Elemental Gimmick Gear: The Dreamcast Lays an EGG

Author's Rating:

Pros: $1

Cons: Just about everything else.

The Bottom Line: 
for just one dollar
you too can experience
mind-numbing boredom

Author's Review
Overall: 3
Gameplay: 5
Graphics: 3
Sound: 5
Replay Value: 4
Concept: 3

While the Dreamcast is home to many overlooked and underappreciated games, it's also home to a few games that were overlooked but are hard to appreciate at all. Elemental Gimmick Gear (EGG) happens to be one of these games. Not only is the concept of EGG pretty stale, but the graphics are nowhere near what they should be for the Dreamcast and the gameplay is fairly poor as well.

In EGG you are the Sleeper, a man found inside a strange robotic machine in a ruin. When you were found, you were unconscious and nobody could wake you; however, your machine was an interesting type of cybernetic suit that was quickly copied and called an 'Elemental Gimmick Gear'. Later, a mysterious evil appeared inside the ruins, and spread giant tentacles across the countryside, destroying anything in their path. At the same time, you awoke, with no memories and no knowledge of who you are. Interestingly, this plot parallels real life, as after a few hours of playing this game I too fell asleep.

And thus EGG begins. You hop into your Gear and venture off to discover your fortune and fate. While this backdrop is somewhat interesting, it still does little to get the player interested in what is truly a bland game. EGG is your run of the mill action adventure game, consisting mainly of fetch quests. Find items which let you access new areas until the final showdown with the end boss. Aside from a handful of powerups, that's all there is.

Gear Up

Throughout most of the game you travel around inside your Gear, which is something of a combat suit. In the beginning it can only do the basics; walk around, punch, and a spin maneuver which you can also use to spin-dash at opponents or objects. As the game progresses, you'll gain powerups which add a few abilities and let you reach new areas. Some of these are somewhat interesting for the genre; an early addition is the punch-grapple, which not only extends the reach of your attack but also functions as a grappling hook, letting you cross gaps into previously inaccessible areas. Most of the powerups function in this way; they add an attack and open up new areas. There are also capsules scattered around that increase your offensive and defensive capabilities, and finding all of them is key to progressing through the game.

Overall, there is really nothing new here. The gameplay follows the same adventure game conventions that date back as far as the original Legend of Zelda. Enter area, find key, enter next area. Wash, rise, repeat. There's no innovation or surprise to keep the player hooked or shake things up. This makes for a pretty bland game, and you'll probably get the vague feeling that you've played it before. Or that you're dreaming, because you fell asleep like me.

Look At This

Since the Dreamcast was the first 128-bit console, you'd think this game would at least look good. Unfortunately, you'd be wrong. The vast majority of the game is played in a 2-D, top down view, with graphics that probably could have been done on the Super Nintendo. The only glimmer of modern graphical ability are in the special battles against bosses and other Gears. After a few seconds of loading time you get a 3D view of the 1 on 1 battle. Unfortunately, even these graphics are poor; while in 3D, the models are blocky and the textures are horrible. I don't know why this game's graphics are so, so bad, especially considering the beautiful titles like Soul Calibur that were released at the Dreamcast's launch. if I were paranoid, I would say that the developers purposefully shoveled this game onto the Dreamcast in order to doom the console.

Extra, Extra!

The only thing that brings this game up to the level of mediocrity it desperately clings to are some of the extras. Specifically, there are a few mini-games. They're pretty normal, just the average races and timed challenges and the like. There's also someone in the first town whom you can challenge to a fight; beat him 100 times and you get a special item. These little extras are nice additions to the game; they don't justify buying the game just for them, but if the rest of the game is at least tolerable these extras are a bit of icing on the cake.

One good thing to say about this game is that the bosses are fairly unique. They generally have special powers and weaknesses that the player must find to defeat them. Some of the boss battles are fairly exciting, though they end up being too short once you figure out what to do.

There isn't much play value to this game, not to mention replay value. Playing the game through a second time might be interesting if one had missed some of the extras, but otherwise it's only suggested if you want to, say, experiment with inducing seizures through sheer boredom. I was hoping that there would some customization to your Gear, as in just about every other giant robot game, but of course that would have made it interesting so the designers opted to hold off on that one.

Overall, EGG is nothing special. There is a caveat here, however: I picked up this game for $1 new at Electronics Boutique. For that price, I would surely say the game is worth it; it gave me more than $1 worth of entertainment, though not much more. If you happen to see this game at such a cheap price while out shopping, I would say pick it up as it might be a nice surprise for some gamers - and hey, it's just a buck. Otherwise, you'll end up wanting those few hours of your life back, and you can never, ever have them again.