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The Weekly Five: Best “Post-Dreamcast” Games

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When the Dreamcast breathed its last back in 2001, many thought it was for the best. “They’ll be more successful as a 3rd party publisher!” “They’ll be able to make more money since they’ll be on more systems!” But sadly, that wouldn’t be the case for a long, long time. In fact, only in the last two years has there been a big enough turnaround in quality. When Dreamcast died, much of the creativity and spark of the developers seemed to die with it, 2006 being the best example of Sega’s worst time in the industry.

But not all of it was bad. In fact, their initial outings on GameCube and X-Box were quite strong. Even during Sega’s worst times in 2003-2008, there were some diamonds in the rough. Continue on to see my top 5 favorite “post-Dreamcast” Sega titles from 2001-present.

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Years of the Dreamcast Part 3: Shenmue

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Click here to read Part 1 and Part 2

After watching the Shenmue trailer on my Dreamcast’s demo disc, and after seeing the outrage that the cancellation of Shenmue 2 received, I decided to pick Suzuki’s epic up. The actual game wouldn’t win me over so easily, though. Shenmue was unlike anything I had ever played. It was slow and rigid. The character couldn’t jump or do anything particularly interesting. What kept me coming back was the world and the story. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. The cinematics put Sonic Adventure to shame. The storyline was almost like a movie.

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The Weekly Five: Rise of Nightmares X The House of the Dead

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I’d think any true blue SEGA fan has a special place in their heart for The House of the Dead franchise. Being an arcade lightgun classic, and spanning three console generations, The House of the Dead has produced a number of sequels, spin-offs and even ventured outside of the video game world by way of two horrible films. When Rise of Nightmares, SEGA’s latest Kinect title, was revealed at last year’s Tokyo Game Show, little was known of the game aside from “save your wife from an evil scientist”. Was it internally developed? Was it a House of the Dead title? We just couldn’t tell based on the short and creepy trailer. But now that time has passed, and the game is in stores, we have all the answers. In this week’s Weekly Five we’ll take a look at five reasons why I think Rise of Nightmares sits well alongside the beloved House of the Dead series, despite not carrying the series title, and why HotD fans should check the game out!

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Years of the Dreamcast Part 2: Good Things Never Die

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To Read Part 1, go here.

In July, reality finally caught up with me. Something had possessed me to join the SEGA forums. Because I hated being told that my name was already taken, and I figured the Knuckles name must already be taken given he’s such an awesome character, I decided to cut to the chase and just leave the K out of my name. Upon joining the forums, I discovered the Dreamcast had been canned and, being a teenager, I immediately latched on to the first online petition I saw. Those were the days. Keeping a thread ever present at the top of the forum whenever I got home from school or my friend’s house. Arguing with older, wiser, more realistic individuals like the naïve teenager I was, a large part of my Dreamcast experience came from defending it from bashers and supporting a petition that SEGA probably never even saw, let alone cared about.

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Editorial: Great DC games that most people hated

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Today celebrates the North American launch of the Sega Dreamcast. Hard to believe that it really has been 12 years, but it was on September 9th, 1999 when SEGA’s final console had its North American release, and the gaming landscape arguably hasn’t been the same since.

There are of course many ways that I can, as a writer for a SEGA-driven website, choose to honor the system. In the end, though, I’ve decided to shed some light on Dreamcast games that don’t often make any lists, that aren’t looked back fondly upon, that will likley divide up even people who read this editorial. But these are games that were not met with warm reception, even back in the day, but that I loved anyway. Someone’s gotta remember them, right?

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Weekly Five: Best Unknown Dreamcast games

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We all know about Skies of Arcadia, Shenmue, Sonic Adventure, and Jet Set Radio. I don’t think there is a self-respecting SEGA fan alive who doesn’t know what all the best Dreamcast games are. But the Dreamcast’s library is large, and I’ll bet there are five games out there many of you have not played. This list is devoted to those games, the most overlooked awesome games on the Dreamcast!

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Years of the Dreamcast Part 1: Genesis

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Years of the Dreamcast is my first stab at autobiographical writing. It is long and is largely a tribute to the Dreamcast’s effect on my life. For those of you brave enough to read a bit about my boring life, my hat goes off to you. I hope you enjoy reading about my Dreamcast experience, and are willing to share yours with the community as well.

Believe it or not, I didn’t really get into gaming with the SEGA Genesis. Or the SNES. Or any other old school console for that matter. Sure, I PLAYED games on my Genesis and Game Gear back in the day, like Sonic, Lion King, and Ecco, but as soon as the Genesis croaked in 1996 I nearly left gaming all together in favor of other interests, including something that got me to buy a Genesis in the first place: Archie’s Sonic comics. I completely passed over the 32 bit generation, something I now sincerely regret given SEGA had some of its best games during that era.

