Marza Animation Planet working with Hollywood writer for next feature

Marza Animation Planet is the CGI animation studio owned by SEGA-Sammy. They are the team that did the awesome ‘Night of the Werehog‘ short and is now working on the Space Pirate Captain Harlock film.

If that wasn’t enough, it seems that the team is cooking up another project, this time with Marie Rose as a writer. She has worked on such films as Poseidon, LA Confidential and The Proposal. We shall see what comes out of this, should be interesting.

[Thanks: Liam via e-mail]
[Source: Mule Films page]

Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing coming to iOS

SAN FRANCISCO – SEGA of America, Inc. and SEGA Europe Ltd. today announced that Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is coming to iPhone and iPod touch. The mobile edition of this speedy title will include all the familiar faces and events players have enjoyed on other platforms when it drifts onto the App Store this spring.

Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing puts players on the track and in the shoes of a host of popular SEGA characters, from the blue blur himself to AiAi and Dr. Eggman, each with their own unique vehicle. Players must use their driving skills to drift and dodge their way to a checkered flag in a variety of single-player modes, as well as local multiplayer race and battle modes via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

For more details about Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing for iPhone and iPod touch, visit www.sega.com.

Source: IGN

UPDATE: check out screens after the break!

Anarchy Reigns Media Blowout

 

 

SEGA of America has announced via their blog that a press event was recently held for Platinum Games’ upcoming Anarchy Reigns. Today, the embargo has lifted, and those lucky enough to have gotten to experience the game are now releasing their previews.

Above you can see two great videos. Both feature Atsushi Inaba and loads of new gameplay footage. The second video shows off much more of the game, while the first video focuses more on Inaba. Both are worth watching if you have any interest in Platinum Games’ upcoming brawler. SEGA of America was also gracious enough to release a slew of new screenshots, eight to be exact, which can be checked out on their Flickr page.

SEGA says they’ll continue to add to their blog as more previews are released, so we’ll keep this updated if any others surface.

Update:

1up’s preview.

Eurogamer’s preview.

NG:Dev.Team partners with redspotgames again

NG:Dev.Team were introduced to the Dreamcast-Scene by redspotgames when the company published the Neo-Geo port of Last Hope. Last year, while Rene Hellwig was doing a promotional interview for his side project DUX (Made by his solo company Hucast.Net in collabration with KonTechs) he revealed that NGDT weren’t satisfied with the way publishing was handled by RSG therefore DUX would be published by Hucast.Net only.

Right after Hucast.Net released DUX, NGDT released Pink Bullets (Director’s Cut version of Last Hope) the following week RSG announced that they would be serving as “Logistic Partners” and take over responsibilities of distribution and promotion for the 2 games. This resulted in the cheapest indie bundles of all things Dreamcast and since Fast-Striker came out, fans have been waiting for the 2 companies to team up again. It took a lot longer than expected and RSG won’t be serving as “Logistic Partners,” but they have stocked Fast-Striker and are offering economical bundles for Dreamcast enthusiast who want more for less.

Hit the jump for the bundles

Sonic 4 Episode 2 Development Details Revealed

Thanks to Shadzter of The Sonic Stadium for sifting through SEGA’s forums and finding these nuggets of information, direct from Brand Manager Ken Balough. Ken held an impromptu Q&A and revealed the following:

• Episode 2 is in the early development stages
• SOA and SOE are both giving feedback and input on Episode 2
• Episode 1 sold well for SEGA commercially, meaning a bigger budget is likely for Episode 2
• Balough knows how many Episodes Sonic 4 will have, but can’t comment right now. Amount was decided during Episode 1′s development.
• Balough admits that some elements of Episode 1 could have been better and says Episode 2 gives the opportunity to address them.
• Episode 2 is not a Sonic CD remake. Idea is to bring new zones with things you haven’t seen before.

Great news in my opinion. I enjoyed Sonic 4 Episode 1 (rating it a B), but hoped that SEGA would hear criticism before diving into Episode 2. From the sound of things, they are doing just that. Perhaps the best bits of news are a larger budget and NEW ZONES! What haven’t we had yet? Spaghetti Mine Zone? Lava Ice Zone? Empty Nothingness Zone? I’m certain there’s some sort of environment we haven’t seen yet. Check out direct quotes in Shadzter’s original article.

[Source: The Sonic Stadium]

SEGA Sequel Saturdays: Sonic Adventure 3

Welcome to SEGA Sequel Saturdays, Episode 6. This week I’m going to take on the challenge of creating another Sonic Adventure, the series in which Sonic broke free from his 2D universe and into full, uncompromised 3D gameplay. We have had many Sonic games since Sonic Adventure 2, but each has been a fairly radical departure from where Sonic’s 3D escapades began back on the Dreamcast. In this episode I’ll look at how a Sonic Adventure 3 could be great, assuming SEGA wouldn’t just be using the “Adventure” name for sales purposes, but actually making another game fully in the Sonic Adventure template. As always, we welcome and appreciate your craaaaaaaazy responses in the Comments section below.

