The House of the Dead 2 Review

Original release:

Japan: March 25th, 1999

North America: September 9th, 1999

Europe: Unknown, 1999?

Game details:

1-2 Players

VMU Compatible

Jump Pack compatible

Standard controller

Arcade stick

Light gun

VGA box

Gameplay

The House of the Dead 2 is a light gun game meaning this section is somewhat irrelevant, so I'll discuss how well the game flows. Some light gun games have a problem with throwing several enemies at you and absolutely swarming you, probably in the interest of getting your hard earned quarters. The House of the Dead 2 never resorts to that cheapness thankfully, and it's a very consistent game. The difficulty has a nice curve to it, gradually increasing every level and sort of holding your hand through it all. It lets anyone pick the game up and make a real run at finishing it. Towards the end it gets to be a very hard game, even with two people playing, but it is entirely possible to finish. If you're of the variety that doesn't have a light gun, this is still a fun game. The b-movie nature of it all and a rather decent control set up for a regular controller make it worth playing.

Storyline

The House of the Dead series has a rather robust storyline for a lightgun game. Two years after the mansion incident from the first House of the Dead an agent of the AMS goes missing in Venice. You arrive on the scene to find him and find a full on zombie attack. Your ultimate goal is to reach the headquarters of the company that funded the project that resulted in the mansion incident. Stop thinking Resident Evil. As mentioned earlier, the game has a great b-movie feel to it. I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but the awkward voice acting makes the game great fun. Whoever developed House of the Dead: Overkill needs to go back and study this game instead of just watching Grindhouse.

Graphics

House of the Dead 2 has some of the best graphics on Dreamcast and especially impressive for a launch game. There are definitely some low quality textures around, but for the most part everything is sharp and detailed. This especially shows over a VGA box. Games like this used to be the reason to go to the arcade when all you had was a blurry N64 or a grainy PSX.

Sound

The music is pretty good in this game, if a bit hard to explain. You'll have to hear it for yourself because I really don't know how to.

Conclusion

The House of the Dead 2 is an excellent game and has long been one of my favorites. Highly recommended.

9.5/10

Aero Fighters 3 (NEO4ALL) Review

Original release:

1995

Game details:

1-2 Players

Standard controller

VGA box

The following game was not officially released for Sega Dreamcast. It is emulated using NEO4ALL RC-4 developed by chui. This is an evaluation of the emulation of the game as well as the game itself.

Using Team RDC's release you can play this game as though it is a commercial game with only a brief loading screen.

Emulation

Smooth as butter, I encountered no issues.

Gameplay

Aero Fighters 3 thankfully recognizes everything that the second game in the series does well and improves on it slightly. Each plane has its own unique bomb attack (this might have been in two, I don't know since I only played as the dolphin) which is a nice twist since different play styles can use a different plane. Speaking of the dolphin, he's back but this time I decided I'd try a few other characters as well. Aero Fighters 3 is good at being a casual shmup. It's never too hard that you'll want to give up in frustration and it's just frantic enough that you'll want to continue playing.

Graphics

The graphics are pretty similar to the second game. They're not majorly impressive but they're not bad either. Bullets stand out against the background, which is important.

Sound

For some reason the music budget was apparently kicked up to 10 for Aero Fighters 3. This game has a great soundtrack. It's this great break beat electronic soundtrack. It's disappointing that it's not in a higher quality to take advantage of the CDDA audio, but I can't imagine sinking that much budget to re-do a soundtrack for a Neo Geo CD game was entirely advisable.

Conclusion

Aero Fighters is an excellent franchise, and the third entry is no different. A definite play.

8.5/10

Silver (Review)

Original release:

Europe: June 23, 2000

North America: June 29, 2000

Game details:

1 Player

VMU Compatible

Jump Pack compatible

Standard controller

VGA box

Unfortunately, I did not have the time to do a complete playthrough of Silver for this review. I did play the game to near completion several years ago (before I reached a point that the disc was too damaged to play) however, and am using my memory of that for this review. Since I would be unable to comment on the length of the game, other reviews have put the time at around 20 hours.

Gameplay

Silver is an RPG of the action variety, meaning all attacking takes place in real time instead of being turn based. How the attacking takes place can be somewhat awkward, though. The a button is your basic attack, but holding down the right trigger and moving the analog stick will allow you to do different slashes with your sword as well as bring up your shield. This can sometimes be problematic. I'm not sure why, but occasionally the game seemed to do the opposite attack of what I wanted. I would normally say this is due to me not being accurate enough with the Dreamcast's analog stick, but there are only 4 additional sword attacks when you hold down the right trigger, each being up, down, left and right so there's not a whole lot of error room there. It never doomed me to my death because this isn't that difficult of a game, but it was distracting when it happened. It's also nice to note that this game is generous with the save points. Whenever you move on to a new area or accomplish a task, you'll usually be greeted with one.

The combat is simple enough that it doesn't warrant spending a lot of time breaking own, it works well for the game. Real issues come in with the general design of the game. There's nothing blatantly obvious to point out who you can talk to or what you're supposed to do. Backgrounds are pre-rendered and there's no cue that you can talk to a character when you walk up to them. Holding down the L-trigger will instead show icons over people as well as where you can exit the screen. This is an annoyance because it doesn't seem to show all of the things you can do any one time you hold down the L-trigger. Each time you do this it seems to reveal new things. It's stupidly time consuming to have to do this. Game design has changed a lot since this was released, but it seems like something that could've been resolved with something as simple as a star over a character's head or a button prompt that appears when you're near something you can interact with. Speaking of interaction, this is a largely non-interactive world. There will be signs and other objects, but you usually can't read them. They're just part of the background.

Storyline

Silver doesn't have a lot going for it in the story department. It breaks down like this; the evil lord Silver has taken all of the women in the land to choose himself a wife. He took your girlfriend and now you're out to get her back. This is supported with the standard cast of background characters who you'll meet along your way. The voice acting is worth noting. There's a lot of it and it's pretty damn good for the most part. There's some bad of course, but that's to be expected for games around this time period. The player character in particular is bad.

Graphics

Get the image of that badass looking warrior on the cover of the game out of your head now. Silver has anime inspired graphics that are very simple. Simple to the point that characters sort of look like a few bubbles put together and colored differently. They're not really bad graphics though, it seems like it was a conscious design choice. The pre-rendered backgrounds on the other hand, are excellent. A lot of work has been put into them, and even though they are well detailed, the characters never look silly over them.

Sound

This isn't anything remarkable. Think of medieval times and what kind of music you would put in a game that takes place around those times and there you have it. It's probably exactly what you heard in your head. Unless you went to an epic scale and thought about some big budget movie.

Conclusion

I like Silver quite a bit. It's another forgotten game in the Dreamcast lineup. Every one is so busy with the big hitter games that they overlook the other games of the time, which were very much in the spirit of some of the first party titles.

8.0/10

King of the Monsters 2 (NEO4ALL) Review

Original release:

1992

Game details:

1-2 Players

Standard controller

VGA box

The following game was not officially released for Sega Dreamcast. It is emulated using NEO4ALL RC-4 developed by chui. This is an evaluation of the emulation of the game as well as the game itself.

Using Team RDC's release you can play this game as though it is a commercial game with only a brief loading screen.

Emulation

No complaints here. The game may as well have been natively developed for Dreamcast.

Gameplay

King of the Monsters 2 is a fun game at times. Other times you're wondering why you couldn't have developed this game so you could've shared the mountain of quarters that they surely raked in. This game is probably the worst example of being overly hard or having situations where you have no choice but to die so you would be forced to put in more quarters. This is the favorite game of a friend of mine, he's loved it since he was a kid and played it a lot and he spent just as much time dying as I did. Typically when you've had a favorite game for over 10 years, you'll be distinguishable from the guy who just heard about the game 20 minutes ago. There's another game mechanic that I've never gotten used to and never will that is also designed to drain quarters. When you're knocked down, your monster won't immediately get back up. He stays down and you have to tap a button repeatedly until he gets back up. It's not intuitive at all, and I've taken a lot of damage I'm sitting there staring at the screen wondering what's wrong with my monster.

That aside, this game is basically a boss rush. During the "levels" you probably won't sustain any damage; you can actually take out enemies by simply running into them. Your enemies will be all manner of jets and tanks, just think any giant monster movie since that's what this is. You'll fight other giant monsters at the end of levels who have a very cheap move set and will punish you hard. Having a friend around doesn't do a lot to help the myriad of deaths you will experience. The game does offer a versus mode however, which can be very fun. It makes for a good cool down after you've continued approximately 200 times against the last boss.

Graphics

The graphics are about what you'd expect from a 1992 arcade game. They're colorful and have a decent level of detail. There's a fair amount of variety in the buildings you'll be stepping on, so you'll never stop to wonder if one architect did the entire city. Pleasantly surprised was a good word to describe my reaction.

