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SEGA Import Guide: Cool Cool Toon (SEGA Dreamcast)

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More than eight years since the death of SEGA’s final console, SEGA fans have been left digging deeper and deeper into their console’s libraries, looking for new games to play. Though impressions, reviews and videos for SEGA’s English language releases are typically easy to find, information on their console’s Japanese exclusive selection of games can be quite elusive. That is why we at SEGAbits are launching a new feature focused on the quality and playability of SEGA console regional exclusives. Today, we will be looking at an obscure rhythm game released by SNK exclusively for the Dreamcast in mid-2000: Cool Cool Toon. I’d like to give a special shout out to my niece for getting me this for my birthday!

Cool Cool Toon is a unique game in SNK’s Dreamcast library. A rhythm game made from the ground up for the Dreamcast, it was neither a fighting game nor an arcade port. It is so far removed from what SNK did for the system that it doesn’t even look like an SNK game at first glance. It does share one common thread with other SNK games though: it is very easy to pick up and play.

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My Life with SEGA experiences full-motion video magic in a Digital Pictures double feature

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It’s a very special episode of My Life with SEGA where A.J. Rosa and his girlfriend Erica Winter play through some tried-and-true SEGA CD “classics” produced by Digital Pictures.

First off, Erica is exposed to the horrifically cheesy 1992 panty-raid Night Trap for the very first time. Can she save the airhead teenagers from the dreaded Augers, or will she have to sit this one out in the S.C.A.T. mobile?

Second, A.J. takes the controls in the SEGA Club oddity Kids on Site. Yes, the full-motion video epic that gave youngsters of the 90’s a taste of the fun and exciting world of….construction?!

Grab your tennis racquets and hard hats, kids. It’s gonna’ be a bumpy game!

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SEGA Tunes: Propeller Arena’s Shaving Your Life

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I thought it would be best to start out the month with something many of you may have never heard, at least not in a SEGA game. The above track is a little gem from the canceled (and subsequently leaked) SEGA Dreamcast game, Propeller Arena. We’ll be covering the game in more detail later this month, but for now I’d like to talk about the game’s soundtrack.

Propeller Arena’s soundtrack is filled to the brim of punk rock, including nine tracks from five different guest bands. I have to admit that I don’t really care for a lot of it (including many of the AM2 produced tracks), but there are definitely some gems in it that I absolutely love. The above track was composed by a “Mad Caddies”, a band I definitely intend to check out after this. Whenever I’m blasting through the game I usually try to keep it on this and one or two other tracks because it does a great job getting your blood pumping while you’re dogfighting seven other planes over cityscapes, volcanic islands and castle.

Below I’ve included another track that I discovered when I downloaded the game’s OST. I suspect it’s something I need to unlock since I can’t currently find it in the game’s options menu. I also can’t find any info of it online, so I have no idea who made it. Should I ever find out I’ll be sure to give it its own Tuesday Tune, since it is my favorite track in the OST bar none.

Please check out “Welcome to the Promised Land” below the fold.

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The Year of the Console – SEGA Dreamcast month, it’s still thinking

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In nine days, SEGA’s final console the SEGA Dreamcast turns 15 years old in the United States. The Dreamcast is a rare instance in which the US launch overshadows the Japanese launch, thanks to the memorable date of 9/9 and a stellar launch lineup. While Japan had a paltry four games, the US had nineteen which covered just about every major genre. Racing fans had the most options, with CART Flag to Flag, Hydro Thunder, Monaco Grand Prix, Pen Pen Trilcelon, TNN Motorsports Hardcore Heat, Tokyo Extreme Racer, and TrickStyle. While those who prefer their speed in the skies had AeroWings and AirForce Delta.

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Retro Review: Shadow Squadron (SEGA 32X)

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Anyone who thinks the 32X was nothing more than a steaming pile of shit has never played Shadow Squadron. If they had, they’d not only know that the 32X had its share of great titles, they’d know it played host to what was quite easily the best space sim available for fourth generation consoles. It may have paled in comparison to PC sims like Wing Commander and the X-Wing series, but it beat the shit out of anything on the 16-bit consoles.

I think there’s no better way to end 32X month then with a look back at one of the platform’s best titles. Known as Stellar Assault in Europe and Japan, Shadow Squadron was one of the closest things the 32X had to a true killer app during its brief lifespan. Check below the fold as we explore what makes this hidden, forgotten gem so special.

