Fishing! Pinball! Spawn...ing?

First post from the GagaMan(n) here, mainly because I just bought some stuff for me lovely Dreamcast collection today. After managing to make £75 at a boot sale Easter Monday (score), I was desperate to buy me little white box something new for it to nibble on. Ebay had nothing tempting (except a £60 buy-it-now Dreamcast display pod which I'd have no room for), and Gamestation in Basildon had nothing worth grabbing either (makes a change, normally I bring back something from there every time). Popping into the Gamestation down here in Southend, however. I found a couple games to tempt me to part with my money.

Firstly here was Pro Pinball Trilogy, which was £7. On the basis that I want to own at least one good game of every genre for my DC (hence my recent £2 purchase of F1 Racing Championship), Pinball was one I had missing, and this is the only Pinball game on the DC, unless you count those funky pinball boards in Sonic Adventure. The others that were asking to take me home were Track & Field and Spawn: In the Demons Hand. My fingers decided they'd survive better with Spawn, which was a tenner next to T&F's fiver. Whats more, Spawn was by Capcom, and I loves me Capcom titles (trying to catch 'em all, excluding the Resi Evil type ones), even though was well aware of the 5/1 rating it got in Official Dreamcast Mag, of which I have all it's rating s pretty much memorized by heart from repeated readings. But I took note that they also gave Maxen X and Stupid Invaders 5/10, and I liked those, so I had it along with Pinball Trilogy. That lovely "Bog Off!" deal meant I got the pinball one for free.

Waiting in the queue, rummaging through a basket of random game controllers, I came across a fishing controller! Score! Then I saw the buttons...it was a Playstation one. Bugger. When i got to the till I asked if they had a Dreamcast one, and low and behold they had one hiding upstairs! Sometimes it helps just to ask. It's an unofficial "Fisson" brand one, and one of the orange handle thingys was snapped off (you only need one anyway) but it was a measly £3, so I couldn't pass it up. I've been after one of these beauties for ages, and finally I had one in my grasp, along with two games for £12.98. Which was nice.

I've owned Sega Bass Fishing and Sega Marine Fishing (found in a American Toys R Us about 2 years ago for about 50 cents in a clearance) for quite some time now, but playing them with a normal controller wasn't very exciting, but the fishing controller really makes a big difference. Sorry for the bloody awful pun, but I got hooked on the games now thanks to it! Complete with my dad's big telly, it's like playing the games in the arcades all over again, except it doesn't cost me a quid every minute. I don't now how they do it but those blokes at Sega sure know how to take a boring arse old sport and make it exciting. They did it to Tennis, and they've done it with fishing. What's next, Virtua Cricket? Now that would be a challenge.

Bass Fishing: Without Rod: 6/10 With: 7/10 Marine Fishing: Without: 7/10 With: 8/10

Now, onto the other two games. Now as the title suggests, Pro Pinball Trilogy features 3 pinall tables. While I think they culd have maybe put a lot more than that in (5 at least), the amount of options and detail you get for each table is amazing. You can change the strength of the flippers, the condition of the table (from out of the factory to beaten up pub table), look at every little detail close up, and a manner or other things. One thing I'd complain about would be the angel of the table, though. You can change it slightly, but you really don't want to play this on a small TV as the top half of the table will just look like a mess of colour. In fact, if you play your DC on a small TV, I can't recommended this at all. Still, for those that can make it out it's a nice pinball set. 6/10

Now, onto Spawn. It's a sort of deathmatch/beat 'em up thingy with, eventually, 36 unlockable characters and whole lot of weaponry and violence. The graphics are very nicely done, although the camera angles can be a pain in the arse at times. Also, the controls are a bit hap-hazard, as you find yourself bashing the buttons hoping for the best. The bosses are massive screen filler that can kill you over and over again sometimes ripping you i half) over and over again unless you managed to grab all the items and keep dodging. I've only played one mode n it so far, but first impressions are that it's a bit of a mess but pretty fun once you get the hang of it. 6/10

For anyone interested (hey, Tomleecee posted his when this blog started), here’s a list of my current DC collection. Unlike Tom, I'm not out to own every single game on it, but every game I like enough to keep.

PAL Format games: 18-Wheeler, 4 Wheel Thunder, Bangai-O, Bust-a-Move 4, Capcom Vs SNK, Chu Chu Rocket, Confidential Mission, Crazy Taxi, Crazy Taxi 2, Daytona USA 2001, Dead or Alive 2, Ecco, F1 Racing Championship, Gunbird 2, House of the Dead 2, Jet Set Radio, Looney Tunes: Space Race, Maken X, Marvel Vs Capcom, Marvel Vs Capcom 2, Mr.Driller, Phantasy Star Online Ver.2, Power Stone, Project Justice, Re-Volt, Sega Bass Fishing, Sega Rally 2, Shenmue, Shenmue II, Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Soul Calibur, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Stunt GP, Stupid Invaders, Tech Romancer, Le mans 24 Hours, Tony Hawks 2, Toy Commander, Virtua Striker 2, Virtua Tennis, Virtua Tennis 2, Wacky Races.

USA Format games: Alien Front Online, Bomberman Online, NBA 2K1, NFL 2K1, Seaman, Sega Marine Fishing, Space Channel 5, World Series Baseball 2K1.

JAPAN Format games: Cool Boarders BURRRN! (Snow Surfers in UK), Sega Tetris, Sonic Adventure 2 (10th Annversary boxset), Virtua Fighter 3tb, Virtual On 2.

Homebrew: Bleem Beta, SMSPLUS (Master System/Game Gear emu), Beats of Rage Collection 1 and 2, Amiga emulator, Feet of Fury, Armored Campain, DCcirus, DCfighting, Aiming Tank, Dream Seclection 1, Dream Selection Tetris Clone edition, Fenix Collecton, NesterDC (NES emu), Smash Pack 2 and 3 (Mega Drive emu), DreamSNES (guess), DC Video CD player, Neopockott (NGPC emu), Raptor Quake, probably others I missed out.