SEGADriven is a SEGA news and information source that focuses on SEGA's console history, retro games and new software hitting the shelves. We want to share a love of great, quirky, clever and down-right fun games - something that SEGA have always specialised in. See below for the latest news, reviews and features added to the website.
Former Sonic Team lead programmer Yuji Naka has revealed that former SEGA managing director Akira Nagai has passed away. He died on November 15th 2022 aged 79.
Nagai started his career at Nihon Goraku Bussan in 1963 where he worked in sales and distribution, directly selling to SEGA when they were producing electro-mechanical arcade games. Nihon Goraku Bussan was absolved into SEGA in the CSK buyout of Gulf+Western in 1984 and Nagai stayed with the company until 2004 when he retired after SEGA’s merger with Sammy.
Nagai is digitally immortalised in Shenmue as a yakuza boss. SEGADriven would like to send our deepest condolences to Akira Nagai’s friends, families and colleagues.
All 7 issues of SEGA Mania have now been digitally preserved on the SEGAMagazines.com website which is run by the SEGA Mania team. You can browse them all by clicking here. Thanks to Peder Johnsen on Twitter for informing us.
ORIGINAL STORY
The independent SEGA fanzine SEGA Mania has officially ceased publication after only 18 months of activity. The fanzine produced 7 issues.
Lead editor Tim Hugall has cited “a multitude of factors” for the fanzine’s discontinuation. He also revealed that the fanzine never produced any profit and all the writers contributed their work for free. All proceeds made from magazine sales were put directly into the production of the next issue. You can read Tim’s entire farewell announcement by clicking here.
SEGA Mania had only just revealed the cover for their 8th issue 2 days ago which makes the cancellation strangely abrupt. All open pre-orders and subscriptions have been reportedly refunded. Unfortunately, the team have also removed all access to digital back issues and completely deactivated their social media channels – a disappointing end to a fanzine that has previously championed digital archiving.
SEGADriven want to send our best wishes to the SEGA Mania team and hope everyone moves onto bigger and better things. You can read our full review of SEGA Mania issue 1 by clicking here.
The team at SEGA Powered magazine are putting together a special 2022 annual in celebration of the publication’s first anniversary.
SEGA Powered is an independent SEGA fanzine that features Dean Mortlock of SEGA Power fame as editor. The team have published 7 issues so far and this new annual will compile some of their best features with some additional new content.
The Kickstarter for the annual has 13 days left and is currently at £2066 funded. The goal to make the annual a reality is £5000.
If you’re interested you can head to the project’s Kickstarter page and look at he various tiers to see what suits you best. The annual is being offered as both a digital release and a physical hardback book.
The wonderful people over at Gaming Alexandria have discovered and dumped an unreleased SEGA Saturn game called The Sacred Pools.
Development on the game started in 1996 by SEGASoft of Bug Too! and Mr. Bones fame, and the title is described as an erotic thriller that heavily uses full motion video. The game was previewed at E3 that year and received a lot of negative press which eventually lead to the game’s cancellation.
The dumped disc image can be downloaded from The Internet Archive by clicking here. Gaming Alexandria also have an extensive article that delves deeper into the history of the game, it’s development and eventual cancellation that you can read by clicking here.
A huge thank you to Gaming Alexandria for preserving another lost SEGA title! You can watch the game in action via the video embed below:
The latest Sonic Prime trailer showcases our first look at Sonic’s dimension hopping action via the Paradox Prism and also confirms that the series will premiere on Netflix on December 15th 2022.
Dr. Eggman clearly has other plans for his newly acquired treasure, the Paradox Prism, but when Sonic smashes into it, he is flung into another dimension where he meets his friends from a world where Dr. Eggman has already taken over. This is remarkably similar in style to the Sonic the Hedgehog SatAM show from 1993. Sonic and his pals are even referred to as “rebels”. Check it out below:
Sonic Prime premieres on Netflix on December 15th 2022. The series is being animated by Wildbrain and features Deven Mack as the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog.
SEGA have confirmed that long time artist, director and producer Rieko Kodama has passed away. Kodama passed much earlier in the year, back in May 2022.
