IGN have revealed a new title in the Wonder Boy series for Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch: Wonder Boy – Asha in Monster World. As the name suggests, the game sees the return of Monster World IV’s protagonist Asha, and her companion Pepelogoo.
It is being described as a new title rather than a remake, and interestingly will be fully dubbed. Members of the original Wonder Boy creative team are also said to be involved, with Artdink leading development alongside ININ Games on publishing. Specifically, Ryuichi Nishizawa is back in the Director’s chair, with Shinichi Sakamoto on music duties and Maki Ozara on character design.
It’s currently pencilled in for a 2021 release – whether we’ll see more platforms added to the lineup before release is yet to be seen. Either way, it’s a very welcome return for a cult-classic character, with many citing Monster World IV as the peak of the series. Apparently a full reveal is set for Gamescom later this week.
When Tracker isn’t playing SEGA games, he’s talking about SEGA games. Or drawing about SEGA games. Or all of the above. You can also catch him over on Twitter.
A new trailer has been released for Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s upcoming Western release, showcasing the ‘Job’ system. The game allows you to spec into 19 different jobs, that affect not only your abilities and fighting style, but your appearance too. So if you feel like kicking people with the power of dance, you can do that – likewise, you can hit them around the head with a scalding frying pan as a Chef.
Crucially, the new trailer also reveals when Western players will finally get their hands on RGG Studio’s latest; November 13th, for Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC via Steam. The Xbox Series X version is set to launch at some point in November, presumably on or around the as-of-yet unconfirmed launch date of the console, and at an unspecified later time for Playstation 5.
When Tracker isn’t playing SEGA games, he’s talking about SEGA games. Or drawing about SEGA games. Or all of the above. You can also catch him over on Twitter.
Puyo Puyo Champions (known in Japan as Puyo Puyo eSports) will be receiving a major update later this week in Japan, first for Nintendo Switch. The update brings a slew of new features, including some heavily requested by the Puyo community.
First up, the game will finally be getting a Spectator Mode. This is set to make hosting tournaments and commentary a lot easier than previously, and was perhaps one of the most highly requested features. Also being added is an option for changing the colours of the Puyo, with several profiles tailored to specific kinds of colour-blindness. Other inclusions are more detailed post-match stats, an ‘autoplay’ function, a new game speed setting, and the ability to choose which side of the screen you use in single player modes.
Perhaps most notable for the slightly less competitive crowd are two new characters being added to the game, technically breaking Puyo’s self-imposed ’24 characters’ rule (it’s a pun, alright). Rafisol from Puyo Puyo Chronicles and Paprisu from Puyo Puyo Quest will be accessible by a good old fashioned hidden code – holding L and Y on the character select screen will unlock Rafisol, and holding R and Y will unlock Paprisu.
There currently isn’t a date for the Steam and PS4 versions of this update, but they are on the way. Likewise, it’s unknown when this update will make it over to the Western versions of the game.
When Tracker isn’t playing SEGA games, he’s talking about SEGA games. Or drawing about SEGA games. Or all of the above. You can also catch him over on Twitter.
SEGA Forever have published a new video to celebrate the 24th Anniversary of the beloved SEGA Saturn title NiGHTS into dreams…‘s launch in North America.
As well as being a great watch for those looking to learn more about NiGHTS, it has a nice bit of fanservice for those who already love the game to pieces – a glimpse at an unused take on the game’s US boxart, seen at the 1:39 mark!
The scrapped design is certainly an… interesting take on NiGHTS, but we can’t say it getting the axe is something to lament too much. All the same, it’s fantastic to see new discoveries and material unearthed from the depths of SEGA, and even better than this is from an official platform.
For those unaware, SEGA Forever recently transitioned away from being SEGA’s retro mobile brand, and now focuses on the preservation of SEGA’s classic material. As an example of this, the Twitter account has been regularly posting high-resolution assets and renders from old titles, just in case you ever needed the Gain Ground packaging artwork in 4K resolution.
When Tracker isn’t playing SEGA games, he’s talking about SEGA games. Or drawing about SEGA games. Or all of the above. You can also catch him over on Twitter.
The next 13 games have been announced for the SEGA Astro City Mini, coming to us via the latest Dengeki stream.
The games are as follows:
Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams
Shinobi
Shadow Dancer
Cyber Police ESWAT (ESWAT – City Under Siege)
Crack Down
Gain Ground
Puyo Puyo
Columns
Bonanza Bros
Ichidant-R
Wonder Boy
Wonder Boy in Monster Land
Wonder Boy III – Monster Lair
This puts the announced game total at 23 titles, with 36 confirmed to be on the microconsole. The next set of titles will be announced on September 3rd during a Famitsu stream.
When Tracker isn’t playing SEGA games, he’s talking about SEGA games. Or drawing about SEGA games. Or all of the above. You can also catch him over on Twitter.
5 new peripherals have been added to the website’s Hardware section. These are all Mega Drive controllers and you can see a full list of the additions below:
We recently reported that Boltrend Games were bringing SEGA’s mobile title IDOLA: Phantasy Star Saga to the West, with a open beta. Well, it turns out there’s not long to wait until the full release; as pre-registration is now open for the game, with the iOS App Store giving a release date of September 17th.
There is a bit of a downside to this news, as the game sadly isn’t coming to Europe as of right now; it’s available globally everywhere save for Europe, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam. Trying to access the game via the App Store here in the UK turns up an error message. It might be too early to totally rule out a European release though – just look at Phantasy Star Online 2, after all. That, and Twinfinite states the game is actually planned to launch specifically in the UK, so this might change quicker than we think.
When Tracker isn’t playing SEGA games, he’s talking about SEGA games. Or drawing about SEGA games. Or all of the above. You can also catch him over on Twitter.
The first images of an unreleased Mega Drive Sonic spin-off called Treasure Tails have appeared online. These come directly from Craig Stitt who many may know as an artist on Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic Spinball. Stitt himself pitched the game back in February 1993. The game was meant to be a forced-perspective platform/puzzle/adventure game featuring Tails as the main playable character. It supposedly never made it to a playable state and the images seen in this article come from a VHS tape that Stitt have put together in 1995.
In addition to this discovery, the first concept images of Boomer the Turtle have also appeared. This was a character Stitt designed for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 as Sonic’s original sidekick before Tails was even conceived. The character was ultimately scrapped.
Also released is footage of another unreleased title that Craig Stitt pitched called Astropede. The game features a centipede protagonist that runs at high speeds through a stage that uses graphics from the then-unreleased Hidden Palace stage from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Stitt had hopes that the character could exist as a part of Sonic’s Universe. Check out the footage from SEGAbits below:
Another officially licensed multi-game arcade cabinet from Arcade1Up appears to be on the way as a leak from a poster on Reddit has revealed an image of a cabinet which is made to play Virtua Fighter, Virtua Fighter Remix, Virtua Fighter 2, Fighting Vipers and Sonic the Fighters. The leak appears to have come from some advance promotional material for the cabinet. There is currently no other information on this release at the time of writing or even if this is a genuine leak or a hoax.
Arcade1Up are also due to release a cabinet featuring Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder, Shinobi, Altered Beast, Wrestle Wars and the original Golden Axe. This cabinet was revealed at CES back in January 2020 and is also without a release date or price. However, Arcade1Up cabinets normally retail for around £300.
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