Shining Force Cross Raid trailer for Ver B

Still exclusive to SEGA’s Japanese arcades, this current trailer for Shining Force Cross Raid continues to show the improvements AM2 is hoping to bring in the way of new bosses that range from a giant black dragon to a large clunky robot. They also hint at a new area and costume items the players will be able to collect to further customise their characters. The trailer shows plenty of battling and platforming that the Shining Force Cross titles have come to be known for.

SEGA titles appear in CESA awards for TGS 2011

SEGA managed to help themselves to two awards at the conclusion of the Tokyo Game Show. Both Binary Domain and Phantasy Star Online 2 were 2 of the 11 that picked up Future awards at CESA’s annual awards. The award is handed out based on popularity and is perhaps a good indication for what to expect from sales for both SEGA’s futuristic shooter and large scale online adventure game.

[Thanks Suzuki Yu for the tip!]

The Sega Hype Giveaway!

Shigs here. Wanna win some neat crap I got at the San Diego Comic Con? Then you’d better have some writing skills!

Are you talkin’ about Sonic Generations? Are you bursting to play Aliens? Maybe chomping at the bit for Binary Domain? How about grooving for some Rhythm Thief? Tell us in one Paragraph in the comments section why you’re hyped for a particular 2011/2012 Sega game and you’ll get a chance to win these 3 prizes…

1. A copy of the San Diego Comic-Con Edition of Sonic #226 autographed by Ian Flynn. One of only 1,000 copies made!

2. A pair of Sonic Generations buttons.

3. A full set of the 3 poster prints given out at the Sega Arcade.

Rules:

One winner will be chosen by me based on the quality of the writing.

All comments need to be made by Tues, Sept 27. The winner will be announced on Sept 28.

One paragraph! I have a lot of entries to read, so keep it short but sweet.

Only one comment per entry. One entry per person. That means if you comment more than once, you’re out.

I will ship to any country that allows giveaways. Some countries may be prohibited depending on laws.

Segabits staff members are non-eligible.

The winner will be announced on the front page on Wednesday, Sept 28. The winner will need to PM me on our forums.

Good luck and believe the hype!

By the way, are you a Sonic fan who wants a second shot at 2/3rds of these prizes? Would you rather have an “Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog” animation cell instead of the Sega posters? Then head to The Sonic Stadium.

Review: Renegade Ops

Gameplay is Renegade Ops‘ strongest point. (Which feels like it should be a given, considering it’s a videogame. In this day I often get the feeling gameplay takes a back seat to plot and graphics, as it attempts to pretend it isn’t a game we’re playing but an interactive movie.) For me, gameplay always comes first, because I like my games fast, fun, action-packed and challenging. I’m happy to report that Renegade Ops has all of these qualities in spades.

The Weekly Five: Rise of Nightmares X The House of the Dead

I’d think any true blue SEGA fan has a special place in their heart for The House of the Dead franchise. Being an arcade lightgun classic, and spanning three console generations, The House of the Dead has produced a number of sequels, spin-offs and even ventured outside of the video game world by way of two horrible films. When Rise of Nightmares, SEGA’s latest Kinect title, was revealed at last year’s Tokyo Game Show, little was known of the game aside from “save your wife from an evil scientist”. Was it internally developed? Was it a House of the Dead title? We just couldn’t tell based on the short and creepy trailer. But now that time has passed, and the game is in stores, we have all the answers. In this week’s Weekly Five we’ll take a look at five reasons why I think Rise of Nightmares sits well alongside the beloved House of the Dead series, despite not carrying the series title, and why HotD fans should check the game out!

Project Draco is basically Panzer Dragoon Kinect?


When Project Draco was announced last year at TGS, everyone in the press, including us, thought it was meant to be the spirtual successor to Panzer Dragoon. Not only did the game sound like Panzer Dragoon, a rail shooter with Dragons, but it also had Yukio Futatsugi (known for his work on Panzer Dragoon games) leading the project. It seemed that Microsoft wanted to kill our hopes by saying the game had nothing to do with Panzer Dragoon. But how does it play? We find out this year, since it was shown in playable form for the first time.

“This is totally Panzer Dragoon Kinect. Yukio Futatsugi, who you may remember from Phantom Dust and Panzer Dragoon, is heading up a new team called Grounding Inc., and has brought together various team leads from the former Team Andromeda for this one.” – Says 1up.com

So they already had Yukio Futatsugi, but they are making a team and getting more lead members of Team Andromeda (who did Panzer Dragoon series)? Even though I think the new art style is inferior to the older Panzer Dragoon games.

The game will let players ride up to 5 dragons, have over 150 secondary skills and will have multiplayer (support up to 3 players). Not only that, the game awards the players who get high scores with rare food that you can feed to the dragon to level it up.

Years of the Dreamcast Part 2: Good Things Never Die



To Read Part 1, go here.

