30 Great Games That Defined The Dreamcast
19. ChuChu Rocket! (SEGA/Sonic Team)
SL: Ill be honest, even as a Dreamcast enthusiast, ChuChu Rocket! eluded me for quite some time. From what I had seen of the game I was put off by what looked like a headache inducing mix of psychedelic drugs and chess. Eventually, when the console was going through its premature death, I picked up the game in a bargain bin. Man was I wrong - ChuChu Rocket! ended up becoming one of my favourite puzzle games. The gameplay of this neat little puzzler is simple enough: guide the mice (or ChuChus) to their spaceships whilst avoiding the giant red cats by tactically placing giant arrows on the floor. It's a bit like a streamlined version of Lemmings, I suppose. I don't know what the best thing about the ingenious ChuChu Rocket! was. I'm torn between the insanely brilliant Japanese TV advert and the fact that, for a limited time, SEGA gave it out to UK Dreamcast owners for free, sending an invitation (shaped like a rocket) in the post as a friendly surprise. A top notch online mode - with an ahead-of-its-time facility for user generated content - matched the really great central concept, the game only really let down by its relative paucity of offline, on-disc challenges. It's since proven an especially suitable title for handheld consoles, with Gameboy Advance and iPhone versions ensuring its legacy continues. 18. Virtua Tennis (SEGA/AM3)
SL: SEGAs original tennis sim still remains the best after endless sequels and inferior rip-offs. The multiplayer was also some of the best fun you could have on the Dreamcast with your friends. The silly mini-games gave it that distinctly SEGA feel and the graphics were mightily impressive back in the day. I also used to love beating my friends by looking at the VMU instead of the TV screen. Its a risky manuver, but worth doing just for the hell of it. The most recent games in this arcade sports series don't hold a candle to 2K's more hardcore rival Topspin, but when the original was released it represented the finest, most realistic (and fun) tennis video game ever made available in the home. The game's version of Tim Henman looks like some sort of stone-faced cave troll to us now (with our spoiled modern eyeballs), but back then it was remarkable to be able to tell who a video game character was supposed to be without a big flashing sign above their head telling you. Virtua Tennis was fluid and fast-paced, but without the floating, weightlessness of its sequels. It was easy to pick up and play, but also rewarded those who were prepared to delve deeper. It was a great game, but I'll always remember it for the OTT intro which made tennis look like a gladiatorial bout to the death, as solemn players walked out to bombastic orchestration. The spectacularly non-specific words of the announcer, for me, typify the late 90s SEGA arcade game style, as he declares in hammy American-English: "Today is the final that we have long been anticipating. In the long history of this tournament there have seldom been matches played with such passion and effort as we've seen this year. One player collapsed on the court at the end of a match and had be carried off on a stretcher. At the end of another match there was a player who couldn't even move: broke down and cried from sheer exhaustion. The spectators all know the hardship that these two fine players have endured to reach the final. The match will start in a few moments. Neither of them is showing the slightest indication or anxiety or tension. On this, the greatest of courts, the greatest player will show us the greatest of victory smiles. Who will he be? You have all been very patient. Now, at last, the cup final is starting."
Cue soft rock.
Don't know about you, but I'd like to see something like that at the start of FIFA 12. Or at least a downloadable extra commentary, recorded by a 1990s SEGA arcade announcer. Maybe the guy from Virtua Striker 2 2000.1.