Dreamcast titles available at US launch
While zombies in popular media date all the way back to the 1930’s, it was with the 1968 horror film Night of the Living Dead that zombies essentially became what they still are today; the dead reanimated as flesh-eating cannibals.
In 1996, zombies returned to the forefront of pop culture thanks to the release of two games; Capcom’s Resident Evil, which itself inspired the numerous zombie-based survival horror games still being made to this day, and Sega’s The House of the Dead, a light gun game developed by Sega AM1 using the Virtua Cop game engine.
With gameplay expectedly similar to Virtua Cop, The House of the Dead is an on-rails shooter in which you have to fight your way through waves of zombies in order to save your girlfriend from the clutches of a mad scientist. The House of the Dead was ported from the Model 2 arcade platform to the Saturn in 1998, but that same year AM1 developed its sequel, The House of the Dead 2 for the Sega NAOMI. This was was ported to the Japanese Dreamcast in the spring of 1999 before becoming a North American launch title.
Aside from some awful voice acting, the game is a solid rail shooter even when played with the standard controller, but naturally shines when played with a light gun. The Sega’s “Dreamcast Gun” was the official, first-party gun released in Japan, but due to the then-recent Columbine shooting, Sega chose not to release the peripheral in North America. Instead, in the US the Dream Blaster by Mad Catz served as the official light gun, while Interact’s StarFire LightBlaster was also available on launch day.
Like the prequel, The House of the Dead 2 features branching paths, with the player’s direction dictated by split-second reactions.
Only few Dreamcast games have light gun support, thanks in part to the system’s limited lifespan. At least for fans of the genre The House of the Dead 2 was a great game and worthy purchase on launch day.
The developer with the largest presence on launch day was arcade mainstay Midway, and while four of their day 1 releases had arcade roots, the fifth, Ready 2 Rumble Boxing, was developed specifically for home consoles.
Ready 2 Rumble is an over-the-top arcade-style boxing game, in the same direction as Nintendo’s Punch-Out!! series.
The game takes its name from the famous line uttered by Michael Buffer, who served as the ring announcer for seemingly every boxing match you’ve ever seen, and who reprises that role for this game.
With a cartoony cast of characters and an approachably-simple control scheme, Ready 2 Rumble includes a standard “arcade mode”, which includes basic 1- and 2-player play, but also features a meatier, single-player “championship mode”, in which you fight in prize matches to earn the money you’ll need to both train your fighter and enter title matches.
The four face buttons on the Dreamcast controller correspond to left and right high and low punches, and the game being 3D allows you to roam around the ring rather than being stuck in one spot.
Landing harder punches will fill up your “RUMBLE” meter, which can both power up your character, and let you unleash the “rumble flurry”. Ready 2 Rumble Boxing has a slick presentation with graphics that, while colorful, also show off the power of the system. The characters are highly-detailed and smoothly-animated, and even display visible injuries as the fights go on. The game offers an entertaining single-player experience, but really shines when played with a friend, and its popularity during the Dreamcast’s heyday made it one of just 17 titles, and one of 7 launch games, to be included in Sega’s All-Stars lineup of budget game releases.
Largely forgotten by the sands of time, Expendable was created by British developer Rage Software, and is a 3D run & gun game not unlike Loaded or Contra: Legacy of War. You take the role of a super-soldier who has to fight off an invading alien race in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The game employs a top-down oblique perspective, and through the use of the Dreamcast’s triggers allows you to strafe as you fire off a variety of weapons. Sadly, what this game would really benefit from is the dual-stick controls used in games like Smash TV, but that of course was not possible with the Dreamcast’s controller. In the old-school tradition, Expendable features 20 discrete levels most of which culminate in a boss battle, and thankfully as the game is tough, also allows for 2-player cooperative gameplay.
The game received mostly lukewarm reviews upon release; understandable as it feels more like an early PlayStation title than an early Dreamcast one. That being said, 20+ years later when none of that really matters anymore, Expendable is actually pretty fun. The game has an atmosphere-appropriate soundtrack and great sound effects, and the graphics still look great in 480p.
People seem to take the term “weekend rental” to be derogatory, but it’s meant to describe games like Expendable, which while perhaps not worth full price when released, still have what it takes to provide at least a few days worth of fun.
