SEGA USA posted three interesting news stories.
There’s a new trailer of The Conduit (a story one), new Virtua Tennis 2009 screenshots (from the Wii version) and some good news regarding Valkyria Chronicles sales.
Bless ‘em!
*SegaOnline posted news about several new upcoming XBLA games by SEGA. There’s Sonic & Knuckles (with lock-on option this time around) and Sonic 3.
*They also posted a news story about a new Wii project entitled: Wacky World of Sports. You can check out a gameplay trailer and some screenshots.
*Annoyed by your imperfect version of Empire: Total War? Then you’ll be happy to know a patch was released, which fixes a whole slew (it’s rather embarrassing to see the full list, really) of bugs and flaws.
All-format, full price
[#9](-5) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games
All-format, budget price
[#8](-1) Sonic Unleashed
Wii, full price
[#4](-1) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games
[#7](0) Sonic and the Black Knight
[#9](-1) The House of the Dead: Overkill
DS, full price
[#7](+2) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games
PC, full price
[#1](0) Football Manager 2009
[#2](0) Empire: Total War
PlayStation 3, full price
[#6](+3) SEGA Megadrive Ultimate Collection
PSP, fullprice
[#4](0) Football Manager 2009
[#5](+1) Phantasy Star Portable
XBOX 360, budget
[#5](+2) SEGA Superstars Tennis
[#9](-1) Sonic Unleashed
PlayStation 3, budget
[#8](-3) Sonic Unleashed
PlayStation 2, budget
[#8](0) Sonic Unleashed
*The Conduit gets a date; according to SegaOnline, the game will be released in Europe and Australia June 26th.
*SEGA Europe posted an update of their ‘OutRun the Rest’ competition. The best time registered so far is 4 minutes 13 seconds and was achieved with an MT Tuned car at goal D.
*SEGA USA posted a bizarre story about a 6 year old Norwegian boy who wants to be renamed ‘Sonic X’. Hmm, well I guess it’s better than that guy changing his name to ‘Sony PlayStation’ back in nineties..
*Got some Microsoft points left? 1200 to be exact. Why? Virtual-On: Cyber Troopers, naturally! The game will hit XBLA this week.(thanks again to SegaOnline for the news)
*SEGA added some more movies to the Shining Force Cross website. They mainly show how to play the game and feature some hardware functions (like the touch-screen and -told you- the IC card system). It certainly doesn’t look as bad as its premiere trailer did us believe, but our opinion remains that this game should’ve been released as a Phantasy Star IP not, a Shining Force one.
*Kotaku posted an update on SEGA’s upcoming Alien vs Predator game. About time there was some news, really.
*Haven’t found a use for that money tree in your backyard? If so, start tracking down a copy of Lethal Enforcers: Famitsu Edition. A copy of this special edition Mega-CD game (allegedly only 18 copies were made) sold for over 180,000 Yen (~1850 US Dollar). Crazy!
Never forget your roots! An overview of last weeks retro news;
*SMS Power released two Korean Master System games. There’s Hwarang-ui (a Kenseiden hack) & Super Boy 4.
*Dreamcast.es released a new Dreamcast homebrew effort; Allegro Darts. It’s a port of the PC version.
*The C4 Saturn programming competition is about to end. Contestants will need to finish their entry for the deadline (April 30).
*The Pier Solar website was updated with several videos.
’till next week!
*SEGA Europe posted an overview of the returning mini-games in Virtua Tennis 2009. Check out the likes of Alien Attack, Avalanche and Pin Crusher HERE.
*Let’s Tap update: SEGA USA posted a new trailer while SEGA Online posted the PAL boxart.
*Are you a fan of SEGA merchandise? If so, check out some High Voltage Software / The Conduit merchandise, these Sonic T-Shirts or this SEGA R/C chopper(!). We’ll probably have our usual ‘First4Figures Sonic action figures still not released’ laugh/cry next week.
