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.
SEGA Forever have published a new video to celebrate the 24th Anniversary of the beloved SEGA Saturn title NiGHTS into dreams…‘s launch in North America.
As well as being a great watch for those looking to learn more about NiGHTS, it has a nice bit of fanservice for those who already love the game to pieces – a glimpse at an unused take on the game’s US boxart, seen at the 1:39 mark!
The scrapped design is certainly an… interesting take on NiGHTS, but we can’t say it getting the axe is something to lament too much. All the same, it’s fantastic to see new discoveries and material unearthed from the depths of SEGA, and even better than this is from an official platform.
For those unaware, SEGA Forever recently transitioned away from being SEGA’s retro mobile brand, and now focuses on the preservation of SEGA’s classic material. As an example of this, the Twitter account has been regularly posting high-resolution assets and renders from old titles, just in case you ever needed the Gain Ground packaging artwork in 4K resolution.
The next 13 games have been announced for the SEGA Astro City Mini, coming to us via the latest Dengeki stream.
The games are as follows:
Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams
Shinobi
Shadow Dancer
Cyber Police ESWAT (ESWAT – City Under Siege)
Crack Down
Gain Ground
Puyo Puyo
Columns
Bonanza Bros
Ichidant-R
Wonder Boy
Wonder Boy in Monster Land
Wonder Boy III – Monster Lair
This puts the announced game total at 23 titles, with 36 confirmed to be on the microconsole. The next set of titles will be announced on September 3rd during a Famitsu stream.
5 new peripherals have been added to the website’s Hardware section. These are all Mega Drive controllers and you can see a full list of the additions below:
We recently reported that Boltrend Games were bringing SEGA’s mobile title IDOLA: Phantasy Star Saga to the West, with a open beta. Well, it turns out there’s not long to wait until the full release; as pre-registration is now open for the game, with the iOS App Store giving a release date of September 17th.
There is a bit of a downside to this news, as the game sadly isn’t coming to Europe as of right now; it’s available globally everywhere save for Europe, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam. Trying to access the game via the App Store here in the UK turns up an error message. It might be too early to totally rule out a European release though – just look at Phantasy Star Online 2, after all. That, and Twinfinite states the game is actually planned to launch specifically in the UK, so this might change quicker than we think.
The first images of an unreleased Mega Drive Sonic spin-off called Treasure Tails have appeared online. These come directly from Craig Stitt who many may know as an artist on Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic Spinball. Stitt himself pitched the game back in February 1993. The game was meant to be a forced-perspective platform/puzzle/adventure game featuring Tails as the main playable character. It supposedly never made it to a playable state and the images seen in this article come from a VHS tape that Stitt have put together in 1995.
In addition to this discovery, the first concept images of Boomer the Turtle have also appeared. This was a character Stitt designed for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 as Sonic’s original sidekick before Tails was even conceived. The character was ultimately scrapped.
Also released is footage of another unreleased title that Craig Stitt pitched called Astropede. The game features a centipede protagonist that runs at high speeds through a stage that uses graphics from the then-unreleased Hidden Palace stage from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Stitt had hopes that the character could exist as a part of Sonic’s Universe. Check out the footage from SEGAbits below:
Another officially licensed multi-game arcade cabinet from Arcade1Up appears to be on the way as a leak from a poster on Reddit has revealed an image of a cabinet which is made to play Virtua Fighter, Virtua Fighter Remix, Virtua Fighter 2, Fighting Vipers and Sonic the Fighters. The leak appears to have come from some advance promotional material for the cabinet. There is currently no other information on this release at the time of writing or even if this is a genuine leak or a hoax.
Arcade1Up are also due to release a cabinet featuring Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder, Shinobi, Altered Beast, Wrestle Wars and the original Golden Axe. This cabinet was revealed at CES back in January 2020 and is also without a release date or price. However, Arcade1Up cabinets normally retail for around £300.
A fresh selection of updates have now gone live in the hardware and merchandise sections. See below for a full list of additions and direct links to each entry:
It’s a pretty good time to be a Phantasy Star fan, as the mobile title IDOLA: Phantasy Star Saga is getting an official English release!
The game, originally released to promote the 30th Anniversary of the Phantasy Star series, will be receiving an Open Beta Test, launching August 5th and lasting until August 10th. It’ll contain the first six chapters of the game’s story and the Arena Battle mode. Currently, there’s no solid word on what regions this English release is intended for, though our friend CorBond was unable to access the game from the Netherlands. We were able to join the Testing Program from the UK, but we lack an Android device to confirm whether we could actually access the game.
It’s certainly a surprising announcement; we do wonder if they’ll somehow incorporate the bonuses the Japanese version has for connecting the game to Phantasy Star Online 2. Only time will tell!
The first trailer for this year’s Sonic Amateur Games Expo is now available to view and in it we get previews for a number of games that will feature at the event. Check it out below:
The Sonic Amateur Games Expo 2020 also marks the 20th anniversary of the long-running Sonic fan game event. It will run for one week from September 5th 2020. If you would like your game featured than submissions are still being taken until August 21st. Click here for full details on how to submit your game.
Phantasy Star Online 2’s PC exclusivity to the Microsoft Store is coming to an end, as the game will be launching on Steam as soon as next week, August 5th. It’s also been confirmed the game will support crossplay and cross-progress with other versions of the game, and that the Steam version will drop alongside the Episode 4 content update.
This also seemingly marks the official European release of the game, as the Steam page is available in select European territories. We don’t have a full list of who can and can’t access it right now, but we at least know that the UK is good to go, and the Netherlands are sadly out of luck as the page simply won’t load in that region.
The best part of this announcement however, is probably the new items announced to commemorate the launch. You’ll be able to get your hands on gear inspired by Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2 and Portal 2 as part of the game’s Steam launch. This isn’t wholly surprising, but it’s weird to see Gordon Freeman in PSO2 nonetheless.
PSO2’s PC launch was mired in technical issues, so hopefully the Steam launch will mark the end to that. Going off previous blogposts, it’s a safe assumption that Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis, the upcoming overhaul of the game, will also land on Steam at some point next year – though whether it’ll have timed exclusivity to Microsoft again remains to be seen.
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