Wednesday, July 22, 2009

New Dreamcast games in 2008-2009


Isn't it amazing how things work out? In the year 2002 the headlines read. "DREAMCAST DEAD!" but year after year new software, homebrews, and emulations continue to appear for the Sega's last white hope. Its hasn't had an official Sega release in over two years, the last official game was Karous but since then worldwide Independent developers have discovered a soft spot for our little dream machine. On November 5, 2008 Wind and Water: Puzzle Battle was released for the Dreamcast. Developed by Yuan Works and published by Redspotgame, this puzzle game came out first for the GPX2 handheld and was later ported over to the Dreamcast with added content, options, and graphics. The story mode plays similar to Super Mario Bros. 3 but based around a puzzle system. The puzzle mechanics are very innovative and different from other puzzle games of our era. Instead of matching up blocks vertically or horizontally you have to match them up in a diamond pattern by what element they are, Water, Earth, Wind, fire, etc.
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Once you have 4 like elements they and whatever similar elements around them disintegrate. Which then awards you points! Some of the combos can be very fun to pull off. Combos such as chains, full, and dual come in handy to stop the press. The "Press" is what your fighting against in W&W. Its a large black waffle-like thing that pushes up from the bottom. One the press reaches the top you lose but you have numerous combo variations to push the press down so it will not menace you.
On the 15 June 2009, YET ANOTHER Independently produced Dreamcast game was released. This time from Hucast. Which is a German indie studio. DUX is a horizontal shooter which draws much of its inspiration from R-Type. The whole game is in full CGI graphics and the music is a cool techno melody. The game oozes futuristic space combat sci-fi action! There are 6 levels to the game all of which are very long and well done. Some have commented on the difficulty but once you get the hang of the soaking ability the game won't be overly difficult but it will still give you a challenge.

Both games are now bundled on Redspotgames.com or separately on Hucast.net and Play-Asia.com

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