Every Dreamcast game featuring a Toyota Celica...because why not?

I recently bought a Toyota Celica. When I showed a picture of it to my sister, she asked if I was having a mid-life crisis. I enthusiastically replied that I'm having a whole-life crisis, but that the purchase of this automobile had nothing to do with it. I just happened to see it going quite cheap and was looking for a replacement for the old diesel estate that had trustily transported me and all my Dreamcast crap to countless gamings expos over the years. So yeah, I'm now a member of the Celica owner's club. Not an actual club - although I'm sure something like that exists for conscientious drivers who like nothing better than adding gigantic spoilers, furry dice, diamond encrusted wheels and go faster stripes to their cars.

I've blanked out my number plate so ne'erdowells don't do ne'erdowell stuff with it.

After owning the Celica for a couple of weeks, something odd slowly dawned on me as I mindlessly played various entries in the racing genre on Dreamcast. No, it wasn't the realisation that nothing even comes close to Spirit of Speed 1937 in simulating the thrills of driving a real race car. It was actually something far less interesting to pretty much everyone who isn't me: the Toyota Celica features in quite a few Dreamcast racing titles...and I'm not just talking about the famous GT-Four rally car either. 

The Celica GT-Four as seen in Sega Rally 2

No, I'm specifically talking about the seventh generation Toyota Celica coupe, the final model Toyota released before killing off the iconic marque in the mid 2000s. A car that - for me at least - has taken on baader-meinhof properties since I started driving one. Seriously - I see them everywhere now. I suppose the answer as to why the seventh generation Celica appeared in so many Dreamcast games is quite obvious when you really think about it though.

The real deal...

The Celica - and specifically the seventh generation model (pictured) - was Toyota's flagship coupe slap bang in the middle of the era of the Dreamcast (the seventh generation Celica was produced between 1999 and 2006), so why wouldn't it appear in so many Dreamcast games as a mid-level sportster? A mid-level sportster with outstanding fuel economy, light weight and outrageous road handling, I should add...but that's a topic for another website entirely.

...the digital deal

Anyway, join me, dear reader, as we look at all the titles on Dreamcast that feature the seventh generation Toyota Celica, and a few that feature the iconic GT-Four...

Metropolis Street Racer

Bizarre Creations' seminal driving game has a surprising number of real world vehicles you can sample the delights of, and though you start small with some fairly low-specced runabouts, as you progress through the chapters more and more powerful cars are revealed; their well-rendered showroom blankets thrown off to reveal the glistening virtual paint beneath. The Celica featured in Metropolis Street Racer is ranked with a modest 4.0 CPF (Car Performance Rating), meaning it's not quite the top end of the stable, but does the job for the chapters in which it becomes available. 

MSR's vehicle selection screen is pretty cool

It's the favoured 190bhp model used in MSR

It handles well (like most cars in this game to be honest) and has a decent top speed. The model is very faithful too, although it does lack the interior details seen in some other games listed here. Due to MSR's lack of any real tuning or visual detail options, you can't really change much apart from the tint of the windows, the colour of the paint and the registration plate, but that's OK.

This is taken from the 'Exhibition' mode

Doing a bit of sightseeing in London of an evening

Metropolis Street Racer's Celica is a fine representation of the real thing, and as you'd expect it features the standard 6-speed gearbox found in the real vehicle (7-speed if you count reverse), but to be honest you'd kind of expect this level of authenticity in a game where the developers measured the actual height of curbs in London to make sure everything looked as accurate as possible. It would have been nice to be able to add spoilers or change the alloy wheels, but that wasn't really a thing with any of the cars in MSR, so I'm happy to give it a pass on that front.

Developer Interview: Senile Team

Senile Team is one of the premier independent studios currently developing games for the Dreamcast. With an impressive portfolio comprising such well-known and critically acclaimed titles as Rush Rush Rally Racing and the ever-popular Beats of Rage, Senile Team has already claimed its seat at the top table. With this in mind, we though it was about time that we got together with one of Senile Team's main men Roel van Mastbergen to find out a little bit more about the history of the outfit, their influences and get some details on the brand new platform adventure heading to PC and Dreamcast very soon - Intrepid Izzy.

DCJY: Hello Roel, thanks very much for agreeing to talk to The Dreamcast Junkyard! We’re big fans of your output on the Dreamcast. Could you tell all those people who may not be familiar a little bit about yourself and the history of Senile Team?

