1999 Dreamcast Holiday Buyer's Guide
What
was naughty and nice with the Dreamcast this year? We give our
suggestions.
November 12, 1999
Lastly,
we thought we'd take a look at the year's events, with a holiday
twist. As you all know, Santa always wants to keep tabs on who's
been naughty and who's been nice, so we thought we'd help him out a
bit with our own take. Here are our thoughts on what was good and
what was bad with the Dreamcast this year:
BRANDON'S NAUGHTY AND NICE LIST
NAUGHTY: Faulty GD-ROMS at launch
NICE:: The Dreamcast's arrival, of course
NAUGHTY: Electronic Arts and their strategic boycott of
the Dreamcast
NICE:: Visual Concepts and their contributions to sports
gaming
NAUGHTY: Sega's failure to get me Crazy Taxi and
Zombie Revenge in time for Christmas!
NICE:: Seaman confirmed for America!
NAUGHTY: The Dreamcast controller and its lack of buttons!
NICE:: 60 frames per second
NAUGHTY: Online play's little "vacation
NICE:: Yuji Naka and sonic team confirming a new
Phantasy star
NAUGHTY: Game delays
NICE:: Third parties like Capcom, UbiSoft and midway
pulling out all the stops
NAUGHTY: Namco's reluctance for continued support
NICE:: Two words: Soul Calibur.
NAUGHTY: A lack of gameplay footage in Sega's TV ad
campaign
NAUGHTY: Even the slightest hint that we won't see
VOOT in America
NAUGHTY: Any publication who felt comfortable declaring
the Dreamcast dead upon hearing of PlayStation 2
COLIN'S NAUGHTY AND NICE LIST
NAUGHTY: Sega of Japan for their constant delays. Come on,
how long does it really take to port a simple NAOMI-based
game like Zombie Revenge?
NICE:: Yukawa-san. Sega's managing director has appeared
in Dreamcast TV and print ads, and even a VMS Mini-game called
Space Senmue, taking the bullet for Sega's past failures in a
humorous fashion. Some day, I'm going to get one of those six-foot
cardboard standups of Yukawa selling Dreamcasts off a wooden cart
with a bullhorn.
NAUGHTY: Posessed Dreamcast Kiosks. Some evil Japanese
vendors have "converted" their DC kiosks into kiosks of EVIL. When
we went to buy Chu Chu Rocket, we saw the new Tomba
game playing in what was supposed to be a Dreamcast kiosk!
But we got our revenge by squirting "Prell" onto the PSX controller.
NICE:: Namco. You made Soul Calibur. We love you
and will follow you to the ends of the earth, and even pretend that
Tekken Tag Tournament doesn't suck that much if it comes out
on the DC. The Legend Will Never Die!
NAUGHTY: Yu Suzuki. You're a bad, bad man for delaying
Shen Mue again.
NICE: Japanese Arcades. Not only do they include comfy
seats to sit on while you play your favorite games, but ice cream
machines, too! We went to one in Osaka where the arcade operators
gave out candy to anyone playing. Rock out!
NAUGHTY: Capcom, for neglecting how much Power
Stone kicked ass, and punishing us with a slew of
bordering-on-crappo 2D games like Giga Wing and Jo Jo's
Venture. I like 2D as much as the next guy, but let's get
cracking on some more NAOMI games, shall we?
ANOOP'S NAUGHTY AND NICE LIST
NAUGHTY: Climax Landers and Langrisser Millenium are each
more of a turd than Sengoku Turd (err, I mean, Sengoku Turb), making
Evolution the best Dreamcast RPG thus far.
NICE: Sakura Wars week. I manage to get Sakura as the top
story on IGNDC, and the week of endless Sakura stories pissed off so
many readers that Usenet messages begin to, uhh, question my
intentions.
NAUGHTY: Sega doesn't shrink the hight of the console down
by a centimeter when the bring it stateside. Come on! It's too tall!
NICE: Promise of Sakura Project 2000: 2000 will be the
year of Sakura, damnit! The year of Sakura! Damn you, the year of
Sakura!
NAUGHTY: The Dreamcast arrives in America with a bad
controller.
NICE: Seeing the What's Shenmue video for the first time,
marveling in its splendor, and stealing the tape from the office
ever more (we've uploaded the tape in its entirety, though - see the
Shenmue preview.
NAUGHTY: The little problem where the semi-translucent
triangle thing on the Dreamcast console doesn't align when you close
the door isn't fixed for the US release. Sega must send
representatives to homes across the nation in order to fix the
problem
JEREMEY'S NAUGHTY AND NICE LIST
NAUGHTY: No Interact Alloy stick at launch. I really
wanted one of those things back then!
NICE: Sega has come back, and come back hard!
NAUGHTY: NAMCO falling off the face of the earth after
Soul Calibur... guys?
NICE: Shadow Man, Soul Reaver, KISS Psycho Circus, Dark
Angel, and all the other games out there that are on the darker side
of things.
NAUGHTY: The lack of a truly great RPG the first few
months of the DC's existence
NICE: Except for a few titles, a very strong lineup of
fighting games
NAUGHTY: All those PlayStation and Nintendo 64 fans that
refuse to give Sega another chance still think the Dreamcast is some
sort of advanced fishing rod.
NICE: That nifty "Thief" commerical that was running those
last weeks before launch.
NAUGHTY: Mortal Kombat Gold... speaks for itself.
NICE: The possibilty that I may finally see a sequel to
E-SWAT Cybercop has finally become a reality!
MATTHEW'S NAUGHTY AND NICE LIST
NAUGHTY: Dreamcast delayed in Europe and Australia
NICE: 60hz full screen mode made available for deprived
European gamers at last!
NAUGHTY: Shortage of machines at European launch
NICE: Sarah Dixon for being such a cool person (can I have
that copy of Metropolis now please?)
NAUGHTY: Delays of Shenmue, Resident Evil: Code Veronica,
D2 and Zombie Revenge
NICE: Namco developing for the Dreamcast. Need I say more?
NAUGHTY: No sequels to Nights, Burning Rangers or Deep
Fear announced
NICE: Ready 2 Rumble turning out to be a surprise hit and
an excellent game
NAUGHTY: Hardcore Heat turning out to be complete rubbish
NICE: Broken sales records at the European and American
Dreamcast launches
 NAUGHTY: Bernie Stolar leaving Sega America
NICE: Resident Evil 2 announced for Dreamcast. Sure, it
may be just a port of a three year old game, but people, it's
Resident Evil! Ain't new clothes not enough for you bitter people?
NAUGHTY: Lazy European conversion for Virtua Fighter 3tb
NAUGHTY: Finding out that House Of The Dead 2 really
didn't feature the original game in the end!
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