*It’s official: Alien RPG is no more. Ex-Obsidian designer David Kondor has added this information to his LinkedIn profile. A shame, as it was an intriguing concept.
*Sonic Team added some early Sonic World Adventure (Sonic Unleashed) artwork to their site. They are basicly early sketches of what became the Werehog.
*Yakuza 3 is off to a good start: the game was sold 232.000 times on the first day it was on sale. Next week’s all-format software chart leader? We wouldn’t be surprised..
*One of the most bizarre stories this week came from Brazil. A man tried to rob a 60 year old woman with a Light Phaser. That’s right, the Master System light gun. He finally surrendered after ten hours, probably because he wanted to play a game of Rescue Mission or Laser Ghost..in jail.
*Kotaku posted the first batch of Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram screenshots. Take a look.
*SEGA USA posted several new trailers on their blog.
-There’s a new Empire: Total War trailer.
-A new MadWorld ‘Deathwatch’ trailer.
-And a new StormRise trailer.
*In surprising news SEGA announced that Virtual-On: Oratorio Tangram (arcade version) will hit XBLA this april. The game will cost 1200 Microsoft points. Other rumoured upcoming releases are Chu Chu Rocket! and Jet Set Radio.
*7th Dragon, the DS RPG by SEGA was highly rated by Famitsu Weekly: 9/8/8/8. Perhaps this score will secure a PAL & US release..
*SEGA/Pyro studios announced a new game based on the Planet 51 CG movie. The Little Green People of Planet 51 are brought to virtual life in the videogame of the upcoming movie across multiple formats on PC, Wii, 360, PS3 and DS for Winter 2009. SEGA Europe quoted;
‘The story revolves around American astronaut Captain Charles “Chuck” Baker who lands on Planet 51 thinking he’s the first person to step foot there. To his surprise he finds that this planet is inhabited by little green people who are happily living in a white picket fence world, reminiscent of a cheerfully innocent 1950s America, and whose only fear is that it will be overrun by alien invaders.’
You check out a trailer of the movie HERE.
==
SEGA News blog will be back on friday, bear with us!
[Chart position](places gained/lost)
All-format, all prices
[#7](NEW) SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection
All-format, full price
[#7](NEW) SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection
Wii, full price
[#3](0) The House of the Dead: Overkill
[#4](0) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games
DS, full price
[#10](-3) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games
PC, full price
[#2](-1) Football Manager 2009
PSP, full price
[#4](-1) Football Manager 2009
PlayStation 3, full price
[#2](NEW) SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection
XBOX 360, full price
[#3](NEW) SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection
PlayStation 2, budget
[#4](+2) Sonic Unleashed
*Haven’t ‘played SEGA‘ for while? Go check out their new games: Chu Chu Rocket!, Columns and ‘Music, melodies and Stars‘ are now added to the playlist.
*An update from Team Watermelon on their upcoming Megadrive homebrew Pier Solar (thanks VBT @ SegaXtreme for the news):
‘Most of the weekly treats we’ve presented in these updates have been in the form of assets. Be they random monsters, map shots, or concept sketches, each and every glimpse of the game thus far has been somewhat intangible and we’re certain we’ve left many of you wondering if these disparate elements will ever coalesce to form an actual product.
Well wonder no more! Feast your eyes on the following in-game shot of Pier Solar in action.‘
*SEGA Europe updated their Flickr account with various new Let’s Tap screenshots.
*Review score update:
-The House of the Dead: Overkill: 8.2/10 (N-Gamer magazine)
-The House of the Dead: Overkill: 8.2/10 (Games Master magazine)
-The House of the Dead: Overkill: 6.7/10 (1UP)
-Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis collection: 8.5/10 (Kombo)
-Sonic’s UItimate Genesis collection: 8.5/10 (Meristation)
-Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis collection: 8/10 (G4 TV)
-Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis collection: 7.5/10 (1UP)
-Empire: Total War: 9.5/10 (PU magazine)
*Develop Magazine did an interview with Platinum Games‘ Atsushi Inaba.
*Now the release is so close, SEGA is going Yakuza 3 crazy. Everything from t-shirts and soundtracks CD’s to rice-bowls and special branded Yakuza 3 noodles can be seen HERE.
*SEGA AM added two movies of their upcoming RingEdge game Border Break. Border Break will feature 10 versus 10 combat and if you’re one of those people collectiong those plastic save-cards (like us), you’ll be happy to hear Border Break will use the system to keep your own personalized robots.
*Gametrailers uploaded four new MadWorld videos.
*They also uploaded several new Yakuza 3 videos.
*Dengeki Online posted some new 7th Dragon screenshots. The game also caused some controversy.
*Interested to know what the upcoming SEGA arcade hardware RingEdge is going to look like? Check HERE for some renders.