The genre with the largest representation on launch day was actually racing, making up seven of the nineteen games available.
Japanese launch day release Pen Pen TriIcelon had, for better or worse, reprised its role as a North American launch title. The game features penguin-like creatures called Pen Pen competing in an ice triathalon, or TriIcelon. The game certainly isn’t short on character, once again looks great in 480p, and does support 2- and 4-player split-screen versus modes. But awkwardly, it’s a kids’ game on a console that was not being marketed towards children, and I suspect that Pen Pen TriIcelon may have been the least-popular title on launch day.
Half racing game and half extreme sports title, Trickstyle is a hoverboard game developed by racing specialist Criterion Games, who would later develop the hit cross-platform series Burnout. After choosing a rider, you’ll enter the velodrome, a skate park that offers areas in which to freestyle, a trainer who has various challenges for you to complete, and a hub from which you can depart to the races that make up the real meat & potatoes of the game.
At least early on, the races aren’t too challenging, and can be won fairly easily after a bit of track familiarization.
Trickstyle has a total of 18 races run on 14 unique tracks, but each track has to be unlocked one-by-one by winning the previous race.
Trickstyle is really the tale of two games.
While the racing portion is a lot of fun, the freestyling is not.
Unlike games like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, your character doesn’t start off knowing many tricks, and has to learn them by beating the trainer in various challenges which are ultimately required to advance the game. But while Trickstyle’s controls are adequate for racing, they lack precision, turning the training challenges into exercises in frustration. The game has impressive visuals, especially for a launch title, and like a few other of the Dreamcast’s launch day offerings is not technically VGA compatible, but can be tricked into running in 480p. The techno soundtrack is reminiscent of games like WipeOut, which seems like it could take place in the same universe as Trickstyle, and was composed by influential hip-hop artist Kurtis Mantronik. Trickstyle also includes a VMU game: Trickstyle Jr., which is really just their version of Snake, the first cell phone game that most people played, when it was included with the Nokia candy bar phones that were seemingly ubiquitous around the turn of the millennium.
Trickstyle is a nice game. The racing is reminiscent of SSX, which was one of the best titles available at the launch of the Playstation 2. In fact, so similar is the racing to SSX, in terms of atmosphere, gameplay, even the racers talking smack to one another, that I have to assume that the developers at EA were playing the former while developing the latter. But while SSX chose to do one thing and do it well, the inclusion of the free styling component along with controls that simply aren’t up to the task sadly prevent Trickstyle from being one of the standout titles of the Dreamcast’s launch.
In the 1990’s, The Nashville Network, better-known as TNN, was a cable television station primarily centred around country music, but that also featured extensive motor racing coverage from a wide variety of racing series. When CRI’s “Buggy Heat” was brought over from the Japanese Dreamcast, a TNN license was added and the presentation altered, with the game now called TNN Motor Sports Hardcore Heat. The game is, as the Japanese title would suggest, based on off-road dune buggy racing, with a very arcade-like feel. Some reviewers complained about the game’s controls, and while there is some validity to this criticism, as it is easy to lose control of your vehicle, the Dreamcast’s triggers are analog for a reason. Emphasis is placed on driving smoothly rather than treating Hardcore Heat like a drag race, and once you wrap your head around this, there’s plenty of fun to be had.
Hardcore Heat also has some of the best graphics of any of the launch titles, and an appropriately hard rock-themed soundtrack.
All that being said, on launch day, Hardcore Heat might not have been a game that you’d want to drop $50 on but, once again, would have made for a great weekend rental.
Two real-world racing games were available on September 9th; one based on the CART series, better-known as Indycar, and the other on Formula 1. Released in Japan as Super Speed Racing, Flag to Flag is fully-licensed Indycar game developed by ZOOM Inc. and published by Sega. The game features 27 real-world drivers on 18 teams, and 19 tracks, although the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is noticeably missing. The game’s controls take some getting used to, as in an apparent attempt to mimic real world physics, your car’s steering becomes less responsive as your speed increases.
Once I got used to this however, I found a racing game that was far more enjoyable than most reviews would lead you to believe.
As is the case with real-world Indycar racing, Flag to Flag features a nice balance of both ovals and road circuits, which is a refreshing change from most racing games.
