Wow, well that wasn't expected. The YouTube channel Archipel has just released a feature-length documentary to coincide with the upcoming 20th anniversary of the SEGA Dreamcast by hitting up some of the biggest names in the industry and gaining their thoughts on the console and life at Sega.
It really is a Rolls Royce list of developers:
- Hiroshi Iuchi (Ikaruga)
- Kenji Kanno (Crazy Taxi)
- Masayoshi Kikuchi (Jet Set Radio)
- Rieko Kodama (Eternal Arcadia)
- Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Space Channel 5 / Rez)
- Tetsu Okano (Segagaga)
- Yoot Saito (Seaman)
- Hiroaki Yotoriyama (SoulCalibur)
What's really fascinating is just how much admiration a young group of creatives had for the Dreamcast and just how hard they worked at the time to provide a varied and groundbreaking line-up of games. It's hard to see modern day developers displaying similar feelings to the black boxes currently the staple in gaming or the freedom to make such innovative experiences. Without spoiling too much, it's revealed in the documentary that for better or worst, pretty much anything they wanted to make was greenlit (fishing controller support for a fighting game?), and while this kamikaze strategy failed to save the company in the end, it did leave us with the most diverse and creative first party output of any console, ever!
Enjoy the documentary.
