A few weeks back when Ryo Hazuki from SEGA’s Dreamcast classic Shenmue was added to its all-star puzzle-RPG SEGA Heroes (Free), I opted to engage in a little fun speculation as to who the remaining three characters from the game might be. SEGA tends to add characters from a brand in batches of four, after all. The first few from Shenmue felt easy enough to guess, but who would be the fourth? Jokingly, I suggested it might be Tom the Hot Dog Man.
How they're going to pull four characters from this is beyond me. Lan Di and Shenhua, probably. But who's the fourth? Tom the Hot Dog Guy?
— Shaun Musgrave (@ShaunMusgrave) June 6, 2019
They say even a broken clock is right twice a day, and that was one of those moments for me, I guess. We still don’t know the fourth Shenmue character’s identity, but the third is indeed Tom Johnson, the hot dog-selling pal of our hero Ryo. He’s making a very timely appearance, following up on the annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest that was held yesterday. As with most new characters, he’s available through a chest you can buy using gems, or via Tom’s Hot Dogs, one of the events that kicked off today.
Tom Johnson is an Epic Red Support hero. He’s an incredibly useful healer who would make a good addition to plenty of team builds. His MAX Skill is Hot Dog Vendor, which causes Tom to hand out hot dogs to his team, healing them, removing status ailments, and giving them five turns’ worth of the Resist buff. His Star Skill is the Tornado Kick, which deals physical damage to one target and Dispels them to boot. His Passive Skill is Always Groovin’, and it’s a bit wild. It gives Tom a bonus to dodge, and every single attack he successful avoids creates a Red Star tile and a random 4-turn Heart tile. At higher levels, Tom is a serious threat whether you go after him right away or leave him until last.
Other currently running events include the Beachside Cookout, where you can earn a bunch of Blaze shards and other useful items, and a special limited Fireworks event in the Special Offers tab where you can get some gems, coins, and other nice stuff by beating a few relatively simple battles. It’s a good time to pop into SEGA Heroes and see what’s going on, basically. If you do, don’t forget to join up with the TouchArcade guild. We are friendly and barely ever bite anyone.
