One of the best games from a flagship series for the SEGA Master System, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap is now available for Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console.

Few games epitomize what the Master System did well as much as the Wonder Boy series: a combination of colorful graphics, terrific animation, action-packed platforming, and clever game mechanics, Wonder Boy games combined both action and RPG elements in unique ways.

Wonder Boy III was the last of the series to come out on the Master System, and was released in 1989 (the first Wonder Boy came out way back in 1986, and was even released on the Master System’s predecessor, the SG-1000 ). The story for Wonder Boy III continues directly where the previous game left off — having defeated the final dragon boss and still equipped with full armor & weapon upgrades. Cursed by the final boss, however, Wonder Boy loses his gear and is turned into a dragon himself. Defeating other bosses turns Wonder Boy into a variety of other forms, including a Lizard Man that shoots flame, a Piranha Man for underwater stages, a Hawk Man for aerial assaults, and even a Mouse Man that enables the player to get into otherwise inaccessible areas.

Aside from combining the many unique styles of game play for each different form, Wonder Boy III lets you roam freely around the game world, puzzling out where you need to go next based on the strengths and weaknesses of your current “cursed” form. Additionally, the elements of the previous Wonder Boy games are here — you collect coins and buy upgraded equipment and items from shops scattered around the game world.

The music, like so much from the SEGA Master System, is charming and infectious, and the game has particularly fine graphics, with the sorts of bright colors and fluid animation the 8-Bit workhorse of a system excelled at. Like the Alex Kidd series, there is something about Wonder Boy that makes it undeniably a SEGA game, and there’s something quirky and compelling about the way the different game mechanics all come together. If you’re at all curious about SEGA’s early console history & unique classic games, Wonder Boy III is a terrific game to check out.

We’re excited to present the first dev diary for Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing!

Hello and welcome!

I’m Steve Lycett and this is the first part of my development diary as we run through the creation of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing.

First a bit about me. What do I do? Who is this person typing these words for you, the reader and why?

Well I’m glad you asked! Officially I’m Executive Producer. Sounds fancy right? Well it’s not all cocktails and parties! As producer I get to do all the jobs that no-one else wants to do… My job is basically ensuring the game gets done on time and to budget. Wait, no come back, I’m not going to show you any gantt charts, excel sheets, year planners or such. If that’s your thing, you’re in the wrong place! I could go into how it’s me that has to feed my very creative and talented team as we work through weekends and long nights, but I’m sure everyone is already bored of those kind of stories.

No the other things I get to do are far more interesting. Like fly to Japan and meet up with all the game directors at SEGA Japan. Ah… now you’re listening 

But let’s start at the beginning shall we? How did this game come about? Whose crazy idea was it in the first place?

So a history lesson. Stop talking at the back!

First let’s set the scene. The game is being made at Sumo Digital. For some reason everyone thinks we’re Japanese. Let’s clear that one up first. We’re actually based in the UK, in a city called Sheffield. Most people outside of the UK know Sheffield from a film called the ‘Full Monty’. If you’ve never heard of that, go look it up. You’re back? We’ll I’m sure you’ll be pleased to know we’ve been making the game fully dressed! Otherwise Sheffield is better known for steel. Oddly enough, across the car park from Sumo HQ is a huge steel works. I probably would be working there if I’d been born 30 years earlier…

Anyway… Sumo Digital probably caught most gamer’s attention when we converted OutRun2 from the Chihiro arcade board to the Xbox. Think about trying to close a suitcase full of holiday clothes and in the hotel before heading home, and you’ve got a good idea of what was involved.

We’ve also  worked on Virtua Tennis World Tour for PSP, OutRun2006 for PS2, Xbox and PSP (imagine all your holiday clothes being squeezed into a lunchbox…), Virtua Tennis 3 for Xbox and PSP, and more recently, Sega Superstars Tennis on  Xbox360, PS3, PS2, Wii and DS. So we’ve done a few Sega games. Hopefully some you’ve played and enjoyed!

Back to the story then. We’d finished SEGA Superstars Tennis, and we’re at the special moment where for five minutes everyone is relieved that it’s gone out on time, then panics as suddenly we need to find something new to do.

