Team Sonic Racing Review – Roadside Assistance (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC)

Nearly ten years ago, SEGA and the Sheffield based developer Sumo Digital teamed up to bring Sonic and a number of SEGA franchises to the world of mascot kart racers. Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing was a hit with fans of SEGA, Sonic and drift-focused racing games and only two years later the studio returned with the even more successful Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Transformed not only outdid the previous game in fan service, but also in ambition. Players controlled transforming vehicles with three distinct modes in tracks that would change with each lap. After a seven year break, SEGA and Sumo Digital are back with Team Sonic Racing. Fans are undoubtably wondering what to expect from this third outing, though the lead up to the game has probably put fans in more of a place of uncertainty than excitement. Is Team Sonic Racing a worthy follow-up, or is it a step back for the series?

SEGA News Bits: SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive Mini Announces 10 New Titles Including Mega Man: The Wily Wars

SEGA has announced ten new titles for the upcoming SEGA Genesis/Mega Drive, which means we now know 30 of the 40 total titles that will come in the upcoming plug and play console. On this episode of the SEGA News Bits we look at the past titles, the ten new titles and a look at some regional exclusives!

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Madou Monogatari II (Sorcery Saga II) gets English fan patch for SEGA Game Gear

If you never heard of the dungeon crawler by Compile, developers of Puyo Puyo, I don’t blame you. The games stars our good girl Arle Nadja, while the first game was about her graduating kindergarten (seems harder in Japan, right?) this one she is 16  years old as she goes to a distant Ancient Magic School to study. For some reason a man she meets along the way knocks her out and throws her in a dungeon, now you have to use your skills to escape. Yep, that got dark fast.

“The Madou Monogatari games are a series of dungeon crawlers by Compile, originally released for Japanese computers and later ported to many other platforms. They’re known for their distinct style of magic-oriented combat, with no HP or MP meters, individually-crafted attacks for every enemy, and prolific use of voice samples. They should also look very familiar to Puyo Puyo players – Puyo Puyo began as a spinoff of Madou Monogatari and imported most of its original cast from the series.” – Via Romhacking.net

You can patch the English translation patch via here. You can also check out the first game which got translated back in 2010.

Game Freak’s Pulseman illustration video now Western friendly with English subtitles

If you’re a regular visitor to our little SEGA corner of the internet, you probably like to revisit some titles that you might have missed in the 90s and it seems that Game Freak’s Pulseman was pretty slept on in the 90s.

The video above has Pulseman director Ken Sugimori drawing Pulseman as he gives details into the character’s creation, what inspired him and why they made him as a direct opposition to Sonic the Hedgehog‘s design. Kind of funny that Ken Sugimori says that Sonic the Hedgehog had a ‘western look’ when I felt like Sonic the Hedgehog was a mix of classic Mickey/Felix the Cat mixed with a Japanese twist. But I guess Ken is right, its quite obvious that Sonic was inspired by early American mascot cartoons.

Love Ken Sugimori’s Mega Drive jacket. Very cool.

[Source: Siliconera]

SEGA acquires Two Point Studios, developer of Two Point Hospital


SEGA-Sammy has announced that Two Point Studios will be joining the SEGA Europe family.

According to the press release, this buyout came out from SEGA Europe’s Searchlight program which is a internal initiative intend to find talent and intellectual property opportunities. Expect a lot of new ‘Two Point’ franchise games in the near future:

“It’s a landmark step for Two Point Studios and we’re thrilled to be joining the Sega family, We’re looking forward to executing the next phase of our plans as we continue to evolve Two Point County. It’s a hugely exciting time to be a part of Two Point and we are here today thanks to the hard work, passion and dedication of our small, but amazingly talented team here in Farnham and the incredible fans that have supported us throughout and guided our continued development of Two Point Hospital.”Mark Webley, Two Point Studios co-founder

Two Point Studios is a brand new studio created by Mark Webley and Gary Carr who worked on titles like Theme Hospital (which Two Point Hospital is a spiritual successor), Black & White and the Fable series for Bullfrog Productions and Lionhead studios.

Super Monkey Ball coming back? SEGA Japan trademarks Tabegoro! Super Monkey Ball

SEGA Games has just trademarked the name Tabegoro! Super Monkey Ball in Japan, if you didn’t know Tabegoro means ‘ripe, ‘in season and/or ‘good to eat’. Makes perfect sense for a brand new Super Monkey Ball game, considering how delicious those bananas look.

