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Must-Have Games For The Dreamcast?
Thanks to EntDepot.com for their roundtable discussing the shiniest, best, and most under-rated Dreamcast games, as Sega's defunct console starts approaching cult status. The article starts: "It seems as though Sega has been all but forgotten as the system innovator that it was. As cliched as it sounds, the Dreamcast was years ahead of its time", and some of the now-inexpensive recommended DC titles include Mars Matrix ("a simple top-down, vertical shooter that we have all grown to love and cherish"), Samba De Amigo ("Get a pair of third-party maracas, [and] come to terms with the fact that you'll soon be flailing your arms around like a jackass"), and the less easily purchasable Propeller Arena ("the best game AM2 never released.")
Sword of the Berserk changed this. We got to find out more about Guts, find out that Caska really wasn't dead (yay!) and just explore the world that I know I had come to love. And it had Puck!
Great game, highly recommended. Unless you have a problem with fighting with swords bigger than yourself, then I am not sure I even want to speak to you.
While hardly under-rated, I'd certainly considered it a must-have for the Dreamcast...
Though I definitely agree with the Crazy Taxi listing on there, but once again, I don't really think it was under-rated.
Dark Nexus
"Sanity is calming, but madness is more interesting."
Chu-Chu Rocket?
Space Channel 5?
Hell, what about Seaman (any game with an ugly fish and Leonard Nemoy gets points in my book) or any of the Sonic games?
Skies of Arcadia?
And for fuck's sake, why wasn't SOUL CALIBUR mentioned?!
Great titles on that list, but there are many greats they left off on this one (and I'm sure I missed more than my share as well).
If your interested in what the homebrew scene has to offer for the dreamcast, then I recommend checking DC Emulation. Also for the DDR fans, check out Feet of Fury.
Bangai-O is hands-down the best game on the dreamcast. A must have, definitely!
Did no one like Shen Mue 1 and 2? I absolutely fell in love with both games despite I usually hate games-that-try-to-be-movies. I can't believe it hasn't been mentioned.
Fantastic games that made a huge effort for something new. More than just big production, but fun gameplay and very well done story. The world of both games felt more "alive" than any other title today.
I know some people probably dislike them, and I know some love them, but I hope they get the credit they deserve as must-haves.
i've only played powerstone2, it was great fun in the dorm... its like smash bros but with a way more interactive 3D environment, made by capcom. basically, youre beating the shit out of each other, trying to pick up some 'power stones' so you can be the ultimate shitkicker. tons of fun.
Chu Chu Rocket! You really need other people to play it with, but find them and you have a game that can almost challenge the mighty Bomberman for multiplayer mayhem. I hear the network play was very laggy but playable, but since all the Dreamcast online servers are now dead this is a dead feature now. But the four-players-on-one-system mode is a masterpiece. (There is a GBA version of this game, and a small 1p version is a secret in Billy Hatcher.)
Grandia 2. Some people mentioned it on the site already, but yeah, they're right, this is a severely underrated game. Some of the best writing and voice acting you'll hear in a RPG. Not too challenging (unless you count the secret extra dungeon late in the game, which has some hard foes in it), but the brilliant combat system created for the first game really comes to shine here. And the trademark loveable, personality-filled Game Arts characters are the icing on the cake. (There are also PS2 and PC versions of this game.)
Crazy Taxi & Crazy Taxi 2. The first game is available for all three current consoles now, but the sequel was never released for anything besides the Dreamcast. This is the game I spent the most time on on my Dreamcast, and for a while there I was in the running for, what was it again, 8th place in the Twin Galaxies record books when they were running a high score contest, with a score of over $69,000. (I never sent in my tape, though.) These are among the best designed games for any system. I thought that CT3 (X-Box) didn't have enough additions over the second game, though it was nice being able to explore new places in the original arcade city. (CT1: also available for PC, GC, X-Box and PS2, CT2: DC exclusive.)
Seaman. Yeah, it was funky, and kind of boring after a while, but it was truly fresh and different, and for a little while actually caused us to forget we were playing a game as we talked to a little Japanese-headed fish/frog guy with a microphone plugged into the controller. Ten times cooler than Nintendo's Hey You Pikachu!, which is the only other game of this type I can name. (DC exclusive)
Space Channel 5. The hippest videogame of all time. It doesn't look like it at first, but it is.
