Sega Nerds

Love and Berry gets an anime.

Posted by Ryan. Filed under News, Ryan.

Best news you’ve heard all day right? I can’t start to imagine how exciting an anime aimed at little girls can be but thankfully the Japanese film studio Shochiku who are making the anime have provided some information!

“Story:
Two 14 year old girls named LOVE and BERRY are trying to enter Magic school. Their task is to make a lonely girl, Yumi happy. They teach Yumi how to dance and have fun dressing up using their magic. Introduced in 2004 as a card game for girls, the popularity has expanded spinning off to books, music CD, dance DVD and other merchandising. Now comes a feature film of this popular franchise.”

Good god.

GameSpy Shines Some Light on Shining Force EXA

Posted by Gill Figno. Filed under News, Sony PlayStation 2. Tagged with Shining Force.

The lucky dogs at GameSpy got their mitts on a preview copy of Shining Force EXA for the Playstation 2. Why can’t Sega stop by the Sega Nerds office with tidings of Shining Force goodness? Maybe it’s because we don’t have an office.

The preview is very positive, they even go as far as to say it will be a nice follow up to Level-5’s slick new Rogue Galaxy. Suspiciously they claim it’s an action-RPG like Dragon Quest VIII, which wasn’t an action-RPG, but any comparison to Dragon Quest VIII is a good thing.

All though I’d prefer a more turn-based/tactical battle system like past Shining Force games, thanks to good reviews and positive previews I’m getting pretty excited about this one.

Shining Force EXA is coming your way March 20th.

[Via GameSpy]

IGN Shows Rez Some Lovin’

Posted by Gill Figno. Filed under News, Sony PlayStation 2. Tagged with Dreamcast.

 

IGN’s Top 10 Tuesday this week features underrated and underappreciated games. Topping the list is Ubisofts brilliant Beyond Good and Evil, which bombed because the games female protagonist, Jade, kept her clothes on…or maybe it was the Pig Man? You gotta love Michel Ancel.

Enough about Beyond Good and Evil though, the most important game is 8th on the list: UGA and Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s Rez! Part Panzer Dragoon, part rhythm game, all trippy; Rez finally gets the mainstream recognition it deserves. Now, if we can only get more people to understand the brilliance that is Dynamite Cop.

[Via IGN]

Armored Core 4 site now live!

Posted by Ryan. Filed under Microsoft Xbox 360, News, Ryan, Sony PlayStation 3.

The Official website for Armored Core 4 has gone live! From Software’s next installment in the long-running Armored Core series will be published by Sega for the first time. If you have been living under a rock the past 10 years and haven’t heard of the Armored Core series, the game is all about blowing the snot out of each other with big-ass mechs you build from the ground up.

Don’t be fooled, though, this isn’t really the fourth game in the series. In fact, it’s all a big lie, its more like the 11th!

This is what Sega had to say about the game:

“SEGA of America, Inc. today announced that the official Website for Armored Core 4, the newest addition to FromSoftware’s mech-based combat franchise, Armored Core, is now live! The Website not only includes up to the minute news updates on Armored Core 4, but also features never before seen assets including screenshots, wallpapers, AIM icons and more!”

Excited? You better be!

1up previews After Burner: Black Falcon

Posted by Chris. Filed under Chris, Sony PSP. Tagged with After Burner.

There’s no quicker way for a handheld game to go down the shitter than when the game just doesn’t run very smooth or if the controls suck.

Thankfully, After Burner: Black Falcon has none of those problems, according to 1up, who just sat down with the game’s newest build.

“The key here is how smoothly everything moves. From the flight speed to how enemy vehicles float around and blow up off in the distance, everything feels properly synced up to keep you moving forward and taking out enemies quickly,” 1up’s Matt Leone said.

Also, the hit detection in the game is apparently very accurate. Matt said the game is forgiving enough to not be frustrating but difficult enough to be challenging and rewarding.