As a whole, the audio visuals are nothing special, but there are little details here and there that stand out. For example, when playing from the driver’s perspective, dead bugs will accumulate on your visor, and you’ll actually wipe then off from time to time. The game is probably not worth tracking down today, but at the launch of the Dreamcast, if you were a motor racing fan looking for something pseudo-realistic to play, Flag to Flag was definitely your best bet.
Monaco Grand Prix was developed by UbiSoft and released on the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and Dreamcast. The game is licensed by the Automobile Club of Monaco rather than the FIA, so all of the team and driver names are fake, but 17 real-world Formula 1 tracks are included. While the game looks good, how well it controls varies wildly according to which view you select.
The guy on the radio yelling at me to “hurry up” is also irritating, but thankfully he can be shut off, as can the obnoxious music.
By the time of this game’s release, the Playstation had already hosted the Psygnosis-published Formula 1 series for several years, and by comparison, Monaco Grand Prix just feels substandard, which is unfortunate because the inclusion of a “Retro” game mode that allows you to drive a classic, pre-aero F1 Car around a caricature of the Nurburgring would otherwise make this a standout title.
Speaking of standout titles, another of Midway’s launch day releases was a home conversion of their speedboat racing hit, Hydro Thunder, which at the time of the Dreamcast’s release was itself only 6 months old. No stranger to arcade racing games, Midway’s prior releases include the Cruis’n series, as well as the Rush series although those were actually developed by Atari.
Hydro Thunder is the first installment in Midway’s “Thunder” series, and was followed by Offroad Thunder and Arctic Thunder. At the outset of this game, you choose from one of three speed boats, and one of three “easy” tracks. Once the race begins, you pick up boost fuel along the track, which obviously provides you with a speed boost, but also imparts your boat with the “mighty hull”, allowing you to plow through fellow racers. Boosting also allows you to perform the “boost jump”, which both enables you to grab seemingly out-of-reach power-ups, and is needed to access many of the track shortcuts, which are key to success in the game. Hydro Thunder does have a soundtrack, but it’s almost inaudible over the chorus of sound effects that, while loud, both make the game more immersive and more arcade-like. The graphics, which look great, are interesting in that the boats and foreground are vividly colorful, while the backgrounds have a more realistic look. The level designs are all unique to one another, with each feeling like a themed Disneyland ride. There are a total of 13 tracks, 10 of which need to be unlocked. This alone is no small feat, and in itself provides countless hours of gameplay, but thankfully you can save your progress to the VMU, so that there’s no need to try to unlock everything in one sitting. You can also play 2-player split-screen, which within the practical limitations of home hardware is a welcome feature, but pales in comparison to a pair of arcade cabinets networked together. Hydro Thunder provides an awesome arcade-at-home experience, but it would have been nice to see the game better fleshed out for the Dreamcast, perhaps including options like championship and time attack modes. Even as-is, the game is still legendary among the Dreamcast library, and sat near the top of a launch lineup that already included multiple must-buy games.
Japanese street racing was at its peak in the late 80’s and 90’s, even making its way into pop culture in the form of manga series such as Initial D and Wangan Midnight.
Cars like Toyota Supras, Nissan Skylines, and Mazda RX-7’s were modified so that they could reach speeds upwards of 200 miles per hour, and in the wee hours of the night were raced, illegally of course, on Tokyo’s Shuto Expressway. In 1996, Japanese game developer Genki released Tokyo Highway Battle on the PlayStation. The game allows you to modify a number of classic Japanese sports cars and race them on various courses modeled after Tokyo’s highway system.
In the summer of 1999, Genki released Shutoko Battle on the Japanese Dreamcast, and the game was brought to North America as a launch title under the name Tokyo Extreme Racer. Endorsed by Import Tuner Magazine, Tokyo Extreme Racer continues the formula started by Highway Battle, and while simple arcade modes are available, the “Quest” mode is really the main event of the game.
You start off with a modest sum of money, with which you buy your first car.
The cars are all referred to by their real-world chassis codes, as this was the the parlance of the Japanese street racing scene, but they can be re-named when purchased.
Driving around a large circuit of Tokyo’s Expressway, rival drivers are identified on an overlaid map.