NesterDC/DreamSNES/GNUBoy/other emulators. Yeah, they're free and quasi-legal when played with ROMs, but these babies can pack new life into your DC. http://www.dcemulation.com/ for more information. Of special note is the Atari 800 emulator, which can emulate M.U.L.E., possibly the best designed game of all time and a formidable multiplayer game, flawlessly and with the exact same four-controller-port configuration the original computer had. NesterDC emulates almost all NES games perfectly, and on your TV screen. That is too cool for words.
great 2d fighting game. 2 player 3 on 3 battles, 56 charecters to choose from. charecter 'assists with 3 different types for each. combo's, hyper-combo's, 2 and 3 charecter hyper-combo's, switch charecters at any time and they even regain health when they aren't currently fighting (up to 30% of damage taken the last time they were fighting). you get extra levels and different colors for each charecter that you can "buy". we've put in possibly double the max recorded "game play" of 99:59:59 and STILL haven't gotten everything. with so many combinations the battles are never the same, even with the same charecters and we haven't gotten bored yet. of course you can't forget the graphics are amazing too, better then many PS2, GameCube and XBox games i've seen. oh yeah, and there's 3 speed settings: normal, turbo and turbo 2 (aka don't blink).
once we get all the different colors for each charecter then we can have 3 of the same charecter on a team!
imagine fighting with 3 Wolverine's, 3 ServBot's, 3 Guile's or 3 Sentenal's. Each with a diffent assist type and a different color.
Only problem: the game is hard to find, it took us almost a year to find (finally got it off E-Bay).
all in all it's the best fighting game i've ever played, even compared to 3d games.
As cliched as it sounds, the Dreamcast was years ahead of its time
And this still rings true. No system since has been able to reproduce 2D arcade games as well, and its 3D arcade ports can't be beat either. Simply said, the Dreamcast is the ultimate realization of the arcade experience at home. The Dreamcast *should* have been the final deathblow to the waning arcade situation, but for some reason people just didn't want arcade perfect ports... odd.
But all that aside, the Dreamcast continues to stand as my favorite console for a single reason: VGA support. After the VGA box was released for the Dreamcast, I thought to myself, "So this is where console games are going..." Crystal clear visuals just reinforced the system's already amazing graphical prowess. But again I was wrong, and the VGA standard was not adopted even as an option by the current crop of systems. Sure, output to HDTV is nice, but I still don't feel the amazing clarity that comes from a nice monitor.
And while we're at it, my top 5:
1. Phantasy Star Online: First Online Console RPG. I logged over 500 hours on the first version of it, and loved every Rappy beating minute of it.
2. Rez: The PS2 port doesn't do this game's visuals justice in the least. Beautiful wire frame graphics wrapped around the best rail-shooter since Panzer Dragoon Saga, all while thumping to one of the best video game soundtracks ever.
3. Jet Set Radio: Invented the oft-repeated cell shading graphical style, and the game play was brilliant as well. Tony Hawk + Rollerblades + Juvenile Delinquency.
4. Samba de Amigo: I was lucky enough to have pre-ordered this game and a set of official maracas, still one of the best gaming decisions I've ever made. Sure Dance Dance Revolution is a lot of fun, but this is even more fun (and completely playable) when you're drunk, while DDR simply is not.
5. Shenmue: Ground-breaking blah blah blah masterful storytelling blah blah blah cat petting simulator blah blah blah Yu Suzuki is a God.
- colin
Even though it's out for the GameCube now, Ikaruga is still worth mentioning. ;)
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
I have a Cube and a PS2 for a playing games and the Dreamcast is still my favourite console.
My favourite thing about the Dreamcast is it has 4 controller ports, modem included standard, most games have native VGA support meaning I can play my games on a computer monitor on a proper adaptor (none of this up scan crap), 50/60 hz selection so I don't have to worry about slowdown on crappy ports, and easy bypassing of the region protection so I can play U.S and Jap games on it (I live in Australia so my console is PAL). Of course the Gamecube, PS2 and Xbox has some of these features but not all of them. The region bypassing is my favourite bit of the Dreamcast because I dont have to risk modifying my console or fork out cash for a action replay/region x. Aussie games are either overpriced/sloppily ported and take eons to get released here.
