Retro Gaming Australia

One of my most loved games of all time.

Shenmue II is the second and currently final chapter of Yu Suzuki’s Dreamcast epic. It’s a much better game than its predecessor, combining the interactivity and atmosphere of the oriignal with a whole lot more action and fighting sequences. The second half of the game is truly magnificent, building up to an amazing final battle, quietening down, and then hitting you with a startling cliffhanger. This ad is for the Xbox port.

Half of Sega’s best 16-bit game.

Originally set for release for Holiday 1993, Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3 proved too ambitious for the company – the size of the cartridge was going to make the game’s manufacturing super expensive, and the rapidly expanding size and scope of the game was likely to make it miss its scheduled release. So they split the game in two – Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for early 1994, and Sonic & Knuckles for late 1994.

Time to make some more crazy money!

Crazy Taxi 2 changes the location to New York City, home of the crazy cab driver and adds the new “Crazy Hop” manoeuvre. It’s not exactly a content rich sequel, but it’s just as fun as the first game.

Or Dynamite Deka, if you prefer.

Die Hard Arcade was an arcade brawler loosely based on the events of the film. It was the last game developed by Sega Technical Institute before they were wound up. The Die Hard license was attached to the game after it was completed – the game was originally called Dynamite Cop, a title retained for the game’s sequel.

Search for Die Hard Arcade on eBay

It’s been a while since we’ve had a foreign language ad on here, so here you go.

Golden Axe II was the Mega Drive exclusive sequel to Golden Axe. Unlike the later arcade sequel The Revenge of Death Adder, Golden Axe II is virtually identical to the first game, a factor not unnoticed by the media at the time. Sadly, The Revenge of Death Adder still hasn’t seen a home release in any form. This ad originates from Spain.

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The cancellation of this was like a sweep to the last legs of the Dreamcast.

Half-Life was a smash hit on the PC, and plans were quickly brought together to take the game to the Dreamcast. They were even planning to give the Dreamcast version a few exclusive levels in the form of Half-Life: Blue Shift. However, the game was cancelled just days before release, and Blue Shift was redirected for release on the PC.

The series’ weakest link.

Streets of Rage 3 is the third and final game (so far) in Sega’s smashing beat ’em up series. Despite packing the same stellar gameplay as the second game, it doesn’t really do anything that improves on it – in fact, some aspects of the game are much worse. It doesn’t help that most of the game’s story was destroyed during localisation, not to mention the other content cuts and censoring that occured.

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Guardian Heroes, Treasure’s rather decent (but not as good as people who paid far too much for it have led you to believe) beat ’em up is due to be re-released on Xbox Live Arcade in October, giving those who weren’t prepared to drop a hundred bucks for the game and a Saturn the opportunity to see what all the fuss is about.

Well, it turns out that project came at the expense of an actual sequel.

Speaking with Eurogamer Treasure’s Hiroto Matsuura states: “Originally, the project started as Guardian Heroes 2. The team that had been working on Sin & Punishment: Star Successor wanted to start a new game. But the publisher [Sega] said in order to create a sequel, they wanted us to revitalize the IP. So instead of starting on the sequel we made a remake.”

Evidently Guardian Heroes 2 would have played like the original, but using 3D assets. Apparently it still might happen if the XBLA version sells well enough. Until then, I guess you could attempt to console yourself with Advance Guardian Heroes, but I don’t recommend it.

According to our beloved Classification Board, a new version of Daytona USA may be coming to a game playing device near you.

Of course, Sega’s saying nothing, but speculation leads us to believe that this may be an XBLA/PSN port of the recently released Sega Racing Classic, which is basically Daytona USA without the Daytona license.

Daytona USA was released in homes on the Saturn and PC, but neither version was an authentic experience. However, you can still find the game at almost any cinema complex in the country, even some 17 years after the game was released.

They were part of the rather barren Dreamcast Collection released earlier in the year, but the lack of announcements left many to believe that Sega had abandoned their intentions of releasing Space Channel 5: Part 2 and Sega Bass Fishing on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.

Turns out it’s still happening – the games will be released on PSN on October 4 and XBLA on October 5, for $US9.99 or 800MSP, depending on your system choice.

Of course, not even Space Michael can save us from shitty ports.