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by b-ruce
staff writer

2001 | In the 1950's Sugar Ray Robinson dominated the middleweight boxing scene. After he retired in the mid 60's he was given a trophy that read: "The greatest fighter who ever lived." But this title was hotly debated, Robinson's detractors pointing out that he gave some weight in fights but would be destroyed in a fight with a heavyweight. Faced with a critical problem boxing pundits and fans eventually came up with the term: "Pound for Pound". Soon after Robinson was pretty much universally accepted as "the best fighter that ever lived - pound for pound." And now if you were to ever even think of suggesting that someone else was better you'd be shunned from the boxing community as a whole.

2 reasons why I brought that up: 1)I was watching boxing and then a bio on Robinson on TV last night. And 2)To me Shenmue also raises the same issues.

Beautiful, immense, revolutionary - Shenmue represents the Olympian heights the dreamcast could've acheived. Instead, the release of Shenmue really acts and a good focal point to the downfall of the system. Soon afterwards Dreamcast fans were treated to disapointments like the non-broadband compatable Phantasy Star Online (a watered down version of a respectable PC's MMORPG genere) and a virtual drought of good support from game developers. Shortly thereafter Sega wusses out on the DC. I like my DC and always will, even though it has let me down. With games like Shenmue, Virtual Tennis and even PSO the people at Sega seemed dedicated to breaking new ground and pushing the envelope. But when it came to actual bussiness balls Sega came up miserably short. Ironicly enough Shenmue will bookmark the end of the DC by releasing Shenmue 2 in the fall as what most certainly will be the last title of the system.

Ok, if you haven't played this game, raise your hand, and then go buy it right now. If you don't own a Dreamcast then buy that too, at $99 it's well worth it the experience one of the best games ever made. Alright, now that we've done that let's continue on with the review. This game bills itself as being in no known genre and is right. It's kinda like Metal Gear Solid in that it is more of a story to experience, but it's more than that. Shenmue builds, maintains and allows you to live in a universe all it's own, with few guidelines. Set in a town in Japan in the 80's, Shenmue really allows the player to experience what it would be like to just live a normal life in its universe. Obviously it does prod you in certain directions and prohibit you from doing absolutly everything a normal person could do in its setting, but what you do have to work with is much more than any other game ever made. Almost everything you can see you can touch, feel, pet, drink, play, open, close, inspect and put in your pocket. This game does a fantastic job of emmersing you into its universe, really making you feel like you're there. It takes realism in games to a new height. Which is why I personally think the plot isn't as cliche as others seem to think it.

Sure, it's your basic "Father killed by evil dood, must find dood and avenge father's death". But really the reason why this is a cliche is has to do with the true roots it has in our history as human beings - this really does happen. This is why I think that the plot actually helps add to the realism of the game and therefore is a blessing and not a curse. It becomes somewhat reminscient of a cop show and who doesn't like those? It also gives the player a clear directive of what to do: "Find your Father's killer". The main character sets out to do this with a notebook where he writes whatever clues he may find, and although sometimes it may seem kinda like a shopping list the humor of his writing: "Must avenge Father's death." in the notebook is classic.

Gameplay is pretty standard RPG for the most of the game, walk around, talk to everybody, find clues and items. But instead of turned based fights against random things there are free battles - using the virtua fighter engine - and QTE (quick time event). QTEs happen during a movie sequence mostly, directing the player to hit a certain button within a few seconds of the icon flashing on the screen. QTEs are a new innovation and can be quite fun, some being 1 button quickies and others lasting for a solid period of time. The thing I really like about them is that they forbid the player from putting down the controller when a movie sequence starts - a habit that many of us are guilty of. It really draws you in and makes you pay strict attention to every moment of the game because you never know when you might have to hit "A" to avoid a speeding van or bar stool.

My only real critism on the game is that it may lack a little on a replay. Because the game is essentially "find clue, do what clue tells you to do to trigger the giving of a new clue" there isn't a whole lot of replay divergence. However this is to be balanced against the fact that there are thousands of people in this town with their own scheduals and agendas, and with them come hundreds of experiences that you might miss if you were just taking a straight-line approach to the game.

Taking all this into account and remembering all the enjoyment I have gotten out of this game leads me to give it a perfect 5 out of 5. This game is a masterpiece, a new standard that future games will be held to. As stated above, the real question is "How great is it?" That is to say, where does this game stand in the annuls of video games, in the hall of fame. And now you're hopefully seeing why I brought up that bussiness with Sugar Ray Robinson. If not might I suggest going back to school, getting a dictionary and then rereading the first paragraph of the review.

We really do need a way to rate truely great games against each other. Perhaps instead of "Pound for Pound" we should have an "Hour for Hour" catagory where we could rate the games based on our enjoyment of playing them divided by how long they took to finish. Under this standard I belive Shenmue may be "The greatest game hour for hour". At this point I must only add that time is certainly still a test that Shenmue will have to pass, and that I will have to reconsider this all in about a year from now. (whew finished.)

Posted by b-ruce at September 1, 2006 10:38 AM