Spoiler Alert: See every page of The History of Sonic book

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGURDOlBcQ8

Pix’n Love Publishing’s The History of Sonic book has finally released… in French! So while English readers await the release of the English version, which is coming, enjoy this spoileriffic page by page video of the book. The book looks to be very impressive, with a lot of artwork and screens as well as a good amount of text, a nice balance of pictures and words in my opinion. The most awesome aspect of the book is that it has never before seen artwork! After the break, part two of the book.

SEGA in the Media: Tosh.0 reveals how Sonic died

I’m starting to think comedian Daniel Tosh is a Sonic fan. Back in 2010 his Comedy Central show Tosh.0 did a segment on real life speed runs, based off of a Sonic 2 speed run video. On the March 13th episode of this year, Sonic got another mention in a segment on a failed parkour video. After showing a woman smashing her face into a concrete wall, Tosh quipped “of course the greatest parkourer of all time was Sonic the Hedgehog – who died turboing through a triple corkscrew. He got greedy.” You can see the full segment at the Tosh.0 show page, tell them SEGAbits sent you.

Anarchy Reigns gets a Japanese game mode trailer

Here is the latest Japanese trailer for Anarchy Reigns. Sadly the trailer is in Japanese, if only SEGA West acted like this game existed then we’d get English trailers. Oh, can we start the Anaracy Reigns is not coming West rumors now?

Are we ever going to get tired of writing “Hell Yeah!” headlines? Hell no!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uP6QpUWs_I

A new gameplay trailer has arrived for SEGA and Arkedo Studio’s Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit. The trailer reveals a bit of the game’s plot, which I won’t spoil. You’ll have to see it in the trailer. It is – ahem – quite odd. The art style is definitely influenced by Rayman Origins and Splosion Man, complete with wacky over the top environments and lots of meat flying about. Gameplay looks very fun, it’s like if General Grievous of Star Wars went on a rampage on his wheel bike. The game is set for a summer release to XBLA, PSN and Steam.

Thanks to SEGAbits forum member max_cady for the heads up!

Swingin’ Report Show #31: Restructuring

This week we have a inimate podcast with just George and Barry. That’s right, we are going to get you all settled in by talking about SEGA restructuring, Anarchy Reigns and much more. Give the podcast a listen and tell us what you think of the new shorter format. Too short? Just right? Leave a comment.

Note: The YouTube version will be going up early tomorrow. I wanted to get it ready in time, but didn’t have enough time. Sorry!

[powerpress url=”https://segabits.com/wp-content/uploads/SwinginReportShow31.mp3″]
[Download] [Archive] [RSS] [iTunes]

The Weekly Five: Best to worst “Avengers” SEGA games

SEGA’s license pact with Marvel was a prime example of how the game industry tends to treat movie licensed properties these days. They sell the license to a game company to promote the movie. Game company turns around and uses their B and C (and sometimes D) teams to work on said games and hope they can come up with at least a half decent effort. Then the game is released just before the movie hits theaters whether it’s ready to go or not. Many times, they fail even to get to that half-decent point.

But this doesn’t mean that all movie licensed games have to stink. Sometimes, you get the right development team with the right goal in mind and you get something of quality. Sometimes, a game is almost crap, but you can see a little bit of gold in that turd. But sometimes, crap is just crap no matter what angle you look at it. What better example of this is there than with these five Marvel Studios movie licensed games released by SEGA. And what better time to “reminisce” over these games than with today’s movie release of The Avengers in American theaters. Read on to see which one I find is the best quality to which one I think is total, unredeemable crap.

PSO2 Producer Satoshi Sakai briefs fans on upcoming features, reveals previous beta stats

 PSO2 Producer Satoshi Sakai sat down with fans recently to discuss the upcoming open BETA for Phantasy Star Online 2, as well as the final game, which is expected to launch in Japan this summer. They also revealed the stats of the last closed beta, and revealed that another closed BETA may be in order before they can continue with the open BETA. The stats for the closed BETA are as follows:

  • 147,000 CBT Client Downloads
  • 131,000 people participated in the Beta.
  • Average of 63,000 people login a day.
  • 23,500 simultaneous connections.

