I’ve never really been legitimately freaked out about crashing while flying on an airplane before. Sure, sometimes you get some turbulence here and there – but usually nothing major enough that everyone starts looking around, afraid that this is about to become that one scene from the first episode of Lost.

That all changed last weekend as our plane from San Francisco made its way to Los Angeles. After the turbulence continued for almost ten minutes, it was hard not to wonder when the oxygen masks were inevitably going to drop from the ceiling. (Thankfully, they didn’t.) But following our hour through rough skies, we finally touched down in the land where winter feels like a spring day in the midwest, ready to head out to that evening’s 2009 Video Game Awards, for which one of our favorite games, MADWORLD, had been nominated for best game on the Wii.

After a quick lunch of Japanese Ramen in Little Tokyo, we regrouped at the hotel, changed into our fancy clothes, and took off towards the check-in area, which was only a couple miles away. It was raining, sometimes in heavy bursts, and the streets of LA (which generally don’t get that much rain), were starting to flow with water. A few tickets and some walking later, and we were nice and dry inside the awards area.

You almost got nominated for game of the year, Jack. Maybe next time.

They somehow managed to give us tickets to seats that apparently didn’t exist, so after some Walkie-talkie action the organizers set us up with a new pair of tickets, which were a bit more towards the middle – no problems there! The seats filled quickly, the awards began, and the next thing I knew Jack Black was only about a hundred feet away from me, smashing his new trophy and being escorted off the stage. Win!

MADWORLD may not have officially won the award for best Wii game at the show, but I think the fans hard work is very commendable here, especially for the only game on the Wii list that was A: Rated M, and B: Not made by Nintendo! Special thanks as well to the guys at PlatinumGames, who put in the black, white, and red that made the game what it is.

Two special guests also had live musical performances – First up was Snoop Dogg, who kept making me think about that video with the Kirby theme song – and second was The Bravery, who I think maybe three people in the audience actually enjoyed. (Sorry, Bravery!) But we did have some pretty nice stars show up to present the awards, including Samuel L. Jackson, Mike Tyson, that one guy from Scrubs, and many more.

After the awards were over, we all headed to the after-party. The after-party, for those of you not familiar with the industry, is where you get free food, drink a lot, talk with other people in the industry, drink some more, move to a different bar, and then finish things off with some more drinking for good measure. Some go for the social aspect – some go for the alcohol. In either case, you’ll almost always be getting a bit of both.

Once the after-party – and the after-after party – was done, we headed back to the hotel. I opted out of the after-after-after-party (yes, there seriously was one), and instead went back to get some sleep so I could revisit parts of the town the next morning.

—

Sunday Morning offered just a couple hours to explore the parts of L.A. I used to visit when I lived here, so I spent my time in Little Tokyo getting Mochi and picking up some special gifts that I’ll be taking home to the midwest next week. If you guys are ever in LA and enjoy Japanese culture, I highly recommend you head over to Little Tokyo, get some Ice Cream Mochi, and check out what they have to offer.

Ice Cream Mochi!

Things ended with all of us heading back to LAX, hopping onboard our plane, and arriving back in cloudy San Francisco – with a much smoother ride on the return.

Special thanks again to all the MADWORLD fans who voted for the game, to my two awesome stylists, and to Spike for organizing and setting up the event!

Until next year!

Games like Sonic the Hedgehog may have been the most visible legacy of the SEGA Genesis system, but it was the quirky & utterly unique platforming experience of games like the Earthworm Jim series that defined the core of the platform — and it just so happens that Earthworm Jim 2 is now available on Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console!

Earthworm Jim 2 is as visually inventive as games get, a fun & challenging platformer with whimsical stages, bizarre enemies, and a wildly entertaining soundtrack to boot. A variety of weapons and skill-ups highlight some of the most entertaining levels in any game of the 16-bit era. Earthworm Jim 2 continues the visual inventiveness of the first game, but amps up everything by including power-ups and multiple weapons — by the time you’re using a marshmallow to rescue tiny puppies being flung out of a window by a sadistic crow, you’ll likely know you’re playing a different sort of game.

