Review: Seaman

Seaman is a very "unique" game that was released for the Sega Dreamcast in 2000. This game is a virtual pet, similar to a Tamagotchi or Giga Pet, that you must take care of. You must feed it, keep the tank at the proper temperature, and talk to it using a special microphone that came with the game. Talking allows the Seaman to learn your language and it can have conversations with you, but beware he can be a smart ass. The game is narrated by the late Leonard Nemoy, which was very surprising the first time I booted the game up. Time in the game is tracked by the Dreamcast's internal clock and certain events in the Seaman's life happen after a specific amount of days. Seaman was so popular in Japan it even got not one, but two different Dreamcast bundles.

Christmas Seaman Edition

Seaman Edition

 
Seaman got a sequel in Japan for the Playstation 2, but it never came to North America. In March 2017, the creator of the game posted an update to his Twitter account hinting that a new Seaman game is being worked on.

Seemingly, a new project is being started. Guess what from the web-address on their back.

 @YootSaito

The history of the Seaman was included in the manual for the game. During the 1930s, Dr. Jean Paul Gassé was a member of a special team of French biologists sent to Egypt by the French government. During that time, Dr. Gassé was determined to research a creature that was an "omnipotent messenger of gods" among the ruins of the Third Dynasty. In March 1932, in the city of Alexandria, Dr. Gassé met up a local resident, who, while fishing, caught a seaman. Dr. Gassé obtained a sample of some of the seaman eggs, and went back to France with the egg samples in his possession.

 When Dr. Gassé returned to France, he attempted to raise the eggs, but in the process, the seaman died. Shortly after this, he published a thesis of his work. Leading academics, however, dismissed him and his work as a PR stunt and without proper evidence to support these theories. As the result, the work was ignored, and no one believed him. His hypothesis suggested that the Seaman was responsible for transferring knowledge that increased during the Third Dynasty across oceans and other lands. This theory became the basis for Anthro-Bio Archaeology, which is a highly valued field of study.

Shortly after publishing his thesis, Dr. Gassé was fired from his post. After his dismissal, news of Gassé’s whereabouts and activities were unknown, and details during those times were sketchy. Rumors began circulating that Dr. Gassé's trail traced to some remote islands in Southeast Asia. It is known, however, that he escaped the horrors of World War II and met up with his colleague, Kimo Masuda. It became clear that sometime during these years they were able to conduct further research on Seaman's evolution, quite possibly even up to the creature walking on all fours. Unfortunately, there was very little hard data or evidence that substantiated these findings.
 
In March 1996, the French Government established the Anthro-Bio Archeological Research Institute (ABARI), headquartered in Paris. The institute is based on the work of Dr. Gassé, and most of the modern day research of Seaman specimens has taken place there. In 1997, the ABARI announced there was a strong possibility that these Seaman species were closely related to the origins of ancient civilizations in Egypt. On October 6, 1998, one of Gassé’s formaldehyde specimens is discovered at the University of Paris.

On February 15, 1999, parts of Gassé's journal and note entries were found in the Masuda family storehouse in Matsuzaka City in Mie Prefecture, Japan. Professor Kendare Takahashi, who was directing the Japanese branch of the ABARI, successfully managed to breed Seaman eggs in captivity, in July the same year. Soon after, Seaman was presented in aquariums across Japan. In July 2000, an expedition team embarked for Egypt in a first major research of the Seaman in the wild.

Verdict: As an adult who grew up in the 90's during the Virtual Pet craze, I enjoyed playing this game. The only part that I did not like about it, was that after about 15 minutes or so, the only thing to do with your Seaman was to keep talking to him. It gets better once you unlock the cage because it gives you other tasks to perform. If you enjoy games that you take your time with and not have to worry about giving it your full attention while you play it, then this game is definetly worth checking out. I would rate this game as 4 out of 5 for it's uniqueness and novelity, if there were more things to do with the Seaman, this would be an even better game. Hopefully the newest entry comes to North America with tons of new features.

Get Seaman for Dreamcast on Ebay!