Given the plethora of Golf titles available on virtually all Sega systems leading up to the Dreamcast, it’s somewhat of an oddity that, even with the Dreamcast's shortened lifespan, there was only a mere three golf titles released worldwide, one of which was a sequel.
Tee Off was the only golf title released in PAL regions (meaning a poor showing for the home of Golf itself!), as well as NTSC, and isn’t a terrible game. While its name change (from Golf Shiyouyo) and cover reworking completely belie its cutesy presentation and characters, it's still a reasonable enough effort. Its sequel never left Japan.
Whilst there were stories and news reports that Sega had been in the process of converting their arcade title Virtua Golf, no real evidence that this was actually in the works exists from what I can see. For more information about Virtua Golf, check out Dreamcast Today's article.
There was another golf game, however, that is probably not as well-known by many. Step forward Nettou Golf.
A Dreamcast version of this with a trackball controller would have been incredible.
Nettou Golf isn't well-known to us Dreamcast gamers in the West due to its Japan exclusivity, but, in my opinion, it’s rather good, and surprisingly playable without needing an English translation of any sort. The fact it was published by Sega themselves (it was developed by Data East) is vaguely curious to me considering its lack of a worldwide release. Given that the name derives from "NetGolf", because the game had online capabilities, it's even odder considering Sega's global touting of online play as a big marketing push for the Dreamcast, but it was apparently decided we weren’t considered as a territory for the game. Seems like a bit of a missed opportunity at the very least given how little in the way of a translation would have been needed to cover a game in this genre.
As previously mentioned, Nettou Golf is very accessible despite the language barrier. Not only does Google Translate do a very competent job of allowing you to understand the menus and modes, but I discovered this handy site (pictured below), that despite now being defunct, appears to be a couple's attempt to provide others with enough understanding to functionally navigate through certain less heralded Japanese games that were likely never going to get a localisation of any kind. They only translated seven games prior to stopping, but luckily for us, one of them is Nettou Golf.
If you have dabbled in anything Sega Dreamcast in the last so many years, you'll most likely be aware that the modern indie game scene for the console is bustling, with no signs of slowing down any time soon. Despite the abundance of new indie software releases for the Dreamcast, there was one physical indie release in particular that seemed to peak my interest recently for an entirely different reason unrelated to the game itself, that being Hermes: Limited Edition, and its included Hermes-branded Visual Memory Unit (VMU).
Hermes is a fun indie platformer developed by Retroguru with a glorious chiptune soundtrack where you play as a chef chasing after a chicken. Mike has already reviewed it on the blog a long while back, and you can check out his review here. In this post, though, I wanted to focus on that special VMU, because it is pretty much the first of its kind: the first indie-branded Dreamcast VMU. The only thing that would have come remotely close to something like this was the VMU lamp for Alice Dreams Tournament, which seems to have have been a Kickstarter-exclusive backer reward, as Adam Koralik and James from Shenmue Dojo both told us they own one.
Released by Video Games New York (aka VGNYSoft), Dreamcast diehards across the globe were understandably eager to get their hands on one of these cool VMUs. Unfortunately, dwellers of the United Kingdom like myself couldn't order from Video Games New York's website as they don't ship here. Luckily, Wave Game studios put a very small batch (ten, I think) of the limited edition up for sale on their website, so I snatched up one of those. Thanks, dudes!
The transparent green VMU is printed with the Hermes logo, as well as the chicken you play as, and the chef's meat cleaver. It actually comes packaged in an official American VMU box, which is stored inside the larger Hermes: Limited Edition box. It is pretty obvious that the VMUs used for this release are leftover brand new official VMU stock, but the printing on the VMU is such high-quality, you'd be mistaken for thinking it could have actually been an official release from Sega back in the day. Also, VGNY made a great choice in using the transparent green VMU!
Because I was so excited to receive my Hermes VMU, I actually mustered up some courage and decided to record a short clip showcasing the VMU, so check that out below! Apologies if I say “erm” a lot, I was ad-libbing!
If you want to get yourself one of these VMUs, there is currently stock available on VGNYSoft's website and Canadian site Video Games Plus. As for whether or not either will ship to your country, I'm not quite sure. Either way, let's hope this is the first of many indie-themed Dreamcast peripheral releases to come!
SEGA Powered issue 5 is out now, and it's a bit of a treat for Dreamcast fans. The magazine is a full on homage to all things Dreamcast, and is packed full of features and reviews that focus on the history of the console and some of the finest games to ever grace a GD-ROM drive. Priced at £6.50 for a physical print edition and £3.00 for a digital PDF, this is a must-buy for anyone with even a passing interest in the little white (or more probably yellow) box of tricks.
But that's not all. See, as discussed in our recent DreamPod episode with Daniel of WAVE Game Studios and SEGA Powered editor Dean Mortlock, issue 5 of this fantastic tome comes complete with a demo disc full of indie releases. This is the first time in over 20 years a physical magazine has come with a Dreamcast demo disc, and it features playable demos and game trailers - just like they did back in the day. Oh, and the menu music is banging.
