Cosmic Smash (Dreamcast Import Thread)

D

Dave Long

Banned
I really want to play Cosmic Smash on the DC and it's extremely hard to get ahold of it. I know some folks here have played it so I'm kind of looking for info on just how good it is. It looks like I'd have to pay at least new game prices for it or much higher. I know it's kinda like Breakout and I remember seeing the little animated guy on Sega's Japanese site some years ago. I wish I had bought it when it came out because it was a budget release IIRC. :-/

Anyway, that kind of opens the door to the Dreamcast import world. It's not as exciting as Saturn because so many games DID make it here, but there are still gems. I've already got Ikaruga and Napple Tale. Anything else that's mandatory or you won't all consider me a Sega fan?

Thanks. Hope people have some fun with this thread.

Also, Mr. Driller Drill Spirits on DS (Import) ROCKS!
 
I think it's much more of a tennis game with blocks for opponents than it is a Breakout in 3D. Yeah, I guess "tennis with blocks" sounds kinda like Breakout but it doesn't feel like it when playing.

Just how good it is? Pretty damn fun for a while. Then at least I got bored with it.
 
Cosmic Smash ROCKS! A very simple Squash/Racket ball game with Sci-Fi vector graphics. Though, the gameplay moves are quite deep(40 moves?) This game romp's on a Kick-ass sound system :)
 
Dave Long said:
I really want to play Cosmic Smash on the DC and it's extremely hard to get ahold of it. I know some folks here have played it so I'm kind of looking for info on just how good it is. It looks like I'd have to pay at least new game prices for it or much higher. I know it's kinda like Breakout and I remember seeing the little animated guy on Sega's Japanese site some years ago. I wish I had bought it when it came out because it was a budget release IIRC. :-/

Anyway, that kind of opens the door to the Dreamcast import world. It's not as exciting as Saturn because so many games DID make it here, but there are still gems. I've already got Ikaruga and Napple Tale. Anything else that's mandatory or you won't all consider me a Sega fan?

Thanks. Hope people have some fun with this thread.

Also, Mr. Driller Drill Spirits on DS (Import) ROCKS!
Click to expand...

It's a pretty cool game. If you played and liked Beach Spikers and Virtua Tennis then you'll like this. It's the only console game Sega Rosso ever released(Sega Rally 2k5 will be the second but not under the Sega Rosso brand name since they were absorbed by Hitmaker.)
 
I know some folks here have played it so I'm kind of looking for info on just how good it is.
Click to expand...

On one hand, it has the whole minimal style to it, in both the visuals and music. One of the best-looking games around. On the other, it's also pretty damn fun to play for score, but sadly, the internet rankings are no longer up.

Basic breakdown of the whole thing: You can run left and right on a single plane, and jump. There are plenty of normal hits you can do (jumping off walls and the like), and then there are trick shots... Which basically 1) make the ball hone in on your racket, 2) break through tougher blocks and multiple light ones, 3) give you a big bonus for finishing the level with them, and 4) make your remaining time drain 4x as fast. There are a decent number of trick shots, each being worth a different finishing point value. You get to see a nifty replay when you finish with one, too. Also, not dropping the ball once gives you a decent bonus at the end of each stage.

There are branching paths when it comes to levels, though I think you'll generally play 12 per session before you reach an end point. Finishing without dropping the ball once and ending each stage with a trick shot gives you a huge bonus.

Oh, and you can cause the ball to curve after you hit it. Sadly, I could never figure out *exactly* how.

Amazing game.
 
i've been meaning to pick this up for years. the packaging is damned cool. i've seen it a few times in stores. it's not too expensive now, is it?
 
Cosmic Smash is state of mind.
How did it went...Next Level Cosmic Bus Seven-O-Seven. Have A Blast. CS announcer had the coolest voice in any game ever. :lol
Also arguably maybe the best DC game package.

cosmicsmash.jpg
 
It's kinda a tuff pull to be truthfull, it starts low on Ebay and they jumps up to $35-60 depending on who's looking and condition. It's not always listed on ebay, it'll definately be one of the Rarer games on DC over the long haul.


Edit: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=62053&item=8162576110&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

:O

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=62053&item=8160821849&rd=1&ssPageName=WD1V

WOW! Higher than I thought, I guess it's gone up over the last year or two.
 
aw, balls. for a while it was everywhere for $30 or so. i'm not paying $100 or even $75. i'll have to delve for alternate means. and no, i don't mean piracy.
 
