Grab your best friend and prepare your Wii-motes: Today, The House of the Dead: Overkill is shipping to retailers nationwide! The game has already received some great solid reviews, including an 8.3 from IGN, an 8.0 from Eurogamer, and another 8.0 from Edge Magazine!

As if a whole new game of two-player co-op zombie blasting wasn’t enough, the cool folks here at SEGA have even more awesome House of the Dead stuff up for fans across the world to enjoy! While you’re waiting on the game to arrive at your door, kill some time creating your very own Overkill movie poster here! Then post your creation here on the forums – make an awesome poster and we might just hook you up with a copy of the limited edition Overkill graphic novel!

If you haven’t seen it yet, there’s also a sweet Zombie Soundboard now live for all your Grindhouse-esque voice acting and music needs - check it out here at the official site! (Find it under Secret Files.) Finally, a little shout out to all of our Zombies – one shown above – who joined us at the New York Comic Con last weekend! You all suffered like G. did, and we commend you for it completely.

House of the Dead fans, you have your mission – blast your way through the game this week, and send us over some of your most creative House of the Dead posters! Post them here, make us laugh, and you may be in for a treat from the SEGA community team!

Happy House of the Dead Day, everyone!

Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection is making its way to retailers now! There’s been a lot of excitement and discussion about this title here in the blog as well as around the web. Look for it soon at a retailer near you.

From the official press release:

SEGA® of America, Inc. today announced that Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system has shipped to retailers across North America. This compilation features the entire series of Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage, Phantasy Star and Shining Force, as well as other classic titles from SEGA’s 16-bit Genesis, 8-bit Master System and 1980’s arcade era games library.  

Developed by Backbone Entertainment, Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection contains over 40 classic SEGA games in one package; making it the largest collection of SEGA first party games ever released. The game features local multiplayer as well as bonus content which includes nine unlockable games, video interviews from the creators of these classic SEGA titles, and fun facts that you may not have known about the games. Featured games include Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2 and 3, Golden Axe, Columns, Ecco the Dolphin, Shinobi III, and Space Harrier. Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection can output these classic games in 720p with higher resolution graphics for HD televisions, bringing a visually stunning gameplay experience, and breathing new life into these classics.”

Also today, we released the Official Player’s Guide to the game, which is available in PDF format.

Next, I wanted to address a question that’s been coming up in the comments lately with regard to this game, and that’s Knuckles. Here’s the scoop from the Producer of the game, Ethan Einhorn. “We’re excited to bring SEGA fans nearly 50 classic games on Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection. We understand that some people have expressed disappointment that the title does not support the ‘Lock-On’ technology featured in the original “Sonic & Knuckles” cartridge, and wanted to provide an explanation for this. Tight development timelines are a production reality, and in this instance, we had to choose between allotting engineering hours, localization, test resources, and front-end (menu) adjustment to support ‘Lock-On’, or dropping several titles from the collection altogether. Specifically, we would have had to drop all of the bonus games from the disc, as they all required unique emulation solutions. Faced with an either/or scenario, we chose to retain our title lineup in its entirety. We hope that everybody enjoys the abundance of content this value-priced collection provides.” I hope that clears up any confusion, even if it wasn’t the answer you were hoping for.

To celebrate the release of the game, we’ve been taking a look back to some of the games we remember best. If you haven’t read them yet, here are some handy links for you.

Shining Force I & II: The Legacy of Tactical Awesomeness

Dear Streets of Rage — I Love You

Retro Champion: Unlockable Content for Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection

Retro Champion: Achievements and Trophies for Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection

Sonic is nearly 20 years old now, and he’s made appearances in nearly every conceivable type of game–side-scrolling, 3D-action, racing, sports, action/adventure, really weird 3D, puzzle, more racing, and even RPG. One might say he is a well-traveled hedgehog. 

Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection releases today, and lest we forget, this is Sonic’s ultimate Genesis Collection: Although he’s usually out-of-office here at Sega HQ, his office (which by the way is filled with rings) is equipped with every Sega system all the way back to the SG-1000. I think he has Tails (currently VP of Hovering and Market Research) spearheading a port of Sonic R for it (rumors that the Tails Doll from that game was hard-coded into the motherboard of the SG-1000 years before the release of the first Sonic game are totally unsubstantiated). So his presence here at Sega is what one might call significant.

The point is, Sonic owns these games. There’s a reason so many collections have pulled together Sonic games, especially the original three (and Sonic & Knuckles). I’ll leave the original two Sonic games out of this blog–there’s not exactly a dearth of info on these games, and many of us know the levels by heart–but this is Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection (did I mention that?), and I thought it would be fun to take a look at the last of the side-scrolling Sonic games that came out for the Genesis.

Sonic 3′s design isn’t a lot different from Sonic 2, at least not as dramatically as Sonic 2 was an upgrade of the first Sonic. There’s a lot in the details, though–level design is at a pinnacle for Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, and the simple addition of different shield types added a huge amount to the games. If you think that all Sonic needs is a pair of sneakers, you’ve obviously never tried the bubble shield. And as in Sonic 2, the work-to-payoff ratio of taking the time to collect all the Chaos Emeralds in the bonus stages to become Super Sonic is one of the most awesomely satisfying payoffs in all of video games.

Also: We’ve gotten comments & questions from die-hard Sonic fans about this collection, and whether Sonic 3 + Knuckles would be included, or just the separate games. For those who don’t know: the original games were intended to be part of the same cart, and Sonic & Knuckles was eventually released as a “lock-on” cartridge, that could be locked-on to Sonic 3 and Sonic 2 so that Knuckles would be playable in those games. Locking Sonic & Knuckles into any other Sega Genesis game allows access to the game Blue Sphere, based on the Sonic bonus levels.

This ‘Sonic 3 + Knuckles’ feature wasn’t included for Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection. I spoke with the producer for Sonic’s UGC, Ethan Einhorn, who definitely understands the nature of hard-core Sonic fandom. We had a good conversation about the game, and I got Ethan’s official explanation for why Sonic 3 + Knuckles wasn’t included: “To shore up the development time necessary to get “Lock-On” to work in Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection, we would have had to drop all of the bonus games from the disc. Faced with an either/or scenario, we chose to retain our title lineup in its entirety.”

In other words, that would have meant losing the Sega Master System ports (Phantasy Star and Golden Axe Warrior) and all of the arcade ports. Just throwing an old ROM into a game is one thing, but combining lots of different types of ROM technology (arcade, Genesis, Master System) and making them all work together is another, and to get the game out with this lineup, that’s what needed to happen.

Lock-on was a cool feature but I love seeing the games here regardless; the levels for Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles are fantastic, definitely at the height of game design for side-scrolling action games. These games were made near the end of the Genesis’ heyday, and showcase the best combination of speed, sound, graphics, and gameplay available for the system. This collection has a lot of terrific games from all over Sega history, and they’re all worth investigating in their own way–but it’s always nice to revisit the best that a beloved system was capable of.

The history of Austria is one of warfare against invaders from the east, and the infidel Turks in particular. The originally Duchy was the eastern marches of the Holy Roman Empire (the Ostmark), and the defensive importance of Austria to the rest of Europe is immense. For nearly 250 years, the Ottoman Turks have hurled themselves against the bastion of Austria, reaching the gates of Vienna on more than one occasion. The last time was in 1683. Austrian bravery has kept them at bay, every time.

After the bloodletting of the last century – the Thirty Years War – within the Holy Roman Empire, Austria is a leading power among “the Germanies”. Leopold I, the ruling Hapsburg, has brought peace and prosperity, and maintained a first-class military machine (in particular, the Austrians have mastered the tactics using light, irregular troops). This gives the Austrians the potential to become a truly great power, either within the borders of the old Empire, to the south in Italy, or to the east. This latter scheme requires the Turks to be persuaded – at sword point – that their destiny lies outside Europe. The Austrians also have much to be proud of in the arts, music and culture.

Read more about Austria and all of the other factions in Empire: Total War on our website.