Sega Turning Into Mr. Hyde Again

Yeah...not much else to say this time besides report the news. Well, Good Old Sega is back again, thought you should know that.

First is this copyright on gameplay mechanics. You know, stuff like "press arrow buttons to move the character" or some nonsense that you'd have to be really petty to care about. Anyway, Sega is suing Level-5 for making some innocuous video game (Inazuma Eleven, popular in Japan) that really shouldn't bother anyone. Apparently, Sega patented the ability to move characters by touching the screen. Yes, it's that broad of a patent. And it's not just for the $11 million in cash--Sega is demanding that Level-5 stop selling eight of these Inazuma Eleven games.

...Wow, they're outright trying to kill games. That's a horrible thing to imagine especially if you worked on these games yourself. And it's not even straight-up ripoffs like Zynga's The Ville (read my take) or a Chinese knockoff, this is some original series of video games that are trying to get taken down. And just for informative purposes, it seems the first Inazuma Eleven game came out EDIT: 4 years ago (thanks GameFAQs, you lie).  So it took Sega THAT long to get around to this? Oh, and didn't Nintendo do something like this before with a game called Super Mario DS?

Maybe there is something going on in the Sega war room we really don't know about (i.e. Level-5 pissed in Sega's corn flakes) but with the Japanese game industry going to crap and "scumbag" companies are starting rise like Capcom and Sony, it really helps if Sega watches its own ass since it's been in hot water for the last 10 years, dropping all its franchises, particularly Sonic, on their heads.

... Which reminds me that Sega has pulled this patent nonsense before. Our beloved Crazy Taxi has a patent on its core gameplay features. See the "invention" description:

SUMMARY OF THE "INVENTION" from the US Patent Website

One object of the present invention is to provide a game display method and an apparatus which permits people to be present in virtual space, such as a city or others, while not permitting cruel images, as of colliding with the people to be avoided. 

Another object of the present invention is to provide a moving direction indication method which can make direction indications which are easy to be understood by operators freely moved in the virtual space, such as a city or others, and a game apparatus. 

Further another object of the present invention is to provide a game display method and a game apparatus which can make displays which are easily understandable for an operator who gets, in a virtual space, such as a city or others, a specific object and carries the object to a destination. 

Further another object of the present invention is to provide a drive simulation method which can provide real driving feeling....it goes on and on. Who wants to sit through 50 pages of this monotony?

HEY HEY HEY!!  COME ON IN AND CHALLENGE OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY!!!

In other words, Sega patented the right for video game pedestrians not to be run over by reckless drivers. That and the green compass and telling people to drive to point A on the map. God forbid someone actually tries not to get run over in a video game. Well, that's what Carmageddon and GTA went for...just run 'em over.  Leave bloody tiremarks.  Mutiny averted!  Lawsuits & complaints by US Government officials, yes.  But Sega, no, you're safe from them.

Well, not for Fox Interactive...they released The Simpsons: Road Rage in 2001 which played out similar to Crazy Taxi. Sega sued in 2003 and they settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. You could challenge it if you felt like it, but all the time & money wasted just to win a macho head game vs. Sega wasn't really worth it...just settle and put it behind you.

Now I only have limited knowledge on intellectual property and the law though (I did have a run in a few times with YouTube's copyright police). I'm not a slip & fall lawyer. I respect patents but how vague can you get with these things--trying to push vague ideas as patents or "inventions." And also this, pertaining to the Crazy Taxi--was Sega just scared that someone would make a better racing game than they could? Um, no one could make a better Crazy Taxi than Sega can. Besides, people called out The Simpsons: Road Rage for being derivative so it's not like someone stole Sega's racing mojo. They are still the king.

Maybe Sega deserves props for "gaming" the system properly...hey, they got some money out of the thing. You play the "game" of game design, prepare to lose...

Also worth mentioning that our good friend Namco has a patent on "minigames in loading screens", as such:

5. A method of loading games program code means from a recording medium into a games machine and performing predetermined processing therewith, wherein a main-game program code means and an auxiliary program code means are stored in said recording medium and when said games program code means is loaded and processed, said auxiliary program code means is loaded first in response to an initialization program in said games machine and then said main-game program code means is loaded.

In other words, auxiliary program = mini-game. Wow, my head hurts trying to read this. But anyway, very creative concept you came up with there, Namco. I guess by "minigame" they mean the ROM of another older game (like Xevious in Ridge Racer 6) as opposed to some buttons to click on (the slot machine from Sega All-Stars Racing). But what do I know! (see list at bottom of page).

Patenting gameplay...Betcha EA wish they thought of this sooner!  It just dawned on me...it would FRIGGIN HILARIOUS if Call of Duty's "aim down sights" mechanic was patented/trademarked.  Or Gears of War's "cover & shoot" mechanic.  And so on and so forth.  If anything like this really happened, you'd see how imbecilic this Sega patent nonsense really is but on a much larger scale (sites like Reddit/Kotaku/GameFAQs would actually care).

I know I'm droning on with things that have been said on tens of hundreds of blogs before (omg copyright infringement??) but the point is this. You try to make a game. It's hard enough as it is trying to hire people, create great new ideas, work long hours to complete, advertise, and sell the thing. But then you got millions of legal landmines to avoid. If you aren't aware of every copyright & patent like "a green arrow floating above a car," then a big company like Sega or Namco is gonna zing ya like that.  Yeah, no excuse for ignorance but we all have too many issues on our plate these days to focus purely on potential lawsuit pitfalls...like trying to raise a family, pay the bills, express ourselves through works of art, and just trying not to die in general.

Then there's the second thing and that's some crazy guy at Sega taking down every single Shining Force video on YouTube. This is most certainly not new to me. If anyone submits a complaint to YouTube that a user is violating their copyright, YouTube's knee-jerk reaction is to remove the video right away. It's a serious uphill battle trying to prove your innocence to YouTube though...one reason why I've given up on that site.

Sadly, if it did come push to shove between Sega and some of these fans uploading these vids, Sega would probably win. The sad truth is that even with Fair Use, a lot of Internet content (videos, pictures, music, etc.) would get flagged purely for using someone else's content (went over this before). The good news is that 99.999% of the time, the copyright owners don't care. Look at this site. I got Daytona USA 2 wallpapers everywhere. Imagine if Sega actually cared about Daytona again, enough to want to stop anyone else from using any material from the game. That's sort of what's happening now to Shining Force. And it really, really sucks, particularly because it's so random and no one knows a "predator" waits in ambush of anyone posting Shining Force vids. From the TSSZ News article:

We never give explicit permission to use our intellectual property. However, in cases like this, we tend not to take action unless our products are slandered in the derivative works.

Best Regards,
Sega Customer Support

Translation: Sega doesn’t officially approve of fan art, fan fiction, fan games, or anything else that fans do with their properties, but they aren’t going to stop you from doing it unless you’re trying to make them look bad. For those of you out there worrying about the sanctity of Sonic the Hedgehog lets plays or other fan projects, this is as close as you’re going to get to an unofficial thumbs up to keep doing that stuff.

Good news! Sega isn't going to kill you for posting material they own! Unless you create a Streets of Rage remake (Sonic CD is okay, however). Or if you create a Sonic YTMND. Or you post a Shining Force video. Or you say Sega sucks, or something. YouTube Poops are okay still, I hope--PINGAS!!! EDIT: Dawned on me if some of this "mature" Sonic fanart is okay.  Let's show that to Sega and see what they think!

Oh boy it's confusing. The chances are very slim that anything you or I do draws the ire of lawyers, but things like that make me not want to contribute to the community...to make games, fan pages, etc. since you can get dumped on so quickly.

There's a few people that are trying to boycott Sega. But IMO, it's not necessary for two reasons: 1. It's a big corporation with employees in all different fields. Because one guy starts throwing around lawsuits/YouTube takedowns doesn't mean Yu Suzuki, the AM2 team, or even Sumo Digital thinks that way. 2. Sega's already flying a cargo jet on a blown engine or two. Go ahead and boycott. It'll just screw them even worse.  Other than Sega All-Stars Racing and the recent ports, there hasn't been a whole lot of anything Sega-related I've clamored about. For Christmas, there's Sega All-Stars Racing and...uh, Sonic Jump on the Android. And a Virtua Fighter port. There's not much left of Sega to boycott anyway.

That's all I have to say about the recent events. It's vastly disappointing but I still support Sega anyway. People aren't perfect and I hope everything is better in the end.

SNK Made Racing Games Too

As you know, I'm working on this stupid "Racing Game Timeline" thing which means I have to dig up images and release dates of a hundred different racing games.  Doesn't sound too bad except because of my obsession with details, a hundred games quickly became a thousand.  In other words, I have to look up 1000 racing games, get a title/box art icon of each, and put them into a chart according to their year of release using Photoshop.  Sounds like fun!

Burning through the racing games, it's not bad at first.  Just hit the big names first.  We know about all the Sega racers like Daytona and OutRun.  Then there's Need for Speed, Gran Turismo, Forza, Burnout, Mario Kart, DiRT, etc.  Then it gets really tedious as hell as you're listing every Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune and Ridge Racer iteration (damn you Namco) as you're also digging through the back of your mind thinking of semi-relevant racing games Midtown Madness and Screamer.  Then you go to websites besides GameFAQs or Wikipedia for help, like The System 16 Arcade Museum.  Damn, all these Alpine Skiers and miscellaneous Sega clones from Namco, yeah I hate you too.  But I'm learning new things about the racing genre!  If you can believe it.  How about this:

I get to SNK arcade section of System 16 and the last thing I expected was to find a racing game.  When I think of SNK, I think Metal Slug, King of Fighters, Fatal Fury, Samurai Shodown, basically weird arcade games that don't even fit the norm of more mainstream devs like Sega, Namco, or Capcom.  But RACING GAMES???  No...there is one (technically two but they're so similar) and here it is:

It's Road's Edge (or Round Trip RV), a 1997 SNK arcade racer.  Pick one of several trucks and go rally racing on dirt and pavement.  Like Sega Rally, Road's Edge will move you to the next track after you've completed one lap.  The goal is to complete three tracks within the time limit and come in first.  Nothing spectacular.

The most interesting aspect of the game is the track design.  Rather than create one-way traditional race circuits (various shaped ovals and stuff), most of the track funnels drivers down the same road going both ways.  It's a sprint from point A to B and back to A and there's trucks racing in the opposite direction of where you're going and head-on collisions are possible.  No barriers or anything going down the road to keep drivers from colliding.  They don't happen as often as it seems but it's a unique twist I don't think I've seen in racing games until now.

EDIT: When you catch air, your guy says "Yahoo" and for some reason, it reminds me of Banjo-Kazooie.  Rofl.

I mentioned two games which both follow this same formula. The second is Xtreme Rally (or Off Beat Racer) released in 1998. It has different cars, tracks and HUD elements but other than that, there's not much of a difference.

It's obvious that back in the arcade heyday when racing games were actually SUCCESSFUL that a lot of these arcade distributors like Sega, Namco, Capcom, Atari, Midway, Taito just went to town making as many racing games as they could with the arcade hardware they designed.  Pick from a handful of cars, three or four tracks, automatic or 4-gear manual, and go race.  See Virtua Racing, Daytona 1 & 2, Indy 500, and Scud Race.  I wouldn't say Road's Edge/Xtreme Rally is perfect--the graphics are underwhelming for a 97'/'98 game and the sound & music could be improved.  Daytona USA, Scud Race, and Daytona USA 2 set the benchmark in terms of arcade graphics and sound in '94, '96', and '98 respectively.  With a great soundtrack too.  Props to AM2; that's why Sega racers frequently come up in arcade conversations and why I named this site "Sega Racing Fan" instead of "SNK Racing Fan."  Ha ha ha, the more you know.

NAMCO PRESENTS TALLADEGA USA

DAMAIT PEOPLE, it took me two hours to make this 100% legit pic:

What if I told you that the Hornet appeared in a Ridge Racer game, complete with a Dinosaur Canyon clone and a new Mitsuyoshi song (or at least an imitator) all thanks to PS Vita DLC??? Well yeah...cause that's exactly what happened!!!!

So then I watched the video and I was like:

I'm sorry about the very offensive f-bomb.  I contemplated for 20 minutes whether to use this picture at all.  So what does this mean???  Is Sega in bed with Namco now?  First the Sega x Namco x Capcom game, now this?  Is Namco trying to steal more thunder from Sega now or what?  Whose wise idea was this?  Certainly it wasn't Nagoshi since he's out drinking & recruiting more Yakuza models.  And why is Sega assisting Namco when they should be helping THEMSELVES make another racing game???  And will Namco/Sega include the Hornet in Ridge Racer: Unbounded 2 as well (assuming they make a POS sequel)???

Lol, jk, that's crazy talk, in reality it's great cause we got a new Daytona USA.  Sort of.  Add the Hornet MT colors and then we'll talk.  Therefore...

Ridge Racer Is OVER THE LINE

Okay, so Ridge Racer: Unbounded has been out for some time and it's yet another entry in the conga line of "wreck-em-ups" that receive positive scores from the press--Burnout, Flatout, Split/Second, Need for Speed, now RR: Unbounded.

A novel twist on the racing genre!

I could pick this game apart but it's no use.  I don't have the energy for it, God's honest truth.  But really, at this stage in the game, can anyone tell me what makes these dingy, urban racers that great???  What exactly do these games do differently that makes them worthwhile?  Oh, a generic track editor.  Oh, the ability to drop obstacles in front of other peoples' cars.  Oh, the ability to drive through concrete walls.  That's outstanding.  It really makes a world of difference.

The racing genre only consists of three players: the sims (Forza, GT), the wreck-em-ups (Burnout, this), and Mario Kart.  Insert rage quotes here.

BTW, I checked out GameSpot's review score for Ridge Racer: Unbounded and it's nonetheless flattering.  A solid 8.0.  Okay, I'm sorry, GameSpot, but you went over the line there.  I can't stand your site anymore.  You mark Ridge Racer an 8, you're in a world of pain.  Has the whole world gone crazy???  Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about racing games??? (yes, I swore)

MARK IT ZERO!!!

The Big Lebowski.  And to make it worse, the "normal" Ridge Racer for PS Vita is even worse.  Abysmal scores and a small amount of rehashed content.  3.0 on GameSpot.  It's like no one's tries to make decent racing games anymore unless it falls in one of the three categories above.  I guarantee Namco will put more effort into putting Reiko Nagase in the new PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale than they will making a quality Ridge Racer.  Who cares, Namco is hardly a friend to Sega--stealing all their ideas and stuff.  Good riddance, Namco.

Oh, and one more thing.  What's with Kotaku's post on Sega's Rise of Nightmares PR document?  Basically, the game is terrible (I can't agree or disagree there), therefore Sega planned to deceive everyone with this sub-par product as described in this concealed document discovered via WikiLeaks or some laid off Sega employee's USB drive.  There's nothing conspiratorial about this at all, Kotaku, these are written all the time in the business.  Does the document say "make the game suck and rip everyone off"???  You're a general gaming blog, Kotaku, so stop with the cheap shots at Sega, it's getting old (I can though cause I'm awesome and you know I'm right).

Namco's Ace Driver: A Poor Man's Indy 500??

Oh, leave it up to Kotaku to write an article that barely references Daytona USA to spark interest in the game again.

