E3 2010: SEGA Booth Audio Impressions

Ah SEGA, my longtime friend in life. It seems no matter how watered down the company gets or how many bumps they hit on the road to their finished product, I’m always drawn back to them with my arms open when they announce their new titles. At this E3 SEGA had a very nice looking booth with huge screens showing trailers, a nice looking Sonic 4 hut with Sonic himself displayed in statue form outside and the most heartbreaking t-shirt of all time, displaying proudly “Dreamcast September 2010” and “Guess Who’s Back!” giving a few uninformed nerds a near heart attack since they were anticipating the return of their favorite console, while it’s actually for the XBLA release of Crazy Taxi and Sonic Adventure.

While being one of the nicest looking booths, it was also incredibly noisy with dancing games, shooting games and trailers making it hard to pick up what the games actually sounded like. However thanks to my Six Million Dollar Man like hearing, I did get some idea of what we can expect to hear from SEGA in the near future.

Check it out after the jump!

Sonic 4 (Wiiware\PSN\XBLA)

The music hasn’t changed much over time even though the game has now been delayed for further quality improvements. Jun Senoue is in charge of the audio for this game, and from the impressions I got playing this title it felt and sounded very authentic to the retro Sonic games with the classic sound effects and groovy vibe to the music. The controls are really fluid and the music does reflect the stages quite well. The version I played was the Wiiware game, but from what I was told there won’t be any notable difference in audio between the console versions.

Sonic Colors (Wii)

This was actually one of my favorite titles on the show floor this E3. I’ve always been a sucker for cheerful moods and vibrant colors, and this game was jam packed with it. The music seems to take inspirations for the newer titles in the Sonic series like Sonic Rush and Sonic Riders opting for a more electronica based audio experience. There was some sequences orchestra music during some of the menus, so maybe they’ll expand upon that and add more different styles to the different levels. Definitely one to look out for in the future.

Conduit 2 (Wii)

High Voltage returns with the sequel to the good-for-Wii-but-mediocre-in-general title The Conduit. Not much music at all in this demo as the levels were usually backed up by standard FPS ambiance and super loud gun noises. The first game was composed by Diego Stocco and my guess is that he’ll return yet again, not to mention that the soundtrack will probably be fleshed out a bit more as development gets further along the way. No idea if the fan submission contest deal they did for Conduit 1 will return though, guess we’ll find out.

Vanquish (PS3\XBOX 360)

A short trailer was shown for this game. This is Platinum Games’s new title and Shinji Mikami is directing it. The game looks absolutely awesome with some fast paced action going on at all times combining intense shooting and explosions with hard hitting hand to hand combat, and the trailer music indicated that it will be using both orchestral music with a choir combined with electronic elements. Platinum Games usually feature top notch soundtracks as heard in Madworld and Bayonetta, so going by that alone I’m sure we’re in for some epic music in this game as well.