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Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed makes a splash with launch trailer
In case you missed it among the Wii U launch line-up, Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed raced across land, sea, sky, and space to Nintendo's newest toy. It's also out on plenty of other platforms - just watch out for that fish.
Feral Interactive bringing two Sega Sonic games to Mac
I can't say that I'm a huge fan of Feral Interactive: They're a company that specializes in porting games from other platforms over to the Mac, and I'm more interested in natively developed and published Mac games. But I have to respect them nevertheless: Feral picked up an Apple Design Award for their port of Deus Ex: Human Revolution at WWDC last week, so they must be doing something right. And now Sega has chosen them to bring Sonic the Hedgehog to the Mac platform for the first time. Feral is going to be bringing Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing and SEGA Superstars Tennis to the Mac App Store, with both games arriving later on this summer. In addition to porting the games, they'll also be Game Center-enabled, because Game Center will be used in Apple's next OS X update, Mountain Lion. It's also interesting that Sega has already released one of these games, All-Stars Racing, on the App Store. So Feral can probably thank the iOS platform for Sega's interest in Mac gaming. I wouldn't be surprised if it's because of Sega's success on iOS that the company is dipping its toe into the Mac App Store as well.
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing sequel striking stores this sholiday season
Sega plans to release a sequel to 2010's Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, the kart racing game originally made for Xbox 360, PS3, PC and DS, at the end of this year, Kotaku reports. The New York Toy Fair outed the sequel with a display of new toys (At a toy fair? Surely not.), and an attendant confirmed its development. New characters and vehicles will be announced later this year, Kotaku says, some time before the holidays, we assume.
Sega discounts select PSN, iOS, XBLA games for the holidays
This time of year, you can count on two things: long lines anywhere you can purchase goods and/or services outside of your home, and sales at those capitals of consumerism. Sega's hitching itself to the sales star now by slashing prices on its digital wares across PSN, XBLA and iOS starting this week. PSN's lineup includes healthily discounted classics, added savings for PlayStation Plus subscribers and a smattering of newer stuff on the cheap until January 3: Daytona USA, Sega Rally Arcade, Sonic Adventure, Renegade Ops and more. On the iOS side, classic titles make up the majority of what's on sale for $0.99; Golden Axe 2 and 3, Chu Chu Rocket, Streets of Rage 2 and 3, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, and Sega's newest iOS game, Brick People, are on sale until January 9. Xbox Live Arcade users get the least amount of variety -- only Renegade Ops and After Burner Climax are on sale. You can download each at their reduced price of 800 MS Points ($10) and 400 MS Points ($5) respectively until January 2.
Sonic and Knuckles RC cars make All-Stars Racing (sort of) real
The latest Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing toys are a lot easier to acquire than the Ryo Hazuki forklift figure, requiring only a trip to Toys R Us and $25 (each). These actually move, too! Sadly, there's no Ryo among them -- it's just Sonic and Knuckles this time.
Grab every Sega game on Steam for $90
If you're a supporter of all of Sega's ludological offerings -- not just the ones that include attitude-infused blue rodents -- you'll want to check out the Sega Complete Pack on Steam. For $90, you can grab all of Sega's PC games currently available on the platform; a list that includes Empire: Total War (and all its expansions), Space Siege, The Club, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, Aliens vs. Predator and a whole lot more. (Sorry Mac users, but almost all of these games are still only available to the Windows crowd.) If you're looking for something a bit more cost-efficient, Steam is also offering Aliens vs. Predator alone at half price, for $24.99. But why not chip in the extra $65 and pick up more Total War games than you could ever play in a single lifetime? That seems like a sound economic decision to us.
Mario, Sonic, and Profits in Sega's fiscal 2010
Despite recent troubles in the North American and European branches, Sega overall had a good fiscal 2010, which ended March 31, financially speaking. The company as a whole saw its operating income rise to ¥36.7 billion ($397 million), a huge increase over fiscal 2009's operating income of 8.3 billion ($89.8 million). Operating income refers to profits minus expenses incurred in running the company -- in case you wondered why we picked up on that random statistic. The consumer games division made ¥6.3 billion ($68.2 million) in operating income, returning to profitability despite a year-over-year drop of 7.5%. The profits in this division were driven by ridiculously strong sales of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (6.53 million copies!), as well as million-plus sellers Aliens vs. Predator (1.69 million), Bayonetta (1.35 million), and Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (1.07 million). Source [PDF] - Appendix of Consolidated Financial Statements Year Ended March 31, 2010 [Via Andriasang]
Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing DLC released early on PSN, removed
On Thursday, the UK PS3 version of Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing received a new downloadable racer and a new stage: Metal Sonic and the Egg Hangar, respectively. Then, in what seems like an inadvertent April Fools prank, it disappeared, having evidently been released early as a mistake. The Sega blog post announcing the actual DLC release for this week (Shenmue's Ryo Hazuki in his forklift) makes a point of noting that "This is the only DLC item out today." For a few lucky, Sonic-fast buyers, it was some early DLC. But for the rest of us, it's the source of some footage, captured by reader Hogfather, that we can watch after the break to preview some upcoming DLC.