Cue SEGA to the rescue! How would we like to do another SEGA Superstars game? Well very much thankyou! Various idea’s were suggested, how about paintball, what about skating, how about fighting! Eventually we settled on racing!

Why racing? Well why not? It seemed obvious to us, we’d done two versions of OutRun, and since SEGA project wise we’d gone racing game/tennis game/racing game/tennis game/tennis game it was an obvious enough choice that it should be a racing game this time. So that decided, we had to decide what kind of racing game it was going to be.

Now you’ve probably seen the trailers or early footage, and think ‘well that’s easy, everyone is in a car, on a bike, or in some kind of flying contraption!’ and well, you’d be almost right.

We started off with… Sonic running. Yes running. Not in a car. Not Super Sonic, but Sonic running full pelt around a test track. Next we added Eggman, riding in his Eggpod, but with robotic legs attached. He was running too. Then we added Tails. He was in his Tornado, the red biplane from Sonic 2. Next, we thought ‘It’s a racing game, lets try a car’ and dropped in Amy, in a nice bright pink Amymobile. We didn’t stop there either, next we added Gilius Thunderhead, you know, the Dwarf from Golden Axe. I’m sure you’re wondering what fiendish choice of travel he has, so I’ll tell you. We put him on top of Chicken Leg, the odd looking two legged parrot creature from the same game. Note, don’t all be running to the internet to go ‘OMG GILIUSSSS!!!!!’ as with all the prototype characters, it doesn’t mean they’ll make the final game!

Now I’m sure you’re wondering what on earth this looked like, and I can tell you, it was pretty mad. What was clear though that it wasn’t all that much fun to play. Our main problem was that all the characters were different sizes. Sonic was Sonic sized, but he was really small compared to Eggman and Gilius on their rides. Worse still was Tails Tornado – it was huge! The wings made it really wide.

Also the programmers, having spent so much time playing OutRun, had got Amy’s car drifting. This was really satisfying, but how do you get a Hedgehog to drift in a similar manner? Worse still, how do you get dwarf in full battle armour on a parrot faced lizard to drift…

So, as with all prototypes, we’d got things that worked well, and things that didn’t. That’s the point of prototyping after all!

Back to the drawing board then. We decided to keep the cars, review the flyers, but drop people running or riding things. No matter what we’d tried, it didn’t work right. At which point we upset every Sonic fan in the world by doing the unthinkable, we put Sonic in a car…!

Actually, before we take the blame for this, I will refer long time Sonic fans to Sonic Drift, that put Sonic in a car all those years ago on the SEGA Game Gear. Please address all you ‘In a car’ complaints to the guys that did that from now on please!

I digress though. Soon enough, we had all the characters in cars, or bikes, or revised flyers. For the flyers we didn’t want them to have too much of an unfair advantage, so we decided to treat these like hovercraft, they wouldn’t be affected by surfaces that slow the other cars down, but they also wouldn’t have high acceleration. As such Tails plane needed a re-design.

Which was around the time we went to SEGA in Japan. You know, to go talk to all the people behind the classic and modern SEGA characters we wanted to include…

But we’ll save that for next time 

Phantasy Star Zero has arrived!

As the game ships across the country, we’re celebrating the launch of PSZ with the announcement of our first big event, new avatars, and a Rappy T-shirt giveaway!

Our first PSZ Event: Play with SEGA!

Want to team up with the folks at SEGA and run through some dungeons? This is your chance to run with those of us in San Francisco – no matter where you live – and score some sweet Visual Chat (and maybe exclusive items!) at the same time!

When: Tuesday, November 17th from 4:00 – 6:00 PM Pacific!

Who: Anyone with a copy of Phantasy Star Zero!

How to join: Be among the first to post your friend code in the comments when we post the Event Blog next Monday! We have room for at least 30 or so people, and might even take that higher if community response is high!

New Phantasy Star Zero avatars!

Also to celebrate today’s launch, we’ve added a whole new set of Phantasy Star Zero avatars to the forums! These avatars can be selected in your User CP and instantly applied to your account! Today we’ve added avatars for the following classes and characters:

Classes:

• HUcaseal
• FOnewm

Story Characters

• Sarisa
• Kai
• Reve

Check them out on the SEGA boards, and use them here on the PSZ Forum!

