Toshihiro Nagoshi is headed to E3

SEGA’s Chief Creative Officer and head of Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s Toshihiro Nagoshi is headed for E3 as he is set to leave Japan for a week. In a blog post today he said that E3 is the time when game industry people all leave Japan for a week. He will be taking the late night flight out of Haneda. Not one to come off as being lazy, Nagoshi is already started to get worried about the work he will leave building up in his office once he returns to Japan. Wither he is there on official business or just enjoying E3 is not known, but the Yakuza fan in me hopes that Yakuza 5 would be announced for Western release. Unlikely but hey, it’s nice to dream from time to time.

The Mystery Science Theater guys briefly rip on Sonic ’06

Leave Sonic alone! Oh wait, it’s Sonic ’06 you’re kicking in the ribs? Please, continue.

Former Mystery Science Theater 3000 stars and current RiffTrax riffers Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett applied their brand of making witty comments while watching movies to a slew of video game cutscenes over at Joystiq. One of their subjects was none other than 2006’s Sonic the Hedgehog. Just what nice things do the guys have to say about Sonic getting some love from Princess Elise? Well, see for yourself here. Sonic’s scene starts at the 1:11 mark, but you might as well watch the full thing.

Jet Set Radio HD track list revealed, and it is very pleasing to the ears

Since the announcement of Jet Set Radio’s HD rerelease, the biggest gray area has been the game’s soundtrack. Like most games filled with licensed tunes, getting a complete or near complete track list is very difficult. Hell, look at Crazy Taxi. Great game, but just not the same with the entire soundtrack ripped out and replaced with new music. Thankfully, SEGA done good. Real good. After the break, check the full track list as well as learn which two tunes did not make the cut.

All-Stars Transformed: Joe Musashi races through Adder’s Lair

Leave it to IGN to spoil SEGA’s fun. A recent post over at the site revealed a hell of a lot of new Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed details. The BIGGEST is that, yes Shinobi fans, Joe Musashi himself is a confirmed racer! IGN has also revealed that Adder’s Lair from Golden Axe is a new track. Also appearing is Jet Set Radio’s Tokyo-to which features a gang war playing out in the background which affects the racers. Previously revealed Gilius Thunderhead finally gets his public showing, and the expected return of Shadow is confirmed. After the break, another tasty screen and the trailer!

The Weekly Five: SEGA Vintage Collection wish list

SEGA’s latest wave of Vintage Collection titles have arrived, and they have deservingly been very well received by fans. Initially, the collections were nothing more than single titles released to XBLA and PSN. Nothing more than ports of Genesis and SEGA arcade titles with the same basic menus for each release. Not to say that they weren’t good fun, but there was no real personality to the titles aside from the games themselves. Thankfully, SEGA and developer M2 made the latest Vintage Collections as true “collections” filled with the fun expected from classic SEGA titles. On XBLA, each collection touts three games and features a fully 3D menu with recreations of arcade cabinets and game consoles. Other features include a juke box where every sound and song can be played as well as a bevy of screen settings. This week’s Weekly Five will look ahead to future waves and what we hope to see from future Vintage Collections.

Check out the Sonic 4: Episode II billboard in San Francisco


Above photo is taken by frostman007

Look at it, its beautiful. Most non-SEGA fans will whine and ask whats so special about a video game billboard. It’s a SEGA billboard, when was the last time you seen this? Me? Probably forever since I don’t live in a big city. Good to see a sizable advertising budget for a digital title.

This is where you insert something negative, like how Sonic games get a nice advertising budget but games like Binary Domain, Rhythm Thief or Anarchy Reigns get ignored.

Daytona USA track and Hornet Car as Ridge Racer DLC for Vita.

In other late-night Sega news, it looks like Namco is working with Sega to Add Daytona USA is DLC for the currently available Ridge Racer on Vita. There’s not much news I could find outside of this youtube video, but it includes at least one track similar to the original and the Hornet car in all it’s low-polygon glory! No word yet on if this Japanese DLC will hit stateside.

Anarchy Reigns Japanese PSN and LIVE demo now available. In full English!!

Get your Japanese PSN and X-Box LIVE account going because the Anarchy Reigns AKA Max Anarchy demo is now out! As you can tell in this youtube first impressions video, it has options to put the game in full English including the dialogue, options and subtitles. This is great news for those who wish to import this game since it won’t be at E3 and sadly doesn’t look like it will make it’s way here anytime soon. Can someone tell me why this game does not look like it will be available in the U.S. for awhile if at all when it’s got full localization?!!

Thanks to Substance TV for the first impressions video.

Rob Zombie’s Dragula Confirmed for Jet Set Radio

 

SEGA has confirmed another track for Jet Set Radio, this one from Rob Zombie. As far as I’ve heard, this is the first news of Rob Zombie’s track being confirmed for Jet Set’s upcoming digital re-release, meaning that fans of his work shouldn’t be left out in the cold! SEGA has more confirmations for Jet Set Radio’s soundtrack coming in the future, so stay tuned.

SEGA’s list of E3 games goes live

SEGA has posted a list of games they will have at E3. Sadly a few games that are expected are not included. Yep, Anarchy Reigns is missing and Phantasy Star Online 2 is nowhere to be found. I assume some are missing due to being unannounced, like Sonic Adventure 2. Anyway, check out the ‘confirmed’ titles for E3 this year.

Golden Axe and Streets of Rage collections ready to play on XBLA

As of today, two more SEGA Vintage Collection releases have hit XBLA: a Streets of Rage collection and a Golden Axe collection. Each are 800 msp and include the complete Genesis trilogies from each franchise. Unlike last week’s collections, these collections appeared in full in the disc release of Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection. However, this time out M2 handled the port, so the quality may be better than the UGC versions. There are also the 3D menus, the slick opening animations, online play and achievements. Those are all good reasons to buy the games again. After the break, a gallery of images from the collections as well as a video preview of the trials. Check out the video for the awesome Vintage Collection opening titles.

SEGA Tunes: Vintagenesis’s Golden Axe Melody

I never go searching around for fan made remixes when I’m looking for a Tuesday Tune. Not necessarily because they can’t be good, but because so many of them aren’t really that special. I want to keep this feature focused on SEGA’s own work. There is so much of it to explore and use, I try not to waste a week on something not from the company unless it’s really, really good.

Vintagenesis is very, very good. They’ve got quite a few songs on their channel, but this is easily the one to get me hooked. It takes the epicness of the old school soundtrack and enhances it with some pretty epic guitar riffs. Hope you guys enjoy!

Yakuza 5: New Haruka gameplay details released

Japanese magazine Dengeki PlayStation has finally put out some new gameplay details regarding Yakuza 5. This time they give us a glimpse as to how Haruka will (not) play.
Haruka is a playable character, so many have asked if she would be fighting in the streets like Kazuma and the other main characters of the Yakuza series have done in the past. Well, the answer is no. She will bring a new element of ‘fighting’ to the game. The developers said they will still be keeping it a secret though, but at least we know she won’t be pounding faces on pavement. Also Haruka won’t be able to take part in adult sports spots around the city, most notably she won’t be able to use the host club component since she is underage. But to make up for this the game will have her own exclusive play spots that other characters won’t be able to visit.

Nagoshi said in the interview that the five playable characters don’t have anything to do with this being the fifth title, just happened to work out this way. He also said the scenarios in Yakuza 5 are double of Yakuza 4. So, that is quite a bit!