’s Ryo Hazuki now available as DLC in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed for PC

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Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed‘s Steam store page has updated with the addition of Ryo Hazuki DLC! Unlike past additions to the PC version of the game, Ryo does not appear as a free update, but rather has to be purchased for $1.59. Riding in a trio of classic SEGA arcade machines (Hang-On, Space Harrier, and OutRun), Ryo just about beats Ages in terms of fan-service. But the real question is, who would win in a race? Daytona USA’s Hornet, or Ryo in an OutRun cabinet? Only one way to find out…

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SEGAbits Summer of Art/Season of Colors Contest: the Silver and Bronze winners

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Oboro in snow

There can only be one winner, but that doesn’t mean we can’t also have stuff for the people who got second and third place. Above is one of the many entries sent into us by SEGA Nerd’s Kopke, aka Manuel Garcia Melgar. This awesome depiction of Hotsuma from SEGA’s criminally underappreciated Shinobi PS2 was one of several entries that nearly won him the grand prize. Here’s the one that came the closest. Please click it to see it in its full resolution glory!

Check below the fold for Manuel Garcia’s silver winning entry, as well as our bronze winner, Chase Svent!

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SEGA Memories: 2003’s strange case of Beta-7

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2003 was a strange time for SEGA fans. It was the first year following the Dreamcast’s discontinuation with no new games released, new SEGA titles began to release on rival consoles, and a shocking conspiracy unfolded behind the doors of SEGA of America and Visual Concepts. In March, 2003, SEGA and Visual Concepts began beta testing NFL 2k4 – which later was released as ESPN NFL Football. In an effort to fine tune the game, a couple dozen gamers were assembled at an office park in Winter Park, Florida with the promise of trying out an exciting new product. Each gamer present, now given the role of video game beta tester, were given code names: Beta-1, Beta-2, Beta-3, etc. Each beta tester was paired with another tester, and the pairs were tasked with testing various modes and features. One innovative feature which SEGA was keep to promote was the game’s “crash-cam”, a mode which allowed players to experience the game in a first person perspective complete with a simulated on-screen helmet. The privilege of testing this mode fell on the pair of Beta-7 and Beta-8, with Beta-7 being the first to try it out. At first, everything was normal for Beta-7. The new mode was described by him as “SICK” and “awesome”, everything was going great… until he blacked out.

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Vidya Retro Highlights: Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Mobile and More

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If you’ve missed our live stream shows, you’ll be happy to know that we archive (most) of our videos including our first look at Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed running on iOS as led by Guess Who. We’ve also got first looks of Sonic Dash and Crazy Taxi running on Android that showcase game features and commentary from the staff at Sonic Retro.

Be sure to follow our Vidya Retro on Twitch and YouTube for more first looks and other gameplay videos.

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The SEGAbits Summer of Art/Season of Colors Contest winner is….

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Sean Tagg’s Lego Outrun cabinet!

We received some awesome entries over the course of this contest, but this one was not only among the first we received, by the entry that consistently remained in the top three even as other entries slowly began to trickle in. In the end, this piece gets the gold medal because it hits all of the right notes: it is not just passionate, but also creative. When I think of art, I don’t typically think of LEGO, but it’s impossible to deny that this is not only something that is most definitely art. This took a lot of time and patience to put together. Sean had to find all of the right pieces and place them in all of the right places, and that takes some dedication.

Congratulations, Sean! We did get some other excellent entries, including one that very nearly took the Grand Prize. We’ll be making announcements regarding second and third place winners, as well as the two additional runner ups, within the next few days.

Check out this contest announcement if you want to find out what he won!

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Rhythm Thief & the Paris Caper now available on the App Store

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SEGA’s 2012 Nintendo 3DS title Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure has made the transition to iOS with Rhythm Thief & the Paris Caper, available now on the iTunes App Store for $9.99. The game is seemingly a port of the 2012 title, with some new gameplay elements, additions like character costumes, and the ability to purchase R coins to speed up your in-game progress. Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure was a handheld favorite of ours here at SEGAbits in 2012, so it will be interesting to see how Paris Caper stacks up.