I’m actually new to Earthworm Jim 2, and when I started playing it for this Virtual Console article, I found myself hooked (pun not intended — my apologies to worms everywhere).  Rather than take you through a bunch of same-seeming platform levels, the game is a truly unique experience from level to level, including a stage in the chillingly dystopian (yet strangely hilarious) “ISO-9000″ level, a grim, gray-hued corporate wasteland where the landscape is made up of reams of paperwork, and Earthworm Jim is assaulted by implacable sentient filing cabinets. The music for the level is equally appropriate, a mournful Pink Floyd-esque guitar wail.

Actually, the whole game has pretty awesome music, a tribute to the ultra-fast metered midi creativity of the 16-bit era. Most levels feature various hard-rock guitar & drums tunes, whereas a few levels have renditions of more classic music, including “Funiculi Funicula” for a recurring bonus stage, a jaunty tango for a Circus-themed stage, and Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” on the final level.

Did I say before that Earthworm Jim 2 was utterly unique? Perhaps this is the right time for another groaning pun — there is an udderly unique level in Earthworm Jim 2 that revolves around transporting cows that hatch from flowers around a lunar landscape while a rapid-fire polka plays. This is — well — it’s exactly as odd (yet endearing) as it sounds. Indicative of the attention to detail this game has, the cows that Earthworm Jim carries around have a bug-eyed expression that makes it clear they’re as surprised as anyone that they’re being carried around a far-away planet by a ray-gun toting worm astronaut.

Here’s a choice sample from a YouTube playthrough of the game — you get a great sense here of the game’s surreal mechanics, awesome music, and general funkiness. Depicted here are the aforementioned Cow Level and the puppy-saving mini-stage:

Earthworm Jim 2 has a lot to recommend it. The fact that I’d somehow missed playing it before means that I would likely never have had a chance to if it hadn’t shown up on Virtual Console, so I’m grateful that we’re putting classic games like this back into the public consciousness — check this game out if you get a chance!

We’ve got a bunch of new stuff for you today on Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll! A new gameplay trailer, some new screenshots, a new dev diary, some holiday wallpapers, and some print/fold/give holiday cards are all coming your way.

Gameplay Trailer 3

Let’s start with the gameplay trailer.

Holiday Cards

We have TWO holiday cards for you to choose from, and they are both on our Flickr. Just like the Thanksgiving cards, all you have to do is print, fold, and give! It’s a fun project for kids and is great for last-minute giving.

Holiday Wallpapers

If your desktop is not yet in the holiday spirit, then get yourself some holiday desktops from Super Monkey Ball! We’ve got 2 different wallpapers at various sizes, so one is sure to fit your desktop perfectly. They are all on our Flickr so run and get yours now!

Screenshots

In addition to all the holiday goodies we have 4 new screenshots. They are all on — you guessed it — our Flickr.

Dev Diary #2

Just like the angel on top of the tree or the nuts on top of your fruitcake, I’ve got a second dev diary to top off all this Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll goodness. This one is by Yasuhito Baba, the producer of the game.

Hi Everyone, Yasuhito Baba here! I’m the Producer on Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll™ and I’m here to talk to you about the overall design for the game!

Since we already succeeded in making the iPhone version of the game, we could foresee another successful iteration using the Wii Balance Board™ as it offers fun and intuitive controls. The style of the game seemed to compliment the nature of the Balance Board perfectly, so we set out to make Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll. For the iPhone version, the game was controlled with the hands, but this time we wanted to see what it would be like controlling with the feet instead.

So while we were designing the game, we had to figure out the optimum level of difficulty by fine-tuning the controls to perfectly match the skill level of the player and the increasing complexity of the game as you progress. We continued to make adjustments to this until the very last moment of the game’s programming. This was the hardest part in the development of the game that I recall and it was indeed the most important part in the process of the overall design. We definitely wanted to make sure that the game was thoroughly well balanced throughout.

It’s always great to be presented with a “new challenge” but we are primarily concerned with if it is realistically achievable or not. As a game designer and creative artist, whenever I imagine some kind of new gameplay element based on new peripherals, I instantly think of lots of things I want to try. But you have to do more than those details to make a really playable game that people would want to buy.

So as a team we sat down and brainstormed, exchanging a number of ideas, and evaluated the following points from all angles. We initially came across many issues that we had to address such as:

•    What is the basic gameplay flow?
•    Could players feasibly get better at it?
•    Is there a way to play well and play poorly?
•    Can we guarantee improvement through effort?
•    Are the controls intuitive? Do the rewards match the risks and challenges?

