Today marks the 10th anniversary of the release of the Sega Dreamcast on 9/9/1999 – the very first released of the sixth generation of gaming consoles. As the last console developed by Sega, we’ve got a bit of a tribute to the ill-fated awesomeness that was the Dreamcast.
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Throughout its limited lifespan, the Dreamcast didn’t have too many RPGs that made it over to American shores. However, the few it did have were classics. Grandia II was definitely one of them, and even after the premature death of Sega’s system it lived on through PC and Playstation 2 ports (although those two were a bit rough around the edges with the PC version containing several bugs and glitches). While it’s your standard Japanese RPG for the most part, Grandia II’s story, gameplay, and monsters help set this game apart from its peers. While it’s no Final Fantasy 7, genre fans will want to add this game to their collection.
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Not all games based on movies or cartoons are bad, and when the licenses expire the games disappear too! This is the Powet Top 5 Lost Licensed Games, presented by Keep Playing!

Think I missed a game? Leave a comment and let me know!

Take one part Virtua Cop, one part Mission Impossible, 1/2 cup minigame elements, stir, and bake at 450 degrees for 25 minutes. After it cools down, you’ll end up Sega AM3’s (at the time doing business as Hitmaker) 2001 sleeper light gun rail shooter Confidential Mission. Playing as a secret agent (or 2 if playing 2 player), you set out to stop a terrorist organization from taking control of a satellite. You’ll travel to a museum, a train, then the terrorist headquarters. Gameplay is pretty much what you’d expect from a light gun shooter, although there are some minigames spread about. You’ll try to guide a grappling hook to it’s target, break out of a room filling with gas, and attempt to rescue a girl. Of course you can play this game with a controller, but obviously you’re going to want to play using a lightgun, as it will make the minigames much easier. Along with a replication of the arcade game, the Dreamcast home version includes an ‘Original mode’ (a mode with a different set of challenges), a training mode, and a decent amount of unlockable features. The home version extras are a good thing, as the main game only has three stages. Even with its lack of replay value, fans of light gun shooters who still hold on to their Dreamcasts will want to get this game, along with a lightgun to play it with. It may be a bit hard to find, but it will be well worth the purchase.

First of all, pay no attention to the low scores given by other media outlets. This game is the best game to make use of the Spawn license (besides his appearance in the Xbox version of SoulCalibur 2). Surprisingly, it was a third-person shooter made by Capcom. The gameplay is a fusion of Quake 3: Arena and Powerstone. Players select from 37 characters (most of which are unlockable and 12 being available at the start), each with their own array of weapons and powers, and blast their way through several stages in either arcade or story modes. You can also play the standard multiplayer modes for up to 4 players in stages with variable environmental settings. The character selection included nearly everyone from the Spawn mythos, even Cagliostro, Sam, Twitch, and a few alternate versions of Spawn himself. It’s a shame that the game engine was used in only one other game, Heavy Metal Geomatrix. It would have interesting to see more shooters by Capcom done in this style.

WHAT? That’s right. According to Sega’s Japanese website a new game titled “Karous” will be released in Japan on March 8th on the Sega Dreamcast. Yes the Sega Dreamcast. Sega announced over 6 years ago on January 31st 2001 that they would cease production of the Dreamcast.

The game is a top view spaceship shooter somewhat similar to another Dreamcast game, Ikaruga, which was released in September of 2002, long after the console’s end of life. In the long period of time since the system’s death there have still been a handfull of games released for it. Could this finally be the last?

Since this game will only be released in Japan it could only be played in North America through some sort of piracy and we all know that’s not possible on the Dreamcast…

Check out the game’s official site for more information about Karous.

Thanks to Sega nerds for the scoop.

In 2000, Capcom and it’s biggest rival SNK combined thier forces together to make one of the biggest fighting game crossovers since, well, Marvel vs Capcom.  The result had lots of potential, but the point system made the gameplay painfully unbalanced.  Thankfully, it was followed up upon a year later with what to this day remains the biggest 2-d fighting game ever.  Lots of cast members joined from both companies’ various catalogs, from Fatal Fury and Street Fighter to Samurai Showdown and Darkstalkers, and even lesser known games like Rival Schools and Last Blade.  Capcom adopted SNK’s playing system well and managed to integrate it’s own.  With the 6 grooves, players could play thier favorite characters how they wanted.  In short it was fighting game bliss.

A side note, the Xbox version is the only version with online play, and it was one of the first games on Xbox Live.

In a real head-scratching maneuver, the staff of games mega-site IGN has decided to bring back dreamcast.ign.com.
Their reasons are suspect. I can only guess that the fanboy fervor that still surrounds Sega’s final console is active enough to cause the management of IGN to allow this to happen.
Of course, I wouldn’t post about such a thing if I wasn’t a pretty big fan of the Dreamcast too…