Anarchy Reigns finally has a western release date and gets a low price

Hooray! After months of silence, SEGA has given western release dates for the Platinum Games fighter Anarchy Reigns. The game will hit the 360 and PS3 January 8, 2013 in the US and January 11, 2013 in Europe, with a retail price of $29.99/£19.99/€29.99. No word on the Bayonetta DLC, but fingers crossed that we get it.

For those who forgot what the game was all about:

Anarchy Reigns delivers over-the-top close combat, set in a massively open and fantastical world in a bleak, mutant-filled future. Watch iconic characters from the PlatinumGames stable duking it out in a series of vibrant arenas that could only have been thought up by Japan’s critically acclaimed studio.

Up to 16 players can take part in multiplayer matches over a variety of game modes; engage in all-out Battle Royale destruction, co-operate with your friends and vanquish hordes of monsters in Survival mode or test your sportsmanship over a few rounds of Deathball.

SEGA Five: A Salute to the SEGA All-Stars Part 1

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is only a month away! In anticipation of the game’s release, we here at SEGAbits want to highlight the many All-Stars appearing in SEGA’s racing title. To do this, we’re kicking off a four week salute to the characters appearing in the game. Each week will focus on five SEGA All-Stars. We’ll share why we think these characters are important to SEGA’s history, and why we’re looking forward to racing as them. Let’s kick off part one with the first five, can you guess who they are?

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My Life With SEGA: Halloween month continues with Quake on Saturn

A.J. continues with creepy games during the month of October as he checks out Quake on the SEGA Saturn.

Long before Master Chief, or even the Helghast Empire, there was Quake. You didn’t sit through numerous cutscenes, trying to dazzle you with diamonds only to baffle you with bullshit. With Quake, it dazzled us with atmosphere, bloodshed and firepower….

But how does it look and play with Sega’s 32-bit monster? Walk with me through the Slipgate and we’ll find out.

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Review: Zaxxon Escape (iOS)

When SEGA announced Zaxxon Escape, I was very excited. SEGA was doing something they rarely do: resurrecting an 80’s IP that has been dormant since the mid-90’s. For those not in the know, the original Zaxxon was an isometric shooter released by SEGA to arcades in 1982. The game was played from a third person perspective at a top down angle, with simulated 3D pulled off via effects like shadows and an altitude meter. Gameplay involved shooting down as many targets as possible, whilst dodging obstructions such as electric fences, walls and enemy fire. Players also had to keep track of their fuel level, which was replenished by shooting fuel tanks. Zaxxon went on to be ported to numerous platforms and even had three sequels. Now, with Zaxxon Escape, SEGA takes us back to the ending of the first game, as players are tasked with escaping Asteroid City after having defeated Zaxxon.

Model 2 collection confirmed. STF with playable Eggman, Metal Sonic and….Honey the Cat!!

UPDATE: The three Model 2 Fighters (VF2, FV, STF) will be bundled for $15 on PSN. Those three come out this fall and the other two are “Winter 2013” These are Japanese dates so no official dates for America/Europe yet.

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Remember when the rumor of this was first leaked and I asked Sega for a playable Honey the Cat? My wish came true!

Coming this fall through winter (to Japan at least) is a Model 2 Collection. five of Sega’s classic Model 2 games retailing roughly around 800MS Points ($10) each while if the translation is correct, PSN gets a 3-pack for $15. Some games prices are not known yet. This is a rough translation. Games included are…

Virtua Fighter 2
Sonic the Fighters
Virtua Striker
Fighting vipers
Virtual On

It is unknown what bonus features will be included at this time except for the 3 newly playable characters in Sonic The fighters. It appears that through a poor translation, most if not all five games should have online, though it’s not 100% confirmed. UPDATE: OFFICIAL SITE CONFIRMS VF2, FIGHTING VIPERS AND STF TO HAVE 2-PLAYER ONLINE! Did Sega hire a wish-granting Genie? rough translation after the jump. Also, you can check out the official site here.

Sonic Jump gameplay video appears, Hardlight Studio named as developer

It looks like SEGA’s Hardlight Studio, the folks behind the Viking PC port, were also busy developing Sonic Jump. In this 15 minute Sonic Jump gameplay video, Hardlight’s logo appears before the game begins, confirming that the developer has shifted focus from Vita games to iOS. While their “unique action adventure” title is still M.I.A., Sonic Jump looks to be a fun smartphone update to the 2005 mobile phone game Sonic Jump. So before you call this a Doodle Jump ripoff, remember than SEGA did it four years before Lima Sky did.

The game features both a story and arcade mode, with the story being as simple as the Genesis originals. Eggman has captured your animal friends, and the player can choose Sonic, Tails or Knuckles as the hero who leaps skyward after Eggman. Series staples including letter grades, red rings, badniks, springs, rings, spikes and power-ups appear. Fans who have searched through the game’s assets have also found character images of Amy, Cream, Rouge, Shadow, Blaze and Silver. No word on if these characters are also playable. The game releases tomorrow, and we hope to have a review up within the week.

Project X Zone debuts at #3 in Japan

Media Create has released their Japanese sales charts covering from the 8th to the 14th, which saw Resident Evil 6 on the PS3 plummeting to under 100,000 from its massive 700k+ launch. Sales of highly anticipated games in Japan tend to be far more front-loaded than that of their Western counterparts, though Resident Evil 6’s especially steep decline seems to suggest that fan reception in its homeland has been just as mixed as it has been in the West.

