Sega Dreamcast Console Review

THE LEGEND WILL NEVER DIE

The Dreamcast is Sega's last entry in the home console market, before turning in to a software only developer/publisher for it's rival systems. Who would have thought... Sonic the Hedgehog on a PS2?

I have always been an avid Sega fan, since receiving my first Mega Drive back in 1992, and since then have been buying Sega consoles left, right and centre, and of course, the Dreamcast also had to be mine to.

INSTANT HIT:

The Dreamcast was an instant hit during it's release in Japan, America and Europe, with many shops selling out within the first 24hours of the Dreamcast going on sale. Even more so in Japan. The Dreamcast was big... but many also say, it was a little premature.

For a year later, it's main rival at the time, the Sony PS2, was released, and almost immediately, Dreamcast sales were falling dramatically. Owing to the success of the PS1, people knew that the PS2 would be an awesome machine compared to the Dreamcast, and after the failures that were the Mega-CD, Mega 32x and the semi-successful Saturn, consumers were slightly weary about Sega's next, and indeed last, effort at a video game console, and many had lost trust in Sega.

In my opinion, the Dreamcast was... and still is... Sega's best console to date. I love the Dreamcast... so much so, I've had 8 of them. I'll explain in a bit. The fact that we'll never see a Dreamcast 2 is surely upsetting for many a loyal Sega fan, as was hearing that Sega would be pulling out of the console industry, only to turn into a software company.

PROBLEMS:

During the Dreamcast's initial run, it was discovered that it had a few technical problems. The main problem here, was excessive overheating, and this caused the Dreamcast to either randomly crash, or, as most would have experienced, the random restarting problem. I for one have had many a Dreamcast with this problem, hence why I have had 8 of them. If one breaks, I have it replaced... this is one console I never want to be without. Eventually, the Dreamcast had these problems ironed out, and many years later, my 8th Dreamcast is still working well... thankfully.

POWERRRRRR (as Clarkson):

At the time of it's release, the Dreamcast was the first 128-bit console, making it the most powerful home console money could buy, and it wasn't even a lot of money. A Dreamcast would set you back only £199.99. Back then, for a brand-new console, that was very cheap. It was also able to out perform many of the PCs back then to. When the PS2 was released, it set you back £299.99, so it was a lot more expensive. Now, the Dreamcast was slightly criticized due to the fact it did not include DVD capabilities, like the PS2 did. As with the Xbox 360 and HD-DVD, this was canned from the console, since the DVD drive would add more cost to the production of the console, and would cost more to purchase.

INNOVATIVE:

The Dreamcast also had many new innovations for it's time. It had 4 controller ports, which although not 'new', the only other console to have 4 ports was the N64. Other consoles required you to purchase a separate 'multi-tap' to support 4 players... like the PS1 and PS2. It was also the console to introduce the Giga Disc, or GD-ROM. This was a CD that could fit 1Gb of data, as opposed to 700Mb of normal CDs. This meant bigger and better games could be produced.

It was also the first console to include online capabilities and online gaming straight out of the box. All you needed to do was attach the Dreamcast to the phone socket, pop in the DreamKey CD (Segas web browser) sign up to DreamAreana (Segas online portal) and away you go. It couldn't be simpler. OK, it's on dial-up connection, as was everything back then, but since broadband wasn't out yet, you were used to the speeds. Now, there were no online-multiplayer games at the time of launch, so all you had was a web browser and online scoreboards. Later, we had the first online-multiplayer game called ChuChu Rocket - in insanely addictive puzzle game, which bought online gaming into our homes, outside of the PC. Eventually, a broadband adapter was released, to replace the slow 33.6 kbit/s modem (56 kbit/s in Japan). The PS2 had to wait several years before any online connectivity became available. 

The other innovation was it's memory card, called a VMU - Visual Memory Unit. I know a memory card isn't much to write home about, but this one was a little different. The VMU was also it's own little game system. It had it's own LCD display, power button, D-pad and action buttons. You downloaded games onto it either via the internet or by certain games, which had it's own downloadable mini games. The most memorable of these are the Sonic Adventure mini-games - Chao Adventure, which was very much like the Tamagotchis. You could only fit one mini-game at once, due to the VMUs 128 blocks dedicated to mini-games. The VMU had 200 blocks for data storage, equal to about 1Mb.

The LCD display also had another purpose. While playing games that supported it, it would display personal details and data about the game you're playing. Such as your health, number of kills, number of goals, your score, a mini-map.... all sorts of things. This way, you can see certain data without your opponent seeing, if you're playing a 2 player game. For games that didn't support it, it just displayed the games logo. Another neat little feature is it's ability to be connected to another VMU. This allowed you to exchange save files between 2 VMUs, and share game data.

