![]() The small viewing area (split screen is enabled even in single player mode) is a shame too because it can be hard to get your bearings and see what's coming up ahead. Compared to its Neo Geo cousin Spin Master, Dashin' Desperadoes' could certainly be more colorful. The graphics are kind of a mixed bag, though. ![]() The soundtrack is EXTREMELY ROOTIN' AND TOOTIN' not remarkable but plenty energetic for the mad dash action. Somehow, THERE ARE 28Ĭosmic Crotch-not worth that many points but it's #1 in my heartīurning to death AND about to get mauled as your best bud skateboards away Powering up a Trick Smash also quickly eats through your time though, so use them only when you're sure to blast a bunch of blocks simultaneously (and to finish the last block off whenever possible.Trick Finishes are where the bulk of your score comes from once you start getting serious!).įor years I thought there were about 6 Trick Smashes. Depending on which direction you held when you pressed Y, you'll do one of a variety of cool and sometimes gravity-defying trick shots that will blow through multiple blocks without bouncing back until the ball strikes a wall. The character will start flashing red and yellow as the ball flies straight toward them. To perform a Trick Smash, press the Y button and a direction. Simple as the game is, Trick Smashes are where the game really opens up in terms of variety. NASTY SLOW MOTION REPLAY AFTER A TRICK FINISH Carefully aiming by tapping the joystick in the desired direction as the character winds up its shot lets you bounce the ball wherever you want once you get the hang of it, and aiming one way then quickly doubling back puts a satisfying curve on your shot that is vital for getting around unblockable obstacle blocks later. I say "any way you can", but there are only two ways to do it: regular shots and Trick Smashes. Your character/robot/artificial intelligence/whatever finds itself in a series of blank, futuristic rooms with a ball, a paddle and an increasingly complex pattern of translucent bricks to pop any way you can. The Disc, as you can see, is Totally SickĬalling it "Rez but Sports" is actually totally inaccurate outside of the look of the thing it's more like the real world game of Squash (tennis, but your opponent is a wall) mixed with Breakout or Taito's Arkanoid (destroying all blocks to continue). On the other hand our boy Cosmic Smash is unique as a tight, straightforward and impersonal arcade action game almost entirely removed from any narrative-quite a bit different than most arcade games that lean hard on character-driven presentation. They tend to range from fantasy/comedy (Chu Chu Rocket) to narrative-driven games with varying tone (the retro-futuristic mood of Space Channel 5 couldn't be more different than the dark cyber fairytale/creation story of Rez). ![]() The presentation is particularly striking in all of them, featuring clean lines and large swaths of featureless white and black that pop with bright, punchy colors. These four superb games all took place in a world presumably a long way from ours, far from the present time. This might be a personal view but outside of Sonic and fighting games, Sega in the Dreamcast era means Space Channel 5, Rez, Chu Chu Rocket and of course Cosmic Smash. If the 1980's was Sega's "Blue Skies" era, defined by such games as Outrun, Fantasy Zone and Afterburner, I think the Naomi/Dreamcast era of the early 2000s will be remembered as their "SUPER CLEAN FUTURE" era (somebody please give me a cooler sounding name than that). ![]()
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