It's been three months since we've seen any moving pictures from Golden Axe: In Name Only, but is that enough time to prepare yourself for a new trailer? Have you had enough time to get ready for footage of a title that's so clearly not a Golden Axe game that it's almost kind of adorable? Are you ready for "Not this day!" sure to be one of the classic video game lines of all time? Most importantly (and prominently), are you braced for the most gratuitous digital ass shot of this or any other decade?

Feel free to watch above, just don't say we didn't warn you.

Mad World, with its inky wellspring of monochrome gore, will likely give those opposed to virtual violence another round of ammunition, replacing Manhunt 2 as the industry whipping boy of choice. An unfair comparison, at least according to seasoned game journo Beth Dillon, who cites the controversy magnet's realistic take on violence as much more disturbing than Mad World's "contrasting and beautiful" approach.

There's no question that Mad World will stand out like a bludgeoned thumb among the Wii's more family-friendly library, but Dillon writes that where Platinum Games' upcoming action opus separates itself from Manhunt 2 is in its sense of style. The bigger issue, as she she sees it, is the effect motion-sensitive controls have on players playing violent games -- regardless if they're realistic or more over-the-top -- something we fully expect to have society's ills pinned on the game industry's already swollen posterior for years to come.

As you could probably deduce from earlier posts concerning ill-conceived pseudo-peripherals for Nintendo's latest home console -- we're not really fans of most Wiimote attachments. We don't need a cheap, plastic tennis racket snapped to the front of our controller to "get our McEnroe on" when playing Wii Tennis. We don't need our Wiimote to look like an ugly sword to carve up baddies in Twilight Princess. However, we suppose the only thing that could counteract our disdain for these shoddy add-ons is our unbridled love of Latin American percussion instruments.

We caught a glimpse of the "prototype" Samba de Amigo maracas a couple months ago, but a recent Amazon listing for the attachments shows that the ol' bean shakers have undergone a makeover, taking on a sassy red finish. The date Amazon has listed for the maracas is September 23 for the price of $14.99 -- though considering the title will come bundled with the attachments, you'd only need to pick these up if you wish to share the true Samba experience with a multiplayer pal. Or if you somehow broke yours, we guess. Or if you're Goro.

This has to be one of the most incredibly overproduced game trailers in existence. It's like SEGA and BioWare hired the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack producer and forced him to write a full-blown soundtrack for Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. Sonic has never had so much fanfare, especially on such a small system.

Zack nailed this in his hands-on impression, and the gameplay backs it up, but it looks like you could have dropped any ol' characters into this real-time RPG. When we hear the name Sonic, we tend to think hyper-speed running and gold rings flying all over the place. Call us old fashioned.

Still, this trailer is sure to wake you if you're in that end-of-the-week coma.

They just don't make maracas like they used to, eh? Nevertheless, Sega will proceed with the revival of Samba de Amigo, albeit with a pair of fiddle sticks (or just one Wiimote and a tethered Nunchuk, if you prefer), when the game ships to retail September 19 across Europe and September 23 in North America. The new Samba will offer plenty of nostalgic songs, plus a generous helping of fresh tracks, including a wag-a-long to Rihanna's smash hit: Pon de Replay. We've laid out the entire song list for you after the break.

Additionally, Samba's first downloadable song pack will be available for purchase on September 23 -- a long-term storage solution is still up in the air. All song packs will include three songs by their original performers. Sega has not confirmed songs for individual purchase nor announced pricing. The first pack will include:

• Mambo Mambo – Lou Bega
• I Want Candy – Bow Wow Wow
• Are you Going to Be My Girl – Jet

Sega has a mighty lineup on public display (and behind closed doors) at Leipzig Games Convention 2008, comprised of titles from the East and West. MadWorld and Bayonetta, its collaborations with former Clover Studios staff, are there, as are Sonic games, strategy titles, DS wares, and more. But there's nary a sign of PSP support to be found. And it was doing so well with games like Crush. Ah well. You can check out screenshot galleries of everything Sega has on show after the break.

We don't really see the point in new footage of Mad World. Oh, don't get us wrong, we're grateful for it. It's just that we're so clearly going to buy the game the moment it's within the reach of our grubby mitts, we don't know why Sega is trying to convince us to buy it harder.

But for those of you that weren't convinced pre-trailer, we're just going to assume you've firmly aligned yourself with the believers. Did you see that dude throwing other dudes into a fan? Did you see those cyclones picking up cars? Did you see that dude rubbing that other dude on a moving train? Are they serious with this? Can we buy two, one to play and one to crush up and mainline?

