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.
Roger Craig Smith’s tenure voicing SEGA’s beloved mascot Sonic the Hedgehog has come to a somewhat abrupt end, as he’s announced through Twitter that after 10 years, he’s moving “onward to new zones.”
It’s certainly a surprise; for the past decade, Smith’s voice has become synonymous with the hedgehog for an entire generation of young fans. The older generations couldn’t seem to agree, but for our money he was probably the most consistently solid English voice Sonic’s had to date.
Should this mean we won’t be hearing Smith in the next Sonic game, it’d mean his final role as Sonic wasn’t actually a Sonic game; he recently voiced the blue blur in Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, as part of a recent content update.
It goes without saying, but we wish Smith all the best in whatever’s next for him. For many Sonic fans, now the question is – who’s next? Unsurprisingly, Ben Schwartz is a name popping up quite a lot on Twitter right now, after his stellar perfomance as Sonic’s movie counterpart – but only time will tell.
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:
Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 will be making its long-awaited PC debut on March 23rd, as that’s when the game will be coming to Steam.
The game’s Steam page doesn’t have pre-orders open right now, but we expect it won’t be long now until they are. The trailer’s description also confirms the recent content update will be included, as well as the upcoming ones. On top of that, the next content update for the game is set to be showcased on a Japanese Puyo stream at the start of February, and we suspect Western announcements won’t be far behind.
The upcoming remake of Monster World IV, Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World, has received a new trailer and a fresh round of details to go along with it.
The trailer is notable as is showcases a fair improvement over the previous ones; Asha’s animations appear to have been reworked, and on the whole it looks a bit nicer( you can also search about photorealistic animation here)The latest press release makes particular mention that the developers have been taking on feedback, and given the frosty reception to the initial showings, it’s sure looking like it.
The trailer also gives us more of the Japanese voice acting being added to the game, as well as a new Q2 2021 release window. There’s also a reaffirmation that physical copies of the game will include the original Mega Drive title on a separate cartridge for Nintendo Switch, and as a download for PS4; Gematsu reports that this version will now be available at retail, whereas previously it seemed like it’d be exclusive to Strictly Limited, with only 3000 copies being made.
Japan has received a more solid release date of April 22nd, and will also be getting physical versions; their Special Pack will include two artbooks.
Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World is launching for Nintendo Switch and Playstation 4 later this year.
Puyo Puyo Tetris 2’s first major update has been released, and it brings along with it 4 new characters. Alongside fan-favourite characters such as Lidelle, Ms Accord and Ocean Prince from the Puyo Puyo Fever titles, Sonic the Hedgehog himself has joined the Puyo Tetris battlefield – and it’s not a mod this time!
Other additions include a raid-style boss battle mode, inspired by a similar feature in Puyo Puyo Chronicle. You can earn Skill Battle cards not available through Adventure Mode by teaming up with other players to take on boss characters. Speaking of Skill Battle, the Sonic-themed cards have now been added into the main game, too.
There’s also four new music tracks, to go along with the new characters; including Tropical Resort, from Sonic Colours.
This… certainly came out of nowhere. We suspect this is what SEGA Europe were teasing for tomorrow’s stream, in which case they weren’t kidding about it being special. Currently only the Japanese announcement is available, but our Playstation 4 downloaded the new update, and Sonic and company are indeed present and accounted for.
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.
The book can be pre-ordered from Amazon Japan right now for οΏ₯16,500, equivalent to Β£118.31 at the time of writing.
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