After the break, full details on the game and a gallery of screenshots.

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Pre-order Alien: Isolation for PC through Green Man Gaming and get 25% off

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We know that PC gaming is always cheaper than console gaming and we all hear about those huge discounts. Most of the time, this happens due to the fact that PC gamers aren’t locked into one marketplace to buy PC games like consoles are, sure most people use Steam (because they have great sales) but others are always trying to under price Steam. Like Green Man Gaming, who is running a sale on Alien: Isolation for PC already! 25% off making the game check out to $37.50! Just enter: GMG25-0YUM5-VKMVU at checkout!

The best part? The DRM is said to be Steam Powered, so you can still add it to your Steam library when it comes out.

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Alien: Isolation developers diary – ‘Origin’

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Check out this developer diary for the newly announced Alien: Isolation, now we get to hear the guys at Creative Assembly talk about what they are trying to create and so far it sounds good. They want to focus on the original Alien, from the first movie. Not give the players ‘tons’ of Aliens to mow down, make the space ship look low-fi sci-fi feel to it. I like what I’m hearing, but talk is cheap so I can’t wait to play this title.

What are your impressions?

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My Life with SEGA: No Limits – online now, coming to SEGA Saturn Video CD later this year!

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The “wait” is over. No Limits is the thrilling sequel to last year’s The Next Level, starring A.J. Rosa, Mickey Mac, Shawn Morgan and Alex Gonzales, with Jessie Wyrick.

Shawn has decided to unleash Lucifer-Alpha on an unsuspecting SEGA West, which will be launched from his newly acquired star cruiser, the U.S.S. Uranus. Little does he realize that A.J. and Mickey Mac aim to kick his sorry ass into oblivion. Loaded with action, comedy, foul language and tasteless humor, this exciting short is proof that there are no limits.

After the break, check out the special Video CD release featuring a retro SEGA CD Saturn plastic box design that we have planned for No Limits, The Next Level, and My Life with SEGA’s reviews of Panzer Dragoon, Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Panzer Dragoon Saga, and Virtual-On.

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SEGA officially reveals Alien: Isolation – trailer, official site, and platforms revealed

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Following the appearance of the game on the Xbox Marketplace, The Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation has now been officially revealed by SEGA. As expected, the game is due to release on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and PC in late 2014. No mention of the Wii U, so that platform is likely not to see the game. The official site for the game is also live at AlienIsolation.com, and gameplay footage of the game has begun to appear online, which you can see after the break. Once you take all the materials in, let us know what you think of the game!

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Alien: Isolation details appear on Xbox Marketplace – cover art revealed

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Several new details for SEGA’s upcoming game Alien: Isolation, developed in-house by The Creative Assembly, appeared on the Xbox Marketplace today. We now know for certain that The Creative Assembly is behind the game (though we pretty much knew this since May 2012), and that the game falls under the “Action & Adventure, Shooter” genre with an “M” rating in the United States. Features confirmed so far are pretty much expected, with content downloads and online leaderboards. The cover art shown is for the Xbox 360, so that platform is confirmed, and we’ll likely also see a release on the PS3 as well as the Xbox One and PS4. A Wii U version is unknown at this time, but given the fate of Aliens: Colonial Marines on Wii U, Alien: Isolation‘s Wii U appearance is questionable. Best of all, we have a lengthy synopsis:

Discover the true meaning of fear in Alien: Isolation, a survival horror set in an atmosphere of constant dread and mortal danger. Fifteen years after the events of Alien™, Ellen Ripley’s daughter, Amanda enters a desperate battle for survival, on a mission to unravel the truth behind her mother’s disappearance. As Amanda, you will navigate through an increasingly volatile world as you find yourself confronted on all sides by a panicked, desperate population and an unpredictable, ruthless Alien. Underpowered and underprepared, you must scavenge resources, improvise solutions and use your wits, not just to succeed in your mission, but to simply stay alive.

It sounds exciting, and those who know The Creative Assembly should know that we should probably not fear another Aliens: Colonial Marines. What are your thoughts on the game? Sound off below, or in our dedicated forum topic.

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