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Sonic CD port drops vocals from music

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Above is footage of the Sonic CD intro, with the missing vocals. Not only is the vocal track going to be missing from the game, but it will also be missing in the digital soundtrack download for the game. Why? According to Christian Whitehead, its probably do to legal issues.

“I know it’s a bit of a bummer that the vocals had to be left out. It’s definitely not something due to laziness or something silly. I couldn’t tell you the circumstances, but at least from my understanding there are some rights associated with the lyrics themselves.

My guess is that since Casey Rankin is no longer alive, there might be problems negotiating the use of the lyrics outside of Japan. Please, don’t take this as gospel though since I don’t work in legal” – Christian “The Taxman” Whitehead

Is this a big deal for all fans out there? It might suck we don’t get vocals on the soundtrack, but in my opinion it doesn’t ruin the game.

[Via: TSS]

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Hatsune Miku Project Diva Extend debuts at #1 in Japan

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Crazy to think that Hatsune Miku fans all went out to get an extended version of Project Diva 2 at full price. At least 184,673 fans went out and threw their hard earned yen at SEGA to get a copy of  Hatsune Miku Project Diva Extend.

 
The sales charts counted from November 7th to the 13th, but since Project Diva Extend came out on the 10th, it only got 3 days of sales counted. Hit the jump to see the full sales chart.

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Don’t let the US Government Blacklist SEGAbits and other blogs [Update]

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Nov 17th: As of now the US Congress still hasn’t voted on this law, so if you haven’t contacted congress yet, you still have time to contact them, and you should!

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who has contacted congress, I would just like to ask for one more favor, contact congress again, one last time, more info here.

You might have been wondering what that STOP CENSORSHIP bar at the top of the page was, well, I’ll explain it to you.

Basically, today the US congress is trying to pass a new law called PROTECT IP to help protect the bigwigs in Hollywood, but if this law passes, the internet will never be the same.

The US government will be able to blacklist any site that has copyrighted content posted onto it; this includes content posted by users who aren’t even staff of the website, such as forums. You could also go to jail for uploading “copyrighted” content such as a song or anything else that gets taken down from youtube for copyright notices.

This is a big deal, I’m not exagerating this. Big sites such as Mozilla and reddit are taking part in this protest even. If you live in the US, do your part and contact congress NOW.

If you own a blog or website, this should matter to you, this is no laughing matter.

More Info | Contact Congress

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Sonic Generations 3DS: Water Palace looks a lot like Apotos

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Turns out that the little peek we had at the final Sonic Generations 3DS stage was wrongfully interpreted, and not just by us. All over the web, SEGA fan sites thought Sonic Unleashed’s Apotos stage was going to be the modern era stage to join Sonic Colors in the haldheld version. However, a scan from the Spanish Official Nintendo Magazine says otherwise. As it turns out, a handheld game IS getting representation. The 2005 Sonic Rush DS stage Water Palace will be remixed in 3D, and surely we’ll also be hearing a remix of Hideki Naganuma’s awesome “Back 2 Back”. This is great news for fans bemoaning Sonic Team for featuring a first stage from a non-handheld title, as now we’re getting a second stage from a handheld title. It’s just a shame that the Game Gear and Advance titles did not get representation. Oh, by the way, the magazine seen above gave the game a 90%.

[Source: Sonic Paradise]

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A Sonic Playground – Built in One Day

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Over 200 volunteers from SEGA, KaBoom! and Youth Uprising built a playground in Oakland, CA in just one day.

What better way to celebrate Sonics 20th anniversary than to build a playground? I think this is such an awesome idea and further cements in my mind that Sega are one of the best videogame companies out there and in fact goes a long way to show videogames aren’t all bad like the media likes to make it seem! As strange as it may sound I think it can be easy to forget that videogames are just as much for kids as they are for us adults that never grew up.

Good on you Sega!

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Retro Review: Sonic Jam

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The SEGA Saturn was something of a black sheep in SEGA’s family of consoles. It divorced itself from many of its predecessor’s most well-known franchises, and instead focused on a slew of original IPs. Even Sonic Team would take a big break from Sonic, instead focusing on NiGHTS into Dreams and Burning Rangers, the former becoming the Saturn’s mascot. This would lead to the Saturn becoming the one and only SEGA console to not feature a wholly original Sonic platforming game. Instead, the Saturn merely saw a trio of spin offs, in the form of Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic R and the subject of today’s review, Sonic Jam. The first two were fairly mediocre spin offs created by Traveler’s Tales for the purpose of filling the cap by the canned Sonic X-Treme game. Sonic Jam was easily the best Sonic game on the Saturn, though largely because it capitalized so heavily on the past: it was a compilation of the best Sonic titles ever made.

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Shinobi for 3DS in Stores Now!

