shufflingdead.com » SEGA

Lost souls continue development for SEGA consoles

Newbs — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 02:07:35 +0000

Image: Pier Solar and the Great Architects box art. Copyright WaterMelon Co.

SEGA ended development for their own systems years ago, switching their efforts to systems made by former competitors. That hasn’t stopped a die-hard group of loyalists from continuing work on the company’s legacy systems.

Incredibly, December of 2010 saw the release of a brand new RPG for the Mega Drive called Pier Solar and the Great Architects, developed by WaterMelon Co. The game’s release approximately doubles the number of RPGs available for the system. The game is available on whopping 64 megabit cartridges, and is the largest game ever made for its system. Pier Solar also takes advantage of the Mega-CD add-on for audio enhancement.

Somewhat less incredibly, Duranik is currently developing a new shmup (shoot ‘em up) for the Dreamcast called Sturmwind. The Dreamcast has continued to receive small doses of support since its official discontinuation in 2001.

SEGA preparing celebration for tired mascot’s birthday

Newbs — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 21:05:08 +0000

Image: SEGA.

SEGA is promising a number of “projects” for 2011 in celebration of their ~~beloved~~ tolerated mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog. Oh yeah, and Puyo Puyo as well.

It’s not clear what these projects specifically entail. I personally predict a compilation re-release of the beloved 2D Sonic games, followed by a re-re-release of that disc celebrating the previous disc’s lukewarm reception later in the year.

Then again, judging by the image put out by SEGA to the left, the company that gave us Cream the Rabbit may be planning to finally box up old-school Sonic. Look at scrawny green-eyed Sonic, he’s got old 90s Sonic trapped inside a monitor. And what’s he planning to do with that molesting finger of third-dimensionality?

Expect more on this irrelevant relic of your childhood as 2011 unfolds.

Source: andriasang

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Review

sulci — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 20:02:07 +0000

SEGA only wants the worst Sonic games for sale

Newbs — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 17:42:43 +0000

Ahead of the Sonic 4, Sonic Colors, and Sonic Free Riders launches, SEGA has decided to pull some of the Blue Blur’s better titles.

SEGA’s Jurgen Post explains “any Sonic game with an average Metacritic has been de-listed.” That may sound like an effort to remove poorer Sonic titles from store shelves and avoid new fans picking up weaker efforts, but as any SEGA watcher can tell you, average-scoring Sonic games are the best the mascot has had to offer lately.

Using this strategy, SEGA has stopped selling Sonic Rush (which has a Metacritic score of 82) and Sonic Rush Adventure (Metacritic score of 78). Those are two of the best rated modern Sonic games. SEGA did not hesitate to release Sonic Adventure for XBLA in September, a title which currently has a 47 on Metacritic, and which will presumably stay there thanks to its less-than-average score.

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The Dungeon: The Sonic Cycle

Newbs — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 20:09:34 +0000

Dreamcast turns 11, PlayStation turns 15

Newbs — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 01:04:14 +0000

September 9 must be some kind of holy day for Nintendo’s competitors.

It was on this day in 1999 (9/9/99) that SEGA launched the short lived but eternally loved Dreamcast in North America. The little gray box was filled with innovative hardware inclusions like a built-in modem, and powered neat add-ons like VMUs and maracas. The system’s legacy is marred by one fatal flaw: it took Sonic’s career 3D. Ultimately SEGA gave up on its system in North America in 2001. The system is still popular among homebrew hobbyists.

Even further back, on this day in 1995, Sony launched the demonic and definitively hellish PlayStation. That system would go on to sell 130 million units to morons worldwide, thanks to misguided public interest in dull titles like Gran Turismo and Tomb Raider. The system wasn’t all good news for Sony, however, as the company had to discontinue it in 2006 due to lack of consumer demand.

