Shenmue II first appeared on the Sega Dreamcast. It never received a US release. Various tales are told of why this is true. Perhaps the most “tin foil hat” related is that Microsoft, seeing the program as potentially the killer app for the DC, gave Sega a big bag of cash to bury it, thus it hurt the fledgling Xbox. On the other hand, I have it on good authority, from people at the actual developers, that this happened with at least one other DC title, though it wasn’t Microsoft who did the burying on that one.
Game Girl Advance, coming down from the vainglorious high that was E3, documents returning to this somewhat flawed classic of a game, though admittedly the Xbox version. Looking back, the game has a lot wrong with it. It does, however, have that certain something that you can’t quite put your finger on. That impossible to define hook.
Maybe one day, I’ll find the time to complete the first Shenmue on my DC.
[
via GameGirlAdvance]
Appreciating a classic
Linear Mode
