It’s been rumoured but this week Sega made it official: Castle Of Illusion is getting a HD remake.

Sega Of America released a black and white teaser trailer for the game last week, and this has now been followed up with a far less ambiguous colour trailer.     

Neatly, the second trailer also expands the first’s dark intro to show Mickey approaching the eponymous castle in a way designed to mimic the classic box art of the original Mega Drive game (said artwork shown above).   

Sega also released a few screenshots, giving a glimpse of the new art style the remake will be adopting.

We really like how it looks, and look forward to seeing more of the project as the game edges closer to its summer release.   

Given that this news comes after Capcom announced that it will be releasing a HD remake of its classic NES platformer Duck Tales, it seems like 2013 will be the summer of Disney remakes, if not warmth.

A Mega CD copy of Fatal Fury Special, one of the rarest games for the machine, has sold for £645 on eBay.

Fatal Fury Special is considered to be one of the hardest PAL games to find, with only a handful of copies known to be in the hands of collectors.

Fatal Fury Special was released for the Mega CD in 1995, the year before the machine was discontinued by Sega.

A twilight release for the unsuccessful console, we suspect that JVC took the decision to publish it to try to capitalise on the beat-’em-up craze that was sweeping gaming during the mid-Nineties, but did so cautiously by releasing it in limited numbers.

Interestingly, issue 46 of Sega Pro (June 1995) came packaged with a playable demo of Fatal Fury Special. And for collectors this is as close many ever get to playing it.

The seller appears to be an independent record shop in Norwich, and we would hazard a guess – judging from their unassuming description of the game – they were unaware that the game was so sought after.

The version appears to be in very good condition, which may explain why it sold for the price it has.

A spiritual Ecco The Dolphin sequel could be heading to game shores if a new Kickstarter campaign meets its target.

Ecco The Dolphin was one of the more unique games on the Mega Drive.  A serene action-adventure game that saw the titular porpoise on a mission to find the whereabouts of his pod after it gets mysteriously sucked from the ocean, it was a massive hit for Sega and spawned several sequels.

Since 2000 though, following the release of Dreamcast sequel Defender Of The Future, the series appears to have sank to the bottom of the ocean and been forgotten about.

Well, game designer and producer Ed Annunziata has brought together members of the original Ecco The Dolphin team to try to salvage the essence of the series with a brand new game project, funded through Kickstarter, that will have clear ties to the franchise.

Named The Big Blue, Annunziata describes it as a ‘next generation, underwater, adventure game’.

While previous Ecco games were a mixture of shooter, puzzler and adventure game, the project (which is looking for USD $665,000 of fudning) will mark a slightly different direction by allowing players to control a whole aquatic ecosystem and breed and manage their own sea life.

The setting also sounds pretty intriguing too: an ocean one million years in the future.

As well as members of the original creative team, Annunziata will also be teaming up with acclaimed videogame musician Spencer Nielsen for the project – assuring fans that music will again play a big part in his team’s vision for the game.

More information about The Big Blue can be found on the Kickstarter page. The deadline for pledges is Monday Apr 29, 10:11am EDT.

The quirky Japanese developer, Kenji Eno, recently passed away.

Kenji fell in love with videogames at an early age and decided to move into the industry after constantly playing Space Invaders and Pac-Man as a child. Fuelled by a passion for programming and music, he entered a regional competition and won a prize. Ten years later he was applying for a job at Interlink and despite early concerns over his coding, soon convinced them to let him compose music.

It wasn’t long before Eno formed his own company, EIM, in 1989 and began developing games on the NES for publishers ranging from Sunsoft to Sigman. One particularly interesting project was Super Man, but it was eventually cancelled when Eno came into conflict with the owners, who wanted a game where Super Man couldn’t die, get damaged, or suffer from other maladies that were prevalant in videogames at the time. The game morphed into Sun Man (right down to the Super Man font) but it was never released, althogh a prototype ROM was subsequently leaked onto the internet.

Eno had formed EIM because he wanted to create independent games, but he soon realised that original IP was a hard sell unless it was attached to a popular licence. he soon left EIM and began doing freelance work, predominantly on a popular car magazine, before he was eventually lured back into the world of videogames.

Eno quickly set up Warp, Inc, the company that would go on to feature his most significant games. In typical maverick fashion, Eno ignored the popular consoles and computers of the time, deciding to create his first piece of work for Trip Hawkins’ 3DO. After releasing Totsugeki Karakuri Megadasu!! and Trip’d, work began on D, one of Eno’s most famous games.

D was a survival horror game that had a number of distinct gameplay mechanics ranging from not being able to pause or save the game, to multiple endings. It also boasted a number of taboo themes including cannibalism, and went on to receive two follow-ups, Enemy Zero for Sega’s Saturn (which once again featured protagonist Laura Harris) and D2 for the Dreamcast, which was a standalone game, despite once again featuring Laura.

Music continued to play a big part in Eno’s life as well, with Warp releasing Real Sound in 1997 for the Saturn and enhanced update Real Sound: Kaze No Regret for Dreamcast. Both games are rather noticeable because they were specifically designed with blind players in mind. Unfortunately for Eno the games weren’t a commerical success.

Warp was disbanded in 2000, shortly after the release of D2, and Kenji formed a new company called Super Warp. Initially things went well, with Eno planning an innovative new music-based PC game, but difficulties with various investors meant that Super Warp closed down in 2005 and Eno once again moved back into over non-gaming jobs, only to return with FYTO (From Yellow To Orange) and a new game You And Me And The Cubes for Nintendo’s Wii Ware service.

Eno’s last known game project was Newtonica for iOS, which he helped develop and score. It was revealed by The Asahi Shimbun that Eno had passed away from heart failure, induced by high blood pressure. He was aged just 42.