Overall, Matt gushed over the game in pretty much every way imaginable. It’s looking like Sega made the right decision to outsource After Burner to Planet Moon Studios. Hopefully, if the game flies true, they’ll be the developers for a long time.

Check out the rest of 1up’s preview here.

The only thing I’ll add on the matter is that you’ll never, ever see a B-2 Stealth Bomber in a dogfight like that. It is afterall, a bomber, ya know? It like bombs things from really high up in the air all stealthy like.

Interview: Ken Westerfield, Sega arcade repair expert

Posted by Chris. Filed under Arcade, Chris, Interviews, News.

Sega has a rich history within the arcade industry; heck, they’re practically driving the industry right now. And with the recent Amusement Trades Exhibition International in London recently, Sega displayed their dominance once again.

To continue the Sega arcade theme, we tracked down one of the foremost experts within the Sega arcade repair field to get his thoughts on the business and how it was like working for Sega.

Ken Westerfield has more than 20 years experience working in the arcade industry, and he spent more than 15 years working in Sega’s technical service department. Last year, Ken started his own repair center called Advanced Repair Center.

Visual Concepts back at work on football games

Posted by Chris. Filed under Chris, News.

2K Sports announced today that Visual Concepts is hard at work on their new game - All Pro Football 2K8 that will be released on next-generation systems this summer.

The press release also said gamers should expect legendary gameplay, innovative features and outstanding visual quality sports gamers have come to expect from 2K Sports Visual Concepts.

“Football gamers have been awaiting the return of the 2K series,” said Greg Thomas, president of Visual Concepts, a 2K Sports studio. “All-Pro Football 2K8 will deliver an authentic next generation gridiron experience and we are happy to give fans another choice in the football category.”

Yes, I fully realize Sega sold Visual Concepts and Kush Games shortly after EA acquired exclusive rights to the NFL, but VC will always be connected to Sega, at least in my little heart.

Who thinks we’ll see a return of first-person football?

Rumor: Sega may support N-Gage 2

Posted by Chris. Filed under Chris. Tagged with Rumor Mill.

This story almost sounds good enough to base a movie on.

The plot: Nokia, developer of the ill-fated N-Gage, held a top-secret workshop in Santa Monica, California last week to unveil its plans for the N-Gage 2. Attending the event were representatives from Sega, Sony, Capcom, EA, Namco and other industry heavyweights.

According to Pocket Gamer, Nokia revealed its N-Gage Activation Code System, which will fail try to block piracy - something that was a huge problem for the first N-Gage. The system will also allow publishers the ability to track and manage their games. The article wasn’t too clear, but it seems like Nokia may be leaning towards a full digital distribution method for its games.

Also, attendees were able to get a first look at the next N-Gage’s development kits.

Pocket Gamer also said there will be another two-day meeting next week in Madrid, Spain for European developers.

I may be the only one out there, but I’m a huge fan of the N-Gage; in fact, I have mine sitting right here next to me. So if the N-Gage 2 could possibly have this many big developers interested in it, mark me down for excited.

Love and Berry, Japanese girls can’t get enough!

Posted by Ryan. Filed under Arcade, News, Ryan.

Sega’s new game, Love and Berry, has become a massive hit with the girls of Japan. So big in fact that there not just lining up, but the endless line of little girls are also wearing the official Love and Berry outfits! Its become so big that Segas 44 “LB Style” stores throughout Japan will be selling the line of clothes.

There will be six different outfits, and since Sega designed them, they must be totally hot! Make some that fit my girlfriend Sega! Or even better, make some that fit me!

While little girls line up to hand over their life savings, Sega must be laughing all the way to the bank.

How do those Sonic games stack up?

Posted by Chris. Filed under Chris, Review, Sonic.

A lot of people out there have been saying the Sonic series continues to get worse with each passing game, but I thought it’d only be fair to our beloved hedgehog to actually take a look at the reviews to see for ourselves.

While my findings may not be a shock to everyone, it could be an eye-opening experience for a lot of you.

Be sure to check it out after the jump.