Some of its specs:
*Dual Core Intel processor + AMD
*NVIDIA GPU
*OS: Windows Embedded standard 2009
The first game to run on RingEdge hardware will be called ‘Border Break‘ and is planned for Q4 2009.
SEGA USA did a ‘Empire: Total War Friday’. It includes: Trailers, information on buildings and land units, information on the Marathas faction and a downloadable DEMO!
*Gametrailers uploaded a video-interview with High Voltage software on The Conduit. It’s shaping up very good indeed. They also did a video-interview with the developers behind MadWorld.
*IGN uploaded some new Sonic and the Black Knight footage.
*SEGA Europe did another overview of several units in the upcoming Stormrise.
*Want to express your passion for killing people with chainsaws? To a look at some Madworld merchandise.
*Review score update:
Yakuza 3: 10/10/9/9 (Famitsu magazine)
The House of the Dead: Overkill: 9/10 (Official Nintendo Magazine UK)
The House of the Dead: Overkill: 8/10 (Computer and Video games UK)
The House of the Dead: Overkill: 6/10 (GamesTM magazine)
Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis collection: 9/10 (GameZone)
*Death Tank is ‘ready for action’. The game can be downloaded from XBLA today and will cost 1200 points. Will it beat the classic Saturn version?
[Chart position, (places gained/lost)]
All-format, all prices
[#10](-1) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games
All-format, full price
[#8](-1) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games
Wii, full price
[#3](NEW) The House of the Dead: Overkill
[#4](-1) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games
[#9](-2) Sonic Unleashed
DS, full price
[#7](+1) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games
PC, full price
[#1](0) Football Manager 2009
[#10](-5) Football Manager Live
PSP, full price
[#3](-1) Football Manager 2009
XBOX 360, budget
[#10](0) SEGA Superstars Tennis
PlayStation 2, budget
[#6](-3) Sonic Unleashed
20-02-2009 - House of the Dead: Overkill - Wii
20-02-2009 - SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection - X360/PS3
06-03-2009 - Empire: Total War - PC
13-03-2009 - Bleach: Dark Souls - DS
13-03-2009 - Sonic & the Black Knight - Wii
March 2009 - StormRise - X360/PS3/PC
March 2009 - MadWorld - Wii
May 2009 - Virtua Tennis 2009 - X360/PS3/PC/Wii
Spring 2009 - Phantasy Star Portable - PSP
Spring 2009 - The Conduit - Wii
Summer 2009 - Let’s Tap - Wii
Q4 2009 - Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics - Wii/DS
2009 - Phantasy Star Zero - DS
2009 - Bayonetta - X360/PS3
2009 - Infinite Space - DS
Q1 2010 - Aliens vs Predator - TBC
2010 - Iron Man 2 - TBC
TBC - Alpha Protocol - X360/PS3/PC
TBC - Aliens: Colonial Marines - X360/PS3/PC
To conclude this week, here’s an overview of the news ‘you might have missed’ and of that which ‘just came in’.
*Sonic and the Black Knight will be targeted at a younger and more casual audience than the other Sonic games. This was said by Sonic Team’s Tetsu Katano. If that means the frustation level will be way below that of Sonic Unleashed, that’s sounds good to us. Check out some recent media HERE.
*High Voltage software reports that the MotionPlus hardware will -after all- not be supported in The Conduit. Tests were run with MotionPlus controlled melee weapons, but High Voltage were unhappy with the results.
*Virtua Tennis 2009 will also come to the Wii. The game was originally announced for the PC, XBOX 360 and PS3 but SEGA now confirmed that the game will also be released on the Wii. The game will have roughly the same new features as the next generation versions and even the release date will be the same; May 2009.
*Yet another 7th Dragon trailer? You better believe it.
*MadWorld is nearly here. Check out some more screenshots in anticipation of what might be another SEGA hit on the Wii.
*Also nearly here is Yakuza 3. Check out some of its Japanese commercials.
*Review score update:
-The House of the Dead: Overkill: 8/10 (Videogamer)
-The House of the Dead: Overkill: 4/5 (G4 X-Play)
-The House of the Dead: Overkill: 8/10 (Gamespot)
-Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis collection: 4.5/5 (Gamepro)
’till next week!
*As predicted earlier, SEGA will indeed release a Mario and Sonic game based around the 2010 Winter Olympics. The game is planned for release in late 2009. This move is hardly surprising, considering sales of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games are rapidly approaching the 10 million mark(!)
*Looking forward to using the lock-on features of Sonic and Knuckles or play some games online in SEGA Megadrive Ultimate collection? Tough luck, as neither feature made it in. That didn’t stop the press from handing out scores of 9/10 (IGN) and 8/10 (Gamedaily), though.
