Dreamcast Tribute Revisits Cult Console, Games

Buster Chan writes "NTSC-uk has begun their two-week long tribute to the almighty Sega Dreamcast, including an editorial recounting favorite memories of Sega's final (so far) hardware, as writers 'give their views of one of the most prolific consoles of recent times', the first 128-bit console. They also run new reviews revisiting Cosmic Smash, checking out Get Bass, and analyzing the very Japanese Tokyo Bus Guide." Although it was so long ago we can barely remember, what were your favorite Dreamcast titles?

Comments

I loved the dreamcast

[shione]

What makes me sadder is that to this day the dreamcast is the only current gen console that has an official arcade stick. It came with internet browsing software, and everywhere dreamcasts were sold you could pick up an official keyboard and mouse as well which helped immensely in fps games... The Dreamcast was well ahead of its time. *sniff*

My favourites DC games are:

Illbleed
Powerstone 2
Grandia 2
Le Mans
Record of Lodoss Wars
Looney Tunes Space Race >_>
Rival Schools 2
and of course Soul Calibur

Ikaruga

[OutRigged]

While there were many, many good games for the Dreamcast, the one that stands out in my opinion is Ikaruga. In my opinion, it's one of the best verticle shooter games ever created.

Typing of the Dead

[lambent]

Typing of the Dead ... the greatest game ever! (okay, not really)

truly awesome game ... separates the men from the boys (and the afternoon I played it, women/girls, too). A group of maybe four of us beat it in a few hours, no real challenge. The fun part was finding the special endings (including when the main boss plummets to his death, only to miraculously bungee jump back onto the roof-top where the previous battle just took place, and then burps in your face).

Man, did i suffer some RSI that day.

Linkage: here

Truly, the best part was the tongue-in-cheek engrish phrases you were forced to spell out. Which i think is a valid design choice ... try to force the players to laugh so hard they lose.

Metropolis

[almaon]

Metropolis Street Racing

One of the few games I felt that I had grossly underpaid. I love that game, it took racing games to a new level. Superb graphics, courses mapped out to block-by-block sections of real life cities. Awesome stuff.

Tho it lacked the upgrade and hotrod aspects of Gran Turismo it excelled in breaking the static driving game formula. Style, overall speed, top speed, number of passes, one on ones. Made it less monotounous than simply going track after track (tho there were hundreds of different tracks).

The AI was pretty weak but was very challenging none-the-less.

The realtime day and night was a nice plus too. If it was nightime in London and daytime where you really live (that is if you set your dreamcast clock correctly) it'd be night in the game, vice versa. Some rewards were only available during certain hours of the day. Made it interesting.

The sound was unique too, had radio stations (course Rad Racer had that) but it felt like you were really listening to the radio with commercials and DJ babble. Also when you went through tunnels the radio would cut out and you'd get static till you exited. Stations also reflected the country you were racing in.

This game later became Project Gotham and the superb PGR2. But it lost much of it's whistles in favor for flashier graphics. If you find this game it's worth the 5$ you'll see priced on it. Knowing how good it was after I played it, I would have gladly paid over $100 for it.

PSO

[XellDx]

The Original. You know. The first 400 hours of the other's that came out.
I miss that game so much. Maybe it's becuase I played it for the last 6 months before I went to college and had to give it up, and thus have attached this horrible nostalgia to it which rose colors everything. Maybe its becuase I actually made real life friends thanks to that game. Maybe its becuase I remember playing with friends from the GIA before that message board died.
The game was simple in execution and design, the learning Curve for PSO was well within even the casual gamers spectre of grasp. There was no 'how do I wipe my ass' comments, since the lower level functions where easy like that.

The story didn't try hard either, but did enough so that you felt connected. You're on a planet because the only you left died, the colonists ahead of you are dead, kick the aliens ass's. Wash.Rinse.Repeat.

What made you come back where the varying diffuculties, the rare items that dropped maybe once a week, the feeling of glee when that next level lets you kick the shit out of an enemy that whooped your ass before, the comradory of playing with friends.
Oh god dammit. Now I'll have to play the gamecube version again.

Prediction

[ronfar]

Sega's final (so far) hardware,

I want to make prediction here, and I hope I'm wrong. I predict that not only will there be no post-Dreamcast SEGA consoles, but that in the future SEGA will be much like Atari, a trendy brand name used by a more successful video game company. Basically, I haven't liked where they are heading, and predictions that they would be in great shape as a third party for soul-destroying behemoth Sony (and not-very-nice-but-still-better-than-Sony Microsoft) haven't materialized. In fact, SEGA's exit from the console industry has simply made the console industry a grayer, more depressing place with no gains for the average gamer.

Well, back to searching for a mint-condition copy of Splatterhouse 3 for SEGA Genesis, a game I stupidly sold during the golden age of gaming, not realizing that the good times wouldn't last forever.

SEGA!