Sound

The sound is sort of up and down like the gameplay. There's a few great tracks, the third level's music in particular is excellent, but other times it's forgettable. Music in general seems to be an area where video games could step it up a notch, from the early days to the present.

Conclusion

You'll like it, you'll hate it. You're probably not going to swing the the like side enough to reach love it. I'd say don't go it alone, it's just going to frustrate you. This is a good game to tackle with a friend.

7.0/10

Power Stone Review

Original release:

Japan: February 25th, 1999

North America: September 9th, 1999

Europe: October 14th, 1999

Game details:

1-2 Players

VMU Compatible

Standard controller

Arcade stick

VGA box

Gameplay

Power Stone is the most fun you'll have on a Dreamcast with friends. Hands down, there's not a better party game. It's sort of like Super Smash Bros. in the fact that it can be competitive, but the game is just sort of too over the top and unbalanced (angry Smash Bros. fans can vent below where you'll immediately be ignored) for there to be any real bitterness over it. It's such a great party game because it's similar to SoulCalibur where it's basic enough that anyone can mash buttons and put up a fight (you guys can do the same as the Smash Bros. fans) but the atmosphere is a lot more lighthearted.

Power Stone becomes a very frantic game even when you're playing against the computer because of the pivotal power stones. Once a player has all three of them, they'll go into a powered up state and deal far too much damage for it to be considered fair. Two power stones appear immediately, with the third appearing later. Players can steal the stones from each other in order to get all three. As you can imagine, this leads to a mad dash for the stones every time one appears. There's a little gameplay flaw there that's very much worth mentioning; only the final hit of a sequence of moves can knock the stone out of the other player's possession. To explain a bit more, tapping the punches you'll get a combo of different punches. You could hit with every single punch except the last one and deal a lot of damage, but you wouldn't get the stone since the last one didn't hit. Likewise you could miss with every punch and hit with the last one and get the stone. It's a minor annoyance and it can lead to some frustrations.

Power Stone also features a lot of different items you can pick up and use, from swords to rocket launchers. The environment can be used as a weapon too, with the ability to kick tables and crates at your opponent or pick up said things and throw them. There's usually one or two locations in a level that you can climb and drop on your opponent from above as well. This interactivity does a lot to bring the game above the average 3D fighter and give it its own identity. Finally, some of you are probably questioning my party game logic since it only supports two players. Power Stone 2 does support four players, but it can get a bit too hectic and it just turns into sort of a mess. You're better off trading controllers and playing the winner. Somebody other than me should probably review Power Stone 2 when the time comes.

Graphics

Power Stone isn't a wildly impressive game graphically, but it is vibrant and has an interesting look. It's definitely far better than some of the unfortunate ports that the Dreamcast would suffer, but it's no Shenmue either. Characters are fluidly animated though, especially when hopping over chairs or tables. Even though the characters were animated fluently, they can't move their mouths. I suppose this wasn't terribly critical since the only spoken parts are win quotes, but it couldn't have been that hard to implement.

Sound

This game has the worst announcer EVER. You know you're in for something unique when he declares the game as "POWAAAAAH STOOOONE." I don't know what the hell Capcom was thinking. They probably could've paid their building's janitor $10 and had a better announcer. Character win quotes are in the original Japanese, but I'm going to go with a hunch and guess that they're awful even though I can't understand them. The music is ignorable, cutesy stereotypically ethnic tracks to go with the different locations around the world.

Conclusion

I love this game. I spent a lot of time playing it when I first bought my Dreamcast and I'm sure I'll be spending a lot of time playing it now that I have the game again. Being so familiar with this game, this review basically picked out little niggling issues that are completely minor. Highly recommended.

9.2/10

ReviveDC Christmas Contest!

Additional info:
The ReviveDC team has the right to choose not to use the banner as the IP.BIN logo but will still give the prize to the best entry.

The contest will end on January 1st, 2012. The best entry will then be chosen by the ReviveDC team. The South Park game will be shipped to the winner and the Street Fighter game will be e-mailed.

Requirements:
The text "ReviveDC Project" (without quotation marks, of course)
The blog address: "rdcproject.blogspot.com" (same as above)
The banner can't be too big. An appropriate size would be 600x200 or smaller. E-mail your contribution to: revivedcproject@gmail.com


Good luck and Merry Christmas,
AGES and the ReviveDC team

Sturmwind delayed!

It has just been brought to me attention that Sturmwind will not be getting a release this year after all. This marks the first year we haven't gotten a new Dreamcast game since 1998. This is a sad day do be a Dreamcast gamer.

Here is what they posted on their site.

In spite of best planing, the release of Sturmwind has to be postponed: Our long-term CD-ROM manufacturer surprisingly had to declare bankruptcy after 19 years in business. From 40 employees only a few remained. Therefore this resulted in the situation that the scheduled delivery date for Sturmwind could not be met in the end.

The only possibility has been to relocate the production – to avoid further delays of the bankrupt facility. Nevertheless items like the spaceship models have been completely manufactured already. Our new partner is one of the largest videogame CD / DVD press plants in Europe with over 50 years of experience in medium production. In the meanwhile we already placed our production order for Sturmwind.

The release date is set to TBA (“to be announced”) consequently.

Details are currently clarified between redspotgames, Duranik and the new facility. Also we are arranging material for another announcement with more exact information within December, which will be after Christmas however. All orders in the redspotgames online shop will remain valid.

Source http://www.redspotgames.com/

Despite the delay, you can still order the game and they are still not sold out of their limited editions of the game which come complete with a mini spaceship model and some great packaging.



http://www.redspotgames.com/shop/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=34

3 Count Bout (NEO4ALL) Review

Original release:
1993 (Fire Suplex in Japan)

Game details:
Standard controller
1-2 players
VGA box

The following game was not officially released for Sega Dreamcast. It is emulated using NEO4ALL RC4 developed by chui. This is an evaluation of the emulation of the game as well as the game itself.

Using Team RDC's release you can play this game as though it is a commercial game with only a brief loading screen.

Emulation
Nothing to mention here really. It plays great and I didn't experience any slowdown at all. Although, it did feel like the controls were delayed, I'll get to that later.

Gameplay
I must say that while playing this game, my soul threw up. It was like I didn't want to be a gamer anymore. There's nothing good about the game. Or as they say ”the only good thing about it is that you can turn it off”. And that is very adequate here. I would never let my Dreamcast go through such pain by spinning a disc with that awful game on it. My Dreamcast probably feels raped.

Games are supposed to be fun. They should entertain you. Make you feel happy. But this is not the case here. You get angry and a bit sad. The controls are non-responsive and very sluggish. If this is a bug with the emulator or just the way they coded it, I don't know. It doesn't really matter because the game is the crap that craps crap. Yes, it's that bad. It's like the developers said: ”Let's make a fighting that's even worse than Ghost Pilots and Virtua Athlete 2000 combined.” I don't know what they were thinking. It's a disgrace.

Graphics
You see sprites alright. And some colors. Other than that? Not much to say. The audience clap their hands, which is nice. The characters are dull and the graphics overall are dull. Even Super Pitfall for the NES pleases the eye more than this God-forsaken piece of shit. I don't want to see this game more in my life, period.

Sound
The menu music makes me want to be deaf (no offense to deaf readers out there). It makes a ringing noise in my ears. They threw up too. God.

Conclusion
I can't tell you a reason to play this. Nostalgic reasons? I don't know. When there are thousands of other fighting games to choose from, even from the RDC releases, why play a game like this? It will torture your soul.

0.4/10

Grand Theft Auto 2 Review

Original release:

North America: April 30th, 2000

Europe: July 28th, 2000

Japan: Unreleased

Game details:

1 player

Standard controller

VMU compatible (HEADS UP! This game takes 94 blocks. More than Shenmue.)

VGA compatible

Grand Theft Auto is a series that has become an institution of video games. I think that most people think the series chronology is much like a porn movie; they start at a number other than one. This is wrong though, and there were two games before three and they are surprisingly competent games. The Dreamcast got one of those games, the better of the two, and it's the best console version of the game. The PlayStation version was toned down for violence and stuck in a daytime mode due to the lower graphics capability. The exact opposite happened for the Dreamcast.

Gameplay

Grand Theft Auto 2 is vastly different from the succeeding games in the series, so you may want to restrain yourself and take a few deep breaths if you only now learned of this game's existence on Dreamcast. GTA 2 is played from a top down perspective, but has essentially the same gameplay elements as the third. I say essentially because you can still kill pedestrians, steal cars and complete a slew of missions that are basically the same thing repeated over and over… it's just done in a much simpler way. Think of Asteroids; that's what it's sort of like here. You shoot out little bullets in the same way and that's how GTA 2 works. Everyone who has played a GTA game has gone on a rampage and just tried to kill as many people as they could and I tend to think that it's more fun in GTA 2. You don't have to deal with aiming as much, so you're free to just mow down as many civilians as you can. It's also easier to start again when you die since it's easy to move quickly across the city and get to hidden weapons.

This is definitely Grand Theft Auto style gameplay, just from a different perspective. I was actually playing GTA 3 on my iOS device today and was screwing with the perspectives and remembered that GTA 3 had an overhead view similar to GTA 2. This is a good example of how interchangeable the gameplay style is between 2D and 3D. GTA 2 also has the series trademark sense of humor intact. It's lacking the larger-than-life characters and plot of the 3D series, but it's certainly no less of a game. I also wanted to note again that saving takes 94 blocks of your memory card and give a less in how to save; you need to get at least $50,000 and find the nearest church to you and enter it to save. Herein lies a problem; how the hell do I find the church? For the first option, you can wander around until you find one. That's the one I use. For the second option, you can find a TV van and its antenna will point to the church.

Graphics

GTA 2 has some pretty nice lighting effects for a Dreamcast game, and that's really the biggest graphical flourish here. Everything is detailed enough for you to identify things quickly and easily, but nothing truly stands out as looking excellent. Sadly, the corny intro movie was encoded at a pretty low quality even though the disc had several hundred megabytes left to fill.

Sound

This game has a sound glitch that occurs after you pause the game. The ambient noise will become very loud, but this can be fixed by entering a car. Everyone is probably wondering how the radio is and, again comparing to the 3D games, it's sadly disappointing. There don't seem to be any licensed songs (maybe one or two by some unknown artists) and the commercials aren't quite the level of writing on the in-game stations for later titles.

Conclusion

GTA 2 is certainly a Grand Theft Auto game, just on a smaller scale than future titles. If you're an open-minded gamer who won't recoil in disgust at an early title in a franchise they came late to the party with, I 100% recommend this. If you have hangups about graphical quality or can't understand why any game would be 2D, then you should probably stick to picking up hookers and giggling in later GTA titles.

9.0/10

The King of Fighters '94 (NEO4ALL) Review

Original release:

1994 (!)

Game details:

Standard controller

1-2 players

VGA box

The following game was not officially released for Sega Dreamcast. It is emulated using NEO4ALL RC-4 developed by chui. This is an evaluation of the emulation of the game as well as the game itself.

Using Team RDC's release you can play this game as though it is a commercial game with only a brief loading screen.

Emulation

This is a very well emulated game as far as game speed and sound goes. On a few stages there are issues with background sprites displaying incorrectly. It does NOT affect gameplay in any way.

Gameplay

The first entry in the King of Fighters series, a series that I feel could probably be a lot better if it weren't updated yearly (although recent entries haven't been yearly and it hasn't helped review scores). I could probably just go ahead and say that most of the review of KOF games that are here will most likely be within plus or minus 0.5 points of an 8.0 and that wouldn't be far from the truth at all. That's enough of my feelings for the franchise though; I probably like King of Fighters '94 the most out of all the games I've played in the series. For a casual player, the roster in the KOF games are incredibly daunting, complicated by the fact that you have to pick out three characters. KOF '94 takes a bit of that complication away by only allowing you to pick pre-made teams. The teams seem to be surprisingly well matched considering that this is the first entry in this particular series and balancing is usually fine tuned over multiple iterations. This doesn't mean the game is devoid of a few high tier bruiser characters that you're going to want to be careful around, though.

This game is also hard. Inputs are very precise, even for someone who sits around and plays Third Strike all day. It's manageable at the end of the day, but don't expect to hop in and easily dominate someone who is used to the game.

Graphics

These are not so nice. Characters are very pixelated, and not in a good way either. They end up looking smeared and cramped. The backgrounds are well done though, and there's a lot of references to movies and pop culture in them.

Sound

No comment.

Conclusion

It's a King of Fighters game. I don't think any of the KOF reviews are going to be interesting, because there's not a lot of difference in the games. So, there you have it.

8.0/10

Gundam Side Story 0079: Rise from the Ashes (Review)

Original release:

Japan: August 26, 1999

North America: April 28, 2000

Europe: Unreleased

Game details:

1 player

VMU compatible

Jump Pack compatible

Standard controller

VGA box

This is a game that really doesn't get mentioned a lot and I'm not really sure why. In fact, none of the Gundam games for Dreamcast are often mentioned. Perhaps it was because Gundam Wing was popular during the time of the Dreamcast and all of the games released for the console focused on the UC timeline of Gundam. Read on to hear about the game you've been ignoring for nearly 12 years and why you should stop doing that.

Gameplay

Gundam Side Story (referred to as GSS from here on out because I'm not really sure what to call the game since there are several options) is an action game that leans to the tactical side of things. You're in charge of a squad of three (including yourself) Mobile Suits and one support unit which will scan the area for enemies. The tactical aspect is admittedly thin, but you will have to use it to progress in the game. I made the mistake of thinking that since there didn't seem to be much to it that I would probably be able to make my way through the game without ever relying on my CPU allies. Dead wrong. Not because the game is a great challenge, but because your enemies are as strong as you are and there are more than one of them. I say the tactical aspect is thin because you'll always be using your support unit to scan the area (it's really not worth anything else and I don't know why you have options for it) and your fellow Gundams will pretty much just be used to attack the same target as you or to distract one unit while you take out another. It does give the game a bit of a rhythm and at times you feel like you are in the middle of an actual battle. The team controls are handled in a somewhat clunky way, requiring you to access the pause menu every time you want to issue commands.

Adding to the feeling that you're in a battle is the fact that the game takes place from the cockpit view of the Gundam and you don't have any choice in the matter. There are no other camera views. I quite like the interior view, it makes the game engrossing but it also leads to some issues. Those issues would be the Dreamcast pad's lack of a second control stick. The D-Pad is used to move your Gundam around while the analog stick moves your aim. Thankfully the game includes a lock-on function which alleviates the possible massive headaches that this control scheme could induce. To lock on though, you'll have to get a good look at the enemy you want to lock on to and, unless you're on a perfectly level footing with the enemy, you'll have to adjust your aim for a second. That'll probably lead to a few free hits for the enemy. Perhaps the greatest failing in the control scheme is that when you adjust your aim it will not snap back to a neutral position. It stays there, which can be a pain in the ass.

Of course an important part of Gundam is the close combat and GSS has that. The learning curve is frustrating on the combat, but once you get the hang of it it's quite enjoyable. It'll take a few deaths before the strategy of the combat is understood. Speaking of deaths, this game has no checkpoint system to speak of. If you die, it's back to the start. It's not a huge problem since levels aren't too long (neither is the game) and combat is pretty fun for the most part. Which brings me to one more thing; you don't seem to be able to fail a mission unless you die. I don't know what the idea of that was. I guess for the game to feel realistic? I'm not sure.

Storyline

While this game has a lot of voice acting, there isn't a whole lot of story in the game. I'm not familiar enough with UC Gundam to know if this is considered a canonical event or not. A Space Colony has been dropped on Australia and Federation forces are at war with Zeon over the continent. The game is rather light on story because you play the role of silent protagonist around a bunch of loud mouths, which is disappointing considering the voice acting quality.

Graphics

I really love the menu system in this game. Something about it just feels like how I would imagine a computer from the Gundam universe to be like. I do have one complaint about it though, and it's something that probably wasn't noticeable on CRT screens and that's probably why it happened. There are some characters that show up occasionally in the background and I thought that they would probably say something. I was wrong. It looks like someone just went aslkht;ans;ln;ast on the keyboard. I don't know if the original developers did that or if it was laziness on the part of the group doing the translation. Enough on the menu though. This game has some pretty decent graphics for coming early in the DC's lifespan (in its original Japanese release). Mobile Suits are detailed quite well, again considering the time frame. Enemy suits in particular seem to be well detailed which is good since you'll probably be getting damn close to them with a beam saber on more than one occasion.

Environments aren't as well detailed, unfortunately. Buildings in particular have low quality textures. This is okay though since you're probably going to blow them up to get them out of your way. The game features a lot of FMV between missions and has a great intro FMV. The FMVs are of a good quality, animation wise and encoding wise. I didn't notice any macroblocking in the video to take you out of the idea that you're watching a live briefing video stream.

Sound

I want to give special attention to the voice acting. This game definitely has some of the best voice acting that had been heard up to this point in gaming, alongside Metal Gear Solid of course. The voice acting is on par with what you would hear in a high budget title that would be released on current generation consoles. Of particular note is Steven Blum (Spike Spiegel in the US dub of Cowboy Bebop), who does an excellent job as always. The music is about what I expected from a Gundam game, if you're unfamiliar with the franchise I can't really explain it. Gundam music just has sort of a sound to it. It's nothing incredible but it goes pretty well with the content. On a technical level, some of the audio has a slightly distorted sound to it coming from either a poor quality recording or shitty encoding.

Conclusion

For as much as I have to say about this game, it doesn't quite come together right. I like the game a lot, it's a game that obviously had a lot of time put into it and was well produced. The sum of the parts isn't anything incredible though. It's a slightly above average game, but it's also one that deserves more attention than it has gotten. Gundam fan or not, there's definitely something here for you to enjoy but it's kind of hard to recommend for some reason.

8.0/10

Virtua Athlete 2000 Review

Original release:

No one cared about this game enough to make note of its release date, and for good reason. It's known in PAL and NTSC-J territories as Virtua Athlete 2K.

Game details:

1-4 players

VMU compatible

Modem

Jump Pack compatible

Standard controller

Arcade stick

VGA box

Gameplay

Where do I begin? First off, Shit Pilots has been surpassed. If failure was a competition, this game would take top honors. There's nothing likable about this game. It's basically an interactive cut scene with the worst controls ever. Most of the events consist of tapping A and X as quickly as you can and then using the B button to execute some action. Holding the controller normally is out. You'll have to hold it sideways to quickly tap those two buttons and then pray that you can hit the B button without screwing everything up. This is impossible. It may be easier with an arcade stick, which is a control option, but I don't think anyone ran out to buy one to deal with this despicable piece of shit of a game. Did none of the people working on the game stop and think "hey, we could map these to the triggers instead so that it's a bit more fun?" Apparently the answer is no, and that's why the Holocaust happened. No one questioned anything until it was too late. For the record, this game was made by the people that did Virtua Tennis. What the hell happened?

I now believe this game was solely responsible for the failure of the Dreamcast.

Graphics

This game indeed has graphics. They suck, just like the "gameplay." If you're making a game that consists of tapping two buttons back and forth, couldn't you probably put some more work into one other aspect?

Sound

This game also has sound. The sound also sucks. You'll want to stab yourself every time you hear the tutorial music.

Conclusion

Fuck this game. But hey, Nintendo can learn something from Sega here; give your fans games, even if they suck. Nintendo is still holding back The Last Story for US release but Sega was kind enough to give us this. I'm pretty positive that this game didn't carry the 2K banner in the US because they didn't want their headquarters to be overtaken by an angry mob who thought the game would be decent after the other excellent sports games under this banner.

0.5/10

A 0.5 rating indicates that the game makes it past the title screen and displays images on your TV.

Metal Slug X (AES4ALL) Review

Original release:

1999

Game details:

Standard controller

1-2 players

VGA box

The following game was not officially released for Sega Dreamcast. It is emulated using AES4ALL beta 4 developed by chui. This is an evaluation of the emulation of the game as well as the game itself.

Using Team RDC's release you can play this game as though it is a commercial game with only a brief loading screen.

Metal Slug X is a remixed version of Metal Slug 2. As such, you can read the review for Metal Slug 2 here. The differences do not significantly change the game to warrant an entire second review. You can read about the differences here. Since I won't be reviewing the game again, I'll just talk briefly about the emulation. Two different versions are included in this RDC pack. One has sound and one does not.

No Sound

This is the version that everyone is going to want to play. The game runs incredibly smoothly, essentially full speed. There are some stutters in the gameplay when the game needs to load more data from the disc, but aside from that it's smooth sailing.

Sound

This is definitely not the ideal way to play the game. The slowdown is bad enough that the game loses pretty much all of its fun. Good luck to you can tolerate the slowdown enough to make it past the second level's boss.

And that's about it, folks.

Caster indie 3rd person shooter

Hey guys and gals. I am here again with another piece of news today for you. This time it is about an upcoming indie game for our favorite little system.

It has come to my attention by my good friend Vasiliy, that there is a new game that has a high possibility of getting ported to the Dreamcast. All we need to do is to show our support to the devs and let them know we seriously want this great game ported to the system.

Caster is an episodic game that presents an intense 3rd person action shooter experience with pulse pounding music that will keep you wanting more! And more you will have with all new episodes for FREE. That's right, buy the game once and get all additional episodes absolutely free!



Dash across Scenic Locations destroying bug like creatures called the Flanx using 6 Unique Attacks that include Massive Terrain Deformation and High Speed Barrages of Energy Blasts!

If you want to show your support please make a post at their blog here

You can find their main site and download a playable demo for your PC, Mac, or Linux based computer here.

It has some pretty revolutionary and innovative gameplay, so please give it a try and see for yourself why this is such an amazing game that deserves to be on the Sega Dreamcast!

Aero Fighters 2 (NEO4ALL) Review

Original release:

1994

Game details:

Standard controller

1-2 players

VGA box

The following game was not officially released for Sega Dreamcast. It is emulated using NEO4ALL beta 4 developed by chui. This is an evaluation of the emulation of the game as well as the game itself.

Using Team RDC's release you can play this game as though it is a commercial game with only a brief loading screen.

Emulation

Absolutely perfect. The game plays flawlessly. I encountered slowdown twice when there was really heavy action on screen, but I can't imagine that the actual hardware handled those times without slowdown.

Gameplay

I have to get this off my chest right away. I fucking love this game. Why? Because you can be a fucking dolphin. Nothing I had heard about this game prepared me for that. I always assumed it was a completely standard shmup (which it is), but you can be a dolphin. You don't see the dolphin; he's in the cockpit, but that doesn't change the fact that you're a dolphin. I'm also not going to lie in that I usually play the game through with several characters for a review. Not here. I saw the dolphin, I played the dolphin, and my review is based on the dolphin. If you play this game with any other character, you're doing it wrong. Shame on all of us as gamers for not holding this game in the highest regard throughout history. This was developed by mad geniuses.

I love the game so much because it's a totally normal shmup. There's nothing bizarre about it. If you came up to it in the arcade you wouldn't expect anything different in tone from 1942. But once you insert your coin and go to choose your character…there's a dolphin. Between missions, he jokes about how absurd it is. And when you get to the final boss… it's one of those monkey toys that claps the cymbals together, like this. I don't care if that's a spoiler. There's nothing good to say about this game except for how absurd it is. It is absolutely your average shmup. I don't know if this insanity persists for other pilots you can choose but it doesn't matter, like I said, if you're not the dolphin, you're doing it wrong.

While playing the game, you'll do missions in various real life cities. One of those cities is New York. This is based on the actual New York of course, and the Twin Towers are present. I was blindly shooting and found out you can blow them up. I cringed for a minute… but then I realized I was a dolphin flying a jet.

Storyline

YOU'RE A FUCKING DOLPHIN, FLYING A JET! GET TO IT!

Graphics

Very average. The dolphin is drawn adorably in the cut scenes between missions, though.

Sound

Also average. A disappointing lack of dolphin sounds should be noted.

Conclusion

Everyone should play this game. I had a blast with it for no real reason other than the absurdity that I was a dolphin. If you didn't pick up on that by now, you can be a dolphin and I love it. This is a great example of how a sense of humor and the developers having some fun can turn an average game into something great.

8.0/10

Super Baseball 2020 (NEO4ALL) Review

Original release:

1991

Game details:

Standard controller

1-2 players

VGA box

The following game was not officially released for Sega Dreamcast. It is emulated using NEO4ALL beta 4 developed by chui. This is an evaluation of the emulation of the game as well as the game itself.

Using Team RDC's release you can play this game as though it is a commercial game with only a brief loading screen.

Emulation

Super Baseball 2020 is another example of great NEO4ALL emulation. There's no slowdown at all during gameplay. There is definitely an audio problem with a chime sound that happens sometimes in the game though. It sounds very high pitched and seems to last too long. Once while playing this occurred and afterwards all of the sound effects stopped working.

Gameplay

Super Baseball 2020 is more or less exactly what you'd expect from an early 90s 2D sports game. The fielding is more or less done automatically, and your only real responsibilities lie in batting and pitching. A lot of genres have made amazing progressions from the early days of gaming, but sports games make a hell of a case for perhaps the biggest transformation. Super Baseball 2020 is futuristic baseball. Robots take the field (whoever did the localization was clever, and RoboCop fans will spot a spoof in the naming), home runs are only a small segment of the stands (the ball rolls down back into play otherwise) and occasionally active land mines are added to the field. Seriously. You can also power up your players with money earned by making plays and scoring. This all sounds like it would make a pretty interesting game of baseball, but then the whole "early 90s sports game" thing rears its ugly head.

Since most everything is done automatically, the game degrades into a crapshoot of luck similar to Wii Sports Baseball. You do have some control over the fielding, which is typically very frustrating. Instead of giving you control of the fielder who is closest to where the ball will land, you're given control over every fielder the ball passes over. You could have a fielder running up to the ball, but when it gets close to another fielder you'll take control of them and unless you realize this is about to happen and react quickly, your other fielder will start running backwards as well. Another failing in this is that if there are multiple fielders on screen, all of them will move in the same direction. The strike zone is also quite an elusive mystery to me. As far as I can tell, it needs to be exactly over the plate, and not in the red zone on either side of it. Except half of the time it seems to not matter where you put it at all. Along with these problems, the AI is pretty brutal. It's near impossible to strike out the AI; they will swing on two strikes if the ball is anywhere near the strike zone and they will hit. Going back to something mentioned earlier, team power ups, these are pretty broken. It takes a lot of money to upgrade one of your players, money that is only earned by making plays and scoring. If you're losing then the AI is going to power up a lot and keep you stuck down in that hole. It's a pretty prime example of why the winner rewarding of the COD series really throws the game to one side and keeps it there.

I didn't have a chance to play the game with a friend for this review. Most of these issues would immediately disappear with another person to play with instead of the AI, so I'll recommend this as a game to play with friends.

Storyline

According to the back of the box, there was some kind of match fixing going on, so these guys are using super baseball power to play super baseball super normally. Or something.

Graphics

Knowing what the Neo Geo hardware is capable of, these are a huge let down. I understand this is a game from 1991 but even for that these graphics are poor. There's a bare minimum of animation here. If you swing at a ball and the batter holds back (the game will make judgment calls for you at times), they'll get stuck in the mid swing motion until your next swing. All of the players look the same; there's probably 3 different sets of character sprites swapped a million times.

Sound

It sort of fits with the whole future thing, but it's nothing noticeable. Like most of the game, the best thing you can say about it is that it's there.

Conclusion

Super Baseball 2020 is fun at times and wildly frustrating at others. It's a very dated game, but I could see it being enjoyable with friends.

6.0/10

Soul Blade (BLEEM) Review

Original release:

January 1997 (PSX)

Game details:

1-2 Players

Standard controller

VGA box

The following game was not officially released for the Sega Dreamcast. It is emulated using the leaked Bleemcast beta. This is an evaluation of the emulation of the game as well as the game itself.

Using TeamRDC's release, you can play this game on your Dreamcast as though it is a commercial game with only a brief loading screen.

Emulation

The Bleemcast beta does not allow you to save games and FMVs do not work. Soul Blade is emulated pretty well considering how Bleemcast usually works. There will be some white textures and the game doesn't run 100% full speed. The frame rate definitely varies depending on the stage and what's happening in the background. Once it has some time to load all of the textures it runs pretty close to full speed. In my opinion, the frame rate never dipped low enough to be unplayable, though it was a bit slower than I would've liked at times. The sound can also have stuttering to it.

Gameplay

This game is definitely the precursor to SoulCalibur and the real surprising thing here is how little really changed. Don't crucify me if there are big differences; I'm pretty casual with the Soul series of games. History seems to have generally forgotten about Soul Blade in favor of SoulCalibur, but it's definitely not because Soul Blade is bad. It's a game that was definitely limited by hardware. The ambition is there, but the technology wasn't. If you haven't played SoulCalibur shame on you, but I'll describe the game anyways. Soul Blade is a 3D weapons-based fighter. There are edges to the arena letting you get ring outs, but you generally won't need them. It's a simple fighter, very easy to pick up and play and also very easy to be cheap. Due to its simplicity, it's a great game to keep around if you're into fighting games and have friends who aren't into the genre so much.

Storyline

This is devastating to me because I know it's there, I've played all of the SoulCalibur games plenty, but I have no idea what the hell is going on in the storyline of this series. It seems like a massive headache working it out. Don't worry about this.

Graphics

One thing Bleemcast does really well is cleaning up PSX graphics. The game still isn't great looking by any means, but it's a knockout compared to playing it on the PSX. I was impressed with the character's mouths moving. Many games from this era made no effort to move the characters mouths when there were voices. The character designs are much more simple than they are in SoulCalibur, but the stages have a similar feel to them. Even with the white textures that occasionally pop in on the characters (and somewhat more frequently on the stages), the game still looks better than it would on a PlayStation.

Sound

I've never been a fan of the music in this series, but it is very epic and orchestrated. I know some people really like the music, but it's not for me. If you enjoyed the music in SoulCalibur, you'll enjoy it here.

Conclusion

It's hard to really recommend the game knowing that SoulCalibur is out there with similar gameplay and far better graphics. That doesn't make this game bad, but it does make it more of a conversation piece over what a jump in technology can do for a game.

7.8/10

Savage Reign (NEO4ALL) Review

Original release:
1995

Game details:
1-2 players
Standard controller
VGA box

The following game was not officially released for Sega Dreamcast. It is emulated using NEO4ALL beta 4 developed by chui. This is an evaluation of the emulation of the game as well as the game itself.

Using Team RDC's release you can play this game as though it is a commercial game with only a brief loading screen.

Emulation

Savage Reign runs full speed and as far as I could tell has no issues at all. The game loads often though and it can be frustrating.

Gameplay

Savage Reign is a completely average fighting game with a slight twist to it. The stages have different levels to them. Some of these levels simply have a higher platform which may have some kind of danger element to them, like a floor that opens and drops you to the lower level. Some stages have a bar across the top that you can hang from. Along the bar there are items that you can kick off to hit your opponent. It's really novelty and fun the first time you play it, but it's just that; a novelty. It doesn't drastically change the game at all. The characters in Savage Reign also all have weapons, but this isn't really a weapon based game either. The characters still fight with punches and kicks, and the weapons are only used with a super move. There's nothing surprising that happens here, it's just another Neo Geo fighting game.

Storyline

These aren't the Droids you're looking for.

Graphics

These are nothing surprising either. There are some nice touches regarding the different levels of the stages though. If the other level is parallel to the first, the characters will turn around to face each other while they're on the different levels. The Chinatown stage is very similar to Chun-Li's stage in Street Fighter II… you could say the graphics are uninspired on some level.

Sound

Completely and totally average. Are you seeing a theme?

Conclusion

This review is short for a reason; if you've played a fighting game, you've pretty much played Savage Reign. The game is average in every regard. There's nowhere to take points away from the game, but there's nowhere to add any extra either. The different levels to stages are interesting and reminiscent of Top Hunter and give the game a bit more life, but you're not likely to revisit the game often.

7.5/10

New "DLC" coming to 4X4 Evo

Ever wished that you had new vehicles from the PC version of 4X4 Evo on the Dreamcast? No? Well neither did I till I seen it for myself.



Well soon cptPauer a user over at Dcfan.net.ru forums will be releasing a mod of the game. He has already released a pictures and a video showcasing a Jeep modded into the game.



He has said he will be releasing all tools so that you can mod your game yourself and add some nice car and track mods.

He is currently trying to include some 4x4 Evo 2 and Monster Truck Madness 2 maps and trucks, so I will keep you all updated on progress of this mod. It is people like cptPauer who bring us all these great Half-Life and now 4X4 Evo mods over from the PC to our faithful old Dreamcast.

If you could take the time to give him a big thanks it would go a long way to keep him motivated to keep bringing us some awesome new DLC content.

You can find the thread for the mod here.

Donald Duck Goin' Quackers Review

Release dates:
North America: December 13, 2000
Japan: Unreleased
Europe: December 15, 2000 (As Donald Duck Quack Attack)

Game details:
1 Player
VMU compatible
VGA Box
Widescreen support
Jump Pack compatible
Standard controller

There are a lot of Disney games out there. ”Aladdin” for the Genesis/MegaDrive is one of my favorites. I remember that ”Tarzan” for PC was great. I haven't played a lot of Donald Duck games though. I've played one on the GameBoy Advance called ”Donald Duck Advance” (?'s, !'s and @'s included) which was developed by UbiSoft, the same guys that made ”Goin' Quackers” for the Dreamcast. Are they any similar? Yes, my friends, they definitely are. How? Read on.

Gameplay
Disney games are made for kids. You can't argue with that. This game...well. My dad, whom was sitting next to me while I was playing the game, said ”you can tell that it's a game for kids because it's the same thing over and over again”. He said this while I was playing through the first level in the first world. In total, there are four worlds. When I made my way to the end boss of the second world, he changed his opinion, dramatically. I don't even want to talk about this one. I think it took me seven tries to beat the freaking ”Beagle Boy”. After that came the Halloween themed world. This one was harder. Much harder. I won't describe this world in detail but it sure fits the Halloween atmosphere. I also never thought it would be this easy to control Donald Duck with the Dreamcast controller. They did a great job on this one.

It sure is a hard game, albeit there's a lot of replay value in it. Sure, some parts of the game (like the bosses) you might want to forget about. But other than that, it's great. It's fun, has a lot of humor in it and features both easy and hard bits. You collect ”tortilla chips” in each level to unlock the boss level. The reason I call them ”tortilla chips” is basically because they look like tortilla chips. The game ”flows” and it's easy to figure out where to go and such. It sure was frustrating at times but the Halloween feeling compensated a bit.
So don't get me wrong, it's a ridiculously fun game. If you're either a fan of platformers, Donald Duck or video games you'll surely love this. It features challenge and entertainment. What more could you possibly want from a game? A good storyline? Good graphics? Good music? Luckily for you, it features all three.

Storyline
There's a storyline in this one, folks! And a pretty good one at that. I just have to say that it's very well written. It's funny, it's quirky and it's cool. The introduction is great. You get to see Donald, Gladstone Gander and Gyro Gearloose watching TV. The reporter on the TV, which is Daisy, is inside Merlock's temple. Merlock then notices Daisy and kidnaps her. Your quest is to rescue her before Gladstone does. There's nothing advanced or innovative about the story, but it's still charming and funny.

Graphics
As I said before, it features good graphics. Better than good, the graphics are great. Even though it has a cartoon feel to the graphics, they still look great. I can't really tell you how or why. The animations are fluid; the characters are well designed and look like they should; the more important textures are in a higher resolution and this was rare in console games in 2000; Donald's animations he makes while standing completely still are really funny and cute and the level designs are creative. Although, they are repetitive. Each level follows this kind of pattern. It doesn't matter if it's easy or hard, it still follows the same pattern through out the entire level. The same enemies and the same holes where you can die 24 times. But all the levels look great and still pleases the eye, which is a problem with Playstation games and Nintendo 64 games. Oh god, the games for those systems look horrible. I got Rayman feelings while playing the levels with the side-scrolling view and Super Mario 64 feelings (I don't know why it's always this plague of a game) while playing the third-person levels. Yes, it's a hybrid, people! Give UbiSoft some credits for this. They sure deserve it.

Sound
I also said that it features good music. Why would I lie to you guys? You're my homies. Right? No, it doesn't have any hip hop music in it but there's some scary music in the Halloween world. The music is good through out the whole game. It sure fits the environment in the levels. It makes such a difference.

Fun fact: they reused the sound in this game for the GameBoy Advance version. Same thing goes for the level design.

Conclusion
Another great Disney game. This time on the mighty Dreamcast. As I said before, if you like video games, you'll love this. You might want to pull your hair while playing it but just stack up on some extra life in the first two worlds and you'll be fine. It's fun, it features great graphics, great music and Donald Duck!

9.0/10

Geist Force "Ghost Project" reserve list

I just caught wind that reserves are being made for folks to purchase Geist Force. If you want to buy one of the limited professionally made pressed disc's, you need to make a post over at Assembler Games pledging your oath to pay up when prompted.

Assembler posted this telling us about a new group created specifically for handling production of the limited edition print run of the game.

"Geist force has been transferred from "assemblergames.com" to the newly
formed dreamcast group "GHOST PROJECT".

The original media, data release and distribution of member shares
(complimentary pressed commemorative disc) are handled by "Ghost project".

Therefore the involvement of assemblergames.com ends and is transferred
to "Ghost Project" along with responsibilities and liabilities.

All prior donors are now members of "Ghost Project". The need for this
distinction grows out of the eventual existence of physical media
and transition from idea to working concept.

The project transfers intact and without change albeit to a new entity."

If you want a peice of this verry rare Dreamcast history, you need to copy and paste the paragraph below at the link here

I wish to join "Ghost Project" and reserve a disc (while supplies last).
I understand I am committing to donate for one commemorative
pressed disc, and failing to fulfill the commitment when prompted
will result in forfeiture of reservation. Reservation is also non-transferable.

Good luck to those that want to try and get this very special game!

NG/DC: Gun Lord Trailer #1 (Eurostyle Platformer)

I am on a roll today! Here is our next piece of news for October 24th!

Gunlord, a run, jump and shooting game, similar to Turrican and Metal Slug finally got the trailer released that we have been waiting all year for!



http://gun-lord.com - Gun Lord is a Eurostyle Platformer with emphasis on exploring huge worlds and blasting off enemies. This game features 9 stages of exciting 2D game play with over 45 unique enemy types. Blast yourself through giant landscapes, explore caverns and reveal all secrets!!

http://www.ngdevdirect.com

Release: NEO·GEO™ MVS December 2011, Dreamcast™ 2012, NEO·GEO™ AES 2012

http://www.facebook.com/ngdevteam
http://www.twitter.com/ngdevteam

Geist Force news!

Today I am back with another interesting piece of news for you to sink your teeth into!

Earlier this year, a beta of an unreleased game surfaced named Geist Force. Gameplay is similar to Panzer Dragoon and Rex, but the game is styled much like Starfox 64.

If you are an on rails shooter fan, then this is the Holy Grail of unreleased rail shooters for the Sega Dreamcast.

Assembler, the creator of the Assembler Games forums, updated us today on the progress of the release schedule of the game to the site donors that secured themselves a limited edition pressed disc of the game before it gets released to the general public.

Here is what Assembler had to say about the game.

"I wound up having to send the data over by fedex
to the new place.

I got up early today and geist is the focus.

1. We will have contract for discs manufacture
a. We will have good working relationship, so we can get other items
pressed no question.
2. I will be encoding videos for people today to see, full intro and all.
a. There was some panzer dragoon files on the disc I will release as well
3. Thank you for your patience as we have made this happen!

Congratulations on the long road but we are THERE and I expect copies returned in TWO WEEKS for shipping."

Source: http://www.assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=539290#post539290

So there you have it folks, not much longer till we have an unreleased retail game in our Dreamcast!

Here is a little FMV from the game for you to take a look at.

AES4ALL / NEO4ALL - BETA 4 emulator released!

It has been a while since I posted something, but I thought I would share something with you that was brought to my attention by the user named Dreamcaster.

It looks like our hero emulator coder Chui is at it again, bringing more Neo Geo emulating goodness to Dreamcast's everywhere.

Chui has posted a video previewing some gameplay.



The update features
* Latest FAME/FAZE cores
* Adjust Yamaha timmings.
* SD-Card support

Download both below.
http://chui.dcemu.co.uk/neo4all.html#BinaryDownloads
http://chui.dcemu.co.uk/aes4all.html#Downloads

Street Fighter III Double Impact (Review)

Release dates:

North America: April 27th, 2000

Japan: December 16th, 1999 (as Street Fighter III: W Impact)

Europe: 2000

Game details:

1-2 Players

Standard controller

Arcade stick

VMU compatible

VGA box

Street Fighter III Double Impact collects the two earliest versions of Street Fighter III, New Generation and 2nd Impact: Giant Attack. Typically, new versions of Street Fighter games make the old ones irrelevant, and there's not much reason to go back. This is actually a bit different with the games compiled in Double Impact. Read on to find out why...

Gameplay

The games featured in Double Impact are very obviously earlier versions of the more commonly known Third Strike. New Generation especially feels very bare compared to 2nd Impact and Third Strike; ex attacks are missing, which is bizarre if you learned on Third Strike. 2nd Impact is certainly the more enjoyable of the two games here, with its marginally larger roster and mechanics closer to Third Strike. A few characters have different moves and super arts, and in some cases the balancing is dramatically different (Sean is surprisingly powerful in 2nd Impact compared to his showing in Third Strike). A feature of note that was lost in Third Strike is the ability to use turbo settings. New Generation and 2nd Impact can both have the turbo speed adjusted similar to Super Street Fighter II X.

While it isn't necessarily an aspect of gameplay, there's not quite a section it fits into and I'd like to note it early in the review. The tone of these games is radically different than what you find in Third Strike. The music comes off as more lighthearted and the stages have more of an inhabited feel to them, for lack of a better term. The games are more colorful and because of that they feel more fun. If you're a casual player, you'll probably enjoy these games far more than Third Strike.

Storyline

Not applicable.

Graphics

The graphics here are similar to Third Strike, however they don't seem as smooth in New Generation. Capcom's arcade flyers for 2nd Impact claimed that some aspects of the graphics were re-done; they don't look like it, but it's probably true. None of the stages in Third Strike are present in Double Impact or New Generation, so if you haven't played these before, you'll be in for a new set of stages. Some of them are very cool, and while they have no bearing on the gameplay, it's sad to see that they didn't make it into Third Strike. Another thing that I thought was cool, that won't make much of a difference to most, is the game selection menu. While it's simple, I thought it was a nice touch to have the CD-ROM discs from the arcade board as the selection icons.

Sound

Music-wise, I think that New Generation and 2nd Impact trump the arranged music of Third Strike on Dreamcast. The music is far more listenable and enjoyable, especially Alex's stage in 2nd Impact. Generally, the songs fit better with the stages; the music isn't as lively, but it is more appropriate. As far as voices go, these are also different from Third Strike. This is not a good thing. Alex especially sounds incredibly feminine. A friend who I play Street Fighter with usually uses Alex; we played Double Impact together for the first time and burst out laughing when Alex says "you can't escape" at the start of his super art.

Conclusion

Third Strike, strangely, does not make the games of Double Impact irrelevant. These games are way more fun. That said, Third Strike is still the definitive version of Street Fighter III, but if you just want to play some Street Fighter light-heartedly and III is your favorite series, then you'll probably want to keep Double Impact around. It's not as serious, and I think for single player it makes the game more enjoyable. There's some give and take where one game is better than the other, and it would be interesting to see a fourth iteration of Street Fighter III to see what more of a meeting between 2nd Impact and Third Strike would produce.

9.0/10

Super Street Fighter II X For Matching Service (Review)

The full title of the game is Super Street Fighter II X Grand Master Challenge For Matching Service. Holy shit.

Release dates:

North America: Unreleased

Japan: December 22nd, 2000

Europe: Unreleased

Game details:

1-2 players

Standard controller

Arcade stick

Keyboard

Mouse

VGA box

Online multiplayer (disabled)

Most of us remember Street Fighter II and its many incarnations from relatively unspectacular Genesis/MegaDrive and Super Nintendo ports. Enter Super Street Fighter II X For Matching Service. The game is an arcade perfect port of the arcade counterpart (known as Super Street Fighter II Turbo in the states), and was accurate enough that the PSN/XBLA release Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (holy shit again) was based on the code for the Dreamcast version of the game. Street Fighter games have come a long way since II X landed, and if you're wondering how the old game holds up, you can find out here.

Gameplay

If your Street Fighter origins are III or IV, you're in for quite a shock. This is the origin of modern fighting games, and we've come a long way since then. Don't mistake my words as negative; it just really is a shock to the system to play the game. I put many hours into Street Fighter II on my Genesis, but picked fighting games back up about eight years ago with Street Fighter III on Dreamcast. When a friend purchased Street Fighter II' on Xbox Live several years ago, I felt like I was naked because of the game's simplicity. There aren't any twitch timing parries, complicated FADC cancels or careful gauge management here. This is a pure fighting game. Be faster than your opponent, spam your special moves, and use your gauge when it finally fills all the way. It's really very hard to say much about this game in the gameplay department. It's the originator, and if you don't know how it works then you've missed out on a huge genre of video games. Super Street Fighter II X does add one new feature, which is the super combo. Some of you were likely confused by my mention of a gauge in Street Fighter II; it was introduced with this game, which to my knowledge never made it to the Genesis or SNES. In terms of balance, this is my personal preferred version of Street Fighter II. More or less solely for the reason of E. Honda not being able to move during the Hundred Hand Slap. For the arcade purists, as stated in the intro, this is 100% arcade perfect.

Storyline

The day I can write something here will be a good one…

Graphics

The graphics in SSFIIX are actually very nice; if you've only played the SNES and Genesis versions, you're in for better graphics and some subtle, but nice touches. In particular, there's some nice parallax scrolling I noticed in the floor of Dhalsim's stage. The game looks great on a VGA box, but this is definitely a game of its time. The newest characters in the game are noticeably better looking, which can sometimes be distracting and detracts from the overall look of the game.

Sound

This will be broken into two sections in order to provide information on Team RDC's remixed release featuring sound from Overclocked ReMix's Blood on the Asphalt remix.

(Original version)

This is my preferred version of the soundtrack. Again, if you haven't heard these songs, you're missing out on a major piece of video game history. Guile's theme is legendary (and inspired an equally legendary YouTube meme) and my personal favorite, Ken's theme is just awesome.

(Remixed version)

This remix mostly falls flat. The only song that I prefer superior to the original is Ken's theme. The guitar is perfect, and the solo is excellent. The rest of the remixes are mostly slow and sparse, and it can feel odd while playing the game. I'll admit that when playing the game with friends, we usually do choose the remixed version and just play Ken's stage repeatedly.

Conclusion

Super Street Fighter II X is the best version of a legendary game. There's really not much to say for this review; you should know this stuff. It's part of gamer DNA at this point. If you don't know it, something has gone wrong. Since the time SSFIIX came out, it's my opinion that it has been eclipsed by other Street Fighter entries. Regardless, this is still a great game.

8.5/10

Sturmwind and Gunlord coming this year!

Ever since 1998, at least one Dreamcast game has been released each year and 2011 is not an exception.

The first game which looks very interesting is “Sturmwind”. It's a 2D (with some 3D effects) side-scrolling shooter with amazing graphics. It looks like it could be an Xbox 360 game. I'm really looking forward to this game and it's supposed to be released November 11 this year. It supports PAL50, PAL60, NTSC and is VGA compatible. It also features 16 levels, more than 20 bosses and three difficulty levels. It's being published by RedspotGames.

Trailer below:


Another game is “Gunlord” which is going to be release for both Dreamcast and Neo Geo. It's a 2D platformer, which I think the Dreamcast needs a lot more of, and looks like Castlevania and Contra mixed into one game. There's no gameplay video as of yet. The developer, NG:DEV.TEAM, has released a few screenshots and it looks very promising. It's expected to be released this year.

Check out the website below for screenshots and additional information:
http://www.gun-lord.com/

Super Puzzle Fighter II X For Matching Service (Review)

Release dates:

North America: Unreleased

Japan: July 5, 2001

Europe: Unreleased

Game details:

1-2 Players

Standard controller

VMU compatible

VGA box

Jump Pack Compatible

Super Puzzle Fighter II X is a funny piece of Capcom history. It's a game loved by many and for good reason. It's also a game that isn't well known to those who aren't fans of the company (Capcom) or of the franchise (Street Fighter). In playing the game, I can't see any reason it isn't better known.

Gameplay

Super Puzzle Fighter II X isn't any sort of a revolution in puzzle games, but everything here is done right. Since this is a Dreamcast game and there are many Sega fans here, when the first gems appear on screen the typical player will probably think "Columns!" Not quite. I know this was a friend's reaction and my own when we first played the game together. Instead of stacking blocks of three matching gems together to eliminate them, the real goal is to create rectangular blocks of the same color. Eventually a circular gem will appear; match this with a gem of the same color, and all adjacent gems of the same color will be eliminated. Fans of puzzle games are thinking chain reaction, and that's exactly right. If you can connect large amounts of gems and hit them with the crash gem, your super deformed Street Fighter (or Darkstalkers) character will use a super move against your opponent.

The characters fighting doesn't seem to have any real bearing on the game itself; the game plays out the same as any other multiplayer puzzle game. Do well, and you'll impede your opponent's progress. Somehow, the characters fighting does seem to make the multiplayer more intense and more of a confrontation. The game is a blast in multiplayer mode, and I would recommend it to every one.

Storyline

I'm starting to wonder why I said storylines should be a part of every review…

Graphics

The graphics themselves aren't terribly impressive, but the character designs are appropriately cute. If you're not a fan of the super deformed anime style, then you're not going to be impressed with the graphics, but I think they are perfect for the game. It's interesting to see an official super deformed take on Street Fighter and Darkstalkers characters; anime fan art can get a little dicey sometimes…

Sound

There are some cool remixes of known Street Fighter tracks here (I'd imagine the same goes for Darkstalkers but I've never been a huge fan of the series), and the fighting sound effects are more or less lifted right out of Street Fighter. This is one of the strongest aspects of the game right along with the gameplay.

Conclusion

Super Puzzle Fighter II X is a great game. It has been released for many other consoles besides Dreamcast, but is somehow largely forgotten. The price can get a bit steep for the Dreamcast version, but if you've got a Saturn, PS1, Xbox 360 or PS3 you're in business. This is a recommended game regardless of system.

8.5/10

Street Fighter Alpha 3 Review

Release dates:
North America: May 31, 2000
Japan: July 8, 1999 (Street Fighter Zero 3 Saikyo Dojo, later re-released in a For Matching Service Version)
Europe: September 29, 2000

Game details:
1-3 Players
Standard controller
Arcade stick
VMU compatible
VGA Box
Jump Pack compatible


I would describe Street Fighter Alpha 3 as the black sheep in the Street Fighter series. But in a good way. It features a completely new combo system and different character designs. I think Capcom were doing their best to keep the Street Fighter games interesting for the fans, by releasing Alpha 3. Did it work? You'll find out soon.

Gameplay
After playing the game for a while, whenever I think about it, I think about the huge amount of game modes there are for this game. To keep it as simple as possible, I'll try to cover all of them separated. First out is the arcade mode.

Arcade mode is what it sounds like, the arcade style of the game. The way it's meant to be played.
Nothing complicated here, just choose your character and fight! A second player can drop in at any time and join the fight. You can kill a lot of time by only playing this game mode, but wait until you try the other modes.

