Blue Stinger on Dreamcast: Climax Graphics’ 1999 Monster-Island Game, and Why There Was Never a Blue Stinger 2

Blue Stinger — ブルースティンガー, printed on the box as BLUE STINGER — is a survival action game Sega released in Japan on 25 March 1999 for the Dreamcast, product code HDR-0003, 5,800円 before tax. It was made by a small Tokyo studio, Climax Graphics, led by the producer and co-writer Shinya Nishigaki (西垣伸哉), and in North America and Europe it was on the shelves when the Dreamcast launched.

It sold poorly at home and well in America, and Sega asked for a second one. There never was one. By the time the call came, Nishigaki’s team was already making something else, and the only return the game was ever promised — an Xbox “Premium Cut” announced in 2002 — was cancelled. This guide covers what the Japanese disc is, why it plays differently from the American one, what happened to the sequel and the Xbox version, and how to search for the disc without buying the wrong region by mistake.

• Japanese title: ブルースティンガー (box: BLUE STINGER), published by Sega (セガ・エンタープライゼス), developed by Climax Graphics
• Dreamcast (GD-ROM): 25 March 1999 · 5,800円 before tax, as recorded by the Media Arts Database · product code HDR-0003 — the Media Arts Database, Sega’s own Dreamcast software list and Suruga-ya all agree on the code and the date
• Western releases: Activision published it in North America (9 September 1999) and Europe (14 October 1999), with a reworked camera
• No sequel: Sega proposed Blue Stinger 2; Nishigaki said he was already developing Illbleed, which became the studio’s next and last Dreamcast game
• No port either: an Xbox ブルースティンガー プレミアムカット was announced by Sega in December 2002 and never released
• Buying tip: the North American disc does not run on a Japanese Dreamcast, and a Japanese disc will not run on an unmodified Western one — check the region before you pay

What is Blue Stinger, and who made it?

It is a monster-island action game built like a Hollywood film. In the story, an earthquake in 2000 raises a new island off the Yucatán Peninsula, near the crater of the meteor that killed the dinosaurs; it is named Dinosaur Island, and a company called Kimra takes it over. In 2018 a second object falls from space, a dome of light closes over the island, and the rescue diver Eliot Ballade washes up on its pier. He works through the island with the ferry captain Dogs Bower and the security guard Janine King, buying weapons from vending machines as he goes. The Japanese Wikipedia article describes it as survival horror in the mould of early Resident Evil, with its own additions such as weapon shopping and side missions.

The studio was small. Climax Graphics began pre-production in September 1996 with a startup staff of eighteen, according to John Andersen, who interviewed Nishigaki in 2003, and full production started in December 1997. Masaki Segawa — later the creator of the manga Basilisk — designed the main characters and helped shape the story; the American make-up artist Robert Short designed the creatures; Toshihiko Sahashi wrote the score. Sega kept the copyright and the rights to the game, which matters for everything that happened next.

Why does the Japanese disc play differently from the American one?

Because the camera was changed for the West. The Japanese version uses fixed camera positions that pull back to show the scenery. Two sources explain the change differently. The Japanese Wikipedia article, citing IGN in August 1999, says the camera placement in the Japanese release drew a lot of criticism, so the Western versions added a behind-the-character camera and a first-person view. Andersen’s account puts it on the publisher: Activision wanted the camera to follow the character closely, Climax Graphics built what Activision called the “Follow Cam”, and Nishigaki, imitating the request in the interview, called it the “gero camera”.

Either way, the Japanese disc is the game as Nishigaki first framed it, and the American disc is the version most English-language reviews were written about. If you have played one, the other will not feel quite the same.

Why was there never a Blue Stinger 2?

Because the team had already moved on when Sega asked. In the 2003 interview Andersen published in 2015, Nishigaki described the sales split — low in Japan, a big hit in America — and then said that Sega called him proposing Blue Stinger 2, and that he thought it was impossible because he was already developing Illbleed. Andersen writes that Blue Stinger sold more than half a million copies worldwide.

Nishigaki had talked about the choice once before. In a Japanese Dreamcast Magazine interview in April 2000, while Illbleed was in development, he said the team had gone back and forth over whether to make a sequel and in the end chose something original — horror. Sega does not come up in that interview; it is the team’s side of the same decision.

