Vote for SEGA in the Pocket Gamer Awards! We’ve been nominated for a few of our titles and for the best publisher of the year! We need your help! Support SEGA and Vote for and Total war Battles: Shogun, Rhythm Thief, Sonic CD, and Virtua Tennis 4.

SEGA Nominations

Best Publisher- SEGA

iOS Game of the Year- Total War Battles: Shogun
Best Strategy/ Simulation game- Total War Battles: Shogun

Windows Phone Game of the Year- Sonic CD

3DS/ DS Game of the Year-Rhythm Thief and the Emperor’s Treasure
Best Action/ Arcade Game- Rhythm Thief and the Emperor’s Treasure
Best casual/ Puzzle Game- Rhythm Thief and the Emperor’s Treasure

Best Sports/ Driving Game- Virtua Tennis 4: World Tour Edition

Voting is open until March 18, so check the categories below and head to Pocket Gamer to cast you vote!

Rhythm Thief & The Emperor’s Treasure is now available in North America, now the entire world can feel the rhythm and discover the mystery behind the game exclusively on the Nintendo 3DS!

There’s lots to do and see, including a wide variety of rhythm games, that start easy and become increasingly more challenging. The overall game is wrapped in a mystery involving Raphael, who is on the hunt to discover the whereabouts of his missing father. His methods may seem unsound – thieving art from the Louvre in Paris – but you’ll soon discover his reasons and the story behind the art he is grabbing.

If you want a taste of the game before picking it up, do check out the Demo on the Nintendo EShop! It features 3 mini-games and a good set up for things to come! If you’ve picked up the game, tell us your experience, we’d love to hear it!

Good news everyone! The Rhythm Thief Demo launches today across North America in the 3DS E Shop! You play as Raphael, a normal every day kid by day, and Phantom R by night – the heroic thief who is famous among Parisians for stealing paintings only to return them a few days later. There’s a mystery afoot, with full map navigation across Paris, intricate and involved story, and tons of musical mini-games.

The demo lets everyone get eyes and ears on three different mini-games from the final game:

Showtime - this dance game is the first time you’ll play as Raphael in the game, simply slide the stylus to hit the right dance moves and do it with style! Play for score and see how good you can do, you’ll have to be quick!

Looting the Louvre – Rhythm meets Stealth – match the poses of famous sculptures to sneak past the museum’s guards. This is one of my favorite games in the game, it’s got a good pace and a great song – starts easy and picks up from there!

Battle Diabolique – Just because it’s a Rhythm game, it doesn’t mean there aren’t boss fights! In this mode, you tap the D-pad and A button at the right time to defeat Napoleon’s soldiers.

Pump up the tempo in the most mysterious rhythm adventure ever to hit the Nintendo 3DS. Raphael has a secret life as a heroic thief who is famous among Parisians for stealing paintings only to return them a few days later. Feel the beat and conquer the rhythmic riddles in pursuit of the hidden truth about the city and his father’s disappearance.

Keep the rhythm going with the official soundtrack, out on iTunes now in many countries, and mid-August in the United States.

Today we’re happy to bring you a few more screens from the upcoming Rhythm Thief & The Emperor’s Treasure!

Rhythm Thief and The Emperor’s Treasure hits Nintendo 3DS on April 5th in Europe and July 10th in North America.

I know I’m excited for Rhythm Theif! In this new story trailer, learn who Raphael will be fighting in his search to find his father.

Here’s the box art to be looking for when Rhythm Thief comes out on the 3DS in early 2012!

Updates from the Tokyo Game Show! Today is the official start of the consumer days from the Japanese show, but for the last two days the SEGA team has been on site demoing for press and business alike. Unlike most shows where it’s either a consumer focus or a business focus (like E3, for example) – TGS merges the two for a full featured show. Today’s blog is a wrap up from the last two days of floor time, including photos, updates, and more food!

The TGS Show Floor

I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from the Tokyo Game Show in presentation and layout. I’ve done a fair amount of shows, most of the big ones, and the TGS show floor definitely a bit different. The show is in a massive hall spread out amongst two large hangar style areas, featuring massive booths from the top publishers, and smaller booths peppered in from smaller devs and companies.

I had a chance to walk the floor a bit before the show started and get some shots of the SEGA space before anyone came into play. The layout is very clean and leads you quickly from one game to the next, with queues for each. Each game also features a special gift at the end of play, a reward or a thank you for the time spent. Check the end of the blog for the full merch photo!

