All-format, all prices
[#8](+1) Virtua Tennis 2009
All-format, budget price
[#8](+1) Virtua Tennis 2009
All-format, budget price
[#3](+1) SEGA Superstars Tennis
Wii, full price
[#5](+1) Virtua Tennis 2009
[#7](0) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games
[#8](+6) Let’s Tap
Nintendo DS, full price
[#8](+2) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games
PlayStation 3, full price
[#8](-1) Virtua Tennis 2009
XBOX 360, full price
[#10](-3) Virtua Tennis 2009
PC, full price
[#4](-1) Football Manager 2009
[#7](-2) Empire: Total War
PSP, fullprice
[#5](-1) Football Manager 2009
XBOX 360, budget
[#1](0) SEGA Superstars Tennis
PlayStation 2, budget
[#6](+1) Sonic Unleashed
*SMSpower kindly released three more Master system BETA’s. There’s Columns, Gain Ground and James ‘Buster’ Douglas Knockout Boxing.
*Other news by SMSpower; INA (a French archive institute) recently opened their TV commercial database for visitors. There’s over 150 different SEGA commercials including Master System ones, Game Gear ones, Megadrive ones, Mega-CD ones, 32X ones, Saturn ones, Dreamcast ones and various other cool stuff like SEGA promotions with Kelloggs and McDonalds. Even the more recent commercials for games such as Virtua Tennis, Super Monkey Ball and SEGA Superstars can be checked out. Full list.
*Ever wondered what happened with Virtua Hamster and X-MEN for the 32X?
Us too. If you visited Ebay recently you might have noticed prototype versions of both games were for sale. X-MEN ended at £510, Virtua Hamster was a little more affordable at £255.
*Fancy listening to the Empire: Total War music some more? The official soundtrack will be available via Sumthing Else Music Works on June 30th. The selling price hasn’t been decided but it will contain 32 tracks.
*It’s not really a surprise as it just wasn’t ‘really’ confirmed yet, but Aliens RPG is no more. SEGA and Obsidian will focus on Aliens vs. Predator and Aliens: Colonial Marines instead.
*Review score update:
-Phantasy Star II (XBLA) - 7/10 (IGN)
-Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (XBLA) - 8/10 (Gamestyle)
-The Conduit - 3.5/5 (Gamespy)
-The Conduit - 7/10 (Gamedaily)
-The Conduit - 6.5/10 (Gamespot)
-Virtua Tennis 2009 - 7.1/10 (Gametrailers)
-Virtua Tennis 2009 - 6/10 (Acegamez)
==
’till next week!
As you all undoubtly aware of by now Michael Jackson died yesterday. A man that was good friends with SEGA back in the Genesis/Megadrive days, when he also visited SEGA Japan and tried some of the latest rides at SEGA world.
Just hours after the news we saw copies of Moonwalker fetching sky-high prices. Two other games featuring MJ were the arcade version of Moonwalker and Space Channel 5 part 2 (not to mention his appearance in Ready 2 Rumble: Round 2). Then there’s that mysterious story of MJ & Sonic the Hedgehog 3’s music. The rumour (and just that) goes that SEGA is considering a release of Moonwalker on Virtual Console / XBLA.
R.I.P. Michael 1958-2009.
Yesterday’s update sadly missed its ‘virtual deadline’, but we’re back at double force today!
*We’re becoming bigger every month: Segadatabase’s Youtube channel has now surpassed 200 subscribers. That might not seem much, but when you consider the general obscurity of fifteen year old Saturn footage these days it’s not all that bad, really.
In other news: Segadatabase.NET now contains over 2000 records! That basicly means you’ll be able to check the amount of players, type, year of release & rarity for hundreds of Dreamcast releases, over 600 Saturn releases (as well as more information on dozens of unreleased ones), over 250 ‘SEGA as third party’ releases (for XBOX 360, PS3, Wii, PC etc), as well as info on hundreds of SEGA merchandise items!
We’re hoping to have 2500 records before the year’s out.
*So nearly there for European gamers: The Conduit. SEGA Europe posted a ‘Final trailer’. There’s also a commercial.
*Bought a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on XBLA did you? (even while you probably already owned multiple copies). Then you’ll be happy to know it helped the game to claim the third spot on the ‘belling selling XBLA games’ list for the past week. The other games (Comix Zone, Gunstar Heroes etc.) sadly didn’t make the top 10.