Pulling up behind them and flashing your high beams triggers the race, but unlike the lengthily multi-lap races of Tokyo Highway Battle, Extreme Racer lacks a delineated finish line.
Rather, both you and your rival have what basically amount to life meters, which deplete when either car falls behind.
With the money earned from these races, you can further modify your car in order to boost performance, as well as purchase additional cars.
While the game received average reviews at the time of its release, both Tokyo Extreme Racer and its sequel are fan favourites on the Dreamcast, and it’s easy to see why.
The game features the car collection and customisation aspects of Gran Turismo, in a trimmed-down package with a more arcade-like feel.
Of the six racing games available on launch day, Tokyo Extreme Racer arguably offered the most complete gameplay experience, and would have been well-worth picking up for even the most casual of racing fans.
The lone launch title published by Activision, Blue Stinger is a dark comedy survival horror game developed by the same team that would later produce cult classic Illbleed.
The game takes place off of Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula on the obviously fictitious “Dinosaur Island”, where a series of events has led to mass deaths and the outbreak of a variety of mutants and monsters.
You take control of the main character Eliot, but are quickly joined by a sidekick named Dogs, and you can switch freely between them throughout the game.
Maybe coincidentally or maybe not, the two characters are voiced by the same actors who performed the roles of Sonic and Dr. Robotnik in fellow Dreamcast launch game Sonic Adventure.
As is the case with the genre in general, you roam around a semi-open world fighting monsters and completing tasks in order to advance the storyline.
Blue Stinger is considered by some to be “so bad that it’s good”, but I don’t see what’s so bad about it.
The controls aren’t perfect and there are issues with the moving camera, but these were common problems with games of that era.
The plot is engaging, the voice acting is above average, and if there’s one thing that the game isn’t guilty of that many others of its ilk are, it’s taking itself too seriously.
As you find yourself buying weapons out of vending machines and engaging in comically-bloody battles with mutants in a shopping mall while Christmas music blares over the PA system, it becomes quite obvious that the game has its figurative tongue firmly planted in its cheek.
Blue Stinger also stands out amongst the launch lineup as one of only two games that has a plot-driven, sink-your-teeth-into-it style of gameplay, rather than the more arcadey, pick-up-and-play character shared by the majority of day one releases.
Blue Stinger is often unfairly compared to games like Resident Evil, when what it is is the video game version of an intentionally-campy horror movie.
If Weird Al Yankovic’s Slime Creatures from Outer Space, an issue of Tales From the Crypt, and a copy of Army of Darkness sounds to you like the recipe for a good time, Blue Stinger is likely right up your alley.
Electronic Arts was famously absent on the Dreamcast. This is often blamed on fallout from the Saturn era, but at one time EA had wanted to create games for Sega’s next-gen hardware. In fact, Electronic Arts CEO Larry Probst approached Bernie Stolar about becoming the exclusive publisher of sports games on the Dreamcast. Stolar however had just purchased veteran sports developer Visual Concepts for $10 million, and wasn’t willing to forgo producing first-party sports titles. The two sides were unable to reach a compromise, and as a result Electronic Arts would not develop games for the Dreamcast.
Visual Concepts most-noteworthy sports title up to that point might have been Madden ‘94, quite possibly the best football game on the Super Nintendo.
They also developed NHL 97 for both the Saturn and PlayStation, which while not great, brought the franchise into 3D for the first time.
For the launch of the Dreamcast, Visual Concepts burst off the line with NFL 2K, a fully-licensed simulation football game that was one of the biggest releases in the early days of the console.
Obviously 20 years later, a sports game is not going to seem as noteworthy as one of the many ageless releases on the Dreamcast, but it bears pointing out the impact that NFL 2K made in its own time.
When this game was released, the Madden series was on its tenth installment and sat squarely at the top of the video football firmament.
But with this one game Visual Concepts redefined what simulation football should be, and by itself gave hardcore sports gamers a reason to buy the Dreamcast.
NFL 2K includes all of the modes and features one would expect from a proper sports title, and as such there’s really no need to go over each of them here.
The game sports a broadcast-quality presentation, a level of graphical detail , and smooth animation far beyond anything seen previously on a home console.
The player models all look amazing, and every stadium in the league has been painstakingly recreated.
