In honor of the Dreamcast 20th Anniversary (well, twenty years since the 9/9/99 American launch at least)
I went back and played some Dreamcast Games on Saturday. Let's get to it:
Virtua Fighter 3TB -- Arguably the black sheep of the Virtua Fighter family thanks to the addition of the Evade Button, but I still enjoy it. It's not quite on the same level as my love for Virtua Fighter 2 (or Virtua Fighter 4) but it does feel like the end of a certain era for Virtua Fighter before they moved onto Naomi hardware for VF4....you look at VF4 in comparison to VF3 and it is a night and day difference graphically speaking. VF3 has a distinct look about it shared by the first two games. It's easy to sniff down on it now, but Model 3 really was a sight to behold when it first hit the Arcade scene. The Evade Button is the elephant in the room...I personally didn't think it was that bad and felt it added strategy. Also the move to proper 3D environments was an interesting jump. This and Tekken 4 felt like they were trying something new and while not all of it works, I at least appreciated the effort to actually make the jump to full 3D instead of being stuck to a 2D plane...even if Virtua Fighter 4 did refine it and make it a hell of a lot better.
Crazy Taxi -- Cruising down the San Francisco hills to The Offspring's All I Want will never get old for me. This game is everything I love about Sega. Fast, fun, frantic, easy to learn but hard to master. Colorful, carefree and full of energy. I absolutely adore Crazy Taxi and on the Dreamcast 20 years later, it still holds up as being my favorite port (of all the Crazy Taxi ports, the DC version is best by far)
Crazy Taxi 2 -- New York doesn't quite have the same charm as San Francisco. I think it's the lack of hills that hurt Crazy Taxi 2. There was something so insanely fun about those first two hills that you go speeding and jumping down in the original game and New York never quite manages to replicate that feeling. Still, there are some interesting ideas added. Multiple Passenger fares was an interesting touch. The jump button was a bit of a hit or miss. Crazy Taxi 2 is fun and all, but I've always felt like it just lacked a certain charm that the original had in spades. Still, fun with a couple of cool new additions but Crazy Taxi will forever be my number one guy.
Jet Set Radio -- I actually played through the entirety of Jet Set Radio on Saturday. A truly fantastic game that despite its minor flaws (the lack of 2nd analog stick for camera control does hurt the game) still kind of holds up. It's one of the best platformers on the system with a killer soundtrack to boot. Again, easy to pick up and play but hard to master. But so damn rewarding once you have mastered it. I remember when I first played it way back when that I tried to play it like a Tony Hawk game and got frustrated with it. Then later on, I came to realize it's far more of a platformer than it is a Tony Hawk game and once you master the long jump/short jump...that's when it truly takes off and becomes its own thing. Hell of a game let down only by its camera issues...which weren't too bad, but still noticeable. Especially in some of the later levels where you really need the camera for certain jumps.
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 -- Not a Dreamcast exclusive by any means, but this is where I first played Tony Hawk and this is where I first fell in love with Tony Hawk. As a kid, I spent countless hours in the Create a Skate Park mode designing Skate Parks. I actually at one point had the game at 95% completion (there were a few gaps I just couldn't get as a kid)
But yeah, great game that still holds up incredibly well. Still looks great, still plays just as damn well as it ever did. The soundtrack is still incredible (Rage Against the Machine and Anthrax w/Public Enemy for the win.) Still one of my personal favorites.
Space Channel 5 -- I was never good at Space Channel 5 back in the day. I'm a little better now after having a few years of experience with Rhythm games, but still, even now I have trouble keeping up with Space Channel 5. Still, much like Parappa the Rapper, there is a certain charm to this game that I absolutely adore.
Quake III Arena -- Yeah, playing with the Dreamcast controller sucks, but if you have the Keyboard and Mouse then this port was pretty damn awesome and still remains pretty damn awesome. I didn't have a decent gaming PC as a kid so this was the port I made do with and boy did I love playing this back in the day. Even now, it's still a lot of fun. Runs really well, looks great and plays just as well as I remember (so long as you're using the mouse and keyboard)
Virtua Tennis -- I finished off my little Dreamcast fest with Virtua Tennis. Still amazing in every way and still my favorite Tennis game ever made.
Might play some
Dynamite Cop tonight when I get home. I also kind of want to go back and try out
Sonic Adventure again, but that was my little Dreamcast celebration on Saturday.
As for Sunday:
Control -- I finally got around to starting Control yesterday. I don't know how I feel about this. On the one hand, it plays about as well as I expected a Remedy game to play, but I don't know...I'm just not feeling the story so far. There's something about the game that just isn't appealing to me. I hope it will pick up the more I play but so far, I'm kind of at odds with it. Also, I'm playing on PS4 Pro...have noticed a couple of spots where the frame rate really tanks but it's not as bad as I thought it would be.
Catherine: Full Body -- Finished off my True Rin playthrough. For all the nontroversy surrounding this game and how offensive it supposedly is, I truly don't get it. This game is actually more progressive then those complaining about it would have you believe. Take out some of the more absurd elements of Rin's story and what you'll find is actually a metaphor that is all about challenging the status quo. Especially when you factor in the Boss and his motivations for putting people into the Nightmare world. As someone who doesn't give one toss about gender politics, I thought it was rather forward thinking and couldn't see why someone who is obsessed with gender politics wouldn't praise this game for some of the points it tackles?
Anyways, I really loved my time spent with Catherine Full Body...I might keep plugging away at it...I still really want to try and platinum at least one of the Catherine titles. Even if they are blisteringly difficult Platinum trophies to achieve.
That's about it from me.
Ryu Ga Gotoku 5 Remaster (PS4). 98% Its been 142 hours and finally I'm basically done. Its just crazy how 142 hours in, I still have some pretty big side content to see and do. While I know some people have issues with 5 for this reason, I absolutely love just how much there is to do in this game. They could honestly have ended the series right here and I'd have not complained, its going to be really hard to ever top just how epic this game felt in so many ways.
I have to ask...do you find the grind to be ever tiresome? The only Yakuza game I ever went for the 100% was Yakuza Kiwami 2 (I also tried going for Yakuza 0 but the gambling/mini game grind got to me and I left it at 77% after 140 hours)
I love those games, but I don't think I have it in me to grind out the 100% for most of them. I'm in that position with Judgment. Kind of want to platinum it but don't think I want to do the long 100% grind.
So I have to ask, ever find it tireseome? Or do you enjoy the grind?
