The man smoking the cigar quickly turns my way. “You. Come here”. He places a disc into the machine and closes the lid. “I want you to hit me as hard as you can”.



Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike | Capcom | 2000

I balled up a fist and threw a punch. He caught my hand and countered by breaking my nose. “In the game stupid.” Is all he said after that. Hip music started playing and we began a quick versus round. Now, when I say quick, I mean quick. My character of choice was Chun Li and I felt confident about it, even though the cigar man looked at me funny. He chose Ken and the bout started. Immediately I went in for a quick one – two punch kick combo but to my surprise he parried it. HE PARRIED IT. You’re not supposed to be able to parry in Street Fighter I thought to myself. He then used the Shinryuken Super Art and the match was over. “You’ve forgotten a lot apparently.” He said. “You’ll never be a good enough fighter if you can’t learn a simple basic move. Fighting games are more about technique than they are about sounds and graphics.” Although I had to admit the frame rate was impressive and the sprites looked eye melting gorgeous.  

Soul Calibur | Namco | 1999

The next game he put in was one I was definitely familiar with. I had this evil smirk like I knew there was no way I could lose at this game on my face; I didn’t have to see it. I could feel it. We chose our characters, Ivy for me and Kilik for him. Once again I began on the offensive. Trying to push him to the edge for a ring out was my plan but of course he knew what I was thinking and beat the hell out of me. I tried countering to no avail. Apparently, I was far more rustier than I thought. The match ended and once again I was ridiculed. “This is a 3-D fighter moron. You don’t have to move forward and back, there are sides. You should have won that one”.

Power Stone | Capcom | 1999

Another disc gets put in. This time however, he picks up another controller but not for another player. He slings the controller at my head and it hits square in the right eye. “ Swords and fists aren’t the only weapons in a fight, remember that”. With my eye swollen shut we play a round of Power Stone. I pick up everything I can hoping to inflict some kind of punishment on him, but he always seems to be two steps ahead of me. Oh crap, he got all of the stones, turned into a super being and this one is over. The first “go anywhere-grab anything game on the planet” left me with a swollen eye and a hurt pride.

Dead or Alive 2 | Tecmo | 1999

There was one more disc left on the table. As put it in and shut the cover, the familiar high pitched beeping sound went off assuring us the game was loading. It was Dead or Alive 2. As we picked our characters someone in the background made a joke abouut going to the option screen and inputing our "age". I remember reading somewhere that depending on what age you input would have an effect on the... bounce of the characters. I chose Kasumi and he choose Helena. All of a sudden I felt a fist crush the corner of my left eye. In agony I hit the floor. "Stop staring at their breasts!" someone yelled as I tried desperately to find my chair. With both my eyes swollen shut I pathetically fought on only to lose. Did I even have a chance anyway at this rate?

Just as the computer announced "Winner!" I woke up in the green leather chair. I was back in the IKEA store. My eyes were no longer swollen shut but they burned from the daggers that were being shot into them from my girlfriend's eyes. Apparently I fell asleep whilst losing god knows how much money on the funiture we bought. On the way home all I could think about was the Dreamcast. Even through the nagging yelling from my girlfriend about the embarassment she just suffered while she was trying to turn our crappy apartment into a home, all I thought about was the Dreamcast, my Dreamcast. After opening the door, I raced to a closet in the office and pulled out a medium sized box. Inside rested my Dreamcast, the same Dreamcast that got me through many weekends and holidays.

As it turns out, the Dreamcast isn't thinking, instead we are thinking about it. What other system do we as gamers remember without fail to celebrate it's launch day as if it was a national holiday? None. Okay, maybe the NES, but that's it. Hope you guys enjoyed this little tale. Next time we'll cover the shooters that made the Dreamcast great only this time, we'll leave out the story part. Till then.