*We didn’t report the newly announced alien game by SEGA but rumour has it that both of their other Alien games (Aliens: Colonial Marines and Aliens RPG) are on shaky ground as SEGA stopped funding the projects. As both games showed promise, let’s hope that the rumours will remain just that.
Another mysterious new game featuring apples. Hmm, odds are on it being a DS game.
*The financial crisis seems to have affected SEGA after all. SEGA Sammy holdings reported a loss of $238 million during the fiscal year 2009 (started march 2008). As a result SEGA will close 110 amusement centers (because of their ‘poor future potential and profitability’), cut 20% of their research and development budget and will layoff 560 of its 3127 employees.
A sad day, but in order to secure future profits it does seem like a good move by the management.
*The financial crisis did not, however, affect some of SEGA’s fans; the SEGA Megadrive vinyl that went on auction for charity sold for a whopping AU$500. ($335).
*A couple of new review scores came in, an overview:
-Shining Force Feather (DS): 8/8/8/8 (Famitsu magazine)
-Sonic World Adventure (PS3/XBOX 360): 9/9/9/7 (Famitsu magazine)
-The House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii): 8.5/10 (Game Informer)
-The House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii): 8.5/10 (Worth Playing)
-The House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii): 3.5/5 (Gamepro)
*You can create your own House of the Dead poster HERE. Send in your most original entries to SEGA USA and perhaps you’ll win something nice.
*Gametrailers added two more Madworld videos from the Comic-Con 09.
*If you liked the music in games like Yakuza 2, Beatmania or Ninja Blade here’s some good news for you; GEM Impact (who worked on the music for aforementioned titles) will compose some of the music for the upcoming Platinum Games title Bayonetta.(Thanks to GameFront for the news)
*MadWorld gets a date: the game will be released in the US of A on march 10. Make sure you bring enough gasoline for your chainsaw..
[Chart position, (places gained/lost)]
All-format, all prices
[#9](+3) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games
Wii, full price
[#3](0) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games
[#7](0) Sonic Unleashed
DS, full price
[#8](0) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games
PC, full price
[#1](0) Football Manager 2009
[#5](+2) Football Manager Live
PSP, full price
[#2](+1) Football Manager 2009
XBOX 360, budget
[#10](+2) SEGA Superstars Tennis
PlayStation 2, budget
[#3](-1) Sonic Unleashed
All in all a good week for SEGA!
Some new review ratings came in:
*The House of the Dead: Overkill: 8/10 -Nintendo Power
*The House of the Dead: Overkill: 8/10 -EDGE (Magazine)
*The House of the Dead: Overkill: 4/5 -The Guardian Online
*The House of the Dead: Overkill: 3.5/4 -IMDB/Fangoria
*Let’s Tap!: 8/10 -EDGE (Magazine)
Plenty of new videos today:
*Two new videos of 7th Dragon.
*Two new videos of The Conduit.
*Two new videos of Sonic and the Black Knight.
*Three new videos of Madworld.
*One new video of The House of the Dead: Overkill.
’till next week!
*The first review ratings for the House of the Dead: Overkill are in. IGN awarded the game an 8.3, while Eurogamer gave it 8/10. Not bad, not bad.
*Fan of Bleach can look forward to another game by SEGA; Bleach: The 3rd Phantom (DS) is now confirmed for release in America and Europe.
*And to complete this Nintendo-themed update: European Wii owners can now download both Clayfighters (Megadrive version, 800 points) and Sonic Chaos (Master System, 500 points) via the Virtual Console system.
*With the ATEI just behind us, we can now take a look at the Japanese AOU show. SEGA will be there (naturally) and bring some fiiiine games: Virtua Fighter 5R, World Club Champion Football Intercontinental Clubs 2007-2008 (quite a mouthful), Answer x Answer 2 (a quiz game) and the most excellent Brick People (which was also on showcase at the ATEI). Naturally, there’s also a load of new UFO catchers, but who cares about them?
*Virtua Tennis 4. It was already rumoured, now it’s official. Oh and it’s actually called Virtua Tennis 2009 this time around. The game will hit the PC, XBOX 360 and PS3 as early as May.
*Another rumour was the release of Let’s Tap! in both Europe and America. It’s now official, so find a cardboard box and start practising!
*Remember that snazzy Megadrive vinyl SEGA were doing? Well, they’re selling the first (the actual no1, that is) on Ebay for charity.
*A new video of Shining Force Feather that features some of the new characters can be seen at Gametrailers.
*GameKyo uploaded some new screenshots of Comix Zone on SEGA Megadrive Ultimate Collection.
*While Kikizo did an interview with Yuji Naka (now working at Prope as you might remember).
*How could we miss this? Eurogamer did a feature on Dreamcast Cult Classics. Ah, those good old days..