No surprise to you, we watch a lot, a lot of trailers. Do you know how much better our lives would be if video game trailers were less "You're some guy who's got to do a thing. Buy it!" and a lot more like this new trailer for House of the Dead: Overkill, a funky homage to 70s B-grade action flicks? Well, we don't know either, but we bet it's a lot.

Now, the real question of course is will the game itself have this much style and panache? Jeez, greedy, they already gave you a cool trailer, what else do you want?

[Thanks, WiNG]

While most people hail the Dreamcast as Sega's swan song, we want to go back one generation and remember the Saturn, which gave birth to person favorites NiGHTS Into Dreams, Dragon Force and ... um ... Christmas NIGHTS. We know there are other classics, so tell us your experiences with the console. Note how the special NIGHTS controller (mid left) looks conspicuously like the Sega Dreamcast pad. Here's what we'll be playing this weekend. Be sure to let us know what games will be occupying your time!

• Alexander Sliwinski: I'll be at a wedding in New Rochelle, NY this weekend, so it's DS time for me. The plan is to keep my Civilization Revolution addiction going with the DS version. Also, hoping to be back in time on Sunday to make some more money with the Fable II pub games. Need to learn and play the table better on Keystone (a variation of Craps -- yes giggling youths out there, that's the name of a real casino game).
• Andrew Yoon: I'm only a small handful of Trophies away from getting 100% in PixelJunk Eden. This weekend, I'll be going through the latest Ratchet & Clank adventure, Quest for Booty, and then some demo time with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
• Christopher Grant is the leader and doesn't have to answer for himself.
  
• Griffin McElroy won't hear our Roll of Thunder call until the weekend begins.
• Kevin Kelly: The Fable II pub games will be occurring, with several liftings of ale. I'll also be playing in my D&D campaign (hello, nerdom!) and trying out this new card game called Pecking Order. It's crazy, I tells ya. Plus some of my family is in town, so there will be some board game happenings going on as well.
• Kyle Orland is a bunny rabbit.
  
• James Ransom-Wiley: For the first time -- ever! -- I went with a PS3 version; in this case: Bionic Commando Rearmed. I also plan to spend some time psyching myself up for Too Human's imminent release. (Oh, and Amazon, where is my Pub Games code?!)
• Jason Dobson: After grinding this week through the Netherworld, I'm going to be spending the weekend mastering the subtleties of the Xbox 360's terrible d-pad in Bionic Commando Rearmed, most likely falling to my death in the process.
• Justin McElroy: I'm playing Space Siege as we speak, and I'm enjoying it so far. I'm also going to be listening to the Joystiq Podcast, because it's so funny and good and right. [Ed. - Justin later told me to add "Too Human" to the list because he wanted to flaunt it over the peons.]
• Ludwig Kietzmann: I'm taking my copy of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (cry more, purists!) to a friend's place and introducing him to the world of cardboard boxes and heavy handed exposition. When I'm back home, I'll be hacking away at Crisis Core's never-ending side missions, fumbling my way through Alone in the Dark and slashing wildly at scantily clad sword mistresses in Soul Calibur IV.
• Randy Nelson: My brief stint behind the handlebars of Burnout Paradises' motorcycles has once again revved the throttle of my addiction to the game, so you'll no doubt see me Freeburning on PSN this weekend. I'm also aching to get into the swing of Bionic Commando: Rearmed (I opted for the XBLA route) and should probably brush up on my Soul Calibur IV skillz if I ever hope to go toe-to-toe with Ludwig online.
• Ross Miller: XBLOverload with Braid, Bionic Commando and Pub Games. I'm still going through Rock Band drums on left-handed hard mode to try and get the other half of my body more in sync.
  

You know that bit in Antitrust when Milo Hoffman discovers that NURV (Never Underestimate Radical Vision, natch) is stealing source code from its employees and having them contract killed? SEGA's Julian Mehlfeld recently had the exact same experience except 1. SEGA isn't an acronym, 2. There's no way Mehlfeld could match Ryan Philippe's smoldering charisma and 3. What he discovered was actually a room in the company filled, not only with every SEGA game, but every game that had ever appeared on a SEGA console ... and murder contracts. No, no, we kid.

Check out more of this incredible collection right here and if any of you other companies have rooms like this we request, nay, demand pictures ... and keys.

