As I have been saying all along, the Dreamcast's line up of games seems to keep showing up in some form or another on the current generation of consoles at an alarming and increasing rate. By the year 2022 gamers who never owned a Dreamcast may have finally caught up with its entire line up across dozens of systems. At least for now, it looks like one more could be on it's way, and this is a game even many Dreamcast owners have missed out on.
Siliconera are reporting of a new trademark registered by Sega of America for Cosmic Smash, a game released on the Dreamcast in Japan only. For those who have yet to play it, it's like a mix between Virtua Tennis and Super Breakout, with the visual flair of Rez. The game was released in limited numbers in a fancy DVD case for a budget price (about £20), and was a direct port of a even harder to find arcade cabinet of the game, with no console extras. Short, but very, very sweet. I still need to make a article about it at some point.
Yes, we know what happened last time: Sega got out a new trademark for "Dreamcast" just so they could sit on the name for longer without anyone using it for a dishwasher or something, and we have had rumors of Sega franchise revivals up the wazoo in recent years, many of which have gone unfulfilled (New Space Channel 5 and Skies of Arcadia games being the most painful to not get) so don't get your hopes up for this just yet until we hear more. Stranger things have happened though, and Sega do seem to be on a remake sugar rush at the moment.
If this does end up being on Sega's upcoming production schedule, the real question lays in what system will it land on? Cosmic Smash was quite a short game to begin with on the Dreamcast, so my bets is going to go on one of the many download services out there like X-Box Live Arcade, the Playstation network or Wiiware. There's no doubt the gameplay style would just suit some motion controls, but a HD version of the game ala Rez HD wouldn't go a miss either. I'm personally rooting for Wiiware myself, seeing as I probably won't be buying a HD console any time soon. We shall see!
Good work as usual Gagaman(n). I think it's vital that we monitor the celebration and re-emergence of Dreamcast classics in the current gen, as reporting 'new' news about the Dreamcast becomes harder and harder...
ReplyDeleteTop stuff!
Let's see what will happen...
ReplyDeleteOn a side not, I've tried Ikaruga on XBLA and...meh...I still prefer to play it on my Dreamcast...
Nebachadnezzar, is the DC version better or something?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I am planning on getting Rez HD (even though most of the stuff on XBL Marketplace is a rip-off, there is the occasionally gem like Rez HD that is worth the change).
Dunno, probably the XBLA version has a few tweaks to it, but I still prefer the Dreamcast one. It has more options (difficulty levels), and overall I just like it better.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading somewhere of a forum of Ikaruga fanatic s complaining that a lot of the bullet patterns had been changed in the XBLA version, so their memorization of the levels is thrown out of the window.
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