This fortnight Nick takes a look at Dreamcast classic Shenmue, it's celebrated sequel, and the pain of that elusive third instalment that never arrived...
SHENMUE 1 + 2
Release Year: 1999 (Shenmue), 2001 (Shenmue 2)
Original Console Release: Dreamcast, Xbox (Shenmue 2)
Developer: Sega AM2
By Nick Murray, Videogames Contributor.
In the world of entertainment there are some amazing trilogies. Just consider The Lord of the Rings, the original Star Wars movies, or the recent Dark Knight series. All fantastic, and all follow your basic trilogy rules; the first movie introduces the characters and world, the second ups the stakes and implies loss of hope, and finally the third part is the final plunge for resolution. Not all trilogies follow this format, but this is the tried and true method for most three-part sagas. Now try and remember how you felt after you saw Empire Strikes Back - after the famous Darth Vader revelation, after the worrying fate of Han Solo – remember how excited you were, how you shook with anticipation, with complete wonder as to how it was all going to end, how the events would play out. Remember that? Well imagine there was no Return of the Jedi. No answers to your questions. A few years pass and you start to think to yourself 'Hmmm, they sure are taking their time with this sequel.' Then one day you read an article saying that they couldn't justify spending the money it would take to make Return of the Jedi. Then ponder the notion of Lucasfilm going into financial turmoil, with which the likelihood of Return ever getting made slowly diminishes. Occasionally a rumour might spark some hope, but then some guy in a suit will kill that spark. If any of this is sounding familiar then you were probably the owner of a Sega Dreamcast, and on that Dreamcast you probably owned Shenmue and it's sequel, Shenmue 2. This short lived series, and it's untimely death, are the focus of this fortnight's Friday Flashback.