The 1990s were a great time for arcade racing games. Daytona, Cruis'n USA, the original Ridge Racer...but for all the quality on offer there, my friends and I spent more time and money on one game than any other.


And that game was Namco's Ace Driver.

It's not a bad article.  It goes to mention the game's horrible rubber-banding is so bad that whoever was in last place was pretty much destined to win.  Therefore, everyone drove as slowly as possible without running out of time so they could slingshot into first at the end.  A concept so f***tarded that even Midway couldn't think it up.

Rubber-band AI or multiplayer ain't new.  Daytona USA has lots of rubber-banding but you can disable it if you like.  But Ace Driver sounds worse than any other rubber-band racer I've seen.

Is it just me or is Namco pretty much stealing Sega's ideas?  Or is it the other way around?  I'm looking at the list of Namco arcade games as well as Sega arcade games and they share many similarities.  I can only do so much research so if you find any more, feel free to add via comments:

Shiatload of Sega arcade games = Shiatload of Namco arcade games
Daytona USA = Ridge Racer
Virtua Fighter = Tekken
Virtua Cop = Time Crisis
Indy 500 = Ace Driver
Turbo = Pole Position
Super Monaco GP = Final Lap
Super Hang-On = Suzuka 8 Hours
Initial D Arcade Stage = Wangan Midnight Tune
Top Skater = Alpine Racer
Edit: Last Bronx = Soul Edge

Doesn't matter, if you take away Pac-Man, Galaga, Dig-Dug, etc., Sega whips Namco's ass any day of the week.  Which brings me to....



Daytona USA vs. Ridge Racer.  Ridge Racer ain't bad but it's not as "intricate" or skillful of a racer as Daytona.  That is, in Ridge Racer, the physics are even less realistic and you can ping-pong your way around the track like that.  But that's just me.  The game does a good job of differentiating itself from Daytona.  The only thing Ridge Racer really has over Daytona is that Namco is producing all sorts of new RR games while you have to twist Sega's arm just to get a basic XBL/PSN port.  Namco deserves props since they've been so prolific in the arcade era.

And now I present to you dudes the coolest song I've heard in the last 5 minutes:

Initial D Appreciation Post

In case you haven't noticed, I added an Initial D pic to the sidebar.  For great justice.

To tell you the truth, if there's one Sega series I've stiffed that I regret, it's Initial D.

Let me explain.  Around 2005, when my beloved Daytona USA 2 cabinet was taken away from my local arcade, it was, in about a month or so, replaced by Initial D.  At the time, I had a bit of a grudge against Initial D.  Some reasons:

1. I saw Initial D as some "evildoer" that infringed on my ability to play Daytona USA 2.
2. It's not Daytona USA 2.
3. Because it's a "lousy" anime/manga game and that kind of turned me off at the time.

That's what so funny about Initial D.  Unlike Outrun, Daytona USA, and Sega Rally, Initial D is not an original Sega IP.  The manga/anime was introduced in 1995--the arcade version in 2001.  I have nothing against anime but it usually has to do with catgirls/robots/kamehameha's but this anime has nothing to do with it so that's great.  I know next to nothing about the plot but I can sum it up like this: "The Little AE86 That Could."

LET'S DELIVER SOME TOFU!!!

Now the AE86 has become synonymous with drifting.  And that's okay.  It's a cool little car.  It "trains the driver."  Drifting around the Akina and Happogahara.  That's grand.  There's some 30 Japanese cars in the game like the Skyline, Lancer, Supra, Miata--all the usual suspects.  But DAMN, I really wanted to go drifting in my '68 GTO...

Sheeet....it's Fujimi Kaido all over again.

Initial D has already gone through six "stages" (remakes)--the latest in March 2011 (geez!!).  It still has a decent following in arcades.  I still believe there's an Initial D cabinet at my old arcade at Northshore Square Mall in Slidell, LA.  I've only played the game twice in my life.  Wow that's horrible...how many Wonka bars did you buy?  TWO???  What do you mean you only opened two???

I wish I could get back into the game again, but I don't think I can go back to arcades.  For one, the game costs about 75 cents at least to play once.  Then there's the cards you can purchase for $1.50 that lets you save your car's data for any other Initial D cabinet out there.  I like it more than the local cabinet save games from Fast & Furious/Rush 2049 since you're stuck to one game and should the arcade operator wipe out the data, it's gone forever.  But I still question the durability of these cards.  I heard if you accidentally stick a magnet to it, it corrupts the data.  EDIT: Plus they can bend easily (they're not credit card thick).  There's no way to "backup" the cards elsewhere like files on your PC--when they're gone, they're gone.

I have one of these cards...some guy left one lying around in the arcade--a Honda S2000 with the name "MUNKY."

A shiatload of cards that aren't mine.  Well, even if the cards are useless, they still look cool.  Like baseball cards!

Now about the gameplay.  Initial D was developed by Sega Rosso, the same studio that made Sega Rally.  And what a coincidence--it handles most like Sega Rally.  You drive a car about 140 mph and the drifting is very subtle and not "forced" like in Daytona USA or OutRun.  You still use brakes/shifting/hard cornering to initiate drifts.  It feels like Gran Turismo but obviously much more drifty.  And you can bounce off the walls all willy nilly and you can't damage the car.



Game looks awesome.  My main complaint about the game is there's only two camera views, just like Sega Rally Revo (HA!).  The chase cam is too close to the car and it obstructs your vision too much.  The bumper cam is much more practical but I don't know...I hate not being able to see my car while driving.

Oh yeah, you check out these sweet Initial D deluxe cabinets?  They're 1:1 size car cabinets like you're actually there in the car!!  While Bunta is smoking a cigarette.  You can only find these cabinets in Sega Gameworks or Joypolis...they're that awesome.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, the drivers in this show are so ridiculous like Dragonball Z...but with cars instead of power levels.  Do they ever wreck in this show?  Does anyone die???

Initial D's funny.  Bear in mind that Namco has an Initial D equivalent called Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune.  Instead of racing through Japanese mountains, you race on highways.  Now this game ain't bad but...it's not a Sega racer so it's automatically not as good, sorry.  Don't worry about the cops...if you go fast enough, they won't chase you.  Lousy cops need some police Porsches & McLarens, that's what they need.

THIS GAME HAS THE '71 SKYLINE IN IT???  Your move, Sega.

Back to Initial D.  I hope there's a good console equivalent to the arcade version.  From what I've heard, most console versions have subpar handling.  Though there's the "Extreme Stage" version on PS3...I don't know if it's the same thing.  I don't even have a PS3 at the moment.

There's not much else to say about the game.  I don't know enough about it but this game seems radical.  I should play it more.  Too bad the Fast & Furious pinheads are all over this game because it contains "epic drifting."  FnF Tokyo Drift ruined everything.  Sorry kids, but putting flame/drift decals on your car won't increase your horsepower by 50%.  But I know the Eurobeat soundtrack is groovy.  I'll leave you with that.

MULTI-TRACK DRIFTING!!

You're Killing Me Namco, GameFAQs, Sonic Fans!!!

Well here's a few things on the backburner I would like to mention.  More complaints from yours truly, yay.

First, I would like to begin by applauding Namco for being the greatest, most classiest game developer ever.  They truly blow my mind.  The way they handle their IP's like a pro.  And how they advertise them too.

Ivy Valentine's cleavage in a Namco ad.  Borderline NSFW.

I don't get why the first commenter of the feature discussion (a feminazi who blasted the hell out of Duke Nukem Forever) thought this was okay.  If this isn't objectifying women, I don't know what is.  The entire poster is Ivy's breasts.  How can you defend this?  I don't have a problem with scantily-clad women in games as long as it's not overdone and the women resemble some sort of "beauty."  But now Namco has run out of ideas, resorting to Tecmo's tactics to gain relevance.  Hey, you can strip down any character to their underwear thanks to their extensive customization options so isn't it the same thing as DOA Beach Volleyball but with more violence?

