The keen-eyed Sega fanatics over at Sega Nerds picked up on something interesting. See the image above? Notice anything? There's a Dreamcast! Apparently, Robotnik likes to take a break from hunting down Chaos Emeralds every now and then with a game of Lucky Hit.
We may be a Wii-based gaming blog, but we love the Dreamcast. And we're glad that Sega took the time to toss the system into Sonic Unleashed like they did. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have some people to question about a black car. You know, the one on the day of the incident? Have you seen it?
When you read "Cosmic Smash", does your mind instantly wander to brutal, over-the-top space battles full of massive explosions, flaming spaceships and blazing arcs of deadly plasma? Okay, so maybe that's just me -- but when I first heard of the name Cosmic Smash, the real thing wasn't exactly what I had pictured. Fortunately for my overly-active imagination, the actual game is almost as awesome as its name implies. Cosmic Smash was originally released in Japanese arcades in 2001, and Sega soon followed up with a Japan-only Dreamcast release later that year. But what is Cosmic Smash? A futuristic, electronica-infused amalgamation of racquetball and Breakout. With a visual style that will instantly feel at home to anyone who's played Rez, Cosmic Smash keeps things simple with pristine environments and a pseudo-wireframe character. Cosmic Smash is like Wii Sports Tennis on steroids and LSD, and anything that meets that description is Born for Wii.
Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.
Even though it's been eight years since Jet Set Radio was released for the Dreamcast, few games are its equal when it comes to style -- and even fewer have surpassed it. Jet Set Radio pioneered cel-shading in 2000, and just about every entry on the short list of games that out-cool it also followed in its footsteps. While Okami, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and No More Heroes all feature gorgeous toon-shading to the same effect, they also owe their beauty to the original, which brought the wild streets of Tokyo-to to life in an exciting new way. It's so stylish, it even gives 80's Prince a run for his money.
Jet Set Radio is a game of mad beats, madder cops and rad moves. You take on the role of the aptly-named Beat, the leader of an up-and-coming street gang in the bustling metropolis of Tokyo-to. Your gangs of Rudies, skate punks out to make their mark on the world, are the GG's. Your task? Usurp the territory of rival gangs, avoid the police, and tag your way to the top. And don't forget to jam out to some righteous tunes while you're at it. As developer Smilebit's first release, Jet Set Radio is a landmark title for the Sega Dreamcast, and it's their second game that's Born for Wii.
Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Sam & Max Hit the Road, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.
Man, we're off to a good start already! When a game is nice enough to welcome you to the experience just for making it to the title screen, and also offers you encouraging remarks like "You are the champion – keep it up!" it's got to be pretty awesome, right? Well, in the case of Power Stone 2, it is.
Released for the Dreamcast in 2000, Capcom's Power Stone 2 was relatively hot on the heels of its predecessor -- the original Power Stone hit the system in 1999. Power Stone 2 takes advantage of the Dreamcast's four controller ports, and like Super Smash Bros., it offers one of the most frenetic and entertaining brawler experiences for a group. Just make sure you don't play with that one friend who doesn't respond so well to losing -- your Power Stone experience may end with a large bruise. But I digress: other than 2006's Power Stone Collection for the PSP, the Power Stone world has been rather dormant. The colorful cast of characters, addicting chaotic battles and goofy nature of the Power Stone world make it a prime target for the next Wii multiplayer phenomenon.
Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Rogue Squadron, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.
Sega might have spent the last few years dragging our beloved memories of Sonic through the dirt, but like an abused, battered spouse, we always return to the company's embrace. They'll change this time, we tell ourselves before each new Sega title is revealed. Sometimes, the gamble pays off. Other times ... not so much.
At first glance, the company's Wii line-up for Leipzig (listed past the break) consists of titles we've all seen before, but Sega is also planning a "world premiere" for a hitherto unannounced game, one that will be announced in time for the start of the trade fair on August 20th. This being Sega, our imaginations have instantly fired up. Given the recent trademarking shenanigans and Sega's currentfondness for reviving Dreamcast titles, our money is on a Jet Set Radio game of some description. You never know, however -- it could just be another Sonic game noone really cares about. We'd never rule that option out.
Sega has already enjoyed a measure of success with twoports from its wonderful Dreamcast line-up, and now Jet Set Radio will join the likes of Shenmue on the "rumored" pile. A "Jet Grind Radio" trademark was filed over at the USPTO last week by Sega, while Kotaku heard whisperings at the ongoing Comic-Con 2008 festival that the trademark referred to a new Wii game.
Though we should emphasize the "whisperings" part of that last sentence, it's difficult not to get massively over-excited by the idea of a Jet Set Radio on Wii. The original game, now a breathtaking eight years old, exuded style and flair from every pore, with to-die-for cel-shaded visuals and a soundtrack that is played on the Wii Fanboy stereo to this day. We'd take a trip back to Shibuya-cho and Professor K any day of the week, and we'll do it with Wii MotionPlus compatibility, if you're reading this, Sega.
We like kittens. This post from yesterday just got them on our brains and their cute, furry little selves won't get down from up there. So, we figured we'd ask you all about your favorite game kittens, or just plain old felines.
So, out with it! Love the cat in Chu Chu Rocket? Are you a fan of Bubsy?
The big news over at DS Fanboy got us thinking about how Sega has been using the Wii to unleash updated Dreamcast titles on us. Titles such as Samba de Amigoand House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return. Since the DS got the Cadillac of dream remakes/updates (we're still not sure yet), we were wondering what dream title, from the most dreamy of past consoles, would you want to see remade for Wii? Virtua Cop? We call dibs. Jet Grind Radio? Nice choice. Shenmue, right?
