Sega Store Tokyo
Fans of the Yakuza / Like a Dragon games are also in luck, as the popular franchise is featured prominently throughout the store, in the form of items like pillows, figurines and more. There's plenty of Persona products to please the people too, namely items from Persona 3 Reload and the masterpiece that is Persona 5, plus Hatsune Miku merch too.
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Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound review – tight platforming and snappy combat makes this one of 2025's best
The Game Kitchen successfully revives Tecmo's classic ninja platformers for the modern era with ease and aplomb, making it easy for players to live our their 2D ninja fantasies. Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is the kind of modern successor to a cult classic series designed to welcome new and existing fans alike, mixing tight action-platforming with satisfying combat and boss battles. Typical. You spend years waiting for a modern throwback to one old-school ninja-starring 2D action platformer, only for two to arrive at once. But whereas Sega 's forthcoming Shinobi: Art of Vengeance opts for a modern hand-drawn art style, Ninja Garden: Ragebound firmly keeps its foot in the retro realm using a beautiful, pixelated aesthetic. The kind of which developer The Game Kitchen is known for and swiftly became a master of. Such an art style is key to much of the charm found in this sequel to Tecmo's classic NES series, which when combined with tight platforming and rewarding combat abilities easily makes this one of the standout titles of its kind. Regardless of whether this is your first or thirteenth Ninja Gaiden, Ragebound is sure to hook you with the full force of a katana slice. Getting the obvious part out of the way, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound simply looks gorgeous. As a big fan of The Game Kitchen's two previous Blasphemous games, it's clear that the Spanish studio has spent just as much time, care, and attention finessing this world of ninjas, demons, and underground gangsters as it previously did 18th century Spain. It's often hard to stand out these days on the indie scene due to the avalanche of titles utilising a pixelated art style to try and recapture a sense of nostalgia. Despite this, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is both beautiful and richly detailed in all the variety-filled locations you fight through. From helicopter carriers to pirate coves, there sure is a lot of them. This same attention-to-detail is applied to the gameplay itself, which I have no trouble describing as tight, responsive, and rewarding. Roleplaying as an ambitious ninja apprentice proves to be incredibly easy as a result, as often while playing I felt I was moving through stages like butter. Bouncing on the head of an enemy using Ragebound's patented Guillotine Boost jump, slicing through another one in mid-air, and then landing into a roll to lunge into another... Chaining kills as up-and-coming ninja master Kenji Mozu often has a great sense of flow to it, providing you read enemy attacks far enough in advance and know what you're doing. While certainly not devoid of Ninja Gaiden's trademark difficulty – just wait until you run until the game's final string of bosses – Ragebound definitely takes a softer approach when it comes to onboarding. This helps not only if you've never played an old-school Ninja Gaiden game before, but also to learn all the gratifying mechanical quirks unique to Ragebound. The biggest is undoubtedly called Hypercharge, where, rather than simply wailing on enemies repeatedly, certain foes will be coded blue or red. Attack those in blue with a sword attack or those in red with a special, 'Spider' attack, and your next hit is guaranteed to kill in just one hit. The Hypercharge system takes a little while to get used to since it can substantially change the rhythm of combat. Grow accustomed to dishing out red- and blue-coded attacks as necessary, though, and you can save yourself a lot of time and effort. In fact, some of the most frustrating moments I experienced were those when I accidently unleashed a Hypercharge attack on an underling as opposed to a hulking, shielded enemy. Someone that could have been defeated with one swipe suddenly demands several, severely slowing down my pace and making my actions feel less ninja like. Hypercharge is flexible in that it can technically be totally ignored, but you'd be doing yourself a disservice. This strategic throughline bleeds into Ragebound's simple but effective upgrade system too. Essentially, Kenji has two talisman slots that can be equipped with different types of perks or penalties in between stages, all of which contributes greatly to how tough a time you'll have fighting through stages. Although a specific hard mode is unlocked after finishing the campaign, choosing the talisman that, say, warps you right back to level's start instead of the last checkpoint, makes for a great way to tweak Ragebound to suit your preferred level of challenge. I personally could never take off the talismans that restored Kenji's health when passing a checkpoint or healed him when achieving a three-kill combo. However, there's sure to be a talisman combo ideal for your playstyle. Air your rage A pixelated 2D