If you have been following PixelHeart on social media, you may have recently noticed a teaser for a huge announcement from them set to be the biggest in their history – at first, I will admit that I felt a little deflated that this may have ‘just‘ been new-old-stock copies of Virtua Striker 2 which went on sale on Friday, as per the weekly ‘release‘ method that has been the template thus far from PixelHeart on their website, but in actual fact, when the video reel was finally revealed today, on the 27th March rather than the proposed date of 24th March citing technical difficulties as the reason, it would appear that the company have purchased the complete back catalogue of Visco, to which PixelHeart had worked closely with in the past with various Dreamcast releases like Breakers, Bang2Busters and Gunryo, of course, Visco were well known for their Neo Geo games with releases right up to the late 90‘s so it would make perfect sense for PixelHeart to release some of these games again for that console.
What is perhaps more interesting for you, a Dreamcast fan, is that previously announced 3DS game, Andro Dunos 2, will in fact be making it‘s way to our console of choice as well as the slew of current generation machines, it has been teased since 2020, but at last, it‘s confirmed.
If you‘re unaware of the game or indeed the ‘original‘ then you‘re not to be blamed, it was a 1992 space shooter released for the Neo Geo and later for the Neo Geo CD console where the action take place from a horizontal playing field {think Dux} across 8 levels with mankind fighting it‘s way out of peril.
Worth noting and perhaps not immediately clear, is that the first game is also getting released on DC, one would have to wonder why it wasn‘t bundled in with the second entry though, I‘m sure there is a logical reason behind this but the game does seem quite expensive in the face of the upcoming sequel.
The sequel has been developed by Picorinne Software who has previously been tied to Battle Crust. This is quite an exciting time for Dreamcast fans as we have over 20 new games to get excited about over the next year or so as well as perhaps some other surprises along the way, it‘s never been a better time to be investing in Sega‘s last machine.
Pre-order your copy of both games over at http://www.pixelheart.eu where the usual PAL and NTSC style releases are available.
Dreamcast Today 