Taking a look at Namco-Bandai's releases in the last few years, they're in Sega's boat in that they're putting out games but most are rehashes or developed by other studios.  And you never hear about anything Namco-related from the blogs other than Soul Calibur and (awful) Ridge Racer so what's the point?  Namco is a benchwarmer now.  At least Sega has "prestige" because Sonic gets some press as does Nagoshi & Suzuki with their antics.  No wonder Namco is desperate...sticking a camera in front of a fictional character's breasts.

EDIT: A month later, Namco has also created ads of Cassanda's ass and Voldo's nether region.  I'm not making this stuff up.  And no, I'm not going to link to it.  Soul Calibur is dead.

Namco will never live up to RBI Baseball...THAT'S RIGHT, the true Namco hero, alongside Pac-Man, Dig-Dug, the Galaga ship, and Mappy the friggin mouse.

------------

Now on to GameFAQs.  Thanks F40 for rehashing this poll so I could notice.  So they run a poll on 1/7/12 that says "Best Download-only Game of 2011."  Here are your choices:

Bastion
Dungeons of Dredmor
From Dust
Jamestown
Pushmo
SpaceChem
Stacking
Terraria
The Binding of Isaac
Trine 2

The votes are irrelevant since Bastion followed by Terraria are way in the lead.  So there's no Daytona USA but that's cause it's a port of a really old game so what's to be expected there.  But you know what's missing? Renegade Ops.  Didn't everyone love that game?  Giant Bomb gave it a 5/5?  I loved the game too.  That's part of the Sega family and it just got ROBBED.

You know what would be the s***?  If they took down GameFAQs.  I would pay massive Microsoft Points for that DLC addon!!

And another thing.  Call me a moron but I don't think I've ever heard of half these games from the media.  SpaceChem?  Jamestown?  I don't effin now anymore.

Well, what else is new.  I'm beginning to think the Sega logo is a kiss of death.  Some games are hurt much more than others (Bayonetta is relatively intact) but those four blue letters are a good way to get people to ignore you.  DO NOT DOUBT ME.  Let's try to break the curse by aiding Sega when we can, eh?

BTW, the narrator for Bastion makes me want to jump off a bridge.

------------

And then there's another GameFAQs board (Good Lord) that's up to no good.  It just happens to be the Sonic Generations board.  That board has devolved from actually talking about Generations to bickering over which Sonic games suck or not.  Like this topic, this topic, and this topic.  While I don't necessarily mind debate (hell I roast plenty of games here), I don't go on forums for the specific purpose of getting in 1 on 1's with other people, quoting each other, trying to get the edge by debating the most petty things.

The Sonic fanbase just doesn't know what they want anymore.  If Sega didn't "shake the baby" back during the last decade, this probably wouldn't be happening.  I can see it now--the Mario & Zelda fanbases are laughing their asses off now.  The worst they have to complain about is whether or not Super Mario Galaxy 2 is better than Galaxy 1.  Or whether or not Majora's Mask is better than Ocarina of Time.

Well, what can you say about a franchise that has Chris-Chan as a member?  I just discovered this recently, but there's an ENTIRE Wiki site dedicated to every detail of his life (subtlety NSFW in a few places).  In case you don't know who Chris Chan is (and you really should just turn back now), he's a man-child with severe Autism who immerses himself in a world of constant gaming, fanart & fiction with characters like "Sonichu," rage towards everybody, and tons of erotic fantasies about God knows what.  Never mind the Rule 34 content from the rest of the fanbase, he alone sets back the Sonic community ten years.  I have a young brother with Autism and I know it really sucks but his (EDIT: talking about Chris) behavior is way past the point of using Autism as an excuse.

And about the Wiki site...isn't it illegal to publicly that much private information about someone?  I'm just curious, I don't want the HIRE A LAWLER TO TAKE DOWN DIS WEBSATE.  Sure, the media does this a lot with celebrities & politicians, but nowhere near the extent that this Wiki does.  People have been hacking his e-mail accounts and stuff, gathering every single account of his life, it's pretty demented.  Even if they were making this stuff up as they went along, it's still slanderous.  But nonetheless, Chris still plugs along at whatever he does.

No wonder Sonic is in the dumps.  I'll leave you with this pic:

Chris Chan, Jackie Chan, haha

And I know all the big gaming blogs beat me to this but what is Sonic doing in a Progressive commercial???  Progressive does auto insurance, not health/life insurance.  I don't think Flo can save you from a pit of spikes.

But hey, at least it ain't Klonoa or Pac-Man.  Namco, get your notepads out.

Also the Saints won so Who Dat.  And I'll be heading back to Florida for escuela on a nine-hour drive.  I'll talk about it later I guess.

Happy Festivus 2.0

It's December 23 which is Festivus worldwide.  Now my (second) Airing of Grievances, this time on events from the year Twenty Eleven:

MICROSOFT SUCKS -- Cause they continue to ram the Kinect up our asses and it will always suck and nothing can change my mind.

NINTENDO SUCKS -- 3DS is overrated and cause Link keeps winning the GameFAQs character contests and it's beyond stupid at this point.

NAMCO SUCKS -- Ridge Racer Unbounded is trash and RR Vita is incredibly lacking (five cars and three tracks???????????).

SONY SUCKS -- They got hacked and couldn't do anything about it.

ELECTRONIC ARTS SUCKS -- What "unique" games have they made besides Madden and other perennial sports titles?  EDIT: FYI, Mass Effect, Battlefield, and even NFS: The Run were made by separate studios.  Also, Origin is spyware, you noobs.

CAPCOM SUCKS -- Cause they don't like racing games, that's why.  And they couldn't be arsed into putting MEGA MAN in MvC3 (this offends me even as a non-Capcom fan).

SKYRIM SUCKS -- Overrated, buggy, time-consuming trash.

BATTLEFIELD SUCKS -- I just don't care, lol.

CALL OF DUTY SUCKS -- MW3 is bad, rofl.

WORLD OF WARCRAFT SUCKS -- This game will always suck and its dwindling players shows...

NEED FOR SPEED SUCKS -- RUN JACK RUN FROM THE POLICE AND THE ONCOMING TRAIN!!!

BURNOUT SUCKS -- It just does.

FAST & THE FURIOUS SUCKS -- You're killing arcades with this trash!!!

GAME INFORMER SUCKS -- They trashed OutRun 2 but loved Burnout Crash, UNEXCUSEABLE.

OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE SUCKS -- Horrible Daytona USA review.

SPIKE TV SUCKS -- Turning gaming into an advertising cesspool and teabagging the guy in front of Shigeru Miyamoto.

G4TV SUCKS -- I don't know what they did wrong but I'm fairly certain Adam Sessler said something stupid.

REDDIT GAMING SUCKS -- Too many stupid ass Advice Animal memes.

TOSHIHIRO NAGOSHI SUCKS -- What has he done lately but make another studio for Yakuza games?

GAMEFAQS SUCKS -- Damn do I hate this website.  Every board is either run by absolute buffoons/trolls or picky moderators.

FIEA SUCKS -- How was a game about an anime-style teddy bear wielding a sword chosen over the sweet racing game I suggested?

AMERICAN IDOL SUCKS -- I hate this show.

DISNEY WORLD SUCKS -- Everything is overpriced there.

NFL REFEREES SUCK -- Officiating has been horrible all year.  Finally someone calls the zebras out (and gets picked up on live TV) and then he gets penalized again.  What BS, this is the No Fun League now.  I swear, if the Saints get cheated out of a game by one of these phantom calls, I'm going to lose my s***.