Sega All-Stars Avatar items are looking for sales
We may not usually condone the capricious waste of Microsoft Points on Avatar frippery, but we must admit that the Sonic & Sega All-Stars clothing set makes a pretty good argument for the existence of Avatar clothes. And that argument is "here's Ryo Hazuki's jacket." It's available for men and women for 160 ($2). The other available items strike similarly at the heart of Sega nerds, including Beat's sunglasses, a little AiAi-in-Monkey-Ball prop, and a Samba De Amigo sombrero! You can even buy a Crabmeat to decorate your virtual Green Hill Zone (by which we mean your dashboard). See the full set at Xbox Live Marketplace. [Via Sega]
Metareview: Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
It could just be our lowered expectations for games including kart racing, Sonic or "All-Stars" in the title, but we were pretty surprised by the positive buzz for Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing; the Wii, PS3 and 360 versions are all doing well with a 79 percent average on Metacritic. Here's what's being said: GameSpot (80/100): "Although the core of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing is obviously pulled straight out of Mario Kart, this wacky racer can stand on its own four wheels. The tight controls and excellent track design ensure that head-to-head competition is always exciting, but it's so fun just to play around with these karts that it's easy to lose hours climbing the online leaderboards in Time Trial mode." 1UP (B): "Though it has some hiccups, unexciting party modes, and a questionable difficulty curve, All-Stars Racing is a respectable effort that makes a good kart racer at its core (and is at least much more cohesive than Sega Superstars Tennis)." Nintendo Power (8/10): "It isn't quite the fan paradise it could have been, but it's a very good racer that makes great use of classic Sega franchises. We wouldn't mind a sequel with more franchises and tracks included." IGN: (8/10): "It's pleasantly surprising to find out that the Nintendo Wii edition – apart from the lower resolution – gets similar treatment with close to the exact same features as the stronger hardware."
Squint at this Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing DS trailer
We realize that it's probably difficult to cut together a trailer for a DS game. After all, there are two screens to deal with and the system doesn't exactly sport the HD (or even 480p) pizazz of its bigger console cousins. Considering the bottom screen in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing appears to be reserved solely for a map, you'd think you could zoom in on the top screen every once in a while. Still, even in such a tiny space, the DS version of All-Stars Racing looks much the same as the console versions, minus a few polygons here and there, of course. As Nintendo has already proven with Mario Kart DS, kart racing can be very, very enjoyable on-the-go. If All-Stars Racing plays as well as it looks, maybe gamers will finally have a new reason to chase down some power-ups and clobber their friends. Let's just hope there aren't any damned, hateful blue shell power-ups. Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing hits stores this week.
Limited Edition Ryo Hazuki figurine will lift your spirits
Or momentarily distract you from that gaping, Shenmue-shaped hole in your heart. Although most doctors agree that the unfortunate condition is chronic, some symptoms (which include: forlorn sighing; naive bursts of optimism on Shenmue 3 message boards) can be addressed with a modicum of effort. Example: Staring at a Limited Edition Hazuki-in-a-forklift figurine. For six hours. Those looking to implement slightly more permanent treatment can attempt to win the depicted prize through a sweet Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing sweepstakes setup. Since it's only open to U.S. residents and is limited to 950 figurines in total, however, you probably won't ever win. And Shenmue 3 won't ever come out. And we'll never find out what happened with Lan Di or the Dragon Mirror. Oh yeah, that's the other symptom: straight-up depression. Thanks for nothing, you stupid, unattainable figurine.
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing demo and theme now on Xbox Live
We'll be honest -- we weren't too interested in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing when we first heard about it, but every time the publisher announces a new playable character, our desire to play the game intensifies. (For the record, Sega? You had us at Ryo Hazuki.) We'll definitely be trying out the new demo -- released on Xbox Live today -- which features Sonic and Banjo as playable racers on a sample track. To accompany the demo, Sega has also released an All-Stars Racing theme for 240 ($3). However, we highly suggest checking to make sure the game's any good before proudly tattooing your Dashboard background with its logo. Shortcuts: Add the demo / theme to your Xbox 360 download queue [via Xbox.com]
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing demo might be forthcoming
The prospect of racing against the Bonanza Bros. as a forklift-driving Ryo Hazuki likely has many Sega fans on the precipice of purchasing Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing. However, those of us whose common sense has yet to be short-circuited by fan service would prefer to try out the game in order to determine whether the actual racing is worthwhile. And according to a Digital Spy interview with producer Steve Lycett, we may get to do that. "We're currently looking at downloadable demos for 360 and PS3, and a DS demo via the Nintendo Channel to boot," Lycett said. He also responded positively to the idea of Sumo Digital developing a Shenmue sequel -- you know, because having a game with a Ryo Hazuki character model in it is basically halfway there. "I'm sure if Sega asked, we'd love to take it on," Lycett said. "It'd scare me to death to take on something so epic, but well, I'd like to think we could do it justice. I think if you cut us in half at this point, you'd find Sega written through the middle of us!"
