Announced at the Nintendo Direct live stream earlier today, a crossover game for the Nintendo 3DS between Capcom, Sega and Bandai Namco is in development. The last of these three is also doing the publishing and one of their developers, Banpresto, best known for the Super Robot Wars franchise, is making the title.

That’s all that there’s known at the moment. Any details like what franchises appear in the game or if the game will even hit stores outside Japan still need to be announced. You can visit the teaser site here, but there’s not much there to discover besides the company logos. Still, whatever this is may be worth keeping an eye on.

Any animation fan should fondly remember Robert Zemeckis’ tribute to the golden age of cartoons, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. To those who have never seen the movie (and you should be ashamed of yourself if you haven’t), the movie contained many cameos from various cartoons with characters like Donald Duck and Daffy Duck sharing screentime together. Disney’s upcoming movie Wreck-It Ralph does something similar (though it presumably does not contain live-action actors), but instead of being about cartoons it’s about videogames.

The movie is about that angry looking fellow shown in the movie’s logo, Wreck-It Ralph, who appears in a fictional arcade game called Fix-It Felix. His job is to destroy the buildings that the game’s titular hero has to fix. Because Ralph doesn’t like being the bad guy anymore and wants to be good he gets out of the game and jumps into other genres like first person shooters and kart racers. Though the games he gets into are made up for the movie, not all of the characters are. Like Roger Rabbit, famous characters from videogame history appear throughout the film.

One scene in particular has Ralph in a support group for villains, pictured in the above image (taken from Disney’s D23 Magazine). As you can see Eggman appears in this scene along with Bowser, Dr. Wily and Zangief. If he’s just going to sit there doing nothing or if he actually has a speaking role we don’t know, but it’s still neat to see him appear in a big Disney flick. Considering the nature of the film, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Sonic make a small cameo as well. Of course if he doesn’t matter because the movie sounds awesome as it is. You can find Wreck-It Ralph in theaters from November 2nd this year.

[Via Rockman Corner]

For the Valentine’s Day update week on the Playstation Network in the U.S. and Europe, Sega has released a PlayStation 3 edition of The House of the Dead III, complete with support for PlayStation Move or a standard controller and trophies. The game stars aging Agent G and Lisa Rogan, who are on the search for Agent Rogan after suddenly disappearing. It’s a perfect game for couples to go blasting endless mindless waves of the undead. The game is available through PSN for $6.99 and includes an avatar for a limited time.  PlayStation Plus subscribers can purchase it with an additional discount, and get access to a demo of the game.

While this is the fourth time the third entry in the series has seen a home console port, Sega still has The House of the Dead IV in the pipeline for release on the network, which will be the first home console release of the arcade title.

Atlus Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Index Holdings, has entered a distribution contract with Sega in Japan which allows the developer to take advantage of Sega’s wider distribution network, which is quite an advantage for the smaller developer. This however does not apply to digitally distributed titles. The deal will take effect in April (Spring) 2012. All Altus titles published will now carry the Sega logo on game covers. Currently this does not effect other subsidiaries of Atlus or Index Corp. outside of Japan.

Atlus is well-known for the Shin Megami Tensei series, its spin offs including Digital Devil Saga, Persona, and Devil Survivor, as well the recently-released Catherine.

Source: (Japanese) http://indexweb.jp/news/2012/news_20120217_01.html

We get some more quick looks at the Aquatic Garden hybrid level, as well as seeing the full extent of the snow-covered wonderland. If the snow and the carnival are indeed the same act, the screenshots promise at least variety in the scenery, with the white flakes of snow being a not-so-distant memory as Sonic is forced to go through the park’s rollercoaster. Wonder if we’ll have to jump into any of the carts…but I digress.

Though at the moment the entire Sega blog is down (presumably from the amount of traffic they incurred finally unveiling the new and hopefully improved Sonic 4), the description did promise that we’ll finally be seeing gameplay footage this month, Gamespot being the first to unveil the trailer come the 23rd.

Check out the gallery below, which not only has some of the new concept-art badniks in their rendered state, but also a couple more new enemies that have yet to be named. Also included is some of the background art of the Japanese Sonic 4 site, ripped by the Sonic Scene and uploaded by the Sonic Stadium, giving us a better look at the background to the still unnamed zone.

[Source: SEGA Blog]

While it’s entirely possible we weren’t supposed to see these just yet, we were warned by Ken Balough we’d see some interesting things in the next couple of weeks regarding the one Sonic title we definitely know is coming: Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 2. And with no fanfare whatsoever, we can now see, at the very least the visual style they are going for in the next chapter of the “Sonic 4 saga.”

Oh man, they even pulled the original Tornado out of storage for this one. Remember, the reason it says Sonic on the side is because it was Sonic’s plane in the first place.

