Rise From Your Grave: Dreamcast!

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again.
-Robert Jordan


The Undead have been shambling into our games for the past couple of years, making zombies one of the most popular trends in gaming recently. Want a dose of zombies in your four-player co-op shooter? Try Left 4 Dead or Borderlands: Island of Dr. Ned. Dead Space had necromorphs, the more recent Resident Evils had Majini and Ganado, and Dead Rising had the zed word by the boat-full. This trend has ushered in a new type of zombie, a super zombie, the zombie Dreamcast!

I know there is no shortage of love for the Dreamcast here on Destructoid, and even the people who never owned a Dreamcast are excited at the possibilities of playing classic titles that passed them by. The announcement that these Dreamcast titles will be available for download directly to their console of choice (via PSN or XBLA) has perhaps revitalized some long-dormant franchises. While I rarely mention zombies without saying "Kill it with fire!" or "Aim for the head!", this is one instance where I suggest we cohabitate, living peacefully side-by-side with this altered beast.

This is a great opportunity for both the developers/publishers and the gamers as well. People will begin to ask "Why don't we see more games like these?", and perhaps a Chu Chu Rocket game will see the light of day on the DS or Wii. With the current booming resurgence of fighting games, a game like Power Stone would make a nice change of pace from the Street Fighters and Tekkens.

This got me to thinking. Having a game like "Sonic Adventure" on the PS3 brings the cycle to a close. What cycle? The Bleem!cycle.



Bleemcast! was a commercial emulator for the Dreamcast that not only played certain Playstation 1 games, but enhanced them as well. Games like Gran Turismo 2 and Metal Gear Solid were supported and ran at twice the resolution they had on the PS1. Bleemcast! and the Dreamcast both "died" in 2001. So in the year 2000 people were trying to take Playstation games and improve them on the Dreamcast, and in 2010 people are trying to take Dreamcast games and improve them on the Playstation. These improvements are things like online leaderboards, achievements/trophies, higher resolutions, and possible multiplayer support for games, but I want more.

Give me the ability to import DC games onto a PSP (much like you can with PSX games). This is the one area where having only one analog stick and two shoulder buttons actually fits perfectly. The PSP has already seen compilation releases of PowerStone and Crazy Taxi, so it isn't too ridiculous to think other Dreamcast games could be well suited for the under-supported handheld.

First off, games I would love to see made available for the PSP:

Jet Grind Radio and Chu Chu Rocket.
Both games feature gameplay well suited for portability yet engaging enough to sink countless hours into. CCR would feature Ad-hoc and Infrastructure multiplayer, while Jet Grind Radio would feature leaderboards you could tag.

Sonic Adventure would be fun as a portable game, especially if you could play the VMU mini games with the PSP either in conjunction with the PS3 or separately. Another title that would fit with the PSN's library of PSX titles is Resident Evil: Code Veronica. Seeing as how most of the RE games are well represented on the service already, another one couldn't hurt. Of course, I also offer my obligatory recommendations for Skies of Arcadia, Grandia 2, and Shenmue 1 + 2.

Next up, games that wouldn't fare as well (or I wouldn't want to see on the PSP):

Typing of the Dead, while a great example of a quirky inventive niche title, would be near impossible on the PSP. That is to say, by all means bring it back for PSN and XBLA, but I can't for the life of me see it working portably. As for games I want to "remember as they were" (aka "forget altogether") there's a decent selection of them. Outrigger, Kiss Psycho Circus, and Heavy Metal Geomatrix all fall into this category.

The "Kinda Want" category would have games like Slave Zero, Omikron: the Nomad Soul, Rippin' Riders and Zombie Revenge in it, games that weren't fantastic by any means, but were enjoyable for one reason or another.

While the notion that these games will make it to the handheld market might just be pipe dreams, I'm still very excited to see these games claw their way through the dirt of their shallow graves back into the light of day. Who knows, maybe this is the Voodoo we need to see the end of the Shenmue saga. As these games shuffle onto the networks, dragging dlc behind them, an old SeGa fishing reel in one hand,

we ask that you remain calm, stay in your homes (trying for those high scores), and remember:

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