Retro|Spective X03: Dreamcast

[randombs]

Swimming around was a joy and I'm glad I played the half that I did

Amen to that.

[Neon Ignition]

Did many people here experience talking to Leonard Nimoy's Seaman? That was an experience and a half even if it didn't work all that well, it was passable but like so many life-sim things lacking in real gameplay making it such a short lived oddity.

Another thing that the DC can take credit for, though something would have led to it at some point anyway, is that it was the console that led to me first signing up to a forum. Another 2 years or so later and I'd find my way here.

[randombs]

I got the Japanese one for cheap, but I couldn't get the egg to hatch. I remember fruitlessly tapping it before giving up and probably playing Ecco or something like that.

[Dogg Thang]

I totally loved Seaman and was pretty amazed at how well the voice recognition worked. It seemed way ahead of its time and it's only in the last few years with Siri etc. that we seem to be catching up. Sure, there wasn't a lot to do but it was like a rude Tamagotchi. I thought it was brilliant.

[charlesr]

I wish I'd tried it. Saw it at Madbury's house though.

[Hirst]

Anyone ever try Roommania #203? That was an oddball I picked up back in the day. You play as some kind of god and have to influence the actions of some sad sack in his little apartment. It was a little bit like The Sims, but more like a puzzler too.



Kind of an experimental game and I had to muddle through it (Japanese only), but I think I did finish it.

[Team Andromeda]

Anyone ever try Roommania #203? That was an oddball I picked up back in the day. You play as some kind of god and have to influence the actions of some sad sack in his little apartment. It was a little bit like The Sims, but more like a puzzler too.



Kind of an experimental game and I had to muddle through it (Japanese only), but I think I did finish it.

I got it too Hirst LOL

[Hirst]

I'd have been shocked if you hadn't, TA!!

[Team Andromeda]

I'd have been shocked if you hadn't, TA!!

I still got it and the crazy Seman game LOL. I couldn't get very far in Roommania #203 by loved its gfx style

[samanosuke]

Whilst we’re on the topic of Japanese oddities, I used to like The Rhapsody of Zephyr, a 2D dungeon crawler RPG with Shining Force-esque battles in it. I absolutely loved the hand-drawn character art which took me back to old school Master System RPGs but with much higher resolution and colour count so much better looking. I only wish I could understand all the Japanese text, and all I can remember from it was something about Inferno. I never got that far into it as a result and gave up pretty early on.

Also SeGaGaGa was absolutely awesome. I still have the D-Direct version and remember picking it up straight away as I understood (at the time) it would be a D-Direct exclusive, although it did receive a general release later. The zany NPC characters, the beautiful animated cutscenes, the self-deprecating humour, Alex Kidd... everything about it made me want to bust through that language barrier and enjoy every minute of it. The only bit that was too difficult to understand and subsequently a completely random process was the recruitment of staff. The game development part was a bit difficult too but there was a guide that did help a little with this. But the basic exploration and battles was plenty playable for a Gaijin like me.

Such fond memories... awesome console. If the SNES is the best console according to my head, the DC is the best according to my heart.

[Neon Ignition]

I think playing Soul Calibur on the DC was one of the longest amounts of playtime I've put into a fighter, not a single one of the SC's that followed lived up to that version.


One game that the DC received that I never found myself won over by though was Skies of Arcadia, I tried it on Cube years later and it still didn't gel with me.

[samanosuke]

I think playing Soul Calibur on the DC was one of the longest amounts of playtime I've put into a fighter, not a single one of the SC's that followed lived up to that version.

For me it's easily Third Strike. I've clocked up 700hrs on Fightcade alone, and on top of this literally hundreds of hours on the DC version and probably a hundred or so in the arcade.

Re: Soul Calibur, what a game! I remember getting a Jp PS2 not long after launch with Tekken Tag Tournament and thought it was utter cack compared to Soul Calibur. You couldn't even run around the arena! I thought to myself was this really the machine that people were so hyped about that some viewed the DC as simply a stop-gap until the release of the PS2? To say it was a let-down would be an understatement.

[samanosuke]

Just to add with Soul Calibur... one of the things that really impressed my, as insignificant as it seems in today's climate, was watching the attract mode. When Kilik was jumping around waving his stick, he would thrust it towards the camera and then it would wobble just a little with I think a little bit of motion blur for effect. I just remember how fluid and realistic the movement looked compared to the previous generation of janky, broken pizza-topping polygons of the Playstation or the blurry, muddy, slow moving stuff on the N64.

[wakka]

I remember seeing the attract sequence on the ceiling mounted TVs in Electronics Boutique and, yeah, it looked insanely good at the time. It still looks pretty great.

Welcome back! To the staaaaaaage of history.

[dvdx2]

Soul Calibur still really holds up today. i was playing it the other day and the attention to detail is fantastic!