Rather than using known broadcasters, as most sports games of the day would, the game introduces the fictional Dan Stevens and Peter O’Keefe, whose commentary further adds to the games realism, never seeming to get repetitive or stale, and who stayed with the franchise through its entire run.
NFL 2K has a playbook just as deep as the Madden series, but overlays the formations and plays on the field, making it easier to visualize what’ll actually happen when they’re run.
The game also has a far more intelligent AI, so much so that NFL 2K defaults to rookie mode when you first start playing.
There aren’t too many criticisms that could reasonably be leveled at NFL 2K at the time of its release.
The game does place an emphasis on passing, as it’s nearly impossible to break out for more than a few yards on a running play.
There’s also the size of the game save file, which at 191 blocks, basically necessitates the purchase of a separate VMU.
If you were a sports gamer who picked up a Dreamcast on 9/9/99, you went home with one of the very best titles of the Dreamcast’s launch and the first game in one of the finest franchises in the history of sports video games.
After the end of the Dreamcast’s life, Sega and Visual Concepts turned NFL 2K into a cross-platform franchise that culminated with ESPN NFL 2K5, a game that was sold for just 20 dollars in order to compete with Electronic Arts, and is often heralded as the greatest video football game ever made. Sadly, EA’s solution to this was to sign an exclusivity deal with the league, effectively killing off the NFL 2K franchise.
The other football game available on launch day was NFL Blitz 2000.
Midway practically invented the extreme sports genre popularized by 1993’s NBA Jam, and in 1997, they applied the same no-holds-barred style of gameplay to football with the original NFL Blitz.
In 1998 Midway released the first sequel, NFL Blitz 99, and this game was ported to home consoles the following year as Blitz 2000.
Once again, the game features 7-on-7 football with no refs and no rules.
Blitz is equal parts football and professional wrestling, with plays ending on body slams and elbow drops.
In fact, the original game was too over-the-top even for the NFL, who pushed Midway to tone down the violence for subsequent releases.
All 31 NFL teams are present along with real player names, and in order to flesh the game out for home consoles, the original arcade mode is joined by a playoff mode, as well as the option to play a complete season.
The game also has team-specific playbooks, as well as a play editor for those who want to get more creative.
At the versus screen, various codes can be entered into the game using the logos in the lower corner.
Some are just cheat codes, while others modify the game by changing the weather, or even the size of players heads.
NFL Blitz 2000 features colorful play-by-play commentary, provided by voice actor Tim Kitzrow, who as well as doing the rest of the Blitz series, is most famous as the voice of NBA Jam.
The game makes no attempt at visual realism, instead featuring disproportionate players and vivdly-colorful graphics.
Regardless of its arcade origins, Blitz 2000 features all of the same control options that you’d expect from a simulation football game, as you can leap, spin, and stiff-arm your way through the defense.
Blitz 2000 is certainly no substitute for a proper video football game, but it was also never meant to be.
It is, in some ways, the spiritual successor to the Tecmo Bowl series, which fell by the wayside with the rise of the Madden franchise.
Blitz 2000 certainly offers a fun single-player experience, but was really meant to be enjoyed as a multiplayer game.
Unfortunately, as was the case with all of the Dreamcast’s launch titles, it was not possible to play Blitz 2000 online, but the game supports up to 4 players locally.
Were you both a sports fan and someone looking for a party game on launch day, NFL Blitz 2000 would certainly fit the bill.
Aerowings is a flight simulator game from Hardcore Heat developer CRI. The game was released as Aero Dancing in Japan, where it was the first of a six game series on the Dreamcast.
Although the game has you flying jet fighters, the obvious comparison to be made here with with Nintendo’s Pilotwings franchise.
At the title screen, the game offers an optional basic training mode, which definitely helps orient new players and introduces the basic controls of a flight simulator.
Once you move on to Aerowings proper, three game modes are available.
The first, called Blue Impulse Mission, whatever that means, is effectively an advanced training mode, teaching you various techniques like taking off and landing, and flying in formation, while a guy who sounds like he’s really unhappy with his life choices yells at you over the radio.
The second mode, Sky Mission Attack, has you flying through floating targets, and the third, Free Flight, is self-explanatory.
Unfortunately, while Aerowings has a very polished presentation, the gameplay is unengaging.