Its crazy that the last ‘non-mobile’ title was Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz on the Playstation Vita way back in 2012. I remember one of the first titles we reviewed for this site was Super Monkey Ball: Step & Roll on the Wii, so its been a long, long time since we had a new Super Monkey Ball. Are you excited to go ape around in the Super Monkey Ball world?

[Via: Gematsu]

SEGA Talk #17: Burning Rangers (1998)

On this SEGA Talk, George and Barry discuss Sonic Team’s final game for the SEGA Saturn: Burning Rangers. Despite the all-star development team, few SEGA and Sonic Team fans have actually played the game thanks to a limited run in the west. We discuss the game’s scarcity, how it played, the story and setting and of course the catchy theme song!

In addition to the audio podcast, we are offering a special YouTube enhanced version of the show. We are still working out the kinks and feedback would be appreciated. If you like the show, make sure to leave us a positive five star review on iTunes, it always helps!

Support us on Patreon! Get an exclusive pre-show, early access, your SEGA memories played at the end and more!

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Sonic Movie Trailer Breakdown – What You Might Have Missed

Just wanted to do a Sonic the Hedgehog movie breakdown of the latest trailers, giving you guys some commentary on what stood out to me. If you guys find anything else interesting in the trailer that I might have missed or any other constructive feedback; let me know in the comments below.

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Sonic the Hedgehog live-action movie to get character design change after internet backlash

Sonic the Hedgehog director Jeff Fowler just tweeted out that he has heard the criticism and that you cant expect a change in Sonic’s character design.

No idea how much of a change we will be seeing, considering that the movie is set to release this upcoming November. Also the fact that this terrible design made it this far into production shows you how clueless Hollywood is sometimes. I guess we will be keeping you posted on all things Sonic Movie news…

Platinum Games moving to self publishing and working on two new IPs

While Platinum Games started life with a huge publishing deal with SEGA where they published four games including Bayonetta, Mad World, Infinite Space, and Anarchy Reigns. This exclusive relationship sadly came to an end in 2012, since then Platinum Games has worked with publishers such as Nintendo, Square-Enix, Konami, and even Activision. It seems that Platinum Games has bigger visions for their future as they are dipping their feet into self-publishing with two new IPs they are working on:

“I know a lot of people say that, but the game we’re working on truly is unlike anything else. Even for our varied history of veteran game developers, this is something that has never been designed before. So from a game design perspective, we’re very excited right now.” – Atsushi Inaba (Platinum Games, Executive Director and Producer)

According to Inaba they want to move away from publisher funding and be even more independent. In the interview they talk about how Platinum Games doesn’t outright own its IPs like Bayonetta (which is partly owned by SEGA) and these two new unannounced IPs will be 100% owned by Platinum Games. Platinum Games also said they are not done working with other publishers and are even open to co-publishing options.

[Source: Gematsu]

Sonic the Hedgehog Movie Official Movie Trailer Debuts, Revealing Robotnik’s Final Form

We have been covering a lot of Sonic the Hedgehog movie news, including having the first reveal of Jim Carrey as Robotnik and revealing that the Sonic Movie trailer would hit the internet today (look above!). We also did a pretty popular SEGA News Bits video going over the leaked plot details (if you don’t mind spoilers!) and now we got the first official look at the movie! If you dislike spoilers, you might want to hold off watching the trailer, because towards the end they reveal Jim Carrey as Robotnik… but his final look that is supposed to be a surprise.

So what do you guys think of the debut trailer for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie? Is it as bad as a lot of people have been predicting? So far the YouTube like/dislike ratio is mixed, leaning towards disliked.

 

SEGA News Bits: We Leak Jim Carrey as Robotnik in the Sonic Movie

On this SEGA News Bits, things go full circle as we become the very SEGA news we cover! That’s right, a reader sent us a news tip that the Sonic movie trailer will release on April 30th and we got a look at Jim Carrey as Doctor Robotnik. So we did what any fan site with an ounce of sense would do and tweeted it out. We discuss the Robotnik’s look, the internet’s reaction and how our tweet blew up and appeared on tons of entertainment news sites.

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Atlus announces Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers on PS4, Nintendo Switch

Atlus has just announced a spin-off for Persona 5, this one being called Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers which will NOT be developed in-house at Atlus or SEGA. The developer will be Koei Tecmo studio Omega Force (Team behind the Dynasty Warriors titles including the anime spin-offs).

You can check out the trailer above but this Persona 5 S isn’t what most Nintendo Switch fans actually wanted. A port of Persona 5… the JRPG, not a spin-off! What is your thoughts? Would you wanna play a Persona 5 themed Dynasty Warriors type game?