Seaman creator to make spinoff for iPhone
Posted by Graham. Filed under G, Japan, News, Video, iPhone/iPod. Tagged with Gabo, Seaman, Yoot Saito.
It seems the creator of the cult Dreamcast classic (and a game I am yet to play), Seaman and (for the PS2) Seaman 2, Yoot Saito is creating a quasi-spinoff of the series on the iPhone, entitled Gabo.
Not many details have come out yet, but the game appears to be using a similar character to that of Seaman 2, a caveman/monkey person and instead of talking to the ’seaman,’ players use the iPhone’s touch screen to interact with it.
I’m not sure if this game is actually being published or developed by any Sega team though. The news originallly came from Yoot’s own personal blog, in the form of some truly awful broken English translation.
It seems the game will be released in Japan first, but Yoot confirms that there are plans for a worldwide release. Hurrah!
One last thing to do: “Gabo, Gabo! GABO!” (Simpsons fans should appreciate that).
[Source: Yoot.com Via Joystiq]
Sega Europe gives away iPod Nanos in two Samba De Amigo contests
Posted by Graham. Filed under Europe, G, News, Nintendo Wii, iPhone/iPod. Tagged with Contest, Gearbox, Samba De Amigo.
That’s right, Sega Europe has launched not one, not three, but two contests to help celebrate the release of Samba De Amigo.
The first contest is being held on the official European Samba sites (minus Italy, for some reason). Entrants need to answer a multiple choice question, regarding gaming’s favourite simian percussionist to win a funky, little iPod Nano.
Sega adds a little more shine to their Monkey Balls, on the iPhone
Posted by Graham. Filed under G, News, iPhone/iPod. Tagged with Super Monkey Ball.
Even though Sega has seen huge success from Super Monkey Ball on the iPhone, there have been some (pretty serious) complaints regarding the game’s playability.
Apparently the iPhones tilting function was not quite ‘right’ for the game, and players would complain that finding the dead zone in the game was too difficult. The dead zone (in case you don’t know) is the position that players would need to hold the iPhone which would stop their Monkey’s moving on screen - which is an essential thing for Monkey Ball games.
Well it seems that Sega has listened to the complaints, and released a new patch for the game. The dead zone is now found at a 45 degree angle - which should be suitable for most gamers.
But, not all is good news. Apparently there have been reports that the new patch can delete save files. So if you are already near the end of the game (without the patch), then you might want to try and complete it first.
However, as none of the staff here at Sega Nerds is rich enough to own an iPhone, we cannot confirm of deny these reports. Sorry.
[Source: MTV]
[Image from IntoMobile]
Super Monkey Ball a Super Hit on iPhone
Posted by Nathan. Filed under Nathan, News, iPhone/iPod. Tagged with Super Monkey Ball.
It’s been just over a month since the release of the iPhone 3G and the launch of Apple’s Applications store. As you may recall, Sega released a portable version of the popular Super Monkey Ball franchise on the new service, capitalizing on the iPhone’s “Dreamcast quality” capabilities and tilt-sensitive accelerometer. The game quickly became one of the top sellers in the iTunes App store, and now we have some harder stats to see just how well it’s been selling.
iPhone App Stats, first 30 days
Total Downloads: 60 million
Total Revenues: $30 million
Sales Going To Top Ten Apps: $9 million
Sales of Super Monkey Ball: $3 million
As you can see, at $9.99 per download, Super Monkey Ball sold approximately 300,000 copies in 30 days, which comes to an average of 10,000 purchases per day. Not bad at all! And since developers get to take 70% of the revenue generated from their app’s sales, that’s over $2.1 million in Sega’s pocket. With that kind of success, you can expect either a sequel or perhaps some newly ported franchises to make their way onto the iPhone soon.
[via The Wall Street Journal]
Hackers could have Sega’s Monkeys by their balls
Posted by Graham. Filed under G, News, iPhone/iPod. Tagged with Super Monkey Ball.
Well it was inevitable, it seems that some hackers have cracked the iPhone’s “Fairplay DRM,” and it a certain top-selling iTunes App by Sega is the main dish on the menu.
Super Monkey Ball is now being offered as a free, pirated download by HackLabs.
MegaCD classic RPG hits the iPhone
Posted by Graham. Filed under G, News, iPhone/iPod.
Quite surprisingly a RPG game has appeared on the iTunes store. But it’s not a new game, it’s an old classic from the Mega/Sega CD, Vay.
Vay was originally released on the MegaCD in 1994, by SIMs, and boasted some great animated cutscenes, a top soundtrack (thanks to the CD-based software), plus well over 40 Hours of gameplay (apparently) - which was pretty incredible back in those days. Remember this was on a 16-bit system.
The game has been re-released on the iPhone, by SoMoGa, keeping the game pretty much the same as the original, but with some new graphics for battles, writing style and menu systems designed with the iPhone in mind - as the screenshots below show.
~MegaCD~ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â ~iPhone~
  
  
For more details on the new version, check out the official site. Or for information on the original, check out Moby Games.
The game is out on the iTunes store now for $4.99.
[Source: TouchArcade]
[Images from TouchArcade and Moby Games]
Simon Jeffery: iPhone “playing Dreamcast quality games”
Posted by Graham. Filed under G, News, iPhone/iPod. Tagged with Dreamcast.
From what we have seen of Super Monkey Ball on the iPhone, it looks very good. But would you say it looks as good as a Dreamcast game?
Well Simon Jeffery, Sega of America President, seems to think so.
In a recent interview with Kotaku, Simon talks about the company’s joy with how the iPhone turned out, and how well it runs games, especially compared to other phones:
“It’s everything that the N-Gage wasn’t as a gaming device,†he said. “Why people play those crappy games on their mobile phones, I’ll never understand. But the iPhone changes that completely. You’re playing Dreamcast quality games on this tiny little device. It’s pretty impressive.
What could this mean for the future of Sega game releases? Well Simon might have given Sega’s next move away, as he continued the interview…
Sega shows off Monkey Ball for the iPhone
Posted by Graham. Filed under G, News, Video, iPhone/iPod. Tagged with Super Monkey Ball.
Sega took to the stage earlier today, at the WWDC (WorldWide Developers Conference) in San Francisco, to show off the new version of Super Monkey Ball on the iPhone.
By all accounts, (well from the 8 or 9 reports I have read so far), the presentation was impressive to see live. Sega’s Associate Producer, Ethan Einhorn, gave a live presentation of the game, with an associate playing on the final level and showing off how easy the game is to play using the iPhone’s tilt functions.
Reports indicate that he was given a round of applause afterwards - possibly for his “mad skillz” at the game, or it could be a good indication that the game is looking very impressive.
One of the most amazing things is that it took the team just 8 weeks to complete the full game, giving you all four Monkeys (plus balls), 5 different worlds and some 110 Stages to play on!
The game is due for release on July 11th, the same time as the new iPhone 3G, and is priced at just $9.99! It’s a pity I’m not cool/rich enough to afford an iPhone just yet, because this game looks great!