Showing posts with label Trickstyle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trickstyle. Show all posts

A Dreamcast Launch Retrospectacle: Celebrating/Ranking the Games of 9.9.99


Note: This post was originally published on September 9th, 2020 but most of it should still be relevant, even if some of my maths and Fall Guys references are not. I also enjoy the original Sonic Adventure way more now than I did back when I wrote this, and I was admittedly a bit harsh on the Midway games. Anyway, thanks for reading!

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Well, shit. It’s been 21 years since the Dreamcast’s North American launch. That makes it old enough to drink here.

Legally.

Of course, that’s hardly news for all you folks outside of the States. In Japan, the Dreamcast has been of legal libation consumption age for nearly two years, both because it came out almost a year earlier and because the nation’s legal drinking age is 20. Doubly so for most European countries. In Germany, kids as young as 14 can drink wine and beer with their parents’ consent, which means the Dreamcast has been allowed to partake in the devil’s sauce for over seven years (with permission from the Saturn and Mega Drive, of course). And apparently you Brits have been legally allowed to drink at home since you were five (?!) years old. If true, the Dreamcast has been pounding pints in the UK since the Nintendo DS was in nappies.

Anyway, I write all of this because I find it both a convenient and unnecessarily convoluted excuse to crack open some brewskies and reminisce about the Dreamcast’s iconic launch library all those years ago. In the spirit of the occasion, I’d like to think of this feature as a Dreamcast 21 run of sorts.

I’ve always been fascinated with video game console launches and the “next gen” titles that usher us into each new era of gaming. I believe these launches provide unique insights into how platform holders aspire to position their consoles and contribute to the broader evolution of the medium. Console launches give us a glimpse into the creative mindsets of developers seeking to innovate with the new technological possibilities afforded to them. Then there’s the sheer spectacle of it all, which can also be fun in itself.

When it comes to the all-time great console launches, I can’t think of a better time than the sixth generation. Leading the way, of course, was the Sega Dreamcast. You probably don’t need me to sell you on the brilliance of its launch collection. At least in North America and PAL territories (sorry, Japan), there was almost a magic surrounding it. From day one, the Dreamcast hosted a legendary library of excellent games, many of which remain widely revered by the Junkyard community. I’ve recently replayed all 19 of the North American launch titles and I’m surprised which ones have held up at least as well as, if not better than I expected. Others, less so. More than anything, revisiting the Dreamcast’s launch library has helped strengthen my appreciation for the creative risks Sega took with its final console debut, as well as the more enduring impacts its games ultimately had on the medium.

It boggles my mind to consider the rare confluence of factors that could've enabled the Dreamcast to spoil early adopters with such a wealth of launch day riches. Back then, and for a variety of reasons, console launch lineups seemed more crucial for setting the tone and tenor of the experiences we might associate with those platforms. Perhaps the relative technical strides between generations underscored the need to show off a diverse stable of games that could never have existed previously. And before development costs skyrocketed in the HD era, maybe it was easier for more devs to begin and finish their projects in the time between receiving dev kits and preparing for launch. At the very least, developers might've been freer to work in peace without us asshat fans yammering at them on social media all the time.

So now, after 21 years, I figured I’d share my thoughts on all 19 North American Dreamcast launch titles through a not-completely-sober, retrospective lens. Here are my totally biased and nostalgia-be-damned takes on the Dreamcast’s original launch lineup. And in no particular ord—actually, screw it. I’m not usually a fan of ranked game lists but I’m a couple of beers in at this point and I’m fine with being a hypocrite.

OK. Worst to first. Let’s go...

Revisiting the Aesthetics of TrickStyle and Dreamcast 20XX Futurism

You can tell a lot about a society’s hopes and fears by how its fictitious works depict the future. In this regard, the Dreamcast is a fascinating time capsule of our most prevalent insecurities at the turn of the millennium. As we’ve come to view the Dreamcast through a retro lens, we can also try to understand the historical context behind its own brand of retro futurism.