Namco-Bandai is the publisher of Project X Zone, though the roster of SEGA characters will undoubtedly make its sales of interest to readers of this site; the strategy RPG crossover debuted at #3 with sales of 85,539, which isn’t bad. Undoubtedly facing steep competition from Square-Enix’s Bravely Default, which hit the 3DS on the same day and (predictably) took 1st place with 141,529, it will be interesting to see what these sales mean, if anything, for a Western release of the still Japanese-only title.

Full charts after the break (thanks to CVG).

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SEGA Japan releases teaser trailer for Model 2 games

SEGA of Japan’s YouTube channel uploaded a sneaky teaser trailer proclaiming “2×5” followed by a series of video game sounds. SEGA fans with keen ears should recognize the sounds to come from Virtua Fighter 2, Fighting Vipers, Sonic the Fighters, Virtua Striker and Cyber Troopers Virtual-On. The title “2X5” most likely refers to SEGA’s Model 2 arcade board and the five aforementioned games. The teaser ends with “See You Tomorrow”, so we can pretty much expect the reveal of these five games for XBLA and PSN either today or tomorrow. Who is excited for some Model 2 arcade action?

PSN offers a House of the Dead deal that’s a bit “Overkill”

Now here’s a deal to die for! PSN is offering three of Sega’s House of the Dead games for a price so low, it’s six feet under. If you’re dead set on zombie-shooting fun, grab a Move controller and get your rotted hands on House of the Dead 3, 4 and Overkill:Extended Cut for the low price of $21.99 or even better, $15.39 for PSN Plus subscribers. That’s a price so low you’ll think your (grave) robbing them blind! So don’t just sit there rotting on the sofa. Grab this bundle before it passes away!

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed has awesome realistic physics that affect your driving!

If you have been paying attention to All-Stars Racing Transformed interviews from Sumo digital you would know that they talk a lot about how advanced and complex the physics are but never go into detail. So I asked S0L and got a good answer…

It all runs under full physics, whether car, boat or plane. We wanted to do this so the behaviour was more predictable, since last time we cheated and faked a lot of it. It adds a whole heap of depth of control as a side effect, plus it means you’ll got consistent vehicle behaviour.

The water also is a dynamic surface, so waves affect the boats, splashes and explosions too. Between the physics there and the rendering (making water look like water means a lot of effects!) this is why we opted for a capped framerate of 30. In order to get to 60, we’d have to pull back on the graphical look of the game a lot, and when we’re doing a whole new engine to make it look as good as it does, you have to make this compromise.

No-one complained about the framerate at Play Expo at any rate 😛


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So yeah, sounds really good! This physics will make the game feel more like a racing game, rather than a small kart game, which is something else that Sumo Digital also likes to brag about.

Sonic Jump available this Thursday for iOS devices

Sega has announced on Sonic’s Facebook page, the first screenshot and launch date of Sonic’s first iOS game “Sonic Jump”. The game will be available this Thursday, Oct 18th for $1.99 US, £1.49 Europe. No other details are out at this time, but it seems obvious now that this game will be a new version of the old Sonic Jump from mobile devices.

Check out almost a half-hour of new Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed gameplay footage

Courtesy of Sonic Stadium comes a nice chunk of gameplay video of Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed taken from the Manchester’s Play Expo. Steve Lycett whom you probably heard of from our interview with him on Sonic Talk is showing off the game to the press. You’ll the see the intro, hub, confirmation of MeeMee, some of the modes along with new footage of Seaside Hill, split screen mode in After Burner and more! Since this is a long video, there are some spoilers on gameplay and details for those wanting to come in fresh. so you’ve been warned.

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SEGA, Random Encounter team-up for Super Monkey Ball Musical

Remember that awesome Rhythm Thief musical from a few months ago? Well, SEGA and Random Encounter have teamed up again to give us another musical. This time, it’s a three part Super Monkey Ball musical, created to promote the upcoming Super Monkey Ball Banana Splitz game for the Playstation Vita.

Hope you guys enjoy this. I think it’s pretty awesome.

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Hell Yeah! DLC coming October 23rd, features numerous SEGA cameos

We’ve been seeing a LOT of SEGA cameos and crossovers this year: All-Stars Racing, Project X Zone, Samurai and Dragons, Yakuza in Border Break and now Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit! DLC. SEGA has just announced DLC that will be available on October 23 in North America and October 24 in Europe on XBLA, PSN, and PC Digital Download. The Pimp My Rabbit pack ($2.99 /240MSP /£1.99 /€2.49 /AUD$4.25) will offer over 50 masks for Ash and 11 driller skins with appearances from SEGA franchises including Jet Set Radio, Super Monkey Ball and Crazy Taxi. One screen shows off a sweet Shinobi mask and driller skin combo. Another DLC pack will be The Virtual Rabbit Missions ($4.99 /400MSP /£3.69 / €4.49 /AUD$7.75) which adds 50 new challenges totaling over three hours of gameplay. They missed a trick in calling it “Virtua Rabbit”.

After the break, check out additional screens of the DLC!

Viking: Battle for Asgard hits PC next week


Viking: Battle for Asgard was one of my favorite games when it came out back int 2008 on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Now PC users will be able to fight the hoards of undead vikings on their uber powerful PC.
SEGA’s Hardlight Studio dropped a tweet stating that you can expect the game to hit Steam next week. So who is going to pick this one up? Even if it is 4 years too late.