But don't just take our (written) word for it. Below is a video that includes a quick flick through the pages of the magazine, and then a look at the demos on the disc which incidentally was created by Ian Michael - the same bodacious dude responsible for bringing the Turtles Cowabunga Collection to the Dreamcast. Check it out:
So here we are, halfway through 2022, a year that seems to have come around exceptionally fast, probably due to the disorientating effects of the grim COVID-19 pandemic which has been looming over us. 2022. That sequence of digits, whether typed out or spoken aloud, sounds spookily futuristic, and so perhaps it is fitting that phenomena which were hitherto safely contained within the realms of dystopian fiction are now not too far from reality. Somewhat less foreboding, but still hard to believe, is the fact that the Dreamcast has just received its fifth commercial indie release of the year (not to mention numerous re-releases on top of this). If you are disconcerted by signs that Google’s AI may be taking inspiration from the eery “It’s Thinking” Dreamcast slogan, then what better way to soothe your nerves than to immerse yourself in a game for an oh so familiar console?
Shadow Gangs, developed by Isle of Wight-based JKM Corp, and published by the increasingly prolific WAVE Game Studios, has long been anticipated by those in the know. Since the first hints of a potential Dreamcast port surfaced in 2016, the community has been regularly updated on progress by the game’s lead developer Ali Jakamy via the Dreamcast-Talk forums. It has not been smooth sailing from there on out though - an initial Kickstarter campaign launched in 2021 failed, most likely due to the setting of an overambitious six-figure funding target. To their credit, JKM Corp dusted themselves off and returned with a realistic funding goal of £25,000 which was met in March 2022. The fact that the developers have persevered through to the point of delivering the game into the hands of Dreamcast owners - and have done so within the space of three months since the close of the successful Kickstarter campaign - is no mean feat and is worthy of our kudos.
All this backstory is a little tangential to the main issue at hand though; what can Dreamcast enthusiasts expect from the game itself? Shadow Gangs is essentially a side-scrolling beat em’ up with platforming elements. You take up the role of ‘Master Dan’, one of a cohort of international agents whose purpose is to operate in the shadows, maintaining the global balance of power, and thereby ensuring peace. With world peace secure, Dan gets his P45 in the post, leaving you to direct him around his house as he traverses the punishing job market and mooches on the couch eating Pop Tarts...
Alas, that probably wouldn’t be much fun, would it? Of course, the fragile global order maintained by Dan and his comrades is under threat from the dastardly ‘Shadow Gangs’; groups of rogue ninjas who have destructive aims. It’s your age old good vs. bad, save the world scenario, where righteous protagonists have an excuse to beat seven bells out of hordes of despicable enemies.
Shadow Gangs takes a mammoth dose of inspiration from the iconic Shinobi, and this shows in the fundamental gameplay mechanics. The player directs Dan across 10 more-or-less linear levels, making liberal use of ranged and melee attacks (get ready for sore thumbs) to vanquish his opponents, and precise use of the ducking and jumping functions to avoid incoming fire and hits.
Your arsenal is spiced-up by the inclusion of powerful but sparsely numbered landmines and ‘ninja magic’ attacks (imagine the screen-clearing special attacks from the Streets of Rage series), as well as occasional power-ups that switch out Master Dan’s shuriken for a much heftier combo of samurai sword plus sub-machine gun. Six boss fights are interspersed throughout the regular levels, as well as shooting-range style bonus stages, providing a decent amount of content in all.
Although I lack the technical know-how to test it, I have no reason to doubt the publisher’s claim that Shadow Gangs runs at 60 frames-per-second on the Dreamcast. The silky-smooth performance certainly seems to bear this out, and the customisable controls feel tight, responsive and map nicely to the standard Dreamcast controller. The large, detailed sprites and varied backgrounds, with colour schemes that pop without becoming too garish, look gorgeous outputted over VGA. Shadow Gangs is well polished when it comes to its audio features too.
The music is well composed, catchy and suits the character of the game down to a tee, and although the voiceover (which sounds like it was recorded by a stereotypical classically trained British actor) is undeniably cheesy, it brought a smile to my face which can only be a good thing. A word of warning though: avoid taking a big slurp of tea just before ‘COLLIN!’ is blurted out of your speakers, unless you intend on redecorating in the near future. In sum, the porting of Shadow Gangs from the PC to the Dreamcast has been executed extremely well—something which is perhaps not too surprising considering the who’s who of experienced Dreamcast programmers that are thanked in the game’s credits. The care and attention that has been afforded is evident throughout, from the VMU icons and rumble pack compatibility, through to the four language options.
For gamers of a certain age, Postal is a powerfully evocative title. Those who played it will not have easily forgotten their experience, and indeed, even those who haven’t played the game (myself included until recently) will likely recognise the name due to its notoriety. At its core this is because the entire raison d'être of Postal is to entertain its players through on-screen representations of unflinching gratuitous violence. Not violence in the context of a justifying purpose, or under circumstances that bear no semblance with reality, but remorseless mass shootings by a lone gunman.
