SEGA’s been complaining a bit lately on the lack of a more hardcore audience on the Wii. So SEGA Australia is making one final ditch effort at sprucing up the sales of their mature titles by releasing a triple pack of their mature Wii titles.
“Welcome to Violence” is, according to SEGA, “a pack no self-respecting Wii-owning Aussie bloke should be without”. You gotta give it up for that Oscar Wilde-like writing!
The pack includes MadWorld, House of the Dead: Overkill and The Conduit and will be sold for AUD$110, which is equal to the price of a new Xbox 360/PS3 game in the US.
Will it work? Probably not.
It’s official. A Platinum Games title is popular. It almost sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?
After trying (and failing) with titles like Okami and Madworld, Platinum Games has finally managed to create a title that sells. And can you really blame them? Bayonetta is fucking awesome, and the general public seems to think so too.
Bayonetta has sold 1,100,000 unites worldwide on both platforms, but it’s far from SEGA’s most popular franchise. That status goes to Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, with 5,670,000 copies sold on the Wii and DS.
Still, good on Platinum for finally making it, though it makes me worried about the future of the Wii.
The real title of SEGA’s Project Needlemouse was revealed this morning, and is now officially Sonic the Hedgehog 4. This is the first true sequel in series in over 15 years. This was announced through SEGA America’s blog
Sonic 4 will be digitally released in episodes, the first episode due this summer. The game will be in 2D with 3D graphics, meaning we’re finally getting a side-scrolling Sonic the Hedgehog game on consoles.
They listened! They really, really listened! We are excited! Check the trailer after the cut.
Are you one of the many gamers who fell in love with the Shenmue series back in the Dreamcast days? Are you still hoping that, even after all these years, the final chapter in the series will released? Well, it might still happen… if one of the console makers funds.
“None of the previous games sold really well for the investment made” according to statement by SEGA on Eurogamer.pt, “and SEGA is in doubt as to if it will resurrect the series. However, SEGA assured the fans that if there is some opportunity to revisit the series, they would love to do it.
“SEGA also mentioned the chance of one of the three hardware makers financing the game’s (Shenmue III) production in exchange for an exclusivity deal.”
Anyone have a few million sitting around? Want to help fund this?
Nobody?
Drat.
So, the geniuses behind Viewtiful Joe, Okami, God Hand, MadWorld and Bayonetta have just unveiled their newest title. It may not be entirely what you were expecting.
But hey, Shinja Mikami is involved, so how can it possibly go wrong?
Take a look, and judge it for yourself.
SEGA Europe has just announced on both the US and EU PS Blog that Yakuza 3 is finally coming to the regions in March March 2010.
We can die happy now.
“Yakuza 3 was one of the most requested titles for localization by our European SEGA community, so we are delighted to be able to fulfill their wishes with this announcement,” said Gary Knight, SOE’s marking director.
“As well as delving even further into the rich narrative of the Yakuza universe, the development team have pushed the PlayStation 3 hardware to the limits to produce a beautiful and startlingly realistic depiction of the Japanese underworld.”
The dreams of many have finally been answered! Rejoice!
Dear lord. I’ve written so many of these in the last few months that I’m starting to find it impossible to take them seriously anymore. Australia has just banned another game.
This time, the poor victim of Australia’s archaic ratings board is Alien Vs. Predator. Here’s apparently why:
“The game contains first-person perspective, close-up depictions of human characters being subjected to various types of violence, including explicit decapitation and dismemberment as well as locational damage such as stabbing through the chest, mouth, throat, or eyes,” according to the board’s report.
I really have nothing more to say on this. It speaks for itself, really.
Japanese gaming mag Famitsu is known for it’s selectiveness when it comes to review scores, with no more than 11 titles receiving a perfect score of 40/40.
That number has now risen to 12 games, as Sega’s upcoming action slug fest Bayonetta was recently awarded with top marks from Famitsu.
This was confirmed in a tweet from Sega.
The other 11 games Famitsu describe as perfect are:
1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)
2. Soulcalibur (1999)
3. Vagrant Story (2000)
4. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2003)
5. Nintendogs (2005)
6. Final Fantasy XII (2006)
7. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008)
8. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008)
9. 428 (2008)
10. Dragon Quest IX (2009)
11. Monster Hunter Tri (2009)
I was certainly surprised. Were you?
In some more demo news this week, Bayonetta; a Devil May Cry clone starring a witch who’s basically a hot librarian wearing her own magic hair as a jump suit, will be devlivering a demo on October 8.
The date of the demo has so far only been announced on a Japanese blog, but we’re hoping it’ll come to the US and Europe around the same time.
The Xbo360 and PS3 demos will be a bit different, however. Both will include a tutorial and the Angel’s Metropolis level, but the 360 demo will get a second stage, Falling Clock Tower. So the PS3 owners have been kinda shafted.
Details recently scoured from SEGA’s PR FTP site have unveiled some interesting nuggets of information regarding future Sony plans, including the potential revelation that PS2 titles will soon be coming to the PlayStation Store.
PS2 emulator for PS3 (confidential)
- SCEA wants to sell all PS2 titles on PSN (GTA Vice City/Sonic/etc)
- For co Marketing money show PS3 controller on TV ads – similar to EA Madden Spots, NCAA, etc…
Sega is declining to comment on the leaked information.
Check out the full thing for yourself after the cut.
Sega brand manager Ken Balough confirmed to GameSpot today that a new 2D Sonic game, with modern HD graphics, is currently in development, and is due for release in 2010.
The title (currently going under the codename “Project Needlemouse”, an amusing reference to one of Sonic’s original names before his character design was finalised way back when) is apparently being created in response to “old-school Sonic fans who have long asked to see Sonic return to a more 2D style of gameplay.”
“Speed returns in an all new 2D adventure built from the ground up,” states the trailer. Check out it out below, and try not to get too excited!
The Virtua Tennis series hasn’t changed much since its birth, really. Like many sports games, there’s a career mode, several training exercises and matches against both real-life and originally created tennis pros across the globe until you are crowned the greatest in the world – and then it’s as good as game over.
The core design of Virtua Tennis 2009 is very much the same – you create a player and train them while also heading onto the court in tournaments to raise your ranking until you’re one of the best. You can buy new equipment in addition to train and then take your created character online – a first for the Wii version.
Training exercises consist of everything from the simplistic to difficult mini-games that test every aspect of your tennis playing skill including your accuracy and power. Everything will feel very familiar – perhaps too familiar – to those who played the previous entry, Virtua Tennis 3.
Just a quick notice Europeans. The Conduit will be a little delayed, but only by about two weeks.
The Conduit was originally slated for a European release of June 26, but has been pushed back to July 10. Sega said the delay is due to localisation issues with the European version. The North American release will release as planned.
Managing director of Bethesda Europe, Sean Brennan, has told GI the developer is following in the footsteps of Sega and will be working on a mature Wii title.
“We are going to make an announcement on a really big Wii game this year, we’ve got a couple of other things in the pipeline, and it’s a format we’re really looking at with the right approach,”
“We’re not going to establish a new range and call it ‘My Girly Game Range’ or whatever these other companies are doing, it’s so me-too and boring.”
A recently which appeared over on Xbox360achievements suggests that Sega is looking to release Genesis / Mega Drive classic Gunstar Heroes on the Xbox Live Arcade soon.
Sega itself has made no official announcement concerning the release of the game ,so I wouldn’t suggest getting excited just yet.
We can only hope this is true. We’ll let you know once we have some official word from Sega.
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