It’s the ‘Beena’ from Sega Toys. Sort of a better Pico (the Pico was sort of a better PlayStation2 with more interesting games). Let’s all import one from Japan and convince ourselves it’s really brilliant!

Grooming a new generation to love Sega.

SEGA Toys ‘Beena’

These images MOCK US. These disgraceful illustrations HEAP SHAME upon the internet. These SICK CARTOONS are EVIL. Those in the Western states who publish such images SHALL BE CLEANSED DURING THE NEXT HOLY WAR. All who look upon such images are INFIDELS who deserve to BURN IN THE FIRES OF ETERNAL DAMNATION.

The DEPICTIONS OF EVIL must NEVER be reproduced. Hosting such files is an INSULT TO ALL THAT IS GLORIOUS. And they are not funny.

Oh no, hang on, it’s sold out again.

No wait! They’ve got another one! Oh no, it’s gone again. This particularly inept piece of sign-writing is from Woolworths, which is where people go to work after even McDonalds and the London Underground has said no. We stole some pick and mix and a magazine then left in disgust.

EVERYWHEEEEEEEEEEEERE!

Well, everywhere if you pass an import magazine stand on your way to work, anyway. We were actually going to buy one of them, run it under the tap and then scan it in – you know, so we could do a joke “Torn porn found under the hedge” style update. Then we ACTUALLY FOUND ONE TORN AND SOGGY UNDER A HEDGE. Is anyone out there a Bhudda-ist? We need to know how much karma we just used up finding Sega porn under a hedge. We’re scared that tomorrow morning we’re going to be run over by a runaway bus driven by the dwarf from Don’t Look Now or something.

We found this on the blog of a fellow called cori95. Normally when we nick things we either decide it’s too risky or flat-out chance it. This guy deserves a link though (despite the fact there’s practically no chance of him finding us out) because as well as this TERRIFYING SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS of Rinko’s mons veneris (complete with a miniature Agent Smith eyeing it up in the background), he has pictures of Maria on his site. Congratulations, UK:R Special Friend Of The Week.

Good thing: They’ve stopped taking photos of her slightly from the side in order to pretend that she’s not cross-eyed. This (further) allows us to construct elaborate fantasies where we meet her at a public event and her (obviously) low self esteem from her spacky-eyed-ness ends up with us both in a 25 quid hotel room, where naturally she’ll want to try her best out of fear of rejection.

Bad thing: We really, really, really want people to stop telling us what her “Real” name and “Real” personal details are. HER NAME IS PRINCESS RINKO AND SHE COMES FROM THE SEGA JOY PLANET.

Another thing we want: To wake up to this every day. Look at her! Cute, adoring face… sunshine and happiness shining from every pore… but still a little bit spazzy-looking so you’d feel a little bit bad showing her to your mates. SHE’S LIKE SEGA MADE FLESH.

Scantily-clad, underage flesh.

If we write this really really quickly and don’t do any captions or anything funny/clever we can probably upload these before anyone else in the world!

Did we win?

SEGA ANNOUNCES BRAND NEW SUPER MONKEY BALL STYLE OF ADVENTURE

Enter A New Monkey Ball Experience With All Your Favourite Characters In An Original Story Based Platform Adventure!

LONDON & SAN FRANCISCO (January 25th, 2006) – SEGA( Europe Ltd and SEGA( of America, Inc. today announced a giant leap for Monkeykind! Super Monkey Ball Adventure offers an all-new narrative driven and platform based style of gameplay, along with brand new Monkey Ball abilities and a bunch of fresh new characters. The next step in the Monkey Ball series hasn’t forgotten its traditional puzzle-based roots, adding 50 new and original puzzles to this new and exciting gaming experience. Super Monkey Ball Adventure gives a unique look into the crazy world of the Super Monkey Ball gang to entice Monkey fans new and old.

Super Monkey Ball Adventure hits the PSP(tm) portable entertainment system for the very first time, and on top of the new features, PSP fans have the exclusive opportunity to delve into the history behind the Monkey Ball series, as well as play the new trading card game. Also set for release in Summer 2006 is the Nintendo Gamecube and PlayStation 2 version. An added bonus is that both the PSP and PS2 editions offer players a game sharing option…so now you can play with your Super Monkey sized balls at home or continue on the go!

“Our Monkeys have so much to offer and it’s been wonderful developing this new game for them to cavort in”, commented Matt Woodley, Creative Director at SEGA Europe “Super Monkey Ball Adventure is a great mix of the Monkey Ball gameplay we all know and love, added to a huge adventure which I know will appeal to all ages. SEGA and Traveller’s Tales have taken our friends, added loads of new characters and made an entirely new type of game, and one, indeed, to be very proud of.”

Adventurers will discover that in Super Monkey Ball Adventure they can make their balls bigger, better and even more useful thanks to a whole host of new abilities, including sticking to walls, hovering and the ability to become invisible. Super Monkey Ball Adventure also contains fifty new puzzle trays and six new party games to challenge gamers of all ages. Players can select Aiai, Meemee, Gongon, or Baby to adventure their way through five different Monkey Ball Kingdoms to complete quests by solving puzzles.

A host of new friends join the team, including Princess Deedee of Monkitropolis and Prince Abeabe of Kongri-la, lovers who are being kept apart by a feud between their kingdoms. The couple elope to Jungle Island where they enlist the help of the Super Monkey Ball gang, to unite the feuding Monkey Kingdoms and defeat the Naysayers who have sucked all the joy from the Monkey Ball world.

