Sadly this episode is a few days late due to E3. But hey, I hope you guys are enjoying all this E3 content that is coming. The main man Ken Balough is back on Sonic Talk this week to talk to us more about Sonic 4: Episode II, now that the game is already out and we all played it, its an interesting talk. Like every week we have your weekly Sonic news, so take a break from all the E3 news and sit back for some Sonic Talk.
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While waiting in the ridiculously long line for Metal Gear Rising, I let Nuckles87 hold my place in line while I went to speak with Aurelien Regard and Dimitri Pean of Arkedo Studio to talk all things involving Hell Yeah! This is the developer’s first time working with a big publisher and Hell Yeah! looks to be the studio’s most successful game to date. Read on to see what they had to say.
Hardcore has returned to Super Monkey Ball. After being completely absent from the disappointing 3DS release, SEGA is bringing the difficulty back to the franchise in what looks to be the strongest handheld entry in the series yet.
Several modes were available in the E3 demo: Beginner’s Mode, Advanced Mode, Monkey Bowling, Love Maze and a stage generator mode. Beginner’s mode is exactly what it sounds like: easy Monkey Ball levels. People who are either new to the franchise or want to freshen up on easier levels can play this mode without worrying about being brutalized by the game’s difficulty. It is essentially like the early levels of any Monkey Ball game.
As this Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion only has a loose SEGA connection, and is neither developed nor published by SEGA, consider this our only article on the game.
While SEGA did not feature prominently at last night’s Nintendo 3DS E3 Software Showcase, aside from a mention of Rhythm Thief, SEGA got an indirect mention when Warren Spector and Peter Ong of DreamRift took the stage. Ong shared his love for Castle of Illusion, stating that for a time as a child he played the full game once a day. His love for the Genesis classic carried over to his pitch to Junction Point Studios for how he and his studio would develop a 3DS Epic Mickey game. The end result is much less Epic Mickey inspired, and much more Castle of Illusion inspired. In fact, the trailer states “a beloved hero returns to a castle of illusion” and Castle of Illusion sound effects return including the item collection and jump sounds. The mushroom enemies from Castle of Illusion’s first stage make an appearance, hearts are used for health and paint replaces apples as a projectile attack. You can even butt bounce on enemies heads. Essentially it is a full-on sequel. One off bit was the mention of Mizrabel of Castle of Illusion returning as the main villain, yet Sleeping Beauty’s Maleficent was shown. So either they goofed and mistook one villainess for another, or figured they’d use a more recognizable evil witch for the new game. Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion releases this Fall.
Though it was only given a brief mention at Nintendo’s 3DS-specific E3 press conference, it serves as confirmation that SEGA’s Rhythm Thief is indeed still going to see release in North America. A demo will be released this summer, which hopefully indicates a release date in the very near future.
The well-received rhythm game is already available in Europe and Japan.
Hey guys, the first SEGAbits episode of “My Life With SEGA” is now up on our YouTube channel. The My Life With SEGA YouTube series will look back at SEGA games we grew up with and review them. This episode is part 2 of A.J’s Italian Stallion game playing marathon. Check out part 1 here.
“Hey, I’m A.J. Rosa and this is My Life with SEGA. The mayhem continues with the Italian Stallion: Part Duex! Today, I’m reviewing Judge Dredd for the Sega Genesis and Demolition Man for Genesis and Sega CD.”
Want to win a free copy of Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown? Of course you do! We will be giving away four copies of the game, two on XBLA and two on PSN. What do you have to do? Subscribe to our YouTube channel and comment on the video. Winners will be chosen randomly on Friday. Contest is open world wide. Have fun, if you like the series please share. Want to suggest a game for A.J to do a video of? Contact us.
Seems that there is bad news for SEGA’s new studio Hardlight. Last time we found out that the title won’t just be on Playstation Vita but also iOS. Now the project is on hold, according to Tom Jubert’s list of projects he is working on. He changed the status to ‘on hold’, which means development has seized for now.
Sort of makes sense, I think their game would have been a pretty cool surprise game to show off at E3.
SEGA and Gearbox have been very hesitant about showing off their new Aliens game to the public. Announced in 2006, the game’s last E3 appearance consisted of a live, demo unplayable on the show floor, and the game’s appearance at PAX was similarly limited to an unplayable demo followed by an interactive multiplayer.
For those living under a rock, Disney has been working on a CG animated feature called “Wreck-It Ralph” which is essentially “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” with video game characters. For quite some time we’ve known that Eggman had a cameo, but it wasn’t until today that we got to see Eggman in action. He doesn’t say much, if anything, but he’s there. Try and spot other SEGA characters in the Game Central Station scene. I’d assume Eggman, being in his modern design, crawled out of the Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing arcade machine. The movie hits this fall.