Roel van Mastbergen: Hi Tom, thanks for inviting me to this interview. I’m Roel van Mastbergen, designer, artist and programmer for Senile Team. Senile Team is a small indie developer (currently made up of four people) originally founded in 2003, when we created Beats of Rage. This beat ‘em up based on Streets of Rage proved very popular, and we decided to keep making games, especially for the Dreamcast. Our next release was the Micro Machines-inspired Rush Rush Rally Racing, of which we recently did an updated re-release - Rush Rush Rally Reloaded which we also brought to the Nintendo Wii a few years ago.

It’s very interesting that you mention Beats of Rage - I’m pretty sure that most Dreamcast owners are familiar with it, but possibly don’t know that Senile Team is responsible for the original engine. Before we get to Beats of Rage though, one thing I have to ask - where does the studio's name ‘Senile Team’ actually come from? You don't strike me as being particularly old or decrepit. Much.

Well, back in the day we used to communicate via a mailing list. When creating the mailing list, I found that most names that actually made sense were already taken, so I sort of randomly picked the name 'Senile.' When we completed Beats of Rage, we decided to stick to it. We felt it made sense in a way, because we'd just made an old school game. 'Old' and 'senile' go hand in hand, after all!

New Dreamcast Games From JoshProd Ship

You'll no doubt recall a few months ago we shared the news that French publisher JoshProd was lining up a range of new Dreamcast releases and re-releases. One of these was Breakers (our review is here), and another was the new Rush Rush Rally Reloaded. The good news is that the games have now been manufactured, the PAL cases have been acquired and shipping has commenced for everyone who pre-ordered. We heard some real horror stories about the website of choice (French games site Rush On Game), but is seems many of the niggles have been ironed out. JoshProd shared some amazing images on Facebook and we thought they were worth sharing here too:

Did you order? Have you got your games yet? If so, what are your thoughts on these new releases and re-releases? Let us know in the comments or join the discussion in our Facebook group.

Rush Rush Rally Reloaded Heads Up List Of Dreamcast Re-Releases

Heads up folks. There's a new Dreamcast release coming very soon. Rush Rush Rally Reloaded is heading our way and it features a whole host of improvements and fixes. Rush Rush Rally Racing was released on the Dreamcast a few years ago and it was then re-released on the Nintendo Wii.

This re-re-release on the Dreamcast (still with me?) is based on the Wii version, but includes a ton of further updates. We spoke to Roel van Mastbergen from Senile Team to get the full lowdown on this latest addition to the Dreamcast's library. Here's a full list, courtesy of Roel himself:

Hi Dreamcast Junkyard! It's true - Rush Rush Rally Reloaded is coming to the Sega Dreamcast and it will come in both PAL and DVD-style long box packaging! Both will be available in limited quantities but will feature the following improvements to the game:

• Two new single player modes: Time Attack and Challenge, which is  like "Get Ahead" from the original game, but against CPU players.
• Totally redesigned menus
• Changed camera distance so you can see more of the road ahead
• Some improved graphics, including: light beams are larger and rotated more smoothly, more colourful billboards, additional illustrations
• Faster loading times
• Stable 60fps in both single and multiplayer modes
• Removed video mode switches between 640x480 and 320x240 resolutions, so low-resolution parts are now upscaled to 640x480
• A mode for detecting when people copy and paste lists
• Support for more character sets in name entry
• Usability improvements, such as last entered name is remembered for name entry so you don't have to re-enter your name every time you play
• Improved legibility of internet score codes
• Improved control configuration options
• Added engine sound options
• 6 languages: English, German, Dutch, Spanish, French, Italian
• DVD case version will feature an 8 page colour manual

As stated by Roel, the game will be available in a DVD style case, but also in PAL flavour too. Even more interesting is that the PAL print run will be handled by JoshProd, a small company based in France specialised in re-releasing old games. Josh Prod have been involved in several re-release projects, the most notable of which was a re-issue of Neo Geo AES cartridge Neo Drift Out (in collaboration with Visco) in 2016. 

Along with Rush Rush Rally Reloaded, JoshProd will also be offering re-prints of certain previously released Dreamcast games such as Ghost Blade, Dux, Alice Mom's Rescue and a run of a new-to-Dreamcast 2D SNK fighter called Breakers. All of these come with PAL-styled packaging and redesigned manuals; and in some cases also include new content.