5 Things Shenmue III Should Have

If there is one thing Shenmue fans can’t get enough of, it’s ‘Shenmue III’ speculation. Fans have put everything from obscure items found in the Hazuki basement to AM2 concept art under a microscope in hopes of finding clues towards what we could expect from a ‘Shenmue III’. Unfortunately, that speculation went from fun in 2002 to nearly hopeless in 2005 to hopeless in 2009. Despite a sequel being nowhere in sight, the past year has provided a few glimmers of hope:

In October 2009 Ryo was announced to be in ‘Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing’ and in January 2010, Sega actually acknowledged that Shenmue exists and that fans want it. Couple that with Sega’s continued support of the Yakuza series (they got a “3”! And a “4” to boot!) and the return of a 2D Sonic on home consoles after 16 years and one could argue that Shenmue fans could move from hopeless back to nearly hopeless.

With all that in mind, let’s fuel that hope and take a look at 5 things ‘Shenmue III’ should have!

Alpha Protocol has gone gold


Alpha Protocol has finally gone gold. After all the damn delays, it is now guaranteed to come out May 28th in Europe and June 1st in America.

Unless for some reason SEGA decides not to release the title at all. That would suck!

The Last Boss: Tennis Royalty

Ah tennis, a gentlemanly game of skill. It’s all about two men facing off against each other, nothing but racquets and hairy balls between them.  (I’ll get the bad puns out of the way early, I promise). Unless we are talking Sega’s Virtua Tennis series, in which case, prepare for huge sunflower racquets, giant alligators, wheelie bins from outer space invading our tennis courts, and the brave men who need to stop them. You know I’m not making this stuff up, I’m not that creative.

And of course, we have the baddest dudes to ever set foot on a tennis court. Of course I’m talking about Virtua Tennis’ Royalty the craziest, toughest tennis players to ever walk the earth (sorry John McEnroe, better luck next time).

Hit the Jump to read the full story of the Royal Family of Tennis!

Review: Yakuza 3


[Not the Official box art for the Western release. That one sucks]

Before we begin, I should start by telling you what Yakuza is and what it is not, it is an action RPG brawler, it is not the spiritual successor to Shenmue, it shares closer ties to typical role playing games like Final Fantasy than it does with anything in relation to Grand Theft Auto. There is actually plenty more I can expand on, but I think it’s better if I start the actual review, so without further ado, read on for SEGAbit’s Yakuza 3 review.

Official: XSEED bringing Ivy the Kiwi to America


We ran it as a rumor a few days ago that XSEED Games was going to be publishing Ivy the Kiwi and now they have officially confirmed it. They will be publishing the Nintendo DS and Wii version in North America.  Look for it on store shelves this summer.

Also seems that the title is Ivy the Kiwki? with the question mark. I did not post it like that because it would just confuse readers. The game was develope by Yuji Naka’s Prope, that brought us Let’s Tap and Let’s Catch.

You can hit the jump and see the press release…

Shenmonth Begins!

May is Shenmonth! That’s right, a whole month devoted to articles about the beloved Dreamcast series ‘Shenmue’. Expect an article a week at the Dreamcast Junkyard and SEGAbits. If writers here or from any other Sega blog wish to participate, feel free to grab the header image above, slap it atop a blog post and write whatever you wish about ‘Shenmue’. A “Top Ten Ugliest NPC Characters” article is up for grabs.

Click Here To Read More…

Shinobi character designer working on Vanquish


Makoto Tsuchibayashi, character designer for games like Mega Man Legends (personal favorite of mine), Devil May Cry, Shinobi and Nightshade is working on Vanquish, they upcoming title by Platinum Games.

He confirmed his involvement via the hip social networking site twitter, by doing what all hipsters do, “tweeting.”

[Thanks Pao]

Gamer reclaims Space Harrier high score


Nick Hutt from Sutton, UK has taken back the high score for Space Harrier and has been verified by Twin Galaxies website. Really, I did not know the place existed, but then again I never tried to beat high scores myself. Score was submitted by Mr. Hutt on April 30th.

What was his score? 39,495,060. That is  quite a bit and enough to put him on the top once again. His top score was taken down last year by another UK gamer called Philip Campbell with 38,530,220. This puts him in second place.

Apprantly UK gamers have held the high score for Space Harrier since August 1985, when Matthew Preece set the record and his score (31,900,730) lasted all the way till 2005, when Hutt topped it.

[Via Examiner]

Free Sonic and Iron Man comics!


I love free stuff, do you? Well, May 1st is free comic book day and you will be able to pick up 30 select titles for free, which happens to include Sonic the Hedgehog and Iron Man.

You can see the site’s FAQ to answer all your questions. Reason they are giving them away for free? Comic sales are going down, trying to get people hooked by giving them a free comics could increase subscribers. Its like crack.

Its really sad, the comic book shop I used to go to when I was in high school is now closed. It would have been cool to stop buy.

What Thor will look like in the upcoming movie

No, this has not turned into a Marvel comic book blog. But SEGA is going to publish The Mighty Thor movie game and the models will be based off the movie. So go ahead and have a gander at the actor dressed up as the Norse based comic book hero.

Actor? Chris Hemsworth. Never heard of him? Neither have I. But he looks the part.

[Source: io9]

Rumor: XSEED to bring Ivy The Kiwi to America?


XSEED seems to be on a role, bringing cult games over to America. They just released Lunar: Silver Star Harmony on the PSP and are already teasing their next project via Twitter. I have to admit, sounding like it can be Ivy The Kiwi.

“XSEED is poised to announce one of our hidden titles next week. It’s sure to be a feather in our cap…”

Not good enough? How about we add another tweet…

“For those guessing certain titles as our mystery announcement, you don’t really think we’d keep all our eggs in one basket, do you? ^_-”

Their third hint says it will be revealed via Nintendo Power magazine. If that was not enough, their facebook is hinting birds as well. It could most likely be Ivy in the Kiwi, XSEED has published Namco-Bandai games before and this is by Yuji Naka, enough to make a cover story. We shall keep you posted.

[Source: Siliconera]

Ironman 2 launch trailer

Here is the launch trailer for Secret Level’s final game, Iron man 2. What can I say? It sure looks like a secret level game! In fact it looks very much like the first Iron man game in motion and we all know how that turned out.

Needless to say I’m not a fan and I’m rather glad Sega have closed down Secret Level. Although I hate to see anyone lose their jobs Secret Level aren’t the right kind of developer for Sega and Iron man isn’t the right kind of game. If Capcom can survive with out movie games in their line up I think Sega should be able to as well.

Media Create: Yakuza 4 drops out of top 10


What a tragedy, Yakuza 4 has finally meet its end, at least in the top 10 Media Create charts. It dropped from number 10 last week to number 18 this week (April 19th – 25th), pretty big fall.

Could be worse, could have been No More Heroes’ Paradise that went from number 7 last week to number 29 this week. Now that is a massive fall off. As for other SEGA games on the charts… what other games?

check out the full chart after the jump.