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I’ve been an advocate for this game pretty much since I played it at E3. I’ve liked what I’ve played of my two playthroughs at E3 and NYCC so much that I picked up at midnight last night alongside Halo Anniversary. Several hours in, I must only reiterate what I’ve said before: if you have any love for Shinobi or old school games in general, you must buy this. This is easily one of the best 3DS games I’ve played all year, not to mention one of the best SEGA games I’ve played. The difficulty is punishing and pure old school Shinobi at it’s finest. The controls and level design are rock solid so far, and there are plenty of references to past Shinobi games hidden throughout. Remember those killer brains from Shinobi 3’s Body Weapon level? I just got mauled by one a few minutes ago.

And remember, if you don’t buy it, we won’t get another one.

Shinobi is out in stores now. SEGAbits will be doing a few things to promote the game, so keep an eye out.

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Black Friday: Some SEGA deals you will want to take part in

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Sadly this year doesn’t have too much SEGA stuff on sale. Not neat bundles like Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo are releasing. But you can get some pretty good games for really cheap. Example:

  • Walmart is having Yakuza 4 for $9.99.
  • Gamestop is having Sonic Generations for $29.99 (including 360 & PS3 versions)
  • Target is having Sonic and the Secret of the rings for $9.99.
If you guys go on our site and don’t know about Yakuza games, picking up the 4th one for only 10 bucks is a damn steal. Get it! It has videos that catch you up. That is all the SEGA related deals I could find. If you guys find other deals leave them in the comment box or contact us. 

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Check out the first five minutes of Shinobi 3DS

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBxW6aBCuDY
If you are like me and don’t have a 3DS, yet want to see footage of Shinobi 3DS so you can mock it on online forums. Well, here is the first five minutes. Enjoy, troll safely.

In all honesty though, I think the game looks pretty decent.

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Sonic’s Road to Redemption: 2006, the Fall

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This six part series looks at the disaster that was Sonic’s 15th anniversary, and how the series slowly redeemed itself over the following five years, culminating Sonic’s next anniversary title, Sonic Generations.

It’s a little hard to believe that it’s already been five years since Sonic the Hedgehog or “Sonic 06” as it’s called by fans, made its debut. It feels like only yesterday that this infamous train wreck of a game was released and utterly destroyed what little credibility the character had left in gaming. Of course, by 2006 bad Sonic games were nothing new for anybody. Even in his halcyon days Sonic still churned out stinkers, like the infamously not 3D Sonic 3D Blast, and the utterly horrible (and largely forgotten) Sonic Jam for the Game.com. Heck, the franchise had churned out a whopper of a stinker just a year before in the form of Shadow the Hedgehog, the first Sonic game from Sonic Team to average in the 4s on Game Rankings. Even so, Sonic 2006 represented something new for the franchise: it was the first main entry considered utterly deplorable by both critics and fans alike. Sure, Sonic has had his “controversial” games. Sonic Heroes sparked some massive debates on the SEGA forums back in the day and the Sonic Adventure series had its share of dissenters in the press that grew ever more vocal as they were re-released on other platforms. None of them have received the amount of vitriol and did the same amount of damage to the franchise that Sonic 2006 was able to do with its released.

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Sonic CD Played on Tablet

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Yet more Sonic news today, here is some game play of the re-release of Sonic CD on Tablet devices, XBLA and PSN. It will feature improved physics, real HD and Tails as a playable character.

If you can find your way to a GameStop, you can test the game on tablets now.

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The Weekly Five: Sonic’s Next Adventure

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While Sonic Generations is just over a week old, fans from all corners of the interwebs have started to discuss what’s next for the hedgehog. I would say it’s a bit too soon to start speculation on the next game, but even series producer Iizuka has started hinting towards the future. So with Generations considered completed and released, let’s look towards 2012 and beyond, and just what we might expect from the next Sonic game!

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Preview: Shinobi 3D

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This was the same demo available at E3. As such, there are certain things I don’t cover in this preview. For the full picture, check out our E3 preview!

Back at E3 I previewed Shinobi 3D for the first time. I loved what I got to play, but my time with the game was limited. At last month’s New York Comic Con I was able to give the game another go, so I’d like to talk more about it.

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What’s Wrong with Binary Domain’s Box Art?

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Since the reveal of Binary Domain’s box art, I’ve been thinking about just what is it that makes it so… ineffective. I hesitate to use the word “bad”, as artistry clearly went into producing the cover. However, I think the reason for the cover’s failing is that not a lot of thought went into it. Sure they threw a lot into the scene, but perhaps they threw in too much? I’ve been working in the graphic design industry for five years now, so I thought I’d put some of my professional experience to practice and pick apart Binary Domain’s cover art problems, and perhaps find a better solution. Is it worth the time picking apart the game’s cover? Of course it is! As a new IP, the only thing the game has going for it is SEGA’s name when it comes to appearing on a shelf. First impressions are key for a new franchise, and sadly Binary Domain is not making a good first impression.

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