Sega Extreme Sports - Himalayas Easy (Dreamcast) HD Gameplay 1

Описание: Oh boy, it's been ages since I've last laid hands on this gem of a game!

Take a look at the description if you want to learn more about it, but most importantly, enjoy the video.

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Sega Extreme Sports (more like extreme draw distance) is a fascinating experience the likes of what we had never seen before (or after I'm afraid).

It's one of a kind really; Gameplay varies to a certain extent as each stage is packs up with up to three, four or more "extreme" game modes ranging from snowboarding, hang glide, bungee jumping and even racing on ATV's and mountain bikes!

Analyzing each of it's gameplay styles separately, I got to say, Snowboarding's fluid, fast paced and performing tricks is quite simple yet responsive; Driving an ATV however, is not, as while fun and not particularly bad, it does feel a little bit to loose for its own good and it's easy to get stuck in certain areas...

Now, while there's not much to be said about the mountain bike, it's worth mentioning that it's slower than an ATV (for obvious reasons), but it controls quite decently and we were given the ability to jump at will, making it easier to perform tricks on it than in an all-terrain vehicle.

...and last but not least, the hang glide, which is loads of fun, a bit hard to control but somewhat challenging and fun!


Worth mentioning is, while it's possible to perform tricks while having fun with every single one of the previously mentioned methods of transport; Besides the Snowboard (which lets you perform trick on the fly), other are done by performing a few quick Analog or D-Pad + Y combos, only after the combination's done does our character proceed to perform the trick we told him/her to.

Which feels a little bit stiffer than my poor explanation may have made it sound like, truth be told, it barely spoils the fun one can have with it, but it's required to master as it builds boost.


Moving on...

...to the level design, which is quite open and some levels tend to be vastly large, most even give the player the opportunity to take different paths, find the most insane shortcuts and explore different strategies.

While quite straight forward, there's more than enough room to have fun, discover, and think outside the box, it you don't run out of time that is, ahahah.


Graphically speaking, how can you not fall in love its extreme draw distance, enormous maps, breath taking sense of scale and for the time crystal clear textures (specially if we take in consideration how massive each map is)?

It's absolutely beautiful!

...for the most part that is, as I'd like to mention how the morphing polygons are indeed a bit obvious at times; It used to be a problem present in some games from the 128Bit generation and its understandable in a way, our characters however look a bit blockier than they should have and so do a few objects here and there.

Though, it's still pretty, really pretty and if anything I'd like to mention how it still holds up fairly well; I can't help but imagine if a sequel or a successor was to be made and how much more impressive it would have been.

A true shame the Dreamcast was never really given the opportunity to shine...

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IMPORTANT: The game's being emulated using Demul, and the following emulator's still unable render the pretty sun glare effect present in the game when played on real hardware...

...a bit of a shame yes, but, if not mistaking, this is the only version of Demul (and any other emulator even NullDC) that's capable of running this game without major problems.

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...and that's about it, my mini-overview's over, I hope you enjoy the video and the game, as I have plans to play and record more gameplay for some of my favorite Easy, Hard and Extreme levels for this game.