It lacks the variety found in the Pilotwings series, and while it does offer a more realistic flight experience, it is too often brutally hard in a way that makes you not want to try again.
Aerowings would likely have been a major disappointment for anyone who on launch day, took it home expecting an Ace Combat-style experience based on the games cover art.
If however you were looking for an Ace Combat-style experience on launch day, then the Dreamcast had you covered with Konami’s Airforce Delta.
The gameplay itself is really quite boilerplate for anyone familiar with the Ace Combat series.
Each mission is preceded by a briefing, after which you pick your aircraft and take to the skies.
The game defaults to a simple control scheme that combines pitch, roll, and yaw, but thankfully this can be changed in the options menu.
Your plane is of course loaded-down with an unrealistic amount of ordinance, so that running out of ammo is really no concern.
Mission objectives include things like shooting down a sortie of enemy bombers or destroying a naval convoy.
Once you clear these objectives, the mission ends and you have the option of watching a replay, which is actually pretty neat.
After that, you’re awarded cash compensation based on the number of enemies you’ve shot down, which you can then use to buy new aircraft.
The game is not VGA-compatible but the graphics still look good in 480i, and for a game that has you visiting fiery death upon the enemy at 10,000 feet, Airforce Delta has an oddly upbeat, jazzy soundtrack.
Though the game would have made for a fun weekend rental, with a total of 20 missions that naturally increase in difficulty, there’s enough content here to justify the game as a launch day purchase for fans of the genre.
Three fighting games were on store shelves on launch day, and might have provided the biggest reason to also go home with the official Dreamcast Arcade Stick, sometimes referred to as the “Agetec Stick” in North America.
With an MSRP of about $60, it features Japanese-style controls and has both a color scheme and layout consistent with Sega’s Japanese arcade cabinets.
Although a handful of other sticks were produced for the Dreamcast over its short lifespan, it’s this that remains the most sought-after for Sega’s final arcade-at-home console.
Capcom created some of the greatest 2D fighting games ever released, but in the late 90’s the 3D fighting realm was being dominated primarily by franchises like Tekken and Sega’s own Virtua Fighter.
But in 1999 Capcom unveiled a unique take on the genre with Power Stone, released on Sega’s NAOMI arcade hardware, and ported to the Dreamcast in-time for its North American launch.
Power Stone is a one-on-one fighting game that takes place in a 3D arena, around which both players can freely roam. The space is fully interactive, allowing you to jump on to platforms, swing around poles, and even hang from the ceiling. You can also throw various objects at your opponent, and pick up a variety of constantly-respawning limited use weapons. The game takes its name from the power stones that appear during each match. Each player begins the fight holding one such stone, but collect and hang on to two more, and the character temporarily changes into a more powerful form complete with a set of special moves. Eight characters are available to choose from, and as is standard for fighting games, each has a distinct set of moves and as well as their own arena. The vibrant graphics look great in 480p, and the soundtrack has a cinematic quality. Power Stone’s cartoony presentation belies its depth and complexity. The game is easily on-par with Capcom’s extensive catalog of fighters in terms of fun, challenge, and replayability, and both Power Stone and its sequel rightfully take their place among most beloved games on the Dreamcast. Although Power Stone was Capcom’s only release for the Dreamcast’s launch, the company would arguably go on to be Sega’s biggest third-party supporter with such marquee hits as Resident Evil: Code Veronica, Mars Matrix, and Marvel vs. Capcom 2, which is considered by some to be the best game on the system. At the time of its release Power Stone was one of the most unique fighting games ever seen, was one of the must-buy titles on launch day, and was the first in a long line of innovative games that highlight the Dreamcast’s library.
Mortal Kombat Gold is a home adaptation of and upgrade to 1997’s Mortal Kombat 4, which itself was the franchise’s final arcade release.
Along with the standard arcade modes, also included are a team battle option, along with several endurance modes and a welcome practice mode.
The game brings back a handful of characters that were included in earlier installments in the series but were omitted from Mortal Kombat 4, and whereas the arcade release introduced character-specific weapons to the gameplay, Mortal Kombat Gold allows you to choose the weapon your character uses.
Aside from this new weapon system, Mortal Kombat Gold still follows the same basic gameplay as the rest of the series, one-on-one fighting punctuated by extreme violence, including the series signature fatalities.
