PSN, WiiWare, XBLA: Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram Coming To Digital Download?
Virtual On is a series of one-versus-one battles between giant robots, or Cyber Trooper, of various factions. Each Cyber Trooper has three weapons they can use to battle, as they skim around a battlefield blasting at each other. Virtual On was noted for using a large controller called the twin-stick, but could be used without it just fine.
Virtual On was released back in 1995 and had a release on the Sega Saturn - it was also released for the PlayStation 2 back in 2007 in Japan. However, this is not that game. This is Oratorio Tangram, its 1999 sequel released for the Model-3 Arcade cabinet and on the Sega Dreamcast. This is getting interesting.
With the release of Outrun Online Arcade on the horizon we speculated that Sega could also be working on bringing their other classics across. Virtual On is a perfect choice for the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, with an arcade mode and the chance of online battles, this could be fantastic.
The rating does not specify who exactly is doing the port, as it sometimes does. It has not been Sega's style to port it themselves, with Backbone doing the Sega Vintage Collection games and Sumo Digital doing the Outrun Online Arcade, but we could definitely see Foundation 9 being a part of it.
It's an interesting choice for Sega, particularly Sega of America as they did not release the Dreamcast version of VO:OT themselves, letting Activision do it. The US version also removed the online play, and was never released in Europe, making this Australian classification even sweeter.
Whether this will be a complete reworking of the game, or something quick-and-dirty like the Xbox Live Arcade version of SoulCalibur, is pure speculation at this point.
Some time ago Sega re-registered several trademarks of other Dreamcast titles, including Jet Grind Radio, Cosmic Smash and Sonic Shuffle. While they're not the nearly as obvious to become digital download titles, it may be the beginning of some very interesting content coming from Sega. Crazy Taxi anyone?
If you're one of the many poor individuals who never got the chance to play the game, check out this excellent article over at Hardcore Gaming 101 about the whole series.
Comments
It´s nice to see Sega putting some of their Dreamcast-Titles on the DL-Services.
Virtual On: OT ist definately one of the better looking Dreamcast Games and should work well enough withh Dual-Analog Controls, but I highly doubt we´re going to see Crazy Taxi again because of the licensed music-tracks (the Offspring, etc.)and the in-Game-Advertising (Pizza-Hut, etc. ..)
Posted by: Hugo360 | February 24, 2009 11:52 AM
The music tracks can't be hard to get the rights for. And if they don't get the record label on board its not very hard to replace the original soundtrack with other bands. Which they've done before.
nd about the ingame-advertising, they were replaced by fictional brands in the PSP-version of the game.(and that version was released in the not-so-far-away-year of 2007).
So a Crazy Taxi for digital distribution wouldn't surprise me. And if its not a remake I just hope they make it more like the original than the lousy and horrible Crazy Taxi 3.
Posted by: Will | February 24, 2009 12:26 PM
While that's correct, Crazy Taxi just isn't the same without Pizza Hut and the Offspring. The PSP one seems like a shell without Offspring. To quote them, "YAYAYAYAYA".
Plus I loved the original game's BD Joe voice. They changed it in later ports by Acclaim and just never felt right.
Posted by: Ryan Langley | February 24, 2009 12:42 PM
I disagree that Oratan was playable without the twinsticks, as a lot of the game was limited with the pad. Marz and even the PlayStation 2 port of the original arcade game suffered on a pad.
Posted by: Ollie Barder | February 24, 2009 3:02 PM