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Big topic this week. One that was actually able to pry us away from Street Fighter IV. But, alas, we were once again brought into our realm of nostalgia and sadness for one of the things we loved most: Sega. Join us for a discussion on the former video-game giant as well as the usual hilarity and the new listmania format we now call "The 5". Can you believe there's hardly any SFIV noise in the background?
Intro Music: Mexican Flyer by Naofumi Hataya, Kenichi Tokoi, Ken Woodman (Space Channel 5)
Outro Music: Segata Sanshiro by Tomita Ichirou
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Nrrrgghh, you guys make me wish I had more Sega around when I was younger.
Also, I want to play Valkyria Chronicles so bad. I swear I will at some point.
Awesome stuff guys, another brilliant episode!
I've always been a Nintendo kid, but did have a sega stint for a while with a friends borrowed console. My question is, what about battletoads on genesis! Co-op with the ability to smash you friend at any given time! We use to spend more time beating each other up then completing the missions!
Ah, the nostalgia. Keep the S Words coming guys!
Funny thing about Battletoads is I always thought of it as a NES game, but looking it up proves it was ported over. Learn something new every day.
Great job, guys. I own Valkyria Chronicles twice, and I believe Dom still has my autographed cover.
BTW, Myst created the sandbox genre 6 years before Shenmue. It was even ported to the Saturn, so you can't say Shenmue was the first console one.
Myst was a sandbox game? I always thought it was lumped in with the graphic adventure genre.
Depends on what you consider the line is between adventure game and sandbox, I suppose. Myst was the first game to be so immersive and nonlinear as to have people play it for hours just for the experience of it, even though there's an "ending".
That's fair enough - for technicality's sake, I'll say in the future that Myst was a graphic adventure with sandbox sensibilities, though Shen Mue was the first modern example of what we would call a sandbox-style game. No crime, though...
Dreamcast Failure: No Phantasy Star. PSO doesn't count. :p
Man, you guys brought on so much nostalgia for me. My childhood was on the island of Guam on an Air force Base in the late 80s into the late 90s so I never got that many games or systems anywhere near their release but, I grew into video games on the NES and Sega Genesis.
I was mostly a Nintendo kid to be honest but, I also had the Genesis when it came out and it was bundled with Sonic 1 or 2(Can't remember). I stayed with the Sonic franchise until Sonic 3D and stopped there(Mickey's Castle of Illusion was one of my favorites as well). I was also one of those kids who passed over the Saturn and Dreamcast entirely due to the Playstation marketing machine and the Nintendo 64. Though, this was more a money issue then anything and the fact that I'm not a good gamer by any means. I just have a lot of patience so RPGs work for me best and the PSX and Nintendo always had plenty for me to choose from.
As time went on I grew into rail shooters and fighting games but more so Mortal Kombat, DOA, and Tekken then anything else(Street Fighter was never a game I could ever find or know anyone who did play). I was never an arcade lurker either and still am not as I generally find myself at home playing either the occasional RPG or something from KOEI on my Playstation 2 or something on my Gamecube(I've still yet to venture into the next gen).
Thank you for the information about these old Sega titles I missed and the Sega history in general. Its opened my eyes more about their company. And it makes me even sadder about missing the several opportunities I've had in my 20 years of life so far to play the Dreamcast/Saturn and several of their best games.
Listening to this podcast was a mistake. I'm in my dorm room right now, and all my Sega stuff (save for Gunstar Heroes on Virtual Console) is back at my dad's place. You guys seriously have me all misty-eyed for my collection.
I got my first paycheck the month Sega pulled the plug on the Dreamcast. I bought one before I knew it was dead. And it made me feel like an asshole. I always wanted to be a Sega kid like Dom, but until the Dreamcast I always had to go halves with my brother, and he won out. So that meant SuperNES instead of Genesis. That meant Nintendo64 instead of Saturn. And somehow we thought it was a good idea to sell all our SuperNES stuff to get a PlayStation (I'm not bitter...).
But man, that first paycheck, I went out and got a Dreamcast, a second controller, a couple VMU's, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, Street Fighter Alpha 3, and Hydro Thunder. I've been making up for lost time ever since. I've lost count, but last time I had solid numbers I'd invested upwards of $1400 in the Dreamcast, games, and accessories. Yes. Invested.
We now have (between my brother and myself) Atari 2600, Colecovision, NES, Master System, SuperNES, Genesis/SegaCD/32X, PlayStation, Saturn, Nintendo64, Dreamcast, Xbox (and 360), Gameboy (toaster, Super, Advance, and Player), DS, and a Wii. I'm still bitter about the Dreamcast's demise and refuse to buy a PS2. With all that under my belt, I think I can honestly say Dreamcast was one of the two best consoles ever created. I can't bring myself to choose between it and the SuperNES - even Sega kids can't deny Super Mario World, Final Fantasy III/VI, R-Type III, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Super Metroid.
All right, enough of my nostalgic ramblings, and back to yours.
Love the show. In the last eight years, I've turned into a Sega fanboy, but I still learned stuff here. And plenty of topics, I knew exactly where you were coming from. I have one problem, though:
You guys gave absolutely zero love to Panzer Dragoon and Rez!
Rez was actually on my list until I thought I'd save it for a different time and try to focus more on Sega-exclusive titles. Believe me, I love Rez. Lots.
What's more Sega-exclusive than a game made by Sega?
Sorry, those are the only two games I've lost entire weekends to in the past year (and there have been several weekends lost). I've been trying to make all my friends buy those games in any incarnation they can find.
I've never played a Panzer Dragoon game...
I grew up with Nintendo and dropped out during N64 era and didn't come back till Dreamcast.
I'm really hoping that Sega either makes another Panzer game (doubtful) or re-releases Panzer Dragoon Orta as an Xbox Original Whatever They're Actually Called via Xbox Live. It's not as great an overall experience as Rez, but as a pure, on-rails shooter it's on a whole different level. Too bad there were so few pressings.
Panzer Dragoon RPG and Panzer Dragoon Orta are #15 and #16 on my list
Lots of sega nostalgia : o
Great but...shame on you for not mentioning Virtua Fighter at least once! : )
Listened to this episode again, and noticed something you guys missed: some of the uses of the VMU.
1) Hidden play-calling. In the NFL 2k series, you could enable an option so that your play calling wouldn't show up on the TV screen. You'd just scroll and select them by name on your VMU screen so that your opponent wouldn't know what play you called.
2) In Virtua Tennis, the match you were playing was shown simultaneously in low-res 2D goodness on the VMU screen. OK, not entirely useful, but kinda nifty.
3) Away-from-console file management. You could copy and delete stuff with just the VMU. You could even link them up and give/take files with your friend (assuming your friend had a Dreamcast).
4) ...and who could forget, raising a Chao. I'm ashamed to admit how many CR2032 batteries I went through with those things.
This could probably wait until the Sakura Taisen podcast, but the VMU was nice in that it showed a mini-map that showed relative position of the active unit and the surrounding enemy units. It gave a precise grid instead of the 3/4 view that could lead to misjudged AOE aiming. Not a required element at all, but definitely useful.
Also, it showed a character portrait of the pilot (with proper reactions to Cover, taking damage, etc.), and gave a readout of current HP and super meter. And when performing said super, flashed the name across the VMU screen as well (in kanji, French, and even Cyrillic!). It's the little things that make up life.