M2's patched six of the Sega Ages titles for Switch: Thunder Force IV/Lightening Force, Phantasy Star, Outrun, Gain Ground, Puyo Puyo and Virtua Racing🇯🇵 changes as follows: (thread)
one more Virtua Racing feature: due to popular demand, they've added a gamma adjustment function—use ZL & ZR during the demo screens to adjust the screen brightness
the Sega Ages JP site also lists some other bug fixes: a Virtua Racing bug where pressing certain inputs during replay playback would alter the replay data for subsequent watches, other Gain Ground rewind-related bugs, etc
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former Raizing designer Mitsuakira Tatsuta has been unearthing lots of old sketches and character concepts from the original Bloody Roar🇯🇵 he says he drew ~300 character ideas in that time, with some (like this koala girl) received more coolly than others
mighty bold of Balan Wonderworld to skip the lazy '90s nostalgia play and instead pit itself directly against every crowdfunded game you forgot you backed seven years ago
I've seen a lot of comments about this game that fixate on Naka, certain post-DC Sega games, etc and I think it's important to emphasise that the actual developer is Naoto Ohshima's studio Arzest which has a long legacy of mediocrity that extends to its predecessor, Artoon
Artoon/Arzest's RPG pedigree is respectable (mostly via association with Hironobu Sakaguchi) but their action game resume stars:
Blinx: The Time Sweeper & Blinx 2
several middling-to-bad Yoshi games
Hey! Pikmin (remember this?)
FlingSmash (you don't remember this)
VAMPIRE RAIN
this collection includes the Amiga versions of Turrican 1 & 2, Mega Turrican & Super Turrican (SNES)
this is the stripped-down version of the two(!) other Turrican collections coming, which are really stretching for extra content: Super Turrican 2, Turrican 3 for Amiga (which is just Mega Turrican), the uncut version of Super Turrican SNES & some minor score/time attack hacks
so yeah, three collections desperately struggling for padding and yet none of them contain the original games by Manfred Trenz (Turrican 1 & 2 for C64, Super Turrican NES), figure that one out
these collections are coming to Switch as well, icymi
G-MODE's Koichi Takeshita discusses his early work history at Hudson and other studios, joining G-MODE, their early releases under his tenure (including KUUKIYOMI) and the establishment of G-MODE Archives gamemo.confidence-media.jp/873🇯🇵
on G-MODE Archives: bc G-MODE built its name off keitai & i-mode, they feel it's their mission to maintain that legacy, including games from other companies
re: overseas releases, the majority of games are JP-dependent, but they're considering releasing text-light games overseas
(this interview was conducted about a month ago—since then, they've already announced plans to release games from other companies (Zanac, Sorcerian) and they've released the first international G-MODE Archives title, TOPOLON nintendo.com/games/detail/g…)
Sega Ages are on sale again on Switch & someone asked me about the enhanced features—I feel like ppl might be sick to death of me talking about em but otoh, there are plenty of ppl who didn't follow them at all, so here's a rundown of what's new for all 19 Sega Ages Switch games:
Sega Ages Sonic the Hedgehog includes both the OG Mega Drive game & the obscure remixed Mega Play arcade version (with score attack leaderboard), Sonic Mania's Drop Dash (& spin dash, ofc), a "ring keeper" helper mode, a Green Hill act 1 time attack & more nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
Sega Ages Thunder Force IV (aka "Lightening Force"), the first-ever international reissue, includes the extras from the 🇯🇵-only Saturn port—the addition of the Thunder Force III ship & a more friendly "Kids Mode"—plus slowdown options, leaderboards & more nintendo.com/games/detail/s…
the 4gamer article is a particularly good breakdown of the types of questions & topics ppl should expect (with all the questions being specific to the mock test, ofc)
when they say Sega, they mean all of Sega, including all the obscure affiliate companies, building details, etc
like, dude was getting hit with questions about Oasis Park, DARTSLIVE, TMS, etc
Q1 asked for the address of Sega's current HQ, Q2 was a multiple-choice question asking him to pick all the games that featured real-world Sega motifs