I suddenly like the St. Louis Rams now (after the Saints debacle earlier this year).

VIDEO GAMES SUCK - They're a waste of your time.  So why do I plan on making these very time-wasters for a living?  Same reason people make porn or sell drugs, cause they're STUPID.

Sega, however, does not suck.  Just when I thought you couldn't get any stupider...you find a way to totally redeem yourself!!!!  (Daytona USA)

YOU ALL STINK!!!

Time now for the Feats of Strength.  Until you (FnF fanboys) pin me to the ground, Festivus is not over.  YOU WANNA PIECE OF ME???  YOU GOT IT!!!

Sega: More Sinister Than Meets The Eye?

One of the things I do here on this blog is take a poke at other game developers, such as Nintendo, Activision, Microsoft, Namco, Capcom, Bethesda/id, whoever.  I'm not shy when it comes to this.  Love it or hate it, that's what I do.

But on the other hand, let's not pretend that Sega's as innocent as a choir boy.  No, they've done some stupid things.  And when I mean "stupid," I don't mean "didn't release a new Daytona game in the last 10 years," I'm talking other stuff.  Just stuff that's plain weird.  Almost weirder than making urinal games, that's for sure.

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This all began reading a Kotaku article about Sega.  Yes, Kotaku seems to be obsessed with bringing up negative pieces about Sega (well, they deserve it).  But this is what I learned.

In 1997, Sega wanted to merge with Bandai (the toy company) and get rich.  Then they would use their money for "world conquest," (AKA, buy Disney).  In other words, the Kotaku article made Sega look like a crooked Illuminati banker.  But five months before Bandai could sign the papers, they bailed on Sega because they were afraid they would impose drastic changes to their company.  In other words, Sega was creepy evil.  A day later, the Bandai President resigned?  Why?  Maybe cause Sega held a gun to his head.

All we know is Namco later merged with Bandai, thus giving them the advantage of Gundam Wing, Power Rangers, and Tamogatchi (a BIG success after the failed Sega merger...Sega missed out on big money).  And who did Sega merge with?  Heh...Sammy, a company I know nothing about.  Except that they made some light gun game...I dunno what's up with that.

EDIT: Well, Sammy made pachinko machines, read on for more...  Oh, and glancing over this Kotaku article again, where the hell's the proof that Sega wanted to buy out Disney (or everything else for that matter)?  No links, references, sources--typical of airhead gaming blogs.  Proof, schmoof, just take their lousy-ass words for it.

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Then there's the Sega of the 16-bit era.  They wouldn't mind seeing their rival Nintendo get taken down Burnout-out style.  So the advertising campaign began--the edgy hip look, "Sega does what Nintendon't," yada yada yada.

But the biggest sham in Sega advertising was "Blast Processing."  It was something that the Genesis had but the SNES didn't.  And what's Blast Processing anyway?  Heh...it's just a made-up term Sega created to inflate their self-ego.  A bold-faced lie.  Of course, in the 90's, graphics were EVERYTHING, the bit wars and so forth.  See the Jaguar, 3DO, and out beloved Sega 32X, all of were marketed purely on graphics and died out fairly quickly.



EDIT: Well, Sega really did what Nintendon't...and that is suck big time and die.  So in the end, Nintendo wins.

And also at the time in the UK, some Sega advertising folks was running some rather crude newspaper ads that would make any gamer blush.  These are on UKResistance, click here to see 'em.

This is the least offensive of the ads, it only gets worse...

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Then there's the Sega CD, that piece of crap with hardly any good games.  The cult classic of the console is Night Trap.  In this game made up entirely of video footage, you watched a couple of rooms in a house (security guard-style) while robbers as they broke in to kidnap a bunch of young girls.  Yikes.

Found this from some sweet Kotaku Photoshop contest.

It was up to you to activate traps in order to catch the bad guys.  Fail to do so and you get a lovely death cutscene.  This game displayed some rather "creepy" (more like cheesy) footage of girls being taken away by masked bandits, some of which would say portrays rape scenes.  Why these guys would break into a house to steal girls...I don't even wanna know.  This game was presented in front of a congressional hearing (along with other culprits like Doom and Mortal Kombat) in order to create an ESRB rating we have today.  So thanks, Sega, for publishing stupid games like this.

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And speaking of the Sega CD, let's talk about Sonic CD.  Now I mentioned this earlier...the secret message you can see by entering certain numbers in the Sound Test menu.  Why do they even had sound tests in games anyway???  If one sfx doesn't work, wouldn't the others not work too???

"Fun is infinite with Sega" - the "Devil."

But that's not the point, just see the video and tell me why Sega decided to include something like this.  Then again, Nintendo would pull ridiculous stunts like this too so what else is new.

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Ok, so let's talk about something a bit more entertaining.  This is Segata Sanshiro, the spokesman for the Sega Saturn.  You should know this guy by now.  Anyway, some of his commercials include beating up people, kids included.

"That's what you get for having social lives."  Really, this wouldn't fly in the rest of the world, would it.

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One more and this is a really funny story.  It's an urban legend about an old 80's arcade game called "Polybius."  Rumor has it that a few of these black, non-descript cabinets were dropped in a few back-alley American arcades.  Kids that played them would suffer from nasty syndromes, such as headaches, nausea, nightmares, epilepsy, and suicidal thoughts.

These cabinets disappeared just as quickly as they appeared, presumably because they were some government/paranormal experiment on mind control or some crap like that.  Apparently, the Men in Black came to take the cabinets away and only a few vague accounts of the game remain.  No roms, no game footage, nothing.

"You know nothing about what just happened here."

This is a fan-made game that's supposedly based on what Polybius was supposed to be like.  It's like a really crappy Asteroids clone with seizure-inducing background.  I only played it for a minute not because I developed suicidal tendencies, but because it sucked ass.  You can download the game in the video description.

So...what does this have to do with Sega?  Well, rumor has it (on top of an existing rumor, this is some Inception s*** here) that some of the legacy source code from Polybius was used in the Sega CD BIOS.  In other words, because traces of Polybius are in the Sega CD, that means that Sega was involved in the creation of Polybius.  Spoooooky.  As a matter of fact, a Sega employee posted this cryptic secret on the web and it's very credible and must be believed.  This is it in its entirety (when that site self-destructs and all traces are lost) and I don't expect you to read all of it but whatevs...

I was a programmer in Sega's arcade division. Suddenly, we recieved a request to create a game, which was very odd. This would have been ignored, but the source was supposedly a secret organization called "SINNESLOSCHEN", opearting with some sort of governmental power. I am still not sure to this day what country they were working for. We were given a project sheet, and a map of thehuman brain, and how to stimulate those areas, and were told to integrate them into a video game. Sega had quite a bit of money riding on this deal, and were not doing so well. The game took quite a bit of time, and we created technologies that were far beyond our time. A member of the group suggested the name "Polybius", which I remember veing the name of a scholar of some sort. The game's genre could be puzzler, but it also had some odd elements. THIS GAME IS REAL. The game testers who worked for us had odd mind prolems, like losing memory and other such things, like loss of arcadegame fandom. I cannot remember what we designed the arcade case to look like, because it was done by another group. After the project, we signed papers promising secrecy, and if I am discovered, I may get in serious trouble. However, I believe that this needs to be known.