All Dreamcasts sold in Australia and those manufactured I think before Sept 2000 in the U.S. can read cdr and cdrw disc which is how I can run a boot disc on it to play out of region games on it.
I heard the Sony and Microsoft 'quality assurance' program makes it difficult for 2d games to be okayed on their system so 2D fans should be overjoyed at owning a Dreamcast because the 2D Kings, SNK and Capcom loved the Dreamcast to death and flooded it with many excellent scrollers and fighters. Games like Mars Matrix, Project Justice, King of Fighters series, gigiwing 1 and 2, vampire chronicles
A couple of other games you won't find anywhere else except on Dreamcst are:
Daytona
Powerstone 2 (this game rocks. its like Super Smash Bros except in 3D),
illbleed -- fun adventure horror game
D2 -- another horror, fun but the graphics aren't the best
confidential mission - gun game
toy commander -- hard game where you play as one of x toys, completing objectives
Soul Calibur -- this really shows what the console was capable of and it was a launch game!
Shenmue 1 -- those who played shenmue 2 on xbox need this!
theres a couple of sega beat-em-ups too but they were so
Firepro wrestling (japanese only but it has a strong following of fans)
Record of Lodoss War Anime-ish rpg
Seaman -- like a tomakachi (spelling) except you bring up a fish using a microphone and it talks back to you
ecco the dolphin -- the most beautful underwater game. its like playing a screensaver!
Bangai O -- shooter by treasure of radiant silvergun fame
Capcom's Cannon Spike is one of my favorites. It's a very simple and short action game, but it's great when you only have 10 or 15 minutes and just feel like blowing some stuff up. Also, Mega Man is a secret character. It's kind of like a shoot-em-up version of Power Stone: quick, frantic, and surprisingly entertaining.
Scratched Emulsion
Source: [ http://www.onlineconsoles.com/ ]
4x4 Evolution
ChuChu Rocket (USA version works, EURO down)
F355 Challenge
PBA Bowling 2001 (via GameSpy)
Quake III Arena (private servers and clans)
Sega Swirl
StarLancer (via Gamespy)
Worms World Party
Circumcision is child abuse.
Sure, it was multiplatform (there was an N64 incarnation as well), but the Dreamcast defeniatly got the best end of the deal. Single player got rather boring after a while, but if it's you and three friends, you'll have the most fun you've ever had. Sure, you can race, but why race when you can go flip out on the stunt tracks with three other friends (Wings were the best ever addition to Rush, ever). And the battle mode...the battle mode was in it's first incarnation in that game and it still was the best multiplayer vehicle battle mode i've ever played. All this running at a silky smooth framerate and huge draw distance made for one of the most underrated games on the system. It's a shame that the series has been silent since then, a Rush on Xbox Live would be something I would never quit playing.
Also, did anyone mention Mr. Driller? It's a really fun puzzle game, too bad it didn't support two players or else I might still be playing it.
And then of course you have Rez and Jet Grind Radio. But then again, they've been mentioned elsewhere anyway.
I'm the guy with the unpopular opinion
Several people have mentioned the lack of Soul Calibur, but Dreamcast is perhaps one of the best figher platforms of all time. Marvel v. Capcom 1 and 2, Capcom v. SNK, several Street Fighter and King of Fighters versions. To say nothing of Dead or Alive 2
Mars Matrix is one of the greatest shooters ever made. Go visit the message board of www.shmups.com and try to insult Mars Matrix; you'll be laughed off the board.
The graphics are not the best, but the gameplay escalates it into the top tier of vertical scrolling shooters, up there with Ikaruga, ESP.Ra.De, Dodonpachi, Radiant Silvergun, and Strikers 1945 Part 2.
It's also one of the hardest games ever made. I've put in at least 30 hours of play and I can occasionally get to the fourth level on 1 credit. Amazing game.
Takumi's Gigawing 2 is also excellent, especially for it's orchestral soundtrack and overwhelming bullet swarms.
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