After the break, another SEGA baddie spotted!
Hi guys! Apologies for the lack of updates yesterday. We were so busy playing games and setting up interviews, charging cameras and running to and from the media lounge…we didn’t actually have much time to write. Hope you enjoyed Jason’s take on Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed!
I am currently in the midst of writing previews for Aliens: Colonial Marines and Hell Yeah!, the latter I ended up spending about thirty minutes playing…to which you’ll know why when you read the preview. Sonic Stadium visitors will, unfortunately, not be getting much content this year, due to the sheer lack of actual material to write about. We have gotten an interview with All-Stars Racing producer Joe Neate, though, as well as a full rotational look at the new ASR branded car, which will hopefully be going up later today. My Hell Yeah! preview will also be going up on Sonic Stadium, so you guys can read about another SEGA platformer that doesn’t star Sonic.
SEGAbits will, of course, be receiving previews for every game on the show floor. We also managed to score a last minute interview with Gearbox and their new Aliens game, which you can expect to see on the site Friday. There will likely be other interviews as well, but nothing that I can confirm.
Check out this gameplay demo of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed from SEGA’s E3 booth. Clocking in at just over seven minutes, the demo shows off a complete race through the Golden Axe track Adder’s Lair. Sonic is the selected character, and while he doesn’t pull off an All-Star move, he does use some new weapons including snowballs and some sort of catchers mitt. You’ll notice that outside of the three transformations, the track itself also transforms via in-game events. There are also a number of alternate routes. And was that a dragon I saw?
After the break, a quick impressions video from ScrewAttack with a bit more footage.
We finished telling you the other day that Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F was getting a white Playstation Vita bundle, seems that the vocaloid has more news up her sleeve for American gamers. It seems that the Vita game is being shown at Sony’s booth this year, but was re-titled to simply “Hatsune Miku” which makes sense. This is what SEGA Japan tweeted:
” A tech demo booth is set up with the game, but it’s still in Japanese. They’re excited to see the surprised reactions from fans touring the expo.”
It is sort of weird that SEGA West completely ignores the title, but SEGA Japan knows very well that its at E3 and at the Sony booth. No news if the game is actually going to come out in America or if Sony just wanted it on the show room floor to show off some of the Vita’s features. Maybe SEGA Japan is testing reaction from the public?
Hi guys, I’m writing this from the SEGA booth right now. Nothing too newsworthy, but I thought I’d give you guys an update on what’s going down.
Aliens: Colonial Marines is playable for the first time without having to wait in a massive line. It’s still multiplayer only, and I can still only play marines, but you can bet it’ll be written about here.
Joe Musashi is playable in the ASR demo as well, and we also have Jet Set Radio lanyards!
Finally, someone from the Monkey Ball team is at the booth, and it’s not Toshihiro Nagoshi. Does the name Jun Tokuhara ring any bells? He’s been with the series since the beginning, and he is here now for the Vita entry.
Do I really need to say anything? It’s E3, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is on show, in less than an hour a secret will be revealed at SEGA’s booth and a ton of new screens arrived showing off racers and tracks. Only real let down, no Joe in the latest screens. But at least we know he’s in the game. After the break, check out the other screens.
Update 2: Sumo Digital producer S0L has said the following over at The Sonic Stadium forums:
You know, when they (SEGA) pitched us the idea we went ‘The fans will go wild…’ I think they didn’t get what we meant from that though
End of the day she hasn’t replaced any SEGA characters, she’s an extra and we’re very happy with the vehicle design we’ve done for her, which incidentally isn’t the one you might think it is
UPDATE: Game Trailers just revealed that Nascar driver Danica Patrick will be in All-Stars Racing Transformed. Remember her from that one SEGA game? Wait, she’s not a SEGA character. But she is racing in a SEGA branded racer which will be revealed at SEGA’s E3 booth. Danica and her SEGA branded Nascar will, in turn, be in the game. I’ll admit, it’s really freakin’ weird, but it does feel very much like when Pepsiman appeared in AM2’s Fighting Vipers. Which is a good, if not odd, thing.
SEGA Blog has posted up some booth pics, including a massive car shaped thing right in the center of the Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed booth. Doesn’t appear to be Sonic’s car, I can only imagine a custom made Speed Star would cost a load. But it could very well be the Hornet. Daytona USA’s star racer joining the All-Star roster? What do you think is under there? We’ll know in one hour. There is a small chance that Segata Sanshiro can take the form of a car, and he’s silently waiting to burst out from beneath the sheet to put the Wii U in a headlock.