While already making the rounds across the interwebs, we’re posting the newest Samba trailer to the blog to let everyone have a look.  I’m a fan of the new video, I like to see our Samba friends in fully realized 3d doing what they do best, shaking their stuff to the infectious Samba rhythms.  Enjoy!

At long last, the Happy Tree Friends game is now available for Xbox Live Arcade and PC Download!  Having played a bit of the game myself, I can say with certainty that Happy Tree Friends is pretty funny and definitely does the web comic justice. Providing you with an endless amount of potential dangers, you must navigate your Happy Fuzzy Friends to their untimely demise, erm, safety…

If you are fan of the comic or just interested in some comic mayhem, then check out our product page and download the game!

So its been a little over a month since SegaDawg made his trip down to Secret Level giving us a little insiders view on the goings-on with the upcoming Golden Axe: Beast Rider. I figured after the recent SEGA Gamer’s Day a few weeks back where a handful of folks got a chance to take a peek at the game, it might be time for some more updates and exclusive releases. So what do you say we get right into it?

First off, some of you may have seen the trailer for Golden Axe: Beast Rider that has been up on the official teaser site for the past week or so. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, it is now available on our Youtube page as well.

In addition to the new trailer, I got my hands on some new exclusive screens an uploaded them to our Flickr page. We should be getting a nice steady stream of exclusive screens which I will continue to upload there until the game releases this Fall. Some of the environments look pretty gnarly, with the dead remains of giant beasts scattered around — some massive prehistoric-esque bones being used as the foundations for desert dwellings and structures. It’s kind of like a totally wicked Ewok Village — check out some of them here:

Obviously as noted in previous news related to the game (and the spell-it-out-for-you title) this game is all about THE BEASTS! Big beasts, little beasts, nice beasts, mean beasts — you name it, we got ‘em! That being said, I’ve got a few screenshots of two of the little (or big, as seems to be the case) beasties here.

As with most of you I imagine, the Golden Axe series has been a staple of enjoyment for many years, and this one looks to bring a great new perspective as well. What do you guys think?

-EggShen

Check out my new favorite SEGA website, the Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood full micro-site! I’m not exaggerating either, I really do think this is one of the better websites we’ve ever created. Why, you ask? Well, for starters it’s essentially the DS version of Sonic Chronicles only in website form, which is pretty darn cool. I really like the trend of building websites that give you actual insight into how the game is played, basically merging mini-games into the website!

By taking the stylus in hand, you can direct Sonic around the island, test out the loop de loop, and meet some of your friends. Each character you meet has new information about the game, as well as some cool screens or movies to see! As a special treat, rings are scattered about the website and offer some unique rewards for those who can guide Sonic and collect them all.

Check out the full site for yourself and get a glimpse of what it will be like to play Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood!

How far you’ve come.

Reflecting on my post from last week, I realized that it has now been 17 years since the little blue guy has come into our lives. I remember Christmas 1991, opening all my gifts hoping and praying that inside one of the colorful packages would be the ONE THING that I reeeeaaalllly wanted – a SEGA Genesis. After a Nerf football, various sweaters and socks, some weird board game I hadn’t ever heard of (and to this day, don’t think I ever played) and I think some candy, I had come up short. No Genesis for me this year. I didn’t complain though, as I knew I was lucky to even be able to receive any gifts, and my favorite part of the holidays was the food anyway.

After retiring to my room to put together the Lego pirate ship I had received a few days early from another relative, it really started to hit me. My neighbor across the street called me from his relatives house to tell me that he had gotten his Genesis (we both were hard-core gaming buddies then and each HAD to have one) and a sense of loss sunk in. Well, at least when he gets back I can head across the street and check out the amazing 16-bit graphics promised by the coolest commercials on TV (remember, this was 1991 folks).

