Tag: Sega »

SEGA is set to have an exciting fall on mobile with the launch of four new titles: Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Demon Tribe, and Rhythm Thief and the Paris Caper. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 has a November release date, while Sonic Racing Transformed and Demon Tribe are listed as Winter 2013. Rhythm Thief is expect in early 2014.

I certainly can't wait to get my hands on Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed once again, and the blending of MOBA, card collecting, and action-rpg gameplay of Demon Tribe should be interesting to check out. Rhythm Thief should also be a welcome addition to mobile. Gimme now, SEGA!

“As the audience for mobile gaming continues to grow, we’re proud to expand our portfolio of digital titles with a wide array of genres,” said SEGA of America Vice President of Digital Business, Chris Olson, in a press release. “With card collecting and MOBA-style battles in Demon Tribe™, mystery solving timed to the beat in Rhythm Thief & the Paris Caper™, and chart topping tracks in GO DANCE™, SEGA’s latest portable offerings have something for everyone.”

Are you ready to dance? Well, SEGA has just released a new rhythm game exclusively to the App Store called Go Dance. Players are able to shake their bodies all the way down to the floor while listening to popular chart-topping songs. They are also able to dance their way up the leaderboards by achieving high scores.

Go Dance features a motion-capture technology that uses the FaceTime camera as a motion detector, capturing all the player's movements as they imitate an on-screen avatar. Each movement is recognized and scored in real-time and players can share their best scores with friends through Facebook or email.

Go get your groove on!

The comeback is on! Kingdom Conquest II begins a new comeback campaign for players to take advantage of, providing them with the “Super Luxurious Eleven Item Set.” For conquerors who didn't log in to Kingdom Conquest II during its previous campaign that lasted from June 25th to July 25th, they can now log in any time before September 5th to seize and take advantage of this new reward.

Let the conquest begin, again!

This special reward package includes:
1.150,000 x Crystals
2.400 x Gold Ticket
3.7 x Premium Ticket (Rare)
4.3 x Premium Ticket (Super Rare)
5.400 x Orb Ticket
6.+15% all Resource Production Boost (30 days)
7.Maximum Cost Boost Set (30 days)
8.+30% Monster EXP Boost (30 days)
9.+30% Commander EXP Boost (30 days)
10.War Support Package (30 days)
11.12 x Combat Points

Pocket Gamer reports that Sega has began a new global challenge for all Sonic Dash players which allows them to unlock Shadow the Hedgehog as a playable character. All players must work together to do 100 laps around the planet for the chance to unlock Shadow. Also, along the way, there are rewards for the 25, 50, and 75 percent mark. Only players that participate in the challenge will unlock Shadow, should the goal be met by August 5th.

“Since launch we have been amazed with the reaction and support from the Sonic Dash community,” said Chris Southall, Studio Head of SEGA’s Hardlight studio, in a press release. “For this update, we wanted to do something a bit different- something to bring the Sonic Dash community together to engage them and say a huge thank you for supporting us.”

Start dashing like you've never dashed before! Lets unlock Shadow!

Sega has a very storied history in video games. Home to brands like Sonic the Hedgehog, After Burner, Crazy Taxi, and of course the first banner game for the iPhone, Super Monkey Ball. Some (like me) still consider the Sega Dreamcast the best video game system ever released. But Sega was also one of the first game developers to launch on the App Store. And now with Sega games seeing well over 1.1 billion plays on iOS, we talk with Ethan Einhorn, Director of Online Services, SEGA, about what it was like to launch on the App Store and the amazing response to Sega's first release, Super Monkey Ball.

148Apps: Sega jumped on the App Store right at launch. It was the first high profile game, and even set the bar for the initial price point for games in the App Store at $9.99. How did Super Monkey Ball come about?

Ethan Einhorn, Director of Online Services, SEGA: We had built a great relationship with Apple prior to the launch of the App Store with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog on the iPod (clickwheel). The controls on that version of Sonic were finicky, but the port was pixel perfect! We were planning to follow up that release with Super Monkey Ball, but doing 3D on the iPod nano proved challenging, so we shifted to iPhone. This gave us a chance to dramatically increase the game's performance, and let us take full advantage of the iPhone's tilt functionality.

148Apps: Super Monkey Ball was priced at $9.99 initially. How was this initial price point decided? Did representatives from Apple have any input on the price point?

Ethan Einhorn: We were initially concerned that the $9.99 price point was too low. After all, we were giving users nearly as much content in that game as we did in the $39.99 DS Super Monkey Ball game, and with better graphics! We asked ourselves: if we planned to bring games to iOS, DS, and PSP simultaneously, how would pricing be handled across the board? We didn't see $0.99 as a price point that would become dominant so quickly, never mind free-to-play (which wasn't enabled at the App Store launch). As for Apple, they gave us full control over our pricing, just as they do now.

148Apps: I remember seeing that Super Monkey Ball had sold 300,000 copies in the first month. That was pretty amazing back then, considering the price point.
Were you surprised by the initial response?

Ethan Einhorn: Yes. We expected the performance to be solid - we received phenomenal support from Apple, including participation in TV spots. But nobody knew for sure how gaming would take off on that platform. The device was still at a premium price. The iPhone 3G just launching. There were a lot of other games to choose from. But when we hit #1 on day one, and stayed there for more than a week, and we were blown away. We're very proud to have provided gamers with the first ever #1 ranked game on the App Store!