Re:Prediction

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope you're prediction is wrong, but here are some counter-arguments to go against it, at any rate.

I don't think that Sega is in nearly the same position that Atari was when they went under and subsequentially transitioned to a trendy (and craptacular) brand name publisher.
Unlike Atari, Sega has a lot of very solid franchises. The last few Sonic games have very much missed the bar, sadly, but we still have House of the Dead, Virtua Fighter, Phantasy Star, Shining Force, Eternal Arcadia (which should be receiving a sequel any day now and was one of the finest RPGs in the last 5 or so years), and Shen Mue, just to name a small few.
Segas worst enemy is itself, as is any publisher, so the thing that will kill them outright is not embracing and building on their franchises the way Nintendo is, and altering them in new "hip" ways, (the way they did with the recent Sonic games).

regardless of all that, they do seem to be slowly learning to deal with life as a software developer only, and they are still undergoing their hemorraging of employees because of management and internal organization, but I think they'll eventually turn around.
I've never been a sega fan until the Dreamcast, so I can't say this is a biased review of their situation, but I really hope they can pull a Nintendo and keep on top with "new" classics.

I couldn't resist

[Oriumpor]

The gord speaks the truth about the dreamcast 128bit myth

Brilliant

[jetfuel]

Only Sakura Taisen, the epic mech-strategy/love-sim could make me write something like this: A very long essay about my experiences with Dreamcast and Sakura Taisen

Later I discovered the deliciously immersive Shenmue I & II; the final disc of II might be the most beautiful gaming I've ever had.

Games like these and other quirky and original titles are what makes DC my favorite console. At first I was turned off by the WinCE logo and the non-fighter-friendly controller, but once I realized the intoxicating level of creativity going on with this system, I was in love with it.

Suchi this!

[Anonymous Coward]

You can still buy one, and at 50 bucks for a new one and 30 or so odd for a used it is hard to go wrong. In silicon valley 30 dollars doesn't even pay for the sushi.

Samba De Amigo

[cyrax777]

Something about that crazy Maraca controller. Of course it was a pain in the ass to find but damn it was fun.

Samba de Amigo!

[snooo53]

I have to say that the music genre games Space Channel 5, Samba de Amigo, and Samba de Amigo 2000 were some of my favorites (among others like Parappa and Jet set radio).

Why? They are absolutely hillarious and fun to play. There's just something about a game in which you can't help but move to the beat. Who in the world would've dreamed up a game in which you shake maracas like an idiot to the beat of hit latino songs with psychedelic colors starring a monkey and dancing cucumbers with sombreros (as far as I can tell- who knows)? The Sonic team that's who! Or Space channel 5 in which you are a cute girl reporter in the future fighting aliens who, guess what, make everyone dance!

Sega really had something going with it's music genre, it's too bad the console was so short-lived.

That's not even true.

[Ayanami Rei]

The SHA-4 (well, SH7750) which powers the Dreamcast is _very much_ a 32-bit architecture. 32-bit memory/IO addresses, 32-bit words, 32-bit FPU, 32-bit aligned. However it can dispatch 2 integer instructions simultaneously (like the pentium), while chewing on up to 2 FPU ops as well. This is how 32 + 32 + 32 + 32 = 128 bits is claimed.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Still, the architecture is very nice and allows for high throughput without needing a lot of cache, deep pipelines, or high clock speed.

Classics in their time....

[MegatronUK]

Skies of Arcadia: a engrossing cartoon style rpg, with overtones of Miyazaki's 'Castle in the Sky' and 'Nausicaa' along with WW1/WW2 type sea battles of giant iron juggernauts with quite a bit of buckling your swash thrown in :-) .... absolutely TONS of mini-games and side-quests to undertake, great use of the DC peripherals (mini visual VMU games, rumble pack use in-game, etc). A classic.

Metropolis Street Racer: Excellent racing game featuring real streets and scenery of cities across the world. Good physics and handling of the cars; you can actually tell the difference between them.

Rez: Trippy shooter. Brillian use of timing and interactive sound and music. The minimalistic wireframe and shaded graphics bring it, for me, to being the closest thing to being in the world of Tron, than anything else.

Shenmue/Shenmue II: Flawed, but a huge virtual world. Absolutely massive.

Bass Fishing: Huge fun for everyone including drunk students or even grandparents :-)

Re:Classics in their time....

[13Echo]

Skies is one of the greatest RPGs I've ever played, and truly shows that modern RPG games can still be fun. It's a bit cliche in many respects, but I've not played another RPG that was nearly as good since Xenogears or the old SNES games like FF IV/VI and Chrono Trigger.

I liked MSR, but it didn't hook me as much as Test Drive LeMans did. Infogrames Melbourne House are some talented programmers that really managed to squeeze a hell of a lot out of the Dreamcast (and they claim that they had plenty of room to spare!). Anyway... Back to MSR. It's definately one of the most unique racers I've played, and has a lot of cool aspects that make it very original.