*Finally, IGN posted a new Alpha Protocol trailer.While it does look like a novel concept, it does seem like a game that needs proper marketing to make it take off. Take note, SEGA!
SEGA added a trailer of the game to the official Shining Force CROSS website. Don’t get your hopes up though, as it’s -and we’ll have to be brutally honest now- rubbish. Think of a Climax Landers (Time Stalkers) / Phantasy Star Online crossover with incredibly dated graphics and clichéd bosses (the ‘big dragon’ idea again? Urgh. Even its animation seems copied straight from PSO). Well, just see for yourself.
Another dream crushed.
*IGN might not be our favorite gaming network (especially their nearly empty game records -that always seem to find their way to page 1 of Google’s search results- are an annoyance) but credit where credit is due: they’ve written a very lenghty article on the history of SEGA. See page 9 for an interesting quote on why EA didn’t support the Dreamcast.
*SEGA USA posted an interview with Creative Assembly’s Richard Beddow about Empire: Total War’s music.
*Valkyria Chronicles’s DLC didn’t go unnoticed; it boosted sales to no end. See, it does pay to create quality games after all.
*PlaySEGA update: Texas Hold ‘em Poker was added to the list of games. A whole bunch of downloadable games (such as Women’s Murder Club, Solitaire for Dummies and 4 Elements) are available as well.
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[#4](-1) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games
All-format, full price
[#4](-1) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games
All-format, budget price
[#7](+8) Sonic Unleashed
Wii, full price
[#3](-1) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games
[#7](-2) Sonic and the Black Knight
[#8](0) The House of the Dead: Overkill
DS, full price
[#9](-2) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games
PC, full price
[#1](0) Football Manager 2009
[#2](+1) Empire: Total War
PlayStation 3, fullprice
[#9](+4) SEGA Megadrive Ultimate Collection
PSP, fullprice
[#4](0) Football Manager 2009
XBOX 360, budget
[#7](+2) SEGA Superstars Tennis
[#8](NEW) Sonic Unleashed
PlayStation 3, budget
[#5](NEW) Sonic Unleashed
PlayStation 2, budget
[#8](+1) Sonic Unleashed
Somehow this game ’slipped through the net’ (hey, with all the DS games by SEGA these days, keeping track of things becomes just tad too hard sometimes); A Witch’s Tale. Dengeki did an impressive overview of screenshots and artwork. The game is being developed by Hitmaker and is planned for release on May 28th .
Strangely, this ‘Fantasy RPG’ (as it’s called by the developers) won’t be published by SEGA. Enjoy this one-off update on the game, as it’s unlikely to be featured on these pages again, all things considered.
*So, how’s MadWorld doing in the USA? According to NPD Group only 66,000 copies were sold last month. When comparing that figure to those of ’all-time classics’ like Ben 10 and My Fitness Coach, it’s a Mad World indeed..
*MadWorld review rating update:
-8/10 (DarkZero)
-8.5/10 (411mania)
-B- (Gaming Age)
*A feature by PlatinumGames ‘you might have missed’; Mad Replay Value.
*SEGA USA did a big blog post on The Conduit. Inside are links to an interview, trailers and infobursts.
*Mini-games. It just wouldn’t be Virtua Tennis without them. Check out some new ones planned for Virtua Tennis 2009.
*The mysterious new Shining Force game is now known as (cue drumroll): Shining Force Cross. Now, take a guess which platform it will be released for? If you thought DS or Wii, you’d be totally, totally..wrong! ‘Oh, PS3 or XBOX360 then’? I hear you think. No chance; the game will be released in the Arcade. Crazy!
You’ll be able to play Shining Force Cross together with three others players at once (via network connected arcade cabinets all over Japan), co-operating through the adventure. The fact that the game will use an IC card system would be a given. The game will go on ‘location test’ early next month in multiple arcades in Tokyo.
It sounds pretty cool, really. Check out the official site for more info. There will be new media next week.