When Mortal Kombat 2 was released in 1993, it was hailed as one of the best released of what was, in retrospect, arguably the golden age of arcade fighters.
But 6 years and a few Mortal Kombats later, a few minor gameplay tweaks notwithstanding, the series felt like it was on autopilot.
It might therefore come as no surprise that Mortal Kombat Gold was not well-received by the gaming press.
Criticisms included the aforementioned stale gameplay, as well as the game’s graphics, which were lackluster considering the Dreamcast’s capabilities.
This does make sense however, as visually the game is a fairly faithful arcade port, while the Dreamcast is more powerful than Midway’s Zeus hardware.
No doubt Mortal Kombat Gold was taken home by many a hardcore fan of the franchise, but the third fighting game available on September 9th, which is widely regarded as one of the best games ever published on the Dreamcast, was the lone launch day release from one of the most storied arcade developers of all time.
Soul Calibur was a Namco System 12 release, and is the sequel to 1995’s Soul Edge.
The company entered the 3D fighting realm with the critically-acclaimed Tekken in 1994, and Soul Edge was a successful attempt at adding weapons to the same formula.
The game was subsequently ported to the Playstation, and was released in the west as Soul Blade in early 1997.
Soul Calibur debuted in the arcades in 1998, and Namco ported it to the Dreamcast, where it was released in Japan in early August of 1999, before becoming a North American launch title.
Plot-wise, the game picks up where Soul Edge left off, if that matters, bringing back most of the characters, while adding several new ones.
When you begin the game, you can choose from 10 characters, but can unlock eight more by beating the game’s arcade mode with the existing ones.
Perhaps the biggest improvement to Soul Calibur over Soul Edge in terms of gameplay is the 8-way run, which allows you to move freely about the ring, evading enemy attacks and even attacking from the side or rear.
The Arcade mode is joined by team battle, time attack, and survival modes, and just like Mortal Kombat Gold, also offers the opportunity to practice.
Although I wouldn’t call Soul Calibur “easy” it is one of the more accessible fighting games out there.
While each character has an expansive moveset, you can do well using just the basic moves, and then start to layer the various combos into your working arsenal as you gain experience.
To that end, the Mission Battle mode includes a short game tutorial to help familiarize the player with the games controls; particularly those that were added to or improved upon from Soul Edge.
Mission Battle mode also features a variety of battles that allow you to uncover parts of the storyline, and completion of both the training missions and the subsequent battles earns you points, which you can then use to buy art cards that unlock additional features in the game.
Soul Calibur’s graphics are one of the game’s biggest talking points, and are not only gorgeous, but are actually better than the arcade original.
The home version has an expanded color palette, improved lighting effects, and uses higher-resolution textures to achieve a level of detail that, running at a smooth 60 frames per second, makes Soul Calibur one of the best looking games to ever appear on the Dreamcast.
The sound has also been improved upon, with the game’s music, sound effects, and speech being of much higher quality and clarity than the arcade original.
Soul Calibur’s announcer is voiced by Jeff Manning, an accomplished video game voice actor who also played the announcer in the original Super Smash Bros.
I’m not sure that’s it’s even possible to use too many superlatives when talking about Soul Calibur.
Over the course of the console’s lifetime, few titles better showed off the Dreamcast’s audio/visual capabilities, and on top of that, in terms of gameplay it also represents a high watermark for 3D fighters.
Not content to simply release an arcade-perfect port, as they easily could have, Namco rebuilt Soul Calibur from the ground up, adding numerous features and improvements and taking advantage of the Dreamcast’s hardware superiority over their System 12 platform.
In doing so Namco created what was arguably the best game available at the console’s launch, and certainly one of the greatest titles in the Dreamcast’s library.
Soul Calibur was also one of the best-selling games on the console with over a million copies shipped worldwide.
But the 19th and final game available at launch was also by far and away the most successful title ever released on the Dreamcast.
Sonic The Hedgehog was one of the most popular game franchises of the 16-bit era, but was oddly under-represented on the Sega Saturn.
But Sonic was coming back for the Dreamcast, in one of the most hotly-anticipated games of the system’s launch.
