SEGA

Events, Game Music

Ministry of Sound Event Honors Sega’s Legacy with Games & Music

November 15, 2015 | Shawn Sackenheim | 2 Comments Share this

OSV readers who’ll be in London on November 28th, take note! REZtron, a pop-up purveyor of social retrogaming events, has booked a very special #SEGASaturday at the world famous Ministry of Sound. It’s an all-Sega night with four generations of consoles represented on grungy CRT TVs and huge projectors. All the hits from the Master System, Mega Drive (Genesis), Saturn and Dreamcast will be playable while DJs spin “Hip Hop, House and Video Game music from the 80’s and 90’s”.

#SEGASaturday starts at 6pm with an after party until 6am (gosh! really?) featuring DJs James Zabiela and Olivier Giacomotto. Early Bird Tickets start at £7.50 and can be purchased through Designmynight.com. Competitions and giveaways sweeten the deal with the promise that you could “win a Mega Drive” while playing these and other classic Sega games: Golden Axe, OutRun, Space Harrier, Mortal Kombat, Streets of Rage 2, Alien Storm, Sonic 2, Thunderforce III, Virtua Racing, Shadow Dancer, World Cup Italia ’90, 8-player Micro Machines 2, Virtua Fighter 2, Wipeout, Virtua Tennis, House of the Dead 2, Rez, Space Channel 5, Soul Calibur.

Any OSV readers out there planning to attend?
Anime, Japanese

Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX Comes to 3DS in September

July 2, 2015 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX Comes to 3DS in September Share this

After being delayed back in May, those Vocaloid vixens from the long running Hatsune Miku series are finally coming to the Nintendo 3DS this September in the U.S. and Europe. Unlike the mainline series — which is console exclusive to Sony platforms — Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX renders the cast of characters in a style that Sega likens to the popular Nendoroid figures. The game will also introduce 19 new songs, 28 returning favorites and unique voice tracks that bring the total up to 79 full length songs.

Project Mirai DX may be the most customizable entry in the series allowing players to change which character performs each song and even adjust the size, color and behavior of the rhythm icons. The game also promises to let fans focus on their favorite characters through companion-based events and a theater mode. In theater mode all those distracting icons disappear and you’re free to watch, fast forward, and rewind through any performance and use the “Jam Along” mode to add your own musical flare. You can even pick up other fans’ custom scrolling messages via StreetPass and SpotPass that will show up as you watch.

It sounds like a pretty perfect mix of gameplay and fan service for anyone who’s into the series. Are you excited for this 3DS debut? Did you burn out on the franchise years ago? Or do you simply look on in amazement at the utter cuteness?
Game Music, Japanese

Sega Band Crush 40 Release New Original Album

May 13, 2015 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Sega Band Crush 40 Release New Original Album Share this

Despite Sega having downsized and largely pulled out of the gaming market, that hasn’t stopped their boys in Crush 40 from making new music. The band just released the newest album, “2 Nights to Remember” on Amazon Japan.

Crush 40 is the band created by Sega and fronted by composer Jun Senoue (Sonic Games, Shadow the Hedgehog) on guitar and Johnny Gioeli as vocalist, originally for the release of the game NASCAR Arcade, and has contributed to the soundtracks of several Sonic titles, including main themes for Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 and songs for Sonic Heroes and Sonic and the Black Knight. This new original album follows the release of their 2012 album “Live!” and contains four newly-record studio tracks, as well as several live-performance tracks from the “Live!” album and various Sonic themes.

You can purchase the album on Amazon Japan for about 2,381 yen (or $19.95 dollars plus tax). You can also check out some previews on their website.

Crush 40 – Website | Twitter | 2 Nights 2 Remember
Featured, Game Music, Reviews

Definitive Rage: Bare Knuckle OST (Review)

August 27, 2012 | Patrick Gann | 3 Comments Share this

Update: I just noticed that an old friend of mine, Ben Schweitzer, translated the liner notes for this album over at SEMO. If you want some great insight from Koshiro himself, this is a great resource. Koshiro’s self-aware choice of using “club music” is very interesting, and that’s only the first paragraph!

Yuzo Koshiro’s older soundtracks are very hard to come by. All those G.M.O. / Alfa Records releases (catalog prefix ALCA-) would cost you hundreds of dollars to collect.

Fortunately, the three separate soundtracks for Bare Knuckle I, II, and III (known as Streets of Rage in North America) have been compiled into one handy-dandy set thanks to publisher Wave Master (catalog number WM-0691~4). It’s four discs: the three OSTs (with a whole bunch of previously unreleased tracks) take up the first three discs. In fact, the second half of each of the first two discs have the Game Gear versions of their soundtracks (II first, then I).