148Apps: Super Monkey Ball took full advantage of the iPhone hardware, utilizing the accelerometer for tilt controls, which was very inventive at the time. Was any other control model ever considered?

Ethan Einhorn: We talked about offering a virtual stick option. The accelerometer control was tuned to allow for high precision, but it proved too sensitive for a lot of players. Unfortunately, there was no time to implement that. The virtual stick came up again when we worked on Super Monkey Ball 2 (a better game across the board), but by then, the amazing team at Other Ocean Interactive (our developer) had perfected tilt control on the device, so we kept with that.

Here's Ethan Einhorn demoing Super Monkey Ball at the Apple Press Event, revealing the iPhone App Store in 2008

148Apps: In the five years since launch, the App Store has changed considerably. Number of users has skyrocketed along with downloads, prices for paid apps has stabilized at the lowest possible point, free to play has dominated the top grossing charts. What would happen if Super Monkey Ball were launched today?

Ethan Einhorn: It would probably look and feel a lot like the PS Vita game - higher visual fidelity, more mini-games. If you haven't played SMB on VITA, by the way, check it out - all original content, and playable with either stick or tilt controls. It's awesome! But the challenge is that it's not really a game that can be shifted to free-to-play, which is where we are focused at SEGA.

148Apps: Any predictions for what the App Store will be like five years from now?

Ethan Einhorn: My guess is that Apple TV will carry all of the benefits of mobile gaming to televisions, while allowing for seamless cross-play between iPhone and Apple TV. I think F2P will get even bigger, but paid games will swing back into vogue, once players spend $100-plus on a few free-to-play titles and recognize that $10 for a premium game experience is actually a steal.

Thanks to Ethan Einhorn from Sega for his time.

[ Photo Credit: Avery Photography ]

Cult of Mac reports that Sega has dropped the price of every Sonic app to $0.99 cents, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode I, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II, Sonic CD, and Sonic & All-Stars Racing. So, if you have any Sonic missing from your collection, now's a great time to jump on them.

We've contacted Sega to find out what the special occasion is, so stay tuned.

Puzzle Pirates is an open world multiplayer game that has you solving puzzles, sailing ships, hunting monsters, and collecting lots of loot. w00tin' lootin'! Get ready to become a captain in a game that features over 20 interactive solo and multiplayer puzzles. You can even own a shoppe and govern an island in this player-driven world, and engage in massive ship-to-ship battles. Go own the seas, pirates!

Sega has announced that season two of Kingdom Conquest II will begin on June 14th, providing players with new challenges and the chance to rebuild their cities in order to conquer new worlds. New monsters will also roar onto the scene through the new Conquest and Legends Packs and will give players new strategic ways of taking on their enemies in combat.

Need a break from the world conquest mode? Well, Kingdom Conquest II has announced a new Battle Arena feature that lets players enter their Commanders and Monsters into direct battle. Players will be able to track their progress on leaderboards and earn rewards as they rank up in the individual competition.

Sega just released Godsrule: War of Mortals, an online multiplayer strategy title with real-time player vs player combat. It's your job to train an army and lead it into battle across contested territories, all while collecting resources and expanding your land. The game has cross-platform capabilities with iPad and PC, and is free to play.

As a reviewer, it is rare that you get the opportunity to have a personal connection to a game or franchise. When speaking for myself, that game is House of the Dead: Overkill. Way back in 2009, it was the first game that I reviewed professionally, which I then followed up with a review of the PS3 version a couple of years later. Both earlier iterations of Overkill were blissfully self-aware light-gun disasters that were so bad that they ended up coming back around to being good again. Can the iOS outing meet the same bar of campy machismo that made the original so appealing, or does it struggle to flex its proverbial muscle on the small screen?

On-rails shooters are a rare breed nowadays in gaming. Though they were a staple of the arcade era, they have seen a significant drop off in both market saturation and quality over the last couple of decades. This is what made House of the Dead: Overkill such an unexpectedly fun success. This time out, The Lost Reels collection consists of a couple of early levels in the game, broken up into more digestible chunks of gameplay. Each of the levels are stages of heavily scripted monster closets, punctuated with a boss battle.

What is contained in the base $4.99 download is the first two stages of the re-mixed campaign. Let it be known that the term “re-mixed” is actually code for a drastically pared down version of the original game. By virtue of the title’s on-rails mechanics, every interaction with the undead is heavily scripted and totally predictable, as are the extremely minimalistic character designs and canned animations. If players can aim high and be persistent, most of the core game can be beaten in under an hour.

Despite the campaign’s brevity, it is highly replayable thanks to unlockable weapons that can be purchased using the earned in-game currency. After struggling to complete a level when armed with a shotgun and pistol, it is tremendously satisfying to blow through the same mission using a minigun later on. Just remember to save those pretty pennies, because they will become crucial in the later stages. Also, there is a third set of stages that can be purchased in-app, for $1.99 that will undoubtedly explore more of the original game’s rather extensive content.

As fun as dismembering brain-munchers can be in House of the Dead Overkill – The Lost Reels, it starts to feel like a grind midway through the second batch of stages. Given that it doesn’t even take an hour to reach this point, it may mean that each player’s mileage may vary. That said, popping zombie melons on iOS proves to be just as fun as its console predecessors, even without the aid of a Wiimote.

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Sonic Dash is having a weekend sale on rings, offering 70% off the boost and breeze bundle. The boost bundle has 5,000 rings while the breeze bundle has 30 red star rings, with the bundles costing $0.99 cents each.