*A couple of new review scores that came in:
-Let’s Tap - 8.4/10 (Gamed)
-Let’s Tap -8/10 (N-Europe)
-Let’s Tap -3.4/5 (Cheat Code Central)
-Let’s Tap - 6.7/10 (GameZone)
-Project Diva - 31/40 (Famitsu magazine)
-The Conduit - 3.5/5 (GamePro)
-The Conduit - 3.9/5 (Cheat Code Central)
-The Conduit - 8.6/10 (IGN)
-Virtua Tennis 2009 - 7/10 (Kotaku)
-Virtua Tennis 2009 - 6/10 (Gamespot)
*Somehow the SEGA font seems very appealing to a lot of people. It’s often used for all kinds of products and companies. Dutch record company Flashover (ran by Ferry Corsten, a famous name in the trance scene) now released two ‘Trance Therapy’ albums with said font. Any connection? We’d like to be told.
You might also have wondered what happened to Alex Kidd after he visited Shinobi World waaay back in 1990. Well, he changed his lifestyle and became.. a DJ! Jan-ken-pon those beats!
*Following the decent review score above, it seems SEGA has high hopes for Project DIVA, the PSP game we reported on a while back (a story picked up by several other news sites afterwards). Girls (or boys, naturally) can look forward to plenty of goodies when they buy their copy. They’ll be able to obtain a variety of autographed goods at a special event organised by SEGA in Club SEGA (Akihabara).
*Dengeki posted some more new SEGA commercials. They’re from Infinite Space this time around.
All-format, all prices
[#9](+2) Virtua Tennis 2009
All-format, budget price
[#9](+2) Virtua Tennis 2009
All-format, budget price
[#4](+1) SEGA Superstars Tennis
Wii, full price
[#6](NEW) Virtua Tennis 2009
[#7](-1) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games
Nintendo DS, full price
[#10](+1) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games
PlayStation 3, full price
[#7](-2) Virtua Tennis 2009
XBOX 360, full price
[#7](+2) Virtua Tennis 2009
PC, full price
[#3](-1) Football Manager 2009
[#5](-2) Empire: Total War
PSP, fullprice
[#4](0) Football Manager 2009
XBOX 360, budget
[#1](0) SEGA Superstars Tennis
PlayStation 2, budget
[#7](0) Sonic Unleashed
*French gamesite Jeuxvideo got SEGA happy with 25 new Bayonetta screenshots, a review of Let’s Tap and a review of Virtua Tennis 2009 (they are in French, though..the reviews that is).
*Dengeki posted some new screenshots of Project Diva, the PSP dancing game.
*No portable is complete without its own version of Puyo Puyo; meet Puyo Puyo touch for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
*Dengeki also added some Puyo Puyo 7 and Valkyria Chronicles (DLC) commercials.
*SEGA USA posted a whopping four updates on the same day. There’s a Gameworks tournament, an unboxing (?!) video of The Conduit, another chance to win some Virtua Tennis 2009 swag and news regarding new Empire: Total War DLC +patch.
It’s been a while since we reported on the latest PlaySEGA changes, so here’s an update:
*The ‘message player’ option (to interact with other users) looks like it was scrapped. Not a big loss, I guess.
*The Sonic games (based on the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic games game) seem to have been removed. Hmm.
*New games? Thankfully, yes. There’s a new Quiz game called ‘Back to the 80s’, as well as ‘Three reel slots’.
*There’s plenty of new furniture for your personal ‘ecape’. Tables, chairs, wall items, the lot.
*You can now check out your place on the leaderboards for each game.
*There’s a special overview page of all your achievements.
*There’s new clothing to dress up your avatar with.
*You’ll be able to see your ‘recent activities’.
==
’till next week!
*SEGA USA posted some press comments on Let’s Tap, including those of Game Pro and MTV. Read them HERE.
*Infinite Space, the Japanese RPG for the Nintendo DS, is selling well. So well in fact, that it became the no 1 seller of last week. Full details HERE.
*SEGA USA is reshuffling its management. After Simon Jeffery’s recent departure, SEGA felt some more changes were needed. Full details HERE.
*Yesterday we reported that Golden Axe became available for the iPhone. We can now report that Japanese Wii owners are now (bit late, isn’t it?) also able to download the game via the Virtual Console store for 800 points. They must be happy.
*We might have to wait a few weeks longer to be able to play it, but at least we’ll be able to enjoy some more screenshots of The Conduit in the mean time.
If you’re tired of playing the game on your Megadrive, Master System, Mega-CD, Commodore 64, Amiga, ZX Spectrum, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, XBOX 360, Wonderswan, PC Engine, Atari ST, PC, PSP, GBA, Wii or Arcade cabinet; don’t worry, the game is now also available for the iPhone. Hurrah!
