Yup. A Hatsune Miku game has finally made it overseas. Miku Flick is an iOS game available on iPhone and iPad devices for a hefty (for iOS) $13.99. Published by Sega, Miku Flick comes with several of Hatsune Miku’s most popular songs. I know not a single one of them since I’m not a fan myself, but I do know her popularity is big enough that this is huge news for Miku fans. Who knows? If enough Miku fans buy this game, we may see more of her games arrive in the U.S. and Europe.
SEGA has announced that the Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA series on PSP has shipped over 1 million units. That would mean this is counting sales for Hatsune Miku Project DIVA, Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA 2nd, and Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Extend. To celebrate this milestone SEGA has announced they will be distributing commemorative pins to 390 randomly chosen fans that fill out the survey on the game’s site. The survey will run from April 12th to April 27th.
I guess that new Hatsune Miku game being teased as “Next Hatsune Miku Project Diva” shouldn’t come as a shock seeing how the series did over a million in Japan. Some might argue and say it’s three different titles. Actually that is rather good for the series being a niche Japan only series. Not to mention the Extend game is just a re-release of Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA 2nd.
Everyday new information on Phantasy Star Online 2 hits the net and the more I hear about it the more excited I get. Let’s be honest, most of my early 2000’s were spent playing Phantasy Star Online on the SEGA Dreamcast and a decade later it seems I will be doing the same with the sequel. How exciting is that?
When we learned that Phantasy Star Online 2 went free-to-play, most people were wondering how SEGA was going to handle payments for content. Lots of people thought this could hurt the series. Well, now SEGA lets us know about the currency in Phantasy Star Online 2 and how it works. They have announced that there will be three types of currency. That’s right, three.
Admit it. When a game gives you the option to be bad, you go for it. Unlike the stupid real world, video games have no repercussions. While game designers may not intend for you to do these bad things, or there are in-game penalties, in the end it’s just a game so you can be bad to your heart’s content, hit the reset button and return to playing the game as it was intended. In this week’s Weekly Five, we celebrate Friday the 13th with five SEGA games which allow you to be (you guessed it) bad.
Namco-Bandai has released direct screenshots of their latest crossover game featuring characters from their franchise and also SEGA and Capcom. The game is called Project X Zone, which was revealed the other day via Famitsu. The game definitely has a budget look, using older 16-bit looking graphics.
Namco and Capcom have teamed up before for a game on the Playstation 2 called Namco x Capcom, which seems to have the same exact concept as Project X Zone. Sadly this title didn’t make it out of Japan. I wouldn’t expect this one either.
From gameblog.fr comes this crazy piece of fan art. French video game blogger Subby-kun and his wife Subbinette converted a couch into a Master System, complete with controller pillows. I’d make an Xzibit Yo Dawg meme image for this, but you can pretty much imagine how it would go. This isn’t their first piece of video game hardware furniture either, they’ve also created an NES bed. No clue what their next project is, but I’d love to see a Dreamcast futon. After the break, check out more images of this crazy couch!
We have been posting about the collaboration project with SEGA, Namco-Bandai, and Capcom. Thankfully for you we have the first details thanks to Famitsu. The game will be called Project X Zone (pronounced Project Cross Zone).
Project X Zone will be a strategy RPG featuring “iconic” characters from all three publishers. According to Famitsu, the characters in the game will team up in pairs for fighting scenes. So who got into the game? Hit the jump to see the revealed characters…
SEGA has now given details on their tease for the next Hatsune Miku game. Sinobi, a Japanese blogger who happens to have early access to Weekly Famitsu has posted up details for the game.
As of now the game doesn’t have a real name and is using the placeholder title “Next Hatsune Miku Project Diva“. The game will keep the basic gameplay from the previous Miku games while introducing new elements like touch controls (referred to as “scratch”) and new bonuses will be given to users that connect combos in specific time limits. The game has confirmed it will have four difficulty settings.
Even though SEGA has posted the terrible news that a lot of projects would be canceled; then revealing that only franchises like Sonic, Aliens and a few others would be safe. So what will happen to the Hatsune Miku development team?
Seems that they get to develop a new Hatsune Miku game. SEGA has just put up the teaser site for an upcoming new game in the Hatsune Miku universe. Will this new title finally mark Hatsune Miku‘s debut on Playstation Vita?
