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GAMING FEATURE

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Some beloved SEGA characters from outside of the Samba de Amigo world make guest appearances in Samba de Amigo: Party Central , including Sonic, Tails, and the Morolians from Space Channel 5 . Two songs from the Sonic series, Escape from the City and Fist Bump , are also included, along with the City Escape stage from Sonic Adventure 2 . IT’S A SEGA PARTY!

there weren’t any consumer motion-controlled games, but after the Wii, more games like that came out, and people got used to seeing them. That’s why we’ve put the focus on the multiplayer games for this title, so that it hypes up a party’s atmosphere. Can you please tell us more about these new modes? We’ve prepared a new online mode called World Party, which allows up to eight players from around the world to compete against each other in elimination-style rounds across three songs. After each song, the lowest-performing players are removed, so your goal is to be the last one standing. Players will have items they can use to throw off the groove of the other players, which helps to level the playing field. These types of competitive features aren’t too common for music games, so we’re excited to see what players think as they show off their Samba skills. In StreamiGo!, players play inside a social media platform within the Samba de Amigo universe as they compete against various influencers, complete missions, gain followers, and aim to become the world’s number one influencer. There are a wide variety of missions here, so players will need to play different songs and keep their body moving. The original Samba de Amigo featured a Latin vibe through the music selection.What was behind the decision to go with more general pop, and even some rock hits, this time around? As mentioned, this title has a theme of Amigo going out into the world. The previous titles focused more on Latin music, but there were a lot of fans who requested more variety to the music, wanting to play more songs from various genres, which we have done here along with presenting a new setting. But rest assured, each and every song allows players to shake those maracas and enjoy the silly fun of Samba de Amigo! Can you please tell us about the single player mode?

After quite a sabbatical from monkeying around, SEGA’s hot maracas-shaking rhythm game franchise is back with us in Samba de Amigo: Party Central .We had a chat with its producer, Shun Nakamura, to find out what’s shaking. Words Amy Flower

Please, tell us more about what was behind the decision to create a sequel? Samba de Amigo was the very first game I directed and was a title I wanted to bring back some day. When I first saw the Switch Joy-Con controller, a lightbulb lit up in my head, but I was trying to do something a little different at the time, so it took time to actually bring this game back. There’s a lot of unfortunate news in the world now, so I also had the hope that people would play this game, have fun, and refresh their body and soul. What’s the story behind the new game, and which classic characters can we expect to see return? Amigo has climbed up the stairs of success after the previous title and has become a worldwide star. Characters that were present before such as Amiga and Linda return, as well as new friends. Also, characters like the bears, Bingo and Bongo, have updated their appearances to a more up-to-date form.

• Samba de Amigo: Party Central is out now

with some fun new accessories. For example, you can have your Amigo hold maracas, glow lights, or even BBQ meat! Will you be bringing any of the modes from the original arcade/Dreamcast release and Ver. 2000 to Party Central ? None of the previous modes will be included in Party Central . All the modes

We can play dress-ups with our characters. How deep does such customisation go? There’s plenty of customisation

in this game. Amigo will be able to wear his outfit from the previous titles, but there’s also a wide variety of new outfits from street fashion to pyjamas, along

DYK?

are made for this title and updated for the modern era. While I loved the minigames in the original, if you look back at them now, they were pretty simple. When we made the original,

Borderlands series developers Gearbox Software were behind the 2008 Nintendo Wii port of Samba de Amigo .

SEPTEMBER 2023

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