NINTENDO AND SEGA JOIN FORCES

If you didn't already know by now Sega has officially dropped out of the Console business. SEGA was faultering financially and drastic action had to be taken. Rather than just dissappear like Atari into the void of gaming "has beens" SEGA made the bold move to end production of the Dreamcast and focus toward development as a third party for the other consoles, and from what it seems primarily Nintendo. SEGA has already confirmed production of Sonic Adventure for GameBoy Advance and potentially an RPG for GameCube. This bodes very well for gamers and Nintendo loyalists.

Many Nintendo fans visit this site, "The Odyssey of Hyrule" and it's spinoff site, "The Oddity of Hyrule." These fans may not know as much about SEGA, since most are loyal to the N64 or only own an N64. Me talking about SEGA's potenial doesn't have quite the impact when you don't have a basis of comparison because you have never seen or rarely seen a SEGA produced game. Now that SEGA has joined forces with Nintendo, I am going to take this opportunity to educate my Nintendo loyal viewers on just what importance this has and what great things SEGA has done for gaming.

First off, if you're even a novice, 1st year gamer, you probably can recognize that Sonic the Hedgehog is SEGA's mascot. Sonic the Hedgehog was an innovative and fast past game that was released a little over a decade ago for a great system in it's own right, the SEGA Genesis. I have one of these. Sonic was originally released to prove how much better the Sega Genesis was than the NES and TurboGraphix 16. Indeed, Sonic was cool, a fast paced, action oriented game that impressed gamers of the day. This is pretty much one of the things that put SEGA on the map in gaming history and thus Sonic The Hedgehog became a legendary symbol and mascot for the company. As a side note I can vouch for the fact that Sonic was such a kick ass game because I have all three versions that were produced for the Genesis, all of which were good games for what they were.

Originally SEGA was a significant producer of Arcade Machines/Games during the 1980's and went on to create the Sega Master System in Japan and then America prior to releasing it's most successful system, the Genesis. SEGA has always taken chances and produced failure or lackluster products in an attempt to be innovative. SEGA was one of the first to pioneer CD Based gaming with the SEGA CD in 1993, the add on cartridge (Sonic and Knuckles), 32-bit gaming with the 32X, and a Next Gen 32 bit system - the SEGA Saturn. These systems were innovative but alas all failures, in fact the Saturn had a chance at success however games for it were very few and gamers didn't come because of this. There were problems that instituted the death of these consoles and peripherals, most notably stemming from lack of interest on the part of developers and gamers. The Death of SEGA's role in the marketplace beget the success of Sony, and the Playstation and later the Nintendo 64.

With the lifeblood sucked dry out of the Saturn, SEGA forged a plan to develop a true next generation console system and have it available before anyone else. While Nintendo with it's cartridge based Nintendo 64 enjoyed some success, SEGA was developing the Dreamcast. Finally on 9/9/99 SEGA released the Dreamcast, the first true 128 bit system, and the only system to date to include a 56 kbs modem and internet capability. Again SEGA took a chance and forged ahead of the pack to make a name for itself and indeed they did.

The Dreamcast is a resounding success, and SEGA's innovation has again truly shown in it's first party games, and those of it's third party developers. The Dreamcast has so far seen excellent games like Soul Calibur, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Resident Evil: Code Veronica, Crazy Taxi, Ecco the Dolphin, Phantasy Star Online, Skies of Arcadia, Shenmue, Seaman, Sonic Adventure, Dead or Alive 2, Space Channel 5, Grandia II, NFL2k, and NFL2k1. Unfortunely SEGA's success has only been short enough to put the company in debt and competition has proven to become to fierce to maintain production of the Dreamcast with the Playstation 2 already released, and GameCube and X-Box on their way.

I can attest that I am very happy with the Dreamcast and the games I have for it. Playstation 2 didn't have near the quality of launch titles that I got with the Dreamcast. To this day I still play games like Soul Calibur, Crazy Taxi, and Sonic Adventure and that says something - these games have been out for a long time. I can't say enough good things about Shenmue and a game like Skies of Arcadia, what an experience, both innovative and forward thinking. Any idiot that says the Dreamcast sucks, is a fool. The quality of games I've played on that system almost make me shed a tear that it's going to the grave. I LOVED playing my Dreamcast.

The Dreamcast's bittersweet demise will bring the potential of SEGA as an accomplished developer into the forefront of the gaming industry. Think about this, why do we play video games? We don't play video games because a game system can push trillions of polygons, rather we play them because they are fun, mesmerize our senses, allow us to relive our fantasies, and act as an escape from the ordinary world we occupy. Without the albatross of the Dreamcast around SEGA's neck, they can concentrate more resources toward developing much better games. Shenmue II will still appear on the Dreamcast, but after that what about Shenmue III? With the more powerful systems of SEGA's ex-competitors the games we play will be just that much more better. I can't wait to play Sonic on something like the GameCube or the X-Box. Sonic kicks ass, and he will always kick ass in my book until the day my grey haired wrinkly old self dies sometime in the late 21st century, (hopefully to get reincarnated, and become a starship captain in the mid 22nd century). It has already been confirmed that a Sonic game will appear on GameBoy Advance and possibly GameCube.

SEGA Joining forces with Nintendo will be one of the greatest events in gaming history. This alone is likely to become enough to challenge Sony, and up-and-coming Microsoft. If Nintendo can develop more mature games with decent plots then for sure they will be a force to be reckoned with. This cooperation may in fact influence Zelda in some way. Zelda is a Nintendo First Party core project but, I would think that perhaps the developers of Phantasy Star and Skies of Arcadia might pitch in a few ideas and beef the plot up here and there. I look forward to the day when Link will gallop valiantly across the the Hyrulian Plain, and Zelda gazes outward across the plain from a turret atop the castle her flowing blonde hair blowing in the wind and her sky blue eyes glistening in the sunlight.

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