Dreamcast Reviews O

Ever on the cutting edge, David Bowie contributed the fine soundtrack to this futuristic adventure. In Omikron you are a cop in a dystopian city investigating the disappearance of your partner. Everybody you know including your wife is acting suspicious and you don't know who to trust. The remarkable atmosphere of the game owes much to Blade Runner with its overcast weather, glowing advertisements, floating cars, streetwalkers, and steam vents. Ominous police robots resemble ED-209 from Robocop, and it's startling when they snap to attention.

The game captivated me as I walked the streets, explored my apartment, collected items, and conversed with characters. I was able to visit a red light district and watch a virtual David Bowie perform one of his songs. Omikron's well-designed menu system lets you manage inventory and transfer items to virtual lockers for safekeeping. It's super convenient to call "sliders" (taxis) and the game even simulates traffic.

Omikron is ambitious in scope but technically deficient. The controls feel stiff and it's difficult to walk straight. Frequent disc accesses cause the animation to freeze and stutter. Once I actually became embedded in a door. An action button is used to interact with the environment, but most of the time it just displays "I don't understand" or something to that effect. In the police station it's hard to discern doors from random designs, so you end up pushing against walls hoping a panel will slide open.

The one-on-one fights feel like a low-budget Virtual Fighter, and the first-person shooting mode made me feel queasy. After a few hours my progress hit a wall and I reluctantly gave up on the game. The most compelling aspect of Omikron is David Bowie's artistic, otherworldly soundtrack. He wrote some truly beautiful songs for the game which can also be heard on his Hours album. If you're a fan like me, seeing a legend like David Bowie resurrected in digital form is a surreal, bittersweet experience. © Copyright 2016 The Video Game Critic.

Several years back a Playstation game called Poy Poy was released to little fanfare, and it turned out to be one of the greatest multiplayer video games ever made. Four characters ran around a single screen, hurling boxes and bombs at each other, and my friends and I played the hell out of it. Ooga Booga tries to do the same thing, but the gameplay is deeper and played on a split screen.

The characters are goofy witchdoctors on exotic islands, and there are four types to choose from: the speedy "Twitchy", the obese "Fatty", the ghost-like "Hoodoo", and the curvaceous "Hottie". You can smack each other around, throw "shrunken heads", and cast spells like fireballs, lighting, and tornados. Wild animals like boars and birds add to the fun, allowing you to ram the other players or bomb them from the air.

The "tribal trial" mode allows one person to open up all of the islands, spells, and game types. Although it's a great intro to the game, it feels like work after a while, since ALL the game elements are locked initially (I hate that!). But Ooga Booga was really designed for multi-player action. Up to four players can compete via split screen, or you can battle online.

Some of my friends complained about the limited split screen view, but we still had a blast, sometimes laughing hysterically. It's true that the small screen makes it difficult to locate enemies and aim weapons, but I've heard that the online mode is much better. Other game variations include a "Boar Polo" sports variation, but it's surprisingly bad. Ooga Booga has simple graphics but loads of personality. It's not a classic, but if you enjoy multiplayer mayhem, give it a shot. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

This third-person, battle-royale shooter was ahead of its time. It supports up to four players either locally or online (at one time, at least). The matches are short but sweet, and the split-screen looks impressive with four players running around fragging each other.

Outtrigger has that colorful, vibrant arcade look Sega games were known for. Its stages include a castle, train station, arena, library, and art museum to name a few. The fact that these battlefields are modest in size is a double-edged sword. It forces players to engage but limits the strategy, turning each match into a mad free-for-all.

The graphics feature tiered environments with nice lighting effects and distinctive-looking soldiers. The action is frantic. It can be difficult to tell what's going on with players darting all over the place. The controls are so touchy I often settled for just shooting in a general area where opponents were congregated.

Outtrigger's main downfall is its controls. I reviewed this with my friend Sudz who has a long history of playing shooting games on the PC. First we tried using the Dreamcast controllers and our experience was abysmal. By default, the digital pad (on the left) moves your characters and the analog stick (also on the left) adjusts your view. How many thumbs did these play-testers have?

The game works fine with the Dreamcast keyboard and mouse, but it feels like an unnecessarily complicated setup. Later we discovered you can alter the button layout for the controllers. In fact, there are 16 (!) different configurations with wildly non-intuitive names like A2 and D3. None are documented in the manual, but you can peruse the various button combinations on the set-up screens. I never found one I felt completely comfortable with. This game is practically begging for dual-sticks.

Arcade mode challenges one player to kill off all CPU opponents before time runs out. There are a lot of icons (including health and time extend) strewn around the battlefield to keep things hopping. The CPU opponents aren't very smart but they certainly are aggressive. A multitude of weapons are available including machine guns, rocket launchers, flamethrowers, grenades, guided missiles, and photon torpedoes.

Mission mode specifies objectives like slaying a boss, saving a hostage, or eliminating a group of terrorists. Several missions are available at a given time, showcasing lots of diverse environments. I found these missions to be quite challenging and addictive.

The four-player split-screen should have been the highlight, but awkward controls and jerky animation prove its undoing. My friends just couldn't get into it. I like the idea of Outtrigger better than the game itself. Much like trying to use a rocket launcher in close quarters, this game suffers from its share of self-inflicted wounds. © Copyright 2025 The Video Game Critic.