After that, there was no one left to make a sequel. The studio renamed itself Crazy Games in February 2001, released Illbleed in Japan the following month — two months after Sega announced it would stop making the Dreamcast — and closed its Shinjuku office in December 2002; Nishigaki and his staff moved to the developer Cavia. He died of a heart attack on 14 February 2004, aged 42.

What happened to the Xbox “Premium Cut”?

It was announced and then cancelled. On 3 December 2002 Sega and Coolnet Entertainment launched a joint brand, CoolCool, for Xbox games, and Sega’s press release listed ブルースティンガー プレミアムカット among the titles to come — a renewed version with new characters and a new scenario, release date and price undecided. Illbleed was on the same list.

Neither appeared. Andersen, who tried to help Coolnet find an overseas publisher after Nishigaki’s death, writes that the Japanese version had to come out first, that the original Xbox was not selling in Japan, and that Coolnet moved on to other products; the Xbox versions were cancelled. Since then there has been no port and no reissue: Blue Stinger is not on Steam or GOG, and it is not in the 2011 Dreamcast Collection. The Dreamcast disc is still the only way to play it.

Will the disc run on your Dreamcast?

Only if the regions match. Because the English title is the same everywhere, a search for Blue Stinger returns Japanese, American and European copies side by side, and they are not interchangeable. Suruga-ya lists the North American copy with the note 国内版本体動作不可 — it will not run on a Japanese console. The same lock works the other way: English Wikipedia says the Dreamcast “uses regional lockout, only playing games released within its predetermined region”, and that this can be worked around with a modchip, a boot disc or a cheat disc such as Action Replay.

So match the disc to the machine. If you own a Japanese Dreamcast, look for the HDR-0003 disc and skip listings that say NTSC-U, USA or PAL. If you own a Western console, the Japanese disc needs one of those workarounds before it will start.

Where can you buy the Japanese disc today?

Suruga-ya: search the code, without the hyphen. HDR0003 returned one listing on 28 September 2026, this game, and it stayed at one with sold-out items shown — the North American copy and a manual-only listing do not come up under the code. The copy was listed used at ¥1,100 (price as of 28 September 2026). Do not add the hyphen. HDR-0003 returned 32 listings; of the 24 shown, one was this game and the rest were other Dreamcast games and two Xbox One editions of Forza Motorsport 7. Searching the title instead returns the same disc, but with sold-out items shown it also brings up the North American copy and a manual on its own.

Buyee: the code first, the title as a back-up. HDR-0003 returned three listings on 28 September 2026, and all three were this game. That is clean but thin, so we also link the title search, ブルースティンガー ドリームキャスト: 38 listings, 22 of them the game. The other sixteen included the strategy guide, the soundtrack, a Dreamcast Magazine demo disc that paired it with Buggy Heat, a two-game set and back issues of Sega magazines. Do not search ブルースティンガー alone: 337 listings, and of the 100 shown only 22 were the game, among fishing jigs and toy cars.

eBay: add NTSC-J. Because Japan, North America and Europe share the title, Blue Stinger dreamcast returned 137 listings on 28 September 2026 and only about a third of the first 40 were Japanese. Blue Stinger dreamcast NTSC-J returned 54, and 37 of the first 40 were the Japanese disc. The code alone does not work there. The search for HDR-0003 showed results: 8 (this game: 3; motorcycle exhaust parts: 5).

Why search Kataban for this one?

Because the catalog lists the Japanese release under the English title and the code. Checked in a desktop browser on 28 September 2026: Blue Stinger returns one result, the 1999 Dreamcast disc, and HDR-0003 returns the same one. The card gives the platform, the 1999 release year, the publisher Sega, the code HDR-0003 and the kana to look under on a Japanese shop shelf (フ, the row ブルー files under).

Blue Stinger · ブルースティンガー · Dreamcast, 25 March 1999 (HDR-0003) · Sega (セガ・エンタープライゼス)

Where to buy: Suruga-ya.jp — code (HDR0003) · Buyee — code (HDR-0003) · Buyee — kana title and platform (ブルースティンガー ドリームキャスト) · eBay — title, platform and region (Blue Stinger dreamcast NTSC-J)
See the disc on Kataban →

Sega owned the game, Sega asked for a sequel, and the person who could have made it had already started something else. What is left is one GD-ROM from March 1999 with HDR-0003 on it, an American version with a different camera, and a press release for an Xbox edition that never shipped.