Key Features:
* All-new platform adventure style of Super Monkey Ball game
* Five Monkey Ball kingdoms each with their own quests
* Fifty new and original puzzle trays
* New characters to meet and help
* Three brand new party games and three classic favourites
* New Monkey Ball abilities including – sticky, wood, hovering, boxing and invisible
* PSP exclusive features

Super Monkey Ball Adventure is set to release in Summer 2006 on PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube & PSP, for more information on this and other SEGA titles please go to www.sega-europe.com.

WE’VE GOT TO TRAVEL BACK TO 1995 IMMEDIATELY. This isn’t how it was meant to be. Something has gone BADLY WRONG with the time stream. This shouldn’t exist. SOMETHING HAS GONE WRONG. This shouldn’t be here in our WORLD LINE:

WE’RE ON THE WRONG TIMELINE! It’s not supposed to be like this. Oh god. We’ve got to fix it. We’ve got to do it all again. We’ve got to travel back to 1995 and TRY HARDER TO SAVE SEGA. WE’VE GOT TO GO BACK TO 1995 AND GET A SEGA SATURN. IT’S THE ONLY MACHINE THAT CAN PLAY SEGA RALLY PROPERLY IN THIS TIME FRAME. ALL THE SATURNS WERE DESTROYED BY PEOPLE WHO DIDN’T UNDERSTAND ITS POWER. WE HAVE TO GO BACK.

CAN ANYONE SUPPLY THE FOLLOWING:

1. Magnetic housing units for dual micro-singularities.
2. Electron injection manifold to alter mass and gravity of micro-singularities.
3. Cooling and x-ray venting system.
4. Gravity sensors (VGL system).
5. Main clocks (4 cesium units).
6. Main computer units (3).

It’s true. It’s really true at last. Gamers and internet geeks are actually getting SEX FROM WOMEN in Japan, and it’s all thanks to this guy.

Yes, it’s Train Man, the Japanese TV drama about a successful and attractive woman and a trainspotter falling in love via IM. Japanese ladies now see men who sit at home using the internet all day as sensitive, appreciative, romantic and challenging individuals rather than men who drink Spar vodka in the company toilets, download MP3s of women screaming and occasionally enjoy weeing on themselves in the shower.

This is not intended as an “Interesting news post” or an ironic “Ha ha! Only in Japan” style update. We are mentioning it because many people have booked holidays in Tokyo this year and it is of UTMOST IMPORTANCE THAT NONE OF THESE WOMEN SHOULD DISCOVER THE TRUTH. If we find out that just ONE of you dozy bastards has been letting the cat out of the bag, there will be consequences.

This is from some Xbox 360 party, and we can only assume they’re trying to spell out 3 – 6 – 0 and that Fergie has got it wrong and is doing a four.

The alternative — that they think they’re BEING REALLY COOL — is too horrid to contemplate.

We bought one of the Sega Toys Homestar Home Planetariums with the help of (a) lots of money and (b) someone who went to Japan for Christmas. It’s a plastic globe that makes the stars appear on your ceiling.

Suddenly, lying on the floor in the dark is a hobby rather than a cry for help.

Here’s where it says “Sega” on the box! And it’s the right kind of blue. It’s the wrong font but still a NEW ELECTRICAL SEGA THING!

This is the Sega Homestar. We got the silver one, by chance. It has buttons on it, a sort of disc tray in the front and looks quite cool — if a little cheaply manufactured (the buttons are a bit ‘Pay As You Go’).

Here’s another place it says “Sega” on it! This proves we were not stupid to blow 150 quid on getting this relatively small and flimsy piece of plastic sent back to us from Japan.

(OK, so it’s actually saying “Sega Toys”, but that’s close enough when IT’S ALL YOU’VE GOT LEFT TO CLING TO.)

The disc tray comes right out so you can look inside at the mechanism. It’s a little motor and small plastic wheel. This must be really easy to develop for!

We also got a ‘Handy Homestar’. We have absolutely no idea how this works. Also the battery on it was flat. Still, it looks like a cool little thing AND it’s by Sega so we’re very glad we got it.

It comes with little boxes of discs. The discs contains the stars.

It doesn’t take CDs. Or GD-ROMs. Or DVDs. The discs are little transparent plastic discs with a map of the stars printed on them.

This is us putting a disc into a Sega machine! Just like in the old days. Just think, that could be a game disc we’re putting into a new Sega console!

TURNING IT ON! It lights up and everything. This is great news. It really works and we haven’t wasted lots of money (not that buying Sega things is ever a waste of money!)

These buttons alter the speed and rotation of the stars.

Some buttons remain a mystery to this very day!

When you look inside it it’s FULL OF STARS! Just like Dreamcast was. At least, that’s how we remember it.

This flimsy circular insert adjusts the focus of the beam. When beaming from a normal height bedside cabinet to a regular ceiling, it covers an area approximately 12-14 feet across with an image of a starry galaxy.

If were were putting our photos on Flickr this’d be the one we’d use. It’s the artiest one. Look, that thing on the left is a bit blurry. We even let ourselves go mad and hold the camera at an angle. If you work for a magazine like Stuff or T3 you should probably “get us in” to do product photography!

And this is what you get on your ceiling. This is our bedroom ceiling, ladies! It’s quite a good effect as long as the room is very dark. The stars are a little blurred around the edges, but that makes it all the more interesting to look at. When the stars slowly rotate it’s quite mesmerising and nice, especially when the horse tranquilisers are kicking in.

BUT WAS IT WORTH 150 QUID?
Not really. But it’s cooler than a lava lamp and relaxing to look at when you go to bed all angry and full of rage. We’re thinking of organising an event where we demonstrate the Homestar in a public environment. If you’d like to come along, email us. If lots of people express an interest in lying on the floor in a dark room looking at the stars, we’ll book somewhere.

Out in the UK on January 27 — and WE’RE READY FOR IT!