Mickey Mouse is returning to star in Castle of Illusion, a fantastical HD reimagining of the classic Sega Genesis game. The game is scheduled to release in summer of 2013. We know that Castle of Illusion has a special place in many gamers’ hearts. Sega studios Australia is putting lots of care into this new 2D/3D game.

Our plan is to deliver a fully reimagined experience that takes advantage of the power of PS3 with all new graphics and new adventures, while at the same time making sure that the game maintains the Disney magic that the original Castle of Illusion captured in 1990.

We have also been working very closely with the director of the original game, who is now at Disney Interactive. We are having a blast working with her to realize many of the elements that were intended for the original game, but couldn’t be achieved until now due to the technical limitations of previous generation consoles. If you have played the original game, you will also see that we have kept intact many of the major iconic elements of the game that helped define this groundbreaking game at the time of its original release.

Look out for our developer interviews and behind the scenes videos to catch the Sega Studios Australia team and members of the original game development team share their experience working on Castle of Illusion.

If you have yet to try this iconic action game from the mind of director Hideki Kamiya, your time has come as Bayonetta is debuting at $19.99. Of course, Bayonetta truly shines when you see it in action. So here’s a trip back to the year 2010, when a certain Launch Trailer was just arriving…

Bayonetta is the story of the last remaining member of an ancient clan called the Umbra Witches, a group that has kept the balance between light, dark, and chaos for hundreds of years. Bayonetta awakens after 500 years of sleep to find herself in a world she no longer recognizes, with no clues to her past or how she got where she is.

Her awakening sparks a chain of events that soon reaches cataclysmic proportions. And with a 500 year-old war setting the background of the game and the lines of good and evil blurring fast, Bayonetta needs to discover the secrets of her past and work towards securing her future.

At the core of the game is an amazingly deep combat system, and Bayonetta comes well equipped for battle: wielding four pistols (collectively known as Scarborough Fair) and utilising her infamous fighting style – the ‘bullet arts’ – she’s one big, bad witch you don’t want to make angry.

If you haven’t played Bayonetta and you like action games, I implore you: don’t miss this one. Of course, since I work at SEGA my opinion may be a bit biased, so I’ll leave it to the tried and true fans in the comments to back me up on this.

Hit me up with any questions you have in the comments, and I’ll do my best (as always) to respond to as many as possible. Thanks as always, loyal PlayStation.Blog readers – we hope you’ll enjoy your trip back to Vigrid!

Hey everyone, Aaron here from SEGA. If you, like me, are a gamer with fond memories of Super Monkey Ball (Did anyone else play hours of Monkey Target?), and if you’re a PS Vita owner, you’ll be thrilled to learn that Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz is out now!

If you’re new to the SMB scene, the game is a skill-based platformer at heart with over 100 unique levels, but is also packed with multiplayer mini-games that take advantage of the PS Vita features. For the first time ever in a Monkey Ball game, we’ve also included a custom level creator that uses the PS Vita camera! And yes, Monkey Target, SMB’s most beloved mini-game (and perhaps most hilarious drinking game) is back in all its glory.

Fans will recognize all the tried and true elements of SMB that you’ve come to love, along with multiple difficulty settings: easy, medium, hard, and oh-my-god-this-is-amazingly-ridiculous. Well, we actually just call the last one “advanced,” but it’s so difficult it’s sure to give you hours of challenge. I’d actually bet maybe one in a hundred of you could complete it. Challenge accepted?

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz is out now in stores and on PSN. We hope gamers of all ages will have a great time with it, both offline and on!

This is just the start of things for SMB on PS Vita, as I can reveal that we have eight different packs of DLC, all on their way to you in the very near future. The DLC packs will include a number of special additions to the Level Creator mode, from special floor pieces to a giant Sonic the Hedgehog statue! (See above.)

We’d love to hear your thoughts and comments, so hit us up below and I’ll do my best to answer all the SMB questions you guys may have. Thanks in advance!