This week’s Tuesday Tunes will showcase the music of Hideki Naganuma, one of the funkiest composers working in video games today. The song above is from Ollie King, and as you can see, it’s as out there as anything else he’s done. If you really allow yourself to zone into it and appreciate all the craziness that goes on in a typical Naganuma track, you’ll see that there’s very little else like it. His work for the Jet Set Radio series remains some of the industry’s most iconic; his funky, up-beat, and totally unpredictable tracks really set the scene for these games and, arguably, played a major role in making them as great as they were.
Many people remember the song entitled “That’s Enough” (which you can hear after the break) in particular, mostly, I think, for its use of the rather memorable line, “the music just turns me on,” a sentiment that fits the Jet Set Radio games like a glove. Since then Naganuma’s created music for other SEGA games, including the first Sonic Rush game, a track or two from Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, and much of the music for the cel shaded arcade skateboarding title Ollie King. In my opinion though Jet Set Radio and its sequel remain his crowning achievements, games that made brilliant use of a sound he pretty much defined.
And though his other work may not be quite as well known, his sense of style, his ability to surprise, and, of course, the breakneck speed at which his songs propel themselves forward, all are aspects that carry across his entire body of work, unquestionably demonstrating his style, talent, and invention. Keep reading to hear a very familiar track from, of course, Jet Set Radio.
During PAX I had a chance to talk with Arkedo boss Camille Guermonprez. During this interview we talk about Arkedo’s relationship with SEGA, Hell Yeah’s game play and various SEGA references, and find out some interesting tidbits about the game. For instance, did members from a certain SEGA studio actually play test the game? If you still aren’t interested in this title, click the video above so that you can get an even better idea of what the game is all about.
Apologies for the weird camera angle, by the way. I had to place it close in order to ensure the sound came out.
Arkedo’s up and coming strange but yet fantastic looking title Hell Yeah was shown at PAX and it is the first time we got to see a decent amount and also plenty of focus on the gameplay. Project Hell Yeah! promises to feature over a hundred different enemy types and a good deal of customization. We also find a rough release date for the title, with Arkedo’s Camille Guermonprez saying we should expect Hell Yeah! for PSN, XBLA and Steam in mid-summer.
Sonic 4 rep and on-again-off-again moustache wearer Ken Balough has possibly revealed Episode Metal’s length. Ken spoke of Episode Metal in an interview and stated the following: “You’re going to unlock about 25% more game”. This percentage is interesting. Does Ken mean that Episode Metal is 25% the size of Episode 1? Episode 1 consisted of 17 acts. 25% of 17 is 4.25 acts. Episode Metal’s teaser promised “Four Exclusive Levels”. So with this in mind, Episode Metal might actually end up being shorter than a typical Sonic 4 episode. It could consist of four reworked acts/levels, each act taking place within a different zone. Either the four zones found in Episode 1, or three Episode 1 zones and Stardust Speedway or an Episode 2 zone. Fans disappointed in this news may be happy to hear that Ken also revealed “there’s more cutscenes in Episode Metal than all of Episode 2”. So while Episode Metal may be short, it will have a good deal of story. Also, it’s basically free so don’t complain!
One of the first things I did when I got to PAX was ask a SEGA rep “off the record” if Anarchy Reigns and Rhythm Thief were canned. The reply I essentially got was “we don’t know yet”. Because I asked off the record, and I want that to mean something in the future, I decided to wait until I asked in an actual interview to report it. Then, the next day, Joystiq reported that Rhythm Thief was still coming, as told to them by a SEGA rep. Finally, on Sunday, I asked Kellie Parker the same question, and got the same answer as before: they don’t know.
Who was this SEGA rep who did know? I still have no idea, but Joystiq definitely wasn’t bullshitting: it has now been confirmed by Aaron Webber on the SEGA forums:
As you may have already heard via news from PAX, the game has not been cancelled for the US and yes, it is coming out here.
So…there you have it! It’s coming! Be happy! Buy it! I hear it’s totally awesome, and if you guys really want SEGA to have insentive to keep making games like this in some capacity, you’ve got to vote with your wallet!
If you have never used GOG.com (aka Good Old Games) than you are missing out. The service is a retro store of PC games, most of these older games don’t work on Windows 7, so the team tinkers around to get them running. Games are reasonably priced and have zero DRM. Zero DRM means you can download and install it on as many PCs as you want. No limit. You can install it in all of your friend’s computers and force them to play Sonic games all day.
GOG.com has a ‘wishlist’ section where users cast a vote for games they would love to have on the service. Luckily for SEGA, the wishlist is packing quite a few Sonic titles…
