Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed Bonus Edition Announced

Looks like the mystery of the third bonus character may have been solved and it’s a Sega character this time! Today, Sega has announced Sonic and All-Stars Racing Bonus Edition. This special edition contains an exclusive Outrun Bay track as well as Metal Sonic with a levitating vehicle. In addition are some exclusive emoticon stickers. This bonus edition is only available as a pre-order exclusive (although I’m sure the bonus items will be available for sale as DLC later). There will also be a seperate limited edition available for Europe, but no details as of yet. Read on for for Sega’s official announcement.

Rumor: Is Rhythm Thief selling out in North America?

In what looks like happy news for Sega, it appears Rhythm Thief is selling well in the USA and Canada. Mind you, this is going by only a few local incidences. Such as the Player One Podcast’s Greg Stewart mentioning that he could not find a copy at any store near him and that at the time of the recording, amazon.ca was completely sold out with third paty sellers wanting $12 over MSRP.

Well, I did a little digging myself, and it turns out most of the GameStops near me are either sold out or low in stock (mostly low). Also, Amazon.com in the US is completely sold out as well and relying on third party sellers. Keep in mind that it’s highly likely Sega only produced a low supply of the game for N/A retail after seeing how poorly it did in Europe and that’s why we’re seeing these copies run out. Still, it shows a strong demand for the game which is only good news for SoA. Those either on the fence or waiting for a price drop might want to consider picking up a copy sooner than later.

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SEGA Tunes: Rhythm Thief Month, Vamos a Carnival

The Marie focused edition of Rhythm Thief Month has been postponed until I get further into the game.

Until then, I thought I’d post up one of the other things that makes Rhythm Thief cool: homages to other SEGA rhythm games. Rhythm Thief is a game with some interesting SEGA pedigree. Not only is its director, Shun Nakamura, responsible for also directing Samba de Amigo, but the game’s list of contributing composers include Tomoya Ohtani and Naofumi Hataya, whom have worked on the soundtrack for Space Channel 5 Part 2, Samba de Amigo, Feel the Magic as well as a variety of Sonic and Sonic Team games.

Above is Vamos a Carnival, from Samba de Amigo. The actual mini game is a surprisingly faithful adaptation of Samba de Amigo’s game play onto the 3DS, using both face buttons and tilt functions to replicate the Dreamcast classic’s game play. It’s one of my favorite games in RT, and this style of mini game is also one of the most difficult I’ve yet encountered in the game.

The other SEGA rhythm game Rhythm Thief pays homage to is Space Channel 5. Much like the Samba de Amigo mini game, it also adapts the Space Channel 5 formula into the game, complete with a track from the game, which I have posted below after the break.

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SEGA Q2: Things are looking up thanks to new streamlining strategy


SEGA assured that the changes they made would help the company and it doesn’t seem they are lying. SEGA has reported increased profits for the first quarter of the current fiscal year. Sadly the consumer business is still reporting losses, however SEGA has really reduced the losses year-over-year. Sadly the losses are contributed to the lack of demand for home video games in the U.S. and Europe.

SEGA only shifted 1.34 million units this quarter, which is down 42.5 perfect compared to 2.33 million year-over-year. SEGA has also stated that their free-to-play game Kingdom Conquest has been downloaded over 3 million times. No idea how many people opted for buying upgrades and other pay-to-use items.

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Virtua Fighter 5 soundtrack up on iTunes in three flavors


Do you like the songs in Virtua Fighter games? Do you want to throw your money at the composers of the game and have all the music for all the releases of the title? You now can. SEGA has posted the Virtua Fighter 5 soundtrack, Virtua Fighter 5 R soundtrack and finally the Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown soundtrack on iTunes. That is a lot of AM2 goodness.

So is the soundtrack available where you are from? Let’s check! The soundtracks are available in the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, USA, Japan.

Insert Coin Clothing making awesome SEGA Mega Drive and Dreamcast bags


Insert Coin Clothing, a UK gaming clothing company recently posted that they are working on SEGA Mega Drive and Dreamcast bags. That’s right, just in time for the school season and I want 3 of each. They look so awesome. The bigger bag is going to be the Mega Drive one coming in at 410 x 310 x 115mm. That is big enough for a laptop. The Dreamcast bag will clock in at 277 x 285 x 115mm. Big enough for a iPad.

Want to yell at them and tell them you want a SEGA Saturn bag? Go here.

