I’m going to admit to you right now; I’ve been really slack in keeping up with the latest happenings on the Dreamcast and that has made me somewhat selective with what’s been exciting me of late, being a Dad now means I have less and less time to enjoy playing games, let alone write about what we can enjoy in the months to come. However, enough about me, let’s talk about things that you may have missed ….
Worms Pinball!
First up is the pinball entry in the enduring Worms franchise. This game was long rumoured to have been completed for the Dreamcast but unreleased due to the financial involvement of bringing it to the market for a console that had been discontinued (never stopped the N64 getting game long after if curled up though… But hey!), turns out these rumours were true and the Dreamcast build was released to the public in February of this year thanks to Comby Laurent (Sega Dreamcast Info) who made it all possible. Check out their website where you can find a whole host of information on various prototypes .
Next up is a new game!
HarleQuest is a cool looking dungeon crawler that has you taking control of a Jester as he tries the escape from the King’s exile. You’ll be dispatching foes and avoiding traps in this promising 3D adventure which hits Kickstarter on April 1st (no, really…). In all honesty, this game looks to be the most promising use of the Dreamcast’s graphical capabilities since Xenocider, so I personally can’t wait to give this one a try. Wave Game Studios are on publishing duties so hopefully there’s a reasonably priced PAL blue box variant available eh! The project’s creator, Ross Kilgariff attributes games like Record of Lodoss War, Medievil and Gauntlet Legends as inspirations for HarleQuest’s design. Check out the Kickstarter campaign here :
Next up, is some familiar news if you managed to bag on of the Wave Game Studios demo discs for the Dreamcast last year. Turns out that a second one is on the way this year which features a playable sample of HarleQuest as well as the mysterious Summoning Signals which was announced by Retro Surge almost three years ago now. There is also another playable demo featured on the disc which Wave are keeping under wraps currently, so we’ll have to wait and see what exciting game forms up the trio in due course. Head over to Wave Game Studios’ website to get your free disc before they run out :
https://www.wavegamestudios.com/shop/debug-indie-sampler-2
Next is also a new Dreamcast game!
Big2Small by RetroRoom Games is a cute looking game that is heading to the Nintendo 64, Gameboy and Dreamcast and tasks you with guiding animals to their food choices avoiding obstacles and utilising the unique abilities of each animal to aide you on your adventure. Big2Small looks to be quite an interesting game that doesn’t tax the hardware much but I can imagine will tax your brain as the levels get more complex. It’s always nice to see new puzzle games on the Dreamcast. If this is up your street, check out the order page below.
Thanks to @DreamcastPics on Twitter for the heads up on this one!
Andro Dunos !
Remember back in 2021 when Pixelheart opened pre-orders for Andro Dunos and Andro Dunos II ? No? Well it would be easy to forget that these two games were coming to the Dreamcast and as sure as time flies, the release date is now upon us. Unleashed on March 25th after a slight delay, both of the games should now be shipping to customers around the world. Both Pixelheart and JoshProd have been somewhat quiet on the Dreamcast front in recent times so hopefully they’re gearing up to release something new on the Dreamcast in the future. One thing that seems quite sad is that Pixelheart look to have abandoned all of the Dreamcast branding from their PAL packaging looking at the spine renders on their website. This would be especially sad as their box designs for the earlier games were spot on next to commercial releases of the time but now look to stick out when spine on with other retail DC games. Shame really.
https://www.pixelheart.eu/en/shop/?pa_plate-forme=dreamcast-pal
Last up for this round is Falco Girgis! You may remember Falco from the days of Elysian Shadows, we ourselves had some choice thoughts about Falco back then but time has let go of that and Falco has been busy back at work behind the scenes in the Dreamcast community working on an array of cool stuff which he is no doubt aiming at assisting Dreamcast developers in years to come, it’s actually quite refreshing to see Falco with a renewed focus and active again in the Dreamcast scene. Follow his progress here :
Dreamcast Today 