ButtonMasher said:
It's kinda a tuff pull to be truthfull, it starts low on Ebay and they jumps up to $35-60 depending on who's looking and condition. It's not always listed on ebay, it'll definately be one of the Rarer games on DC over the long haul.


Edit: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=62053&item=8162576110&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

:O

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=62053&item=8160821849&rd=1&ssPageName=WD1V

WOW! Higher than I thought, I guess it's gone up over the last year or two.
Click to expand...

yeah, a couple years ago it was usually in the $20's
 
Well it's nice to see that one of my DC purchases paid off. Back when the DC died I was buying everything I could get my hands on (from 2001 to early 2002) because I thought it might turn out like the Saturn did. Damn, was I wrong on that one :lol Maybe it's the ease of piracy on the DC, I dunno. Back on topic, Cosmic Smash is a lot of fun. Tain has described it very well. I was really high on this game when I got it back in 2002, but got a lot of stupid "oh, so it's basically Breakout in 3D?" comments when I raved about it on OA.

There's not a lot of import games on DC worth getting IMO. Most of the good stuff made it over, so importing isn't necessary like it was with the Turbografx or Saturn. There's a bunch of shooters if you're into that genre (which I'm not). I did enjoy Zero Gunner 2 and Border Down though. Yu Suzuki Sega Gameworks is worth picking up for the book. I actually lost the game disc, because it came inside the rear cover and easily fell out. I put the disc into a jewel case, then lost the jewel case during a move :/ The games are the same ones you can find in Shenmue though, so the book is the real draw. Speaking of Shenmue, the Euro version of Shenmue 2 is worth getting if you liked Shenmue. If you're only going to ever play one Sakura Taisen game, get Sakura Taisen 3. If you don't have the Sakura Taisen Columns game on Saturn, there's one for the DC too. Fighting Vipers 2 is worth picking up as well.

Rez, Capcom vs. SNK 2, and one of the more recent King of Fighters are some other games I would recommend, but you can probably get those a lot easier and cheaper on PS2.
 
Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo is another unknown import on DC, it has 3 modes of play.

There's a Faq for english menu's over at gamefaq.com

Though good luck finding it cheap and cherry also :lol
 
i was playing this game earlier today. i dismissed it in the past, but quickly found out today there is much more than meets the eye. i love the strategy of it all! :D i wish sega of america would have released games like this towards the end of dreamcast's life cycle in america when the amount of games being released dwindled.
 
I saw an online import store the other day (which I can't remember now for the life of me) that had most of the Capcom matching service games in stock for $45-50 each. I was never a fan of Puzzle Fighter though, and of the other games the only one I'd be interested in would be Street Fighter IIX, but I decided to pass on it and get the upcoming Xbox Street Fighter Anniversary instead.

Edit: it was the Dreamcast History store. Tronix used to have all the matching service games, but when I just went to check it looks like they've dropped DC altogether.
 
I'm glad I picked it up when I had the chance, but didn't really get into it. I should play it more sometime.
 
Do the Matching Service games still work!? (in Japan)

Someone needs to revive the DC network in the states. I mean, fuck it, even if it's pir8s or homebrewers or whatever. I never got a chance to play Outriggers online dammit :crying:
 
How did the Matching Service work? Was it direct dial, or something? What would the draw be to pick up these games at this point?

While we're on that point, do Saturn NetLink games still work? I've never used the service, so I'm unfamiliar. Was that a direct dial service?
 
btw...i love the announcer's voice too and the phrases he says:

"We Love Cosmic Smash"

"Please Turn Off Your Cellphone" :lol
 
Capcom dropped support back in 2003. I don't remember the details of how the matching service worked. There used to be a good article about it on Core Magazine's web site (long gone). I think you dialed into a matching server (hence the name) and once you found an opponent it was peer-to-peer. NetLink was direct dial.

You can still play a handful of DC games online (like Quake III). There's also a hacked server for PSO. I wish some of those games could get back online (I'd like to play Alien Front Online again). It would be nice if Sega would release the servers for private use, but of course that'll never happen.
 
Cosmic Smash is one of the most zen-like gaming experiences ever. It's really worth getting, if you don't mind that the game doesn't have a ton of variety. The controls, the atmosphere, the stripped down graphics, and the announcer are all genius.

It's kind of hilarious that the game has load times. :lol

cos00.jpg
 
www.gamechoiceclub.com has it in stock for $60 new, but the shipping is expensive. they also had the gc component cables i've been looking for, though, so i went ahead and ordered both. damn the way forum posts can suddenly convince me that i NEED a game. :lol
 
They must've had one copy left, because it says "Restock soon" for me. I'll have to see if I can get a confederate to pick this up cheap for me...
 