Binary Domain was a big focus of the show for SEGA, with a massive booth that had both upstairs play areas, and secluded downstairs rooms for the voice recognition features. In the game, you can direct your team to execute on tactics entirely through voice commands. Of course this is not required, you can use the controller as well, but in the heat of battle it’s far more efficient to call out tactics rather than stop and direct – it works quite well!

Special Gift – A Binary Domain pen was given out to players who played the demo. Part mechanical, part not, naturally…

Anarchy Reigns, or Max Anarchy as it’s known in Japan, was a drawing quite a crowd during the show and for good reason – it’s PlatinumGames after all. The demo was similar to the E3 code, with a timed four player brawl and multiple characters to choose from. Having wrecked folks at the E3 show with Zero, I thought I’d have another go with Jack and see how I did – not so good this time haha. I didn’t do the worst, but had fun and enjoyed seeing player’s eyes light up with big, signature moves from the characters.

Special Gift – Jack’s Golden Chainsaw was passed out in the form of a thin metal book mark – but it also includes a code to unlock this golden edition within the final game!

This panoramic shot from the booth gives you a sense of the hallway that goes through the middle. Next to Anarchy Reigns is Puyo-pop, Sonic Generations, Shinobi. It eventually leads back out to Phantasy Star Online 2 and the front area of the SEGA booth.

Shinobi was quite popular on the floor as well, and I couldn’t help but jump in and play a bit myself. I know this game and play it regularly, so the rep was a bit surprised when they started to tell me how to play, I realized I was actually a bit better than they expected. The gameplay is tight and fluid, it’s fun to pick up and have a go, it was excellent to have another pass at it.

Special Gift – Shinobi featured a glossy sticker from some of the high res art for the game.

Recently announced Rhythm Thief was on display and was massively fun. The booth area was really slick as well, with many differnet stations set up to play the game, maybe 20 in total. I can’t stop gushing about how much fun the demo was, the only thing I didn’t like was the fact that I couldn’t understand any of the dialog.

The game is a Rhythm game, as the title suggests, but with excellent story told through cutscenes as well as exploration around town. Once you explore the town, you can jump into missions which feature different Rhythm based games. For example, the first section featured dancing with timed swipes of the touch pad for moves. Depending on how well you did, the ranking would go up and you’d be rewarded with a slick animation transition. Another section was almost steath style, as you moved in a museum area after hours and dodged guards. Statues would appear on a side scrolling path and you’d match pose of the statue to evade the guard’s gaze. Really fun and very stylized, it’s a big game on my list for the 3DS.

Special Gift – A tote bag that is amazing and a special gift for Kellie when I return to the office. Check the end of the blog for a photo; so cool! These bags were carried around everywhere on the show floor.

Phantasy Star Online 2 was packed and for good reason – it’s awesome. As a huge Phantasy Star fan myself, it was great to see the game being played and loved by so many. My roots with the SEGA office are tied to the Phantasy Star Series, so I had a chance to meet a lot of the folks I’ve worked with over the years and watch the game from afar. Really loving the look and feel of the game so far, and as a fanboy, will be watching this title for every update.

Special Gift – No clue! I regret to say that I spent time with the folks at the booth and didn’t walk away with a giveaway, but did pick of a fantastic shirt from the SEGA on site store, so that evened it out a bit for me…

Black Panther 2 was shown on the floor, as well as the ladies from the game across a fairly extravagant seating area. I’m afraid I didn’t get a chance to play with the game, but the booth was quite crowded and seemed very popular.

Special Gift – Axe Body wipes. No really. They feature a fantastic image of a guy on a subway with a swooning girl on the seat next to him. Photos of this will be postes as soon as I get this back from my friend.

Each of the larger companies at TGS had a stage for presentations. Featured above is Nagoshi-san, discussing all elements from the upcoming Binary Domain. There was also a live demo of the voice commands for your squad from the demo on the floor and a longer trailer outlinging the story of the game. Really good presentation, Binary Domain is looking like a fantastic title. The pace of the game is slower, and while I’ve seen comparisons to Vanquish, you’ll find it’s more tactical and team focused, than the PlatinumGames release. The more I see of the game, the more I like it.

At the end of the show, the girls that were on staff for all of the booths line up for a photo opportunity with media and consumers. I honestly thought this was a joke when someone told me it was going to happen, but sure enough, here it is. As random as this was, it seems the best way to end on the overall show coverage from the SEGA booth!

