> 10 Sweet Dreamcast Games to Dream of While the Bedbugs Bite

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Shenmue
SEGA/ SEGA

Yu Suzuki brings his Epic Adventure to North America

Sega's booth was the definite hit of E3. Big Blue displayed an incredible diversity of games and a large number of quality gameplay-rich titles. It's a good day to own a Dreamcast and choosing a top DC title was not easy. We're not even at all certain that the one we chose is going to be the most fun. We chose it rather because it claims to be FREE.

Far from referring to the price of the game nor to the middle square on a BINGO card, and very, very far from referring to the more than $16 million dollars that are said to have been spent on creating the game, the FREE in Shenmue supposedly indicates the new genre of gameplay which Shenmue creates: Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment, which makes absolutely zero sense and has everyone shaking their heads and muttering in confusion. The thing is, it isn't only the enigmatic FREE of Shenmue that is unclear; everything from how much fun to what exactly goes on in this enormously ambitious game from legendary designer Yu Suzuki remains to be seen. Even those who have played the complete Japanese version of Shenmue Chapter 1 aren't really in a position to judge it since Yu Suzuki's vision is so enormous that he has spoken of as many as 16 chapters and the second chapter has yet to ship even in Tokyo. Only two things are clear: Yu Suzuki has an established track record of creating great arcade games, witness Space Harrier, Hang On and Ferrari F355 and even though Shenmue is about as similar to a poodle as it is to the arcade games that Yu Suzuki has designed in the past, everything indicates that regardless of its final rating on the videogame thermometer of fame, Mr. Suzuki's vision of the game is enormous and Shenmue is going to be a landmark title that your videogame legacy depends on having played.

Shenmue, which was originally known as Virtua Fighter RPG and then as Project Berkley before settling on Shenmue, focuses on Ryo's quest to solve the mystery of his father's violent death, which he witnesses in the opening sequence of the adventure, in 1986 Yokosuka, China. The key element of everyone's fascination with Shenmue is the richness of the interactive gameworld which Ryo inhabits. Time and the seasons have real meaning. Miss the bus and you'll have to wait for the next one. The world is filled with non-player characters going about their daily lives with whom Ryo can interact, an incredible number of whom seem to have relatively deep levels of dialogue and background. Besides the interactivity, Shenmue boasts detail, animation and artistic sensibility the likes of which videogaming has never seen.

As Ryo adventures through his detailed world in a glorified point and click adventure game fashion, he comes upon incredibly well animated fight sequences (let's not forget that Yu Suzuki also created Virtua Fighter). Ryo can and will learn many new moves through the course of his adventure from practice and from those in his world willing to teach him. Word has it that later in the game Ryo engages in enormous battles verses over fifty opponents at once.

Besides the adventure and combat elements, a major component of Shenmue is Quick Timer Events (QTE), glorified Dragon's Lair sequences that rely on the player's memorization of the Dreamcast controller and dexterity to react. On the screen will flash a series of directions (for example, left, left, left, down, B-button), which the gamer must mimic, error free in Quick Time (hence the name) in order to succeed.

Shenmue is also filled with a tremendous number of mini games and quests. Yu Suzuki's classic games are in the gameworld arcade, Ryo can get a job driving forklift and make money to use elsewhere, the possibilities are nearly endless and so are the questions. No matter what, Shenmue is certainly the most intriguing Dreamcast game of E3 2000, and perhaps the most intriguing of all. We can't wait to play it and find out for ourselves. The first chapter of Shenmue will be available the winter of 2000, when there may be snow in both the real and Yu Suzuki's massive game world.

-Jules Grant

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