File this one under ‘strange crossovers’ with the talking bunny that sings NiGHTS music; Green Tea specialists ITO EN have unveiled their new advertising campaign in co-operation with Japan pop music legends Dreams Come True. The main advert for the cross-promotion can be seen above, and the music should sound more than a little familiar to anyone reading a SEGA website.
As detailed in a blog post about the advert – yes, it’s just straight-up Green Hill Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog, now with fresh new vocals to go with it! For those unaware, Masato Nakamura of Dreams Come True produced the soundtrack for Sonic 1 & 2, and still owns the rights to the music. So this doesn’t really have anything to do with SEGA in terms of them actually being involved, but it’s very nicely timed for Sonic’s 30th Anniversary nonetheless!
The blog post also says a full version of the arrangement is being made, with vocal recording in progress currently. We’ll keep an eye out for a full version down the line!
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 Western release of Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams Reboot! has finally been confirmed for June 2021 on both Switch and PS4. The game will release both digitally and physically and will be published by Inin.
The Cotton remake was developed by Beep based on the Success original which was released on SEGA’s System 16 arcade board back in 1991. The Cotton series is a franchise of cute, horizontally-scrolling shoot-em-ups where you play as a young witch called Nata de Cotton who has to battle several monsters through a fantasy world to obtain her Willow candy. You can check out a trailer for the Cotton Reboot! by clicking the embed below:
Cotton Reboot! adds a new, HD art style to the game as well as the ability to play the 1993 X68000 port of the game. In addition to this there is also a newly arranged soundtrack as well as online leaderboards.
SEGA have revealed the sequel to Judgment in the form of Lost Judgment, which will be releasing worldwide on September 24th 2021 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. You can check out the reveal trailer by clicking the embed below:
According to an IGN interview with Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi and producer Kazuki Hosokawa, the Judgment sub-series is now flying the flag for the more traditional beat-em-up action the Yakuza franchise is known for, while mainline Yakuza titles will now follow the turn-based RPG action of Yakuza: Like a Dragon.
The previous Judgment game puts you in control of Takayuki Yagami, a private detective investigating a serial-murder case in Kamurocho. The game features similar beat-em-up action to most of the classic Yakuza titles but with the addition of an investigation mode where players must search the scene of the crime for evidence and clues in order to solve the case. This gameplay will be carried forward into Lost Judgment.
Thanks to the amazing efforts of Derek Pascarella and his team, Sakura Wars Columns 2 for the Dreamcast has now been fully translated into English and is now available to play on either real hardware or under emulation.
Sakura Wars Columns 2 is a little more than your standard re-skin of Columns featuring different characters and artwork based on a different franchise. The game also features a full story mode that melds the traditional Sakura Wars visual novel and dating simulation aspects into the Columns formula for a truly unique experience. It’s this game mode that benefits the most from the newly translated text.
A full list of download links for the title are available below:
The full development team on this translation is as follows: Derek Pascarella, Chanh Nguyen (Burntends), Natsume38, Danthrax4, HaydenKow, esperknight, VincentNL, nanashi, SnowyAria, NoahSteam, TurnipTheBeet, YZB, cj_iwakura, Ozaline, Matatabi Mitsu, ItsumoKnight, Samantha Ferreira, LettuceKitteh, JoblessFloppy, GriffithVIII, Patrick Traynor, AnimatedAF, Small Nerd and Einahpets.
One of the most infamous lost Dreamcast developments is Castlevania: Resurrection. This 3D Castlevania title was being developed by Konami and sadly cancelled in March 2000. Outside some scant screenshots in magazines as well as some reporting from E3 1999, the game was never showcased to the public in a playable or even viewable form until now.
A digital archivist called Comby Laurent has come into ownership of the 1999 E3 demo that was shown behind doors to the press and it has now been released publicly for the first time. The early prototype of Castlevania: Resurrection can be downloaded from Archive.org and played on real Dreamcast hardware or under emulation.
You can check out footage of the game in action via Retro Core and the embed below:
The next playable character in the Mr. X Nightmare DLC for Streets of Rage 4 has been revealed to be Max Thunder. Max only appears as a boss in the base game using SOR4’s updated art style, but he did make a playable appearance via his unlockable retro incarnation. You can check out Max in action via the reveal trailer below:
The Mr. X Nightmare DLC for Streets of Rage 4 will be available later in 2021 for PC, Xbox One, PS4 and Switch. The DLC will also feature new music by Tee Lopes of Sonic Mania fame.
Revealed back in July 2020, Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis is a massive expansion for PSO2 that acts as a new title in the MMORPG franchise that takes place in the same universe as PSO2. While the game was previously given a rough Spring 2021 release date upon reveal, we now have a firm release date of June 2021 worldwide. The game is set to release on PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S in the West, while ports are also being released for PS4 and Nintendo Switch in Japan.
The release date announcement came in the latest “Prologue” stream on the official PSO2 YouTube. You can re-watch the hour-long stream via the embed below:
The continuing digital archiving efforts of Hidden Palace and Project Deluge have brought the world 80 new SEGA Saturn prototypes that are available to download and play right now. Included in these recent dumps are prototypes of Bug Too!, Fighting Vipers, SEGA Rally Championship, Virtua Fighter Kids, Magic Knight Rayearth, Dragonforce and many, many more.
Project Deluge has brought with it a huge swathe of Saturn, Playstation and CD-i prototypes and its revealed some fascinating discoveries. You can find out more about these latest releases by clicking here.
Streets of Rage 4 will be getting a DLC expansion later in 2021 called Mr. X Nightmare. The expansion will be paid-for content and include new moves, new weapons, 3 extra playable characters, a new Survival game mode and new music composed by Tee Lopes of Sonic Mania fame. The first new character revealed in the below trailer is Estel who makes an appearance in the base game as a non-playable boss character:
Alongside the Mr. X Nightmare DLC will be a free update to all owners of the base game that will contain a ‘New Mania+’ difficulty option as well as a new training mode.
Streets of Rage 4 is out now for PS4, Xbox One, Switch and PC. The Mr. X Nightmare DLC will arrive later in 2021.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything regarding the Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX remake by Merge Games, so it’s extremely exciting to hear that it’s finally got a release date of June 24th 2021. You can check out the latest trailer for the game below:
Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX releases on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Nintendo Switch on June 24th 2021. The game features a new art style, new stages, new modes and “alternative” boss fights as well as the option to switch between the new art style and the original look of the Master System game.
Physical copies of the game are being sold via Signature Edition and special edition versions with an art book, pin badges, a CD soundtrack and more goodies are also being sold. Click here to browse the selection at Signature Edition.
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