At the beginning of this page, I mentioned the "Sega Genesis CD". I was involved in several projects after "Polybius", and eventually, I ended up on the "Sega Genesis CD" team. While we were designing this, an issue came up. I cannot remember the details, but it involved the two processors synching up. It turns out that Polybius was discovered to use two processors, working in a way similair to what we wanted for the "Sega Genesis CD". We were afraid of getting in trouble for using that game;s code, but we altered the game's BIOS anyway. However, MOST OF THE CODE THAT ACTIVATED THE MIND ALTERING SYSTEM (Details Classified) WERE IN THAT BIOS. The actual game ROM needs the BIOS to run. It was very much like a modern console in that manner. The point is, that I believe we left quite a bit of the "Legacy Code" of "Polybius" in the "Sega Genesis CD", at least in the earliest revisions. However, I was laid off shortly after, and though it was for "Misconduct", I practiced no such thing, and I beleive it was because I accesed Polybius's files. They were likely deleted from Sega's system afterwards. 

Really?  I don't think that the Sega CD was into mind control cause no one was playing that piece of crap.  Although I admit that the console intro (the vacant music) and the Sonic secret message above are pretty creepy.

Rated PG-13 for Language


Good old AVGN...back when he spoke with that snarky tone that is partial inspiration for my angry rants...he also reviews the Sega 32X.  It's even less flattering than the Sega CD review.

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EDIT: Finally one more, I must add this.  Thanks Shenmue Fan for pointing this out.  Hajime Satomi, founder of Sammy Entertainment (known for Pachinko machines), bought out Sega in 2004.  Satomi is supposedly head of the Yakuza (the Japanese Mafia for you idiots) and Sammy is just his money laundering operation.  He hustled down Sega with intimidation, blackmail, etc. (aka "sokaiya") then proceeded to kill Sega like a parasite.  If you don't get it by now, let me rehash: SEGA IS OWNED BY THE YAKUZA.  Which explains why they've made numerous Yakuza games but not one Shenmue sequel...

You toolbag, they got you making Yakuza games when you should be making Daytona USA 3!!!

Of course, this rumor may have been created to create an alibi for Sega's downfall, but still, you never know.........

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Anyway, Sega CD sucks, Sega is creepy, end of story.  Oh BTW, Nintendo was once associated with love hotels and the Mafia.  And you deliberately had Gunpei Yokoi killed in a car crash after the disaster that was the Virtual Boy.  So Nintendo, you're not off the hook either.

So What's Raw Thrills Up To Anyway? Pissing Me Off As Usual...

Nice, I'm watching the NASCAR race on TV...it's about time.  It's at Pocono, the Daytona USA tri-oval.  I keep forgetting to watch these things.  Now Brad Keselowski wins (and is drinking a Miller Lite) and Kurt Busch just said "bitch" on live TV (referring to an altercation with Jimmie Johnson).  And forget about censoring that word--if he can say it uncensored SO CAN I.

But I recently checked out a couple of Twitter accounts.  Raw Thrills has a Twitter, oh geez.  Anyway, here's what I got.

Justin Bieber on a Fast and Furious Bikes game...good enough of a reason NOT to play it now, sheesh...

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Here's a YouTube video. 



The Description: Employees of Raw Thrills, Play Mechanix, Betson Enterprises and Namco Cybertainment risk their lives to bring you the best games in coin-op...

WHERE THE HELL IS SEGA???  WHY IS IT THAT EUGENE JARVIS HAS MORE DESIRE IN HIS PINKY FINGER TO MAKE A GOOD RACING GAME THAN IN EVERYONE AT SEGA COMBINED???  AND RAW THRILLS DOESN'T EVEN MAKE NASCAR GAMES, GOD FORBID THEY ACTUALLY MAKE ONE NOW???  AND NAMCO, WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE???  MY GOD, WHAT HAVE WE WROUGHT???

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There has been both a Big Buck Hunter and a Big Buck Safari tournament recently.  The winner of the Safari tournament took home $10,000.  Wait--$10K?  Isn't that the same amount offered to those at EVO and MLG?  Screw Cock o Doody: Boring Ops, Gaylo: Reach, and Starcrap 2; I wanna watch some BIG BUCK HUNTIN'!!!  But no, really, Big Buck Hunter is the kind of game you'd see in a tiny pizza parlor arcade or in the front entrance of a Wal-Mart.  Golden Tee, an underground competitive game, is treated with more dignity.  Geez.



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And now for the big salad.  This is a flattening article if you're Raw Thrills, otherwise, it's embarrassing.  Top 10 Secrets for Arcade Operators to Make Money.

Many survivors, such as Sega Sammy and Namco Bandai, were forced to merge and expand far afield into non-amusement territory in order to survive (despite which, their annual profit and loss statements still don't look nearly as healthy as stockholders would like).

This rocky history makes it all the more impressive that a relative newcomer, Chicago-based Raw Thrills, founded in 2001, has succeeded in a tough industry during a very difficult decade of consolidation and retrenchment. The extent of the company's success is impressive. Not only did distributors vote Raw Thrills top honors as "Manufacturer of the Year" in 2007 and 2008, but leading operators have named Raw Thrills chief executive Eugene Jarvis as 2009's Man of the Year. The Amusement and Music Owners Association of New York will present this honor at a dinner on Feb. 8 in New York City.

*profuse vomiting*

I'm going to apply this to SEGA....

Lesson 1: Learn your trade through years of hands-on experience. - Suzuki and Nagoshi have been making arcade games for years. 

Lesson 2: Build a great team. - These are the same people who made Virtua Fighter & countless arcade racers so no excuse there. 

Lesson 3: First be great at doing "just one thing." - Suzuki talked about "self-improvement" in his words of wisdom section from the game design book which is close enough. 

Lesson 4: Be an entertainer, and keep it simple.
Lesson 5: Respect the hits. - Quoting from the article:

When RT launched in 2001, the amusement trade could not foretell the staying power of its games. But from the very start, the company has worked to achieve a style of gameplay and graphics presentation that attracts the casual gamer and holds his interest. Rather than over-complicated simulations, simple yet fun gameplay has led to core playability that keeps cashboxes full. In short, RT always remembers that it's in the entertainment business, not the "super accurate simulator" business.

....and...

If you're in the entertainment business, then you are in a hit-driven business. The U.S. economy increasingly has no room for "mid-list" book titles, "fairly popular" TV shows, and "modest sleeper" films. Either it's a blockbuster or it's nothing. Raw Thrills embraced this principle through licensing hit properties such as The Fast and the Furious (remember, it was a hit film before it was a hit game) and the Terminator franchise. RT was an obvious choice when a safe pair of hands was needed to bring the million-selling Guitar Hero consumer videogame franchise to the arcades.

Step 1: Make mediocre games based on pop culture crap.
Step 2: ???
Step 3: PROFIT!!!

Sega can't win here, they just can't.  When they're making good games based on true blood, sweat, and tears, they lose.

Lesson 6: Build your own brand.
Lesson 7: Remember the basics.
Lesson 8: Teamwork.
Lesson 9: Market to your ultimate customer, the player ... not just to the next level down in the business chain. - These all pertain specifically to managing arcades, something that Sega surrendered on years ago (aside from UFO catchers).

Lesson 10: Get connected. - Ever since when did Sega meet with their fans?  Other than ridiculous canned crap, like Sonic Boom at E3 or Nagoshi doing Yakuza promos???  Where's Yu Suzuki anyway???  Doing nothing other than  

Bonus lesson: Stay focused on the future. - Does Sega strike you as focused on the future?  Or are they just trying to stay alive, not looking to overtake anyone?  Whatever happened to Japanese honor???  What a catastrophe.

So lemme ask you this--if Raw Thrills can crap out anything and it's a hit, why can't Sega?  Two reasons:

1. No one wants to play Sega games because they are really bad and us Sega diehards are too blissfully unaware to notice this...
OR
2. Sega is too lazy and doesn't care.

So shame on everyone, shame on Sega, welcome to the future of racing games--Fast and Furious and Need for Speed!!!