Check out the official Rappy T-shirt!

Bask in its glory! The Rappy T-shirt is now revealed, and we know what’s going through your mind right now - something to the tune of: Can I have one?

We’re going to be giving these shirts away to a number of SEGA Community and Fansites for PSZ cross-promotions, including special chances to win them for Phantasy Star Universe subscribers on PC/PS2 and Xbox 360! In the days to come, keep your eyes peeled for all sorts of cool ways to snag your very own limited edition (and super rare) Rappy T-shirt!

How excited are you guys for Phantasy Star Zero? Let loose all that built up excitement in the comments below, and keep on checking your local game stores – PSZ is here!

On the Block

Item 1: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games Poster

Congrats to our winner, eko0724!

Item 2: Planet 51 Soundtrack and Dippin’ Dots gift certificate

Congrats to our winner, Turtle502!

Item 3:  Sonic Riders Zero Gravity Soundtrack

Congrats to our winner @Jayx77!

Item 4: Sonic T-Shirt (size medium)

Congrats to our winner @lucasbean!

Item 5: Sonic Jacket (size large)

Contrats to our winner @V_Ben!

Item 6: Phantasy Star Zero Prize Pack: inflatable rappy, PSZ strategy guide, PSZ t-shirt (winner chooses size from S – XL)

Congrats to our winner, @AEVande!

How it Works

1. You must be following us on Twitter to be eligible. (If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can create one by going to http://www.twitter.com and click the green “get started — join!” button in the center of the page.)
2. At random times on Friday, we will announce the prize we are giving away, and what number of response you need to be to win. Send us a direct message (DM) via Twitter and be that number to win the prize. (@ replies do not count as entries!)
3. All followers are eligible to win all prizes, unless a restriction is noted. Restrictions are usually due to the prize being region-locked. For example, US games that won’t work on UK gaming systems. There may also be age restrictions due to the rating of the game.
4. We will announce the winner on our Twitter feed once eligibility is confirmed.

Make Sure We’re Following You on Twitter

If you are currently following us on Twitter, please be sure that we are following you as well. You can do this by making sure that SEGA is in your “followers” list, or by going to DoesFollow and typing SEGA in the first blank, your Twitter username in the second, and pressing the “check” button. You can reverse this to be sure that you are following us. If you are following us, but we’re not following you, please send a message to @SEGA and we will follow you. This is important, because only people we follow can send us direct messages (DMs), and DMs are the only way to enter the giveaways.

How to Send Direct Messages on Twitter

There are a few ways to send us a Direct Message on Twitter. The easiest way is to go to our Twitter page and select “message” under the “Actions” heading in the side bar. If you do not see “message”, this means that we are not following you. Please send a message to @sega to let us know, and we will follow you. When you click “message” you will be taken to a window where you can type a message and press send.

You may also select the “direct messages” tab from your Twitter homepage, and select SEGA from the drop-down menu at the top of the page. Again, if you don’t see our name there, it’s probably because we’re not following you. Let us know, and we’ll follow you.

There are also many Twitter clients that you can use instead of using the website. These include TweetDeck, Twitteriffic, Tweetie, and Twhirl. Each of these programs works differently, so you’ll want to figure out how to send a direct message on the program you use. If you want to send us a test message, we’ll let you know if we received it or not.

We get asked a lot about job openings at SEGA. If you’ve got some great online interactive development skills, we want to meet you!

We’ve currently got an opening in our San Francisco offices for a Senior Online Interactive Developer. This person will work with our online and community teams (that’s us!) and people across the organization to develop online interactive web content, including banners, promotions, games, and other applications. We’re looking for someone who can develop high-quality flash and general design work under tight deadlines, own projects, hit deadlines, and be cool to work with!

Ideally, this person will have 3-5 years experience and be an expert with Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, ImageReady, video and sound editing. We’d also like this person to have a good working knowledge of web technologies, including HTML, CSS, Javascript, Freemarker, and JSP.

Of course, a passion for gaming and SEGA properties are also desirable, but I’m guessing that if you’re reading this blog, you’ve got that down already.