Special Gifts and Collectibles!

So what did we walk away with? So. Much. Amazing. Stuff. Many of these are gifts for friends back in the office, a mix of stuff acquired from demos or purchased from the SEGA store. Not featured in the picture are Sonic stickers, Anarchy Reigns Golden Chainsaws, or Shinobi stickers.

Behind Closed Doors

Off the floor is actually where I spent the bulk of my time. Working with our overseas business teams, PR teams, and development teams – interviews were performed for various outlets across titles such as Binary Domain, Super Monkey Ball Vita, and of course Sonic Generations.

I asked if I could take photos or blog the stuff behind the scenes, see Wouter’s response below:

So yea, that’s a no. However, we did bring through a ton of journalists, so expect coverage from the show and the behind closed doors updates from around the web!

Food blog!

Even though this blog is massive already, I’m still going to post food from the past two days – it’s just too delicious out here. Seriously, if nothing else, go to Japan for the food, everything I’ve had has been great.

We’ve managed to eat Izakaya twice now on the trip and looking at the photos above, you should have a clear understanding why. The style is a mix of different types of foods, from Sashimi, to sushi, to gyoza, to … well to everything honestly. This is the perfect end of day meal, as we can sit around and relax at a slower pace and order food to share amongst the table. Lots of different things to taste and try.

This is a shot from lunch at TGS with Wouter and Tokuhara-san, the producer on Super Monkey Ball Vita. They are both eating shake chicken, or chicken shake … or … Ok, so you get a cup with battered and fried chicken inside and the spice / flavor in as well. Shake the chicken in the cup to mix it all up and eat from there. It’s pretty interesting presentation and both confirmed, quite good as well.

Vending machines in Japan are everywhere, with all sorts of of flavors and styles. I bought this solely because it was adorable and I’m not even that big of a apple juice! It was still quite good and still many more things to try!

More to come!

If you’ve made it this far – thank you! It’s been really fun to write these updates and I hope you’ve been enjoying them. I’m planning to one more based on today’s activities and general city exploration – we’ll see how that turns out!

If you’ve got questions on anything, do let me know – can’t promise I can answer all, but I’ll be happy to try!

Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure is showing at TGS this week, and to celebrate we’ve got some brand new screens!

In Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure, players are immersed in the mysterious rhythmic adventure in the city of Paris, recreated in stunning 3D vision on Nintendo’s new handheld console. Pump up the tempo in early 2012 with the most mysterious musical adventure to hit the Nintendo 3DS yet.

Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure offers a unique enjoyable single player experience, as well as toe-tapping multiplayer and uses StreetPass. Unearth the clues hidden behind treasures scattered around Paris, call on your sense of rhythm and use all your puzzle solving skills to help Raphael get to the bottom of the mystery.

See more artwork and screens from Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure on our Flickr.

We’re pleased to announce Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure,  exclusively for Nintendo 3DS. In Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure, players are immersed in the mysterious rhythmic adventure in the city of Paris, recreated in stunning 3D vision on Nintendo’s new handheld console. Pump up the tempo in early 2012 with the most mysterious musical adventure to hit the Nintendo 3DS yet.

“Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure blends rhythm, puzzles and a compelling story set in one of the world’s most exciting cities in a way that has never been seen before,” says Gary Knight, Senior Vice President of Marketing at SEGA Europe and SEGA of America. “This unique blend makes creative use of the Nintendo 3DS’ technology, offering an engaging, challenging and most importantly fun experience throughout.”

Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure sees players enter the secret life of Raphael, infamous among Parisians as an honorable thief for stealing famous works of art, only to return it days later. Dive into Raphael’s world and help him find the Wristlet of Tiamat to unmask the mystery behind his father’s disappearance. While unraveling the truth, players will encounter an assortment of different rhythm challenges to master. Tap the screen, swipe the stylus and control the gyro to the beat of the music to maneuver Raphael through the unique streets of Paris, brought to life by stylish animations and vibrant 3D maps and landscapes.

Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure offers a unique enjoyable single player experience, as well as toe-tapping multiplayer and uses StreetPass. Unearth the clues hidden behind treasures scattered around Paris, call on your sense of rhythm and use all your puzzle solving skills to help Raphael get to the bottom of the mystery.

See more artwork and screens from Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure on our Flickr.

 Trailer