OK, here is another salute to the amazing guy that is James and his excellent dreamcast time machine that is dreamcastgaga

I had an order placed for some games and was checking the EMS tracking website impatiently... every day... 4 days later the parcel was still in Japan according to the page.
On that day I had some work around town and came home very late and very tired, my body felt heavy and lifeless as i unlocked the front door. The hallway was dark, but i could see a strange glow from the other end. I took out my gun and began to move slowly hugging the wall, as i approached the corner a QTE sequence appeared over my head and took me completely by surprise... Never before i've had this strange paranormal experience of seeing QTE menu in real life, nor do i have a gun... When i came to my senses i saw something amazing... there it was... the package from Japan (and on the EMS website it still said Japan :P) but it was in front of me and my family was waiting patiently to begin playing.



I opened the package and what i saw completely made me forget the day i had and i felt full of energy and love, like a newborn baby... Cool Cool Toon... Samba de Amigo ver2000... Guilty Gear X... Fighting Vipers 2, without a doubt a package containing nothing but pure GOLD!!



There is something mystical happening every time i open a Dreamcast game from Japan.
Its the blast of colors, packaging design, dedication to detail and love toward the game. For them it is not a product that you have to sell... for them this piece of code is a world, a magical place where you can escape to for a couple of hours... and most importantly a place where you WANT to escape to...

When we share our phantasies with others, be it by a picture, a drawing, a written story, a conversation, we make this world real (in a way) to the other person... we all know what worlds are created by this generation of western games... darkness, terror, pain, depression, more darkness, literally a nightmare world, a world that mirrors our own fears and political instability of the west... or is it?

Are those the worlds we want ti live in?
To build our children's imagination upon?



Or do we want the be the heroes and protagonists of beautiful colorful worlds?
As we are the heroes of the stories that are our lives... what we think is what we create and that thinking is constantly being shaped by what we see, hear and play.

That's why i bow in deep respect to the Japanese developers... Regardless of genre, their games are soaked in attention to details, dedication, energy and love (for what they do).

And i give my thanks to James (dcgg), because he knows that and wants to do what he can to help us get access to those hard to find games from japan!

Most of the games you know, but not many have played Cool Cool Toon... i got it primarily for the amazing colorful designs. Knowing that its an SNK game i tried it and quickly realized that it was IMPOSSIBLE, a trillion times harder than any music/rhythm game i've played.



Then i decided to give it back the love and dedication that it gave me... and the miracle happened!! The game is actually pretty easy, with a little help from the rubber thingy i put on my pad to prevent my finger from slipping, i was able to play and share my enjoyment with my wife and son.

On a side note: this same day i got my Jak Trilogy for the PS VITA (not from James)... then i opened it... and i saw that it was empty. An empty box, created by managers, and accountants to make profit, to sell some crap and make money... when i worked in advertising we referred to customers as 'they', as if they are just some stupid crowd different from us, the elite business class.... and that is what i saw in Jak, compared to what came out of Japan for our beloved Dreamcast.



(Fighting Vipers 2 is just a regular Japanese domestic title featuring a gigantic full color chart of all the moves, it is not by any means a special edition.)

After this revelatory trip i looked deeper into the bag with games... and there was a surprise. James likes to do that, with every order i get some very creative toys, typical of a person that enjoys sharing his love for games. But this time, man... look below



For the end of this tale, there is nothing better than a serene deep water adventure with this AMAZING version of Ecco for the Dreamcast!!! Even though the game is developed by westerners, it got the typical J tuning with a metallic super cool packaging.

When i managed to recover from the blast of awesomeness... i saw the ECCO VMU!!!!! and that was it... a brand new (with the plastic thingy that is stuck on the side of the battery compartment to prevent it from making contact) Ecco branded VMU that i didn't know even existed! The dolphin patterns are not a sticker, they are printed on the plastic with the same love and quality we would love to expect!

I thank James again, because he loves the Dreamcast and is one if the people that keep reminding us why we got into gaming in the first place!!!

PS: Did you know that Samba De Amigo ver2000 has like 10+ DLC songs??
It has everything from Daytooonaaaaa, to Sonic Adventure songs, Afterburner, Outrun, Burning Rangers, Jet Set even Super Fantasy Zone!

Thanks for reading, just wanted to share the feelings i got with the games... 14 years after i first turned my Dreamcast power on, it is still ON!