come to bed you monkey... (Dreamcast in general)

Member Name: deets

Product:	Dreamcast in general
Date:	08/09/01 (156 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great arcade quality games, cheap now! , 60 hz full screen, full speed options on a lot of games

Disadvantages: not many new games, can take up a lot of you time

were the words screamed at me by my girlfriend after I had spent another night glued to the T.V screen playing Daytona.

It was over 2 years ago when I bought my first Dreamcast magazine while living in the US and I can remember passing the odd hour on the throne reading about all the great new games that were due out on the system. So why then has it taken me over 2 years to finally get my hands on one?

I dont really know, the price has always been an issue and I guess I never got round to it, but I have at last, and I am pleased i did! the price was £80 which included Sonic adventure, this was from a well known mail order company. This was just too tempting for me! I had been thinking about it a lot recently as there were just so few decent PC games coming out and my GBA is good, but I wanted the buzz you used to get from the latest arcade games where the graphics were amazing.

I sat and made a list of all the games I was interested in buying, using many of the various websites to read reviews and view video footage of the games. After a bit of research I realised there were about 10 games that I would really like to get my hands on and by all reviewers accounts were the best games of the type available on any home system. I couldnt really justify buying all 10 from scratch so I settled for 8!! It appears to be true, I have never played better games on a home system and it replicates arcade games beautifully and actually adds more! The price of the games was also great, only £15 for street fighter alpha and only £20 for MSR, all brand new.

MSR, F355 and Daytona are all excellent examples of driving games, I cant think of many better (well maybe one on the PS2). Daytona is a fave of mine, recreating the arcade perfectly and bringing back happy days at bristol university students union playing daytona with my mates on a friday afternoon after a few super strongbows instead of going to lectures! I dont think I will need t
o e
ver bu

y another racing game again, and the same can be said of the fighting games. Soul Caliber is awesome, even though its getting a bit old now. Its great fun and has enough depth to keep you going for a long while and never gets dull. the other games are also great with Jet Set Radio due for some time devoted to it soon.

I cant believe the machine has been seen as a failure though, its the closest thing to an arcade in the home that your probably likely to see. I have no bias towards Sega having not owned a Sega console since the megadrive, but I like good arcade games and the dreamcast provides that in bucket loads.
Now the price has fallen to just £80 plus a game, there is no excuse not to own one of these babes as although game production has slowed to a trickle, the back catalogue will keep you going long enough until one of the other next gen consoles arrives over here and starts getting decent games.

If you love good arcade games, especially driving and beat em ups, then the Dreamcast will make a happy addition to the family and provide you with hours of electronic stimulation that you have been craving since the good ol SNES. Its also great to see a company thinking about its customers and how we lost out having the PAL TV system which, for technical reasons, meant our games had to run with black borders at the top and bottom and also about %18 slower than their US and JAP versions. All the games I have allow you to select a 60hz option which most new T.V's can handle so you get full screen and full speed games, a really nice touch, if only more were in wide screen.

Now its only £80 you have no excuse not to get one, and you wont be disappointed, but you might end up with sore thumbs.

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