If like us you’re still awaiting the release of Aliens: Colonial Marines, why not visit this excellent shooter?

The first thing that strikes you about Rebellion’s game is just how freakishly scary it still is. Sure it looks a little rough around the edges now (it’s 14 years old after all) but the lighting and sound delivers a terrific atmosphere that can be genuinely terrifying.

Unlike later games in the franchise, AVP 2000 doesn’t forget the scares and it’s no more apparent when you’re playing as a marine. Sure you’re a hardened grunt who can hold his own with the best of them, but if you let an alien get near you then you’re toast. Needless to say every darkly-lit corridor you stumble down fills you with trepidation, as you never know what’s going to be waiting for you in the darkness.

It's fun playing as the powerful Predator

When Aliens strike the strike with a fast-paced deadly velocity that can be awefully unsettling the first time you witness it. These guys are fast, frightfully fast, and if you let your guard drop for a second then it’s ‘game over man. Game over’. Short controlled bursts of gunfire are the key, but when two or more xenomorphs appear on screen it’s all too easy to forget and you’ll start spraying the room in blind panic.

Playing as a Predator makes for a completely different game experience, mainly because you’re tooled up with some truly ridiculous, and extremely dangerous weaponry. Of course Aliens and Marines still present a problem for you, but there’s a sense of empowerment when playing as a Predator that you don’t feel when playing as one of the other races.

These gameplay mechanics are truly noticeable when playing as an Alien. Unlike the Marines and Predators, your weapon is your actual body, so you need to resort to quick hit and run tactics. It makes for some truly entertaining moments, especially as you’re able to freely run along walls and ceilings like some sort of deadly gecko.

No Predator game is complete without Predator vision.

And that the real beauty of Rebellion’s game, it really does feel like three games in one. Each race have their own distinct campaigns and missions, and there’s some nice overlap as well, allowing the story to play out nicely. The combat is highly satisfying, thanks to the wide variety of different weapons, and it’s arguably one of the best examples of the licence that we’ve ever played.

We’ve been playing the Classic 2000 edition which features enhanced visuals, all the additional content from the Gold version of the game and the Millennium Pack add-on. It also features Xbox 360 pad support (because we’re console gamers at heart) and is available from Steam for just £2.99.

If Aliens: Colonial Marines manages to capture the terror and excitement of this classic then gamers are going to be in for a very good (if rather terrifying) time.

We love Nineties arcade racers.

Try as we might, we can’t get enough of the likes of Daytona, SCUD Race or Ridge Racer, and age has done nothing to diminish our lust for them.

Kickstarter funder Pelikan13 obviously feels the same way too, as he’s working on a brand new game that captures the spirit of the classic arcade racers of yesteryear.

The 90′s Arcade Racer is already looking pretty slick and appears to have come from a union between Daytone, SCUD Race and Indy 500. Early progress looks sweet, with great character models, gorgeous backdrops and some exciting looking racing.

Pelikan13 is looking for £10,000 to fund the budget and it’s currently a fifth of the way there with 26 days to go. He’s also planning physical releases, as well as digital downloads for PC, Mac and Linux.

You can find out more news by visiting the official Kickstarter site, but our minds are already made up. It looks freaking awesome!

Mega CD collectors are in for a treat this month, as two rare unofficial PAL titles go on re-release

In the mid ‘90s Sony developed two games for the Mega CD, and though both projects were finished neither got released. The games in question are Star Strike and Bug Blasters, and both are FMV shoot-‘em-ups - an amusing style of game the Mega CD became renowned for.

Despite being discarded by Sony back in the day, the two games were given a lease of life in 2001 when Good Deal Games purchased the rights to them and produced and sold 5 copies of each. Naturally, the exclusivity and extremely limited print run of the two titles made them very desirable.

Well, those who missed out on owning the games first time round now have another chance. A collector has secured the license from Good Deal Games to produce and sell 100 (we believe) copies of each game, and they are currently available to buy via eBay.

We expect them to go fast, so if you want to bag yourself copies you best get in quick.

Star Strike

Bug Blasters

Story: RetroCollect.com

Sega has just revealed that oddball couple Toejam and Earl are returning to consoles.

The funkey twosome will be returning in a Mega Drive double pack that will feature the original game, in addition to Toejam & Earl: Panic On Funkatron.

Released as part of the Sega Vintage Collection both games will feature achievements and trophy support, as well as online cooperative play. The games will be available on PSN at £3.69 a pop, or part of a double pack on Xbox Live Arcade for 800 points.

Sega has announced that its insane taxi checkpoint racer Crazy Taxi will be heading to iOS devices.

Details other than that are scant, though Sega did tease fans with a whole 11 second trailer showing the game in action – well, sort of.   

We love us some Crazy Taxi, but we’d be lying if we said we weren’t concerned about how the game will control on touch-screen devices. It doesn’t have the easiest of control systems after all (what with all the gear stick based tricks).

Let’s hope Sega have it figured out before the game toots its horn to pick us up on…Erm, we’re not actually sure…Soon apparently, according to Sega.

Jet Set Radiooooooooooo!!!!

Ahem. Now we’ve got that out of the way, here’s a reminder that Sega’s stunning conversion of Jet Set Radio is now on sale for lucky PSN owners. Jet Set Radio is a truly impressive conversion of the popular Dreamcast game and is available on PSN for + members a week early.

For just £5.49 you get access to Sega’s ground-breaking arcade game, which featured stunning cel-shaded visuals, a truly sublimne soundtrack and fast-paced gameplay that was typical Sega. This latest edition is also bolstered by an interesting documentary that interviews many of the staff, alongside plenty of music videos.

PC, Xbox 360, iOS, Vita and non + members should be able to download the game next week.