Therefore, understandably, Postal will not be to everyone’s tastes. However, even those who find the game hard to stomach may have some appreciation for its developers who, whether intentionally or not, pushed back against those who sought (and still seek) to stifle the artistic freedom of game creators. Developed by Running With Scissors and originally released for PC and Mac in 1997, Postal arrived in the midst of ill-founded outrage directed towards video games by self-appointed moral arbiters and sensationalist sections of the media. Rather than focusing their ire on any of the other obvious causes of society's ills (say massive global inequalities, persistent unemployment, or chronically underfunded public services), the narrative being pushed by some was that video games were an exceptionally dangerous source of moral corruption. Within this context, Postal struck a defiant tone.
A mere 25 years on, Postal has now finally made its way to the Dreamcast, thanks to the meticulous work of Dan Redfield, who took on the challenge of porting the game after Running With Scissors released the source code to the public in December 2016. When the original developers jokingly asked for a Dreamcast version to be produced, I seriously doubt that they expected this outcome: a near flawless port running at a solid 60 frames per second, packed with features, and published professionally in a physical medium. The latter aspect is down to Norwich-based WAVE Game Studios, an outfit who have quickly cemented their reputation within the Dreamcast scene since publishing their first title for the console, Senile Team’s Intrepid Izzy, in August 2021.
Ok, enough with the pretentious preamble, what about the game itself? For those unfamiliar with it, Postal is an isometric shooter, with a smattering of top-down sections, in which the player takes on the role of an unnamed protagonist (simply referred to as ‘Postal dude’). As alluded to above, the premise of the game is quite simple: you roam from level-to-level taking down as many enemy combatants as possible. And although it isn't a prerequisite for progress, the player is presented with ample opportunities to slaughter seemingly innocent civilians too. There really isn’t a great deal of plot: each stage is preceded by a cryptic and often foreboding message, presumably stemming from the pen of the main character, which along with the visuals suggests that Postal dude is gripped by some kind of madness. This lack of plot depth doesn’t necessarily detract from the game though—the no-nonsense approach is focused on dropping you straight into the action and keeping you on your toes at all times. This lends itself nicely to short bursts of gameplay, and the dry sense of humour that occasionally rears its head ensures that the mood isn't as depressing as the subject matter might suggest at first glance.
To facilitate your mission, Postal dude is equipped with a range of weapons with varying characteristics (range, damage, shot frequency), from the low-powered sub-machine gun, through to the more outlandish and spectacular napalm launcher. As with any shooter the aim is to hit your targets while avoiding taking damage. On the face of it, the gameplay of Postal can appear to be quite invariable and a little shallow. On the easier modes it can certainly be played in a mindless manner, with your character capable of tearing through stages while soaking up incoming fire to little effect. However, at its heart, the gameplay is rooted in strategic thinking – something which becomes mandatory if you wish to progress in the harder difficulty settings. Making careful use of terrain, being mindful of your inventory, and deciding when to fight and when to run, all need to be brought into play if you want to actually do well.
In this age of sprawling role playing games and mechanic-heavy shooters, it's sometimes easy to be a little overwhelmed not only by the sheer choice of games that we have at our fingertips; but just how confusing they can be to play.
Now, I'm aware I type this as somebody who has recently entered the fourth decade of his life, but hear me out. Sometimes I want to just kick back, crack open a cold one and play a game that requires very little in the way of cognitive gymnastics. Sometimes I'm not in the mood to try to re-learn complex control schemes, or how to decipher an ever-filling map screen that needs its own Rosetta Stone to decipher. I just want something simple. And engaging. And addictive. That also sounds good and leaves me with a smile on my face. It's not a lot to ask for, is it?
Luckily, Yeah Yeah Beebiss II has arrived on the Dreamcast and it checks all of the aforementioned hypothetical boxes. If you think the name of this charming little indie offering sounds familiar, it's because it is a pseudo sequel to a NES game that never actually existed - Yeah Yeah Beebiss I. That game is a mystery in and of itself, and if you do a cursory search on YouTube you'll find a whole host of excellently produced videos explaining the whole rabbit hole - was Yeah Yeah Beebiss a copyright trap? A poor mistranslation? Did it ever really exist as a playable title? The answers to all those questions (and more) are but a Google or YouTube search away, dear friend.
Created by indie developer and YouTuber John Riggs (with a little help from Mega Cat Studios and Bit Ink Studios), and published by WAVE Game Studios, Yeah Yeah Beebiss II is a Dreamcast port of a NES title that tasks the player with ridding the numerous single-screen stages of 'evils' before the timer runs out. You get to play as either of the game's protagonists - named Haoran and Li Jing on the game's title screen, but as Kyonshi Hui and Jiangshi Bo elsewhere in the packaging - who appear to be based on the Jiangshi (hopping vampires) of Chinese folklore. Quite why these two are out of their coffins, hopping about and zapping said evils is not really divulged, but we all need a hobby.