Revisiting a smattering of early Dreamcast games on the console’s 19th anniversary, I’m reminded of some of the common themes and aesthetics imbuing many futuristic Dreamcast and PC titles of the late '90s and early aughts. Notably, these games depicted vaguely dystopian futures that were all at once gritty, vibrant, desolate, and shrouded in a thick fog, both literally – to mask pop-in due to hardware constraints – and figuratively in their perturbed sense of uncertainty.
For me, this aesthetic characterized a fair share of the Dreamcast’s library, propagating a trend of worn, sterile, and heavily-industrialized future settings. I feel compelled to interpret this style – let’s call it “Dreamcast 20XX” for now – as a reflection of our most prevalent cultural anxieties at that time, both real and embellished. In other words, it is easy to imagine late ‘90s game developers – particularly western ones – depicting a future where the Y2K bug could’ve actually fucked up some shit. These themes manifest themselves in numerous games across a variety of genres.
They feature prominently in action titles like MDK2, Slave Zero, and Red Dog; but also in first person shooters Quake and Unreal Tournament; the open-world adventure game Omikron: The Nomad Soul; even racing games like the spectacularly boring Magforce Racing. Although these depictions vary in their degrees of cynicism, they broadly portray the toll that years of industrial and economic disrepair could take on the world in the wake of vague, societal catastrophe.
Towards the surprisingly bleak end of this spectrum is one of my favorite Dreamcast racing games, Criterion’s TrickStyle. Its chief conceit surrounds an international community struggling to rebuild itself following worldwide, war-torn devastation. In TrickStyle’s post-war future, society pulls itself up by its hoverboard binding straps and instills racing as a shared cultural tentpole, both as a means to stave off boredom and to strengthen global stability by way of awesome fucking hoverboards. It’s Marty McFly’s new world order.

Trickstyle Now Available On ZOOM Platform

Trickstyle refuses to pass into antiquity quietly, it seems. Only recently we were being wowed by the awesome Trickstyle iOS stickers that somehow became a thing (no, seriously - look here). It appears the internet's insatiable thirst for Acclaim's futuristic hover boarding title knows no bounds though, and while it has been available on GOG for a while, the game has now also been added to online retailer ZOOM Platform's library. ZOOM Platform, for those not in the know, is a digital distribution service for PC and Mac games, and its mission is - and I quote - "to design, create, and publish traditional and interactive entertainment with a Generation X trans-media appeal."
Well, Trickstyle certainly has Generation X trans-media appeal, and it has it by the bucket load. Shame about the framerate in the Dreamcast version, but it's all about the Generation X trans-media appeal, so I'm prepared to overlook that. Anyway, Trickstyle is now on ZOOM Platform and as an added bit of Sega-related trivia, ZOOM's executive chairman is none other than Bernie Stolar. Yes, that Bernie Stolar. Cool eh?

Trickstyle for PC and Mac costs $6.99 and you can grab it here if you don't already have it for your lovely Dreamcast.

Trickstyle Heads To Apple Devices...In Sticker Form

Hold on to your hats folks! If you thought the Megadrive emulator thing was good...you ain't seen nothin' yet: Trickstyle stickers for iOS messages are an actual thing! I know, right?! Step into my super-exciting life and I'll explain everything. While I was skulking about on iTunes looking for nothing in particular, I decided to check in on the DreamPod to see if our lovely podcast was troubling the charts. Naturally, it wasn't but after searching 'Dreamcast' and checking to see if any of you lovely lot had left any more reviews (again, nope) I noticed at the bottom of the screen some 'suggested apps.' One of them was called Trickstyle and I was drawn to it like a moth to a raging flamethrower setting a nest full of Facehugger eggs alight.
Jokes aside, I don't even know why I'm writing this as I'm quite certain nobody is going to give a toss, but what I found was a little app that adds Trickstyle-themed stickers to iMessage in iOS 10. It's a bit of a weird one I know, and the app appears to be published by Throwback Entertainment - the company that now holds the rights to Acclaim's decent futuristic racer. Does anyone use the stickers in iOS? I didn't even know they were a thing until I saw this app. Still, it's slightly Dreamcast-related and so I am duty-bound to report it.

"Show your love for a Dreamcast classic to your friends and family! Elevate the conversation with this sticker pack featuring awesome tricks and moves from the hit title TrickStyle!"
- Throwback Entertainment

I took the advice above and sent some stickers to my brother, but it seems he wasn't overly impressed with my Trickstyle-themed messages:
The app has been knocking about since October but it seems literally nobody noticed. If you really want more information - and let's be honest, the chances of that are pretty remote - head over to Throwback Software's website here, or point your iPhone at the Apple App Store and grab them for free. I bet you Android users are raging with envy right now, eh?!