A brand new Sakura Wars game has been announced for Japan. The tactical role-playing series hasn’t had a new entry since 2005’s Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love.
This new title is promised to be set in the imperial city of Tokyo in the Taisho era during 1929. No further details like release dates or what platforms the game will appear on have been revealed at this time.
Some more details have come to light since the announcement, mostly courtesy of Sam Mullen, producer at Atlus USA. Most notable of these is the confirmation that the set will include more than just Mega Drive titles – arcade games will be included too. In addition, Mullen confirmed that “every game will have something new.”
Finally, it’s been revealed by Thunder Force IV’s presence at SEGA Fes itself that it includes “Styx Mode”, previously exclusive to the Saturn’s Thunder Force Gold Pack 2. This mode allows you to play as the Thunder Force 3 ship.
More info on the new AGES series will be released at tomorrow’s “Classic Game Stage” event, as part of SEGA Fes. We’ll bring you any new announcements that come from it.
ORIGINAL POST
M2 are back and are leading development of up to 15 new SEGA ports of classic titles for the Nintendo Switch.
The new SEGA Ages collection will feature ports of Sonic the Hedgehog, Phantasy Star and Thunder Force IV which is currently playable on the show floor at SEGA Fes 2018. It is likely that Thunder Force IV will end up being the first title in the series to launch, but there is currently no news on a release date.
SEGA have revealed that Shenmue I & II are being remastered in high definition for PS4, Xbox One and PC, with a release due for 2018.
These updated versions of the classic Dreamcast titles are being developed by D3T, the studio behind the recent SEGA Mega Drive Classics hub on PC. These versions also boast an updated user interface, a choice of classic or modern controls, both Japanese and English game audio and fully scalable resolutions.
Check out the reveal trailer by clicking below:
Shenmue I & II will be released on PC, PS4 and Xbox One later in 2018.
Tomorrow (April 14th), SEGA’s two day SEGA FES 2018 event starts at the Bellesalle Akihabara in Tokyo – and SEGA of America have actually made note of the event, teasing a huge announcement SEGA fans “won’t want to miss”.
It was already stated that some kind of announcement would be made at the event, but previous announcements of this sort have been targeted more towards a Japanese audience (such as the reveal of SEGA AM2’s Soul Reverse for arcades). SEGA America’s promotion of the announcement is a surprise – and indicates something major could be on the way. (more…)
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.
After some not-so-subtle teasing from developers and a Korean Ratings Board listing, Football Manager Touch 2018 has been confirmed for Nintendo Switch – and it’s out today!
The game is now available on the Nintendo eShop, for £29.99. Football Manager Touch is the version of the game for smart devices, but with the Nintendo Switch version you get the option of docking into the Switch to watch the action play out on the big screen.
It’s great to see SEGA supporting the Switch with a variety of genres – and especially with a series as large as Football Manager.
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.
As part of their expanding line of backwards compatible titles, Microsoft has announced SEGA’s Sonic Generations and Panzer Dragoon Orta are headed to the Xbox One this month.
Sonic Generations is being made available today, and will include enhancements for Xbox One X users – notably, it now runs at 4K (check that out here). Perhaps more notable though is Orta’s appearance on the console; it’s SEGA’s first contribution to the original Xbox backward compatibility for Xbox One. SEGA supporting the feature relatively early in its life may give some hope to those who’ve been looking out for a possible Jet Set Radio Future re-release – as theoretically, it could be brought to the Xbox One in the same way as Orta.
Panzer Dragoon Orta launches for Xbox One backwards compatibility on April 17th. Also of note, while not technically SEGA related, is that Blinx the Time Sweeper is being added to the service too. Blink was the brainchild of Naoto Ohshima, the creator of Sonic and NiGHTS; it might be worth a look for fans of those series.
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.
In an article published by Yahoo! Japan, SEGA Games COO Kenji Matsubara has stated the company are looking into bringing back the Mega Drive for a modern audience. This has lead to speculation that SEGA could be planning a proper rival to Nintendo’s massively successful NES and SNES Mini consoles – but unfortunately, the truth is slightly less glamorous.
In the full version of the article, Matsubara states:
“We are considering importing and selling the ‘Sega Genesis Flashback’,… [it] is built-in game software primarily sold in North America & Europe”
The SEGA Genesis Flashback is the latest effort from AtGames. Priced at an eye-watering $80, you’d expect some bang for your buck – but while there are some improvements to AtGames’ much loathed older units, it’s still not on par with Nintendo’s in-house efforts, or even M2’s attempts at rejuvenating Mega Drive titles. Even worse, many of the 85 games on the collection aren’t even classic Mega Drive titles!
As such, Matsubara’s announcement unfortunately doesn’t mean much in the long run; back to hoping for an M2-led Mega Drive release, we go.
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.
If there’s one SEGA console that gets a rough reception in the West, it’s the SEGA Saturn. But it was certainly a unique specimen – which is why a newly dumped sampler disc demonstrating its numerous graphical features comes as an interesting look into the hardware’s capabilities.
The disc demonstrates rotation effects, how sprites could used in a way similar to clipping masks, and there’s even a short shoot-em up game to play (as well as plenty of Fantasy Zone sprites). Sonic fans may also notice just how many graphical techniques the recent Sonic Mania lifted from the original hardware in the name of authenticity! But that’s not all that’s here for Sonic fans – as there’s several unique pieces of artwork on the disc too, used as part of graphical effect tests.
Since the effects can make the artwork somewhat hard to see, we’ve ripped them from the demo for your viewing pleasure below.
It’s always cool to see development software come to light, and makes for a great way of getting insight into how our favourite games worked. The Saturn, underrated as it is, is no exception.
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.
With Yakuza 6 on the way, and last year’s Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami still relatively fresh on our minds, SEGA has continued the Yakuza series love with the announcement that Yakuza Kiwami 2 (a remake of Yakuza 2 for PS4, in the shiny new Dragon Engine) is coming West. And you won’t be waiting long either, as it’s out on August 28th!
As the official description from SEGA eloquently puts it:
It’s been a full year since Kazuma Kiryu took his leave from the world of the Yakuza during the events of Yakuza Kiwami. Fate, however, has other things in mind for the legendary Dragon of Dojima, and Kiryu finds himself back on the front lines of a potential all-out war.
The game will also receive a steelbook edition, as has basically become tradition for the series now. It’ll be a limited edition though; time to get those pre-orders in!
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 Film Distributors’ Association, the UK body for theatrical film distributors, have listed the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog movie on their site. Notably, it’s been given a later release date than the previously reported November 15th 2019 launch, suggesting the film will launch in the UK on the later date of Friday December 13th 2019.
While films releasing later in the UK is nothing particularly new, this is somewhat notable; as it puts the film a week before the projected release date for Star Wars: Episode IX. Perhaps Paramount are betting on Sonic’s historic popularity in UK stacking up to Disney’s holiday juggernaut? It’s no doubt a risky move, but with a relatively star-studded team behind the Sonic film (including Neal Moritz of the Fast and the Furious series, and Tim Miller of Deadpool), whether it’ll pay off is anyone’s guess at this point.
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.
Tags: release date, Sonic Movie, sonic the hedgehog, uk Posted in News | Comments Off on Film Distributors’ Association Lists Sonic the Hedgehog Movie for a December 13th 2019 Release in the UK
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