The 5 Best SEGA Network Scrap Heap Photos

Late last year I created a Flickr group entitled The SEGA Network Scrap Heap. The purpose of the Scrap Heap is to collect photos of SEGA collections and SEGA things. Since its creation, the group has grown to 17 active members and over one hundred and sixty photos. Not too shabby!

As the group has so many photos to sift through, I thought I’d share five of my favorites. After the break, check out my five favorites and don’t forget to check out the SGNW Scrap Heap yourself and please add to it. The more photos the better!

Shogun 2 – Dev Diary 2

Some of the lead members of the Total War creation process discuss how they have improved their games over the years, focusing mainly on the changes they brought to the table in the highly controversial Empires game which was the first game to add real time naval battles.

Then the go onto discuss some of their favorite moments in the series, personally mine is simply watching a barrage of fire arrows fill the sky from the safety of my castle wall and rain down on the siege army in a blaze of glory… Mmm fire arrows.

Sonic 4 coming to Windows Phone 7


Despite many requests from Android fans, SEGA has said they wouldn’t be bringing Sonic 4: Episode 1 to their phones. But out of the blue, Sonic 4: Episode 1 gets announced for Windows Phone 7.

Nothing much has been announced for the title.  I wonder if Xbox 360 owners that bought the 360 version will get a discount on the mobile one?

[Source: SEGA]

New Conduit 2 Trailer Shows Off Multiplayer Modes

Today IGN has posted a trailer for Conduit 2, this one giving us a (somewhat surprisingly) brief look at the multiplayer modes, likely one of game’s bigger selling points. The trailer’s only about a minute long, but you can hit the break for some of what you can expect from the game’s multiplayer if you don’t want to watch it for yourself.

Poll results: Majority of readers excited about Anarchy Reigns


For our first SEGAbits poll,  we asked you if you guys where excited about Anarchy Reigns. Almost half of you (42%) said you guys where excited over the game, 38% stated that they needed more information and 20% didn’t care about the game.

I’m quite surprised at the number that didn’t care about the title. But what can you expect, web is full of haters. Now we have a new poll:
How would you improve the Dreamcast Collection? Choices up on the side bar.

PSO2 Minimum Requirements Revealed

With the release of Phantasy Star Portable 2:Infinity in Japan (today) also comes news of the minimum requirements needed for the Phantasy Star Online 2 Alpha Test.

Some lucky people who get a hold of the initial shipment of PSP2:I will also receive a code inside their game case. Others who subscribe to PSO:BB and PSU in Japan can receive the code though e-mail. These people can register their code right now at http://pso2.jp/alpha.

You will need to register for a SEGA ID then use the code to log in by pressing the alpha test button in blue.

Hit the jump for the all important Minimum Requirements,

Virtua Tennis 4 release date announced for North America! Also, cover art.

UPDATE: Europe can expect the game a week early, with the European release date announced as being April 29th, 2011.

Restring your racquets, Virtua Tennis 4 has a release date! SEGA has announced that Virtua Tennis 4 will be hitting the Wii, PS3 and 360 on May 10, 2011 in North America! Also, SEGA has released the cover art. Want to see the PS3 and Wii cover, as well as a press release?

Super Monkey Ball 3DS – Monkey Race Footage

Sega news has all been a little too sweet recently, something had to give and it just did. I present to you Super Monkey Ball 3DS – Monkey Race Mode footage.

Here I was hoping that a return to the original Super Monkey Ball team would yield some good results for this series but alas, this looks pretty damn awful.

‘Monkey Race’ in Super Monkey Ball: Deluxe was actually a very fun distraction from the main game. Not only that, but it made sense! You would race your monkey inside his monkey ball and use momentum to propel yourself down hills and around tight corners.

This here is just a poor mans’ Mario Kart or Sega All-Star Racing even. The track looks dull, the items look stupid, the graphics are nothing to write home about, and it just doesn’t look fun at all. It doesn’t even have monkey target, I’ll be giving this one a miss.

Total War to Get First TV Ads & More.

Sega are clearly very confident in their product when it comes to Shogun 2. Total War: Shogun 2 marks the first game in the series to have adverts/Commercials aired on TV. I think adverts are pretty rare in general for PC exclusive games.

But these aren’t just any adverts; Sega is teaming up with the History Channel for a series of three minute ad break takeovers for a period of two weeks. These ads will run around March 15th which is when the game releases.

Total War is one of the PC’s most successful franchises; it has sold 7.5m units worldwide since the original was released in 2000.
“We are confident that Shogun 2 is well positioned to be one of Q1’s biggest PC performers,” said Sega’s senior product manager Ben Walker.

“This is the first time we have utilized TV for a Total War game and believe our partnership with The History Channel will deliver an as yet untapped audience.”

Hit the jump for more on other advertisment.