Yakuza Week: Who’s the boss now?

During this generation, I’ve seen a disturbing lack of boss fights, or at least, good boss fights. Thankfully, one of the most enjoyable aspects of any Yakuza game for me has become the boss battles. Yakuza is home to some of the most memorable boss fights in any recent SEGA title and the fourth mainline entry into the series isn’t any different. As with such articles, spoilers for the game follow, so if you happen not to have completed Yakuza 4 yet and do not wish to be spoiled, walk away now, for everyone else, please continue reading to find out my personal five!

Virtua Tennis 4 UK Launch Trailer

It’s the Virtua Tennis 4 UK launch trailer! This trailer focuses mostly on the PS3 version and its Move control scheme. However, rest assured that the game will also be available with the usual controller based scheme for PS3, Xbox 360 (with Kenect) and Wii.

Being developed by the original VT development team in Japan gives me high hopes for this game and with a £1 million marketing campaign it seems Sega do too!

YAKUZA WEEK – DAY 2: Of Heat and Content

Akiyama’s in heat!

TWITTER GIVE AWAY – Day 2 of 6

Today we have just 1 give-away but it’s a good one!
Today one lucky winner will nab 1 copy of Yakuza 4 signed by YAZ and 1 copy of the Yakuza 4 art book.

All you have to do to have a shot at winning these awesome prizes is follow us on twitter, CLICK HERE follow SEGAbits and retweet this message;
“RT Follow @SEGAbits – YAKUZA WEEK – DAY 2 – CONTEST! Retweet to win Yakuza prizes. Info: http://www.segabits.com/?p=11942 “

We’ll pick a winner at random!
If you don’t win, don’t fret, there will be another chance tomorrow!

Day 1 winners:
Of the Yakuza branded bowl & Game – Hibikirush
Of the Art book & Chopsticks – D12W

Congratulations guys!

Why you should own this game, Day 2 – Reason 2:
There is just SO MUCH content.

Have you ever wondered if the price you are paying for the game is worth the content you’re getting? I know I often do. A good game is a good game but I’d like to be kept satisfied for at least 10 hours.

If there is one game that doesn’t skimp on content it is Yakuza 4. There is just so much to do. Beside the main, crime thriller storyline you can do multiple mini games including golf, baseball batting cages, gambling, fishing and many more.

Not only can you waste your money dating the lovely ladies of the game, brining them gifts, buying them food and saying all the right things to see where you can take the relationship. You can even run the hostess clubs where guys pick them up! Design the bar and even dress the woman how you like em!

Not only that there is the battle cage, an underground ‘flight club’ style arena where you fight other hard nuts in brutal battles to see who’s the best. Again, you can even become a trainer and coach fighters; you help them become the best!

If that wasn’t enough, there are the seemingly endless amounts of side missions you can take.

There is so much bang for your buck that most people I know who have played it say that they can be 20 to 40 hours into the game and only on chapter 3 or 4 and many find out that when they finish the story mode they’ve still only completely 30% of the games content.

Do yourself a favor and look at our side bar, over there on the right. We’ve made it easy for you to buy! Just click on that BUY NOW button!

SEGA Sequels: Viking: Battle for Asgard


Every week we bring up mostly retro games we want to see come back. Viking: Battle for Asgard came out in early 2008. Most gamers ignored it for other titles and SEGA fans didn’t know what to expect. Reviews where mixed. But guess what? I loved it and want Creative Assembly to continue the franchise.

Yakuza Week: Favorite Yakuza 4 tunes

In celebration of…I guess we’re calling it Yakuza Week, (rad) I figured it would be appropriate to dedicate some time to the music of the recently-released Yakuza 4. Their soundtracks have been one area that this series has always excelled in, and Yakuza 4 is certainly no exception. The adrenaline-pumping and guitar-heavy soundtrack returns, of course, as do the power balads, and let’s not forget those crazy Japanese karaoke songs. Here are some of the songs I found to be memorable in Yakuza 4, and I encourage you to post/discuss yours in the comments section below!

Sonic Team’s attempt at a Tony Hawk game

Assembler games forum member got his hands on an XBOX 1 devkit. A lot of unreleased games were unearthed, including “SONIC EXTREME”. SONIC EXTREME looks like Sonic Team’s attempt at Tony Hawk… quite literally! You can see Sonic doing Tony Hawk style skateboard tricks.

So yeah… just think. We could have had a Sonic game like this! This was an amusing video to watch and I just had to share it with you guys!

[Source: TSSZNews]

Digital distribution helped SEGA enter new territories


[By the way, PSN is still down!]

SEGA announced last year that they had a whole team dedicated to digital distribution. James Schall, SEGA’s digital distribution manager, spoke about how they have reached new territories due to ESD (electronic software distribution).

“A few years ago the digital team was bolted on to the side of other departments, with a couple of people at most working on the project. Now we have a specific ESD team of six looking after PC titles. Digital enables you to reach out to new territories.” – James Schall, Digital Distribution Manager

Not an expert, but since SEGA doesn’t have too many PC titles I think 6 people handling the job is pretty ample. Maybe I’m wrong? I think digital teams over at SEGA will just get bigger as the market grows on consoles, but after the PSN thing happened, will you rely on a network?

[Source: MCV]

Operation G.H.O.S.T. arcade cabinet

SEGA’s sequel to Ghost Squad is real, so real that here are your pictures of the cabinet you will be playing it on. Sure, it isn’t the best looking cabinet and we have not had screenshots released of in-game yet.

Pretty sure this game will get a US and Europe arcade release, seeing as how Ghost Squad was quite popular here. Maybe if we complain enough we will also get a console port? Worth a try!