EDIT: Well, let me elaborate on what Sega should've done.  Tomorrow, they can't just come out and say "We're reviving twenty of our IP's with 300+ man teams each," no, doesn't work that way.  Maybe in the past they could've produced some more DC/Saturn/whatnot ports, treated them with more TLC, started with smaller games working their way up in order to raise their confidence and consumer awareness thus beginning the process of rolling the ball down the hill.  Don't get me wrong, they've done this in the form of a new Yakuza and a new Sonic game (after six/seven botched attempts thus flatlining the franchise) and OutRun/Sega Rally Online Arcade, but that's not enough, it just isn't.  Especially if you're a racing game fan like I am.

And they don't necessarily HAVE to make an arcade comeback here--home consoles are fine by me.  Better that we get a measly Sega Racing Classic XBLA/PSN port than get another unique arcade racer (like R-Tuned or Sega Race TV) that makes a grand whopping total of US arcade appearances in the single-digits.  But no, today they're in a crap position so they're in a bind here.

I expect some Midway fans to read this someday and then proceed to call me a fanboy.  Hell, I tell you this--I played the crap out of Cruis'n USA and World (both in arcades and on N64) when I was a kid.  It was fun.  But now, I see through its transparency...

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And one more thing.  EDIT: I didn't find this on the Raw Thrills Twitter--no, they wouldn't touch this with a twenty foot pole.  This is about Pinball and Williams Entertainment (which would later become part of Midway).  Pinball lost popularity in the late 80's-90's.  Why?  

In 1986, Williams High Speed [a pinball machine] changed the economics of pinball forever.  Pinball developers began to see how they could take advantage of programmable software to monitor, incentivize, and ultimately exploit the players.  They had two instruments at their disposal:  the score required for a free game, and the match probability.  All pinball machines offer a replay to a player who beats some specified score.  Pre-1986, the replay score was hard wired into the game unless the operator manually re-programmed the software.  High Speed changed all that.  It was pre-loaded with an algorithm that adjusted the replay score according to the distribution of scores on the specified machine over a specific time interval.

Basically, what Williams did was alter the free game thresholds, either by making them increasingly more difficult or completely random.  And this isolated novice players and thus pinball lost a lot of players.  Then pinball proceeded to die.  Game over.

And what's sad is that Williams AKA Midway continued this winning tradition into Cruis'n USA, Cruis'n World, Fast and the Furious.  Come in first, win a free race.  Yeah, but the rubber band AI is so cheap that it's just a big tease to get you to play cause MAYBE you'll win one.  At least Sega racers don't give you this free game BS--you play one again, win or else, you're happy.

You know, I always thought it was weird that people would stand in the middle of the road waiting for you...what if you don't stop on a dime?  You run their asses over as they explode into packets of blood (Maximum Force-style).

Now don't get me wrong, these aren't the WORST games I've played.  But this is what I say--Midway/Raw Thrills make cheeseball games.  They ruined arcades for me...watching that Daytona USA or OutRun cabinet being ushered away for a Cruis'n or FnF game.  Makes me wanna puke (again).

Oh yeah, here's some quotes by Eugene Jarvis that I'm too lazy to elaborate on...

I need to go back to sleep.

HOW IS NAMCO STILL ALIVE???

Nintendo loses money, Sega loses money, everyone loses money!!

Well, notsomuch.  Here comes Mappy in the red Mitsurugi car (Namco), zipping by the flipped over Ferrari Testarossa (Sega) and Mario being lifted to safety by Lakitu after getting zapped by lightning bolts (Nintendo).

Namco is that bad thigh rash that won't go away.  Well, maybe not that annoying, but I prefer Sega of course.  They made $42 mil last quarter & $698 mil last year.  From what?  From Mobile Suit Gundam, Power Rangers, "amusement facilities," and 3DS games such as Ridge Racer and some RPG's.  Ok, so I feel sorry for the 700,000 schmucks who bought the 3DS but many of those bought Namco games.  Great tactic, Namco, release a bunch of launch titles for a new device to pick up easy sales because what the hell else are people going to buy?  Just like hitting from the women's tees, makes sense right...?  Expect Namco to do the same thing with the PS Vita.

So with Sega sucking, let's throw out the "bad Japanese market" as an alibi cause if Namco can make money, then Sega SHOULD be able to do so.  I mean, really, shouldn't Sega aim their sights a little higher than Captain America and Shogun: Total War?  I don't know about you but I'm still waiting for this 18 Dreamcast ports that Sega CEO Mike Hayes promised!!!  Or anything else that's an original Sega IP!!!

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But really, Sega and Namco have some striking similarities.  For one, they're Japanese.  They both go back to their arcade glory days in the 80's-90's.  They both made lots of racing games.  They both made 3D fighting games.  And they both are second-rate backbencher devs/publishers today.

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EDITED this part once

Also, this I would like to point out with Namco.  So they're working on Soul Calibur Five, rushing to design that new boob jiggle physics engine.  SC5 (or SCV, my bad) is supposed to take place 17 years ahead of SC4 cause, ya know, we really play fighting games for the plot.  And because it's in the future, that means the original cast of characters will be aged.  Since some of the ladies will inevitably not make it, expect lolly versions of old characters...like Taki's daughter who's 15 years old.

Makes a lotta sense, right.  "Don't like boobies!  Well, here's some kids!"  Still seems weird that you can portray 15-year-olds getting split in the head by a giant axe--especially with them stripped to their underwear in classy Namco style.  Why couldn't this series, with its sci-fi elements and all, couldn't just "teleport" characters into the future (dare to explain guest characters like Spawn, Heihachi, Link, Kratos, Darth Vader, Yoda???).  I don't know, I don't care.  Stick with Virtua Fighter.

Giving Akira a wet willy!!

EDIT: I used this picture before, sorry.

But it gets better!  Ivy's in although she's permanently stuck at 32 years old.  But after poking Namco with a stick at ComicCon, it's revealed that Taki will indeed return.  All 40+ years of her.  Brilliant.



Anyway, my favorite SC character has been Seong Mina, but if they get rid of her, I don't care...she's run her course.  They'll ruin her somehow--she's old, make her dress/look stupid, make her bottom tier, etc.  She has barely any chance since Namco has basically disregarded her since SC1.  So screw this game.

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I'm done here.  Enjoy riding Namco's coattails, Sega.  With Nintendo in the toilet, joining Square and Capcom, SEGA COULD'VE PUT THE COUNTRY OF JAPAN AWAY!!!!  THEY COULD'VE PUT IT AWAY!!!!   THEY WERE IN THE CLEAR!!!!  BUT THEY BLEW IT!!!!  What they could've done...I dunno, I'm an idiot fan who knows nothing.  Sony would've stopped 'em anyway.  Why am I a fan of this lousy company called Sega.  Get ready for a future of crummy, dominant American devs--Activision, Electronic Arts, Microsoft...unless Sega and co. step it up.

Awesome Scud Race Magazine Article!!!

This I found on Blue Skies Daily.  I had never seen this before.  It's always good to discover new Sega racing material.  But this is extra-special--this is NEXT GENERATION Magazine, the "World's #1 computer and videogame authority," so Sega put on a good show to the entire gaming audience, not just some Sega nerds.  Oh BTW, Scud Race is also known as "Super GT" just in case you didn't know already.

"From the makers of Virtua Fighter 3 comes Super GT, the best auto-racing game of all time."

"Sega's Model 3 arcade technology boasts twin Lockheed Martin R3D/Pro-1000 custom graphics chips, each capable of rendering over 750,000 polygons per second.  Super GT pushes this hardware to the max--and refines the racing genre.  Page 60."

"Are you a psychopath?  Senator Lieberman thinks you might have a problem.  Page 8."

I won't post the rest of the pages (six in total) because I didn't scan them and I don't want to take credit for that.  Again, go to this site to see the other five pages.  If that site goes down in the future (I hope not), I got the pages saved to my computer.  I'm just going to quote important stuff that I read from it.