And then, on disc four, a recording of a live set of music DJ’d by Koshiro back in 2002 that runs over 40 minutes in length. WOW! Talk about rare. Wave Master went well out of their way to give us the definitive Bare Knuckle / Streets of Rage album.

After the jump, I’ll be giving you my take on the album. I’m new to the franchise (GASP!) but I’m a long-time Koshiro fan. Let’s see how it turns out… (more…)
Game Music

MAGFest 11 Guest Announcement: Yuzo Koshiro

August 15, 2012 | Audun Sorlie | Comments Off on MAGFest 11 Guest Announcement: Yuzo Koshiro Share this

From the press release:

August 15th, 2012: For the first time in the US, the man who filled the streets with rage, the legend who raised the act of video game music; Yuzo Koshiro will make his long awaited appearance at MAGFest 11.

An industry legend and pioneer of the FM synthesizer, Koshiro has long been one of the most well respected and admired video game composers in the entire world with his incredibly energetic and dance friendly style of music, contrasted by his grand orchestral masterpieces, making him one of the most versatile and diverse composers of all time.

After studying under the tutelage of Joe Hisaishi, Koshiro made his mark as part of the JDK unit for Falcom’s groundbreaking action RPG games, most notably Ys. He then went from Falcom to SEGA, where he would create the soundtracks that ultimately became his most popular; Shinobi and Streets of Rage. In 1990, Koshiro composed the music for Enix’s Actraiser, a soundtrack that redefined orchestral sound in a video game, and became one of the most popular soundtracks on the Super Nintendo. Since the creation of his family run company ANCIENT in that same year, Yuzo Koshiro has continued to compose for video games for close to 2 decades, with games including Shenmue, Castlevania: Potrait of Ruin, and Etrian Odyssey.

Koshiro will take part in a rare not-to-miss panel and Q&A, telling the story of his career and allowing the fans to ask the questions they want answered. In addition to that, he will also have a full DJ set featuring his own video game music! That’s right, as Yuzo Koshiro makes his debut on US soil, you will be soiling your pants dancing to the sounds of Streets of Rage, Shinobi and other classic surprises DJ’d by the legend himself.

It has been a long awaited and often requested name, and we at MAGFest are honored and excited to finally say; Yuzo Koshiro will be at MAGFest!

(Thanks to Audun Sorlie for arranging Mr. Koshiro’s appearance at MAGFest 11.)
Game Music

Daytona USA X Ridge Racer With Takenobu Mitsuyoshi Available Now!

June 6, 2012 | Audun Sorlie | 1 Comment Share this

When we were young, the idea of crossovers filled our minds with the wildest of ideas, seemingly too unlikely to ever happen, yet so exciting to fantasize of the combination of our favorite characters and names coming together side by side. Yet over the last few years, more and more of the idea that seemed so far fetched 10 to 15 years ago are becoming reality one after another. Sonic has faced off with Mario, Street Fighter has rumbled with TEKKEN, Macho Man Randy Savage is currently tag teaming with Jesus, and Akira Yuki from Virtua Fighter will take his place in the roster for the upcoming Dead or Alive 5. But if you ever said that Hornet from Daytona USA would appear in Ridge Racer one day, you would have been mad trippin, and if you continued by saying Takenobu Mitsuyoshi would come along with Hornet with a new song accompanying the car for the event, you’d be off the hook.

But life will always be full of surprises, and for those who own Ridge Racer on the Playstation VITA, well prepared to start your engines as SEGA and Namco bring Hornet from Daytona USA as DLC to the game, and to mark the historic event, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi is on hand with “Ridge Racer USA MIX”, a new song that will sound very familiar for Daytona USA fans, using some very recognizable cues from the past. The DLC is sadly only available for the Japanese version of the game at the moment, and is priced at ¥1600. The official announcement can be found here.
Game Music

Sonic Generations: Jun Senoue Answers Your Questions!

May 8, 2012 | Patrick Gann | 1 Comment Share this

A few months ago, we asked our readers if they had any questions for Jun Senoue and the other members of the SEGA audio team that worked on Sonic Generations. It may have taken a bit of time to get the conversation flowing, but we make good on our promises! We don’t disappoint!

After the jump, Jun Senoue has answers to two of our readers’ questions. One answer is short and sweet; the other one is quite lengthy. Check it out! (more…)