ACCESSORIZE:

The Dreamcast also had it's fair share of accessories. It's controllers were some of the most comfortable I had ever used. All the front buttons were neatly spaced out, never too far apart, the thumb stick was easy to use, grippy and responsive, the triggers were awesome for racing games, and the VMU screen could be seen very easily. The controller design more or less helped pave the way for the Xbox controllers; the shape, the triggers, the coloured buttons. Although, technically, the Saturn's 3D controller was the first of it's kind. 

Aside from extra controllers and VMUs (both of which were available in different colours), other accessories included a microphone for the slightly surreal Seaman game; a fishing rod for the surprise hit Sega Bass Fishing; the obligatory Arcade Control Stick for fighting games; a steering wheel for racing games (duh); a VGA adapter for hooking up your Dreamcast to a PC monitor for crisp, clear graphics (IF the game supported the VGA adapter); a rumble pack; a mouse and keyboard for FPS games such as Quake III Arena; the 'Twin-Stick' controller for Virtual On, which mimicked the dual sticks of the original arcade cabinet; the Samba de Amigo controller, which consisted of two motion sensitive Maracas connected to a sensor bar connected to a mat; and two Japan-only releases, the DreamEye digital camera and the DreamKaraoke, an add-on unit which added a microphone to the Dreamcast, and you then download songs that you wanted to play. There WAS a DVD Player add-on in the works, as well as a high-capacity VMU/MP3 Player and a Zip Drive, but none of these ever went past the concept stage.

GAMES:

The Dreamcast had many games released for it over it's 2-3 year run. A lot of arcade ports, racing games, beat-'em-ups, platformers, RPGs... the lot. My most memorable games, and the ones I had a LOT of fun playing, are Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Crazy Taxi, Crazy Taxi 2, Tokyo Highway Challenge 2, Metropolis Street Racer, Quake III Arena, San Francisco Rush 2049, ChuChu Rocket, Resident Evil Code Veronica, Soul Calibur and my most favourite, and most EPIC RPG ever... Skies of Arcadia. It also had many arcade ports released for it. Because the Dreamcast shared much in the way of hardware with the Naomi arcade machines of the time, porting arcade games to the Dreamcast was a very simple process. Crazy Taxi and Sega Rally 2 are two of the most successful arcade-to-Dreamcast ports. And let's not forget the Dreamcasts best, hardest and most expensive shoot-'em-up, Ikaruga. I believe Ikaruga was also one of the Dreamcasts last official game to be released, but I could be wrong. Many of the Dreamcast games were eventually ported over to the PS2, such as Ferrari F355 Challenge, Resident Evil CV and Crazy Taxi. Although the PS2 had the most games, the Dreamcast had games that you WANTED to play. They were fun, original, playable and entertaining from start to finish. In total, the Dreamcast had about 720+ games released during it's life-time.

VERSATILITY:

Another brilliant thing about the Dreamcast, was it's ability to play downloaded games burned to a regular 700Mb CD, without having to mod the Dreamcast in any way. You were also able to change the BIOS to any region, in order to play games from around the world. I don't think Sega meant for the Dreamcast to be able to this, but people eventually discovered it. The Dreamcast can also be used as an emulator to play ROMS from other consoles. Mega Drive, SNES, NES, Master System... all these systems' games, and more, can be played on the Dreamcast, again, without any modifications required to the Dreamcast.

And did you know, it was backwards compatible with PS1 games? Yeah... you read that correctly. A small company called Bleem! released a series of CDs entitled Bleemcast! which allowed certain PS1 games to be played on the Dreamcast. PS1 games such Metal Gear Solid and Gran Turismo 2 had special Bleemcast discs that enabled the Dreamcast to read and play the original PS1 game disc. I think only a very small handful of PS1 games had the Bleem! treatment. When playing them on the Dreamcast, the games graphics would be improved, thanks to the extra power, and a whole VMU had to be sacrificed to act as a Sony memory card. I had good fun playing Gran Turismo 2 on the Dreamcast. Unfortunately, Sony didn't quite like having their games being played on their rivals' systems, so they promptly started a court case with Bleem! to get them to cease their activities. However, Bleem! succeeded and won the court case, but the legal fees Bleem! had to pay allegedly forced the company out of business.

AFTER DEATH:

Even after the Dreamcasts death, gaming fans the world over still love the system, never wanting to let it go, always choosing to play on it over their PS3, 360 or Wii... I know I still do. The Dreamcast still has a huge cult following, even to this day. Even more, that third-party companies have still been releasing at least one game a month in Japan for the Dreamcast years after it's demise, and how many consoles can say that?

I still remember, back in college, out of my class of about 20 people, it was only me and my mate that had Dreamcasts, when everyone else had a PS2. We got the mickey taken out of us a lot, no one seemed to like the Dreamcast, but that's because no one had ever PLAYED it, because they were all total Sony fan-boys. I was constantly trying to defend the Dreamcast, but it just kept falling on deaf ears. I didn't care though, because they were ignorant of what it was truly capable of. 

