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New Phantasy Star Game
Phantasy Star Portable announced for PSP

The farming out of Sonic Team's IP continues with Sega appointing Alfa System to develop Phantasy Star Portable.

Revealed in latest issue of Famitsu, the game is an expansion of Phantasy Star Universe.

Currently planned features include new story and missions content and four player support in Ad-hoc mode. The title will be released in Japan next year. It is unknown if a western version is planned.

A scan of the Famitsu article, which was first posted on the Ruliweb forum, can be found here.

Sonic the Hedgehog Vocal Collection
15th Anniversary CD

Wave Master are producing a CD to commemorate 15th Anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog, despite the fact that the franchise is in its 16th year. Provisionally titled Sonic the Hedgehog Vocal Collection, the disc will be released on January 28th 2008.

The exact contents are unknown, but according to Japanese retailer Neo Wing, the disc will include new remixes and bonus tracks from artists that are well known among Sonic fans.

Product listings can be found at Neo Wing and Yahoo Japan.

Sega Superstars Tennis Logo

A product listing on EB games reveals the logo for Sega Superstars Tennis.

Surprisingly, the logo shares no similarity with the previous Superstars EyeToy game.

PSP for PSP. Clever. =/

Looking forward to the (belated) Vocal Collection, though.

Next up: <i>Dhantasy Star</i>

What an awful, awful logo.

Yeah, I know--it's like they ripped the font straight from the Spider-Man movie logos.

...owait, you meant the TENNIS GAME? Yeah, that's not too hot, either.

Can't wait for a remix with Adam Levine shouting "SOOOOOONIIIC HEEEROOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEESSS...", it'll be completely awesome.

That reminds me, whatever happened to that remix of "Open Your Heart" that Remix Factory was supposed to be doing for Sonic's 15th? I can't remember any news of it actually being RELEASED...

Tracklist for the collection, lifted from Sonic Channel (translated):

01. LIVE & LEARN
02. IT DOESN'T MATTER (SA2 Version)
03. ESCAPE FROM THE CITY
04. HIS WORLD
05. SUPER SONIC RACING
06. SONIC - YOU CAN DO ANYTHING
07. SONIC BOOM
08. SONIC SPEED RIDERS
09. RACE TO WIN
10. SONIC X THEME
11. RIGHT THERE and RIDE ON
12. SONIC HEROES
13. WHAT I'M MADE OF...
14. SEVEN RINGS IN HAND
15. HIS WORLD (Zebrahead Version)
16. IT DOESN'T MATTER (SA1 Version)
17. OPEN YOUR HEART
- Bonus Tracks -
18. A NEW VENTURE (Surfin' S.R.A. Remix)
19. ANGEL ISLAND ZONE (SSBB Remix)
20. SEVEN RINGS IN HAND (Crush 40 Version)
21. OPEN YOUR HEART (Crush 40 vs. Bentley Jones Remix)

Yeah, "SONIC X THEME". I'd think it's whatever the japanese one is called, but should Senoue succeed in wooing a western label to pick it up...4kids is too dead to care, right?

I would think of buying this if I didn't have MP3s of the better stuff here, and I hope it's not unsettling to just me how they've slopped the track order together. For those who didn't hear Crush 40's last remix (of His World), it was ear rape and they have a lotta ground to make up with these two new ones.

Yami, I think Sega wasn't privy to them even doing it at first and told them to knock it off.

Ah, I see. *reads tracklist*

Wait...they've got the full version of Brawl's "Angel Island" mix in there?

AWESOME~!...if not a tad redundant, since it'll prolly be on whatever fifty-gajillion disc Brawl OST Nintendo inevitably decides to release.

They did no such thing for Melee, so don't get no plans.

They're doing it for Galaxy, though, despite not doing it for Sunshine (AFAIK) so don't completely count it out, either.

Where the hell is "Cosmic Eternity"

FlashTHD wrote:They did no such thing for Melee, so don't get no plans.

Actually there's Super Smash Bros. Melee: Smashing...Live!, an orchestral mix of Melee tunes that was offered as a reward for subscribing to Nintendo Power.

they got a pretty broad selection. What game is A New Venture from?

Majestic Joey wrote:they got a pretty broad selection. What game is A New Venture from?

(Surfin' S.R.A. Remix)

Yeah, it's the theme to Sonic Rush Adventure and it's pretty insufferable.

Frieza2000 wrote:

FlashTHD wrote:They did no such thing for Melee, so don't get no plans.