In July, reality finally caught up with me. Something had possessed me to join the SEGA forums. Because I hated being told that my name was already taken, and I figured the Knuckles name must already be taken given he’s such an awesome character, I decided to cut to the chase and just leave the K out of my name. Upon joining the forums, I discovered the Dreamcast had been canned and, being a teenager, I immediately latched on to the first online petition I saw. Those were the days. Keeping a thread ever present at the top of the forum whenever I got home from school or my friend’s house. Arguing with older, wiser, more realistic individuals like the naïve teenager I was, a large part of my Dreamcast experience came from defending it from bashers and supporting a petition that SEGA probably never even saw, let alone cared about.

Treasure planning to make Guardian Heroes 2

Speaking exclusively to Eurogamer, Treasure have revealed they are planning on making a sequel to the classic SEGA Saturn title. Originally they had hoped to create the sequel from the get go however SEGA wanted the revitilize the IP before they started working on the sequel. Speaking Eurogamer, Treasure’s Hiroto Matsuura said;

“Originally, the project started as Guardian Heroes 2, the team that had been working on Sin & Punishment [last year’s Wii sequel], after that project they wanted to start a new game.”

“The project started as Guardian Heroes 2, but the publisher – that’s SEGA – said in order to create a sequel, they wanted us to revitalize the IP. So instead of starting on the sequel we made a remake.”

Hiroto Matsuura was however, open to give as an insight into what to expect if Guardian Heroes did get a sequel;

“The original core game mechanics is a 2D, layer-based game,” he said, “and that’s what we like about it. We may create characters and backgrounds in 3D, but the core mechanics will be the same.”

For those wishing to support the notion behind a sequel to Guardian Heroes, keep note that the release date for the XBLA port will be out in October.

[Source: Eurogamer]

Daisuke Sato: “If SEGA localizes, there would be new controls”

Daisuke Sato, director for Yakuza 3 and SEGA’s up and coming Binary Domain, was asked how Yakuza: Of the End compares to Binary Domain and other Western shooters, he said;

“For the western version of Yakuza: Of the End — if that’s going to happen, then we will tweak the controls, to be closer to other western shooting franchises.”

It is best to keep in mind that this is not confirmation if Yakuza of the End will be coming out in Western markets but rather the changes that would be made to the title if it made it here especially as the control for the title is radically different to the establish norms of third person shooters in the West.

[Source: Joystiq]

Super Monkey Ball Vita allows you to create a level by taking a photo


SEGA said that the newly announce Super Monkey Ball Vita would be using the PSP’s camera, but never said how. The latest TGS trailer gives us a glimpse on one thing you can use the camera for, creating levels. If you watch the trailer towards the end, they take a picture of a banana and the game makes a course out of it.

As for what you can do with the levels, if there will be online sharing like LittleBigPlanet and if you can have more specific tools is not known. But its a pretty cool feature, hopefully its not half baked ideas like Monkey Fight and Racing on Super Monkey Ball 3D.

[Thanks: Shadi]

Binary Domain’s TGS Stage Show Was Awesome, Watch It Here



Video streaming by Ustream
Yes, Binary Domain had us questioning how good the game would be. Well, that was until we saw their TGS Stage Show for the title, spanning a little over 20 minutes. The gameplay looks awesome and the Japanese voice acting talent has people from the Yakuza franchise returning. As you know, the voice acting in the Yakuza games is fantastic.

But hey, don’t take my word for it. Watch the video above.

[Thanks: Suzuki Yu]

New TGS trailer for Anarchy Reigns

Check out the latest trailer for Platinum Games’ upcoming Anarchy Reigns. This one’s more story-driven, though I think SEGA should really consider releasing a demo one day soon.

Game releases early next year.

SEGA Stock Closes at Three Year High

Since last year, SEGA’s stock has been on a tear, hitting a new 52 week high seemingly every month. Only the tsunami and subsequent earth quake that rocked Japan was able to slow it down. Well, now it seems that SEGA stock has fully recovered from March’s disaster, as the company reaches a milestone it nearly reached earlier in the year: a $5.99 share price. SEGA is no longer a penny stock, a designation they’ve had since their stock price began to crumble in 2007.

In the past, these surges have been caused by a positive quarterly forecast for SEGA’s earnings. SEGA’s stock price in 2010 was primarily driven by the company constantly beating it’s own expectations several quarters in a row. This summer surge however, happened in spite of SEGA posting a quarterly loss due to weak game sales. In fact, there is no one major financial event that has happened that could possibly lead to this surge. This would seem to indicate that investor confidence with SEGA has continued to soar even despite some recent financial problems.

SEGA’s next quarter report should be coming out within the next month. We’ll be sure to bring it to you!

Source: Morningstar

Sonic Generations level trailer features Sky Sanctuary

Following on from SEGA’s latest screenshots, the publisher has released a new trailer that focuses on stages found in the classic Sonic games and unvails Sky Sanctuary for the very first time. Also featured in the trailer is Green Hill Zone and Chemical Plant Zone showing both classic and modern segments of each stage. Accompaning the trailer is a remix of Sky Sanctuary and the trailer ends with Sonic’s metal double, Metal Sonic. Sonic Generations is set to be released 1st November in North America and 4th Novemember in Europe.