The above off-screen video may not be of the highest quality, but you do get a taste of the multiplayer action to come. See, blog Blue Hero Gaming recently got their hands on Samba de Amigo (where's the Wii Fanboy love, Sega?) and decided to write their experience with the title. When combined with the video, it's quite the nice little package.
In spite of its untimely demise, the Dreamcast still lives on in gamers' hearts due to a small library of now-classic titles, ranging from the grandiose, such as Shenmue, to the bizarre, like Space Channel 5. Falling closer to the latter on the weirdness scale is ChuChu Rocket!, a unique Dreamcast puzzler that's noteworthy for being one of the last great games to come out of Sega's Sonic Team (I mean, really -- Shadow the Hedgehog?), and for taking the Dreamcast online with four-player multiplayer -- no small feat in 2000. Just like Katamari Damacy, ChuChu Rocket! succeeds on the strengths of simple-but-addictive gameplay and irresistible charm.
ChuChu Rocket! makes no attempt to hide what it is -- a pure puzzler, free of all frivolities and unnecessary dead weight like a story. The concept is quite straightforward -- your only goal is to guide a group of mice (or, in some levels, just one mouse) into a rocket. In many cases, this involves avoiding cats who are roaming the puzzle terrain, waiting to make a mouse sandwich out of your little ChuChus. Both the mice and the cats move in the exact same fashion -- they head in a straight line until they hit a wall, which will cause them to turn right. It's a little like watching a group of lemmings, but, thankfully, the mice move just a bit faster.
We don't normally see any reason to post rumors from the GameFAQs forum, but this time there's a magazine scan involved, so that's ... marginally more plausible. GameFAQs poster Saikobooru found a blurb in the Swedish magazine Gamereactor (or at least a convincing-ish fake of a scan from Gamereactor) stating that, like other Sega classics NiGHTS, The House of the Dead, and Sega Bass Fishing, Shenmuewill make a return appearance on the Wii.
According to this rumor, the new Shenmue will be more like the House of the Dead on Wii than NiGHTS: in other words, ported versions of the two games rather than a new game, with some new minigames added. And now you can commence the inevitable debate about whether Shenmue is boring or the best game ever.
With some great PS2 games getting upgraded for the Wii (Resident Evil 4 and Okami), as well as some Dreamcast games getting another spin on the system (House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return, Samba de Amigo), we were wondering if there were any games that you'd like to see get their own Wii edition? There's a lot of games to choose from out there, so you have to have at least one on your mind!
Is there a game that could benefit from the Wii treatment? Is it just something that would make good use of the Wii's motion-based controls, or a game that could really use the new audience?
On this week's release list, the Dreamcast-to-Wii port Sega Bass Fishing is likely on a lot of minds. It was a pretty fun game when it initially released on Sega's now-dead system, so without a required peripheral and some additions to the game, it's looking like quite the package.
What do you all think? Is the game just another cash-in? Are you looking to get your game on with something else this weekend? What are you playing?
Every (other) Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities.
Fans of Midway's Ready 2 Rumble Boxing series are no doubt anticipating the spiritual successor in EA's Facebreaker. When you're madly swinging Wiimote and Nunchuk in abuse of cartoony pugilists, you probably won't give any thought to how you could have been doing this nearly a decade ago. While our Nintendo allegiance may make it easy to dismiss claims that the Wii concept was outright "stolen," in Iwata's own admission, it was built from technologies already in existence. And some of those technologies had even used for gaming prior to the Wii. Read on as we examine how the Wii carries on a legacy of hardware past and dreams cast.
eBay seller funky_fruits put one of the rarest items we've ever seen on eBay: a one-of-a-kind Wii prototype system, complete with pre-production controller. Produced well in advance of the final system's design, this item features unique properties like "Sensor Bar port for detection of anyone coming within 5m of Nintendo Wii™ prototype - automatically vaporises intruders," "Accessory port on bottom of Wii Remote which can also control your TV and VCR," and "Wireless Free."
How could we possibly be disappointed by an item that is so powerful that "Everything is just shoved into memory because there is so much of it - blinking fast"? Because the auction has been ended early by the seller. Nintendo must have gotten to him and threatened to vaporize him like they did the 10 scientists who originally created the system while living in a deserted Japanese airfield.
When you read "Cosmic Smash", does your mind instantly wander to brutal, over-the-top space battles full of massive explosions, flaming spaceships and blazing arcs of deadly plasma? Okay, so maybe that's just me -- but when I first heard of the name Cosmic Smash, the real thing wasn't exactly what I had pictured. Fortunately for my overly-active imagination, the actual game is almost as awesome as its name implies.
Even though it's been eight years since Jet Set Radio was released for the Dreamcast, few games are its equal when it comes to style -- and even fewer have surpassed it. Jet Set Radio pioneered cel-shading in 2000, and just about every entry on the short list of games that out-cool it also followed in its footsteps. While Okami, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and No More Heroes all feature gorgeous toon-shading to the same effect, they also owe their beauty to the original, which brought the wild streets of Tokyo-to to life in an exciting new way. It's so stylish, it even gives 80's Prince a run for his money.
Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Sam & Max Hit the Road, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.
"Welcome to the Power Stone World."
Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Rogue Squadron, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.
In spite of its untimely demise, the Dreamcast still lives on in gamers' hearts due to a small library of now-classic titles, ranging from the grandiose, such as Shenmue, to the bizarre, like Space Channel 5. Falling closer to the latter on the weirdness scale is ChuChu Rocket!, a unique Dreamcast puzzler that's noteworthy for being one of the last great games to come out of Sega's Sonic Team (I mean, really -- Shadow the Hedgehog?), and for taking the Dreamcast online with four-player multiplayer -- no small feat in 2000. Just like Katamari Damacy, ChuChu Rocket! succeeds on the strengths of simple-but-addictive gameplay and irresistible charm.