Actually there's Super Smash Bros. Melee: Smashing...Live!, an orchestral mix of Melee tunes that was offered as a reward for subscribing to Nintendo Power.

Not like that, this:

AWESOME~!...if not a tad redundant, since it'll prolly be on whatever fifty-gajillion disc Brawl OST Nintendo inevitably decides to release.

I'm more psyched for the Seven Rings in Hand cover than I should be, seeing as how I didn't like the song. But, really, the only qualm I have is the fact that the producer seemed to misjudge where the hook was. The title-bearing line seemed way too thin, and all the emphasis was put on that godawful psuedo-Arabian part that you hear a million times over the course of the game. That and Johnny's overdub work is always fun to listen to, even on the mediocre material.

It's a shame New Venture is a remix, since remix usually means the vocals are kept, and the rest of the song is gutted when the instrumentation was really as good as it gets on the DS, the vocals were just cheesebox.

FlashTHD wrote:

Frieza2000 wrote:

FlashTHD wrote:They did no such thing for Melee, so don't get no plans.

Actually there's Super Smash Bros. Melee: Smashing...Live!, an orchestral mix of Melee tunes that was offered as a reward for subscribing to Nintendo Power.

Not like that, this:

AWESOME~!...if not a tad redundant, since it'll prolly be on whatever fifty-gajillion disc Brawl OST Nintendo inevitably decides to release.

<__<;; Well, with all the music Brawl has crammed into it, Nintendo would be slightly mad NOT to, right?

Anyway, I'm also looking forward to the C-40 versions of the Secret Rings and SA1 main themes--their version of "His World" was my second-favorite iteration of the song (just behind the vocal-less "beta" track).

Shadow Hog wrote:They're doing it for Galaxy, though, despite not doing it for Sunshine (AFAIK) so don't completely count it out, either.

I wonder how they'll do the Bowser fights? Include 3 separate songs for the different versions? Or one song that goes through the different versions as if a person were actually playing?

Hey, have you ever noticed that when you compare the SA2 title screen music to the full Live and Learn song recording, the title sounds cleaner and the full song sounds rougher and more tinny?

The version of Live and Learn on this CD is a new mix... it's the same song with all the same parts as before, but now the sound is much more similar to the title screen mix... crisper and with more bass, and less raw sounding. Some, or possibly all, of the other Crush 40 songs have had their mixes altered in the same way. I wonder if they were prepping them for a different CD release, or if they were done just for this disc...

Do you have a copy of it or something??

The disc got ripped pretty damn fast. Case in point, you can get the bonus tracks here.

Before Yami jumps at the Bentley Jones (aka Lee Brotherton) OYH mix,

GrandMasterGalvatron @ Sonic 2 Beta wrote:2. Open Your Heart - God damn..I didn't even make it through the whole song. This is also epicly mind boggling. As much as i love the rap style, there are times when it just doesn't fit. This is one of them. The extra lyrics about killed the song for me. Also a lot more boring than the aggressive, faster paced original.

Danger, danger?

Esrever wrote:The version of Live and Learn on this CD is a new mix... it's the same song with all the same parts as before, but now the sound is much more similar to the title screen mix... crisper and with more bass, and less raw sounding.

Heh, I thought it was just me. I was listening to this on my way home from work yesterday (had the CD delivered to my office) and noticed a few tiny things that I didn't recall from the original version.

On a side note, I'm very happy that the extended version of "Sonic Boom" was included instead of the short opening animation version.

FlashTHD wrote:The disc got ripped pretty damn fast. Case in point, you can get the bonus tracks here.

Before Yami jumps at the Bentley Jones (aka Lee Brotherton) OYH mix,

GrandMasterGalvatron @ Sonic 2 Beta wrote:2. Open Your Heart - God damn..I didn't even make it through the whole song. This is also epicly mind boggling. As much as i love the rap style, there are times when it just doesn't fit. This is one of them. The extra lyrics about killed the song for me. Also a lot more boring than the aggressive, faster paced original.

Danger, danger?

Eeh, nobody's perfect. I just find myself usually liking the C40 versions of a song better than the original (case in point, "All Hail Shadow").

Besides, I'm too busy jumping on that Angel Island SSBB Mix. =D

I downloaded a handful of the tracks from a link I found over at the Sonic Cult, but I didn't link to it because I didn't want to total the dude's bandwidth with a whole other forum of visitors. And now the link is down!

Anyhow, that was where I heard the new mixes of Live and Learn and What I'm Made Of. Now that I know this CD is more than just a compilation album, I might have to order it myself!