Dreamcast Underrated Gem: Project Justice

Channel:

The 2.5D Gamer

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Published on March 4, 2010 7:39:24 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCbm3gg6b2E

Game:

Project Justice (2000)

Duration: 10:01

20,802 views

107

This is a series of gameplay vids I'm doing highlighting overlooked games for the various consoles I own.

Perhaps it's a little cruel to flaunt this one, because the game will cost you $60 online at the cheapest (which isn't steep when compared to modern games, but is for a DC game). I in fact found it for a mere $13 at a local game store a few years back. It was already expensive at that time, so very rarely has my hand moved so fast to grab anything off of a shelf. I was afraid it was going to ring up at a different price, like it was a cruel joke, but it wasn't. I almost wanted to laugh in their faces for not knowing what they had, but I thought better of it.

Project Justice on the Dreamcast is the third game in the Rival Schools series (the second on was on the PS1, but it never came to America). For those who don't know, Rival Schools/Project Justice is the peak of anything Capcom will ever do in 3D fighting. Forget Street Fighter EX, Rival Schools successfully took that classic Capcom formula, and made it not only work, but completely awesome in 3D.

Project Justice continues that winning formula in style, and even improves upon certain elements of the original. The Story Mode is now a lot more in-depth, there are more characters to choose from, and it even added the ability to counter team-up attacks. The graphics are also vastly improved, but that's a give seeing as it jumped from the PS1 to the Dreamcast. This is just all around an awesome game, and it always seems to get overshadowed by other Dreamcast fighters like Soul Calibur, DOA2, and even Powerstone. All of which are great games, but Project Justice is just as worthy to be mentioned along side them too IMO. The Dreamcast had awesome 2D, and awesome 3D fighting games.

My only complaints would be the fact that, like the American version of Rival Schools on the PS1, they cut out the ability to create your own characters, and again just give you generic characters from the edit mode. There was apparently also a mini game that got cut as well (a board game of some sort).

Another complaint I have isn't so much with the game itself, it's with the Dreamcast D-pad. Maybe it's because I haven't used it in a while, but I find myself having the hardest time doing the fireball motions in the game. In fact, I find myself jumping instead of pulling off the maneuver I wanted to. I also find myself doing the uppercut when I'm trying to throw the fireball, or throwing the fireball when I'm trying to do the uppercut. Perhaps it's me, or perhaps I just need to get an arcade stick for the Dreamcast. If you have an arcade stick, then throw out this complaint.

Also, it doesn't feel quite as fast as the original PS1 version. Maybe it's just me, but I think the PS1 original plays just the slightest bit better. That could also be because of the control problems I have, but the PS1 version feels a little bit smoother. I've also played the PS1 version more, and I more used to it, so that could also be the problem.

Overall, this game is a blast like Rival Schools was before it. The only problem is, this ten year old game will cost you about the same price as a new game at the cheapest. If you find it anywhere for cheap, then jump on it. You won't regret it. It's one of my favorite DC games, and I can't recommend it enough.

Project Justice is also available in the Japanese Arcades, but in console form, it is only available on the Sega Dreamcast.

NOTE: Someone once told me that the DC itself is an underrated gem, and that's true, but even then, there are still many popular DC games that have had mainstream recognition, and then there are ones that didn't get as much attention, so I'm going to focus more on the games that I feel didn't quite get the recognition they deserved on the system. I'm sure the avid DC fan knows about every game I can list, but I'm going at it more from the perspective of a person who maybe never owned the system and is interested in what it has to offer, or even those who never played that far into it's library.