The Creative Assembly’s up and coming Alien game listed for future consoles

It seems that the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 is not the only console that the Creative Assembly’s Alien game is coming to. According to a recent job listing in which the developer is looking for a multiplayer/gameplay programmer to help create “a AAA multi-platform title on current and future generation consoles set in the Alien universe” This implication of future consoles could mean the successor to the Xbox 360/Playstation 3 or as implied elsewhere, perhaps closer to being made available on the Wii U. SEGA’s other Aliens title, Aliens: Colonial Marines, is also being produced for the Nintendo Wii U so to have a version of the Creative Assembly’s Alien title would not be out of the ordinary.

SEGA employee’s LinkedIn account reveals unannounced downloadable game

Matthew is an Associate Producer at SEGA of America and like many people in the industry the man has a LinkedIn account. You know, to chit chat with other Associate Producers at other companies and stuff like this. OK, maybe it’s time for me to admit that I don’t know what LinkedIn is used for. But who cares, he posted that he is working on an unannounced game for Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, PC, and the Wii-U.

So now we are thinking, what can this upcoming game be? Only Matthew Hickman would know. I’m sure if you make an account and bother him enough he will tell you. No, I’m kidding, don’t do that. But if you do want to do it, here is a link to his account.

Virtual On Oratorio Tangram 50% off if you purchase it before May 9th

Do you like the idea of controlling a big robot that you use to destroy other big robots? Of course you do and if you do you will want to check out Virtual On Oratorio Tangram on XBLA. Especially now seeing as it’s on sale. It will only cost you  600 MSP, that is 50% off the original price. But you will have to make your purchase before May 19th.

I did a review for the game a long time ago when I used to write for SEGA Nerds. Check out the review here. Yes, I liked it.

All-Stars Racing Transformed gameplay footage appears on PS Access

The UK PSN exclusive show Playstation Access showcased snippets of new footage from Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. The footage is exclusive to UK PSN users on their consoles. But hey, at least if you don’t have a PS3 and don’t live in the UK, you can now see the footage! If you do live in the UK and have access to PSN, make sure to turn on your PS3 and check the footage out. You can definitely see the influence Bizarre Creations racing game Blur had on All-Stars Racing Transformed in the neon boosters and weapons. Transformations appear seamless and the final shot of the dragons is awesome.

Thanks to The Sonic Stadium’s Ashthedragon and Rawrdom for uploading the footage.

Knuckles, Shadow, a new track and more join All-Stars Racing iOS in a big new update!

Perfectly timed to coincide with All-Stars Racing Transformed debut comes a massive update to SEGA’s Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing for the iOS. The game has often been cited as being a big success, making a number of critics’ best games lists and it even made it into a iPod Touch commercial. So it only makes sense that SEGA and Sumo Digital would continue to update it. The update adds: Knuckles and Shadow as playable racers, a new track – Samba de Amigo’s mountainside Sun Fair track, a new home screen icon, Airplay-out mode, HDMI-out mode, iCloud saving, character faces on the minimap (originally racers were shown as anonymous red dots, now you’ll see that Beat is trailing you), Game Center profile pics on the minimap in multiplayer and many other improvements and bug fixes. I’ve explored the game some and found another unmentioned update, the ability to buy SEGA miles via in-app purchases. Very clever way to get a bit of money out of customers, SEGA. It should be noted that Knuckles, Shadow and the new track need to be purchased with SEGA miles. They are not unlocked once you update the app.

Weekly Five Rewind: Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing 2 Predictions

Well, the hedgehog is out of the bag. Yes, there will be a Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing 2, dubbed “Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed”. Back in January 2011, following the release of the first game, I ran through five things an All-Stars Racing sequel must have. Now that the sequel has been announced, let’s take a look back at what we wished for, and what SEGA and Sumo Digital now promises to deliver. You’d be surprised by how well SEGA listened to fans on this one.