SEGA Tunes: Mario & Sonic remixes Super Mario Land World 1-1

It’s not every day we get to feature a Mario track on Tuesday Tunes. But given the love affair between Sonic and the Big N lately, it seems only fitting to celebrate the recent release of multiple Sonic and Mario titles with a soundtrack that combines the musical stylings of both.

Though this is a remix of a Mario song, it currently feels like something SEGA would produce. The structure of the song is more complicated then what you would typically find in a Mario track, which tend to be more simplistic, though no less fine to the ear, as the Mario Galaxy OST can surely attest to. This is an excellent remix of a track I could barely remember before hand. If this is indicative of Mario & Sonic 2014’s overall soundtrack, I will certainly be seeking out the rest of the OST in the future.

Charles Bellfield, former SEGA VP of strategic planning and corporate affairs, has passed away

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Sad news this morning as we have learned that Charles Bellfield, SEGA of America’s former VP of strategic planning and corporate affairs from 1998 to 2003, has passed away. Bellfield was best known as the spokesman for Sega of America during the launch of the Dreamcast. The news of his passing came from his brother Edward through Facebook, saying that Bellfield had passed away in San Francisco on Friday night. Bellfield held other positions in the gaming industry including executive roles at Edelman, Capcom, Codemasters, 3DV Systems, EmotionPlay, and Imagination Technologies’ Pure North America division.

Peter Moore, Bellfield’s SEGA boss during the Dreamcast era, described him as “good time Charlie. The life of every party, a true bon vivant. The quintessential Englishman abroad. You’ve left us way too soon Charlie, but you’ve also left us with a hundred stories to tell and a thousand smiles on all of our faces. The room was a better, more fun-filled place when you were in it.”

We here at SEGAbits send our condolences to Bellfield’s family and friends. He will be missed.

The SEGA Five: Best SEGA games on Playstation 3

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Today is the launch day for the Playstation 4 in America, many people are grabbing up the ‘next generation’ consoles and soon Playstation 3 will be a relic like the Playstation 2 before it. So I think its the perfect time to remember SEGA’s best Playstation 3 games. This is my personal list, if you want to share your favorites let us know in the comment section!

Review: Sonic Lost World (Wii U)

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I’ll forego the Sonic franchise history lesson that typically kicks off a Sonic review. As SEGA fans, we know where the franchise has been. Sonic Lost World, a Wii U exclusive title, answers the question: where is the Sonic franchise headed? Unlike the series spanning celebration that was Sonic Generations, Sonic Lost World introduces several new gameplay elements and shakes up the familiar 2008-2011 Sonic formula. Some may take this as a breath of fresh air, as the series has finally moved away from boost mechanics. Others, content with the direction the series was headed and the refinements Sonic Generations made to the formula, may find Sonic Lost World to be too much of a reinvention. Did Sonic Team’s shake-up pay off? Read on as we enter Sonic Lost World!

Sonic Lost World demo arrives in the U.S. eShop

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Never say never, Sonic Lost World demo for both Wii U and 3DS hits the store today. What does this mean?  Well, it means that if you live in the United States you can try out Sonic Lost World for both Wii U and 3DS. The Japanese gamers have had the demos since early last month, lucky them!

Expect a SEGAbits review for Sonic Lost World to be posted soon.

Haruka cleans your home in Yakuza Restoration

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Haruka has been in the Yakuza franchise since the first title came out on the Playstation 2 back in 2005 and is a main character of the franchise. In this title, the character Ryoma Sakamoto (played by Kiryu Kazuma) meets Haruka (yes, they are keeping her name) after saving her from a incident (that isn’t revealed). After that, she decides to let him live with her. Yeah, even she’s confused in the picture above.

Check the gallery after the jump for more photos of her sweeping dirt, caressing Ryoma’s head and other creepy shots.

Football Manager 2013 has been ‘pirated over 10.1 million times’

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Miles Jacobson, studio head over at Sports Interactive has stated that Football Manager 2013 has been illegally downloaded well over 10.1 million times, during his talk at the London Games Conference.

How did they get this number? According to Jacobson the crack had a ‘Home’ flaw which allowed the developers to trace and track IP addresses of the pirates. So which country had the most pirated copies of the game? Not surprising it was China with 3.2 million downloads followed by Turkey with 1.05 million.

Out of the 547,000 people that downloaded the game in Italy was from Vatican City, I’m assuming downloading pirated software is not shunned by God.  Of course just because they pirated the game doesn’t mean they lost a sale, which Sports Interactive seems to agree. They do say they lost 176,000 sales (their figure) due to pirates. That would mean that 1.74% of pirates would have purchased the game, but didn’t due to them getting it for free. How much did SEGA lose? $3.7 million in revenue. They say that this lead to the team creating harder to crack DRM for Football Manager 2014.

Art of SEGA: Valkyria Chronicles

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The end of our art contest is fast approaching, so it’s time we inspired you with some of SEGA’s more recent work!

In a generation dominated by brown grim-dark games, Valkyria Chronicles was a game that dared to look drastically different. When other games were focusing on trying to look realistic, Valkyria Chronicles was utilizing visuals inspired by canvas paintings, comics and storybook, to produce a beautifully fantastical world.

Sony’s Third Production Team receiving many requests for Yakuza, Shenmue

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A few months ago, Sony announced the formation of the Third Party Productions team, a new group within Sony’s third party relations meant to facilitate the localization or porting of content between regions or consoles. The first project announced by this team was the Vita port of Borderlands 2, which is a pretty major feat to accomplish in and of itself.

The team has since asked fans to send in requests for the kinds of games they’d like to see on their Playstation console of choice, and according to Sony’s Adam Boyes their top two choices were none other then SEGA’s Yakuza and Shenmue franchises. For what this means, please check out the full quote below the fold. For the full interview, please visit Kotaku.

My Life with SEGA loses some teeth playing NHL Hockey ’94

SEGA’s Mega Drive is now twenty-five years old, and hockey season’s in full swing. What better way to celebrate both than playing NHL Hockey ’94? None!

Now, I’m not much of sports fan, so I own very few sports related titles. However, I have NHL ’94. Why? Well, my brother and I used to play it. A lot. He wasn’t much of a hockey fan either, yet we loved this game….

This week, I share that love with my sister-from-another-mister, Lauren Buckler. Mickey Mac will return. I promise. Until then, it’s the girl’s time to shine.

Check out SEGA’s Plants vs. Zombies The Last Stand arcade cabinet

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SEGA Amusements is teasing new items that will be at their IAAPA 13 show in a few days. One of their machines that they are going to promote is this Plants vs. Zombies The Last Stand arcade machine. This is the first time we have seen the cabinet and its pretty flashy.

First thing you will notice is that this isn’t a port of the mobile game for arcades, it looks like a light gun version of the game. So is this basically House of the Dead: Plants vs. Zombies? Who knows. But it would be awesome to have some House of the Dead cross overs in here. What are your thoughts?

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.