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.
Sonic Origins has been officially announced as part of Sonic’s 30th Anniversary festivities.
The collection will include, for the first time on consoles, the remakes of Sonic 1 and 2 produced by Christian Whitehead, also known as ‘The Taxman’. It’ll also include his remake of Sonic CD, and the first re-release of Sonic 3 & Knuckles in a long time, though it doesn’t appear that it’ll be remastered like the other titles.
The game will be coming to “the latest platforms”, and more information will be announced later in the year. It’ll be released in 2022.
SEGA America and SEGA Europe have finally committed to bringing Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: The Official Video Game to the West and the game is set for a June 22nd 2021 release.
Originally releasing in Japan on the 24th of July 2019, SEGA America and SEGA Europe seemed to shelve plans to release the game in favour of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, which released in November 2019. Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: The Official Video Game takes a more realistic approach to its presentation and features 18 different events to compete in with up to 8 player online multiplayer alongside local multiplayer features.
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020: The Official Video Game will release for PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC and Stadia on June 22nd 2021. Check out the new release trailer below:
— Roger Craig Smith (@RogerCraigSmith) May 26, 2021
In a bizarre sequence of events, Roger Craig Smith is returning to voice Sonic the Hedgehog after only 4 months away from the role.
Smith originally announced that he was leaving the role on January 28th 2021 after 10 years of being the voice of Sonic. We can only speculate why Smith stepped down from the role in January and why he has now returned to it, but it could well be a simple case of his contract expiring and SEGA not initially renewing it until now.
Sonic fans will have recognised Smith’s narration in yesterday’s ‘Unstoppable’ video, made to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. A Sonic Central event will take place tomorrow May 27th 2021 at 5pm UK time to reveal “upcoming projects, partnerships, and events to celebrate Sonic’s 30th anniversary”.
SEGA will hold a special Sonic Central 30th anniversary event on Thursday 27th of May 2021 at 5pm UK time. The event promises, “a first look at some of our upcoming projects, partnerships, and events to celebrate Sonic’s 30th anniversary”. The show will stream live on youtube.com/sonic and twitch.tv/sonic.
SEGA have also released a celebratory 30th anniversary video called ‘Unstoppable’ which takes a brief look back at the entire Sonic franchise in a similar style to the Pokemon Sun & Moon adverts that ran a few years back. Check it out below:
The ‘Unstoppable’ video also features narration by Roger Craig Smith who had previously revealed he was stepping down as the voice of Sonic. If this is true then this video might be the last time Smith is involved with the Sonic franchise.
Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown has finally been officially announced. The definitive version of SEGA’s beloved fighter will hit Playstation 4 on June 1st, as a digital exclusive.
The trailer points to this being a collaboration between AM2 and RGG Studio. Whether it’ll come to any more platforms in the future remains to be seen; there have also been rumours swirling that the game will be part of next month’s Playstation Plus offerings, which would make sense given the release date.
The Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-Speed-Ia written by Ian Flynn and published by IDW is now confirmed for a UK release on the 16th of September 2021 and the 23rd of November 2021 for the deluxe edition.
Previously only announced for North America, the Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-Speed-Ia is an in depth Sonic the Hedgehog history book. The book will total 256 pages and is authored by Ian Flynn who has been writing Sonic the Hedgehog comics since issue 160 of Archie’s Sonic the Hedgehog.
While the standard edition releases a little earlier on the 16th of September 2021, the deluxe edition will feature the following extras:
– An exclusive mosaic cover.
– A slipcase featuring gold foil “Ring” treatment.
– A folio housing two archival gallery prints of Sonic and Dr. Eggman.
Click the links below to access the listings for both editions of the Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-Speed-Ia:
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!
Our good friends The British Andy and Titanscreed are bringing back the Race for Good charity livestream event on June 21st for another round of Sonic the Hedgehog racing fun and this time around the event will run for a full week and include a whole team of different streamers taking part, including us!
All money raised during the Race for Good livestream event will go straight to Special Effect, a charity looking to help gamers with disabilities to play games with more accessibility for their specific needs. The Race for Good team are looking to raise £5000 for the charity this year and this year there’s a fantastic t-shirt and pin badge available to purchase from the ProjectPhoenixProductions Online Store. All proceeds from the sales of these items also goes to Special Effect so if you’re interested head over to the store now.
In addition to the various Sonic streams taking place during the week, the voice of Dr. Eggman, Mike Pollock will be joining the event for a Q&A session alongside Johnny Gioeli – one half of Crush 40, who are famous for their various Sonic the Hedgehog theme songs.
A raffle will also take place during the week for 2 amazing prizes. There are two Sennheiser GSP305 Gaming Headsets and the Beasts of Balance app-enabled Board Game being raffled off to anyone who donates at least £20 over the week. In addition there is also a Elgato 4K60 Pro Game Capture Card to be won and this will be raffled off to anyone who donates at least £50 over the course of the week. All donations can be made via the Race for Good Tiltify page during event week so bookmark this page if you want to be in with a chance of winning any of these prizes or would just like to support a good cause!
See below for the full list of streamers taking part in this year’s event:
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.
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