More Dreamcast Goodness

I opened my mailbox today and saw a package I had been expecting. My new dreamcast VMU (memory card). For those that are not familiar, dreamcast memory cards have little screens on them where you can view certain items during gameplay. My girlfriend called it a Giga Pet. The only game I played so far was Soul Calibur, a fighting game, during the battle you can see a little 2D sprite of your character jumping around, and it also notifies you when the game is saving. Not that useful for that game, but for another game on the way, Shenmue, I think it will be more of a help. I'm not positive but I think you can view your health and other inventory items on the VMU during gameplay, we'll see.

On another note, I spent some time playing Super Paper Mario on the Wii tonight. It was the first Wii game I had bought that was not a party game (Wii Play, Wario Ware Smooth Moves). I bought it back when I first got the system. My girlfriend had already beaten it, and I was a good ways into it before I put it down for Mario Galaxy, Zelda, Metroid, Zack and Wiki, Medal of Honor, Resident Evil 4, Guitar Hero 3, and now Smash Brothers Brawl. After playing nothing but Smash bros for a while I decided to throw that back in, I was missing some 2D platforming. I love the way the game looks, it's almost like an updated HD version of a classic Mario game, only with RPG elements added in. Your health is your HP and each enemies HP decreases as you jump on them. There are certain Items you can use to attack with and certain powerups (pixels) you get along your journey. It's a very fun game especially if you like the classic Mario games. It's also pretty long, my girlfriend beat it in about 25 hours. I'm going to try and play some more Wii games in general, besides Brawl, I have a ton I still have to beat (1 more puzzle in Zack and Wiki, 1 more world in Metroid, 40 more stars in Mario Galaxy (to get to 120), a ton more missions in Medal of Honor), and I have been playing lots of PSP anyway and could use the Nintendo time.

Labels: Nintendo, Retro, Sega

Sonic Unleashed

A trailer has been leaked for an upcoming Sonic game, rumored to be on the XBOX 360 and PS3 based on the quality of the graphics, lets hope for a Wii port too. The only sonic games I've played have been Sonic 1, 2, and 3 for Genesis and Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 for Dreamcast. This is good because the only Sonic games I've played happen to be the only GOOD sonic games ever made, or so I'm told. Sonic Team has really loosened it's standards on our blue friend for the majority of his outings. This trailer looks like they're sending him back to his roots and having him run around a 2D playground of loops, springs, and coins. The game looks like it plays just like an old school Sonic game, with enhanced graphics and 3D backdrops. Hopefully this is what we have all been waiting for.

Labels: Previews, Sega

The Old School

Well, not that old. I recently got a Dreamcast from a friend and have waiting on buying some games for it until now. He gave me a few good ones but not some of the ones I remember playing the most. Yesterday I ordered Shenmue and Marvel vs Capcom 2. I never owned Marvel vs Capcom, but always wanted to. I would play it in the arcades but was never able to track down a console copy, until now. Shenmue is more of an action RPG that I remember playing for a while, it is one of the first games I beat that was over 6 hours long. I remember the world in that game just feeling alive and everyone you spoke to had something interesting to say, well most peopel. There were supposed to be 16 chapters to the Shenmue story, 8 years later and we only have 2. I haven't played the second one yet, which came out for XBOX, but a 3'rd has rumored and crushed about three times now.

After I ordered these games it made me crave some more retro goodness, which led me to this site: http://www.nintendo8.com/all/. There you can play tons of classic NES games right in your browser. The controls are a little wonky with a keyboard, but it suffices. It gave me the chance to play the classic games I never got a chance to play when I was younger, like Kid Icarus, Metroid, Bionic Commando, 1942, and tons of others. Another site also has a great bunch of Flash remakes of classic games from: http://game-oldies.com/.

Hopefully the games I ordered will ship soon, I can't wait to play them. Some more great Dreamcast games I eventually want to hunt down are Jet Grind Radio, Chu Chu Rocket, Sonic Adventure 2, and Fatal Fury. Sega's last system was one of the companies best. A lot of people don't realize that the Dreamcast came out in the same generation as the Playstation 2, XBOX, and Gamecube. The graphics for the system are pretty good compared to its rivals, and because it was first to launch there are few crossover titles and a lot of original and unique games. I wish you could still buy these games in stores, but oh well, Ebay for the win.

Labels: Retro, Sega