Jet Set Radio is returning in glorious HD on PlayStation Network and PS Vita as part of Sega’s Heritage Collection! Originally launched in the year 2000 on Dreamcast, Jet Set Radio has always been regarded as a true SEGA classic – bringing a genre-bending mix of rollerblading, stylish graffiti, and a soundtrack that people are still talking about to this day.

Set in Tokyo-to, Jet Set Radio is the name of the pirate radio station that fuels the local street gangs called ‘Rudies’. The game follows a group of Rudies called The GG’s, as they challenge the rival gangs for control of Tokyo-to. Powered by magnetically enhanced in-line skates, they grind, jump and tag their way while avoiding the ever present and increasingly ruthless police force.

Our goal with Jet Set Radio (and indeed all the Heritage Collection titles) has been to deliver the closest experience to the original product and, when possible, improve on it. Wait – I know the chill you get when the word ‘improve’ is mentioned in the same breath as your favorite game, and I can assure you that the core of the game is completely unchanged. The levels are just as beautiful as the original, just more so when displayed in full HD, 16×9 resolution.

The music is there, and even more so – we’ve merged the Japanese, European, and North American soundtracks for 28 out of the total combined 30 tracks. We’ve also included all new graffiti by none other than you, the fans! What’s more, we’ve added Trophies to offer additional challenges and bragging rights. Finally, we met with the original art director for Jet Set Radio for a series of interviews you can only get within the game itself!

And for all you PlayStation Vita owners out there, we’ve added some great new features that can’t be found on consoles. The PS Vita version of Jet Set Radio looks stunning on the handheld’s OLED display, and comes with some platform-specific enhancements. Now you can use the touch screen to draw the graffiti in the game, or use the system’s camera to import new tags to the graffiti editor. Both are subtle changes, but add a ton of fun to building new art in the game, or tagging with speed while avoiding the cops. All of these new additions are completely optional, and play off PS Vita’s unique hardware specifics.

We hope you enjoy Jet Set Radio as much as we do when it arrives September 18th on PSN and October 16th on PS Vita! And if you’ve ever had doubts that being a PlayStation Plus member isn’t a great idea, let us give you one more reason to sign up: PS Plus members are getting Jet Set Radio a full week early starting September 11th (THAT’S NOW!) at a limited-time, discounted price. If that’s not enough, we’ll even be throwing in a free exclusive Dynamic Theme and Avatar Bundle to be delivered in the coming weeks.

Following on from the huge success of Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing, the characters now have their own unique, transforming vehicles designed to take advantage of the varying terrain. The lineup on the Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed grid sees SEGA favorites — including Sonic the Hedgehog, Dr. Eggman and AiAi — return to battle against newcomers, including Gilius Thunderhead of Golden Axe and Vyse of Skies of Arcadia.

Many attendees got to play the game for the first time at E3, and chose from one of three available levels: Dragon Canyon (based on Panzer Dragoon), Temple Trouble (based on Super Monkey Ball), and Adder’s Lair (based on Golden Axe). In addition to this new track, we also announced that Joe Mushashi from Shinobi will be a playable character in the game.

Joe isn’t the only new character we announced at the show, though! We were thrilled to have Danica Patrick in our booth to announce that she will be appearing in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Known for her talents behind the wheel, Danica will be playable with customized vehicles in the game. That means you’ll get the chance to test your racing abilities as Danica against an All-Star cast of SEGA characters including Sonic, Knuckles, AiAi and others.

“It’s a very exciting experience since I’ll be sharing the screen with such an iconic character,” said Danica. “I cannot wait for gamers to jump into my customized, transformable vehicles and give Sonic a run for his rings this holiday season!”

To further enhance this partnership, Danica will be racing in a custom No. 7 Sonic the Hedgehog Chevrolet, fielded by JR Motorsports, during the O’Reilly Auto Parts Challenge on November 3rd at the Texas Motor Speedway. The race, part of NASCAR’s Nationwide Series, marks Sonic the Hedgehog’s NASCAR debut (and will be televised live on ESPN).