Joking aside, these character designs are a nice/incredibly esoteric little nod to Rai Rai Kyonshis: Baby Kyonshi no Amida Daibouken, the game which is theorised to actually be the enigmatic Yeah Yeah Beebis I (many thanks to my learned colleague Lewis for that nugget of info).
Gameplay is refreshingly uncomplicated here. Essentially you are presented with a single play screen, the construction of which gets more architecturally complex as you progress through the 10 stages. Playing as either Haoran/Kyonshi or Li Jing/Bo (or both, if you play with a friend) you are then tasked with hopping around the place avoiding hazards (such as fire (I think it's fire...it doesn't animate)) and zapping the floating nasties that appear.
Each level has a set number of enemies that must be dispatched before the timer runs out, and they can appear pretty much anywhere in the level so things do get a bit frantic as time limits become more stringent and levels start to incorporate more platforms and ladders and such. What can be annoying with this model is that due to the random nature of enemy appearance, sometimes they will appear right where you are stood and deal unavoidable damage...but swings and roundabouts. Some enemies will simply float about minding their own business, waiting to be bitch-slapped out of existence; while others are a bit more malevolent and will deal out ranged attacks of their own. Most of them only take a few hits though, so they never really offer much in the way of resistance.
Offing these baddies (again, I have to emphasise that they are brilliantly referred to by the game as 'evils') will sometimes result in bonus items being dropped; an extra life here or a bit of extra time there. There's also an item in the form of a clock that stops time and makes all the enemies freeze in place, but also stops new enemies from appearing while in effect so if you are short on time it's not a good idea to collect it - you can have that tip for free.
Being a game for the NES at heart (indeed, this Dreamcast iteration is powered by NesterDC), Yeah Yeah Beebiss II does not in any way test the Dreamcast's hardware, but conversely that's totally not the point. Like many other retro-themed titles released on Dreamcast (see Flea!, Hermes, Ghoul Grind et al) it is a game that plays to a certain audience and to a certain era in gaming, and it does it remarkably well.
The music which plays throughout is a mix of classical overtures recreated with aplomb by chiptune composer ChipsNCellos and it never gets annoying - if anything it is actually quite impressive to hear these renditions of stuff like In the Hall of the Mountain King being played by a Dreamcast doing an impression of a Nintendo Entertainment System. The nods to the NES roots of Yeah Yeah Beebiss II are also depicted by the NES cartridge motif that displays on the VMU screen while you play.
There's not a great deal of depth to Yeah Yeah Beebiss II, but that really is part of the appeal - for me at least. It looks like a game directly out of the late 1980s or Early 1990s, with the limited colour palette and basic enemy designs, but at the end of the day it is aiming for that aesthetic and Yeah Yeah Beebiss II nails it. Authentic 8-bit visuals, a catchy soundtrack and simple and addictive gameplay. That's Yeah Yeah Beebiss II in a nutshell.
As a bit of trivia, when Yeah Yeah Beebiss II was first announced by John Riggs on his website, the clamour for a new Dreamcast indie title was so great that it sold out in little more than a few hours. WAVE Game Studios then stepped in to help publish and distribute the game and it can - at the time of writing - now be purchased for the princely sum of just £10.
To wrap this back around, then - if you yearn for a simplistic and rather endearing retro experience on your Dreamcast, you could do much, much worse than picking up a copy of Yeah Yeah Beebiss II. The only real negative (if you can even call it that) is that as this game comes on a nice printed disc in a lovely jewel case with some excellent artwork provided by Yoshi Vu, if your Dreamcast happens to have had its GD-ROM drive extracted in favour of some other method of operation, then you're out of luck. Well, unless you grab a NES emulator for your Dreamcast and run the NES rom file which is supplied on the disc...ways and means people, ways and means. Adapt and overcome and all that jazz.
[lock-on] Volume 003 is finally here, and as we previously discussed, it is pretty heavy on the Dreamcast content. In fact, it's so Dreamcast-heavy, it could quite easily be mistaken for a lost issue of Total Control. Well, maybe not...but hopefully you get my point.
[lock-on] is a collection of essays and musings on video gaming topics that are as varied as they come, all presented in a superbly weighty format on high quality paper. That Volume 003 is also a Dreamcast special has earned it a mention here - a blog dedicated to the Dreamcast. That, and the Editor in Chief is one Andrew Dickinson - a name some of you may recognise from his hosting duties on our podcast DreamPod.
This latest edition of Lost in Cult's flagship periodical is stuffed with features on all aspects of the Dreamcast; from the launch window fanfare and the system's connection to NAOMI, to memories of individual games, hardware and peripherals.
These features are written by some pretty knowledgeable and recognisable folks from across the gaming diaspora (including a few of the staff from this very blog). Not only this, but the artwork throughout is quite simply stunning - the temptation to rip some of the pages from [lock-on] Volume 003 and frame them is real.
