On April 17, the official Sonic movie Twitter account revealed that the Knuckles series for Paramount+ was in production. The reveal included a clapper board with the series logo, the reveal that Sonic movie series director Jeff Fowler was returning and a sly inclusion of Knuckles treasure hunter hat as first seen in the 1996 Sonic the Hedgehog anime movie.
On April 18th, 2023, Sega added Flicky, Kid Chameleon, Pulseman, and Street Fighter II: Special Championship Edition to Sega Genesis – Nintendo Switch Online. This is the first update to the NSO Sega Genesis collection for 2023. Japan, of course, gets the same four games at the same time.
All four games are immediately accessible to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscribers following a quick patch update to the app. For more info on each game, check in after the break for a synopsis on each game.
Back again with a Rovio update! As of this morning, SEGA has officially acquired Angry Birds developer Rovio for $776 million. The deal will be for the all of Rovio’s outstanding shares and options, valuing them at 9.25 euro per share, a 19% premium to their closing price before the announcement.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal and confirmed a day later by Rovio themselves, SEGA’s parent company Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. is in talks to acquire the Finnish mobile game company Rovio for a staggering 1 billion dollars. Rovio gained worldwide fame with its smash hit franchise Angry Birds which took mobile gaming by storm at the dawn of the App Store and has since expanded into a multimedia franchise.
The acquisition could mark a strategic move for SEGA, as the company could tap into Rovio’s expertise in developing addictive and globally popular mobile games. The acquisition also grants SEGA access to Rovio’s vast user base and provides an opportunity to cross over SEGA owned franchises like Sonic the Hedgehog. Interestingly, Sonic and Angry Birds crossed paths in a Sonic Dash event in 2015.
We will likely learn more about the deal this week, and in the meantime we can only imagine what a Sonic Angry Birds game will play like…
Steel Empire is back again! Just announced by Strictly Limited Games, Steel Empire Chronicles was just announced for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, containing the 1992 Sega Genesis original (known as Empire of Steel on Mega-Drive in Europe), the Game Boy Advance version from 2005, the remake that was released on Nintendo 3DS back in 2014 and then on Steam in 2018, and even the NES shooter Over Horizon, developed by the same original developers of Steel Empire and released the year prior exclusively in Japan and Europe.
So far, this game is not released on the Nintendo eShop or the PlayStation store and no release date is given yet. The game is only available currently in physical form and will soon be up for pre-order at Strictly Limited’s online store. This includes a standard and collectors edition of both the Switch and PS4 versions as well as new physical cartridges of the original Steel Empire on Genesis/Mega-Drive and Over Horizon for NES, with an NTSC and PAL version of both games sold separately. All these items are in limited quantities.
Check in after the break for more information about this new release.
A brand new indie dungeon crawling RPG has just been announced for Dreamcast and PC (Including Mac and Linux), called HarleQuest!, and has begun its bid for crowdfunding on Kickstarter on April 1st. No foolin’.
Being developed by Ross Kilgariff, with assistance by Alastair Low of LowTek Games (Who have experience with Dreamcast development, porting indie NES games to the console), HarleQuest! is envisioned as a “high difficulty, procedurally-generated dungeon crawler” inspired by Gauntlet, Diablo, The Legend of Zelda, MidiEvil, and “SoulsBorne” games such as the Dark Souls series and Bloodborne. The dungeon layouts will be randomized, many different weapons and loot will be scattered around for the taking, fearsome enemies and giant bosses lurk around most corners, the option of co-op multiplayer is there, and best of all, the game will be in full 3D, a rarity for independent Dreamcast games. At the time of this writing, HarleQuest! has raised $8,214 of the $13,811 needed and has kept a good momentum after the Kickstarter campaign went live.
Go check out the Kickstarter page now, which is running until April 30th 2023, or check in after the break for more info from us at SegaBits.
Missiles locked-on! FIRE! We dive deep into Treasure’s mech shooting, missile blasting, originally Nintendo 64 having, cult classic Bangai-O! Find out what unexpected game influenced the creation and more!
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We did it. Sonic is finally dead.
At least in the context of this year’s April Fools from SEGA. To celebrate April 1st, SEGA has released a murder mystery game in which players solve Sonic’s murder. Titled The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, the game is free to download and play right now on PC and Mac platforms! Check it out and let us know what you think of the game in the comments below.
The Sega Dreamcast had a handful of interesting kart racing games in its time, but here’s one that never made it past the finish line to retail shelves. Woody Woodpecker Racing was released for PlayStation, PC, and Game Boy Color, but a Dreamcast version was also planned, as evidenced by the above ad from the manual for the Dreamcast version of The Grinch video game, also from Konami.
