101. Digital Dance Mix Vol. 1: Namie Amuro (Sega, Saturn, 1997)

Digital Dance Mix is barely a video game. It's a collection of 2 songs by popstar Namie Amuro, with her digital likeness rendered in all 47 polygons that the Sega Saturn could handle. She dances along with 4 backup dancers who are just made of flat planes. In the main mode, you are just watching music videos, though you can control the camera.

With the push of a button you can also change her clothes color or hue, or blast a series of color filters on the screen that feel like they would have been removed in a post-Pokémon-induced-seizure world. You can also select from 4 different stages for the video to play out in, though the default abstract stage is way more interesting to look at than any of the more realistic looking alternate stages (or the blank white background that is also offered).

Of the 2 songs offered, the b-side "You're my Sunshine" is definitely my favorite. While the main track, "Chase the Chance" is not bad, it kind of drags on with repeating choruses, but "You're my Sunshine" is kind of funky, a lot more varied, and has a rap interlude in English, so it's more the kind of 90's cheese I wanted this morning.

There are also 4 minigames included, all meant for 2 players:

• SWEET 16 CARDS: a basic memory matching game
• Chase the Dance: a basic match-the-button-prompt rhythm game
• Door my sunshine: a color/shape matching game, taken directly from Sega's earlier game #19 Tant-R
• a walk in the maze: A simple maze / logic game, also taken from Tant-R

The two Tant-R games are the most fun, but all of these games are designed to be completed in less than 30 seconds, so there isn't a whole lot here. Despite that, I had a pretty good time chilling with this piece of gaming history, even if I don't really have much of a reason to pop it in the Saturn again.

3/5, an extremely 1997 relic