SEGA Tunes: Rhythm Thief & The Emperor’s Treasure: The Musical!

Today, the first original SEGA rhythm game since the days of Space Channel 5 and Samba de Amigo, makes it’s debut. Rhythm Thief, available exclusively for the 3DS, is part rhythm gam and part Professor Layton-esque puzzle game, with a healthy amount of inspiration from SEGA’s classic rhythm games sprinkled throughout. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, since the game is directed by Samba de Amigo director and Sonic Team alumni Shun Nakamura.

To mark the occasion, the good people over at Random Encounter Entertainment have put together a little musical based around the game’s characters and plot. It’s a funny little musical number that does a pretty good job of actually explaining what the game is about. Big thanks goes to the people of Random Encounter for putting together this little tribute to a game that will probably go ignored when it is released today, and to Aaron Webber for both co-producing this and sending it in to us!

SEGA Officially Announces US & EU Release of Phantasy Star Online 2 in 2013

I’m very happy to report that Sega has finally announced Phantasy Star Online 2 will be released in Europe and North America. I’m sure we all suspected it was only a matter of time but it’s always nice to know it’s official. 2013 though? That seems like a long, long way away. Then again I’ve waited over a decade for a true sequal to PSO I suppose I can wait another six months.

I only hope that by the time it releases in the west it has all of the updates the Japanese version will have received in the meantime and all available from the start. I really hope there isn’t a repeat of Phantasy Star Universe where the Japanese were always far ahead when it came to updates.

Hit the jump for the press release.

The Weekly Five: Things Sega is doing right

 

Things look a bit bleak over at Sega. There’s been a lot of restructuring that’s been occurring as of late. Several titles have been cancelled or delayed to focus on more AAA games. The European and Australian offices have been closed down. Jun Sunoe had to sell his guitar for cash and is now using an old ukulele and poor Takashi Iizuka had to change his toothpaste from Crest: Ultra Whitening to store brand!

Okay, those last two are lies, but the Sega outside of Japan has been in dire straits as of late. However, things are not as bad as they seem. Some recent decisions have actually been very beneficial to the company. Read on to see why those dark clouds may be breaking up into blue skies.

NiGHTS announced as racer and track in Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed UPDATE: Video link added

Update: Watch the Summer of Sonic video here, footage begins at 1:17:40, there is also a Q&A with Sumo Digital at 0:27:30

Update 2: DiGi Valentine tells us on Twitter that the race track areas seen in the video are: Spring Valley, Gilwings Lair and Wizeman’s boss arena.

Summer of Sonic is in full swing, and Steve Lycett of Sumo Digital took the main stage to talk about Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed. The big reveal of Steve’s presentation was that NiGHTS will feature in the game as both a racer and a track. Sonic Wrecks tweeted a few details, stating that the game will have both NiGHTS and Reala, NiGHTS rival, as racers driven by a Pian (those little chubby angels). No word yet on which NiGHTS game will feature, but I’m guessing the original as it is far more popular and is rereleasing this year. Also no word on if the NiGHTS and Reala racers take up two roster slots or if they’ll be considered alternate skins of the same racer. When we hear more, we’ll share it here. This is great news for NiGHTS fans! Details after the break.

Fans unhappy about lack of female characters in Colonial Marines multiplayer

It seems that many are unhappy about the character creation system in Aliens: Colonial Marines’ multiplayer mode, specifically, in its lack of female options. It’s a strange thing indeed, especially given the importance females have played in the Alien films: according to Gearbox, however, though your multiplayer character will be customizable, you’ll only have the option to create a male.

A petition written by Aliens fan and female video gamer Melissa K has received close to 2,000 signatures since early June and can be viewed after the break. In it, she affirms her support for Gearbox Software, and specifies that their position is not one of outrage, but of something that they feel is a core part of the Aliens franchise and should be addressed.

What do you think? Should Gearbox change the multiplayer (even if it means delaying the game yet again) to allow for female characters, or is their (confirmed) presence in the game’s single-player enough? Leave your comments below and Continue Reading to check out the petition.

Sega Arcade returns to San Diego Comic-Con

More good news from Sega! Along with Sonic Boom this year, once again Sega will be having the Sega Arcade. Aliens: Colonial Marines and Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed will be the featured games of the arcade. Sadly, no upcoming digital titles will be shown. There will be an artist singing and no doubt some cool swag being given out as well. Read on for the press release with more info.

UPDATE: By popular demand, more Sega girls!

My Life with SEGA reviews one of the worst fighting games on Genesis, Slaughter Sport

I think the first few seconds of the video should sum up the game pretty well. What the fuck indeed. Did someone say fuck? Must be an episode of My Life with SEGA!

“It’s a very special episode of My Life with SEGA this week. With my special guest star, Mickey Mac, we review one of the absolute worst fighting games ever released on the Sega Genesis.”

Enjoy it? Subscribe!

“NiGHTS into dreams…” to receive an HD rerelease

Seems SEGA’s NiGHTS tease wasn’t All-Stars related after all. It is actually something much, much better: an HD rerelease of the SEGA Saturn classic “NiGHTS into dreams…”! NiGHTS fans have asked for this for years, and they’re finally getting it. The SEGA blog lists the following features:

  • Xbox LIVE Arcade, PlayStation Network, and Windows PC Digital Download this fall
  • Improved HD graphics and a 16:9 aspect ratio
  • Added support for leaderboards, trophies, and achievements
  • An optional Saturn Mode that will let players experience the game with the original graphics intact.

So, who is excited? It’s about time NiGHTS got some love from SEGA, and this rerelease is the perfect gift for fans of the franchise.

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Happy Fourth of July to all the American SEGA fans out there!

As the date states, it’s the Fourth of July! That means Americans are drinking, barbecuing and blowing stuff up. To celebrate, we gathered together three Dreamcast VMUs to make a patriotic red, white and blue photo for our Instagram feed. If you want, you can follow us on Instagram. Just download the app and search “SEGAbits”. How are the American SEGA fans out there celebrating? I can tell you that I played an hour of Binary Domain, and fittingly they called me Dan the Yankee. Happy holiday, and drink game responsibly!

SEGA Japan opens up new subsidiary, SEGA Networks

There are a lot of people worried with the new SEGA restructuring, they just announced that SEGA Europe & Australia will be distributing their games via a different company, had tons of fired employees. Now SEGA Japan has opened the doors to a new subsidiary, SEGA Networks.

SEGA Networks is going to be SEGA’s high-end game developer that will deliver games for smartphones and tablets. This falls right in place with SEGA’s plan on releasing more digital titles. How does this make you guys feel? Is lower budget, less risk taking digital titles better for SEGA? SEGA Networks CEO is Haruki Satomi and will be based in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward. The company will start with 211 employees.

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Renegade Ops free this week for Playstation Plus users

Sony’s Playstation Plus service barely turned a year old last month and the selection of free games have just gotten better. Like check this out, this week you can download Renegade Ops, Gotham City Impostors and Pacman DX for free. The important game here is Renegade Ops. Enjoy the game, we did.

SEGA AGES PS2 games making their way to Japanese PSN

SEGA has announced that Gunstar Heroes Treasure Box and Dynamite Dekka (Die-Hard Arcade) will soon be making its way to the Japanese PSN. They are part of SEGA’s AGES 2500 line, Playstation 2 remakes of classic SEGA games for the Playstation 2. Now SEGA is pulling a inception and putting them on PSN.

But more people here will be interested in the first game SEGA is going to release on the PSN PS2 archives service, Dragon Force (trailer). That one will hit PSN on July 25th. SEGA West, we want these, please?