Today, we lost a great man; and the industry will forever be brighter for his presence.
Satoru Iwata. September 6, 1956 – July 11, 2015.
Thank you for everything.
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Miscellaneous
Yup, the site went down for a week. The effects of which were catastrophic. For instance, the last three months of Monday Links were suddenly removed from the internet and nobody even seems to be able to remember them. A very strange occurrence that’s in no way an unfunny excuse for my laziness.
Anyway, while I was busy watching a 274+ episode anime, the other Sonic Retro staff launched a new front page. I also watched an anime about cute girls making anime. So in short, we all made some progress.
I need to stop doing these with only three hours of sleep.
Retro Stuff
- Barry and David will be hosting a panel at Too Many Games about Sonic X-Treme [It’ll be on June 27th at 4:50pm in Oaks, PA]
- A new version of the Sonic X-Treme level editor was released [It being called SonicBoom is still weird]
- P3DR0 has revealed his new fangame SONIC INFINITY which is set in the world of the Sonic OVA [The game’s name is in all caps so it must be good]
- MainMemory made a whole bunch of scrolling Sonic background screensavers, and is still making more [Obviously still needs Splash Hill Zone]
Sonic Stuff
- The Sonic 2 HD team put up a timelapse video of the Chemical Plant boss battle being coded [Done by mashing random keys on the keyboard really fast]
- Nintendo announced another one of those Mario & Sonic cross-over games where beloved(?) characters from both franchises do stuff in the Olympics [It’ll probably have good music so there’s your reason to care]
- It turns out that the other new Sonic game that releases this year is Yoshi’s Woolly World, in which you can unlock a Sonic skin with the Sonic amiibo [Not to be confused with the Mega Man skin]
- We haven’t heard of the big new Sonic game this year yet (or if there is one at all), so of course rumours have started popping up. The most credible one being Sonic Mach 2, which is probably a working title. Might just be nothing like a small spin-off game, but we’ll see I guess [Also fans annoying Iizuka by asking him about it]
So you all probably know Naoto Ohshima for his great character design work on the original Sonic the Hedgehog, particularly that of the main star. I’m sure you all also know him for directing what could only be described as perfection: Blinx the Time Sweeper. But what has he been up to lately? Well, apparently he did some guest character designs for a daily quest in Terra Battle and-
Oh…
So SEGA has been announcing a lot of games lately, and last week they decided to announce one more. And if you’re wondering just how anime it is:
It’s pretty goddamn anime. This anime game is called Miracle Girls Festival, and it features various anime characters from anime like YuruYuri, Wake Up, Girls!, Vividred Operation, and a bunch of other anime that my friends who are into anime will probably try to get me to watch. And as you can see by the UI, this game is gonna be a lot like the Project Diva games except will less vocaloids and more anime schoolgirls.
Featured SEGA Retro Articles of the Week
- Look, a new thing that I added to the list! Here I’ll link to an article from SEGA Retro that’s pretty neat or possibly needs more work. First off, to keep up with the anime theme of this week’s article [Astro Boy]
- Also, that Astro Boy game kinda sucks so here’s an article about a good one [Astro Boy: Omega Factor]
SEGAbits Features
- The often forgotten Panzer Dragoon spin-offs, and why they are forgotten [One reason: nobody remembers the stuff that Tiger Electronics made]
- SEGA Tunes: Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed remixes Panzer Dragoon’s ‘Flight’ [By the one and only Richard Jacques]
- SEGA in the Charts: MediaCreate charts for Mar 9 – Mar 15 2015 [Not enough by Kazuma Kiryu’s standards]
SEGA News
- Miracle Girls Festival, new SEGA rhythm game announced for Playstation Vita [Yup, it’s anime]
- Nintendo 3DS gets SEGA Dreamcast and SG-1000 themes in Japan [Dear SEGA please for the love of god release these in the west already]
- SEGA’s mobile division on track for record setting revenue [There’s your reason for why SEGA is doing so much more mobile stuff now]
- Persona 4: Dancing All Night – Yosuke trailer released [I’m disappointed, one of his costumes isn’t a trash can]
- First 4 Figures teases their upcoming NiGHTS figure [They also tease empty wallets]
- SEGA returns to MomoCon showcasing Project Mirai DX, Tembo, 3D Classics & more! [And by more we of course mean anime]
This was a pretty good week when it comes to SEGA stuff, with them revealing new games and releasing 3D OutRun, a fantastic re-release of the original game with new features. And among the games they revealed was Tembo the Badass Elephant, an action sidescroller by Game Freak that’s coming to PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. It was playable at EGX Rezzed earlier this week, and the first impressions from the couple of our forum members who were there are pretty positive. It’s always nice to see a new quirky sidescroller, so we’ll be looking forward to this one.
