Dreamcast: Worth the Hype?

TOKYO - Right off the bat, I gotta say that I've been excited about Dreamcast from the beginning. That said, I was disappointed in Sega's showing at the Tokyo Game Show. Here's my impressions of the Dreamcast:

ControllerI really like the controller. At first I thought it looked huge in pictures and would be awkward to hold. It's surprisingly easy to grab onto, with every button feeling like it was in the right place. The analog stick was easy to control and the cord coming out from the bottom was not nearly as annoying as I thought it would've been. This is definitely a better controller than the standard Nintendo 64 gamepad.

Sonic Adventure Whew! Sonic Adventure is excellent. This is a fantastic showcase title for the Dreamcast. It runs smoothly, plays great (just like a Sonic game usually does), and has the kind of variety that 3D action games need nowadays. As Sonic, I played through Speed Highway. What a great level to show what the DC can do. After being jetted around this loopy track, you eventually get to Mario 64 style gameplay with jumping and smashing. Afterwards there's a scene with Sonic running down the side of a building that is really a sight to behold. It all runs at 60 frames a second, too.

Then I played the game as Tails in the Ice Cap stage snowboarding against Sonic to escape the wrath of an avalanche. If this is any indication of how good snowboarding/skateboarding games are going to be, there's plenty of potential there. Unfortunately I lost the race, but there's always a next time… Sonic, I'll get you in December!

Sonic Adventure is still early and is choppy in some bits, but not when playing with Sonic or Tails (I noticed some choppiness using e-102r). It looks great, and the story scenes also look incredible. This is one game for any Sonic fan to watch out for.

Virtua Fighter 3tb I'll admit that I'm not a huge fighting game fan but VF3tb looked great. Having not played much of arcade game, I can't say if the Dreamcast version is an exact arcade port, but it looks really close. It'll sell regardless, and if you're interesting in fighting titles VF3tb will be a superb title.

Pen Pen TriIcelonIt's racing, it's wacky, and cartoony, it's Pen Pen TriIcelon from General Entertainment. While I was originally sort of excited to see what kind of game this would turn out to be, I'm a little disappointed. The frame rate is nice and smooth, but the game is too slow to be any kind of fun racing title, at least from the few minutes I spent with it. You also have to rhythmically push your Pen Pen along in most cases, so that can make it quite difficult to control.

Godzilla Generations This is another one I thought looked interesting, but was not pleased by the overall look of the game and its control. Godzilla Generation just handles so slowly even when you're the Western Godzilla from this past summer's monster flick. Destroying towns is great and can be lots of fun (like in Rampage), but the game plays very, very slowly.

Sega RallyOnly shown on video, Rally 2 looked like it has a lot of potential. Let's just hope Sega is able to complete the final version in time for the DC's launch, otherwise only Virtua Fighter will be there to represent the system.

Blue Stinger Last but not least, Blue Stinger. The game seems very straightforward, but the control scheme is shoddy having one of the top 4 buttons on the controller being pause, instead of the button that's clearly marked “start.” It plays a lot like Resident Evil, it's very smooth. Looks great, but the gameplay and control is going to have to be tweaked. It's not easy enough to work out how to fire off weapons, etc.

I think that if done right, Dreamcast will find itself in the marketplace a few years down the line doing quite well. A few of these launch/post-launch titles are still early, and there's some time left to make changes. Still, Sega has a good chance to get it right this time.