PAGE 1: "The race is on.  Nobody pushes the envelope as hard and as fast as Sega's AM2 coin-op division.  Led by the incomparable Yu Suzuki, the AM2 division is perhaps most famous for its Virtua Fighter series.  But experienced arcade gamers know that AM2's real strength is in its driving games.  Forget Namco, Sega AM2 is responsible for arcade racing's finest hours: Hang On, OutRun, Virtua Racing, Daytona USA--and now Super GT.  In the world of videogames, Sega AM2's racing pedigree earns it the mantle of gaming's Ferrari.

Based on the same Model 3 technology that powers the 1.5 million polygons-per-second Virtua Fighter 3, Super GT is as near to taking a real Porche (sp?) around a hairpin bend at 120 miles per hour as any civilian is likely to get.

This, truly, is state of the art."

I'm gonna tell you this.  I'M STOKED!!!  I think I've been waiting YEARS for someone (besides me) to eloquently express something as positive and uplifting as this.  I mean, holy cow.  Gaming's Ferrari?  Forget Namco?  Sega AM2 responsible for arcade racing's finest hours?  Lest you forget, this is a magazine for ALL games, not just Sega, so they really went out of their way to write this (and put it on the cover too)!

Oh, and while we're at it, we should  consider adding a Hang-On pic to the side bar over there...I didn't want to put a pic for EVERY game but we've been ignoring that AM2 classic for too long it seems...


PAGE 2: Love this quote:

"AM2 is the best arcade developer in the world, and it's current ambition is to create the definitive driving game."

Oops, don't tell that to Midway!  There's a picture of a much younger & more normal Toshihiro Nagoshi.  Even with the same team from Daytona USA, Nagoshi intended to and eventually made a completely different game. Super GT would be the first game to showcase the Model 3 board.  AM2 had an in-house rivalry with Tetsuya Misuguchi at AM Annex (Sega Rally/Touring Car).  You're right--forget about Namco, forget about Midway, forget about everyone else.  The only way to keep up with a Sega racer is with...another Sega racer.  ~*MIND BLOWN!!!*~


PAGE 3: Super GT car models consists of roughly 3,000 polygons each--three times that of Daytona USA.  Better graphics, Model 3 board is at least three times more powerful than the Model 2 board and was able to utilize Gouraud shading.  Tires are nearly round and the glass are transparent.  Sega programmers were experienced enough to cut out drawing needless geometry, hence speeding up the game.  Here's a quote:

"Toshihiro Nagoshi studied film in school, and his eye for detail has not been wasted at Sega which he describes as 'much more fun than movies.' "

Well, we already know Nagoshi was interested in film beforehand.  So maybe he has more know-how about these games than we think.  A damn shame he's working on this Binary Domain crap...


PAGE 4: Nagoshi said:

"Daytona was based on an American sport.  I wanted to make a game that would be accepted worldwide." 

Regardless, Daytona still has international appeal (played from Japan, US, UK, Brazil, Signapore, etc.) but still, the more diverse appeal of Super GT is greatly welcomed.  Later, Nagoshi went to the Ferrari factory in Modena, Italy.  Somehow, Sega's big budget granted them the license to use big-name cars.  He also said:

"I didn't want Super GT to be a circuit game because they are visually boring.  I wanted to make a game that was visually attractive.  We needed to make some course that would have character and be easily identified by the public--to avoid over-complicating things.  For example, we decided to make a course influenced by the Indiana Jones movies--something that can identified by the player, with relatively simple imagery."

I'm glad he got the colorful environment portion down.  But that's not all for this page!  He knows the basic principle of any game is to make it accessible.  He said: 

"The feeling of actually driving is very strong.  I didn't want to make a difficult racing game.  It may sound strange, but I'm very bad at playing games.  I used to spend a lot of money in arcades, just to see the end-game sequences and I know how bad players can feel if the game is too hard, too early.  So when I came to design Super GT, I tried to make a game that could be enjoyed by beginners."

Gee, I guess this is why Scud Race *ahem* Super GT has been in all of these Chuck E. Cheese's...


PAGE 5: Interesting quote from the article!

"Experienced gamers shouldn't lose out, however, if AM2's previous efforts are anything to go by.  Virtua Fighter was instantly accessible, requiring only a few moves to progress through the initial stages, but weeks of constant playing to master.  Super GT, for all its initial simplicity, will no doubt turn out to be as rich a driving experience as the original Daytona USA, which many regarded as superior to Ridge Racer thanks to its extended learning curve."

Sorry Cruis'n, FnF nubs, you're not off the hook just yet.

Now here we read about Yu Suzuki's involvement with this game from Nagoshi himself:

"When I joined Sega, Yu Suzuki had made some outstanding racing games.  He made the Virtua Fighter series a success, but he still prefers making racing games.  We are different, our ideas and views are different, but I got some advice from Yu Suzuki on the drift handling.  For Daytona, the handling was a bit heavy.  With Super GT, when you turn, the handling becomes steadily heavier, but does so smoothly.  When entering a drift, the tail will slide slowly and you'll feel the power of the engine.  He also recommended that I do some sampling on the Fuji freeway, which I did.  He's very supportive."

Su Suzuki took Nagoshi out for a drift cruise out on Fuji Circuit?  That's boss.  Well, I never really knew Suzuki's involvement from this game, but with him as a mentor (not as a member of the team), Nagoshi could do no wrong.  Didn't know Suzuki liked making racing games THAT much, a damn shame he couldn't have made more during his tenure at Sega.  Now that Suzuki has left, Nagoshi...uh, you get the picture.

Also here, it mentions multiplayer.  This I'm curious about since I really don't know if Super GT is capable of more than 4 players...  Article says something interesting about this:


"At the moment, there are only plans for two-player and four-player link-ups--such is the cost of combining such an advanced cabinet, with the expensive Model 3 board.  The code is there, however, and it would be possible to link eight cabinets, but the cost of such a system would make it a rare sight indeed in all but the major theme parks."

And while the fanfare of this game is stellar, these people have yet to play Daytona 2 which'll come out in the next year.  Mentions that Nagoshi & his team may have begun work on such a game.  Also mentions a possible Saturn port of Super GT (one which we never got).  Let me just end my with the following excerpt:


"With Super GT, the team has rasied the bar once again, stealing a march not only on its in-house peers [talking about AM Annex], but arch rivals Namco, which may find itself in the unevitable position of runner-up in the race for the next generation of driving games."

------------

Reading this, you could only feel enthusiastic for the future.  However, after Daytona 2, the series was dropped on its head.  Then there was Crazy Taxi, OutRun 2, and F-Zero GX (if you care about Nintendo IP's) and then that's it.  Everything else they've made has nothing to do with racing or are incredibly obscure.  Sure there's more like Toshihiro Nagoshi was a film major so now he would probably prefer to make movie-based games (Yakuza, Binary Domain) rather than racing games so that's just plain sad.

I'm also surprised that I didn't see Makoto Osaki around since he appeared in all sorts of Daytona USA 2 media such as in another magazine article and the official guide book.

Please come back, Toshihiro Nagoshi, Yu Suzuki, Makoto Osaki...SAVE US FROM THIS TRAVESTY IN GAMES TODAY.  IT'S NOT TOO LATE!!!  Also, while you're at it, a new Shenmue wouldn't be too bad either...

BTW, Next Generation Magazine ran from January '95 to January '02.  So it really sucks when anything that promotes Sega goes away, what a let-down.

If somehow you find any new Sega racer-related material that I may have missed, post it in a comment and I'll surely notice it (and give you some attribution).  If I already saw it, that's ok; I'm just looking for new stuff...

See tons of personal Scud Race emulator pics here and here.