Sources: Wikipedia, Wikipedia

Sega Superstars Tennis Review

sulci — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 17:58:13 +0000

Video Game Character Analysis: Female Furry Abominations

Newbs — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:22:12 +0000

Video Game Character Analysis is an ongoing series here at Shufflingdead in which I analyze the physical appearances of game characters. I have previously considered male and female human digital heroes. This time around, I will be looking at female furry abominations.

Let’s begin with Kongiku from Vanillaware presents: More People Should Play This Games: Muramasa: The Demon Blade. Kongiku is an “Inari Kitsune,” or fox deity, who hangs out at save stations in Muramasa and bounces her breasts in a mesmerizing fashion. I don’t know anything more about her role in the game since I started skipping dialogue fairly early on.

Kongiku is mainly human in appearance, and if I stare at her breasts long enough, her ears and tail fade into the background. If there really is a pro-fur agenda at work in the types of anthropomorphs seen in this article, then Kongiku is surely gateway fur. Looking mostly human means that it’s easier to be attracted to her, and easier to not feel guilty about that fact.

Although Kongiku’s kimono may be a little low-cut to be justifiable as anything other than sexualization for marketing, at least it makes sense for this largely human-looking furry abomination to be wearing human clothing.

This is Felicia from Capcom presents: Let’s Make a Niche Game: Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors, she has also appeared in many other Capcom fighting games. A glance at Wikipedia tells me that, according to the UDON Comics, Felicia is a struggling entertainer who grew up in a Catholic orphanage. She is a catgirl, and that has caused problems with her career. No explanation as to what causes a person to be part-cat, or why the world discriminates against such cross-breads is given.

Judging by the artwork on the right, I have to assume that anything that looks animal on Felicia is actually part of her body. That is to say, she’s got cat paws, cat ears, a cat tail, freaky were-cat feet, and convenient patches of fur on her naughty bits. Also, apparently, catgirls can have human hair in addition to cat hair.

I’ve just come to the realization that Felicia crosses an important boundary in human-animal permutations which justifies the use of the term “abomination” in describing these furry characters: she is completely naked. Think about that. If this catgirl did some waxing, you would be looking at a person with nasty hairless cat bits.

Rare takes the title of proving the most, and the worst, furry abominations in the video game industry for things like this stunning mostly-animal blend to the right. This is Candy Kong, from Rare presents: Good Graphics Make Up For Terrible Art Direction: Donkey Kong Country. Candy is Donkey Kong’s girlfriend (although they have the same last name), and just like Kongiku, her biggest role is as caretaker of her game’s save stations. Sexy ladies are an easy signifier to gamers that they are in a safe, home-like environment.

Candy’s appearance is not part-human as with the last two examples. Rather, her body is entirely monkey, but she is dressed in human fashion and has human-like posture. This makes any sexual attraction to the character a full-on committal to not just furrydom, but actual bestiality. Candy escapes total demonization from me thanks to an appearance too strange for most to consider actually attractive. Candy’s “hotness” is, I think, thankfully ironic.

No list of furry abominations would be complete without an example from the Sonic universe. This is Rouge the Bat from SEGA presents: We’re Not Trying Any More: Sonic Adventure 2. She is some kind of treasure hunter, listed as species “bat” by Wikipedia, and 18 years of age.

Although supposedly a bat, it seems obvious to me that Rouge is also part cat (I guess, she looks a lot like Sonic the Hedgehog too), and part human. From bottom to top, she’s got: oversized human (or maybe cat) feet and legs, human breasts, human arms and hands, bat wings, and a cat’s head.

As far as the wrongness of her sexualization goes, Rouge draws her power from the fact that she is a clumsy mess of characteristics which confuse human sexiness and animal cuteness. I can’t even begin to imagine where the character designers started. Was she always meant to be a bat? Or just a cat wearing little black wings like a goth chick? And did they always plan to give her human breasts, or were the tits clobbered on later at the demand of the marketing department?

Of course, Krystal from Rare presents: All Our Talent Left: StarFox Adventures had to make an appearance in this article. She is a 19-year-old fox creature from the destroyed planet of Cerinia, and a favourite among furry abomination lovers. Although she may be the only survivor of her race, she is a fox, and her appearance is similar to the other fox creatures of the StarFox games.