That's my high bid on the eBay one. I'm not even meeting the reserve with what I put in. I'm not sure if I'll pursue it since like drohne says, $75 is high and I'm probably entering that territory for this game.

I feel like such an idiot because I saw it everywhere for $30 just like a year ago and now it's suddenly something hard to find and becoming expensive.
 
Just hold out Dave! Keep an eye out ebay, sooner or later someone who's down on their on luck will put's it up for "Buy it Now" for $45-60.

$75-100 is just too much IMO.
 
You're right of course. I can wait if the seller decides to not accept my high bid after the auction ends. It's new and sealed though so I'm sure they want a premium for it.

I love the box. That's half the reason I noticed the game in the first place when it came out.
 
I remeber getting this game when it first came out; didn't know anything about it and just purchased it on the strength of the very nice packaging. I have to wonder what prompted the DVD packaging. Was Sega trying something new or did Sega Rosso simply want to do something different?

Trakball said:
It's a fucking rad game! There's one song in there that is just brilliant beyond words.
Click to expand...

Which one are you talking about exactly? At what point do you hear it?
 
Frame Gride is pretty good if you're into Armored Core. It feels very much like Armored Core 1.5.

For shmups, Border Down, Psyvariar II, and Zero Gunner II are must buys.
 
Haha, I actually wrote a 1500 word review for Segaweb back when this was released. :)
http://web.archive.org/web/20030428234711/http://sega.gamerweb.com/reviews/dreamcast/cos.asp

I love this game, it really is a game you have to get into the zone for. I went through several weeks of playing for an hour every evening immediately after work, and sometimes at lunch too.

Unfortunately the score spikes really do spoil the experience when aiming for higher-end scores, meaning that as soon as you miss the ball, or don't finish a stage without a trick smash, you might as well quit and restart. Despite this, it's still excellent, and the ambience is amazing.
 
FortNinety said:
Which one are you talking about exactly? At what point do you hear it?
Click to expand...


It's the one you hear at... shit, it's been a while since I played it. I do believe it's the one you hear at the forks in the map? Or every ten stages? Shit! It's really slow, lots of bass, and it shifts into hyper drum & bass mode every now and then.

I used to set the timer as high as it could go, beat the stages before the one I'm talking about as quick as possible, so I would have a lot of time.. then I would just sit in that room and zone out to the music. :) There may have been a small amount of ganja involved, as well.
 
Why the HELL wasn't Frame Gride released over here?

And why did I forget about my plan to import the game until seeing its name in this thread a few seconds ago?
 
Dave Long said:
Anyway, that kind of opens the door to the Dreamcast import world. It's not as exciting as Saturn because so many games DID make it here, but there are still gems.
Click to expand...

Actually I would say that many incredible Dreamcast games were import-only on the system. The only thing is, due to the lack of popularity of the system, these games were later ported to other systems and many of these ports were localized (Rez, SC5pt2, Ikaruga, etc)

My import picks are:

Sakura Taisen 3 - my favorite game of the system. Sega put forth a mass of effort into redefining the "Dramatic Adventure" genre with a lot more adventure events, minigames that are fun to play on their own for score attack, and rehauling the strategy battles to a system that a few SRPGs have come to adopt. This is an AAA title in every respect.

Black/Matrix AD - srpg goodness. It took the Saturn game and gave it better FMV, fixed the interface and made the systems playable, and is an all around solid product with a dark story. But, I think I prefer the Black/Matrix + (Playstation) version over this one.

Border Down - awesome horizontal shooter goodness. If you enjoyed Thunderforce V, this is kinda reminiscent of it. Except it has the Border System which adapts the difficulty to how well you're doing. I think I like it more than Ikaruga, but I've always been more of a horizontal shooter fan

Culdcept II - magic the gathering meets monopoly. incredible game and lots of fun. but NEC Interchannel US brought the PS2 version out in the US. go pick it up!

Ikaruga - DC port of NAOMI game so arcade perfect. Treasure shooter goodness

Kita e White Illumination - travel communication/adventure/romance game that's really cute. utilizes something called CBS (communication break system) where you have the opportunity to interrupt a character when they talk, to interject your own. probably not recommended to those who don't know japanese, but a really nice package otherwise.

Napple Tale - 2.5d platformer made by Sega for a girl audience, has a Kanno soundtrack and Sakamoto Maaya acting/singing. 'nuff said.

Space Channel 5 Part 2 - UGA/Mizuguchi at their finest.
 
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