With it's HUGE library of arcade games, racing games, beat-'em-ups, shoot-'em-ups, platform games, adventure games, puzzle games, and the odd weird game (Seaman?) the Dreamcast WAS, and in my eyes still IS, one of the most successful video game consoles in history. 

I recommend the Dreamcast to any video gamer, anywhere. Look on eBay... it's dead cheap to buy, and the games are even cheaper. Buy a Dreamcast and experience the that best that home gaming had to offer.

POSITIVE:

First 128-Bit console, offered online capabilities out of the box, awesome collection of games.

NEGATIVE:

Slow modem in Europe, first run had crashing/overheating problems.

OVERALL:

Still a brilliant console to own, and very cheap to buy from eBay, Segas best console ever.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 Review

The game we have waited 16 years for?

Sonic the Hedgehog 4... a game worthy of the title? For some no, for many yes... Maybe.

In my honest opinion, Sonic 4 is one of the best Sonic games I have played in a long time. Going back to their 2D roots, well more 2.5D, Sega have created an awesome follow-up to Sonic and Knuckles. Like most people, I always thought Sonic and Knuckles was Sonic 4.

The game has taken some of it’s cues from Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 from the Mega Drive. Although the Zone names are different, you can clearly see the similarities between Splash Hill Zone and the Green Hill/Emerald Hill Zones. Even the Badniks are renewed. Fans of the first Sonic will also get a nice surprise when you fight each of the Zones’ Dr. Eggman bosses.

In this first episode, you have 5 different Zones:

Splash Hill  - Similar to Emerald Hill

Casino Street - Similar to Casino Night

Lost Labyrinth - Similar to Labyrinth

Mad Gear - Similar to Metropolis

And the final zone? Sorry, not gonna spoil it for you.

After playing the first Zone, Splash Hill, all other Zones become available from the start, by use of a Zone Map, without the need for playing through each zone, and you can play any Zone in any order. Once each of the 3rd Acts is done, you can then choose to fight the Zone boss, Dr. Eggman in one of his contraptions. Special Zones will also be freely selectable, but you have to complete each Special Zone first.

Talking of which, the Special Zones have changed as well. While they still look the like classic maze style from Sonic 1, instead of the playing field rotating on it’s own and changing the direction using the bumpers, you now use the left thumbstick to manually rotate the field. This kind of gives you more control over where Sonic goes, which you would think, would make it easier. But it actually makes it a bit trickier. You have to be precise and delicate with the controls to guide Sonic to the Emerald and avoid the GOAL bumpers. Rotate too fast and you can spin out of control and lose all sense of direction.

The game also has a Time Attack mode, to see how fast you can blast through each Zone. This also includes a leaderboard, for both the Score Attack and the Time Attack. Because of this (and the 360 Achievements and PlayStation Trophies) you are required to post a score and time on each board, resulting in playing through each Zone twice, even the Special Stages. Once was tricky enough.

Sonic’s moves has pretty much remained the same, with the famous Sonic Spin Attack, the Spin Dash Attack and the new Homing Attack, which is usually found in 3D Sonic games. The usual power-ups are present, such as the Shield, Invincibility, Super Sneakers and the Power Rings.

As for the physics... Many people have criticized this, as Sonic seems to take longer to start moving and slow down, and generally feel like you’re playing on the moon. Sonic also doesn’t seem to spin as well as he did. After coming out of the Spin Dash Attack, Sonic slows down far too quickly. Also, rolling off a ledge will pretty much stop you dead as you fall down to the ground, making you vulnerable. Another problem is when you spin up and launch from a ramp, Sonic will come out of his spin and if you land on a Badnik, that’s bad. You can kind of make up for this by using Sonic’s homing attack if you see a Badnik approach. However, once you get used to all this, you start to enjoy it a lot more and can zip through Zones as easy as... I don’t know, picking your nose.

The graphics are very nice looking. I know many reviewers have snubbed the game for somewhat poor visuals, saying they’re not very bright or vibrant, and just unpleasant to look at. I for one believe the graphics are great, and it really takes you back to the days of the Mega Drive, especially the Splash Hill Zones with their Green Hill/Emerald Hill style settings.

Really, the game is definitely worth the money (about £10) from Xbox Live Arcade or the PlayStation Network. OK, so it’s only 1 part, but you get an almost complete game (4 complete Zones) plus 2-3 more episodes for less than the cost of one game. Once this game has all the episodes, it won’t cost any more than that of a fully priced £40 game. I for one am looking forward to buying Episode II.

Honestly? An brilliant effort for Sega to rekindle the Sonic spark that started to dim since the Sonic Adventure games on Dreamcast (they were awesome). It really does feel like the good old days. So I urge you all to get the game as soon as possible, and enjoy playing the true sequel to the best video game series on Earth.