Dreamcast VMU: Good as a Memory Card, Bad as a Gadget
Written: Jan 19 '01 (Updated Jan 19 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good data integrity, cool extra features, screen adds to gameplay
Cons: Short battery life, small memory capacity, a bit expensive
The Bottom Line: The VMU is not worthwhile to buy as a gadget, but as a Dreamcast memory card, it's really the only way to go.
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| Slusy's Full Review: Sega Visual Memory Unit (VMU) |
When I initially got my Dreamcast, I didn't get a Visual Memory Unit (VMU) or any other memory card. After about a week of having every game that I attempted to play inform me that I didn't have a VMU installed, I broke down and got one. It's a brilliant little piece of hardware, but it has a lot of major faults that keep it from being outstanding.
The VMU basically looks like a tiny Game Boy. It has an LCD screen, a directional pad, two main buttons, a mode button, and a sleep button, and is about half as small as an average person's hand. It plugs into the Dreamcast controller, and the VMU's LCD screen shows through the hole in the front of the Dreamcast controller.
On first glance, this is an ingenious little device. You get a screen for extra information while you play Dreamcast games. For example, in Ready 2 Rumble, you get statistics on how many punches you landed and what your fighter's stamina is at. In Virtua Tennis, the on-screen tennis game is also displayed on the VMU screen with stick figures. The problem is that most developers (Sega included) don't really take advantage of the VMU's screen in-game. Most just display a logo or character's face instead of providing useful information on the LCD screen.
Another neat capability of the VMU is that you can download mini-games to it and play on the VMU when it is out of the Dreamcast controller. Now, this sounds neat on paper, but it's really not used all that much, for two main reasons.
First off, the VMU's battery life is atrociously short. Within a month, even without ever removing the VMU from the controller, the VMU's batteries only last a month. Luckily, the VMU doesn't need batteries to work in the controller and to work as a basic memory card (though once its batteries are dead it greets you with a lovely high-pitched beep whenever you turn on the Dreamcast), but you can forget about playing mini-games unless you want to replace the fairly expensive watch batteries that power the VMU. (The batteries aren't so expensive individually, but changing them once a month adds up really fast.)
The other major problem is space. The VMU only holds 200 blocks of saved games. Now, 200 blocks sounds like a lot, but it's not. If you only play fighting games, or other arcade games that only need up to 10 blocks to save high scores and what not, then 200 blocks is more than enough. A lot of platform and sports games, however, take up most of the VMU's space by themselves. Shenmue takes up 80 blocks, for example, and I remember being shocked when NHL2K informed me that it needed somewhere around 150 blocks. Add to this that VMU mini-games tend to take up around 50 blocks, it reaches a point where they're just not worth taking up room with.
So, with all these problems, how can I recommend it? Because it's good as a memory card. I haven't had any problems with the games I save to the VMU; not once in the six months I've had my VMUs has a file ever disappeared on me or turned up as corrupted. Sure, other memory cards may have more space and what not, but I can't really trust them enough to believe that my data won't end up corrupted.
So, as a piece of hardware, the VMU is brilliant in concept but poor in execution. As a memory card, it's a must-have. The way I see it is that I'm buying a memory card that shows me pretty pictures when I play. It's a bit more expensive, but it's always best to go with a first-party memory card, and the VMU adds enough basic functionality that it makes the price fairly worthwhile.
Recommended:
Yes
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Slusy
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Member: Steve
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