SEGA Fes came back to Akihabara with a vengeance last week for its 2018 run, hosting two days of panels, presentations, and announcements for what’s down the road.
To recap, here’s what went down:
- Shenmue fans not only have the third game to look forward to after nearly two decades, but the huge announcement turned out to be remasters of the original duology coming to modern consoles and PC later this year for the low price of $30 USD (very nice!);
- Sakura Wars faithfuls had their wish come true when SEGA of Japan announced a new game in development following the results of a 2016 fan poll (so a new Jet Set Radio HAS to be next, right?);
- Valkyria Chronicles 4, scheduled for a western release sometime later this year, had its Japanese launch of the Nintendo Switch edition delayed to Fall 2018. To make up for the delay, the original Valkyria Chronicles is being ported to the system via eShop, but it is unknown at this time whether it will come west as well;
- The SEGA Mega Drive is getting the plug-and-play mini-console treatment like its former Nintendo adversaries in Japan thanks to AtGames (who, let’s be honest, do not have a stellar track record after the disastrous Flashback in 2017, so… fingers crossed);
- SEGA 3D Classics developer M2 will bring high quality ports of classic SEGA games to Nintendo Switch worldwide starting this summer, including the original Sonic the Hedgehog and its Mega Play arcade variant (still no Whitehead/Thomley remake on console five years later, but this’ll do for now).
So it goes without saying that SEGA fans had an absolute blast at the Akihabara-held event, and that goes double for those at “SONIC DJ LIVE” with Tomoya Ohtani! Attendees were treated to an hour-long setlist of Sonic music, featuring guest singer Jon Underdown joining Ohtani in the second half for some Sonic Forces tunes. Check it out below:
I’ve played one of those AtGames Mega Drives.
Once.
Never again.
LOL, I refuse to buy the new Genesis mini when it comes out. My nostalgia button was recently pushed pretty hard when I subscribed to the new Sonic comic by IDW, last year’s Sonic Mania, pretty much anything dealing with Sonic as of late so I got on eBay and purchased a Genesis (my old one stopped working years ago) and ordered all the Sonic games I didn’t have already like Sonic 3D Blast and Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine and a few others. They remind me of a good time of my life when I was carefree and didn’t have to worry about anything else than being a kid.