Super Monkey Ball fans, listen up! We’ve got a new gameplay trailer as well as a dev diary from the Director of Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll with some brand new screens.

Trailer

Dev Diary

Hello everyone! I’m Jun Tokuhara, the Director on the Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll game. Today, I would like to share with you new gameplay elements we have implemented in the game that we hope you will enjoy!

What’s Super Monkey Ball without fun and zany mini games!? This is a great element in the game that we have a lot of fun making! Coming up with ideas for mini games that are controlled by the Wii Balance Board was pretty difficult, so we had to examine a lot of ideas and selected the ones that seem to fit well with Wii Balance Board and we ended up about 20 of them in the end.

We prepared rich variations of ideas, for example, an idea to control the game with both hands without standing on the board, or an idea to control where the player lay on his/her stomach. However, we rejected those ideas because we wanted to make sure that we provide a game that every one can play comfortably.

Below are a list of our new mini games and some of the inspiration behind it:

– Firefighter

Pump style Fireman game was created as the result of idea to combine Wii Remote and Wii Balance Board to arrive a control method which benefits from the characteristics of each controller. In the beginning of the development, the difficulty level was too high and it was so hard to put the fire out, which in many cases resulted in seeing a crying Jam! To protect your precious Jam Dojo, please do your best to put out the fire!

– Ninja Stomp

Of course we had to include Ninjas in our game! (Laughs).
Yet, we quickly realized it would be too hard to reflect the quick and precise movement of Ninjas with the Wii Balance Board so we featured a secret and ancient Ninja art form called “Straw Mat Lifting” and created new rules around that! For the Western audience, this may the first time you have heard of this art form but please be sure to practice this secret technique to master this mini game! (Laughs).
– Skydiving

We were trying to come up with a game which gives an exhilarating feeling and did not require player’s full attention. We had swimming and flying ideas to examine, but we decided to go with “flying” due to its accessibility for the control. However in the beginning, we were too busy to achieve neat formation, so as a result, the game turned out to be hard and stressful during that period. It made us quite some time not only to improve its appearance, but also to make it smooth enough to satisfy player’s expectation.  More you play this game, more skilled you become, so you can challenge yourself by completing new formations one after to another.

– Sumo Smash

I got the inspiration for this game when I was getting up to throw away my trash and as I was going back and forth from my desk to the waste basket, I was thinking of a game that gives certain amount of exercise for the player with simple control and rules. However, when you only feature the exercise part it would appear too dull, so we tried to be more creative with its movement and rendition. You should definitely try to bump your opponent far away into the sky.

Until the previous version, in order to play with multiple players, match play was the only option for both Mini game and Main game.  However, we are introducing completely new “co-op” play in the latest version along with other modes to be played with family and friends. Whenever I played match game against my wife, she often got upset and complained to me, saying “It is obvious that a game creator plays better than me!” So I was trying to come up with another game style we could still play together.

…And I think this game could be it to meet that needs.  I can picture those children controlling the monkeys while the parents are removing all obstacles for them. I envision kids playing with their parents saying “Mom! Hurry up! You need to clear the way for me! I can’t get through!” and their parents saying,”Hold up for a sec!” I am sure those will be common phrases heard in many families!

Below are descriptions of the new modes in the game that offer an exciting yet challenging layer to the game:

– Marathon mode

It was on my plan to create an exercise game which is handy and yet effective due to the rising health awareness and jogging fad. If you play numbers of stages one after another on Wii Balance Board, you will feel good amount of energy burn; you can enjoy exercise even in your room. We prepared this mode separately to be played smoothly. In the beginning, we were planning on making a non-stop marathon game to continue through all stages, but it was too hard as we expected! So we prepared Half Marathon and Full Marathon to differentiate the course length just like in the actual marathon game. Player can select one which suites more to their physical strength and confidence.  This mode is also playable with Wii Remote, so try out and find out how fit you are!

