More Sega news: in-depth look at Club Sega; new Shining Force Cross version; more Let's Go Island

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As a sort of follow-up to the news from Sega about their line-up at the Amusement Expo next week, we have several pieces of news about the company that we’ll just going to lump into one convenient post.

First, Gpara.com has an in-depth look at the new Club Sega in Akihabara, replete with information and pictures. They have plenty of new Sega titles, from Tetris Giant to Shining Force Cross, Intitial D5, Border Break and Virtua Fighter 5R. They also have some older games there, including OutTriggers which is one game I’d love to play in arcades one day but I have never seen one in the US. It looks like an excellent facility and if I ever go to Japan one day, I would love to check it out.

Speaking of Shining Force Cross, Sega already has a new version of the game in the works and it be out in Japan before too long. It’s too bad the game can’t be changed for an international release as an RPG in arcades outside of Japan would be fun to have (again).

Also CoinOpToday has received more information on Let’s Go Island. You play as Ben and Norah once again who this time are captured by modern day pirates who are on an obvious quest for treasure. The game will have more stages and routes to select than Let’s Go Jungle did and it will come in three cabinet configurations(I think). According to the press release it will be “available in both non motion, motion, and the Standard 32” LCD cabinets” which could mean two non-motion versions and the motion one. In addition to this obviously going out to compete with Dead Storm Pirates(which I have heard will be the full game as opposed to a demo this time), I have read that ICE will have a standard version of Panic Museum at the show. All this and some other light-gun games we know about indicates that the Amusement Expo is going to be dominated by light-gun shooters instead of racers for a change.

Also while we’re on the topic of light-gun games, popular blog Wired has a write-up on Taito’s Music Gun Gun in Japan. As Kevin Williams who sent me the link said, “all of a sudden and Wired covers amusement!” We’ll have to wait and see if the coverage will ever venture outside of Japan however.