Like Candy Kong, Rare’s other entry in this article, Krystal is an example of true anthropomorphism. Biologically, she appears to be entirely fox, but has a roughly human build. She has no distinctly human parts. But unlike Candy, Krystal’s appearance is in no way ironic or goofy. She is a skillful bridging of animal cuteness and human hotness. She represents the ultimate test presented by fur promoters.

Sonic and the Secret Rings Review

sulci — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:44:24 +0000

Neckbeard & Wolfshirt: The SEGA Years, Part 4

Newbs — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 19:51:47 +0000

Neckbeard & Wolfshirt: The SEGA Years, Part 3

Newbs — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 21:23:04 +0000

Neckbeard & Wolfshirt: SEGA’s Ascent

Newbs — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:57:28 +0000

Jiffy’s lazy links: April Fools’ edition

Jiffy the Intern — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 23:41:26 +0000

Jiffy here with a thrilling list o’ April Fools’ day links for your amusement. To start, check out the video above to see IGN’s genius mock-up of the Halo movie that’s never getting made.

As always, Blizzard has outdone everyone else by a wide margin. Check out their new WoW feature, the Equipment Potency EquivalencE Number. Other strokes of Blizzard genius include the Deckard Cain GPS Voice Pack, Diablo III Deckard Cain X-Treme Gamer Blanket, 2010 Mobile preview, Battle.net Neural Interface, and new Battle.net match making service.

Other internet highlights include SEGA’s reveal of ECCO: WATER WARS 2, a.k.a. dolphins with guns, and Kotaku’s takeover by Activision. I’m also a fan of 4cr’s redesign.

If you’re looking for a truly monumental laugh, have a read of GameSpot’s 2006 April Fools’ industry analysis in which a random message board analyst makes the foolish claim that Nintendo will dominate sales by 2010 and that the “Revolution” will overwhelm Sony and Microsoft.

The horror… the horror…

Newbs — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:39:37 +0000

The folks over at UK Resistance have posted up an astonishing trip report from the University of Manchester’s “Korfball team” Sonic party. Eyewitness “Nick” sent in what he describes as “the least criminal or offensive photos” he could get off Facebook. He explains:

I play for the University of Manchester ‘Korfball team’ – (it’s a Dutch mixed-sex sport that is kind of like volleyball). We take our sport Very seriously and as a result have various drinking socials throughout the weeks. We decided for our most recent to dress up as something everyone loves… Sonic!

Judging from even these “clean” photos, it would seem a group of drunken coed athletes dressing up as the world’s greatest promoter of furrydom is as exactly as bad an idea as it sounds.

[source]

Shameful Human of the Week: Whoever wrote the “Intro” story for Sonic the Hedgehog 4

Newbs — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:46:18 +0000

This week’s Shameful Human works behind the protective veil of anonymity, he or she is whoever wrote the “Intro” story for Sonic the Hedgehog 4 on the game’s official site. The events of the early, slightly better, Sonic games is lovingly recapped by this person in a series awkwardly written, comma-abusing paragraphs. Allow me to begin by analyzing one such paragraph.

Their reunion is short lived however, as Eggman resurfaces and begins kidnapping Sonic friends again, in an effort to create more workers to finish his ultimate Weapon – The Death Egg! Teaming up with the newly met, Miles ‘Tails’ Prower, Sonic embarks on a new mission through West Side Island in an effort to free his friends and ensure Eggman does not obtain the 7 Chaos emeralds to fuel the Death Egg.

I see run-on sentences everywhere! It doesn’t help that the tone of the piece echoes that of your typical, confused, adolescent Sonic fan-fic writer, either. I want to focus in on one error in particular though, about half-way through this little chunk of mangled English. It’s the gem “Teaming up with the newly met, Miles ‘Tails’ Prower, Sonic embarks on a new mission…” You see, the problem is that when you insert a little aside mid-sentence like that, the sentence still has to make sense with the aside taken out. What the writer is implying is that Sonic is embarking on a new mission with his newly met self.