If you’re interested in this position, we’d love to hear from you. You can get all the details on our careers site and you can apply there as well. Just click “Apply for this position” at the bottom of the job posting.

With only a single day left until Phantasy Star Zero ships in the US, we’re bringing you all a new forum skin to celebrate the launch! You can check out the skin here in our Phantasy Star Zero forum.

5/5 Rappies approve.

The new skin is notably more blue than its PSU counterpart, and at the top you’ll find the logo and a cast of characters, with each of the three races represented. We hope you guys are all as excited as we are about this game finally arriving – on launch day, we’ll be unveiling even more new avatars, and also announcing our first exciting online PSZ event!

And just in case you haven’t heard yet, we’ve also launched the Official Phantasy Star Zero Community Website! You can check it out at www.sega.com/ps0 for lots of details about the game, classes, and a few hidden extras here and there. Last week we also added a new Visual Chat page, and this week things are really going to pick up.

We worked really hard to make sure the site is a lot more entertaining and fun to read than your average video game site, so we hope you all enjoy it!

You’ve heard about the Japanese release of the game, read the blogs, the forums, and watched all the trailers – now is your chance to get your hands on the free Xbox 360 Demo of Bayonetta weeks earlier than everyone else!

All you need to do is complete the free SEGA Pass registration, submit your details, and you may receive a free voucher code to redeem for your download of the early access demo of Bayonetta! This is your opportunity to get some hands on time with this highly anticipated, groundbreaking action game – this is not to be missed!

HURRY – we will only be giving away 40,000 codes of the early access demo of Bayonetta (first come, first served)! Registration will be open from November 9th 2009 and close November 13th 2009. We will notify the recipients of the early access demo of Bayonetta as early as November 16th 2009.

Best of luck to everyone who registers – and big thanks to you, the fans, for enabling us to offer this special promotion!

Register for Bayonetta Demo!

Are you in the LA or surrounding areas and looking for something to do on the upcoming weekend? Come on out and see us at the Major League Gaming event in Anaheim and get some hands on time with the some of the multiplayer modes in our upcoming Aliens vs Predator!

Not only that, I’ll be on hand with some Sega friends to support the event and pass out some limited quantity Weyland-Yutani Lanyards. We’ll be posted at various times of the day, so drop by asking for a Sega rep and you could pick up one of the limited availability lanyards! Hope to see some of you out at the event!

We’re excited to announce that we’re partnering with top American and Canadian gold medal contenders Lindsey Vonn (USA; alpine skiing), Seth Wescott (USA; snowboard cross), Kristina Groves (Canada; speed skating) and Matthew Morison (Canada; snowboard) to appear on the cover of the upcoming video game Vancouver 2010™ – The Official Video Game of the Olympic Winter Games that will be available for purchase at North American retailers on January 12^th, 2010 for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system, the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, and the PC via digital download. These outstanding athletes represent the elite in each of their respective sports and are among the favorites to hoist their country’s flag and hopefully bring home gold this winter at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

Lindsey Vonn, the world’s #1 ranked female skier, debuted on the U.S. Olympic team at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. The 2008-09 season officially crowned Lindsey as the most successful female skier in American history. At the February 2009 FIS Alpine World Championships, Lindsey swept the speed events, winning gold medals in both downhill and super G. Then despite having surgery for a severed tendon on her right thumb two days after winning the downhill title, Lindsey moved back into the World Cup starting gate for three consecutive top three finishes. The last of which, a super G win, placed Lindsey in the record books as she surpassed U.S. great Tamara McKinney for the most World Cup victories for an American woman with 19. Lindsey would win three more races before the season ended, finishing the year with a U.S. record (male or female) nine World Cup wins in a single season, including five consecutive super G wins an international record for women. She closed the season with downhill and super G wins at the World Cup Finals to secure her second World Cup overall crown by more than 350 points over her nearest competitor to become the only U.S. woman to win two overall titles, let alone back-to-back. Lindsey looks forward to bringing home a medal of any color from Vancouver.