*Europeans will have wait just a tad longer for their copy of The Conduit. The game was delayed from its original launch date of June 26 to its new date July 11.
*SEGA Europe posted a trailer of the Wii version of Virtua Tennis 2009.
*Europeans and Americans are now able to buy Let’s Tap, but what about that other one..Let’s Catch? SEGA USA has the answer.
*Review rating update:
-Altered Beast (XBLA) - 3/10 (Eurogamer)
-Comix Zone (XBLA) - 8/10 (Eurogamer)
-Gunstar Heroes (XBLA) - 8/10 (Eurogamer)
-Let’s Tap - 4/5 (GamePro)
-Let’s Tap - 7.8/10 (Official Nintendo Magazine UK)
-Let’s Tap - 8/10 (Total Video Games)
-Let’s Tap - C+ (1UP)
-Phantasy Star II (XBLA) - 7/10 (Eurogamer)
-Shinobi (XBLA) - 7/10 (Eurogamer)
-Sonic 3 (XBLA) - 8/10 (Eurogamer)
-The Conduit - 7.6/10 (Official Nintendo Magazine UK)
-Virtua Tennis 2009 - 7.9/10 (Official Nintendo Magazine UK)
-Virtua Tennis 2009 (Wii version) - 4.1/5 (Cheat Code Central)
All-format, budget price
[#5](+1) SEGA Superstars Tennis
Wii, full price
[#6](-1) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games
PlayStation 3, full price
[#5](-1) Virtua Tennis 2009
XBOX 360, full price
[#9](-2) Virtua Tennis 2009
PC, full price
[#2](0) Football Manager 2009
[#3](0) Empire: Total War
PSP, fullprice
[#4](0) Football Manager 2009
XBOX 360, budget
[#1](0) SEGA Superstars Tennis
PlayStation 2, budget
[#7](0) Sonic Unleashed
*Alpha Protocol won four ‘Best of E3′ awards;
‘Best role-playing game’ - Gaming Excellence
‘Best multi-platform game’ - Gaming Excellence
‘Best PC game’ - MTV
‘Best RPG’ - MTV
Read the full post on SEGA USA’s blog.
*Empire: Total War still rides high in the UK PC chart (see the list tomorrow) but what about the US sales?
Pretty good, really! It was the fifth best selling PC game for May. (the first four places included three World of Warcraft titles, go figure).
*We already reported that -with enough cash- you would be able to yourself a 360 Twinstick for use with Virtual On. The stick is now available from Horistore.com (click for a picture of the beast)
*GoOnline posted some new Bayonetta scans from Famitsu magazine.
*According to Kotaku (well, Gearbox actually) Aliens: Colonial Marines is still coming, but won’t be ready before 2010. Strangely enough a DS version is also planned. Full story.
Some more review scores came in, including some Let’s Tap ones:
*Altered Beast (XBLA) 5.3/10 (IGN)
*Comix Zone (XBLA) - 6/10 (IGN)
*Gunstar Heroes (XBLA) - 8/10 (IGN)
*Let’s Tap - 7/10 (Nintendo Power)
*Let’s Tap - 8/10 (Games Master UK)
*Let’s Tap - 5.5/10 (Game Informer)
*Shinobi (XBLA) - 4/10 (IGN)
*Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (XBLA) - 8/10 (IGN)
*Virtua Tennis 2009 - 6/10 (IGN)
*Virtua Tennis 2009 - 8.1/10 (Gamers.at)
==
’till next week!
*Computer and Videogames posted a load of new screenshots of Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics. Both the Wii and DS versions are featured. Check them out HERE.
*SEGA Europe posted a new Let’s Tap trailer: Visualizer.
*Segadatabase Network update: A classic interview was posted on Segacollection.com. Keio Flying Squadron creator Yasushi Endo was interviewed.
*It’s a few days late, but still worth a mention: Bayonetta was voted ‘best action game at the E3′ by 1UP. Read the full story HERE.
*A new Super Monkey Ball game is rumoured to be in development. The game is called ‘Step and roll’. It’s unconfirmed which system the game is in development for, but a Wii version with balance board controls isn’t unlikely.
*Another game that might be upcoming is Virtua Fighter 5 R. SEGA posted some pictures on their Facebook account (also found on UK: Resistance) that came from the arcade version and the game might just become a reality.
*SEGA Europe posted a picture of the ’limited edition’ of Let’s Tap, complete with two cardboard tapping boxes. With Ghost Squad, Get Bass, The House of the Dead: Overkill, The Conduit and now Let’s Lap it seems the Wii is the platform for cool limited edition SEGA boxsets.