A few hours later, my mom calls me out of my room as she is preparing our big dinner and asks me to help her tidy up a bit. I reluctantly agree as I had finished building the ship, and with only a Nerf football and some socks left from my morning gift plundering, I was pretty short on creative ways to occupy my time till my friend got home with the little black box that was supposed to change our gaming lives. First order of business — clean the needles out from under the tree. I grabbed the dustbuster (remember — 1991) and went to town. I finished up and went back with a filter full of needles. My mom asks “did you get all the one under the blanket on the table?” “No.” I reply. “Well, the jobs not done until you get all the way under there and there are no needles left.” “Ugh.” I protest with heavy feet dragging my way back into the living room.

“Mom!” I exclaim as I crawl under the blanket on the table to reach the far recesses of pine needles. “There’s another present under here you didn’t get!” “Well, what does it say on it?” she asks. “Nothing,” I reply, “It just says ‘From Santa’!”. Surprised she tells me “Well, you better pull it out and see what it is then.”

My heart skipped a beat as a million different outcomes poured through my head. Could it be for me? Could it be what I was hoping for? What if it’s not? What if my little brother scored yet another awesome gift and I was stuck working on my Nerf Spiral Hail Mary the rest of holiday vacation from school? Prepare for the worst, hope for the best I told myself. I slowly began peeling the paper off the package from the ends first, taking a peek at the contents — a big brown cardboard box. Well, this is certainly unnerving. The rest of the paper comes off, and here I am face to face with more anonymous packaging. “It’s a big brown box!” I holler into the kitchen. “Well, I suppose you should open that as well” I’m told. No problem i think in my head as I whip out my trusty box cutter fingernails and slice the tape holding the box top shut.

As I dig into the packaging I realize that there’s another box inside. A dark box, mostly black and green. Is this?!? Could it be?!?!? I pull out the box so quickly, another two small boxes inside fly off onto the kitchen floor. “What is it?” my mom implores. “It’s a GENESIS mom!!! A SEGA GENESIS!!!” (picture that kid with the Nintendo 64, but about 2 years older and wearing totally sweet MC Hammer pajama pants) . I nearly lost it entirely. This went from being a pretty moderate normal Christmas morning to possibly the best surprise of my then young life. My mom’s pretty crafty sometimes — well done on that one.

So it was written — 17 years ago this Christmas, I received my first SEGA Genesis and my first formal introduction to a character who would change not only my video game world, but also (in a sort of roundabout way) my life in general. I spent the next 8 hours straight (with the exception of Christmas dinner which I tried and failed to get out of) mastering this new gameplay dynamic, stomping robo-animals, and collecting as many coins as I could on my mission to find all the secrets of the game before my neighbor friend got home. It’s good to know that the Blue Blur is still going strong, and with a couple more games coming up that I honestly am looking forward to wrapping myself up in for a couple days. My neighbor friend lives up in Seattle now designing superhero toys and models — but I’ve got gamer roommates who I’m sure are down for the challenge of who can find all the secret paths, rings and easter eggs first.

Here’s to you Sonic. Happy Birthday, and thank you for 17 years of fun and the best Christmas surprise still.

Looks like Sonic is getting some well-wishes from across the globe today on his special day, check out some of these cool links:

Sonic’s Birthday Wishes on Youtube!

http://www.shoutfactory.com/community/848/thread.aspx

http://www.tssznews.com/2008/06/23/happy-17th-birthday-sonic/

http://aedelthryd.vox.com/library/post/happy-17th-birthday-sonic.html

http://www.screwattack.com/node/5150

What are YOUR best Sonic memories?

-EggShen

June 23^rd is a special day here at the SEGA offices – it is, after all, the birthday of our way past cool mascot and legendary gaming icon Sonic the Hedgehog. Last year the Phantasy Star Universe Game Masters held a birthday event for the little guy, and players across Gurhal took part in what has become the one day of the year when spamming is officially endorsed. (And indeed, spam they do.)

Many players even got footage of Sonic and a certain two-tailed fox running around the lobbies during his 16th birthday last year, and posted videos online – special thanks to PSU veteran Squid Goggles for this one:

Sonic’s seventeenth birthday this year will be much the same, and we’ll also be giving out special prizes to everyone who wishes the blue blur a Happy Birthday in PSU! For details, check out our official Event Page!