Seth Wescott was the first, and reigning, Olympic gold medalist in snowboard cross (SBX), the newest event to be added to the Olympic competition schedule at the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games. He kicked off the 2008-09 season by winning the first World Cup race and is currently placed second in overall World Cup points. His other career accolades include the 2007 World Championships Silver Medalist, 2006 and 2007 Jeep King of the Mountain Champion, 2005 World Championships Gold Medalist, and 2004 World Cup – second place. Seth is also a proud 11-time U.S. National Team member, currently the top U.S. rider in SBX and is ranked second in the world. A seasoned veteran in the sport that he’s helped bring to the mainstream; he currently sits in the #1 U.S. spot heading into the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games.

Canadian speed skater Kristina Grove began skating at the age of 11 and hasn’t looked back since. In 2006, she won the silver medal for both the 1,500 meter and team pursuit events at the Torino Olympic Winter Games. 2007-08 were banner years for Kristina as she won an unprecedented five medals at the 2008 World Single Distance Championships including gold in the 3,000 meter; eight World Cup medals; the 1,500 meter overall World Cup title; and bronze at the World All-round Championships. She continued her winning ways during the 2008-09 World Cup season and added three more medals at the 2009 World Single Distance Championships at the Richmond Olympic Oval – the official speed skating venue of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Now, Kristina has her sights set on skating for Olympic gold on her home ice in 2010.

Matt Morison will represent Canada in snowboard, a sport where he’s achieved numerous accolades. In the 2006-07 season, Matt competed in the World Cup Finals and brought home first, second and third place finishes in parallel giant slalom and parallel slalom. In the 2007-08 season, he brought home four World Cup medals with one first place and three third place finishes in the parallel giant slalom. Matt, who was the bronze medalist at 2009 FIS World Snowboard Championships, is ranked fourth in the parallel giant slalom World Cup Standings and sixth in the Overall World Cup rankings this past season. Vancouver 2010 will be Matt’s Olympic Winter Games debut and he looks forward to winning gold on his home turf.

Vancouver 2010™ features realistic next-gen visuals and will provide players with an authentic simulation of 14 events from the upcoming Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games giving gamers the opportunity to compete in, and get an early look at, many of the official venues. The online functionality of all three platforms will ensure that fans of the Olympic Winter Games will be able to experience the thrill of competing against other gamers across the globe for national pride. The game will also incorporate innovative control schemes that allow novice gamers to learn how to play the game, while providing experienced gamers the chance to set new records.

Developed by Eurocom Entertainment Software, Vancouver 2010™ for Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 and the PC is set for release on January 12^th, 2010.  For further information, please go to www.olympicvideogames.com.

As part of our coverage of all things Sega, I’m very happy to pass along a story of one of the most intense experiences of my life – the Sega Olympic Winter Games Press Event. The event, which took place early last week, was an opportunity for some gaming press to come check out our two Olympic Winter Games themed titles, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games and Vancouver 2010™ – the Official Videogame of the Olympic Winter Games, within the setting of an official Olympic Games training area in Park City, Utah.

As a bit of background, Utah hosted the Olympic Winter Games in 2002 and Park City adapted one of it’s existing snow parks to host two key events during the games, Bobsled and Ski Jump. The facility is still around today, hosting tournaments, qualifiers, and allowing athletes to start and train in both events. In fact, I was not aware until the trip that Utah is one of two bobsled tracks in the entire United States (the other in New York). The Utah Olympic Park is officially recognized as having highest elevated ski jumps and the fastest bobsled track in the world! And, we were going to experience both first hand in the form of zipline and an actual bobsled run!

“Don’t you dare beat my score mister…”

Our event space had us squarely at the top of the bobsled starting point, so while we were running our event, we had a lot of international bobsled teams walking through the space. I thought this was especially cool and took a lot of time talking with the athletes about their sport and checking on what they thought of the games. Vancouver 2010™ was getting a lot of attention from the bobsled groups, and I even had a few people mention they’d like to play it before heading into Vancouver, as a bit of a preview for the track. By the end of the sessions, the athletes started challenging their international counterparts on who could get the best bobsled course record before heading out to do it for real in the day’s qualifying runs.