For the upcoming Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll, there were two major issues:

1. Will it be a truly refreshing and engaging experience to control the characters with the Wii Balance Board as it now will be controlled with the feet?

2. How do we reduce the difficulty gap between the two control methods of the Wii Remote™ and Wii Balance Board as the former allows precise control compared to the latter due to controlling the game with your feet becomes slightly more challenging?

Considering the above, we conducted various tests over and over and finally managed to perfect the game as it stands in its current state. We feel that it is now extremely enjoyable and we hope that you will like it!

In addition to thinking about the game design, there are other things that a Producer needs to think about and of course I am always thinking about games! There is a ton of inspiration hidden in daily life. Whether or not you realize what that inspiration depends on how much you can integrate what you see in to your job and whether you seriously think about these aspects all the time. In my case, since my hobby is horseback riding, I would say I could utilize my personal experience through my hobby to improve the controls of Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll by balancing the body and moving your torso.

My advice for anyone who is interested in game development is that working in the games industry is pretty tough. You will often encounter hardships, because it is not always easy to please or entertain other people. But I don’t think we can create fun and engaging entertainment unless we’re having fun ourselves. So what becomes important here is that you have something which you can completely enjoy and that is close to your heart in order to keep on working on the project. In other words, you will have to have a positive mindset and be optimistic. Along the way however, you will need to listen to others and from time to time you will have to face moments where you must summon all of your courage to make decisions that might not necessarily be the right ones. To be prepared for such moments, it is very important for you to gain a lot of knowledge through experience that in turn allow you to enrich your outlook with a range of diverse values. As long as you have diverse interests and can be the kind of person who is both aggressive and yet rational enough to make your own plans, acting on these qualities to realize your ideas, will ensure that your true message and sense of fun will be conveyed to the end-user.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this blog! Until next time!

Save mad money with Super Monkey Ball 2! For this weekend only grab the stunning sequel to the addictive iPhone game for only $4.99 – that’s a whopping 50% off! The sale starts at 5pm (Pacific Time) today, and ends at 10am (Pacific Time) Monday, December 14th. The time is not exact, so if it’s not on sale yet when you look, please check back! If you live in the US or Canada, you can get it here. If you live outside the US or Canada, you can get it here.

Super Monkey Ball 2 is the addictive sequel to one of the original iPhone/iPod Touch games – this time featuring multiplayer!

Gamers can grab their iPhone/iPod touch and dive into the all-new 3D world of Super Monkey Ball 2! Play as one of 4 favorite characters – Aiai, MeeMee, Baby, and GonGon – on over 115 challenging tracks. Using the accelerometer and the touch screen, control your Monkey and make sure he or she collects all the bananas and completes the track in record time. Be careful – don’t fall off the edge!

Enjoy zipping around the tracks or take advantage of the mini-games. Start off with Monkey Bowling and get ready to download Monkey Golf and Monkey Target when they are released early next year.

Finally – for on-the-go gamers looking for some multiplayer fun, hop on local wi-fi and play against three of your friends on ANY of the 115 tracks in the game!

Featuring stunning graphics and bright colorful worlds, Super Monkey Ball 2 is the iPhone game for everyone!

We’re giving a Bayonetta fan and a friend a chance to experience a once in a lifetime event this New Year’s Eve in Chicago – partying with Playboy and Bayonetta in what I can only imagine will be an incredible party to ring in the new year! This sweepstakes is only up for a week, so you’ll have to act fast to get your entry in and be squared away for the event. To enter, you must be over 21 and you must be able to attend the event in Chicago. We’ll take care of the travel and hotel, so don’t worry about those pesky details!

So head on over and sign up, you could wind up in Chicago, partying with Bayonetta and Playboy!

Happy Friday! Today we have a new trailer for the Total War fans featuring some gameplay footage (and solid narration) of our upcoming Napoleon Total War. Take a look and let us know what you think!

