New DREAMCAST game shipping today! Trigger Heart Exelica

[fishsandwich]

Trigger Heart Exelica (a Naomi arcade shmup) is shipping TODAY. There is a good possibility that this will the the second-to-last OFFICIAL release on GD-rom as Sega has plans to discontinue the GD-rom format.

Last Hope (an unoffical game pressed on CD that was ported from a homebrew Neo-Geo game) was released a few weeks ago.

The only other game on the Dreamcast release schedule seems to be another shmup (the only genre keeping the DC alive) called Karous (or "Crow") to be released 3/8/07.

Here's a description of Trigger Heart...

Trigger Heart Exelica is coming from the small Japanese developer Warashi (possibly known to some from the shooter 'Shienryu' and numerous Mahjong games) and is a Naomi Arcade port, originally released in Japanese Arcade not long ago -- in early 2006. It's a vertical shooter with intense single-player shooting through realtime 3D worlds and AI-adjusted boss challenges.

What's unique about Trigger Heart and distinguishes itself from other shmups is the three button system. Next to the usual shooting and bomb button, there's an "anchor shot", which allows you to capture enemies. Once captures, you can use your foes as shield or throw them back at other enemies as sort of special bomb.

[bangtango]

That is great news.

Not wanting to derail the thread but what was the latest word on the racing game that was also announced or scheduled?

[Damaramu]

Very cool! Hopefully someday we'll see something other than a shooter or puzzle game!

[fishsandwich]

Very cool! Hopefully someday we'll see something other than a shooter or puzzle game!

We shall, but it will probably be a some sort of homebrew on CD, not an official GD-rom release. The Dreamcast has been kept alive almost entirely by shmups the last few years. I read somewhere that publishers are almost guaranteed to sell a certain amount of any game in the shooter genre, usually to the same group of buyers. A developer can take a Naomi-based arcade shmup (lots in Japan I suppose?) and convert it to Dreamcast fairly easily, then print a few thousand copies and be assured of a sell-out.

[MegaDrive20XX]

Long live Dreamcast!

[gameofyou]

I think that after Karous, the next DC release will be the Trizeal sequel (name escapes me right now). My guess is that it will be the last official DC game.

[exit]

Seems it may be time to dust off my Dreamcast, since it's been very neglected lately.

[Policenaut]

What's unique about Trigger Heart and distinguishes itself from other shmups is the three button system. Next to the usual shooting and bomb button, there's an "anchor shot", which allows you to capture enemies. Once captures, you can use your foes as shield or throw them back at other enemies as sort of special bomb.

That is quite cool!