action-platformer isn't traditionally the type of game where I worry about the narrative. And yet, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound surprisingly does enough legwork in the narrative and characterisation department, that I couldn't help but care about the plight of our two main protagonists. You see, roughly as third of the way into the game a new playable protagonist, Kumori, is introduced, focused on ranged play and a tougher degree of platforming. Demons threatening to take over the Earth is enough to force them to work together, and it allows for the Kumori sections to break up the regular bout of firing off Guillotine Boost jumps, Hypercharge attacks, and Spider abilities rather nicely. If anything, I would have liked Kumori to stand on her own a bit more, but she definitely has moments to shine as the story progresses. Another slight nit I have with this otherwise tightly produced and carefully balanced package are the Secret Art abilities you can equip Kenji with. They work similarly to Talismans in that they can be swapped in and swapped out before selecting a level, but my issue is that I never really felt the need to try any others aside from those I started with. The screen-tearing Ragebound art attack proved too useful when entering the later phases of a boss battle, while the Kama curved blade always came in handy to target hard-to-reach enemies behind walls or out of range. Still, Ragebound rewards players willing to check off every level's three specific challenge qualifiers – beat a boss under 4 minutes, don't fall into a pit, and so on – with a tier rating that unlocks these new abilities, doing a good job at encouraging you to play through them again after finishing the story. While each level in Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is memorable to fight through and expertly designed for their own distinct reasons, I'd be remiss not to mention the truly exceptional boss fights on display here. Although incredibly tough at times (I don't think I ever beat one in fewer than 10 attempts) no one is ever like the last in terms of what's required of you to take them down. From demons able to send lightning sparks flying all around the screen to those that force you to keep your feet off the ground for almost too much time as flames swirl, Ragebound's boss battles had me gripping my gamepad in a way I hadn't for years, with each truly primed to test every player's mettle. Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is one of the biggest surprises to come out in 2025 for me. Having little to no affinity for those original NES games, or even the 3D successors that followed, it still enraptured me with its thrilling, Hypercharge-powered combat system, glorious pixel art, and some of the toughest (yet fairest) platforming sections and boss battles I've experienced in a modern 2D side-scroller. Against all odds, Ragebound finds a way to pay respect not just to the series, but the entire genre's past by imbuing it with plenty of modern features. The result is a near perfect concoction that makes roleplaying a ninja not only something to be enjoyed in the moment, but something not afraid to test these skills by offering up a decent challenge.
Daily Mirror
6 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Sonic fans just realising why iconic hedgehog is blue ahead of fourth film
Sonic the Hedgehog is one of the most popular characters in video game history, and he'll soon be starring in his fourth film - but do you know why the character is blue? Sonic the Hedgehog fans have only just realised why the iconic video game character is blue - and it turns out there's even a reason for the colour within the franchise's lore. Sonic is one of the most popular video game characters of all time, and he's been featured in over 100 gaming titles since his first appearance in 1991's Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis. In 2020, Sonic became the subject of his own live-action film, which has since spawned two further films, with a fourth on the way in 2027. With interest in the super-fast mammal still rising, fans are now starting to ask one very pertinent question - why on earth is he blue? The real-world reason for Sonic's striking blue coat is simple. Sega created him in 1991 as a mascot that was supposed to rival the success Nintendo was having at the time with their mascot, Mario. As Mario is predominantly red, Sonic was made blue as a direct contrast, as well as blue being the primary colour in the Sega logo. As for Sonic's red shoes, they were actually inspired by both Santa Claus and Michael Jackson, with the design team particularly taking inspiration from the latter's 1987 album, Bad. A TikTok video from Byte Sized Science explained: "Sega made Sonic to rival Mario, and they needed a bold mascot. Blue matched Sega's logo colour, and the red shoes were inspired by Michael Jackson's Bad cover. Even his attitude was designed to feel edgy and Western, unlike Mario." But Sonic's blue colour isn't just something that can be explained away by good marketing strategies. The character actually has an in-game reason for his blue hue, and it's all to do with his arch-nemesis in the games, Doctor Robotnik. In a Sonic comic it was revealed that Sonic was originally a regular hedgehog with natural brown fur. Everything