Even though it wasn’t that hard to guess from what concept art we had, those of you who guessed that the first level in the game might have some resemblence to Aquatic Ruin Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 can pat yourself on the back, since it looks like we’re definitely in a ruin underwater from those first few screenshots. Mixed in with a bit of Marble Garden imagery (oh hey, that strange head guy who loves to throw arrows is back), it doesn’t seem to be as much lifted straight from Sonic 2 but an amalgamation of the two, so it actually looks…almost new! Definitely a step in the right direction.

But hey, we get more than just the first level. We get to see hints of the other three that are meant to be coming out way (yes, once again we’re getting a four level jaunt). Also coming our way is another strange amalgamation of winter fun and carnival excitement. What is nice is that the winter area isn’t exactly Ice Cap, but something reminiscent of a stray idea mentioned a long while ago…sure, might be coincidence we’re getting Christmas Trees, but hey. And you can’t go wrong with Metal Sonic apparently hijacking one of Miles “Tails” Prower‘s inventions.

We also get to see a quick look at yet another industrial zone pluked straight from the Texas oil fields, and also the return of the Sonic 2 Special Stages. Sonic Team, if you can make them just as extreme as the remake you did for the Saturn version of Sonic 3D: Flickies Island, we’re in business.

Also, for those who thought the twirling of blue and yellow in the teaser trailer meant something, looks like Sonic and “Tails” are getting all sorts of moves. Yes, “Tails” will be able to airlift Sonic. But they’ll also be doing some crazy spin move that’ll…um…well, who knows what it does. And…wait a minute, is that the Little Planet in the background? With something being built around it?! Death Egg Mark II Mark III Mark-Something, anyone?

Included with the screenshots is the official description to the game, which you can take a gander at below:

The Sonic 4 Saga continues as Sonic reunites with Tails for all new collaborative play! Following the events of Episode I, Metal Sonic has returned to form a formidable alliance with Dr. Eggman! To face this new threat, Sonic will have to call upon an old friend to help him save the day! Joined by Tails, utilise ingenious combination moves and race across four brand new Zones, in order to put an end to their evil plans! Play alone, or with a friend locally (and online), in an evolution of Sonic 2′s collaborative gameplay! Unleash Sonic and Tails’ devastating joint attacks and combination moves to fight the united force of Metal Sonic and Dr. Eggman. Episode II features an all new game engine, bringing you updated physics and an original graphical style as you race through four unique Zones and a new Special Stage.

FEATURES
Offline co-op 1 – 2
Dolby Digital

ONLINE FEATURES
Online co-op 2
Leaderboards

Ladies and Gentlemen, you better prepare yourself for the return of the 2-Player mode. But until then, check out the entire gallery below, along with the cover art to the episode.

…and hey, is it me or does the first level kinda remind you of a certain fangame everyone loves?

[Source: Xbox Live Marketplace]

In this commercial Mario and Sonic get a tour around a royal palace while they try not to act like their usual selves. Above is Sonic’s version, after the jump you can view the version with Mario’s ending and the launch trailer for the 3DS edition.

Mario version:

3DS launch trailer:

Leave it to Sega to have their secrets disrupted by every external force in the universe. Kotaku is reporting that toys pitching the upcoming racing sequel were spotted at the New York Toy Fair with further confirmation from the representative on deck that the game will be out by year’s end and feature new playable characters. This information links up well with a teaser posted on Sonic Stadium that Sumo Digital was at work on another racing title.

We can only hope the shortlist includes the likes of Wonder Boy, a Rag Rappy from Phantasy Star, and Segata Sanshiro riding on a Sega Saturn controller.

Seems not every badnik we’ll be fighting off will be original. If that fish looks familiar, just one glance at his name will tell you why. Meet Chop Chop (or simply Piranha if you want to be Japanese for a day), the blue fish that would love to rush at you back in Sonic the Hedgehog 2‘s Aquatic Ruin Zone. Unless he’s learned how to fly, you can expect to trend some water in the next installment, so those who have a fear of the drowning music best get prepared now. He has been slightly redesigned since we last saw him, with the brand new addition of eyes.

The bonus piece of art is simply being called the “Flip Platform,” so make of that what you will. Yes, that bottom does kinda look like a bumper. But who yet knows if it is, or simply something interesting to look at while running through the game? I’m sure we’ll find out how it all comes together at some point.

[Source: Sega.com Blog]

This basicly means that other characters in the game can be made playable, so if you ever wanted to play as Tails it’s possible now. How this can be done is shown in the video tutorial above. The results this delivers depends on if the character is about Sonic’s size, so if you’d try to play as a character like Eggman the outcome may not be what you expect, though this is not necessarily a bad thing. Videos of various characters being played like this can be found after the jump.

First up are a few examples of this working right:

Now a couple of examples of this going horribly wrong, yet so right at the same time:

And this one is just perfect: