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.