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Classic SEGA Ads: Doom 32X helps butchers keep their mind off work

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Alright, we haven’t been too kind to SEGA’s marketing campaign for the 32X, so I thought it would be great to end things on a high note: the Doom ad. The Doom ad is fucking awesome, embodying everything that was great about SEGA marketing in those days.

Is it edgy? Yeah. Does it match the tone of the game? Hell yeah. Does it make you want to go out and buy the game? Fuck yeah. Doom was known for being a gory, violent, bloody game, and on the higher difficulties it could be a hell of a meat grinder. Placing it in a slaughter house, with lots of kid friendly gore and even an actual meat grinder? Having butchers who are surrounded by real gore every day talking about how intense the violence in Doom is? Genius. This is an ad that understood its product and knew how to sell it, easily making it the best 32X ad SEGA’s produced. It’s simple, smart and doesn’t get into any of the distracting weirdness or camera mugging of other ads. Most importantly, this ad didn’t just tell, it showed, something every other 32X ad failed to do.

So enjoy, and be sure to tune in next week, as we start taking a look back at a considerably better advertisement campaign for another, more successful SEGA platform…

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Rise From Your Grave: Spot Goes to Hollywood for the SEGA 32X

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Spot Goes to Hollywood 32X Screen Shot 2014-08-29 02-05-47

Back in 1995, SEGA promised 50 titles for the 32X by the end of that year. Unfortunately, the onslaught of the “true” next gen systems from SEGA and Sony would take its toll on SEGA’s little mushroom, and it died a silent death with only 39 titles in its library. Numerous titles were canceled, many of them notable, including Daytona USA and Castlevania Bloodletting. Some however, were just prettier ports of Genesis titles. Today’s game is one of those titles, a never before seen version of Spot Goes to Hollywood. Dumped to a mere 35 reproduction carts earlier this year, this ROM has yet to be released to the public.

Today, SEGAbits is proud to present a first look at a game only a few hundred people have ever seen before. What is it like? What makes it unique to other versions of the game? Answers lie below the fold.

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A User’s Guide to Darxide for the SEGA 32X

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Since the day I joined SEGAbits, one of my goals has always been to shed light and draw attention to some of the more obscure games in SEGA’s history. With 32X month in full swing, it just didn’t seem right to let the month pass without writing some kind of article that sheds light on one of the rarest titles in the system’s small library: Darxide. This is a game that few people have played and even fewer people know how to play, so today I’m not only going to go over the history of the game, I’m also going to explain its mechanics so that if you do ever get to play the game, you’ll know how.

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SEGA Tunes: Kolibri’s Infestation

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Kolibri is a neat little cute-em up shooter from the Ecco development team Novotrade. It’s probably best described as a mix between Ecco the Dolphin and Fantasy Zone. In some levels the goal is to fly around a level to seek out and destroy enemies. In others, you need to solve an environmental puzzle to progress to the stage goal. Finally, some stages are just straight up, left-to-right scrolling shooter stages. It’s an interesting and unique game with a soundtrack to match.

The soundtrack was composed by Zsolt Dvornik, a Hungarian Jazz guitarist. It sounds reminiscent of Ecco’s soundtrack: atmospheric and subdued. Infestation has a very primal sound that goes extremely well with the game’s realistic art style and wilderness setting. Compared to the bombastic soundtrack of most other side scrolling shooters, Kolibri is a unique and wholly different beast.

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Round Table: SEGA’s worst decision during the 16-bit console wars

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Some people consider the 16-bit wars to be the golden age of gaming, but as much as we see the early 90’s with rose tinted glasses there where some serious mistakes made during the war (on both sides). This week we will discuss what we think SEGA’s worse decision during the 16-bit console wars was. Sit back and if you want to join in on the discussion, please do so in the comments.

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Classic SEGA Ads: SEGA Does the Math

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That awkward sexually infused ad we featured at the beginning of the month wasn’t the only 32X ad rapper Chill E.B. starred in. He also featured in this other, considerably better advertisement that focused on the math rather than the weird sexual innuendo one could infer from two consoles hooking-up.