Next is the World Tour mode. It's sort of a career mode. I was surprised to see a game mode like this in a Street Fighter. But it wasn't what I expected it to be. I thought it was going to be like Yakuza or something. You walk around and fight people. But the World Tour is practically the arcade mode but with some added features. You see a map where you choose who to fight. You can also choose different fighting styles. I didn't play around with it much though as I didn't understand a thing. I did change the “X-ism” and “A-ism” styles but I didn't experience any difference. I guess that's because I'm not a hardcore Street Fighter fan. I'm sure the more serious players do.

Survival mode is also what it sounds like. You fight as many characters as you can.

My favorite game mode has to be Dramatic Battle. It's like Co-op where you and a friend can fight against the computer. Of course the computer is a bit harder than usual and you and your friend share the health bar. That's a mode I've always wanted in a Street Fighter game. There's also VS Dramatic Battle which is a three player-only mode.

In the Team Battle mode, you and a friend (or an enemy) choose teams and fight each other!

There's a Final Battle mode where you can fight the final boss. That is if you're too lazy to play through the World Tour mode.

The last two modes are Training mode (which pretty much explains itself) and the classic VS. mode.

I didn't include the online mode as it doesn't work today, obviously.

The character roster is pretty big and won't make you bored in a while.
So, if you're going to play this game from inside to outside, you have a long road ahead of you!

Storyline
There is a storyline in this Street Fighter game actually. In between fights, there are “cutscenes”, you could call them, that tells the story. The story depends on which character you choose. So for instance, Ryu is on a journey to become the best fighter of them all!

Graphics
The graphics are what you would expect from a Street Fighter game at the time. The character animations are fluid and look great. The stage backgrounds are well detailed too.
The characters look different from the other Street Fighter games. Apparently, they were designed with “Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie” in mind.

Sound
All of the Street Fighter games I've played have had great music, and this isn't an exception. The music is great and really catchy. I was actually trying to find a jukebox in the game because of the music. If you're a fan of good music and Street Fighter games, it won't disappoint you.

Conclusion
With awesome music and renewed gameplay I can still say with a good conscience that it's too similar to the other Street Fighter games. Sure, it has a lot of game modes which makes it playable for a long time but it doesn't feel any different. It's not a game I would pick up and play by myself but it's a great party game! But, I'm just a novice Street Fighter player so the real Street Fighter fans will enjoy this game for sure.

7.7/10

ReviveDC Project's Month of Street Fighter

It's time to formally announce ReviveDC's month of Street Fighter event.

Over the next month, we'll be releasing 8 Street Fighter games, a few of which haven't been done before. They're all at the level of quality you'd expect from us by now, meaning no downsampling, dummied files, sorttxt files, optimization where necessary, high resolution cover artwork and reviews. If you're a Street Fighter fan, you're going to be in heaven and I know that it's the reason a lot of people keep a Dreamcast around.

If you haven't subscribed to the newsletter yet, you should. Subscribers will get early access to some of the games. The first game will be available to those already subscribed tomorrow; if you're not in on it yet, send an email to revivedcproject@gmail.com requesting to be subscribed by 12:01 AM PST, October 1st to get the game early.

For now, we'll announce the first two weeks. They aren't particularly exciting, but we're not too concerned; the good stuff takes a bit more time to work on. The rest of the games will likely be announced in a week's time.

October 4th
Street Fighter Alpha 3 (sorttxt, data/data mode, nothing downsampled)

October 11th
Super Street Fighter II X English Translation (Using toodles' translation, sorttxt from Atreyu's GDI)
Super Street Fighter II X Blood on the Asphalt (Using toodles' translation, sorttxt from Atreyu's GDI)

October 18th
2 games

October 25th
3 games

The games will be available at Dreamcast-Talk, SegaHub, SNESORAMA, and the ISO Zone.

Metal Slug 2 (NEO4ALL) Review

Original release:

1998

Game details:

1-2 players

Standard controller

VGA box

The following game was not officially released for Sega Dreamcast. It is emulated using NEO4ALL developed by chui. This is an evaluation of the emulation of the game as well as the game itself.

Using Team RDC's release you can play this game as though it is a commercial game with only a brief loading screen.

Emulation

Let's get one thing straight right away; Metal Slug 2 runs like shit. It has always ran like shit. That's why Metal Slug X was created. Metal Slug X is even more unplayable on the Dreamcast though since it was not released for Neo Geo CD. RDC's version of Metal Slug 2 is overclocked in an attempt to make it more playable. This is largely a success. It runs well when there's not a large amount of action on the screen. Some levels run better than others. It's dependent on a lot of things; some levels have a lot of background animation, others have an obscene amount of bullets flying around. The game severely slows down in places, but the heavy slowdown usually ends when you clear out a few of the enemies. Understand that this game ran like shit even in the arcade. This is the best it's going to run until NEO4ALL is further developed; if you expect perfection and find it less than that then please don't bitch to us about it. We warned you.

Gameplay

Metal Slug 2 hasn't changed much from its predecessor. You'll find a few new weapons which only pop up once or twice as well as new vehicle options. The new weapons and vehicles are generally only placed in places where they'll be usable in a specific set piece, so they don't change the core game at all. In addition to the weapons, you can also be turned into a mummy and if you eat too much food, a fat person. Fat mode is annoying as it's typically unavoidable since there are several parts in the game where food pick ups are all over the screen. There are also new enemies in places which definitely adds to the depth of the game. One new enemy fires a rifle, and will take cover between shots which makes you actually stop and take cover instead of charging ahead guns blazing. Boss battles are a noticeable step down from Metal Slug; they're very tedious and very easy. They end up taking far more time than they should.

You'll also run into some situations where there's definitely no escape from death. They clearly weren't intentional as they were in later games in the series, but they're no less of a headache. It had been a while since I'd played a Metal Slug other than one, and there's a definite jump in difficulty here. It makes me wonder if it was really necessary. The game is much less enjoyable than the first Metal Slug because of it. You also get two more characters who change nothing unless playing as a female makes it a better game.

Storyline

Happy Days meets American History X.

Graphics

The graphics are a step up; this is good. The step up in graphics is why the game runs like shit; this is bad. Animations are definitely smoother than in Metal Slug and far more effort has been put into the backgrounds. The first level is a great example of the background efforts with all of the rippling awnings on buildings. There's a great tribute to John Woo in one of the levels; I'll let the Woo fans find it, though. This section has to be a negative overall, though. The Neo Geo hardware just couldn't handle this game.

Sound

There's a lot of recycled music here, which is another disappointment. There are a few new pieces, but nothing remarkable. Meh.

Conclusion

Metal Slug 2 clearly has lofty ambitions. The only problem is that the developers aimed too high. Set pieces replace straight ahead action segments, the larger scale bosses are much less interesting, the different Metal Slugs offer nothing new and the graphics were too much for the hardware. The game reaches and falls drastically short. Out of all of the Metal Slug games, this one is my personal least favorite.

7.0/10

Shock Troopers (AES4ALL) Review

Original release:

1997

Game details:

1-2 Players

Standard controller

VGA box

The following game was not officially released for Sega Dreamcast. It is emulated using AES4ALL developed by chui. This is an evaluation of the emulation of the game as well as the game itself.

Using Team RDC's release you can play this game as though it is a commercial game with only a brief loading screen.

Emulation

This game is kind of a strange one on the emulation front. The speed of the game itself is fine; it plays just as it should with occasional (and in incredibly brief bursts) slowdown while loading. The music is an entirely different story though. The music has this strange stutter to it. It isn't really skipping, but it's as though the entire thing is being played with a drummer who can't keep a steady beat. It's not a huge deal; you can either tough it out or mute it.

Gameplay

Since there's some music issues with the emulation of this game on Dreamcast, Shock Troopers needs some good gameplay to make up for it, which it does with ease. Maybe it was just the fact that I hadn't played a game like this for so long, but I had a great time with it. Shock Troopers is an 8-direction shooter; a genre that died along with the arcades and hasn't been seen since. Not even on XBLA or PSN, really. The game plays like some kind of a cross between a shmup and Metal Slug, meaning if you're a Neo Geo fan this is right up your alley. All that being said, there's nothing truly standout about this game. It does what it set out to do and it does it well enough. If you missed out on the arcade days, then I definitely recommend this game. It's a good time capsule of what a generic arcade game was like.

Storyline

This was on Neo Geo hardware and is an arcade only release. That about sums it up, I believe.

Graphics

These are on par with the gameplay summary; they do what they set out to do and they do it well enough. The graphics are lightyears ahead of Shit Pilots, but considering that this is the same year Street Fighter III: New Generation came out, they're not impressive either.

Sound

If I had played this in the arcades or had time to snag it for MAME, I'd give word, but for the Dreamcast version you'll probably want to mute this. As for the sound effects, they're standard fare.

Conclusion

This is not a bad game at all; the sound emulation will probably turn some away from this, but for those who realize your TV has a volume button, you'll have a great time with it.

7.8/10