As a child I can think of no fonder memory than opening a new game. Alright, maybe a few, but come on I was trying to be poetic. I loved getting games because it was a new adventure and experience. The one thing that truly trumped getting a game though were the rare christmas' or birthdays when I would get a new system. Now I've owned many over the years but to receive them as gifts is just something special. I can still remember the christmas I got my Sega Genesis.
There is one I want to focus on today however, because its life was short, the end came to soon. You probably have a good idea of what I'm talking about (I even referenced it in an earlier blog) the Sega Dreamcast. A system far ahead of its time and greatly unappreciated by the masses. So lets take a trip down memory lane and through the life of Sega's last system.
When I got my Dreamcast hype was in full swing. It was the holiday season and I opened it christmas morning, with Sonic Adventure to play. I played the heck out of that game. In fact recently when my friend Jeremy picked it up we both had trouble navigating the land and figuring out what we were supposed to be doing. I don't recall having any trouble with it as a child. Still, even if it was the most frustrating game in the world nothing would have stopped me from playing it and loving it on that christmas morning.
Things went well for quite some time. I continued to get awesome games like Jet Grind Radio, Sonic Adventure 2, Skies of Arcadia, and my favorite, Shenmue. For me Shenmue was it. It was, and still to this day is, one of the greatest games I have ever played. Games like Grand Theft Auto IV give you this pseudo sense of freedom but Shenmue just felt more authentic. Essentially in any GTA game what you have is a giant cardboard city where you can go in to certain buildings that serve a specific purpose. The city doesn't feel alive, one bar is the same as the next.
In Shenmue they managed to really make the town feel like it was alive. Sure it was much smaller than Liberty City, but that didn't matter. You could get to know the people of the town and just live every day of the main characters life as you saw fit. You even had to get a job! It's easy to see why this game turned away so many, it was far beyond its time, like the system it was made on.
I remember toward the end of the Dreamcast's life, while flipping through an official magazine looking for new games, not finding any. I wondered what was going on with the devs. Then the magazine stopped printing the next month. It was so sudden. I was still pretty young and not quite so plugged in to games and the industry so I had no idea about the fate of the Dreamcast.
To this day it bums me out that more people didn't give this awesome system a shot. Still, I supposed the market would be a bit crowded if it had survived and Sega made it to the current gen. That would mean you'd have to choose between PS3, Wii, PC, 360, or Sega's machine. Now Sega sits as a developer and publisher, making some good games, and some… just alright ones… Here's hoping Sega can stay in the fight, and regain its glory.
So I suppose what I mean by all of this is that I want to start doing some reviews of Dreamcast games and an overall critique of the system itself. My wife and I are just about settled in our apartment and I have the Dreamcast all set up. We'll see how much nostalgia has clouded my mind when it comes to these games, it'll be fun! Oh and if you were wondering about the title of this entry, yes my Dreamcast is actually gold, I spray painted it a while back and it is awesome. I'll try to post a picture eventually.
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