If you’re unfamiliar with the Sonic Cafe line of mobile games they were a series of i-Mode titles released exclusively in Japan between 2001 and 2007. The service is due to be discontinued which has sparked Japanese YouTuber Ruwa into action. Ruwa is currently capturing as many i-Mode games as possible and among them are direct feed captures of various Sonic Cafe titles like Sonic Darts, Sonic Golf, Sonic Jump and Sonic Kart 3DX. It makes for some truly fascinating viewing for Western SEGA fans as these games never made their way across the pond.
There’s also a number of SEGA i-Mode games like Out Run, Pengo and Monaco GP in there. Here’s an incomplete list of SEGA i-Mode games captured by Ruwa. I would list them all but there’s honestly just too many for me to list here. Check out the channel to browse more of his i-Mode captures by clicking here:
The lovely people at SEGA Europe have kindly sent us the new 11″ Sonic the Hedgehog statue from First 4 Figures. In this video we share our own opinions on this statue and see how it compares to similar statues in the First 4 Figures range:
You may have seen the various unused gameplay elements and alternate artwork from this prototype in pre-release footage or the various magazine coverage from the time. This includes the UFOs in Marble Garden Zone, the different neon signs in Spring Yard Zone, the checkerboard ball that Sonic can run on in Green Hill Zone and the different stage titles for Spring Yard Zone and Scrap Brain Zone. Well, they’re all in this prototype and it makes for a fascinating insight into the game’s development.
Fast becoming one of the most important resources for digital archiving of prototype software, Hidden Palace have released another slew of prototype versions of various Sonic the Hedgehog titles. These new dumps of late development builds of Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Spinball and Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine showcase some fascinating insight into their development and feature a slew of differences from their final builds.
Sonic Adventure 2 features many grammatical errors that would be corrected for the final build, Metal Harbor and the final Sonic and Shadow battle are considerably more difficult and the driving stages feature different collision results when driving into other vehicles. The full list of differences can be read on the Hidden Palace entry for this release.
All of these dumps can be downloaded and played through emulation or on real hardware from the Hidden Palace entries linked above. Hidden Palace will be streaming and revealing their “last present from under the tree” tonight (31/12/2020) at 10pm GMT on Twitch, so if you’re excited to see more prototypes from their team then be sure to tune in.
SEGA Forever continue their franchise retrospective series on YouTube with an in depth look at the entire Streets of Rage series. It’s a very interesting little piece that even makes mention of the 8 bit ports and the failed franchise revival from 1999. Check it out via the video embed below:
A brand new book from the publishers of Japan’s Beep! Mega Drive, SEGA Saturn Magazine and Dreamcast Magazine will release in July 2021. This new book is described as a “tankobon & catalog” of magazine “contributions & retrospectives from many former staff, reprints of the famous reader ratings & more”.
The book will also include 10 Mega Drive games for the PC, a Takara Tomy Mega Drive minifig set and 3 volumes of the Sega no Game wa Sekai Ichi~i~i manga in PDF format. The first 4 Mega Drive titles announced for inclusion with this book are Chelnov, Langrisser, Star Cruiser and Undeadline. The games included have been chosen specifically so they don’t overlap with anything included on the Mega Drive Mini.
A tech demo for a Simpsons game on the Dreamcast has been discovered by ‘sreak’ over at the Dreamcast-Talk forums. This demo of a game called The Simpsons: Bug Squad! was dumped from a Dreamcast dev kit and developed by Red Lemon Studio in 2000 as a pitch to Fox Interactive. It was never greenlit and this demo is the only evidence of it ever existing.
It’s an interesting little title putting you in the shoes of a bug in The Simpsons’ homestead, and you explore the area in a similar way to Toy Commander. You can check out the game in action via the video embed from the Dreamcastic Channel below:
Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 is a bit of an odd one to review, at a glance. The moment the game was announced, there was confusion as to how exactly you could make a worthwhile sequel to a concept as basic as “Puyo Puyo, and also Tetris.” Indeed, besides the brand new storyline in the game’s adventure mode, this game certainly boils down to more of Puyo Puyo Tetris. The additions seen here, many of them subtle, add up to create what is, on paper, a far more definitive package for both Puyo and Tetris fans, but it’s also one that also fails to address the most egregious flaws those fans found with the original game.
In the new year, SEGA are running a 60th anniversary initiative called the SEGA Test. This will be an online course that will contain 60 questions and take roughly 60 minutes to complete. The test will take place 3 times a day on January 23rd and 24th 2021.
In preparation for the test, Hiroyuki Miyazaki, the Chief Contents Officer at Sega of America, is hosting a series of online SEGA history videos and the first is now available to watch below. In this video, Professor Miyazaki discuss SEGA’s console history and the code names used for its various hardware.
A real surprise occurs at 11:36 has Professor Miyazaki shows the Venus prototype of the Genesis Nomad for the very first time. It’s a fascinating look at the console’s development and it clearly uses the buttons of a stock 6 button Mega Drive controller and a directional pad from a Game Gear. Check out the full video below and brush up on your SEGA knowledge so you’re ready for the SEGA Test!
The 7th mainline entry in the Yakuza franchise is finally upon us with Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Both Tracker and Sonic Yoda have played the game extensively on PC and PS4 and have prepared a bumper review of both versions for you to get stuck into. Does the franchise successfully transition from brawler to RPG? Find out by clicking below!
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