[Via: Arcadeheroes]

The Weekly Five: Why We’re Partying Like It’s 2001!

2001 was a great year for SEGA games, but a bad year for SEGA. While a number of amazing titles released, we played them with the knowledge that the Dreamcast was to be discontinued by March. To create a sad analogy, it was like going to Disneyland knowing you had three months left to live. Jump ahead ten years to 2011. All signs point to a great year for SEGA games AND a great year for SEGA. The comparison between 2001 and 2011 doesn’t end there, as you’ll soon learn in this week’s “Weekly Five”. Just why are we partying like it’s 2001? Read on to find out!

YAKUZA WEEK – DAY 1: Of Underwear Theft and Contests!

Video of the Day: Yakuza 4 Revelations – Essence of Triple Strike


Why you should own this game, Day 1 – Reason 1: There isn’t a bad time to jump in!

Every time a new Yakuza game is about to release I see the same question cropping up in every forum I visit; ‘Can I buy this game now or do I have to play the series from the start to understand the storyline?’

You can jump in RIGHT AWAY; Each Yakuza game has its own story arc with a beginning and an end. If you don’t care to know about the series history you can play right off the bat and you won’t feel lost at all.

However if you are one of those kinds of people who just needs to know all the history of the game and the characters, Yakuza 4 has you covered. At the start of every Yakuza sequel so far there’s the chance to ‘reminisce’, which is a fancy way of saying ‘watch videos of the events of the previous games’ and they go really in-depth too!

Do yourself a favor and look at our side bar, over there on the right. We’ve made it easy for you to buy! Just click on that BUY NOW button!


TWITTER GIVE AWAY – Day 1 of 6

Prize 1: A Yakuza 4 Branded Bowl & Yakuza game signed by YAZ
Prize 2: A Yakuza 4 Art Book & Yakuza 4 branded chopsticks

All you have to do to have a shot at winning these awesome prizes is follow us on twitter, CLICK HERE follow SEGAbits and retweet this message;

RT & Follow @SEGAbits – YAKUZA WEEK – DAY 1 – CONTEST! Retweet to win Yakuza prizes. info: http://www.segabits.com/?p=11634

We’ll pick a winner at random!

If you don’t win, don’t fret, we’re here all week!

Redspotgames surveying to cancel PSN port of R4

A Message from Senile Team:

On account of the recent PlayStation Network (PSN) account leaks, publisher redspotgames has started a survey to poll consumer confidence in Sony’s online platform. Is your trust irreparably dented, or will you be happy to hand over all your personal information to Sony as soon as PSN is up again? Speak up and your vote could help decide whether Rush Rush Rally Racing will go portable. And you can even win some goodies!

Tick the boxes here

So what does this news have to do with the Dreamcast-Scene? Well the Sceners who no longer wish to use Sony’s PSN service can inform redspotgames, and if the right amount of people have lost interest in R4 for Playstation, Senile Team would stop developing it, which would free up resources for Age of the Beast and you know what that means right?

Toys”R”Us has Virtua Tennis 4 for $32.49


So money is tight, SEGA knows and has priced the HD console versions of Virtua Tennis 4 down to $50 dollars on launch. Not enough for you? You can get them at Toys”R”Us for $32.99! What about the Wii? A sexy $25.99. Nice!

Click here to see prices

The game is getting pretty good scores in Europe and there is a playable demo on PSN… well, you could have played it if PSN was up!

ICO & Shadows of the Colossus creator tweets about being a SEGA fan


Fumito Ueda is one of my favorite people in the industry and runs one of the best teams at Sony, Team ICO. They are working on the upcoming (and excellent looking) title, The Last Guardian.

Fumito Ueda talked on twitter about how he has been a massive SEGA fan since they released the Mark III in Japan. I have actually heard about him being a big SEGA fan and actually being friends with Ryuta Ueda (who worked on Jet Set Radio, Panzer Dragoon series and Yakuza series). They even have the same last name… weird?

Something about Team ICO’s games always reminded me of Panzer Dragoon… I could never put my finger on it.

[Source: AndriaSang]

ESRB has rating for Crush 3D

When Crush was released back in 2007, it didn’t get that much hype, even though it ended up being one of my favorite games on the PSP. Now it will get a second chance on the Nintendo 3DS. We posted about it coming awhile back, now ESRB has rated the title.

This is a puzzle platformer in which players collect marbles to activate exits and complete each level. As players run and jump through each colorful environment, they can toggle between 2D and 3D perspectives to navigate platforms. Players’ ‘cartoony’ character cries out and loses a life if he falls off tall platforms or is struck by roaming enemies (e.g., giant blocks, slugs). In some sequences, players can use large blocks or balls to squash giant cockroaches; defeated bugs emit large splashes of yellow liquid that stain the ground.

Now all we need is a press release, official release date and we can finally get hyped. The game got a E 10+ rating. That means you should get 4 copies for each one of your children.

[Source: ESRB]

New Binary Domain trailer as title is delayed to 2012

The previous Binary Domain trailer left much to be desired from many who had high expectations for Yakuza and Monkey Ball series designer Toshihiro Nagoshi’s newest title, however SEGA have recently put together a new trailer for your enjoyment, the trailer has a lot less dialogue but focuses on more action this time round. It does a much better job at generating hype for the game than the intial trailer and showcases ingame gameplay, from certain vehicles you can control to the boss battles you will face throughout the game, the trailer also confirms that the game will be available early 2012, from its original release date of sometime in 2011.

[Special thanks to Suzuki Yu for the tip!]