SEGA News Bits Live: Sonic Frontiers & Movie Sequel Trailers Analysis

Wow! What a night at the Game Awards! That one game won, and that lady got an award too! Okay, we don’t care about the awards. It was a trailer show, and Sonic fans had a plate full of footage to sift through! On this SEGA News Bits Live, Barry analyzes the trailers for Sonic Frontiers and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 the movie.

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Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie trailer debuts at the Video Game Awards

The expected and anticipated Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie trailer debuted at the Video Game Awards, and it largely delivers! Sonic, Tails and Robotnik are all on display sporting refined designs thanks in large part to the movie not starting production with that wonky early design and Jim Carrey finally truly looking the part. What more, we get a look at Knuckles and hear more Emerald Hill Zone music. All-in-all, an impressive trailer. Though, the big question I have is will we return to Sonic’s world and explain that whole owl versus echidna thing? I guess we will find out on April 8, 2022.

Sonic Frontiers revealed at The Game Awards 2021

We finally received news at the Game Awards with not only the announcement of the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie trailer, we also got a quick look at Sonic Frontiers which is set to be released this Holiday 2022 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. Here are the details on Sonic Frontiers:

“Worlds will collide in Sonic the Hedgehog’s newest adventure. An experience like never before, accelerate to new heights and experience the thrill of high velocity open-zone freedom. Battle powerful enemies as you speed through the Starfall Islands – landscapes brimming with dense forests, overflowing waterfalls, sizzling deserts and more! Planned for Holiday 2022.

According to Game Informer, Frontiers is an open-world game developed by Sonic Team Japan and led by Sonic Forces/Sonic Lost World director, Morio Kishimoto. Sonic embarks on an adventure to the Starfall Islands, a collection of forests, deserts, waterfalls, among other biomes. It’s unsure what to expect, but based on the trailer, Sonic has some titanic opposition standing in his way. Ian Flynn has also been announced that he will pen the story for the title.

Hit the jump to check out the screenshots.

Check out the poster for SEGA and Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2, plus trailer update

The Sonic movie twitter account dropped a poster for the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and revealed that the first trailer debuts at the Game Awards, tomorrow December 9th at 8pm ET. The poster actually reveals quite a bit! Tails will be taking a co-starring role and the iconic red biplane will be making the jump to the live action movie series, though whether it is christened the Tornado remains the be seen.

Tails voice actor Colleen O’Shaughnessey returning to voice Tails in Sonic movie sequel

 

On top of a Sonic Frontiers reveal, the Sonic movie twitter account has been teasing that something, likely a trailer, is releasing soon. Shortly thereafter, Colleen O’Shaughnessey revealed that she will be returning to voice Tails in the movie. Colleen has voiced Tails in a variety of media, including Sonic Generations, Mario & Sonic 2016 and the Sonic Boom franchise.

When the Sonic movie was announced, it appeared to be a solo endeavor for the blue blur. That is, until WE REVEALED that Tails was returning in a mid-credits scene. Colleen returned to voice the more realistic CG Tails, and with the reveal of the movie sequel Tails took a larger role working his way into the logo. Some fans speculated that a larger role meant Tails would be recast, but thankfully Colleen is back. We can’t wait to see and hear more of Tails, and we are likely to be seeing something real soon!

All signs point to a Sonic Frontiers reveal at the Game Awards

With 2021 nearly over, SEGA seems to have one more reveal up their sleeves. During the past few days, hints have been dropped pointing to a Sonic reveal at the Game Awards which take place Thursday, December 9th. The most overt clue was the official Sonic Twitter account tweeting to Geoff Keighley about getting some extra invites to the event.

Less overt clues include the expansion of the Sonic Steam page from 34 to 35 games, despite only 34 being publicly available and SEGA registering the domain name frontiers.sonicthehedgehog.com. While it is unknown just how much will be revealed, at the very least I’d imagine a trailer and website and some placeholders for online stores. Only two more days, fellow Blues (that’s what we Sonic fans call each other).

Yakuza Collaboration DLC Pack coming to Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown on December 8th

On the recent Virtua Fighter esports Official Broadcast, Seiji Aoki provided new information on the next upcoming downloadable content for Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown.

The upcoming downloadable content will be collaborating with the Yakuza series celebrating the series 16th anniversary featuring 650 items, 19 costume types, 19 costumes of the iconic characters from the Yakuza franchise such as Akira Yuki with Kazuma Kiryu clothes. The DLC will also feature 20 BGM from the Yakuza series, 20 Virtua Fighter 3 BGM (Arranged), and new 40 stamps.