It's not all Dreamcast though, as articles on titles such as Sable and Doshin the Giant are also included - indeed the former is the featured game on the cover, and there's a huge spread dedicated to the world building and architecture found in Shedworks' cel shaded indie hit. The soft cover version you see in these images and in the video should be arriving on doormats around the world right about now (funk soul brother), with the hardcover version (complete with Shenmue-themed cover art) coming in the near future.
Check the video below for a bit of a flick through the pages of [lock-on] Volume 003:
If you'd like to know more about [lock-on], or indeed any of the upcoming projects from the fine peeps behind this tome, visit the Lost in Cult website here or follow on Twitter.
When is a football game not actually a football game? When it's Virtua Striker, of course! The Dreamcast iteration of Virtua Striker 2 was initially released in Japan in 1999, under the slightly odd moniker of Virtua Striker 2 ver 2000.1; a title which you'd be forgiven for mistaking as a Windows update patch. This comparison isn't actually as outlandish as you might think though, when you consider that previous Model 3 arcade based versions of Virtua Striker 2 were bequeathed with similarly date specific nomenclature - Virtua Striker 2 was previously delivered to arcades in ver '98, ver '99 and ver 2000 before ver 2000.1 finally made its way into homes as part of the Dreamcast library.
Naturally, that this Sega AM2 developed soccer title has a numerical suffix hints that it is indeed a sequel, and not only that; for if you were to be even more inclined to combine inquisitive cognition and the human ability to conceive of future tenses (even though we are technically going into the past, here), then you'd also be totally correct to hypothesise that it is also simultaneously a prequel. Basically, what that absolute nonsense means in a nutshell is that there was a prequel (Virtua Striker) released in arcades 1994; and two sequels in the form of Virtua Striker 3 released on Nintendo Gamecube and in arcades in 2002; and Virtua Striker 4 released exclusively as a coin-op in 2004.
Now we've covered the potted history of Virtua Striker releases in very abridged form, let's get down to brass tacks. Cast your mind back to when you first started reading this badly constructed article and you'll recall that I rather brazenly announced that Virtua Striker is not a football game. And that's because it's not. Rather, it is football in the most arcadey format you're ever likely to see...which kinda makes sense given the actual arcade cabinet based origins of the series. Apologies if the constantly backpedaling mess of contradictory meandering is confusing the whole situation here, but I've had a long day and I just need to write something. Anything. And it's turned out to be this. Sorry.
Designed to be played in short sessions, easy on the eye and spectacular almost to a fault, the Virtua Striker games are divisive in the extreme...and Virtua Striker 2 ver 2000.1 for Dreamcast does nothing to upset this particular apple cart. Indeed, I think I'm well within my rights to pompously declare Virtua Striker the Marmite of football games - you'll either absolutely loathe it; or you'll think it is the best thing since sliced bread (and then try to spread it on said staple before ravenously devouring it, you contemptible monster).
I remember when games magazines of yore would show screens of Virtua Striker, sometimes even going as far as to state that a Sega Saturn port was in production. I would gaze longingly at those chunky-legged polygonal footballers contorted into impossible shapes while toe-poking sharp-edged footballs into bulging nets, and dream of them someday adorning my beloved Saturn. Alas, that dream never became reality, and so my first real taste of Virtua Striker's flavour of footy came when Virtua Striker 2 ver 2000.1 burst onto the PAL Dreamcast in 2000.
Feverishly I loaded the GD into my console and was instantly mesmerised by opening cinematics of highly detailed footballers lining up for Sega-ised anthems in cathedral-like stadia. Footballing nirvana was a mere button press away. The hype was real, Virtua Striker 2 was finally in my living room and memories of ISS '98 on the Nintendo 64 were ready to be overwritten with the barnstorming return to glory of the mighty Sega. And then the game started and I almost cried. With sadness, that is.
Before I go on, I want to remind you that I'm writing this from memory - I was a teenager who had heard about how amazing Virtua Striker was, had never played it but been a fully paid up passenger on the hype train since the first time I saw the amazing screenshots of Virtua Striker 2 in magazines. And now here it was, finally being pumped into my eyeballs via the power of a Tatung CRT television (with full on mahogany surround and Fastext, I might add)...and yet I was heartbroken. Why? Because - and to be blunt - it played like absolute arse crack.
I was expecting something like ISS 64 but with CGI graphics; instead I was playing a computerised version of Subbuteo with a cloth pitch that hadn't been ironed properly so the ball never made it over the creases to the intended destination. Virtua Striker 2, here, in all it's amazing looking glory...but with no commentary, no changeable camera angles, about two buttons and a stupid 'swooshing' noise every time you attempt to tackle. Idiotic AI teammates, hardly any teams to actually play as, a daft time limit on matches, no half times, and no substitutions. I hated it. I hated what I was witnessing. How could they have gotten something that looked so right, so awfully and harrowingly wrong...?
The world of indie
Dreamcast games has changed dramatically over the last couple of
decades. A period of cheap and cheerful, mostly puzzle-orientated
titles in the mid-00s was followed by a lengthy period of time where, alongside the last officially pressed GD-ROM releases authorised by Sega, we were treated to several shoot-'em-ups from a variety of indie developers. That period was so lengthy, in fact, that we still see some social media influencers parroting the tired opinion that "the DC only receives indie shooters," instantly earning them the wrath of the collective Junkyard crew.