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed will be available on PS3 and PS Vita this holiday season.

We’re pretty excited about the upcoming exclusive PS Vita release of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz on October 23 – the game is coming along nicely! We have a lot of familiar Monkey Ball features returning along with some fan favorites, as well as some new tech and new goodies to take full advantage of PS Vita.

Super Monkey Ball has always been built on the premise of accessibility and challenging gameplay – easy to pick up, difficult to master. We’ve made the transition for new players a lot easier, with a gentler difficulty curve in the beginning that helps you master the tough challenges that will eventually come your way. And don’t worry, we’ve got some punch in there for the veteran Monkey Ball fans looking for a challenge, from more varied levels with new routes and shortcuts, a higher degree of challenges, and the ever- popular minigames!

While the full game is built on personal challenges, the minigames have always been about multiplayer with your friends. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz enables both local multiplayer and online multiplayer over Wifi — a first for the series! We’re bringing back all the minigame hits too, from Monkey Bowling, to my personal favorite: Monkey Target. There are eight total modes to play and compete in, all of which leverage PS Vita’s unique hardware strengths.

We’re making sure that Banana Splitz uses Vita’s built-in tech for controls across the minigames and main game modes. You can use full tilt control to navigate the entire game or opt to play with the analog sticks – it’s entirely up to you. My favorite feature of the game is the level generator that uses PS Vita’s camera. You can take a photo of anything in real life, then craft a level generated from the photo. In another twist, you can shake your PS Vita to set the difficulty level. The harder you shake, the more difficult the level becomes! Or shake it lightly for an easier time, the choice is in your hands. Creating and playing custom levels is a lot of fun.

There’s ton to do in the game and we hope you enjoy our newest trailer (above) that shows off many of the features I’ve outlined here. What do you think of the game? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Also, just a few weeks ago in LA, we teamed up with fighting game legend Alex Valle and his crews from Level|Up Series to host a Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown Pre-launch party. We’ve invited the VF legends, Fuudo and Chibita, from Japan to demonstrate the game and also take on 20 or so challengers. Amazingly, we had people fly in from Australia, Japan, Singapore, Canada and all over the US just to make it to this event and … we had a blast! We’ve put together a short video of our event. If anyone is interested in seeing what the VF community is like, you can watch the video here!

When people ask me what it is like working on a game based on Aliens, a game that is the actual sequel to the movie Aliens, it is tough to put the experience into words. First of all, “passion” is a key word in the development of this game. The team at Gearbox is very passionate not only about Aliens but storytelling and the game experience. It is so important to all of us to do this game right — the Aliens franchise deserves an awesome video game. Another key word is “intimidating,” because Aliens is a revered franchise with fans all over the world. I have been lucky enough to show Aliens: Colonial Marines to fans at PAX, E3, Gamescom, Igromir and more. And I have found that people all around the world, people of all ages, love Aliens. When fans see our demo they tell me that it’s looking great…but then warn us not to “mess it up.”

Today we have released our new trailer, which we have dubbed “Suspense.” Our earlier ACM demos and videos showed some of the action in the game but a big part of the Aliens world is also tension and suspense – the universe of Aliens is a scary place. In Aliens: Colonial Marines you get to play the part of Winter, a Marine on the ship Sephora responding to the rescue beacon that was sent out in the movie Aliens. You might remember this scene from the movie:

Ripley: How long after we’re declared overdue can we expect a rescue?
Hicks: Seventeen days.
Hudson: Seventeen days?! Hey man, I don’t wanna rain on your parade, but we’re not gonna last 17 hours!

Now, 26 years after the release of the movie Aliens, you are part of that rescue mission – returning to LV-426 17 weeks after the beacon was sent out. But during those 17 weeks, Weyland Yutani has been busy: They found the Sulaco, brought it back to LV-426 and have restarted their operations to capture and control the xenomorph. That is, as you know, easier said than done. Chaos ensues.