– Mirror Image Mode

When Wii Balance Board is used, not everyone keeps equal balance between left and right; people tend to lean to the left or right.  So we created this mode by reversing the left and right side of the usual course, to make it easier for people to clear the stage (in their favorite side), and to lessen the physical burden (posture wise).  Even you are familiar with all stages, once they are reversed, they will look completely different. so try out this mirror mode in various stages.  By the way HUD will not be reversed, so no worries about that! (laugh)

Hopefully, everyone learned a lot more about Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll and I cannot wait to hear your feedback on the game after you have had a chance to play it! Thank you!

We’re excited to announce our brand new website for Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing! Get information on the game, see all the trailers and screenshots, and more! There’s also a special section for the All-Star Moves you can use to get ahead in the game, and you can even watch videos of some of the moves in action!

Check it out and let us know what you think!

Here’s something different — a classic puzzle game from the SEGA Genesis, “Shanghai II: Dragons Eye,” the addictive & challenging “tile” game based on the incredibly popular Mahjong Solitaire software title. This isn’t a “retro” title in the way a lot of Virtual Console releases are — this is a straight-up puzzle game, with all the obsessiveness that entails.

I remember playing this game years ago–at its core, it is a simple matching game, where you pick matching tiles and eliminate them from the arrangement in order to uncover the tiles beneath. The strategy is in picking which tiles to eliminate when, since picking the “easy” or “obvious” tiles from only the top will often not reveal enough of those beneath, ending the game prematurely. The goal is, simply, to uncover all the tiles, and there are various options this Genesis game lets you switch on, including using different tile sets and time/challenge modes.

The decorative tiles the game uses come from the popular–and ancient–East Asian game of Mahjong, apocryphally said to have been invented by Confucius in 500 BC (!). Mahjong Solitaire–and the “Shanghai” and “Shanghai II” games–has a considerably less ancient lineage, although by computing standards it is still ancient–Mahjong Solitaire was first developed for the computer in 1981. The game’s developer claims the game came from a centuries old childrens’ game based on the Mahjong tiles–regardless of the game’s origins, though, it’s a fun & surprisingly engrossing game. Definitely worth a look on the Nintendo Wii!

We’ve got a new trailer for Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing that shows some of the tracks you’ll be racing and some of the vehicles you’ll be racing in. Speed around Shibuya Downtown on a track from Jet Set Radio Future, or samba your way round Amigo’s home track on the carnival inspired Samba levels. In this trailer, you’ll get a glimpse of some of the tracks featured in the game, along with some of the unique vehicles created for each character. Specific to each character you can chose motorbikes, cars and bi planes or spaceships, egg mobiles and trucks in a bid to cross the finish line first!

Welcome back, SEGA fans!

In a word: Wow.

We were expecting a fairly big reception to the prospect of news on Project Needlemouse – but Sonic fans young and old came out of the woodwork in masses to take on our Trivia, dwarfing our challenge of 250 correct responses with a whopping 700+ within the first 12 hours. That’s one heck of a start, guys – and you all deserve some well-earned kudos for it.

As promised, today we’ve removed our first two names from the list! Say goodbye to Charmy Bee and Chip, both of whom will not be making an appearance in Project Needlemouse!

With that, it’s time to take things up a notch and move into Day II of our Needlemouse Challenge!

Day 2: SEGA / Sonic Facebook (Difficulty: Easy)

Challenge: Get 500 Replies with 3/3 Correct answers – COMPLETE!

Bonus Point unlocked with 750+ correct responses! – COMPLETE!

Update: Day 3 will be starting at 9:45 AM PST on Wednesday Morning! Well done on a fantastic second day that accomplished both the original goal and the notably harder to earn bonus point!

Today’s trivia is now live on our official SEGA and Sonic Facebook pages! All answers need to be submitted on the Status Update with the Trivia Questions. While the SEGA page is the primary point for Trivia answers, you can also post them on the Sonic Facebook page! You can find our pages at the links below:

Official SEGA Facebook Page

Official Sonic Facebook Page

As before, you have just under 20 hours to accomplish the number of correct replies needed – and remember, post them on our Facebook status, not here! Good luck, everyone!