*Microsoft announced ’Games on demand’ last week; a service to download 360 games via XBOX Live. Microsoft ‘Corporate vice president of Interactive Entertainment Live for Software and Services business’ (try fitting THAT on your name tag!) John Schappert now mentioned several games that might be available when the service starts in August. One of them might be Sonic (’06 probably). Condemned: Criminal Origins seems like another likely candidate.
*Remember the First4Figures Sonic action figures? We joked about them being ’still not ready’ many times. Well, it seems the ‘mini-statues’ were actually released now (and available from multiple online gameshops), but the limited edition 30cm (12 inch) Sonic statue was put back to Q3. Hmph.
*Speaking of merchandise, the first volume of Valkyria Chronicles on DVD (based on the animation that airs in Japan) is planned for release (in Japan) on August 5. Price: 5040 Yen. A limited edition with a badge, full-colour booklet and other goodies will also be available. More information can be found on the official website (in Japanese, you might want to use a translation service). Some trailers can be found on Youtube. With the game’s recent sales boost in mind, one might wonder if the series will find its way accross the ocean..
*SEGA USA posted the boxart of Daisy Fuentes Pilates. Uh, great.
Six (6!) new SEGA games were added to XBOX live arcade today. There’s Sonic 3, Gunstar Heroes, Shinobi (ARC), Comix Zone, Phantasy Star 2 and Altered Beast (ARC). Each of them will cost 400 MS points and will come with their own set of achievements.
If you desire some more information, read SEGA USA’s blog post.
All-format, all prices
[#9](-1) Virtua Tennis 2009
All-format, full price
[#9](-1) Virtua Tennis 2009
All-format, budget price
[#6](-1) SEGA Superstars Tennis
Wii, full price
[#5](0) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games
DS, full price
[#8](-2) Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games
PlayStation 3, full price
[#4](0) Virtua Tennis 2009
XBOX 360, full price
[#7](0) Virtua Tennis 2009
PC, full price
[#2](-1) Football Manager 2009
[#3](-1) Empire: Total War
PSP, fullprice
[#4](0) Football Manager 2009
XBOX 360, budget
[#1](0) SEGA Superstars Tennis
PlayStation 2, budget
[#7](0) Sonic Unleashed
*Some people STILL need to be convinced of the quality of SEGA’s recent games. Perhaps these various nominations will help. SEGA (and some of its partners) were nominated for the Develop 2009 event in all of the following categories; ‘Best use of a license’, ‘Audio accomplishment’, ‘Publishing Hero’, ‘Creative Outsourcing’, ‘Technical innovation’, ‘Best independant developer’ and ‘Best in-house team’. Impressive!
*Are you ‘die hard’, no ‘DIE HARD’? Want to splash out $300 for a pair of sticks? Why not pick up a pair of the soon to be released XBOX 360 Twinsticks to go with your XBLA copy of Virtual On: Cyber Troopers? Madness.
*Review score update (including the first The Conduit rating):
-Phantasy Star Portable - 4/10 (EDGE magazine)
-Phantasy Star Portable - 5/10 (GamesTM magazine)
-Phantasy Star Portable - 7.1/10 (GamesMaster magazine)
-The Conduit - 8/10 (Nintendo Power)
-Virtua Tennis 2009 - 7.5/10 (play.tm)
-Virtua Tennis 2009 - 6/10 (XBOX magazine UK)
-Virtua Tennis 2009 - 8/10 (MS Xbox World)
-Virtua Tennis 2009 - 8/10 (WonderwallWeb)
-Virtua Tennis 2009 - 8/10 (Play UK)
-Virtua Tennis 2009 - 6.5/10 (PALGN)
-Virtua Tennis 2009 - 7.5/10 (Gamed.nl)
*Several new Dreamcast homebrew games were featured at Dreamcast.es. There’s Videopoker, Blackjack and Patolli (an ancient board game).
*Missed out on Last Hope? Fret not, as a new edition called Last Hope: Pink Bullets (!) is now available for pre-order. Some of its new features:
*New prototypes are found all the time, but in the case of SEGA prototypes it’s just something extra cool to see. Well, a new prototype called Mutant League Speed Demons was recently found. The game is from 1993 and was Genesis bound. For pictures (of the actual cart) check HERE.
*If you read the thread from the link above you might have learned the actual prototype could have been lost forever (noooo!). Thankfully 5 Master System prototypes/BETA releases were saved by SMSPOWER. They posted early versions of Blade Eagle 3D, Castle of Illusion, Moonwalker, Impossible Mission and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Excellent stuff!