*SEGA Europe opened the site for their ‘OutRun the Rest’ competition we mentioned yesterday. They also posted some more information to clarify some elements of the competition.
*Feel you’re the ‘No1 OutRun Online Arcade racer’? Then make sure you come across a user called ‘Challenge SEGA’. You guessed it; you’ll race SEGA at their own game. Win the game and a free OutRun t-shirt is yours. See details.
*If you didn’t download the game yet and need to be convinced by media; SEGA Europe posted a trailer and some new screenshots at their Flickr account.
*Outrun Online Arcade review rating update:
-8/10 (VideoGamer)
-8/10 (IGN)
-8/10 (Eurogamer)
-8.6/10 (TeamXbox)
-5.5/10 (Official Xbox magazine)
*Our friends at SegaOnline posted a bunch of screenshots of Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram’s Attract mode.
*Gametrailers posted a ‘Japanese Debut trailer’ of Phantasy Star Zero mini (DS). It looks particulary impressive considering the limited DS hardware. Check it out.
*SEGA USA pleases us; a spotlight on the Valkyria Chronicles DLC, new multiplayer screens of The Conduit, some very interesting news about Virtua Tennis 2009 on the Wii and a look at some Let’s Tap merchandise. Mad props guys (and girls)!
*You might have remembered; today marks the release of Outrun Online Arcade (yeah!). To celebrate this release, SEGA started a competition to win a trip to Italy (home of Ferrari). Details are a bit sketchy, but buying the game, recording a fast time and registering at SEGA’s website with your online gamertag should do the trick. (Thanks again to SegaOnline for the details)
All-format, all prices
[#3](+6) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games
All-format, full price
[#3](+6) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games
Wii, full price
[#2](+1) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games
[#5](-1) Sonic and the Black Knight
[#8](-1) The House of the Dead: Overkill
[#9](-3) MadWorld
DS, full price
[#7](+1) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games
PC, full price
[#1](+1) Football Manager 2009
[#3](-2) Empire: Total War
PSP, fullprice
[#4](0) Football Manager 2009
XBOX 360, budget
[#9](-3) SEGA Superstars Tennis
PlayStation 2, budget
[#9](+3) Sonic Unleashed
Only announced last week, already some screenshots this week.
*SEGA USA gets serious for their booth at the Cherry Blossom festival in San Francisco (April 11&12 and 18&19). A huge pile of merchandise, the option to play previews of upcoming SEGA games and a SEGA trivia contest. Nice!
*SEGA Japan opened a mysterious new site based around a new Shining Force game. Nothing much to see yet (apparently we should all visit it again on the 17th) but it sure is intriguing. Could we finally see Shining Force IV? Please?
*Segadatabase Network update: Segacollection.com was updated today. Look out for a huge update to S.F’s Saturn Odds & Ends soon as well.
A new Bayonetta trailer called ‘First Climax’ was added to Gametrailers.
Some very impressive boss battles await!
*SEGA Europe posted the release date and price for both OutRun Online Arcade and the Valkyria Chronicles DLC. Some fair prices really, go check it out. SEGA USA posted something for your desktop.
*Remember the ‘all-seeing eye’ from Exhumed/Powerslave/1999? Well, it’s back in The Conduit. This could certainly be one of the cooler features in the game. There’s a trailer and some screenshots of it in action @ SEGA Europe.
*Japanese developer tri-Ace, the team behind the Star Ocean series and the next-gen RPG Infinite Discovery, is teaming up with SEGA for a brand new futuristic RPG, entitled End of Eternity. Read the full story.
Despite being slighty ‘old’ news (if there’s such a thing as ‘old’ news’?) SEGANEWS.NET deemed it important enough to report this after all.
Perhaps a name most of you won’t be familiar with, Frank Herman was co-founder of SEGA Europe in 1991 and lead the company through many succesful years.
Read the full story HERE.
R.I.P. Frank Herman, you’ll be missed.