Hey everyone!

With San Diego Comic-con starting next week, we’d like to kick off the weekend with a sneak peek at what our community team will be giving out at the show! Just like at NYCC, we’re bringing along some special swag from the SEGA office – and we’ll be awarding it to only the most hardcore of SEGA fans!

SDCC Cosplay Prizes

• Cosplay any SEGA character and get a free “GAMER” T-shirt! (Limited to the first two-hundred and fifty)

• Cosplay Valkyria Chronicles and you can choose between:
  • 1: A limited edition Valkyria Chronicles Art Book. (Limited to the first seven)
  • 2: A rare Valkyria Chronicles Series 1 figurine. (Limited to the first five)

• Cosplay Phantasy Star and you’ll  go home with an Inflatable Phantasy Star Zero Rappy, as well as a Phantasy Star Zero or Phantasy Star Universe figurine! (Figurines limited to first three, Rappies are unlimited)

• Cosplay Bayonetta on Friday, July 24th, and swing by the SEGA booth for an exclusive ticket to hang out with PlatinumGames at a private Bayonetta event that night! You’ll need to be over 21 to join. (Tickets are very limited)

Phantasy Star Trivia

In celebration of Phantasy Star Zero getting closer to its western launch, we’ll be giving away additional merchandise – even if you can’t make it in costume! The figurines above will only be going out to PS cosplayers, but we’ll be giving away Inflatable Rappy armbands to anyone who can answer the following two questions:

* In Phantasy Star Online, one quest involves a pair of twins and a battle against the organization Black Paper. What are the names of these two twins?
* In Phantasy Star Zero, what is the name of the teenage Newman girl who accompanies you through the game?

FAQs

Q: Yay free stuff! When I can meet you guys at the booth to get some of it?

A: We’ll be posting a full schedule of Meet and Greet times early next week! Our team will be all over the show floor getting pictures, blogging, and tweeting away, and we’ll return to the SEGA Booth at designated times each day to meet you guys and give out the goods.

Q: Let’s say I cosplay Rosie from Valkyria Chronicles. Do I get both my choice of the Valkyria prizes and also the “GAMER” T-shirt?

A: Yes you do! The Valkyria and Phantasy Star prizes are a bonus on top of the “GAMER” T-shirt, which will go out to any and all SEGA-themed cosplayers. That said, if you are cosplaying Rosie, just leave the Darcsen hating at the door.

Q: If I put on a pair of glasses and lipstick, does that qualify as a good enough Bayonetta Cosplay to visit the Platinum Games event?

A: If you really want to visit the event, make sure to put as much effort as possible into your costume – only the best will be getting the tickets!

Q: Hey, I see a MADWORLD Wii Decal and stickers! How do I get those?

A: The MADWORLD Wii Decal will go out to the first person who finds us at the show and mentions this blog entry! The second and third people to do so will also get MADWORLD stickers – perfect for attaching to your mother’s favorite kitchenware! Please note that you will need to be 17+ years old to pick up the MADWORLD merch, since the game is rated M.

Hooray for Valkyria Figurines!

The full Meet and Greet schedule will be coming early next week before the show starts. Are any of you readers going to visit us dressed in SEGA attire?

Until next week – we’ll see you guys at SDCC!

Two new classic SEGA titles came out this week for the Wii’s Virtual Console — Pulseman and Secret Command. Both of these games are technically available for the first time here: Secret Command is previously a European release, whereas Pulseman was previously only available in Japan — and occasionally in untranslated form on the SEGA Channel.

Secret Command is from the bygone days of the top-down shooter. If it bears a strong resemblance to a certain other SEGA Genesis North American release, well . . . no comment. I always liked these style of games at arcades and pizza palors and whatnot, but found them immensely difficult for some reason. The strategy of moving from one cover to another can be addictive — I think my problem was always that charging headlong into a storm of bullets seemed like strategic gold. Typically, it wasn’t.

As for Pulseman, this is a gem of a game, with really excellent graphics — a fine example of the absolute best that the Genesis had to offer.  The titular hero moves between the “real world” and a kind of TRON-inspired computer world comprised of psychedlic circuit board backgrounds and lots of cool shifting colors. I’ve played a lot of generic side-scrolling action games and Pulseman actually caught me by surprised — for such excellent graphics the game moves very quickly, with an almost Sonic feel to the way you can cruise around levels. Pulseman’s moves are very unique though, and he can change into an electrical ball in order to maneuver from platform to platform.

Enjoy these unique games now, for Wii Virtual Console!

As of this morning, we’ve officially confirmed a new release date for Bayonetta here in the western market. The game will be arriving in January 2010 – and SEGA West’s new COO and President Mike Hayes commented on the reasons.

“Bayonetta is an extremely important new IP for SEGA and adds a new level of depth to our growing portfolio. As a result of market analysis we have taken a Publishing decision that January 2010 is the optimum release time in the Western Markets to maximize this exciting new title’s potential,” said Mike Hayes, President and COO for SEGA West.

Personally I’m quite behind the move, as I remember what happened to another excellent game called Valkyria Chronicles that was overshadowed at launch because of the massive slew of games that hit each fall.

What are your opinions? Would you have rather seen the game ship earlier, or do you agree with the reasons behind the move?