The House of the Dead: Remake announced for Nintendo Switch

It’s official! The House of the Dead: Remake was shown on Nintendo Indie World showcase and will be available for Nintendo Switch. The game will be published by Forever Entertainment and developed by MegaPixel Studio, the developers behind Panzer Dragoon: Remake and will feature the classic arcade rail-shooter gameplay with a whole new entourage of updated graphics and gameplay changes to suit modern gaming standards.

Release date and other console release for the title has yet to be announced. We will update this article when more news arrive. You can follow the game’s social media outlets to be keep up to date!

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UPDATE: Screenshots added to the article

Sakura Wars: Columns 2 English Fan Translation Launching May 3rd

If you’ve been around the SEGA Dreamcast scene, you’ve probably been seeing some past Japanese only games receive English fan translated patches. Now it has been confirmed that the English fan patch for Sakura Wars: Columns 2 will be launching on May 3rd. 

While the gameplay of Sakura Wars: Columns 2 is, well Columns, it also has a story mode with decision making, much like a full scale Sakura Wars title. Its nice to check off another previously Japanese title off the list as getting a English translation.

Keep your Dreamcast ready, Sakura Wars: Columns 2 launches May 3rd, 2021!

SEGA PlayStation 3 PSN Titles To Buy Before Sony Shuts Down the Store

Come August 27th, 2021, the PlayStation Network Store for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita will be closed forever. That means all those great, PSN exclusives titles (and other easier to get digital titles) will be gone for good. At least, the ability to buy them legally. I thought it would be cool to look at some of SEGA’s PSN titles that are worth buying, some being exclusive, others not so much.

Sadly some of SEGA’s digital backlog has already disappeared, namely OutRun 2006: Coast to Coast (PSP) and After Burner Climax (PS3) due to licensing issues. But SEGA still has a few cult classics that are must buys, lets look at those titles:

SEGA of America Producer and Designer Michael Latham, best known for Eternal Champions, passes away

SEGA of America’s Michael Lathan has passed away, as reported by SEGA-16’s twitter account. Michael started his gaming character at Rainbird Software where he would localize computer games for the American market, he would then move to Mediagenic where he was a producer for Ghostbusters II and Tongue of the Fatman before the company went bankrupt in 1991.

“It was simply the most fun of any job I ever had. Everything just exploded, and for a young guy in the business it allowed me to do so much so fast. I entered the company as a producer, quickly moved up to run my own production group, and even became a VP before the age of 30, thanks to the unbelievable growth and talented people I worked with. It’s so hard to have all the right people in the right places, and when you do, you get hit companies and products. We were on movie sets, meeting with sport teams, going backstage at concerts – all kinds of exciting projects – and the development teams were still small and you really knew everyone you worked with unlike the mega development teams of today’s games.” Michael Latham talks working at SEGA during the early 90s

Leak: SEGA planning Sonic Colors Ultimate for Switch, PS4 and Xbox

Twitter user @Kutairo_ discovered an interesting listing on the website for the German dubbing studio for Sonic games. Under 2020 is project titled Sonic Colours Remaster, and additional details state December 20, 2020 as the project date and the category as “Game Localization – SIDE – SEGA”. At the moment, the project is still listed, so this is looking legit. But, to be on the safe side we are filing this under rumor until more details are known.

A Sonic Colors remaster would make a lot of sense, given it is one of the few Sonic games to not see a release outside its original console. The 2010 Wii release was a hit with fans, and the game is deserving of more exposure, so here’s hoping the remaster is real and perhaps we see Sonic Colors debuting on all major platforms alongside more 2D and 3D Sonic games in time for the 30th anniversary.

Update: The German dubbing website iksample.de is now down, no doubt to remove the leaked information. We did, however, save a screenshot which can be seen after the break.

Additionally, The Sonic Stadium is reporting that French online game retailer Sogamely had listed Sonic Colors for Switch, PS4 and Xbox One priced at €35 (about $40 US) and titled Sonic Colors Ultimate – Limited Edition. As such, we are shifting this from “Rumor” to “Leak”.

Streets of Rage 4 announces Mr. X Nightmare DLC, will also come with free content update to base game

Looks like the listing from Dot Emu on SteamDB was true, the new add-on DLC for Streets of Rage 4 is being titled Mr. X Nightmare. The DLC is set to have Estel Aguirre as playable, new game modes, new moves, new weapons, and even new tracks by Sonic Mania fame Tee Lopes.

But what if you just got Streets of Rage 4? Well, Dot Emu isn’t leaving the base game behind as this update for the DLC will also include free upgrade to the base game that will include Mania + difficulty, Training mode with tutorial, New color palettes, and more stuff to be announced in the future.

The steam page for the DLC is already up, if you guys want to add it to your Wishlist. This trailer has me hyped, lets go!

Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX to be released on June 24th on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

An official release trailer for the upcoming Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX game developed by Jankenteam and published by Merge Games has been uploaded on to the web which showcases the story plot and retro platforming goodness with an modern take on the Sega Master System video game.

Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX is set to be release on June 24th for PC (via Steam and the Epic Games Store), PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

UPDATE: You can pre-order the Signature Edition of Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX for each console over on the Signature Edition website which includes the following:

  • Region free copy of Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX (including manual and keyring) on PlayStation 4.
  • A numbered certificate featuring the dev’s signatures.
  • Three exclusive enamel Alex Kidd pins featuring our hero.
  • A Jankenpon (rock/paper/scissors) card game featuring characters from Miracle World.
  • Original companion art book detailing the art behind Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX.
  • Alex Kidd’s medallion and a felt money bag.
  • The original Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX soundtrack on CD.
  • Collector’s box featuring alternative artwork.

Are you planning on checking out Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX when it releases? Let us know in the comments below!

Castlevania: Resurrection prototype for Dreamcast unearthed after 22 years

Back when the SEGA Dreamcast came out, there were a lot of games that never got actual releases. Over the years some of these games leaked and fans have been able to experience “what could have been”. Now, 22 years after its initial reveal, Castlevania: Resurrection for Dreamcast has finally had its prototype leaked to a French Dreamcast preservation website.

According to an old IGN article, the ‘first’ Dreamcast installment of Castlevania series was placed on indefinite hold after the company said they lacked resources to develop the title. The article even ends suggesting it would be the last time we’d hear about the title. Ha! Wrong! Here we are today.

Castlevania: Resurrection was first teased way back in November 1998, the game was suppose to be a reboot for the franchise and star Sonia Belmont and a new character called Victor Belmont.

Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown rated in Korea for PS4

Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown has recently been rated by Game Rating and Administration Committee of Korea with it being originally listed as “Virtua Fighter Esports” for PlayStation 4. Could it be an enhanced port of Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown that everyone has been asking for since Playstation Network will be shutting down soon on Playstation 3 and other previous Playstation products? We’ll provide more news on the front until SEGA themselves make an official announcement.

[Source: VFDC]

SEGA Talk #67: Somari the Adventurer (1994)

Mario Lives! After his death on March 31, Mario has been resurrected as Somari the Adventurer! On this SEGA Talk, George and Barry discuss this legendary bootleg game that brings Mario into the world of Sonic the Hedgehog on the Famicom and Nintendo Entertainment System. Learn about the development, release and legacy of the Mario adventure SEGA and Nintendo don’t want you to see!

Support us on Patreon! Get early access, tell us what games to cover, and have your SEGA memories read at the end and more!

[iTunes – Stitcher – YouTube – RSS – Download]

If you want to give us feedback, suggest a topic for the next podcast or want to ask a question for us to answer on the next episode you can add  them as a comment below or send theme directly to our email. Make sure you use subject line ‘SEGA Talk’ and as always, thanks for listening!

Today marks 20 years since SEGA left the home console business

Back in 2018, SEGA hit a milestone as a company when on December 18 they had been in the third party business for as long as they were in the first party home console business. The first party period spanned 6,470 days (a little under 18 years) and ended officially on March 31, 2001. As such, today marks 20 years since SEGA left the first party home console business, a period which eclipses the time from SEGA’s debut of the SG-1000 in Japan on July 15, 1983 to that fateful day of March 21, 2001.

SEGA’s Daisuke Sato would like to remaster Binary Domain, Yakuza Kenzan and Ishin

In an interview with French website GameBlog, Yakuza series producer Daisuke Sato spoke about his desire to remaster 2012’s Binary Domain. Sato, who directed the game, said he personally would like to see it remastered and in doing so he would “make a few changes” and “redo some parts”.

Sato also cited the success of Ghost of Tsushima as a good reason for releasing remastered versions of the samurai era Yakuza Kenzan and Ishin in the West. Sato said that he had wanted to remaster the two games long before Ghost of Tsushima, but remastering Yakuza 2-5 was the priority and they missed the opportunity. However, Sato added “if anything, Ghost of Tsushima has helped Western gamers become more interested in samurai, so I should think of it as now is a more opportune time to release these titles.”

Sato ended the interview expressing a willingness to explore more genres in the future after the success of the JRPG-themed Yakuza: Like A Dragon.

[Source: GameBlog via Video Games Chronicle]

SEGA #1 on Metacritic’s Annual Game Publisher Rankings List

Metacritic has released their list of the publishers with the highest average metascore for games released in 2020, and it comes at no surprise that SEGA is NUMBER ONE. While other gaming news sites have shared this story and acted like it’s insane to even thing SEGA is number one, no doubt because of some nonsense about how Sonic ’06 was bad 15 years ago or something, we here at SEGAbits have seen SEGA’s 2020 output and can easily see why they’d take the top spot. Release good games, get good results!

Shenmue Anime could release as early as November 2021 [Update]

According to Shenmue Dojo, we could be getting a release of the Shenmue Anime, which was announced last year, as early as November 2021. So how do we know this? Well, some keen eye Shenmue fans noticed a tweet by @TMSent_jp which is the studio animating the project

It sadly looks like the original tweet has been taken down by the studio. Maybe they had a upcoming announcement? Since we haven’t even seen a frame of animation, I assume this is a leaked announcement. We do know its suppose to be a 13 episode series that covers all of the first game and a part of the second.

What are your thoughts on the whole Shenmue Anime project?

Update: According to Adult Swim/Cartoon Network’s Creative Director @Clarknova1, Shenmue: The Animation “will definitely NOT release in 2021.” Meaning that TMS tweet was probably deleted for the obvious mistake. /Update