News of Kodama’s passing came to light when Retro Gamer writer Nick Thorpe spotted a tribute to her in the credits for the Mega Drive Mini 2. This was then confirmed by SEGA producer Yosuke Okunari.
Rieko Kodama had been working at SEGA since 1984 and has produced art for many classic games that include Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Quartet, Phantasy Star, Altered Beast, Shadow Dancer and the first 2 Sonic the Hedgehog games. Kodama personally directed Phantasy Star IV and Magic Knight Rayearth for the SEGA Saturn, while producing a number of titles including Skies of Arcadia and the largely Japan exclusive 7th Dragon games.
SEGADriven would like to extend our condolences to Rieko Kodama’s family, friends and colleagues. She was 58 years old.
Strictly Limited Games are producing a boxed run of DariusBurst CS Core that features the SEGA DLC ships on cartridge for the first time ever.
DariusBurst CS Core is an enhanced version of Taito’s DariusBurst that boasts an expanded CS mode with new stages, arranged stages based on DariusBurst ACEX+’s event mode/PSP version, a replay mode, the Ghost Score mode, force feedback, DLC stages and new DLC ships based on different Taito and SEGA properties.
The SEGA ships are Harrier from Space Harrier, the Try-Z from Galaxy Force II and Opa-Opa from Fantasy Zone. While this content isn’t new and has been available digitally for a while, this is the first time it will be included on cartridge.
This new Switch release from Strictly Limited will be available as a standard edition for €29.99, limited to 3000 copies and a collector’s edition for €59.99, limited to 2000 copies. Both versions go on sale tomorrow October 23rd 2022.
ASRock (in collaboration with SEGA) are developing a Sonic the Hedgehog-branded PC motherboard. The board is based on the Intel Z790 Phantom Gaming Riptide motherboard, but features Sonic the Hedgehog artwork and logos adorning it alongside a change of colour.
The board is called the ASRock Z790 PG Sonic. It is a standard ATX motherboard with 2 PCIe x16 slots and 4 DDR5 memory slots. There is currently no word on when it will be sold and whether it is a limited edition product or not. It’ll be worth keeping an eye on ASRock’s website for further information.
Limited Run Games are bringing the previously Japan-exclusive Astro City Mini V console to the US with an extra game. The American version of the Astro City Mini V will include a port of SEGA’s Super Zaxxon originally released in 1982 alongside the line-up from the Japanese version.
The Astro City Mini V is a mini console featuring a vertically orientated screen made to play tate mode arcade games. It comes pre-installed with 23 games that include the aforementioned Super Zaxxon, as well as Batsugun, Grind Stormer, Gunbird, Raiden, Strikers 1945 and Tatsujin among others. A full list of the includes games is featured in our hardware entry for the console.
The American Astro City Mini V will go on sale from Limited Run Games on October 25th 2022. This is not a pre-order window – the console is in hand and will ship shortly after purchase. The console is also available with the Arcade Style Kit which includes a mini arcade base, chair, top board and stickers.
The American Astro City Mini V is priced at $159.99. It is currently unclear if this is the price for the console with the Arcade Style Kit, or just the console itself.
SEGA has released a new trailer for the upcoming Sonic Frontiers, launching next month. This time, we get a look at the various ways Sonic will be able to sock it to his foes.
The trailer notes that as well as the typical Sonic fare, such as homing attacks, drop dashing and the stomp, Sonic’s combat has been massively expanded with a skill tree system implemented. We also get a glimpse at how this stuff’s upgraded – Skill Tokens from defeating enemies (giving incentive to actually go after them instead of waltzing by as you might be tempted to), and Seeds of Power and Defense from completing other tasks. We also get to see the Cyloop yet again, with emphasis put onto how it can be used in combat – and the Phantom Rush, a powered-up state where afterimages of Sonic fly around the enemies, laying on the hurt. It actually reminds us of the Sonic OVA a bit!
Finally, we get a look at the cosmetics included with the game’s digital deluxe edition – some very brown shoes and gloves. We’re personally not too sure the fashion justifies the Digital Deluxe approach we’ve called out in the past (nor the included bonus items, which just seem to be a means to… play less game?), but at the very least there’s no early access included this time – presumably they’ve learned their lesson on that detail after Colours Ultimate.
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