It would be giving SEGA too much credit to think that this entire butcher-job was done on purpose to parody the rough translations found in early video games. I have to single out whatever unqualified moron wrote this shit, or pasted the original Japanese into Babel Fish and used whatever was spit out, because it’s clear that person has incredible luck, and I deserve to be massively jealous of it. I want to murder the English language in a cushy writing job for a company that no longer cares and in which no one can be bothered to review my work.

[source]

INSANE RUMOR: Sonic to be playable in Super Mario Galaxy 2

Newbs — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:52:38 +0000

Since its announcement at E3 2009, the world hasn’t heard much about Super Mario Galaxy 2, but the general impression has been that the game will be a thoroughly awesome, but safe, direct sequel to the original Super Mario Galaxy.

Well, it turns out that the game might not be “safe” at all. British Nintendo-centric magazine NGamer just harnessed the power of Twitter to claim:

We’ve just had some shocking news from an inside source at Nintendo: Sonic will be a playable character in Mario Galaxy 2! Wha?

The publication later added that the news came from a “trusted source,” and said additionally that “Sonic levels will be in ‘Green Hill Galaxy.’”

All of this sounds too absurd to be true, but once upon a time, no one thought Sonic would ever be in Smash Bros., or that the two mascots would team up at the Olympics, or that Sonic would even be on a Nintendo system. We’ll just have to wait and see, and Shufflingdead will keep you up-to-date as this frightening story develops.

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New “Zone” SEGA console shames company more than ever

Newbs — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:31:25 +0000

More so than perhaps any other company on Earth, SEGA loves to rape the ever-loving-shit out of its once proud legacy. The company, which had one successful console fifteen years ago and is still trying to trade on your good memories of the thing, has decided to make a sketchy Wii clone, territory usually reserved for mall kiosk cons.

The new SEGA Zone will retail for about $80 US and come packaged with 20 classic SEGA titles like Ecco, Golden Axe, and Sonic, two Wii-mote-like controllers, and 30 new games (16 of which are motion controlled).

The new games are what you would expect to find on a cheap Wii clone, they’re things like table tennis, darts, and fencing.

Congratulations SEGA, I didn’t think you could sink any lower after all those awful furry-filled 3D Sonic games, but this really is a new level of shame for you.

[source]

Shameful Human of the Week: Constantine Hantzopoulos

Newbs — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 03:17:48 +0000

The Shameful Human this week is Constantine Hantzopoulos, definitely not pictured to the right. You try finding reasonably large pictures of video game industry personnel. He’s a studio director at SEGA, and another industry insider taking up arms against the guiltless Wii.

Hantzopoulos recently spoke to the Wii hating gang over at 1UP.com, on their 4 Guys 1UP podcast, where he spewed your typical ignorant Wii hater’s spew.

But that begets the question, are we going to do more mature titles for the Wii? And it’s like, probably not. Look at Dead Space. We were stunned. That was my litmus test. Basically, it’s like, okay, you got EA, who can put all the marketing muscle behind this, an established franchise that scored quite well on 360 and PS3. They should be able to actually hit this out of the park, right? We get numbers, real numbers aside from NPD, and I’m like, ‘Woah.’

‘Woah’ is right. Maybe this guy really is Keanu Reeves. Before forming this ridiculous opinion, Hantzopoulos should have considered the facts: EA didn’t do shit to market Dead Space Extraction, the first Dead Space game did not sell very well, the first Dead Space game was not on Wii and is therefore not established on that system.

How about this, Mr. Hantzopoulos, try putting some effort into both the development and marketing of a so called “mature” Wii game, the kind of effort you in the industry love to throw at the PS3 and 360 all the time, and then tell me whether or not you want to make any more such games for the system. People like you appear to be a bunch of bigots desperately trying to justify your ignorant hate for a successful Nintendo console. The 16-bit wars were a long time ago, let it go.

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