What looked to be a breakthrough in the long battle to peep up the virtual superstar’s skirt turns out to be a dead end.
Sega (Page 5)
With Nintendo’s Classic Mini system filling fans with nostalgic euphoria, Sega couldn’t help cutting in on the action a few weeks later with their own mini system based on the Mega Drive (a.k.a. Genesis), preloaded with games but also allowing other cartridges to be plugged in.
We sent six of our most dashing writers to a photo studio for some glamour shots at an appearance in the new Yakuza 6 video game.
Anyone who’s been to Japan knows that the convenience store is the prefect place to get snacks, pay your bills, buy adult material, and get into a fight. Wait, what?
The machines are available at arcades and amusement centers in the “purikura” section and offer over 1,500 designs.
Japanese actor and director “Beat” Takeshi Kitano is an instantly recognisable face over here in Japan, but westerners might be more familiar with him in his role as sadistic homeroom teacher Kitano in Battle Royale, or perhaps as the host of the madcap 1980s Japanese game show Takeshi’s Castle.
But it turns out that ol’ Beat is no longer just the face of Japanese TV and gritty movies, as he has recently joined a long line of celebrities lending their voices and images to video games. Check out Beat Takeshi’s appearance in the upcoming Sega game, Yakuza 6, in the following trailer.
Some people may think that video games are a mindless way to pass time, but anyone who’s spent a decent amount of time holding a controller knows that it can be so much more. Not only can games be mentally challenging, but you can even get pretty emotionally involved. You’ll always remember that moment when you beat that boss or finished that game for the first time.
One French artist is trying to preserve these memories for gamers around the world by creating beautiful art pieces that capture such special gaming moments in one-scene shots.
It’s a great time to be a retro gamer. The video game industry has reached a level of maturity that means there’re now decades worth of polished, legitimately enjoyable titles out there, often selling for just a fraction of the prices they commanded when new.
However, there’s one big hassle with working through an almost 30-year backlog of great games, and that’s having to hook up the half-dozen or so pieces of hardware that library is spread across. One Japanese company is proposing a solution, though, with a single console that’ll play just about any cartridge made in the 16-bit era.
The big selling point of online multiplayer role-playing games that they never end. Unlike a stand-alone, single-player RPG with a comparatively distinct path from start to finish, the adventure in online titles can go on indefinitely, thanks to periodically added extra content and the huge supply of new companions to go questing with.
But as appealing as a game that never has to end may be to hard-core gamers, many of them recently found out they were playing one that couldn’t, as the logout function mysteriously disappeared from one of Japan’s most popular online RPGs.
If you’re an old-school Sega fan (and, let’s be honest, old-school Sega is pretty much the only Sega that counts any more) then you won’t want to miss this year’s Tokyo Game Show.
Due to go on sale in Japan next month, this insanely cute Sega Mega Drive plushie and a number of other Sega-themed goods ranging from mugs to hooded sweatshirts will be available to buy early at the game-tastic convention next week.
Perhaps it says something about the fundamental goodness of the human heart that once someone is no longer with us, we tend to remember the good things about him or her. Even though the memories of petty differences and irritants tend to fade with time, the happy moments often remain with us, sometimes picking up an even warmer aura as nostalgia colors them.
The phenomena doesn’t just happen with people, though, but video game hardware too. This partially explains why Sega, which discontinued its most recent console well over a decade ago, is seeing a new anime being produced in which the main characters are cute, anthropomorphized versions of the company’s defunct video game systems.
You wouldn’t know it from the current state of the industry, but the biggest grudge match in video games wasn’t always PS4 versus Xbox One or Skyrim versus Dark Souls. For the bulk of console gaming’s most formative years, the bitterest rivalry was Nintendo versus Sega.
Back before Sega threw in the towel on making its own hardware, the two companies hated each other, and their fans did, too. “Nintendo makes games for little kids.” “Sega’s marketing is obnoxious and juvenile.” “The Super NES processor sucks.” “The Genesis sound chip sounds like a muffled fart.” “Mario is fat.” “Sonic only has one eyeball.”
Soon, you’ll be able to relive the epic struggle for 1990s video game supremacy with the feature film adaptation of the book “Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation.”
As much as we like to think of ourselves as free thinkers and immune to corporate advertising, there’s no denying that brand names have found their way into pretty much every facet of our daily lives. Many North Americans routinely use “Kleenex” in place of the word tissue; in the UK it’s not unusual to hear people say that they’re about to “hoover up” when referring to running a vacuum cleaner; and in its heyday pretty much any portable gaming device was casually referred to as a Gameboy.
The likes of Nintendo and Sony have been household names for years, but did you ever wonder where these names come from and what they might mean in their native language? Author of Japanmanship and game developer James Kay sheds some light on the origins of the names Japan’s biggest video game companies use, from Capcom to SNK, and has generously shared a few snippets of info with RocketNews24 for our enjoyment and nerdy enlightenment.
Find out where those world-famous names really come from after the jump.
While you’re trying to sneak your way past Clickers or making it rain at a Los Santos strip club, do you ever stop to think about those men and women who have slaved away for countless hours, trying to bring you the best game possible? And with every good group of game developers, you have to have a place to house them while they work, so here’s a look inside the walls of some of the biggest video game companies in the world.
Every now and again, a video game comes along that’s such a big hit that it creates its own, oftentimes oddly specific, genre. Super Mario Bros. begat a plethora of titles where characters run from left to right and jump on platforms. Street Fighter created a wave of games in which martial artists always settle their battles in best two out of three fashion, even if many of them are supposedly fighting to the death. And from Tetris, the category of “arranging things as they fall from the sky” was born.
Most of the puzzle games attempting to cash in on Tetris’ success, such as Columns, Dr. Mario, and Baku Baku Animal, didn’t make anywhere near as much of a splash. The lone exception is Puyo Puyo, originally from developer Compile. Puyo Puyo has been going strong for over 20 years, and its current caretaker, Sega, has plans to kick things up another notch, according to some cryptic messages from the franchise’s official Twitter account.
If you’re a video game fan and in the line for a new laptop computer, it might be your lucky day! Japan’s Sega Store is currently accepting orders for specially designed notebooks designed to look like Sega’s late, great home consoles.
Short of dropping our current machines down the stairs or accidentally pouring coffee over them, we don’t necessarily need one per-se, but the more we gaze upon these photos, the more that little tech-loving devil inside us shouts the same word over and over and pumps gaming nostalgia into our bloodstream. Waaaant!
For many of us out there, the recent festivities of the New Year will be leaving our pockets empty and our stomachs a little bloated, but if a certain recent job advertisement is anything to go by there’s a way to make some quick cash on a large scale. No this is not some dodgy backstreet deal but a fully fledged chance for a six month contract with Sega.
The position offers a 2 million yen (US$22.5k) compensation, and while it’s ongoing for a six month period, the actual hours of work sum up to no more than one week!
“Swaaaaag!”
Although it’s often easy to forget, what with all those games to be played and women in skimpy costumes to pretend not to be staring at, Tokyo Game Show, like every other trade show of its kind, is really all about one thing for the companies attending- advertising and self-promotion.
So when the games have been played, the doors have been closed and the booth girls are just lifeless still images on an otaku’s hard-disk, what remains? Why, of course, the freebies! The swag that seems like an amazing idea until you ride the train home with it and realise that, outside of the event setting with every other guy carrying the same junk, you look faintly ridiculous.
And TGS had it by the bucket-load.
But Sega, the house that built Sonic the Hedgehog and dozens of other gaming greats, pulled out all the stops this year, and, proving that size really does matter, absolutely dominated the show. Read More
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