Now, thanks to video game archivist and Youtuber Andrew Borman and video game developer @frioglobal1, the source code for Woody Woodpecker Racing on Dreamcast has been found and miraculously compiled into a functional form. Thanks to them, we now have a glimpse of what this game could’ve looked like. Check in after the break to see more.
Sonic Origins Plus is due out just in time for Sonic’s 32nd anniversary and developer Headcannon, a software development and publishing business founded and run by Simon Thomley, is confirmed to be working on the updated release. Headcannon famously worked with Christian Whitehead on Sonic Mania, and Headcannon worked alongside SEGA on Sonic Origins last year. However, upon the game’s release Headcannon was not shy in criticizing some of the game’s bugs and performance issues.
Sonic appearing in other Sonic Team games was a highlight of the Dreamcast era, so it was delightful to see the press release from SEGA this morning revealing that Sonic himself will be making a cameo in the upcoming Nintendo Switch exclusive Samba de Amigo: Party Central! Sonic and City Escape will play host to Amigo and his friends as players shake it to two songs from the Sonic franchise: “Escape From the City” from Sonic Adventure 2 and “Fist Bump” from Sonic Forces. Check out the screenshot above and check the press release after the break! We wish SEGA sent a video clip too, but this is the best we can offer.
SEGA has officially announced Sonic Origins Plus, which is an expanded physical release as well as digital upgrade for existing owners of the game. The compilation adds 12 Game Gear games, adds Amy Rose as a playable character in all four Genesis/Mega Drive and SEGA CD titles and adds Knuckles to Sonic CD. Also included will be all previously released DLC as well as a 20-page art book and reversible cover which features a SEGA Genesis design. The collection will be up for pre-order soon on PlayStation 5 and 4, Nintendo Switch and Xbox consoles. After the break, check out the press release and some screenshots!
On this SEGA News Bits Live, Barry takes a look at leaked Sonic Origins Plus news and reviews the latest update to Sonic Frontiers. On the unboxing segment, Burger King’s new Sonic kid’s meal toys are detailed and Shadow finally is a juice bottle.
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While you wait for the release of Samba de Amigo: Party Central for Nintendo Switch, here’s a new development for what is probably the next best Samba de Amigo game.
Samba de Amigo ver. 2000, which originally released on Sega Dreamcast exclusively in Japan in the year 2000, has gotten a new English conversion by Dukeblooders. While the game originally didn’t have much Japanese text in it, and didn’t strictly require a mastery of Japanese to play anyway, Dukeblooders went the extra mile and converted as much of the game’s text as possible, mostly using audio or graphics from the Wii version of Samba de Amigo from 2007, which had most of ver. 2000’s features anyway. It may not seem like too much of a change, but it should help the game feel like a more complete English release that never was.
Currently, you can download the patch from Dukeblooders’s Github page. According to this page, patching your copy of the game requires the Universal Dreamcast Patcher software by Derek Pascarella, which you can get from his own Github page. Playing the patched game currently requires a Dreamcast ODE (Optical Drive Emulator) such as a MODE or a GDEMU, as it cannot run from a burnt CD-ROM at this time. It should run perfectly fine in a Dreamcast emulator, theoretically.
If you’re able to try this out, let us know what you think in the comments below.
Last year, SEGA promised three waves of free Sonic Frontiers DLC content, and the first wave entitled “Sights, Sounds, and Speed” is set for release on Wednesday, March 22 at 5:00 p.m. PDT / 8:00 p.m. EDT across PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, the Nintendo Switch family of systems and Steam. The update will include the following:
New Challenge Modes – After completing the main story campaign, players can access new challenge modes – Cyber Space Challenge and Battle Rush – via the title screen. The Cyber Space Challenge is a time-attack mode where players will compete against the clock to complete multiple Cyber Space stages in a row. Additionally, Sonic Frontiers will offer Battle Rush, a timed-battle mode where you fight multiple enemies, Guardians and Titans in one go.
Photo Mode – To capture memories of their time on the Starfall Islands, players can open the pause menu to access Photo Mode, which will pause gameplay and bring up a camera that is freely moveable.
Jukebox – Players can listen to their favorite Sonic songs all throughout the Starfall Islands with the new Jukebox. With 53 song tracks available, players will have instant access to 13 songs, and can unlock the remaining 40 songs by collecting Sound Memories on each island.
Two additional waves of content are expected for later this year, promising new features, challenges, playable characters and more. Given wave two has content specific to Sonic’s anniversary, a late June release is possible though not yet confirmed by SEGA. After the break, check out a gallery of screens for the content update!