Showing posts with label SEGA Forever. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SEGA Forever. Show all posts

A Brief History Of ChuChu Rocket! In Your Pocket

ChuChu Rocket! is a puzzle game that is undoubtedly a product of a struggling Sega. Imaginative, innovative, insane - one of the many one-of-a-kind experiments that was thrown at a wall in the Sega headquarters in the hopes that something would eventually stick and save the Dreamcast once and for all. Maybe this attempt to stand out was what led Sonic Team to create not just one of the most memorable puzzle games on the Sega Dreamcast, but one of the best and most memorable puzzle games ever made.
For the uninitiated, the premise of ChuChu Rocket! is simple. You place directional arrows on a checker board to guide mice (the titular ChuChus) to rocket ships, all whilst making sure they don't get eaten by giant orange cats that look like they are perpetually tripping on acid.
The guiding brainless animals to safety thing had been done eight years prior by DMA Design's Lemmings, but Sonic Team managed to take the concept and push it to the brink of madness whilst also throwing in a bonkers multiplayer mode and online play (that's still available today thanks to DreamPi). It serves as a high quality break for any Dreamcast fan who has sunk hours into deeper experiences like Shenmue or Phantasy Star Online who just wants to play something simple whilst also having an absolutely cracking time.

These days, with smart phones being in everyone's pockets, puzzle games that are easy to pick up and play function as perfect time wasters on a morning commute or even when we just can't be bothered to do anything else. Sadly, as I'm sure many of us can all agree, the vast majority of smartphone puzzlers are trite, micro-transaction ridden nonsense. But what if we could take a stellar puzzler like ChuChu Rocket! and play that in the palm of our hand instead? That would make perfect sense, right? Well it turns out that Sega did see ChuChu's portable potential...



Dreamcast Themed Scented Candles On The Way?

I've checked the date and no, it's not April 1st. That said, I'm still not sure if this is a cruel joke or not...so take this with a bucket of salt. Recently, the Sega Forever Facebook account shared these images of an 'in development' Dreamcast-themed scented candle (along with a Mega Drive one, too) and asked for suggestions on what they should smell of. My formative years with the Dreamcast mainly smelled of teen spirit, cheap lager and Pot Noodles; but I'm not sure anybody wants a candle that smells of a student's bedroom.
The design looks really cool and if these are real, surely it means that Sega still has the ability to create new aftermarket Dreamcast shells to replace our yellowing/cracked originals? That said, there's no indication of scale in the images so lets not get our hopes up.

So what do you think? Would you be down for a Dreamcast/Mega Drive candle to illuminate your summer evenings or dark winter nights while you huddle around a flickering CRT playing Spirit of Speed 1937? Let us know in the comments. Oh, oh - I've just thought of another: Smells Like Teen Spirit of Speed 1937. Guffaw. I'm wasted here, I tell you.

Source: Sega Forever Facebook

SEGA Forever Finally Revealed, Includes Dreamcast Games!

So the wait is over. SEGA Forever has finally been revealed as the mobile gaming service most of us kinda already guessed it would be. Playing retro titles on mobile devices is nothing new, but this service offers something not yet seen: an ever growing library of titles from across the whole of SEGA's console back catalogue...including the Dreamcast. There are only a handful of Mega Drive titles available initially, but the library will be expanded over time, with Master System and Dreamcast specifically cited on the SEGA Forever website.
Interestingly, the SEGA Forever Twitter account also teased images of the SG-1000 and Saturn recently, so we'll be keen to see if those platforms are emulated too. SEGA Forever is available for iOS and Android devices, and boasts some nice features such as online leaderboards and Bluetooth controller support. The first batch of games, which includes Sonic the Hedgehog, Altered Beast and Comix Zone will be available within 24hrs of the reveal. While games will be free to play, details covered at both SEGA Nerds and SEGAbits suggests that in order to remove adds, a small fee will apply for each game.


What do you think? Excited for the Dreamcast-specific portion of SEGA Forever? Or is this a crushing letdown? Playing games on a touchscreen has always been a bit guff...so it'll be interesting to see how this changes the landscape - if it can. As far as playing Dreamcast games goes, we'll no doubt be keeping an eye on this and seeing how the emulation competes with what's already out there. Oh, and if we can get the DreamConn to work with our mobiles, that'll be a bonus too!

So, SEGA Forever then. Best thing ever or huge #SEGAFail? Let us know in the comments or join the discussion in our Facebook group. You can also follow SEGA Forever on Twitter for updates.

A Quick Look At The SEGA Forever Audio Tape

SEGA Forever, if you're not familiar, is a mysterious new service that Sega has been teasing for the past couple of months, and which many people have speculated will be some kind of mobile gaming platform. While this isn't specifically Dreamcast related in the slightest, it's still pretty cool and will most likely introduce a whole new generation of gamers to the classic Sega IPs of yesteryear. Also, if you're wondering why I keep jumping between writing Sega as 'SEGA' and 'Sega,' it's because it is my prerogative to be as stylistically inconsistent as I like. We only live once, after all. Well, unless you're Chakan the Forever Man...although technically he still only has one life, albeit one that can never be extinguished. But you get the idea.
"Did you just spill my pint?"
This week, we received an intriguing package at the Junkyard and at first we were a little concerned. In this era of heightened security measures, receiving an unexpected package - especially one with a Sega postmark on it - sets alarm bells ringing all over the joint. We needn't have worried though, as after the envelope had been carefully steamed open above a frantically boiling kettle, the assault droids were stood down and I personally extracted the following items from said envelope while wearing a reinforced hazmat suit (aka some fetching negligee):
Yes, a rather spiffing SEGA Forever branded audio cassette tape and a biro. This is cool for several reasons, and not least because I'm old enough to appreciate the 'biro and tape' reference - back in the 'old days' we used to use a biro to wind the tape back up if it unwound inside the tape deck or got chewed up in the player heads. It happened more times that I care to remember with my copy of Now 23, and I'll never forget the great sense of loss I felt when Would I Lie To You by Charles & Eddie ended up sounding more like an experimental Beatles track. But I digress.