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Sonic 2 ex-artist shows off unapproved SEGA pitch for ‘Spellcaster’ fighting game

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We have been covering all the SEGA Technical Institute pitches that Sonic the Hedgehog 2 artist Craig Stitt has been posting over at the SEGA Retro Gaming group on Facebook. First he showed off his pitch for Sonic’s partner called Boomer, then he showed off Astropede and now he is showing off a pitch Craig Stitt did with programmer Dave Sanner back in SEGA’s 16-bit days. The game was set to be called ‘Spellcaster’ and was meant to be a two player combat game based around the use of magic. The gimmick would be that the game would have a musical component in that players had to press button combinations to cast a spell but each button would play a musical note.

The idea would be that players would have a easier time doing complicated button combinations if they were based around sound. According to Craig Stitt, the pitch was put together after Sonic Spinball was completed and was rejected, this is when Craig Stitt began working on his Astropede pitch. Check out some of the artwork Craig Stitt did for Spellcaster below:

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Puyo Puyo Tetris 2: The Ultimate Puzzle Match announced; Pre-Order Launch Edition for rare in-game Item Cards for Skill Battle Mode

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SEGA has announced today that Puyo Puyo and Tetris will be reuniting once again in Puyo Puyo Tetris 2: The Ultimate Puzzle Match coming to Nintendo Switch and the Xbox One family of devices, including Xbox Series X, and PlayStation®4 on December 8th, with the PlayStation®5 version coming Holiday 2020 and Steam version coming early 2021.

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EXCLUSIVE: Sonic & Knuckles Rock the Rock Revisited with Chris Tang – Beating the Previous Record!

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High Score is a new documentary series on Netflix charting the history of video games. While the whole series is recommended to SEGA fans, the fourth episode in particular is a must watch. The episode, titled “This is War”, covers the console wars of SEGA’s push to outsell Nintendo in the United States. SEGA all-stars, and friends to the site, Tom Kalinske (former President and CEO of SEGA of America) and game designer and gaming tournament champion Chris Tang are featured in the episode. Chris is known best to Sonic fans as the winner of SEGA and MTV’s Rock the Rock competition in 1994.

Following the Netflix series debut, I got to talking to Chris and he revealed to me that the production of the documentary prompted him to revisit Sonic & Knuckles and redo the Rock the Rock’s finals competition run. The rules being collect the most rings in Launch Base Zone in 3 minutes as Knuckles. Chris, always the competitor, wanted to go up against himself and see if his current skills and abilities could outdo his previous win. After a day of practice, Chris fired up his recording devices and recorded this run that we are proud to debut exclusively here at SEGAbits!

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Ninjala to feature Sonic the Hedgehog Collaboration

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The developers behind Ninjala, a free-to-play online multiplayer action game developed by SOLEIL and published by GungHo Online Entertainment for Nintendo Switch which features modern day ninjas participating in a tournament with ninja gum as weapons, revealed on the 8th Dev Diary that they will include their first in-game collaboration with Sonic the Hedgehog as part of a celebration of surpassing 4 million downloads. The developers of Ninjala will have more news share regarding the collaboration on a later date.

What are your thoughts on the Sonic the Hedgehog Collaboration in Ninjala? Will you be playing the game with friends when it arrives? Let us know in the comments below.

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Sakura Wars Acoustic Music Concert “Sakura Evening” to feature live streaming

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The Sakura Wars Acoustic Music Concert “Sakura Evening” will be held at the Asakusa Hana Theater in Japan on September 25th and October 2nd. The concert will be performed by none other than Chisa Yokoyama, known as the voice actress for Sakura Shinguji of the main games in the series along with Yaksha in the latest entry. The concert will also have Kazue Ikura (Leni Milchstrasse VA), Ai Orikasa (Ayame & Kaede Fujieda VA), and Urara Takano (Maria Tachibana VA) performing at the event.

Due to concerns of the conoravirus, viewers will have the option to watch the concert via live stream with two performances each day, 4 performances in all. Tickets for the live stream will be available on August 29th for 3,000 yen. Click here for more information on the concert with Google Translate.

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“Wonder Boy – Asha in Monster World” Announced for PS4 and Nintendo Switch With Original Development Team

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A new entry to the Wonder Boy/Monster World called Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World has been announced has been announced for Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch with the original developers attached to the project.

The game features Asha, the protagonist returning from Monster World IV for Sega Mega Drive along with her flying blue Pepelogoo as they set on an adventure to save the world and will be fully dubbed with characters described as “lively and chatty”.

Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World will be developed by the Artdink studio in conjuction with ININ Games, with several members of the original Wonder Boy team which includes the series creator, Ryuichi Nishizawa, original composer Shinichi Sakamoto, character designer Maki Ozora, and cheif creative officer Takanori Kurihara.

The full reveal for Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World is expected to be shown during the Gamescom Awesome Indies digital event at 7:00 p.m. CEST on Saturday 29th of August.

[Source: IGN Spain]

 

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Puyo Puyo Champions to Receive a New Update: Spectator Mode, 2 New Characters, Color Blind Settings, & More!

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Puyo Puyo Champions will be receiving a new update with new features which will include a spectator mode, two more additional characters (Rafisol and Paprisu), color blindness mode, Gummy Puyo mode, game speed options, auto play assist and additional details on the match result screens.

The update for the game will arrive shortly on August 26th for Nintendo Switch, then Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC this September.