One of the very exciting parts of this new trailer is that we are also firmly announcing our street date: February 12th, 2013. All of us on the development team see the end of this project coming closer, and this cycle of development is always very exciting. Everyone involved with ACM wants to make an Aliens game that does justice to a vision James Cameron started so many years ago. We want to make a game that all of us can be proud of.

I hope you enjoy the trailer. We will continue to release more information about the game in times to come. In the meantime, back to work for me. I have a game to finish.

Just like any good tourist guidebook, here’s a map of Kamurocho (a city inspired by the famous red light district in Tokyo), with a numbered list of restaurants, advertising and more that are actually real-life things. We’ve also added the location of the first three zombie bosses*. We’re just nice like that.

*The location of these items doesn’t match those that can be found in real-life. Also, we must warn you: there are no zombies in the real Tokyo – at least, as far as we know – but there are many, many more of them in Yakuza: Dead Souls than we’ve shown on this map. We’ll let you find them all (or let them find you first)!

2. If you’d prefer to eat at home or in your hotel room while watching strange Japanese TV shows, you could buy a pack of Acecook cup noodles from this store. Beware: while in this neighborhood in Yakuza: Dead Souls you’ll come across the fearsome first boss, the Arahabaki Prototype. Eat or be eaten: It’s up to you!

6. Fancy going out for an evening meal? Watami is a culinary paradise! Sashimi, handmade tofu, organic vegetables and fresh Hokkaido mackerel await you, and they go down smoother when accompanied by an original cocktail.

7. Of course, you could buy everyday food and cosmetic items at Don Quijote, but you may be happy to know that you can also buy maid and schoolgirl uniforms to take home as a souvenir for your girlfriend. She will be de-ligh-ted, surely!

8. Karaoke boxes in Tokyo are like trees in a forest. But don’t be fooled by lesser venues: Look for the characteristic blue-colored Karaokan chain stores if you want the real deal. Great rooms, tasty drinks and a good choice of foreign songs (or try some Japanese classics if you think you’re up to the challenge). Still hesitating? Then ask Goro Majima what he thinks about them!

11. Do we really need to tell you that Club SEGA is the absolute best place to go for classic arcade machines and the latest UFO Catchers? But watch your back when you visit this one in Yakuza: Dead Souls — the second boss, Onraki, is lurking just around the corner.

12. Advertising is the key to success and companies like JOYSOUND and Kai Razor know this only too well. The first is a company providing karaoke services; Visit a karaoke box and there’s a fair chance you will use one of their services. The latter is a type of hand razor – convenient for forgetful travelers and handy for all humans, although I’m not sure how zombies find them.

By the way, keep an eye out when you see these two advertisements: you will probably come across the Arahabaki boss, who takes some beating!

Hope you enjoyed the tour, but now you can experience Tokyo for yourself — Yakuza: Dead Souls is available now exclusively on PS3.

Your mission is simple: Play as AMS Agent James Taylor or Kate Green and save the world by fighting against an old enemy and hordes of unforgiving evil creatures. Use your gun and grenades to blast them away!

Here are the key features:

• PlayStation Move compatible
• Multiplayer mode
• Multiple paths
• Ranking and grading system to track your shot accuracy
• Additional levels from The House of the Dead 4 Special
• Bonus unlockable PlayStation Home item
• Original creator interview
• Trophies

We will be releasing an early demo on April 10th. This demo will be available for two weeks (4/10-4/24) exclusively to PlayStation Plus members. For a limited time only (4/17-5/1), Plus members will also have access to a 30% discount on the full game. What else? We will also be offering Plus members an exclusive PS3 dynamic theme and avatars to help set the mood.

For the first two weeks (4/17-5/1), we will also be offering an avatar as a gift with purchase store wide. Download the game this April and continue the adventure!