When misty-eyed fans of Sega's defunct Dreamcast console sit about and languidly recall the machine's finest games, one title will always come up – Shenmue, the story of Ryo Hazuki and his quest to avenge the murder of his father by Chinese gangsters. Yu Suzuki's groundbreaking (and hugely expensive) open-world adventure re-invented the whole notion of the role-playing game, making design decisions just as radical as those that defined this year's controversial hit, Heavy Rain. A sequel followed, but the planned trilogy was thwarted when the Dreamcast died. Game over...
But now Sega Japan has announced a new title, Shenmue Town, and it's out this year. The only thing is, it's a mobile game. Oh and it's currently only planned for Japan where it is set to run on Yahoo's MobageTown mobile social network. According to Kotaku, the game is being referred to by Sega as the 'third' Shenmue game, but players shouldn't expect a continuation of the main Shenmue storyline, which ended on a major cliffhanger.
But it's not all heartbreakingly disappointing news. Japanese publishers have often used mobile releases to test the water for full console re-launches: Capcom kept Street Fighter and Mega Man going on handsets for years before re-igniting the brands on Xbox Live Arcade and PSN, as did Konami with Castlevania. And of course, Sega has begun to port Dreamcast titles over to XBLA and PSN, starting with Crazy Taxi and Sonic Adventure. Shenmue would be a much more ambitious endeavour – the original game came on three discs, due partly to the huge amount of cut-scene content (which was later compiled into a movie release). But there's always the possibility of an episodic release, right Sega? Sega?