Shenmue will always be one of my favorite game series. I loved the first game, and was blown away by the sequel, which I imported from Europe. I wish all the time that we'll see a third game in the series, to close the story... Maybe next generation. The games have some quirks, but it definately does a lot very well. It's a great series. In fact, I love Shenmue 2 so much, that I started playing it again a week ago; probably my fourth time through it.

SEGA Bass Fishing is fantastic, especially with the fishing controller. Marine Fishing is also quite cool, even though it feels a lot more arcadey. I have unfortunately not had the opportunity to pick up the second bass fishing game.

Soul Calibur is a classic that we played the hell out of before the DC was released in the USA. My buddy had the game, imported from Japan, and we played it all the time through the first half of 1999. We ran a game store and had the unit set up on a kisok, hooked to a 17" monitor with the VGA box, connected to two official arcade sticks. I can't tell you how many pre-orders we got for those things, just by having his personal demo unit. I kinda feel like we were a part of gaming history, peddling the amazing console by tempting people with the greatness of Soul Calibur.

There are other games that I really enjoyed as well. Near the end of the Dreamcast's life, it was possible to score TONS of fantastic games in the $5-$10 price range. I managed to get lots of great games; Sword of the Berserk, EGG, Vanishing Point, Expendable, Draconus, etc., at super low prices. Great stuff.

All totalled, I think I have about 60 Dreamcast games. I was pretty crushed when SEGA stated that they were going to halt the production of the system and the games, and thought that I might stop buying console games all together. My Gamecube has filled part of the gaming void with a few Dreamcast ports and unique and original titles, but it still doesn't have some of the flair of the Dreamcast, even if it does have its own style of excellent games.

I think that this is one console that will be remembered for a very long time. It's a shame, actually, that many people didn't really start to notice it until it was too late. I see countless stories about people who picked up a $50 Dreamcast and couldn't believe that there were so many kick-ass games avaiable for the system, wishing that they had purchased one earlier.

Best of the Dreamcast?

[the_riaa]

I remember picking up my Dreamcast the day it came out. I'm an avid Sega fanboy (yes, I was the kid with the SMS, GG, Genesis/32x/SCD, and Saturn), so I couldn't wait for it. Best games?

Soul Calibur (blew the arcade version away)
NFL2K (the first "beautiful" sports game, led to what is now a great line of 'ESPN' branded games)
Ikaruga (the hardest goddamned game I've ever played)
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (arcade perfect)
Rez (a beautiful, amazing experience)
Jet Set/Grind Radio (cell shading done right)
Crazy Taxi (insanely fun arcade driving)
Chu Chu Rocket (the best multiplayer puzzle game ever.)
Looney Tunes Space Race (a fun kart-style racer)
PowerStone 2 (chaotic 4-player fighting)
Tennis 2K2/Virtua Tennis (best tennis game, till M$ copied a la Top Spin)
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (a port, but great)
Shenmue/Shenmue 2 (immense RPGs)
and of course, the homebrews and emulation (especially Feet of Fury and NESterDC)

The Sonic Adventure games were fun, but never captured the magic of the 16-bit Genesis games. Even with the new Sonic Heroes it's still lacking. Sonic 2 still is the best in the series in my opinion. The voice and music acting since SA1 is just comically bad. Please Sega, restore the dignity in that franchise! The old Sonic games had great music, now we have to deal with bad J-Pop while we fight Eggman (Robotnik).

Best. Console. Ever.

[wandazulu]

The first time I saw Soul Calibur I literally missed my mouth and spilled my drink a la Airplane! Crazy Taxi was an early and more gentle GTA. I left Ecco on the screen as background "art" at a party that had some kids at it...they went nuts moving the dolphin around the screen (and the graphics caused a lot of the adults to beg for turns too). Playing Shenmue inspired me enough to take a trip to Japan (though I didn't get to the area Shenmue takes place in).

This console was my introduction to Lik-Sang as I bought the ethernet adapter, two DC-2-PS2 adapters so I could use a mouse/keyboard with the webbrowser. Hell, I even bought the soundtrack to Jet Set Radio.

I could go on and on about great moments I've had with this console. It "felt" right...I never had a problem with the controller as some people did, and even played Tetris on the memory unit (thanks Marcus!)

To me, this was the first console that got everything right; great graphics, great controller (to me), and an online community through the console itself (modem then ethernet). Though I have an Xbox, it feels like a bit of a warmed over Dreamcast and I still think the graphics on the DC are better than the PS2 (my opinion based on games I've seen).

New Games

[Buster Chan]

In Japan new games are still released for Dreamcast every month. A lot of them are playable even if you don't speak Japanese. Some of the more recent releases that I'd recommend are: Border Down (2003), Psyvariar 2 (2004), Puyo Puyo Fever (2004), and Shikigami No Shiro 2 (2004). Dreamcast should resurrect in North America so that these great games, and others, can find the fans they deserve.