This event was one of the first times I’ve had a chance to play Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games and it really is a lot of fun, especially when you play alongside some competitive people. In preparing for the event, I got a taste of this in challenging our PR Manager, Tali Fischer, to some score attacks while were unlocked some events for play. Our game of choice? Figure Skating, which I gladly took on to prove my worth and hit a score so high she never beat it after that initial run. She may see it otherwise, but I write the blog, so I get to have the final word on it. So there.

“David Allen bet me $10 I wouldn’t do it, so yea, I’m not backing out!”

Not only does the Olympic Utah Park host athletes, they also offer extensive opportunities for regular people like me to come by and tour the grounds of the park. For our Olympic Winter Games tour, we started the day with a tour of the facility and offered some pretty high level access into areas of the park. The tour covered both the ski jump and bobsled areas pretty extensively and gave us a preview into what sort of crazy stuff we signed up for. First up, zipline.

At this point I want to side track slightly and offer some thanks to Tali and one of our brand managers, David Allen, as they are a big reason I conquered my fear of heights and attempted this crazy zipline in the first place. Basically Tali, like me, is afraid of heights and David bet Tali that she wouldn’t do either event for a total sum of $10. This is a long running bet/counter-bet that’s been going between them and all the while Tali was totally nervous of the experience, but wasn’t going to back down. If she could do it, I could do it.

I am undeniably afraid of heights and as you can see from the photos, this was no joke. Tali was first to go and I nervously watched the outcome to prepare myself mentally. To give you a sense of the fear I was feeling, the actual set up was a bit nerve racking. The first stage is strapping in and you are forced to lean against a door, unable to see the ride down. Next, the ride operator pushes a button, the doors clang open, and you are faced with 1,500 feet of pure terror, or so it would seem as Tali screamed all.the.way.down. Eesh, I thought that was supposed to make me feel better.

When it was my turn, I nearly backed out before the button push, but it was too late. The result was pure exhilaration and not at all what I was expecting. The Zipline was basically a big slide, with no bottom, going 50mph, and hanging from a wire. Ok, so not much like a slide, but it certainly wasn’t the sudden drop I was fearing. Despite my initial fears going in, I went back and rode the zipline two more times after. Other people on the tour did the same, once they got over the their fear of strapping in and going for it.

“Steve, can you see into the future?”

Next up was bobsled, which as noted before is experienced on the fastest bobsled track in the world. The course takes less than a minute to complete, goes through fifteen turns and reaches speeds up to 90mph. Between this and zipline, most people were concerned about the zipline and the bobsled was expected to be just a fun ride. I think we all underestimated what we were getting into.

Steve Holcomb is our driver and guide to what will be an exhilarating ride down the course. Steve is part of Night Train, a four man team competing in the Olympic Winter Games and a past Gold medal winner in 2006. As driver, Steve is responsible for navigating the track along with his team at speeds up to 90mph. One of my own misconceptions of bobsled going in was that all members would be leaning to move the sled down the track, in reality each sledding team has a driver and three passengers to perform the running start and provide weight to sled going down. Luckily, this also means I won’t have to do much more than hold on for dear life.

After our extensive waiver signing and a thirty minute orientation, we are broken up into teams of three to assault the course and go for gold. What makes the bobsled arguably more intense than the zipline is the speed and force that you experience when flying down the track. As explained by our tour guides, once you hit the fourth curve, you are at max speed and hitting up to five g’s of pressure. That’s basically five times your body weight in pressure pushing down on you. Typing that in text is one thing, experiencing it is entirely another. As luck would have it, we managed to attach a camera to one of our riders and are thrilled to be able to show you the full ride!

“I have a new appreciation for the Olympics”

As a gamer, I get to vicariously live through the eyes of our characters and experience things I would never, ever see. For the Olympic Winter Games, this event has granted me a chance to gain a new appreciation for what the athletes experience on a daily basis and see that reflected in the games we are creating. From the competitive spirit of the games we play, to the events themselves, the Olympic Games truly are an amazing experience and something I hope everyone will enjoy.

Thanks for reading and look forward to any comments from the community, we also have a ton of other images from the event across our Flickr page, with some pretty exceptional views from atop the ski jump.  Enjoy!