Obsidian Entertainment has posted another blog about our upcoming Alpha Protocol on IGN.com. In the blog, Audio Producer Mike Dowling shows how a conversation comes together from concept to execution. Having seen the game in action, the dialogue trees can be pretty interesting, especially when you consider the complexities of the conversations. The blog outlines this quite well, even showing visuals of the flow charts to give you a sense of how intricate they can be, here’s a taste:

At the beginning there are three possible starting points for the scene that either goes along in the standard matinee to Stance Choice to matinee format; or things get more complex dependent on the variables the player has already set throughout the course of the game. Which hub has the player gone to after Saudi first? What activities did the player do in said hub? And once in Moscow did the player go to Grigori first or not? Each of those variables are accounted for in the first few moments of the scene.

Take a look at the full blog over at IGN!

It’s no big secret that we love us some Valkyria Chronicles here at SEGA. It looks Destructoid does too, as the game recently showed up in their top 10 games of the last decade!

Chad Concelmo, the author of the blogs detailing the top 50, wrote:

“Everyone that played it instantly fell in love with its gorgeous visuals, solid strategy gameplay, and surprisingly moving story. In a way, this slow build only helped the game in the long run. Instead of the over-hyping that curses most big videogame releases, Valkyria Chronicles was able to be sought out by gamers rather than shoved down their throats.

And once found, gamers were rewarded with one of the richest, most brilliantly constructed turn-based strategy games ever made, topped off with a powerful, extremely moving story (one that affected me in ways I can’t even describe) and a wonderfully endearing cast of characters. There is an extra special place in people’s hearts for Valkyria Chronicles. It is easily the most pleasant gaming surprise of the last decade.”

Well said, Chad. Cheers for the VC love!

You can check out the full top 10 listing here. Also, be sure to check out number 27 on their list.

In case you haven’t already, be sure to get your votes in for PSO-World’s Rappies make it better contest! Celebrate PS0 and the PS series’ Rappy Heritage – and give some props to the people behind all the fantastic entries, which you can see on their contest page.

Vote for your favorites here, and be sure to check back on PSOW soon for the winners! Good luck to everyone who submitted entries, and seriously – nice job. (We got a good kick out of these here in the office!)

It’s time for another Free Stuff Friday! Time got away from us this week in the holiday rush, so we don’t have a video for you this week. But we do have some great stuff, which I hope makes up for it!

Holiday Schedule

This is the US team’s last Free Stuff Friday for 2009! The UK team is doing the giveaway next Friday (December 18th) and then we’re off for holiday break. There will be no giveaways on Friday, December 25th or Friday, January 1st. The US team will be back with the first giveaway of 2010 on January 8th.

Happy Holidays from all of us at SEGA of America!

On the Block

1. Bis Wall Graphic

We’ve partnered with LTL Prints to bring you some fantastic wall graphics of your favorite characters from Jet Set Radio. The wall graphic that we’re giving away is Bis, but there are lots of others as well. If you don’t win it, you can order the same one we’re giving away here, or you can see all the available graphics here.

Congrats to our winner, @ER_nut!

2. PlaySEGA Controller and Voucher

You may have heard that we recently re-launched PlaySEGA with some old-school Genesis games and a brand new VIP program. You  have to have a VIP membership to play the Genesis games, and with your membership you get a PlaySEGA-branded USB controller so you can play the games using that instead of a keyboard.

This prize includes a voucher for a free VIP membership to PlaySEGA and the USB controller, so you can get right to gaming online.

Congrats to our winner @StevenM86!

3. PlaySEGA Controller and Voucher

If you don’t win the first time, don’t fret! You’ve got a second chance to win.

Congrats to our winner @nonstopnerds!

4. Empire: Total War (PC) Special Forces Edition

This is the Special Forces edition of the game, which includes six exclusive in-game units, the History Channel program The Revolution on DVD, an art book and a fold-out campaign map.

Congrats to our winner @Talus!

5. SEGA Polo from E3 2008

We’ve got some black SEGA-branded polo shirts! These were purchased for SEGA employees to wear at E3 2008, and now you can have one of your own! I dug through the box and saw sizes M – 2XL, so the winner can pick their size.

Congrats to our winner @OmgahWaffles!

6. Yellow Sonic T-Shirt from Japan

These have been very popular giveaway items, so we’ve got another for you! As before, these are yellow t-shirts with Sonic the Hedgehog on them, and they are straight from our friends at the SEGA Japan offices. We only have size Medium in these.

Congrats to @@spymasterralph!

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.