It wasn’t until 2000 that a game console again caught my interest: a SEGA Dreamcast in a Target demo kiosk. I had been playing the N64 and Playstation in kiosks for years, and as much fun as I had had with them, this new system, this Dreamcast, felt like something special. The game on display, Sonic Adventure, was immediately playable. There was no wandering around or collecting of trinkets required to progress: an entire level was immediately opened up to me after the title screen.

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The Weekly Five: Great American Dreamcast Ads

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It’s Labor Day weekend here in America, and only a week until the Dreamcast’s 12th birthday! So I thought it would be fitting to present to you a weekly five that is light on the labor for me, and Dreamcast related for you. Thus, we’re talking a look at five great Dreamcast adverts that ran on American television. So let’s get started, less reading more watching!

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Celebrate the Dreamcast’s 12th Birthday With Us!

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Since 2009, It has become a yearly tradition for me to throw a Dreamcast birthday party by way of Dreamcast gaming, a live stream, chit chat, drinking and pizza. This year will be no different from last year: Starting at 11am Eastern Standard Time (5pm GMT) on Friday, September 9th, I’ll be kicking off the party at twitch.tv/dreamroom. We’ll play a ton of games, chat, reminisce and celebrate the 12th anniversary of the Dreamcast’s American launch. We’ll check out the original launch titles, play some wacky imports, go on a Dobuita shopping spree and I even have a few surprises.

So mark your calendars and keep your eyes on The Dreamcast Junkyard and SEGAbits as the big day nears!

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The Weekly Five: Downloadable Titles to be EXCITED About

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SEGA has a lot of exciting boxed retail releases on the way, but how about the downloadable games? I’m happy to say that there are a number of great titles heading to XBLA, PSN and mobile devices! In fact, dare I say this, as a whole I am more excited for the downloadable releases than I am the retail releases. Recently, SEGA has had a big upswing in the quality and quantity of retro rereleases. What’s more, SEGA will also be offering long awaited games via online marketplaces and are set to debut new IPs via this route. In this week’s Weekly Five we’ll be highlighting five upcoming downloadable titles that we’re excited to play!

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Mike Hayes Talks On Re-Inventing Sega’s Popular IP’s

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As much as love new IP’s like Bayonetta, it’s nice to see some if the more classic IP’s make a return. Sega president Mike Hayes talked with VG24/7 about some of their popular IP’s and how they go about deciding which one’s to go back to.

We carefully look at each IP and every month, we review the locker of IP and think, ‘how could we release those and if so, what are we going to? Will it be a big game, digital, free-to-play?’ We constantly look at it. What I can say is that you will continue to see a reinvention of classic Sega IP coming to various platforms over the next three-five years.

All I can say to Mike is, JETSETRADIOJETSETRADIOJETSETRADIOJETSETRADIOJETSETRADIO!!

Full article can be found here.

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The Weekly Five: You’re a SLACKER, SEGA!

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Obviously, I love me my SEGA. Why else would I be writing for this place? But just because I love them, doesn’t mean I can’t be a little bit peeved with them when it comes to a few things. In this week’s Weekly Five, I’ll be going down my list of areas in which SEGA is slacking.

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DCJY InsideOut & Rummage Review: Sonic Adventure 2 10th Anniversary Birthday Pack

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Well GagaMan is at it again (actually he was at it a while back, we’re just late with sharing it), in order to celebrate Sonic’s 20th Anniversary on time. DCJY dusted off their copy of Sonic Adventure 2: Birthday Pack and gave those who still haven’t owned it a definitive look at one of the most cherished Dreamcast Collectibles.

The review is even more spectacular, it echoing my own personal perspective towards the Gamecube (well that’s what the next Generation of Sonic fans grew up on).

Whether you like it or not a new Generation of fans have grown up on it, with just as much nostalgia for it as we have for the old games _ Master Gaga.

Hit the Jump for the Review it is worth watching

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SEGA BANDAI Ltd – Revisited

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Ever fantasize about an alternate world where something that could have happened, but never happened, but if it had happened, would have made the world a different place today?

You know the butterfly effect or the FireFly Effect? Well SEGA fans should have quite a few alternate reality fantasies, and one of those events might have been the Sega Bandai Merger:

The year was 1997. And Sega, the Dreamcast still a twinkle in Segata Sanshiro’s eye, was in a bullish mood. While its rivals were focusing their efforts on winning the video game war, Sega was looking beyond.

It didn’t have Nintendo or Sony in its sights. It had the Walt Disney Company.

Sega wanted to take the humble video game company and turn it into an international multimedia powerhouse. Movies, TV shows, comics, toys, the works, you name it, Sega wanted in on the action.

To achieve this, though, the company couldn’t go it alone. It didn’t have the money, the properties or the know-how. So it had to team up with somebody else. And that somebody, it was decided, would be Bandai.

Read the Entire Article at Kotaku.

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