Date Released: Winter 2012 for most versions Date Reviewed: February 17, 2013 Genre: 3D Party Racer Players: 1-4 players locally (up to 5 on Wii U), 10 online Length: 3-30 minutes per event, 12-25 hours to unlock all content Replayability: High
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Introduction
Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed is the sequel to 2010’s crossover party racer Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing. Not simply a basic sequel, the game focuses around the concept of vehicles that change during the race to traverse over land, water and the sky with a few courses that even head through lava or outer space. Presented as kid-friendly but designed to be enjoyable for all ages, Transformed is a quality racer for fans of SEGA and the genre. Difficult but not unfair, the game succeeds in making a unique and fun game for groups online or off, but somewhat sloppy direction and awkward marketing attempts keep it from becoming a true classic.
The SEGA AGES 2500 PlayStation 2 release of SEGA’s arcade classic ‘beat em up’ Dynamite Deka is now available on the PlayStation 3 for download on the Japanese PlayStation Store for 800 yen.
Titled Die Hard Arcade (after the popular 20th Century Fox film series) in many regions, this version of the game features updated graphics and various additional features, such as a mode where the characters are replaced by the cast of Golden Axe or Altered Beast and a digital remake of Periscope, one of SEGA’s earliest ever arcade experiences.
Unlikely to be released outside of Asian regions, interested players are able to purchase and play it regardless of their PlayStation 3’s region with a Japanese PlayStation Network account and with yen added to their account through purchasable ‘Point cards’. Several import sites exist that email the point card’s code, meaning those previously unprepared should not have to worry about shipping costs or dates. It is also worth noting that although very little of the English language is used in the game, the menu layouts and designs are simplistic, meaning those who do not read or speak Japanese should have little trouble navigating the game.
SEGA Vintage Collection has been recently released on both XBLA and PSN – for the XBox 360 and PS3 respectfully. Known as SEGA AGES Online in Japan, it features proper emulations of SEGA classics – both console and arcade – with an abundance of features. It is developed by M2, former SNK employees responsible for SEGA’s Virtual Console offerings on Wii and many previous SEGA AGES games on PS2. Extensive emulation options, high definition artwork wallpapers, leader boards, saving, replays, achievements/trophies, new trial modes, and on-line play are all included, bringing these games back to life in a respectable, professional manner. With it being an on-going series of releases of classic games, it might be helpful to get a basic overview of what is included, how it fairs, and how others view the games released so far. Below is a compilation of this.
Continuing on with their wave of newly ported classic games, six more classic SEGA titles are now available worldwide in two brand new SEGA Vintage Collections on Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE Arcade
Developed and altered by M2, these HD ports feature a variety of new changes and enhancements both inside the games and out, including slick, interactive menus, the addition of save states and replays, online leaderboards, fully customizable controls, and online co-operative play for both the main game and duel modes. Several new features have also been added, such as unique trials and challenges for each game, as well as a jukebox mode where one can listen to every music track in the collection. The trials are separate and distinct from the main game in that they require the player to play through a specific section of the game under certain conditions in the fastest possible time, with the best overall times and percentages being added to the online leaderboards.
SEGA Vintage Collection: Golden Axe:
–Golden Axe (arcade)
–Golden Axe II (Genesis/Mega Drive)
–Golden Axe III (Genesis/Mega Drive)
SEGA Vintage Collection: Streets of Rage:
–Streets of Rage (Genesis/Mega Drive)
–Streets of Rage 2 (Genesis/Mega Drive)
–Streets of Rage 3 (Genesis/Mega Drive)
These games can only be bought as part of their respective bundles and cannot be purchased individually. Each bundles sells for 800 Microsoft Points, or roughly $10 USD. It’s also worth noting that the original releases of Golden Axe (arcade) and Streets of Rage 2 (Genesis/Mega Drive) have been delisted from Xbox Live Arcade service, as those versions — developed by Backbone Entertainment — were deemed inferior and poorly constructed, making these new releases the definitive versions of these two games. All games included also have each regional release selectable, a feature which allows players to access a variety of region-specific content that would otherwise not be available in all versions of these games.
A number of Genesis/Mega Drive titles have recently been released on Steam, including Wonder Boy in Monster World, Vectorman 2, Revenge of Shinobi, Streets of Rage 3, Phantasy Star II, Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom, Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium, Golden Axe III, Dynamite Headdy, and Beyond Oasis. All of these games can be bought individually or as part of a collection.
Additionally, ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron was released on Steam back in March, bringing the total of Genesis/Mega Drive ports on Steam to 51.
SEGA has announced a sequel to 2010’s Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing titled Sonic & All-Stars Racing: Transformed. While dropping the ‘SEGA’ portion of the title, the game will still feature a wide variety of SEGA franchises in addition to the Sonic the Hedgehog series, spanning from SEGA’s early years up until now. Franchises shown off include Skies of Acadia and Panzer Dragoon, with mention of others such as Golden Axe. The game’s main feature over its predecessor is the ability for player vehicles to transform from cars into both boats and planes mid-race, combining three separate physics engines into one game.
The game has been announced for XBox 360, PlayStation 3, Personal Computer, PlayStation Vita, and Nintendo 3DS, and will be developed by Sumo Digital. It is set for a release in Autumn of 2012. Assets below include a launch trailer, a set of screenshots, and a preview by IGN including a developer video interview.
The arcade version of the classic SEGA title Golden Axe has been made available for purchase today for North American PlayStation Network accounts on PlayStation 3. This version is the same as found on the Xbox Live Arcade and with the same achievements found from that 2007 release. Like it’s Xbox 360 counterpart, it has online functionality for leaderboards and multiplayer and canbe purchased for 5 USD.
Notably, Sony has been claiming that that the Genesis/Mega Drive sequel Golden Axe II would be arriving on the PlayStation Network. However, they recently crossed out the number 2 in each of their posts about the game, but have not made any announcements about this. This can mean that either the game is canceled or coming at a much later date.
I made this video back in 2007 or so, when I was first learning how to use video editing tools, and that is a little more than obvious. However, I feel my passion for the company and their games is very apparent and overrides most major complaints I have with it. I put a lot of love into this for no real reason other than a thank you to the thousands – Perhaps millions of great games SEGA has made that so much of us all over the world have loved through the years.
The song is “Don’t Stop Me Now” by the band Queen. After the jump is the list of games included in the video, along with the format they were recorded on in their correct order.
Golden Axe is the influential 1989 arcade ‘beat em’ up’ game that invented the ‘hack and slash’ genre along with bringing new concepts and gameplay ideals to the entire medium. The game is considered by many as a classic, and it’s soundtrack is no different. Today we will take a look at the theme of Death=Adder, the main villain of the Golden Axe franchise.
Hit the jump to continue reading and to listen to different versions of the song, including fan remixes.
The SEGA Source 