changed when he stumbled into the laboratory of a scientist named Ovi Kintobor, who was looking for the seven Chaos Emeralds so that he could lock the world's evil away inside them. Sonic decided to help him by using his superspeed to find the last Emerald. The scientist was so fascinated by his skills that he began running tests on the hedgehog. But when Sonic ran so fast that he broke the sound barrier, the sonic boom destroyed the testing gear and turned Sonic blue in the process. The hedgehog stuck around with Kintobor after the incident, but later, another accident occurred in which the scientist fell into his evil collecting machine while holding an egg. The evil stored in the Chaos Emeralds was transferred into Kintobor and the egg, fusing them into the evil Doctor Ivo Robotnik - the Eggman. The Blue Blur will star in his fourth film in 2027, where Ben Schwartz is expected to reprise his role as the voice of the titular hedgehog. Jim Carey has played Dr Robotnik in the past three instalments, but it is not yet known if he will return for the upcoming fourth flick. It's also believed that Sonic's love interest, Amy Rose, could make her debut in Sonic 4, but no actress has been confirmed to be voicing her as of the time of writing. According to IMDb, however, both Lady Gaga and Scarlett Johansson have been considered for the role. For Sonic fans who can't wait for the new film, a new Sonic racing game titled Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, is scheduled to be released on September 25th this year for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. A Nintendo Switch 2 release is planned for a later date. Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is expected to be released on March 19, 2027.
Metro
a day ago
- Metro
The 80s Sinclair Spectrum version of Football Manager is being remade on Steam
With no new Football Manager from Sega in over a year, the creator of the original game from the 80s is reviving it on Steam. After several delays, it wasn't too surprising to hear Sega had cancelled Football Manager 25. But this does mean fans are having to go an unusually long time without a new instalment, with still no guarantee of when the next game will be out. Developer Sports Interactive has insisted it's working on another Football Manager game, but there's no word on whether it'll be called Football Manager 26 or if it'll even be out this year. In the meantime, there is an alternative: a re-release of the original Football Manager. Not the 2005 game that kicked off Sega's series, but the 1982 original that was first released on the obscure Video Genie home computer and then various other formats of the 8-bit era. Football Manager was originally created by Kevin Toms (whose face always appeared on the box cover) and found great success on the ZX Spectrum, although versions of it were ported to almost every home computer format of the 8-bit and 16-bit era, including the PC. Despite being entirely text only it was a huge commercial success, although the last entry, in 1992, was made without Toms' involvement and the series faded from memory. It was revived in 2005 by developer Sports Interactive, and publisher Sega, as a means of continuing the Championship Manager series – which had always been a spiritual successor to Football Manager – by another name, although Toms was never involved in the making of the games. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. Toms returned to the genre in 2016, with mobile game Football Star Manager, and now he's teamed up with publisher Curveball Games to bring the game to PC. You won't need to wait long to play it either since it launches in just a couple of weeks on August 14, the same day as the start of the Premier League season. You can find its Steam page here and while there's no mention of pricing at the time of writing, it presumably won't be particularly expensive since the mobile versions on the Apple and Google Play stores only cost £4.99. The announcement trailer cheekily refers to the game as 'the original, the best, and the only Football Star Manager of the year' and jokes that it has 'none of the features you've come to expect from modern gaming.' More Trending Rather than being literally the same game though, Football Star Manager is merely reminiscent of the original game and is not exactly the same in terms of graphics or interface – somewhere between a remaster and a remake. Much like Sega's games, Football Star Manager features real player names and teams, although they seem to be a mixture of old and new, with teams featuring both Glen Hoddle and Alexandre Lacazette. While Football Star Manager has already been around for nearly 10 years, it'll be interesting to see how it performs on Steam, since many younger fans will be unaware that the series goes all the way back to the dawn of home computing. Nevertheless, with Sega's next entry MIA, this is an open goal for Football Star Manager to capitalise on until Football Manager 26, or heaven forbid Football Manager 27, finally appears. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Football Manager 2024 fan admits sadistic revenge plot against players MORE: Football Manager says they won't release 2024 update but there's an easy fix MORE: The 20 best Commodore Amiga games to celebrate the 40th anniversary