The Yakuza Collaboration DLC pack for Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown will be released on December 8th for $10.

 

SEGA News Bits LIVE: The Future of Judgment

Let’s look back on the past few weeks of SEGA news! Does the Judgment franchise have a future? Is GunValkyrie better on the Xbox One/Series consoles? How about that Toe Jam and Earl arcade cabinet? All this and more on this week’s show!

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SEGA Talk #84: Space Harrier Sequels (1988-2000)

Get ready! We return to the Fantasy Zone one last time to talk about Space Harrier‘s sequels. The Mega Drive exclusive Space Harrier II, the Master System 3D glasses game Space Harrier 3-D and Nagoshi’s arcade exclusive Planet Harriers all get discussed PLUS we cover the SEGA AGES release of Space Harrier. That’s a lot of Harriers, but to be fair it is Thanksgiving week and it’s all about being stuffed.

Support us on Patreon! Get early access, tell us what games to cover, and have your SEGA memories read at the end and more!

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Toe Jam and Earl – Back in the Groove arcade machine revealed

Toe Jam and Earl creator Greg Johnson’s HumaNature Studios has teamed with iiRcade to produce a Toe Jam and Earl – Back in the Groove arcade cabinet featuring 128GB of storage and two-player Sanwa controls. The machine runs on an Android based OS, optimized for gaming, so while Toe Jam and Earl – Back in the Groove comes pre-loaded the machine will also play a variety of other games. The machine is up for pre-order now at $599.99, and looks to be the perfect premium holiday gift for the Toe Jam and Earl fan in your life.

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio reveals new franchise in the works

Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio director Masayoshi Yokoyama revealed in a recent Famitsu interview that the studio is planning a new franchise outside of their Yakuza and Judgement series. Little else was revealed, but it appears the future of Judgement was touched upon, because the likeness of the lead character is up in the air thanks to the talent agency managing the actor having strict rules about PC games, which has apparently halted plans for a Steam release. “We will continue to cherish the Judgement series,” Yokoyama said.

What direction would you like to see RGG Studio take a new franchise? Something more outside the box like Binary Domain? A Yakuza/Judgment spin-off?

[Source: Video Games Chronicle]

Alien: Isolation coming to iOS and Android on December 16th

2014’s Alien: Isolation was without a doubt the best game from SEGA for that year. Since then, the game won several awards and saw release to many platforms. Now, SEGA is bringing the game to mobile phones “without compromise” (their words), promising the complete experience. The game will support game pads and sport a “bespoke, fully customizable interface”.

It’s pretty amazing that when the App Store launched, we saw a basic Monkey Ball game and now we are seeing what was once an AAA title ported to smartphones. We will share our thoughts on the port when it hits December 16th!

Xbox accessibility features fixes one of Gunvalkyrie’s biggest issues

I’ve talked about Smilebit’s Gunvalkyrie a lot on the site, and with the recent addition of this 2002 Xbox hidden gem to Xbox backwards compatibility I feel like I will be talking about it a lot more. One of the game’s biggest hurdles for most players was the controls.

The Burning Rangers-esque jetpack gameplay is cool, but Smilebit made the odd decision of mapping the boost to the left thumbstick click (L3). Suffice to say, it was a real pain for many to play through the game with all the clicking and holding while also moving in various directions. Thankfully, however, with the debut of the game to Xbox One and Series consoles this is no longer an issue!

SEGA News Bits LIVE: Sonic Frontiers & New Xbox Games

Let’s look back on the week of SEGA news! On this installment, Barry talks about Sonic Frontiers, new backwards compatible SEGA Xbox games, his thoughts on Sonic Colors Ultimate and more!

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If you enjoy our SEGA News Bits segments and want to support us: Give us a sub and give this video a thumbs up so it shows up on more like-minded fans YouTube recommendations. You know, how that YouTube algorithm is.

Xbox backwards compatibility update brings new SEGA games and Sonic FPS boost

Xbox has made a major update to the long thought to be dead backwards compatibility program, with 76 new games added and FPS boost for new and existing games. Of interest to SEGA fans, titles from the Xbox and Xbox 360 days are making the leap to the Xbox One and Series consoles. These games include: Binary Domain (Xbox 360), Gunvalkyrie (Xbox), Otogi: Myth of Demons (Xbox) and Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors (Xbox).

Several Sonic titles, as well as the aforementioned Binary Domain, will see a framerate boost via the FPS Boost feature. So expect a solid experience when playing Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Generations and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.

[Source: The Verge]