PPR Presents Limelight: Atomiswave Dreamcast Ports

o we totally know there’s a lot of hype for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, and they’re currently the biggest deals in video games right now, but what if we told y’all that there was another big deal happening in the gaming scene right now—one that involved another household name in consoles…

Hacker alias MegaVolt85 from the Dreamcast-Talk Forum has taken it upon himself to convert all twenty-seven titles released for Sammy’s short-lived Arcade Haardware line, the Atomiswave. After some extensive review of the Coin-ops internal workings, it would seem that the system’s architecture is nearly identical to that of Sega’s 128-bit icon, making it possible to reformat the coding of these titles to natively run on the Dreamcast.

Yes you read that right, these games aren’t being emulated or ported, they are conversions that’re running natively on Dreamcast hardware—shit’s wild ain’t it?

Join us on Saturday, November 21st, at 7:00 PM Pacific at twitch.tv/presspauseradio as my girlfriend, Val, and I hit up the first  ten conversions made available so far. Games like Metal Slug 6, King of Fighters XI, Dolphine Blue, Faster than Speed, King of Fighters Neo Wave, Samurai Showdown VI, Demolish Fist, Maximum Speed, Knights of Valour: The Seven Spirits, and Fist of The NorthStar.

PPR Presents Late to the Party: Judgement

f I were to liken Ryu ga Gotoku Studio’s Yakuza series to a mixed drink, I would compare it to the sweet, yet effectively potent combination of Rum and Coke. It has all the thrills, and action you could ever want, while maintaining an accessible sense of pacing that can synchronize with just about anyone’s rhythm.

I can’t say the same thing out of the studio’s newest release, however; Judgment is more like Whiskey and Coke—a mixture that commands time and patience the moment you press your lips to the glass. Toting itself as a spiritual successor to Yakuza, Judgement throws a twist on the crime-drama formula from Toshihiro Nagoshi that empathizes new Detective-focused dynamics, encouraging observational skills and deduction from players instead of relying on the trademark brute-force that the world of Kamurcho is famous for offering.

While the novelty of the concept is admittedly hampered by strict pacing that drags on the early hours of Judgment through an annoying slog, the game eventually opens up into one of the most fulfilling experiences from the developer yet, consistently rewarding the commitment it demands a slower-than-usual pace that Ryu ga Gotoku design is known for.

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25 years of the Sega Saturn: Part 1-The Doomed Singularity

ut of all the rituals that you’d expect a seven-year-old to have in the early nineties, feverishly running to the supermarket newsstand for the latest video game magazine isn’t one that I’d imagine topping a Family Feud chart anytime soon. Yet there I was, a twinkle-eyed sap who cared for nothing more than to drool over the latest news and gossip of the one brand that ruled my kid life: SEGA.

The year 1994 was a particularly lucid period, because of the gaming hype for releases like Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Country, and Sonic & Knuckles, nothing was more exciting to me than Sega’s 32-bit project, the Sega Saturn. I couldn’t tell you how many times I read the August issue that year of Electronic Gaming Monthly, and the preview coverage they gave to the specifications of the system, and games that were going to be able to run on it like Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter, and Virtua Cop.

May 11th, 2020 marked the 25th anniversary of the polarizing console—even to this day, the same fevered school ground arguments over the Saturn have transcended into keyboard wars across online forums and social networks because unlike anything else like in the medium. The Sega Saturn is a complex story that peels back like an onion; so I figured what better way to way to reminisce on my favorite game machine than with an editorial series on it.

In this chapter, we’re going back to where it all began, as the system’s origin is one that’s born through a gradual divorce between the East and West divisions of SEGA, with the Saturn being the child that was caught in the middle of it all.

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Bullet Heaven #237 - Power Strike II (Master System)

It's our first-ever Master System shmups review and what better way to go than knocking out what is widely regarded as the best shmup on the system? The Power Strike line is a pretty confusing one in terms of what entries belong to what actual series; The Master System's Power Strike II both is and isn't a true sequel to Power Strike "1", also known as Aleste in Japan. It's also not related to Power Strike II on the Game Gear which IS an Aleste title, called GG Aleste. So just how does this Aleste-alike stack up?

Missed an episode? 
Bullet Heaven 244: Psyvariar Delta
Bullet Heaven 245: Vasara Collection
Bullet Heaven 236: Pacific Wings

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Bullet Heaven Dreamcast STG Chronicle - Legend Lost, Legends Born

The Dreamcast dies an untimely death, but its legend continues even today. Not even death could stop some of the greatest shooting games of all time from debuting on this fantastic system...

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QCF: Yakuza Kiwami 2

fter The success of both Yakuza Kiwami, and Yakuza 6: The Song of Life on the PlayStation 4, it was no surprise that SEGA had announced to Weekly Famitsu Magazine that it was planning to re-release the entire series of the mega-hit property onto the PlayStation 4. Yakuza Kiwami 2 is the latest entry to spear-head the effort shortly after the release of Yakuza 6, an update to the second entry of the franchise, and the last one to have released on the PlayStation 2 before Yakuza had made the transition to the PlayStation 3 years later.

In what may arguably be the strangest title of the lineup in contrast to the spin-offs and seventh-generation entries, SEGA didn’t pull any punches in ensuring that Yakuza Kiwami 2 captured all of the wacky narratives and tongue-in-cheek writing of the original game. This PlayStation 4 remaster brings it all together with the new Dragon game engine that was introduced in Yakuza 6, and an assortment of other enhancements that make the trip back to the Kamurocho the best one yet.

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QCF: Sonic Mania Plus

fter less than a year from its initial release, the folks over at Head Cannon, Pagoda West, and some other new faces at work have released a new expansion to the critically successful Sonic Mania, with Sonic Mania Plus. The extra content includes a new arranged campaign mode with remixed levels, a four-player split-screen competitive mode, and the inclusion of two more playable characters, (both of which haven’t been seen a commercial sonic title in over 20 years,) and more.

While Sonic Mania proved that it was more than just a simple throwback release for the fans, however, the added “Plus” to the title’s re-release ironically struggles to augment the core package with any upgrade significant enough to differentiate it from the same game that casual players have already played all those months ago.

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QCF: Yakuza 6: The Song of Life

he Yakuza franchise may owe a great deal of its legacy to Shenmue, but it’s done a great deal more on its own, and rightfully escaped the shadow that Yu Suzuki’s classic had once cast over it. Spanning across five epic chapters, a host of non-sequitur spin-offs, and a stellar prequel in its own right, Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is the newest title to enter the fold, and was announced to be the final chapter in the Ryū ga Gotoku saga.

Although the future of the property seems uncertain, SEGA hasn’t spared any expense with the finale; Kazuma Kiryu’s last hurrah is every bit of the bittersweet epic that it sets itself out to be and then some.

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