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SEGA has some of the top selling games in UK for 2013

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Football-Manager-header

MCV UK has released a list of the top selling 100 games for 2013 in the UK. SEGA has got quite a few titles on the list. Looks like UK residents like them some Aliens Colonial Marines, Football Manager, and some Sonic 🙂

  • 26. Aliens: Colonial Marines (Sega)
  • 39. Football Manager 2014 (Sega)
  • 45. Sonic/All Stars Racing Transformed (Sega)
  • 51. Football Manager 2013 (Sega)
  • 72. Sonic Generations (Sega)
  • 87. Mario & Sonic London 2012 Olympic Games (Sega)

Thanks to Aki-at on the forums for sharing the news. Aki is quite intelligent and used to write up articles on financial reports for us. I’ve included what he thinks about the sales after the jump if you are interested in seeing what Aki thinks.

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Vidya Retro Highlights: Sonic 4 Episode II Co-op Run

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YouTube: [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4]

Twitch: [Link] [Uncut]

Ever wondered what its like to play Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II online with a friend? Me and Sonic Retro staff member Guess_Who, (With GeneHF and Retro user AndrewRoks1998 also providing commentary!) play through the game despite the struggles, frustration, and desyncs that got in our way in this Vidya Retro highlight. You can watch the misadventures segmented on YouTube or on Twitch in 60 frames per second.

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2014: The Year of the SEGA Console – join us as we celebrate SEGA hardware all year long!

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YOTC
Twenty-five years ago, the SEGA Genesis graced American shores, where it would come to dominate the console market for years and make SEGA a household name. Twenty years ago, the Saturn was released in Japan and went on to become SEGA’s biggest success in their home country, though success that would unfortunately not be repeated abroad. That same year, the SEGA Pico and 32X left some US gamers scratching their heads as they introduced weird concepts of what gaming hardware could be. Finally, fifteen years ago on 9.9.99, SEGA released their swan song, the Dreamcast.

We at SEGAbits love a good anniversary, and 2014 is full of them. Throughout 2014, we intend to honor these core pillars of SEGA’s hardware legacy with 2014: The Year of the SEGA Console. We’ll be devoting entire weeks to certain games, entire months to certain consoles, and we have several special guests planned for the SEGAbits Swingin’ Report Show. We’ll write about the Genesis and how it introduced many of us to SEGA. We’ll look back at SEGA’s quirky art house console, the Saturn, and the many ups and downs the console experienced. We’ll remember the Dreamcast for the good times and unique and innovative experiences it delivered in the twilight years of SEGA’s time as a platform maker. We’ll give the 32x some overdue respect. Finally, we’ll all get SEGA Picos so that we can tell you about games like Tails and the Music Maker and The Great Counting Caper With the 3 Blind Mice!

Hope you’re looking forward to 2014 as much as we are, it’s gonna be a blast!

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Arcade Review: Dream Raiders

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One of the newest entries in Sega’s arcade lineup, Dream Raiders has just arrived at my local arcade (Round 1 in Puente Hills which houses a lot of Sega games and Sega owned UFO catchers) and is attracting quite a few arcade goers. But is your short time with Dream Raiders worth the price of admission or is it all ride and no game?

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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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beta7
 
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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