By the mid-2010s, the array of titles finding a physical release was a much
more diverse selection: racing, platforming, adventures, RPGs,
twin stick shooters, 3D shooters and many other genres found
their way to the Dreamcast, and still do!
We're currently staring at the quite ludicrous prospect of nearly 30 upcoming releases for this incredible machine that just refuses to die. As well as a broader selection, the quality has also seen a marked improvement as well –
arguably reaching a recent peak with the releases of Xeno Crisis, Xenocider
and Intrepid Izzy - three impeccable independent releases that have pushed the boundaries of quality; not only with their gameplay, but in the presentation department as well. Whilst not every game will reach the lofty heights of that trio, the days of any old game being released and instantly receiving praise just
because it's 'on the Dreamcast' are long gone.
Indeed, while I and the rest of the Junkyard crew are overjoyed that so many talented developers are bringing new games to the Dreamcast, we are now in an era - bizarrely - where we can be more objective about new titles than ever before.
Ghoul Grind: Night of
the Necromancer may not be a candidate to sit alongside the Izzys or
Xenos at the very top level of what's available, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game. Developer Woog Worx's main
goal was to Kickstart a brand new NES physical release, with a Dreamcast port as a stretch goal. Ghoul Grind is a 2D, 8-bit, auto
scrolling platformer with a distinctly Halloween theme. Due to it being a port of an NES game, on a
technical level, it certainly doesn't push the Dreamcast in any way
whatsoever. A successful Kickstarter campaign, which didn't seem to elicit much attention from the DC community (if you had listened to us, you would have backed it, so don't complain now!), was completed back in April 2021, and by the end of that year, the game was already in backer's hands - the sort of quick turnaround story that we can always get behind at the 'Yard!
The plot (played out through a short introduction sequence and in the
game's lovely full colour manual - more about that later) sees Nox and Veronica - boyfriend and
girlfriend - tasked with saving the townsfolk of Saint Crypton from
their best friend Vladimir; who is raising the dead, bringing
ghouls, ghosts and goblins out onto the streets, forests and crypts
of the town. As someone who lives quite happily year round with the oranges and blacks of Halloween decorations decorating my house, the aesthetic on offer really hits a sweet spot.
The game oozes a charmingly nostalgic All Hallows Eve atmosphere, with a suitably
ghoulish 8-bit soundtrack (which may not be to the masterful level of some indie offerings, but considering the limitations of the original hardware, is rather good) and a colour palette full of oranges and browns to give it an autumnal look, as well as eerie blues, blood reds and the blackest blacks, really making the most of those hardware limits again. Woog Worx really do deserve credit for their character design and spooky atmosphere. Ghoul Grind sits in a perfect cross-section of 8-bit, Tim Burton and horror aesthetic.
Gameplay is pretty
straightforward: your characters auto run through the levels, with
your control being limited to one button to jump, and one button to
fire your weapon. You can change between the two characters on the
fly throughout - and need to do so to get past certain sections - but
there is little in the way of complexity here. The levels have all
manner of suitably Halloween-themed enemies (with some great accompanying artwork in the manual), and are chock full of tricky jumps
and platforming elements to challenge the player.
Chances are, on your first attempt at each stage, you will die a fair few times before you know exactly when to time the action required. When you do die, it's
straight back to the beginning where you attempt to traverse the level again,
your knowledge of what you've already seen aiding your progress. There are 18 levels in total, as well as six boss encounters, which change up the obstacles you come across, but the gameplay remains broadly the same throughout.
It'd be fair to say that this can lead to some challenging moments, but the instant
restarts lower the sense of frustration. There is the occasional instance of a button press seemingly missed, although I didn't notice this too often. For the most part, this is as smooth as an NES port to the Dreamcast would be expected to be. Smooth can also be used to describe the packaging of the game. We have come to expect good quality packaging in recent years, what with the rise of JoshProd and Wave Game Studios, and Ghoul Grind lives up to that.
A full colour manual contains loads of excellent illustrations, and the overall package is professional looking. Originally, you could only obtain the Dreamcast version of the game when backing a level with a physical NES cart as well, and whilst we're not the NES Junkyard, I have to say that the high quality of packaging crosses over to that release as well. For those who weren't interested in getting the NES cart too, standalone purchase option for the Dreamcast release are now available.
There isn't much more to say about the game, really. It's a decidedly simple premise,
well executed, with a great gothic Halloween-loving atmospheric style (and an awesome name to boot - although it sounds more like the sort of blackened Death Metal band and album title that I'd happily lap up). Just remember that it's not something which was
made with the Dreamcast in mind (although, kudos to Woog Worx for replacing
the NES controllers featured in the background of the training
levels, with Dreamcast controllers); or a game that will thrill
those that want indie games to push the envelope of what we've come
to expect on the console.
