Report: Dreamcast Classic Seaman Coming To 3DS

[Earnest Cavalli]

Report: Dreamcast Classic Seaman Coming To 3DS

If Japan's Nikkei media conglomerate is to be believed, your 3DS is about to get a whole lot weirder.

Let's do the backstory first: The year is 1999 and Sega has just launched the Dreamcast. The new console is awesome, but Sega is coming off a string of hardware failures, and is fighting an uphill battle against the emerging PlayStation juggernaut. The Company That Sonic Built needed some way to set itself apart from the typical videogame rabble. Being Sega however, that wasn't enough. This theoretical game also needed to be totally insane, feature Leonard Nimoy (as, bizarrely, himself) and have a title so sexually suggestive that childish gaming journalists would still be making jokes about it 13 years later.

Thus: Seaman -- a game that tasks players with raising a sarcastic fish/man hybrid that somehow completely lacks any of the appealing qualities of either species.

Even weirder, the game is surprisingly enjoyable. If you've never played it, imagine Animal Crossing, only instead of a town needing to be weeded, you're put in charge of an ugly fish that needs constant emotional support.

(And people wonder why I love Sega so much.)

Anyway, according to a report in the online iteration of Japan's Nikkei newspaper, Seaman is being resurrected for the Nintendo 3DS as part of a Nintendo scheme to bolster the handheld's library with forgotten classics originally created by third-party companies.

Unfortunately, the report (which was handily translated by the Nipponophiles at Andriasang) offers no details on when you might see Seaman on your 3DS, nor any hints of how this Seaman might differ from the Seaman you were playing with at the turn of the century.

In the meantime, feel free to write up a list of childish jokes about the game's title. Y'know, because it's a homonym for sperm.

Source: Andriasang [http://andriasang.com/con012/seaman_3ds/]

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[imnot]

The hell is that thing?

Actually it looks kinda fun, besides the nightmare fuel.
Also anyone else notice seamen is like sperm LOL XD

 

[Hal10k]

I'd like to repeat this from an earlier post, if I may, because I think this is worth noting:

It isn't the word "Seaman" itself that bothers me.

It's that somebody on the translation team decided that "Seaman" was the best word to use in reference to the title creature. He then instructed the rest of the team to exclusively use "Seaman" when referring to it. The translation team then handed their script over to the Q&A team, who decided it was fine, and from there the script went over to a voice acting director and both voice actors, including Leonard Nemoy, who read the script aloud without raising a fuss and sent it over to post production. There they listened to the audio track several times over while editing it and lip syncing the game. They then decided that "Seaman" now had a satisfactory voice track, and sent the finished product to be manufactured and distributed.

Meanwhile, the marketing department is hard at work. They have to design packaging for "Seaman", try to get people to recognize the product, and commission advertisements telling kids, "You too can play with your very own Seaman!" They too complete their job without incident, and "Seaman" leaves production and goes onto store shelves.

And at NO POINT during this process did anybody say, "Wait a minute, I think that might be a homonym..."

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Oh Seaman, good times were had on the Dreamcast.

It will be interesting to see how it will be like on the 3DS if it comes, and how it will be like poking that little swimmer with the stylus.

EDIT: Totally aware of what I typed, can't be helped.

EDIT 2: Does anyone else remember the weird crap that fish used to say? Solid gold.

 

[Crimson_Dragoon]

I'd like to repeat this from an earlier post, if I may, because I think this is worth noting:

It isn't the word "Seaman" itself that bothers me.

It's that somebody on the translation team decided that "Seaman" was the best word to use in reference to the title creature. He then instructed the rest of the team to exclusively use "Seaman" when referring to it. The translation team then handed their script over to the Q&A team, who decided it was fine, and from there the script went over to a voice acting director and both voice actors, including Leonard Nemoy, who read the script aloud without raising a fuss and sent it over to post production. There they listened to the audio track several times over while editing it and lip syncing the game. They then decided that "Seaman" now had a satisfactory voice track, and sent the finished product to be manufactured and distributed.

Meanwhile, the marketing department is hard at work. They have to design packaging for "Seaman", try to get people to recognize the product, and commission advertisements telling kids, "You too can play with your very own Seaman!" They too complete their job without incident, and "Seaman" leaves production and goes onto store shelves.

And at NO POINT during this process did anybody say, "Wait a minute, I think that might be a homonym..."

Oh, there is no way in hell it got past step one without someone noticing that. It had to be a deliberate marketing ploy. And hey, mainly thanks to that name, people still remember the game to this day, so it must have worked.

 

[GonzoGamer]

It's about time.
The DS is the perfect platform for a Seaman comeback with it's built in mic.
This has to be one of the trippiest games of all time. How many games are entirely based on a Monty Python movie intro:
I can't wait to eat Howard.

 

[Mumorpuger]

I remember this game. It was long and hard, but satifying once it was over.

Actually, the ending was interesting. It made some connection to ancient Egypt, if memory serves. Strange but true!

 

[Viridian]

It was long and hard, but satifying once it was over.

I seaman what you did there.

 

[yundex]

Still waiting on shenmue 3