Of course, even if you don’t play PSU or can’t attend, feel free to yell “HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONIC!” this June 23^rd anyway, no matter where you are! (Just don’t mind the odd looks.) Have a great weekend, everyone!

“Up, over, and gone!”

Sonic’s 17th Birthday – PSU Event Page

Phantasy Star Universe June 20th updates

I’m personally really excited about our Alpha Protocol game and want to extend this feeling out to everyone reading the blog. I’ve seen some bits and pieces of the game, and really just love the direction they are going in. Next Generation thinks so too, and digs in to ask some tough questions to developer Obsidian. Inside is a great article on the overall philosophy of the game, as well as some insight into certain features, such as the DSS dialog system.

For a lazy Friday morning, grab yourself a cup of coffee and take a fifteen minute break to read the full Next Generation article on our upcoming spy-rpg-action-thrill-a-thon. Here’s a quick highlight from Obsidian COO Chris Parker to help set the tone:

———————————–

“We were looking at what we wanted to do after KOTOR,” says Parker. “There’s not a whole lot of player skill in Knights Of The Old Republic – strategic skill, but not running and shooting.” This decision to put the focus on what the team is calling ‘action skills’ is defining Alpha Protocol, but there’s little chance of Obsidian making a spy-based EDF clone. “RPGs are really what we do: that’s our shtick and we don’t intend to deviate from that. We’ve been working with d20 games forever, so it was a lot of fun to design a new system that does exactly what you want it to.”

———————————–

FEATURE: Alpha Protocol – The Spying Game

A couple weeks ago I got to take a look at the new Sonic Unleashed in action and in all honesty, I was pretty impressed. It’s been a while since the Blue Blur first enamored me with his side-scrolling high speed assault on Dr. Robotnik in the original Genesis — and he’s come quite a long way in the last 17 years (wow — am I really getting that old?). That being said, Sonic Unleashed will be featuring a lot of things we have come to know and love in a Sonic game, the thrills of blasting challenging and intriguing environments, an insatiable appetite for ring collecting, freaky-hybrid-robo-creatures, and most importantly — SPEED! Sonic Unleashed looks to not disappoint in any of these departments from what I’ve seen so far, and even offers us more excitment and a some familiar gameplay dynamics in a new light.

The folks over at IGN got ahold of some killer gameplay footage of Unleashed in action, so I figured this would be a good time to show it off and share it with you guys if you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet. I’m hoping to get another updated look at the game soon and perhaps some more footage as we get closer to release to share as well, but for now I leave you with this supersonic journey through Sonic Unleashed:

What do you guys think?

EggShen

Normally we don’t cross post links from other blogs, but this struck me as a particularly interesting write up of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood from the perspective of Mark Darrah, project lead. I’m a pretty big fan of BioWare, I mean, who isn’t? They make great games, and have always impressed me with their top quality releases. The Gamasutra interview takes this into account and asks some interesting questions about how BioWare is approaching this new title, how it is different for them form a development standpoint, and what it means to be a part of the project. Here’s a snippit:

————————————————–

The motto of BioWare is “The best story-based games.” Sonic has been ridiculed recently for both the way its story has been going, and overall as a series. How do you loop that back?

Mark Darrah: The interesting thing is that Sonic, when you start digging into the IP, is an immensely well-developed IP. There are comics, there are cartoons, and there is all this back-history that’s been laid out. So there was an amazing amount for us to draw upon, and refer to, and pay homage to as we made the story.

I mean, I think the big thing is, we’re making a storytelling game, while for most of the Sonic titles – Sonic Rush, for example – the story has to be injected between the levels, so it limits how they can tell story.

————————————————–

If this sounds good to you, then you should definitely head over to Gamasutra and read the full article!

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19105

Hot off the digital presses – I’m happy to announce the release of our Yakuza 2 webpage to the new Sega.com website! Yakuza fans who have been following the release, scrambling for new information, will be happy to find a full product description, screenshots, and the full game trailer. If you are interested in the seedy underbelly of the Japanese mobster scene, or just really like guys with tattoos, then Yakuza 2 might just be the game for you!

Yakuza 2 Webpage