You can purchase your own copy of the game at the Woog Worx store here. You can download a demo or buy a PC version of the game at their itch.io page here. The Woog Worx main website can be found here.
Have you purchased Ghoul Grind: Night of the Necromancer for Dreamcast? If so, please do let us know your thoughts on it in the comments.
SEGA Powered is a brand new Sega-focused magazine that was successfully funded on Kickstarter back in 2021. Naturally, several of us here at the Junkyard threw our cash at the campaign when we heard that somebody was attempting to bring us a games mag that echoed the feel and style of those 90's rags we grew up reading. And now that it's finally here, how does SEGA Powered live up to those lofty expectations?
Pretty well, actually. For starters, SEGA Powered is helmed by Dean Mortlock, a veteran of the games journalism scene of the 1990s. Dean was the Editor of both SEGA Power and its successor Saturn Power - the pair of them magazines I read as a child and later a teen - and so I knew this was going to be decent. Dean is supported by former DC-UK and Edge staffer Neil Randall as Dep Ed, along with Staff Writers Paul Monaghan (who you may know from the Maximum Power Up podcast); and Marc Jowett from SegaMags. There's enough gaming experience, credibility and knowledge contained within the noggins of this foursome that you know these guys know what makes a good games mag. And I know that you know that I like a good games mag. And you know what? SEGA Powered is a good mag. Check it out in the video below:
SEGA Powered issue uno weighs in at 78 pages, and there's a really good mix of content covering modern Sega news and games, alongside a healthy serving of retro themed reviews and features. Sonic features on the cover and Sega's mascot is treated to a multi page 30th anniversary spread. What's especially nice for us Dreamcast fans though, is the amount of Dreamcast-specific content. There are reviews of Virtua Tennis and Intrepid Izzy, some good information on Dreamcast indie titles, and an interview with Roel van Mastbergen from Senile Team. There's also a rather excellent 'directory' of the essential games for every Sega console, along with prices you should expect to pay for them. No Spirit of Speed 1937 in the Dreamcast section though, which is honestly quite alarming.
I'm reliably informed by Paul that issue 2 of SEGA Powered is already well underway and we're excited to see what's next for the magazine. As a passive-aggresive suggestion, I'd very much like to see a revival of Mean Yob's letters page in future issues, and possibly even Games Master Magazine's Grip Chimp for highly specialised peripheral reviews. Oh, and an Amiga Power style 'reader art' section where the editorial staff essentially laugh at how bad the submissions are. If you build it, they will come.
Jokes aside, SEGA Powered is yet another high quality physical gaming peridocal that has been funded by fans and lovingly crafted by people who clearly know what they're doing. If you missed the Kickstarter campaign and would like to get hold of a copy of issue 1 though, be sure to head to the SEGA Powered website (when it launches in early 2022) or grab a copy from one of the gaming events the team will be attending in 2022. Oh, and give them a follow on Twitter here.
We close our eyes, and the world has turned around again. We close eyes and dream, another year has come and gone. So wrote the talented 16th century poet Allister in his priceless first folio. Ancient as these words may seem, they ring true even today, and here we are. It's approximatley 365 days since our last review of the year 2020 and we are back once again for the renegade master with another review of the past twelve months here at The Dreamcast Junkyard.
Twelve whole months of reviews, news, podcasts and features; and we thought it only right to round them all up for your ease and enjoyment, just in case you missed some of them. We know you have busy lives, San Diego. Personally I'd like to say a huge thanks to the entire team here at the 'Yard, to the developers and community that still endeavours to create really awesome Dreamcast software/news content; and also to you - our readers - for continuing to visit and make what we do here worthwhile. Anyway, here's some curated highlights from 2021...
Reviews
Intrepid Izzy - Lewis took a look at Senile Team's awesome action-platformer, declaring it a rather special experience that all Dreamcast owners should own.
Xenocider - Tom cast a critical eye over Retro Sumus' years-in-the-making 3D into-the-screen shooter, decreeing it to be the Sin and Punishment homage we all deserve.
Surf Rocket Racers - James dipped his toe into the waters of Crave Entertainment and CRI Middleware's jet-ski racer, and found it to be quite a pleasant experience if not a Wave Race beater.
Stunt GP - RC vehicles tearing around locales strangely devoid of any human life? That's Stunt GP and Tom rather liked it.
Bang! Gunship Elite - Some see it as Starlancer's poor relation, but Bang! Gunship Elite is a decent space shooter in its own right. Find out why here.
Q*Bert - One of gaming's most well-known and foul-mouthed characters made an appearance on the Dreamcast, but was it really worth the effort?
Taxi 2 - Derek Pascarella released an English language translation of the French exclusive Taxi 2 earlier in 2021, and James decided it was time to take a fare in this elusive movie tie-in.
Wetrix+ - Earthquakes and torrential rain are the name of the game (poetry?) in this Dreamcast remaster of the Nintendo 64 puzzler...but is it worth a punt?
