Well here’s a nice surprise – KaZe video pinball title Digital Pinball: Last Gladiators is getting a PC port thanks to publisher BeXide Inc.
Digital Pinball: Last Gladiators originally released in June 1995 exclusively for the SEGA Saturn. BeXide Inc previosuly ported the game to iOS in 2010, but are now giving the game a wider PC release through Steam. Last Gladiators is one of the Saturn’s best video pinball games. We did a video about it back in June 2023:
Digital Pinball: Last Gladiators also received a Saturn sequel called Digital Pinball: Necronomicon in November 1996. KaZe also developed Super Pinball: Behind the Mask and Super Pinball II: The Amazing Odyssey for SNES, as well as Akira Psycho Ball for the PS2.
SEGA Japan are officially teasing a Sonic the Hedgehog collaboration with LOM BABY – a company that basically exists to grift NFTs, cryptocurrency and generative AI slop.
While there is no official word on what this collaboration will entail, the fact that SEGA are happy to associate their franchise all about fighting back against an evil dictator who is looking to pollute the enivornment with a company that thrives on producing “transmedia” based around cryptocurrency, NFTs and AI generated imagery seems misjudged on a massive scale.
Regardless of what becomes of this collaboration, I think SEGA need to try harder to work with companies that don’t work in speculative markets like crypto and NFTs, or generative AI which is proving to be massively damaging to the environment. It’s also a technology that steals the work of human creatives and regurgitates it into something soulless and wasteful.
I know that SEGADriven is a fan site and we normally don’t highlight subjects we aren’t passionate about, but to ignore collaborations like this and not call it out is to betray the thing we love. If you can’t criticse something you love then it will never improve, and this is a prime example of that. SEGADriven will not support this endeavour and we urge SEGA to withdraw their involvement with LOM BABY urgently.
SEGA Japan have entered a deal with New One Studio to publish it’s FMV game The Rise of the Empire: The Road to Empress II on PC and Switch in Japan later in 2026.
Described as a “court adventure”, The Rise of the Empire: The Road to Empress II sees you navigating a highly volatile period environment as you try to work your way to becoming a Chinese Empress. The game features extensive 4K live action video sequences starring a cast of famous C-drama talent. You can watch the first trailer for the game below:
The Rise of the Empire: The Road to Empress I released in September 2025, selling over a million copies within 2 weeks of being on sale. The first game is available in English on Steam and was published by New One Studio and Ariel in Western territories. This arrangement will continue for The Rise of the Empire: The Road to Empress II, but only in Western territories. SEGA will only publish the sequel in Japan and certain Asian territories. A bundle of the first 2 games will be made available too.
You can wishlist The Rise of the Empire: The Road to Empress II on Steam right now.
The Web Design Museum has preserved a collection of flash games that were previously available on the Cartoon Network website.
Of note for SEGA fans is the preservation of a 2015 Sonic Boom flash game called Sonic Boom: Link ‘n Smash! This simple puzzle game is very similar to Baku Baku Animal in that you have to link the characters with their appropriate item in order to clear them from the playfield. For example Sonic has to be paired with a ring, Knuckles with his fist, Amy with her Piko Piko Hammer and so on.
A brand new 5 minute cast & story trailer for Stranger Than Heaven has landed.
The cast features a slew of big names including Yu Shirota, Dean Fujioka, Snoop Dogg, Moeka Hoshi, Tori Kelly, Akio Otsuka, Tokuma Nishioka, Satoshi Fujihara, Cordell Broadus, Ado, and a character being physically portrayed by the late Bunta Sugawara and voiced by Takashi Ukaji.
The game is still set across 5 different eras, but the story now appears to be about the founding of the Tojo Clan – the faction of the Yakuza that Kiryu Kazama is a part of in the main Yakuza franchise.
Stranger Than Heaven will release in Winter 2026 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. The game is being developed by RGG Studio.
The Sonic Amateur Games Expo will return in 2026 and event week as been set for September 11th to the 18th 2026.
This annual indie gaming event started as a way to showcase Sonic the Hedgehog fan games, but has since expanded as a platform to showcase any independent gaming development. Sonic fan games still feature heavily, but games like Freedom Planet, Frogun, Spark the Electric Jester, and Pizza Tower have all been showcased at prior SAGEs.
Instructions on how to submit your game to SAGE are available on the Sonic Fan Games HQ forum, so head on over there if you’ve got something you’d like to feature at this year’s SAGE.
Submissions must be made by August 15th 2026, so make sure you make your submissions in a timely fashion if you want to be showcased at this year’s SAGE.
Tomcat Alley is infamous for being the first Mega-CD game to feature full screen video, but does it also deserve to be regarded as one of the best FMV titles on the Mega-CD?
The GG Shinobi puts you in control of our returning hero Joe Musashi, who once again has to take it to the streets to stop an evil organisation from threatening to overthrow the Oboro ninja clan. This time the action takes place in Neo City and a selection of 4 young ninja have been abducted as they attempted to learn more about this new threat.
Knuckles’ Chaotix is a 32X exclusive entry in the Sonic franchise that has never been ported or included in a modern Sonic collection. Let’s take a look back at this forgotten Sonic title and see if it deserves a revisit:
Hot off the heels of BadComputer’s Road Fighter port to Master System that turned up in this year’s SMS Power hacking competition, is another hack that we missed entirely. What we have here is a really impressive enhancement hack of the Master System port of Hang-On. This new version of the game makes it much closer to the arcade experience by overhauling the title screen, redrawing some of the graphics and restoring the iconic gameplay theme song. Check it out:
Hang-On Enhanced was coded by Maxim, with art, music and direction being done by chirinea. You can download the IPS patch file by clicking here, but you’ll need to supply your own Hang-On ROM to apply it to.
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