8 Video Game Tech Demos Which LIED To You
3. Dreamcast's Mr. Irimariji
SEGA always played by their own songbook, and no more was their unique, often quixotic melody heard than during their Dreamcast swansong.
Whereas regular companies would have sold the powerful new hardware on souped-up versions of the most popular mainstream genres of the time, SEGA said nah, bugger that. Instead, they designated a quotidian life sim and a fishy tamagotchi with the face of a middle-aged salaryman two of the console's flagship games. Whilst Sony would attach cult director David Lynch to lead what'd be a massively successful advertising campaign for the PS2, SEGA had a judoka yell at kids in the street. Even the console's pre-release hype was typically SEGA: the tech demos showing off the Dreamcast didn't display flashy space scenes or incredible action, but, predominantly, the gurning face of president Shoichiro Irimajiri.
After bursting out of a still photograph, Irimajiri's face cycles through a variety of graphical effects. He has his ears pulled like Super Mario 64's startup and floats around a city under an alien invasion, before finally blasting off into space. It's like an utterly bizarre prototype of LA Noire's much vaunted facial animation tech, sans the dodgy limbs and illogical outbursts.
Very impressive then, but Cole Phelps would have shouted 'doubt' at the display. Irimajiri's disembodied bonce was in no way typical of the Dreamcast's capabilities, unless the game was just a head and nothing more.
A more accurate depiction of the console's powers followed. Created by Yu Suzuki, the 'Tower of Babel' environmental demo would ultimately form the basis of Shenmue, a game which boasted the Dreamcast's best faces by far - but none of them anywhere like as realistic as the SEGA President's.