Virtua Fighter, NiGHTS characters in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
Apparently, Sega's plan is to represent every Sega franchise ever in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing -- except, of course, for Segata Sanshiro. The publisher announced two more playable characters today (well, four, actually, in pairs): Virtua Fighter's Akira and Jacky, and Bonanza Bros.' Mobo and Robo. The Virtua guys appear to be riding in a red Ferrari, which would add the OutRun franchise to the list as well. All these reveals are in line with the character portraits found hidden on the website. NiGHTS will appear in the game as well, though not in a capacity that will cause superfans "DiGi" and "Trippy" to lose their bets and burn their NiGHTS memorabilia collections. The androgynous dream-monster will appear as the flagman in the racing game.
Alex and Jen really want you to play Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
The other day, our friends Alex and Jen invited us up to their loft to play this new racing game for the Wii. We were a little leery about going (Jen kept yelling things like "Waaaah! Super horn!" and "Shortcut cheat!," which was weird), but they promised us it was kart racing "with attitude," so we went anyway. It was okay, we guess. You could ride planes and cars and stuff (Jen was really excited about riding bananas for some reason), but when Alex and Jen kept yelling random competitive cliches in between these weird clinical explanations of powerups, we got kind of freaked out and started checking our watches. Things got a little uncomfortable when Alex threatened to make Jen cry like a little girl, and when she replied with a confident "Bring. It. On," we knew it was probably time to call it a night and quietly excused ourselves from their apartment. On our way out, we heard Alex creepily mumbling about "the sweet taste of victory" under Jen's nonsense shouting. They've already called us to see if we want to hang out next weekend for a "rematch," but uh, we think we're probably busy then.
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing screens make a pit stop in your heart
click to enlarge Sega has dropped some new screens from its upcoming Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing kart game, and if you don't find them completely charming, there's something broken near your left ventricle. We don't yet know if the game is any good or not, but if you look at these lush, colorful 3D recreations of classic Sega environments and characters and don't feel the slightest stirring down in your jaded, Mature excuse for a gamer heart, you better get it checked. Note that these screens come from the Xbox 360 version, which explains why Banjo and the Avatars (coincidentally a great band name) appear within. Enjoy. %Gallery-83937%
UK gets Sega All-Stars Racing wheel bundle
click to Sonic-size Sega has now revealed the promised racing wheel for the Wii version of Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing. The wheel will be available as part of a bundle in the UK. It won't be available outside of European territories at all, which is unfortunate, as the All-Stars Racing wheel seems just a bit sharper than Nintendo's own peripheral. Get a closer look at the wheel and the bundle packaging in the gallery below. %Gallery-83448%
All-Stars Racing, Napoleon: Total War dated in Europe
Sega has dated two its upcoming games for Europe, including the fanservice-filled racing game Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. The mascot racer will arrive there on February 26, three days after the North American release date. In addition, as tweeted by the game's official account, Napoleon: Total War will be out in on February 23 -- a date that is accurate for both Europe and NA. No word on Napoleon & Historical All-Stars Racing, however. Yakuza 3 remains at an unspecified "March" date for both Europe and North America. Similarly nonspecific are Alpha Protocol, Resonance of Fate, and Infinite Space, which Videogamer reports are all still "spring," with Valkyria Chronicles 2 following in the summer.
Sega All-Stars Racing characters outed by official site
Sega opened the official website for Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing earlier this week and now, thanks to some sleuthing from tssz|news, it looks like the remaining playable characters have been uncovered. Hidden in the website's code are several images, including the one above. Close inspection reveals Akira Yuki of Virtua Fighter alongside what looks to be Jacky Bryant. Also pictured is one of the characters from Bonanza Bros and what appears to be Opa-Opa from Fantasy Zone. Digging further into the websites code, tssz discovered images of KapuKapu, otherwise known as the cat from the classic Dreamcast puzzler, ChuChu Rocket. Some decent additions to the roster, to be sure, but there seem to be some puzzling omissions as well. No Phantasy Star? Where's Kid Chameleon? Altered Beast would be a great fit as well. There's always DLC, right?