European Super League - One of the Dreamcast's numerous PAL-exclusive soccer titles, we thought it was a good time to take a look at Virgin's poor effort in the wake of the collapse of the real-life Super League.
F1 World Grand Prix II for Dreamcast - Tom did a few laps with Video System's Dreamcast F1 sequel, and included a potted history of the series too.
Sega Extreme Sports - James decided it was high time to catch some radical air with Innerloop's extreme sports title, and found the time to chat with the studio's CEO Henning Rokling, too.
UEFA Dream Soccer - At the other end of the footballing spectrum to European Super League, UEFA Dream Soccer is perhaps the finest recreation of the beautiful game on Dreamcast...for now at least.
Features and News
New Year's Resolutions 2021 - The Junkyard team set out their resolutions for 2021. How many did we stick to before chinning them off mere weeks into the new year?!
Typing Jet: The lost Jet Set Radio game? - Tom goes on a trip down the rabbit hole looking for the enigmatic and presumed lost mobile version of Jet Set Radio - Typing Jet.
A homebrew Dreamcast MIDI Interface Cable appears!- A talented chap called Ben Ryves took matters into his own hands and created a homebrew version of the elusive HKT-9200 Dreamcast MIDI Interface Cable. He then made some music on a Dreamcast with it. What a legend.
I mode! You mode! We all mode for i-mode! - Scott went on a trip back through time to investigate the i-mode functionality Japanese mobile gamers enjoyed back in the day, and also checked out some of the Dreamcast-derived software that appeared on the platform.
Petrol Panic! 6 of the best gas stations in Dreamcast games - Plenty of Dreamcast games feature gas stations, and during the height of the UK's fuel shortage, Tom reviewed some of the best (and worst) filling stations to be found in the Dreamcast's library.
Preview - Non Casual Encounter - SEGASaturno Productions returned with a proof of concept demo for their next title, Non Casual Encounter. You can now order one of only 100 copies of this intiguing visual novel, but be quick!
Let's take a look at Shenmue World from Shenmue Dojo - Shenmue super site Shenmue Dojo released Shenmue World earlier in 2021. Tom took delivery of a copy of this weighty tome and put his thoughts on the blog.
Previously unseen prototype Dreamcast logo discovered - An eagle-eyed Redditor discovered a previously unseen prototype Dreamcast logo on the Japanese patent office website. Hidden in plain sight for all these years...chimpanzee that!
Interviews
Out of Print Archive - Andy and Neil, curators of the Out of Print Archive dropped by the Junkyard to discuss all things gaming magazines of yesteryear. In this revealing interview we covered the origins of the Out of Print Archive, the ingestion process and how the team decides which magazines should be preserved digitally.
WAVE Game Studios - Daniel from WAVE Game Studios stopped by to tell us about the origins of the newest publisher of indie Dreamcast games, and how they hope to kickstart a renaissance of Dreamcast physical game releases on store shelves.
DreamPod episodes
All of our podcast episodes can be found on your favourite 'podcatcher,' or simply by going to our Buzzsprout site here. Alongside our usual chaos, we did have some great guest epsiodes in 2021 and those are detailed below.
DreamPod Episode 87: Caspar Field - Former editor of Dreamcast print magazine DC-UK Caspar Field joined the DreamPod team in January to speak about his memories of the magazine and how it all began; the short lived Mr Dreamcast magazine project; and Caspar also recounted his experiences working in game development.
DreamPod Episode 88: Video Game Esoterica - Game preservationist extraordinaire Anthony Bacon, of YouTube Channel Video Game Esoterica, joined the DreamPod to speak about Dreamcast oddities, Kenji Eno's D2, and his own quest to educate the world on the fate of the 3DO M2.
DreamPod Episode 91: Dreamcast in 2000 - Once again co-hosted by the Dreamcast Years crew, the second crossover episode of the year focussed on Dreamcast and wider pop culture in the year 2000.
DreamPod Episode 93: Dreamcast translations - The DreamPod welcomed stalwarts of the Dreamcast fan translation scene Derek Pascarella and Burntends to talk all things Sakura Wars Colmuns 2 and the wider efforts by the translation community.
DreamPod Episode 100: Peter Moore & Listener Questions- For the momentous occasion marking 100 episodes of DreamPod, the crew answered listener questions; but also welcomed former SEGA of America president Peter Moore onto the show to talk about his history with the Dreamcast.
Videos
You may already know that we have a YouTube channel, but we also have a Twitch channel too so be sure to check that out. On our YouTube we regularly hold livestreamed discussions (lovingly titled 'bookclubs'), and below you'll find links to some of these Kev-hosted video chats.
Things we were asked not to feature because we're 'content thieves, and everybody in the Dreamcast community knows it'
Castlevania Resurrection
Once again, thanks to you for reading, listening to and watching our Dreamcast related nonsense over the past year (well, past 16 years!). If you'd like to support what we do, you can do so at Buy Me a Coffee. Please also feel free to join our Discord and get involved in the chat.
Remember to stay safe, stay cool, keep Dreaming and stay tuned in 2022 for even more of the same.