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Sony puts out a PS3 HD remaster trailer showing off Yakuza 1&2 HD

This trailer was posted a few nights ago about was taken down by Sony for unknown reasons. Don’t worry, the trailer is back up now. This is the first footage of Yakuza 1&2 HD I have seen yet. What do you guys think?

You can also see Zone of Enders HD Collection, Okami HD and that Ratchet and Clank HD collection. These last three HD remakes have been confirmed for Western release, Yakuza 1&2 has not, sadly.

PSO II players top 700,000: SEGA considering international servers

Phantasy Star Online II seems to be off to a strong start.

The free-to-play online RPG has been out in Japan since July 4th and in that time has amassed 730,000 registered players worldwide, SEGA reports.

With a Western release not planned (for whatever reason) until sometime in 2013, the number of Western users currently playing has been great enough that SEGA is now considering opening up international servers for the Japanese version.

The game is set to receive multiple updates this August.

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Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed Bonus Edition appears on Amazon

Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk have updated their product pages for Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed with prices, mention of a “World Tour” mode as well as a Bonus Edition. The 360, PS3, 3DS and Vita versions are listed as being a “bonus edition” of the game, but no mention is made as to what that bonus is. Given that the games are listed as “out of stock”, and pre-orders have yet to open, don’t expect a reveal of the bonus until the game is available for pre-order. The price for the 360 and PS3 version is currently $39.99, $10 less than the first All-Stars Racing game. The Vita and 3DS versions are priced at $29.99. As for World Tour mode, this is most likely the story mode in which you island hop and unlock racers. The Wii U version has yet to appear on Amazon, but a listing for it has appeared at Game.co.uk for £49.99.

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SEGA in the Media: “MANOS – The Hands of Fate” fan game pays homage to Alex Kidd

Fans of MST3K, bad movies and early 80’s film to game adaptations should really check out the iOS game MANOS – The Hands of Fate. Based on a movie that many consider to be the worst ever made, ranked #4 on the IMDb bottom 100, Manos is an 80’s inspired platformer with numerous homages to both classic games and bad b-movies. SEGA fans should recognize the death animation, in which the player turns into a transparent ghost and flies upwards. This, according to the game’s developer, was an homage to the Master System’s Alex Kidd in Miracle World. Nice to see the Master System getting some homages, the Master is pleased.

Phantasy Star Online 2 – August Update Trailer

Phantasy Star Online 2 will recieve three updates in August the first update arrives on the first of August, the second on the 8th and the final update sometime during the end of August.

The August 1st update will include the summer lobby (which feautures a rappy riding a surf board!), new enemies and new AC content. Plus some new summer themed clothes and hair styles.

Make sure to check out the trailer the new locations and boss look superb!

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Sumo Digital clarifies the All-Stars Racing Transformed roster… again!

Sumo Digital has yet again commented on the number of racers found in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. This time it was Steve Lycett, also known as S0L, leaving a comment on the SEGA forums. Steve stated that over all the various platforms, there are 29 playable choices. However, no platform has all 29. Some platforms have rosters in the low 20’s, others have rosters in the high 20’s. Steve went on to state “Playable choices doesn’t necessarily equal drivers either. Not as we’re talking passengers or hood ornaments, counting those would indeed be cheap, but you know this is game all about transformation, we are doing things with the vehicles that we’ve not shown you, that are going to really surprise you.” Overall, some very cryptic stuff! Steve should really try out for the role of Gollum, because he is quite good at riddles. After the break, more from Steve as well as an assessment of his comments.

Valkyria Chronicles soundtrack added to the Humble Music Bundle


Have you heard of Humble Bundle? Usually they have a a few games where you pay what you want, money goes to charity. Great event, now they are doing a Humble Music Bundle, which will give you 5 soundtracks for whatever you want to pay. That’s right. One of the soundtracks in the bundle happens to be The Best of Valkyria Chronicles.

So go here, drop a few bucks and help charity. Then sit back and enjoy some Valkyria Chronicles music. Not to mention is DRM free and you can download it in FLAC.

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My Life with SEGA goes John McClane insane with Die Hard Arcade

Another week and another video for My Life with SEGA posted on the SEGAbits YouTube channel. This week Die Hard Arcade is up for review.

“In this ‘classic’ episode, I review Die Hard Arcade (a.k.a. Dynamite Deka) for the SEGA Saturn. As a bonus, I manage to critique the cross-platform hit, Die Hard Trilogy….

Now, which one’s gonna’ find out what a TV dinner feels like?”

Like and subscribe to our channel if this video meets your high standard requirements.

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