That math is pretty sketchy though, as it often was in these ads. Much like how bits and blast processing were little more than marketing terms that oversimplified complex technology, the math here seems to have very little basis in fact. I could believe the 32X being significantly more powerful than the SNES, but I sincerely doubt that the 32X was four times more powerful than the 3D0. The console that was two and a half times more expensive at the time, and even though it was being sold for a significant profit by companies that didn’t see a dime in software profits I find it hard to believe that the 32X could have simultaneously over-powered and underpriced the competition, at least without magic. The fact that the 3D0 produced better looking games doesn’t help SEGA’s case, either.

Of course, the 32X died off so quickly we likely never got to see what the hardware was truly capable, so who knows? Either way, this ad is one of the best that the 32X got. It emphasized what the consumers cared about: graphics and games. It highlighted the right and actually demonstrated what the 32X was capable of. The math may have been bullshit, but at least the games weren’t!

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Swingin’ Report Show #69: Night Trap ReVamped with Digital Pictures Co-Founder Tom Zito

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Digital Pictures was a pioneer in the world of interactive full motion video, bringing a cinematic feel to games at a time when players were used to two dimensional sprites. Their titles, which included Night Trap, Sewer Shark, Corpse Killer, Supreme Warrior, the Make My Video series, and many more, spanned a number of genres and appeared on several platforms throughout the 90s. Now, their most famous title Night Trap is set to make a return to modern platforms with former Digital Pictures members leading the way. Director/co-designer Jim Riley, co-designer Rob Fulop, technical director Mark Klein, and executive producer Tom Zito have formed Night Trap, LLC and have established a Kickstarter initiative dubbed Night Trap ReVamped.

Tom Zito joins Barry on our latest Swingin’ Report Show to discuss the creation of Digital Pictures, the never released Control-Vision game console from Hasbro which was to use VHS tapes as cartridges (originally codenamed NEMO), Night Trap‘s releases both past and present, and his team’s plans for the Night Trap ReVamped Kickstarter. This episode is a must for retro SEGA fans and fans of innovations in the video game industry – give it a listen and be sure to check out Night Trap ReVamped!

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My Life with SEGA sees red in Mortal Kombat II for the SEGA 32X

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The ‘shroom finally blows…. out its candles with the third and final part of the 32X Anniversary Special with a very special 2-Man Scramble that’s dripping with blood. Oh yeah, it’s Mortal Kombat II.

In 1993, this critical and commercial treasure spread faster than herpes in a whore house. After having been unleashed in arcades across the planet, Mortal Kombat II soon spread to nearly every single home console/handheld available at the time. Even though SEGA’s ill-conceived 32-bit add-on went the way of the Virtual Boy in less than a year, its port of the Midway smash is still well regarded to this day….

Is this port a flawless victory? Find out with AJ, Mickey Mac, and newcomer, Erica Winter, before we open presents.

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SEGA Channel Retro Presents Sonic Hacking Contest Special

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SEGA Channel Retro is reporting live from the Sonic Hacking Contest starting at 6PM Central. For our stream we’ll be checking out mods for Sonic Generations and Sonic Adventure DX in a three hour special.

Now available on YouTube you can check out each mod that was made for Sonic Generations and Sonic Adventure DX in a convenient playlist.

 

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SEGA Tunes: Zaxxon’s Motherbase 2000 – Stage 1

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There is nothing I love more in Genesis music than cheesy vocal samples, and the 32X shoot ’em up Zaxxon’s Motherbase 2000 is full of them. This week on Tuesday Tunes, we’re shining the spotlight on the kickass Stage 1 music from the 32X sequel to SEGA’s arcade classic Zaxxon. While the original Zaxxon was devoid of music, like many arcade space shooters of the early 80’s the game relied solely on sound effects, select home releases of the game introduced catchy stage music. The SEGA Master System’s Zaxxon 3D, a console exclusive, was the games first true sequel (Super Zaxxon was more of an upgrade to the original game) and featured a full soundtrack of exciting music. But it was the SEGA Genesis 32X exclusive Zaxxon’s Motherbase 2000 that truly brought the series’ music to – as SEGA would say – the next level. Utilizing the 32X’s enhanced sound capabilities, Zaxxon’s Motherbase 2000 features hectic, driving stage music filled with vocal samples like “GO!”, “WOO!” and unintelligible shouting. For a game as difficult as Zaxxon for the 32X, good music goes a long way in keeping the adrenaline pumping.

After the break, jam out to Stage 2’s music.

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