Retro Gaming Australia

Sega has announced that the hotly anticipated HD remaster of Jet Set Radio will be coming to the PlayStation Vita.

The Vita version will apparently had feature parity with the home console version, as well touch functionality for the graffiti component of the game.

“The fan reaction to our recent reveal of Jet Set Radio has been incredible!” said Haruki Satomi, Senior Vice President of Digital Business at SEGA. “As Jet Set Radio is focused on creativity, the touch capabilities of the PlayStation VITA are proving to be a perfect fit.”

Sega are pulling out all of the stops with digital distribution this month. Hot off the heels of Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2 comes the third round of Sega Vintage Collection games for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade.

Twelve games will be released as part of this run – Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Super Hang-On, Revenge of Shinobi, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Wonder Boy in Monster World, Monster World IV, Streets of Rage, Streets of Rage II, Streets of Rage 3, Golden Axe, Golden Axe II and Golden Axe III.

The games are packaged differently based on which service you decide to use. On PlayStation Network, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Super Hang-On, Revenge of Shinobi, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Wonder Boy in Monster World and Monster World IV will be available May 22nd for $US4.99 each.

Meanwhile, on Xbox Live Arcade, the games will be available in packs of three – Monster World Collection (Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Wonder Boy in Monster World and Monster World IV) and Alex Kidd & Co. Collection (Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Super Hang-On and Revenge of Shinobi) on May 23, while Streets of Rage Collection and Golden Axe Collection will arrive on May 30. All Xbox Live Arcade collections will be 800 points.

Sega aggressively promoted its Game Gear system early on, taking full opportunity to highlight the fact that it was a full colour system, unlike the Game Boy. The system never really caught on thanks to its obscene battery draining capability, but it did manage to find a small audience that supported it into the latter half of the 90s.

Two more titles from the classic Wonder Boy series, Wonder Boy in Monster Land and Monster World IV (pictured), are launching on the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console service on May 10.

Wonder Boy in Monster Land is an action role-playing platformer developed by Westone and released for many systems including the Sega Master System , Amiga, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and Atari ST. In Wonder Boy in Monster Land players reprise their role as Wonder Boy (now in a Medieval world) to rid the land of a fire-breathing dragon and his minions. The Sega Master System version of Wonder Boy in Monster Land was released on Virtual Console in 2009, however, it is the 1987 arcade version that Wii owners will get to experience anew from tomorrow.

More exciting is the release of Monster World IV, the sixth and final installment in the Wonder Boy franchise (though technically not part of the Wonder Boy series and exclusively part of the Monster World series). Monster World IV is a 1994 adventure platformer also developed by Westone and released for the Sega Mega Drive – only in Japan. This Virtual Console release is the first official release of the game outside of Japan. Featuring a female protagonist and Middle Eastern setting, Monster World IV sees players journey to save the Elemental Spirits and defeat the bad guys.

Wonder Boy in Monster Land and Monster World IV will set you back 900 Nintendo Points each.

Source: SEGA Blog

Sega has announced that their fifth collection of Sega Mega Drive games is now available on Steam.

You can purchase the games individually for $US3.49, or together for $US9.99. Games included are Golden Axe III, Story of Thor, Dynamite Headdy, Phantasy Star II, Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom, Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium, Streets of Rage 3, The Revenge of Shinobi, Vectorman 2 and Wonder Boy in Monster World.

Awesome Master System and Game Gear resource SMSPower has released another Game Gear prototype ROM, this time for the unreleased puzzle game Crazy Faces.

Crazy Faces was developed by The Kremlin, the studio responsible for Master System and Game Gear ports of games such as Desert Strike. It’s a slide puzzle game with a bit of a twist, in that you summon the pieces onto the play field. The sliding pieces can only be stopped by a wall or another piece, which makes things a little more complicated.

The game’s puzzles feature characters from games published by both Sega and Domark (who was set to publish the game).

Crazy Faces was due to be published in 1993, but was cancelled for reasons unknown.

While I was back at my parents’ place scanning magazine covers for the Australian Game Database, I found a good chunk of promotional material from the glory days of Sega in Australia.

One such piece of paraphernalia was Sega Action, a short lived newsletter Sega Ozisoft sent out to folks who registered their Master Systems and Mega Drives. Sega Action basically promoted the latest games, detailed where Sega roadshows were happening, and gave you the opportunity to buy Sega merchandise. It also plugged the hell out of the Sega Hotline and Sega Club.

I don’t know exactly how long the newsletter ran for – it started up in late 1991, and I don’t recall seeing any issues after the launch of the Mega CD.

The scans aren’t the best since I kind of rushed the scanning, but we’ll probably take a crack at doing a better scan of these down the line.

Sega Action Volume 1: pdf | cbz
Sega Action Volume 3: pdf | cbz
Sega Action Volume 6: pdf | cbz

Edit: Now available in .cbz for your convenience.

Capcom, Namco Bandai and Sega have revealed to Famitsu that their collaborative project is a 3DS strategy RPG called Project X Zone (pronounced Project Cross Zone).

The three way crossover features characters from some of the companies’ most well known titles, and combat will see them teaming up and fighting in pairs such as Ryu with Ken (Street Fighter), and X with Zero (Mega Man).

Twenty-five characters have been confirmed thus far (see below), with more to be announced.

Capcom

• Ryu and Ken (Street Fighter)
• X and Zero (Mega Man)
• Demitri (Darkstalkers)
• Dante (Devil May Cry)
• Chris and Jill (Resident Evil)

Namco Bandai

• Sanger Somvold (Super Robot Wars)
• Jin and Ling Xiaoyu (Tekken)
• Kos-Mos and T-elos (Xenosaga)
• Yuri and Estelle (Tales of Vesperia)
• Kaito and Black Rose (.hack)

Sega

• Shinguji Sakura and Ogami Ichiro (Sakura Wars)
• Pai and Akira (Virtua Fighter)
• Kurt and Riela (Valkyria Chronicles)
• Ulala (Space Channel 5)
• Touma (Shining Force EXA)

The Dreamcast launched with one of Sega’s biggest ever media blitzes…in America. You could almost be forgiven for not knowing what a Dreamcast is if you lived in any of the Ozisoft territories, where the system was a complete bust thanks to one of the most disastrous launches in gaming history.

Sega has announced that Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II will be available on PSN and XBLA on May 15 and May 16 respectively.

We will also see the title hit both PC and iOS devices in May, Android devices in June and finally Windows Phone in July.

Episode Metal was also revealed. Exclusive content for owners of both Episode I and Episode II, Episode Metal see Metal Sonic playable in four exclusive stages.