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Yakuza Like A Dragon – “How Will You Rise” Trailer Showcases Outrageous Jobs & Release Date

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The new trailer for Yakuza: Like A Dragon, takes players on a journey through the streets of Yokohama, Japan with Ichiban Kasuga and his loyal party members, Nanba, Saeko, and Adachi, as they swap between just a few of the 20+ unique Jobs available throughout the game.

In what can only be described as a meta worldview, Ichiban envisions himself the lead character in an RPG and his ensuing skirmishes take on the form of turn-based battles. For example, you can become musician and make your enemies attack each other or a break dancer to perform some lethal funky moves.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon will launch on November 13, 2020 on Xbox One X, Xbox One, Windows 10, PlayStation 4, and Steam. Yakuza: Like a Dragon will also be available on the Xbox Series X console on day 1 of its release, as well as PlayStation 5 at a later date.

PRE-ORDER

PlayStation 4 | Xbox One & Xbox One X | Windows 10 | Steam

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SEGA Forever Pop-Up Facts Video Reveals Early “NiGHTS into dreams…” Box Art

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To celebrate the anniversary weekend of NiGHTS into dreams…, SEGA has reduced the price of the Steam release by 85%, making it just $1.19! We here at SEGAbits love the original Saturn classic, as well as the holiday themed demo disc Christmas NiGHTS (so much so, we reviewed and rated it an A+.)

In addition to the sale, the SEGA Forever YouTube channel shared a cool pop-up trivia video which reveals an early design of NiGHTS in some mocked-up concept cover art. In our opinion, it’s kind of creepy, but still a very cool find. By the way, if you like clean high res art from SEGA classics, we highly recommend following SEGA Forever on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Recent posts include some great promotional renders for NiGHTS, Gain Ground art and very blocky Virtua Racing renders.

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SEGA Talk Podcast #51: ChuChu Rocket! (1999)

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Barry and George return to the SEGA Dreamcast era with a look back at a Sonic Team puzzle game classic: ChuChu Rocket! This beloved game has seen not only a successful online console release, but also a long history on mobile and handheld devices. Join us as we uncover stories from the game’s development, discuss what it was like playing the game on release and explore the future of ChuChu Rocket!

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 – Play Music – 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!

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More SEGA Astro City Mini Games Revealed – Plus Accessory Kit Announced

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When we first shared the news about SEGA’s Astro City Mini, it was revealed that the plug and play would include 36 arcade classics. At the time, 10 were revealed, and today we learned of an additional 13 games! The newly announced titles include:

  • Cotton
  • Shinobi
  • Shadow Dancer
  • E-SWAT
  • Crack Down
  • Gain Ground
  • Puyo Puyo
  • Columns
  • Bonanza Bros.
  • Puzzle & Action: Ichidant-R
  • Wonder Boy
  • Wonder Boy in Monster Land
  • Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair

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Attend Blind Spot’s Turbo-kun 30th Anniversary Live Streaming Show on August 23rd

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Blind Spot, a band lead by former members of the S.S.T. Band, will be performing for Turbo-kun’s 30th Anniversary during a live stream this Sunday, August 23rd at Shiodome Blue Mood, Tokyo
from 2 PM JST to 5:30 PM JST. Tickets can be purchased within this link for 3,000 yen (approximately $30 in USD & 23.91 in Euro). The band will consist of:

Masato “Turbo-kun” Saito: Bass
Koichi “Mickey” Namiki: Guitar
Kimitaka “Harrier” Matsumae: Keyboards
Shoji “Rally” Morifuji: Keyboards
Yoshinori “Sonic” Imai: Drums
Guest Guitarist
Chizuru “Claris” Segawa

If you’re also into viewing other SEGA related music performances on the same day, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi will be hosting an online dinner show at 19:00 JST (6 AM EST, 5 AM Central, 3 AM PST) on YouTube for free.

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Watch Takenobu Mitsuyoshi’s Dinner Event in Journey’s Canten Virtually this Sunday, August 23rd

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Although Takenobu Mitsuyoshi’s in-person dinner show was delayed up to next year in Japan, fans who are not able to attend can now watch his dinner show virtually online this Sunday, August 23rd on YouTube at 19:00 JST (6 AM EST, 5 AM Central, 3 AM PST). SEGA has even uploaded a dinner menu with a list of food Mitsuyoshi-san will be eating and encourages viewers to prepare the same food for the show as if they were attending the event.

Will you be attending Mitsuyoshi’s dinner show online this weekend, which iconic SEGA theme song would you like for him to sing during the dinner show? Leave us a comment down below.

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Sega Technical Institute’s Canceled “Treasure Tails” For SEGA Genesis / Mega Drive Screenshots Hit The Net

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We have been posting a lot about Sega Technical Insitute’s canceled projects including Boomer an unused Sonic 2 side kick, Astropede a canceled pitch 16-bit game and now we have Treasure Tails which was a cancelled pitch by Sega Technical Institute. While these screens is all we have, at first, it was said to be pitched by Bill Dunn but Craig Stitt has come out and said its not true.

Check out what Craig Stitt had to say:

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Segapede/Astropede cancelled SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive gets over 12 minutes of prototype footage posted online

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If you haven’t been keeping up, SEGA Technical Institute artist Craig Stitt has been posting quite a bit of lost video game concept art and now prototype footage of a game he pitched SEGA at first called Segapede and later renamed Astropede. Its a very interesting project since it seems Craig wanted this to be a part of the Sonic universe and even used ideas from Sonic 2 with a twist, for example each pod that follows you contained a power and if you got hit you would lose a pod. A very similar gimmick to Sonic’s rings.

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