It may come as a surprise, but there are a few Olympic gold medals that Michael Phelps forgot to nab, magpie-like, for the gold medal throne we imagine he's begun constructing. One of those, the gold for the men's 100m breaststroke, was won by Japan's Kosuke Kitajima. How did he best longtime rival Brendan Hansen? Why, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, of course.

"See, Mario does the breaststroke," he recently told Yomiuri Sports. "And thus, it's perfect mental training for envisioning the actual Olympic hall."

... Let's, umm ... let's try to keep this from Jack Thompson, OK?

[Via Kotaku]

Update: Whoops! Sounds like Sega America CEO Simon Jeffrey was totally out of touch. "Yu Suzuki is at Sega and is Creative officer at Sega Corp," Jeffrey told GameDaily this afternoon, recanting his original remark to Gamasutra (see below).

Original: If we had made games like Virtua Fighter, Out Run, Shenmue and Virtua Cop, we'd kind of hope that we could spend our later years with feet propped up in an expansive Sega office being fed peeled grapes by Amy Rose. But that's not the case for legendary Yu Suzuki who, according to a Gamasutra interview with CEO of Sega of America Simon Jeffery, is no longer employed by the company.

"Yeah. He's kind of his own man right now. Every now and again, he'll come up with an idea, and I don't think anything has come out of that yet, but we're still working with him," he said.

In other news, Shenmue Online confirmed for 2009! Wait, did we say confirmed? We meant "absolutely never ever going to happen so put your fan fic into a rocket and shoot it into space." Sorry about that.

[Via 1UP]

Talk about some serious monkey business. According to the Wall Street Journal, Sega's debut effort on the iPhone App Store, Super Monkey Ball, has racked up 300,000 downloads since it debuted on the service June 11.

At $9.99 a pop, that means the game has brought in just about $3 million for Sega, with Apple taking its 30% "upkeep" share off the top to the tune of $899k. Both parties must be quite pleased. Sega certainly is. Based on what SOA prez Simon Jeffery told the WSJ, the future looks to be full of iPhone games from the publisher. Speaking on the sizable sales of SMB, Jeffrey said, "That's a substantial business," adding, "It gives iPhone a justifiable claim to being a viable gaming platform."

It's worth noting that these purchases, unlike those via XBLA or PSN, were made sight-unseen, as the App Store does not offer a SMB trial version. Now, if Sega would just release a patch to allow calibration of the iPhone's accelerometer so we can play SMB without staring straight down at it ... that'd be bananas.

In an interview with GameDaily, Sega's VP of marketing, Sean Ratcliffe, formally acknowledged something that, oh, every gamer and members of the media have known for the past decade: the Sonic franchise has largely gone to poop. Well, Ratcliffe didn't go that far. He did offer explanations, promises, and gently worded ways of saying that Sega is going to continue doing ... the same old thing with the Blue Blur (except for the, um, "werehog" part). In summary:

"Some of that criticism is probably warranted. We definitely recognize that a franchise that has been going as long as Sonic, you really have to put a huge amount of effort in to make sure that you maintain that quality ... which is why you're seeing us this year taking the first steps in making sure the quality is right, and we're constantly looking at innovation ... you know, blending classic 2D gameplay with 3D, beautiful landscapes, rich environments. Then with a nice innovative twist, we're taking Sonic in a different direction, slow him down and he transforms into a 'Werehog.' And that changes the gameplay again. For fans of Sonic that have been looking for a next-gen experience, this is the game they've been waiting for."

Slow him down? ... *facepalm* (Oh BioWare, save us now!)

Japanese publisher (and House of Sonic) Sega Sammy posted a ¥10.5 billion (approx. US $96 million) net loss for the first quarter of Fiscal 2009 – that's double the losses from a year earlier -- and sales of ¥74.6b, a 22% decline. Despite all this, the publisher managed to beat expectations and subsequently shares were up 13% to ¥1,201 per share, the sharpest increase since its listing as a holding company on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in October 2004, according to Bloomberg.

The pachinko and arcade divisions, as well as the global and Japanese economy, were cited as reasons for the losses. Particularly, the pachinko business saw around US$40 million in losses. The games division increased sales to ¥30.5 billion, reducing the operating loss to ¥4.12b. Overall unit sales were around 6.89 million (3.16m in US, 2.89m in Europe and 830k in Japan), with Mario and Sonic at the Olympics noted as having so far shipped 7 million units worldwide.