Featured SEGAbits Article of the Week
- The SEGAbits review of 3D OutRun for the Nintendo 3DS [Not to be confused with OutRun 3D]
SEGAbits Features
- Celebrating 20 years of the amazing world of Panzer Dragoon [I should probably play these games at some point]
- Classic SEGA Magazine Corner: Xbox Nation’s “Chasing the Dragon”, an inside look at Panzer Dragoon Orta [I really, really should]
- A couple of announcements about the Sonic & SEGA Fan Jam 2015 [Website launch and donations]
- Sonic Talk #31: “We’re gonna need a bigger podcast” [No you don’t, you’ve had longer episodes]
SEGA News
- Tembo the Badass Elephant was revealed [Trailer | Gameplay video]
- Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight, a remake of the first game’s sequel, is coming to the North America [As always with Atlus games, sorry Europe]
- Atlus is also localizing Lost Dimension for PlayStation 3 and Vita [Coming this Summer in the US]
- SEGA is publishing a SRPG for the Nintendo 3DS called Stella Glow [Announcement | Gameplay]
- Compile Heart announced Hyperdimension War Neptunia VS Sega Hard Girls: Dream Fusion Special for the PlayStation Vita [Girls who are consoles meet other girls who are consoles]
- Our chibi Vocaloid needs are met with this new Hatsune Miku Project Mirai DX trailer [Also the first Puyo Puyo game to be released in the west since forever]
So we all know that Hollywood loves to revive old movies and stuff. I mean, they’re even making two new Ghostbusters movies. But recently they’ve also started making more movies about games. There’s even going to be a movie about video games with Adam Sandler and Peter Dinklage. And as you probably already know, even Sonic’s gonna get a movie now. One that might be PG-13. So yeah, Hollywood is crazy.
And this is where I forget where I was going with this and instead made this Sonic doodle. Anyway, links.
Sonic Retro Stuff
- Scarred Sun wrote an open letter to SEGA of America employees cause there’s stuff that needs to be archived [No seriously if you’re from SEGA America and for whatever reason are reading this than look here]
- MainMemory updated the SADX Mod Loader to v3.2 [New SA2 version also coming eventually]
- We now have another feature with even more links except they’re all links to SEGA stuff [So how about that new ToeJam & Earl game]
Sonic Stuff
- Sumo Digital uploaded a bunch of cool concept art of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing [We almost had our Sonic R 2]
- Mike Pollock’s being nagged about a Boom Shadow [Boooom Shadow, Boom Shadow]
- The Chaotix can be unlocked in Sonic Runners now [I still haven’t been able to unlock Vector =(]
- Want a preview of the new Archie Sonic comic issue in which Sonic Heroes is referenced for some reason? Sure you do [I should probably start reading these at some point]
- On the same subject, an interview with Bill Freiberger on writing the Sonic Boom comic [You know, the other good Sonic Boom thing]
Okay so the SEGAbits gods thought that no longer linking SEGAbits and general SEGA stuff in Monday Links wasn’t such a great idea. But you know what’s a good idea? Still not linking them on Monday Links and instead doing a separate feature with just SEGA stuff and without the Sonic. So here’s a new feature that’s a recap of SEGAbits and SEGA stuff.
Featured SEGAbits Article of the Week
- This week’s Swingin’ Report Show has an interview with Greg Johnson, the co-creator of ToeJam & Earl who right now is doing a Kickstarter so he can make a new sequel [Cool details about stuff that happened to the development of the other ToeJam & Earl sequels included]
SEGAbits Features
- This month we take a look at the stuff Team Andromeda did [You know, those people who made Panzer Dragoon]
- SEGA Tunes: Panzer Dragoon’s OST is a beautiful masterpiece [Just listen to these tunes]
- Nope, SEGA’s not leaving the console marker [Don’t trust articles by writers who didn’t pay enough attention, kids]
- 2-Man Scramble put the dynamic duo to the test in Batman Forever: The Arcade Game for the SEGA Saturn [Yes, Jim Carrey Riddler is in the game]
- Unboxing a brand new SEGA Menacer from 1992 [Unboxings are cool when they’re of old SEGA stuff, right?]
SEGA News
- Game Freak (Pokémon, Pulseman) and SEGA are working together on a new game that’ll be revealed this Wednesday [Please don’t be mobile-only please don’t be mobile-only]
- Valkyria Chronicles sold over 200,000 copies on Steam last year [This means we’ll get more PC ports, right? Right?]
- Yakuza Zero has a pretty sweet soundtrack filled with Japanese 80’s songs [Possible contender for best game soundtrack of the year?]
- Turns out Alien: Isolation was going to be a third person game at some point [Here’s some footage of when it was that]
- It looks like 3D OutRun will be released on March 12th [More OutRun is never a bad thing]
- This Persona 4: Dancing All Night trailer shows off the new character Kanami Mashita [Awkward fanservice included]
Last week my ‘Something for the Weekend’ feature was on the subject of GameChops’ awesome new ‘Spindash’ album, full of dance remixes of classic Sonic tracks. Hopefully if you enjoyed that taste you looked a little more into GameChops and what else they’ve done.
PROTIP: There’s some mighty fine stuff there.
But I’m not here to link another playlist or album, not exactly. Today I actually wanted to talk about why GameChops, as a concept, is actually really cool and why you should be following them closely.
Founed by Dj CUTMAN, all of the music GameChops produces is video game-related. You could have probably guessed that – but did you also guess that supporting GameChops financially actually puts money in several pockets? This comes from the way in which the label operates through their partners at Loudr.fm. According to their website, ‘Loudr.fm is an incredible new platform for musicians who create cover songs, like our game remixes. In the past, acquiring mechanical licenses was an expensive and time consuming process. Loudr has revolutionized this by providing a distribution platform with built-in licensing.’
What this effectively means is that when an artist remixes a piece of video game music, be it Sonic, Mega Man, whatever you like; when you support that artist, you are actually supporting them and also the rights-holders of the original track. This effectively means that GameChops remixes are all officially licensed, after a fashion.
So go check them out, you (probably) won’t be disappointed.