The Sonic franchise had made forays into the 3D world as early as 1992, in the form of the chaos emerald collecting bonus rounds in Sonic The Hedgehog 2, but its first dedicated 3D game was 1996’s Sonic 3D Blast, which appeared on the Mega Drive and Genesis, but also the Saturn, where it was one of the console’s better-selling titles. Also appearing on the Saturn was the 16-bit compilation disc Sonic Jam, as well as Sonic R, a racing game that was the only of the three titles purpose-developed for the console.
Although Sonic The Hedgehog was Sega’s flagship franchise on the Genesis, notably absent from the Saturn was a mainline entry in the series. The American-based Sega Technical Institute had been working on just such a game, Sonic X-Treme, even showing a playable demo at 1996’s E3, but the project was cancelled not long after. The following year, Yuji Naka’s Sonic Team finally began working on a game for the Saturn, placing a greater emphasis on storytelling and set in a fully 3D world, but this project too was shelved, with what was completed being added to the Sonic Jam disc in the form of a bonus level called “Sonic World”.
Naka was subsequently made aware of the forthcoming Dreamcast, and Sonic Team began re-working the aborted Saturn project for the new system.
Sonic Adventure was unveiled at a press event in Tokyo on August 22, 1998, three months before the Dreamcast’s Japanese release.
The game was however not a Japanese launch title, appearing on store shelves just in time for Christmas.
The game was however rushed out the door to meet the holiday deadline, and effectively unfinished, was hampered by camera and control issues.
Thankfully, the game was in a finished state by the following July, in time for the system’s North American pre-launch roll-out to Hollywood Video locations.
As was the case with the aborted Saturn project, Sonic Adventure is far more story-driven than previous entries in the series.
The game has 6 playable characters, including Tails, Knuckles, Amy Rose, Big the Cat, and the E-102 Gamma robot.
Only Sonic is selectable at the outset however, while the other 5 characters become unlocked at various points in the game.
Sonic Adventure is split up into both “Adventure Fields” and “Action Stages”.
The adventure fields generally involve performing actions, such as placing this statue into its keyhole, in order to gain access to the action stages, whose gameplay is much more akin to the Sonic titles of yore.
Some of these action stages incorporate games-within-the-game, including snowboarding, and even a Nights Into Dreams themed pinball table.
The transition to 3D can be a bit jarring for veterans of the 16-bit era, but once acclimated you’ll find a game that maintains the spirit of the franchise while ushering it into the modern era.
But gamers expecting the 3D world to bring with it an element of exploration may be disappointed, as Sonic Adventure’s gameplay is still quite linear.
Common to earlier third-person perspective efforts, Sonic Adventure does suffer from some camera issues, and exacerbated by Sonic’s trademark speed, the game doesn’t control as well as some of its peers.
But, these are fairy minor issues that can be worked around.
The graphics on the other hand look incredible, and while the game generally tries to maintain the pseudo-cartoony visual style of the series, some areas still end up looking drop-dead gorgeous.
The voice acting can be hit or miss, and some of the game’s sound effects seem less punchy, but the soundtrack is top-notch, and while Sonic and Sonic 2 composer Masato Nakamura had long since moved on from video games, Sonic Adventure brought back several sound designers from the earlier titles.
In addition to the main story, which takes nearly 10 hours to complete, Sonic Adventure also offered downloadable content including special events, like the Samba GP, a cart race commemorating the release of Samba de Amigo, which can still be downloaded and played today using a DreamPi to connect your Dreamcast to the internet.
Along with NFL 2K and Soul Calibur, Sonic Adventure offered the best bang-for-your-buck in terms of longevity and replayability, and was a no-brainer purchase for all but the most vehement of platformer haters on launch day.
The game sold 2.5 million copies worldwide, and spawned one sequel; 2001’s Sonic Adventure 2, the last title in the franchise to appear on Sega hardware.
Though it came to market over a year before any other console of its generation, was competitively-priced, and ultimately was home to a myriad of titles still considered must-play games to this day, the Dreamcast was ultimately unable to successfully compete against the Playstation 2, though the console’s demise is more a reflection of the time than a reflection on the system itself.
Sega ceased production of Dreamcast hardware in the spring of 2001, and the last official North American game, NHL 2K2, was released in February of 2002.
Sega would subsequently shift to cross-platform third-party development, releasing numerous titles on other systems.
