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I've spent the evening playing Dreamcast games, because two old favourites from "back in the day" arrived in the post today: Tee Off by Bottom Up, and Tokyo Highway Challenge (aka Tokyo Xtreme Racer or Shutokou Battle) from Genki. After a bit of fiddling with my slightly temperamental Dreamcast — it briefly stopped outputting sound, then only output sound through the right stereo channel — everything was as it should be, and I was happily reliving some gaming experiences that I probably haven't had for nearly 20 years or so.
Tee Off remains one of my favourite golf games; it's just a wonderfully arcadey golf game, though it highlights the fact that more recent golf titles like Everybody's Golf are a hell of a lot more forgiving on the timing front. I love everything about this game, though; the simple but slick presentation, the fun course designs, the variety of options (including a "sci-fi croquet" variation!) and, of course, its wonderful music. If you've ever wanted to play a golf game that sounds like Sonic Adventure, I urge you to pick up a copy of Tee Off.
Tokyo Highway Challenge is one of those games that I remember picking up in spite of mediocre reviews from publications at the time. Something about that game really resonated with me; I was especially fond of its "point battle" mechanic for racing rivals, where it's all about draining fighting-game style health bars by staying in the lead rather than actually completing a set number of laps or checkpoints. Those who enjoy RPG-style power creep, but with cars, will be in heaven, too — this is a grind-heavy racing game all about making incremental upgrades to your ride and gradually challenging more and more powerful opponents.
I've got a copy of Metropolis Street Racer on the way, too, but that hasn't arrived yet. I'm looking forward to revisiting that one, though; I absolutely adored that back in the day, and its all-original soundtrack is the stuff of legends.
I'm having a lovely time right now, and not a bug-ridden triple-A title or next-gen console in sight!
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