Games That Defined The Dreamcast

Retrogaming with Racketboy has a piece looking at some of the console-defining titles we miss from that little white box. From the article: "Phantasy Star Online - Sega was one of the main pioneers in online console gaming. While they had modest online offering with both the Genesis and Saturn, the Dreamcast was the first of their consoles to have online capabilities built into the stock machine. The Dreamcast came standard with a 56k modem and also had a (expensive) LAN/Broadband adapter available as an upgrade. Phantasy Star Online paved the way for Sega's groundbreaking online network and for later networks like XBox Live."

Comments

I loved that damn box

[LoveMe2Times]

But I must say some of it's defining characteristics weren't good. For example, all of the Sonic games sucked. The early runs of the first Sonic game were marred with manufacturing problems, and I got one of those. But lets see,

1. Soul Caliber. Obviously, THE defining game for the DC. One of the greatest of all time, especially when considered in context of its era.
2. The aforementioned PSO, though I never played it.
3. Sonic, though probably more known for its suckitude and bugs and failure to deliver on it's cool possibilities.
4. Shenmue has to be one of the most defining DC games. Personally, I thought it was one of the greatest games of all time. Certainly, most immersive ever at the time. Just incredible.
5. RE: Code Veronica was an amazing game that won over a lot of people's hearts and is identified with the DC.
6. Chu Chu Rockets! Definitely one of the defining games of the DC. One of the first online games, if I recall.
7. 2K Sports. Completely changed the competitive landscape of sports games, across the board. The basketball, baseball, and hockey in particular were often considered best-of-class. Eventually, they offered on-line play, a major historical accomplishment.
8. Crazy Taxy! Did anybody with a DC not have this game?
9. Jet Set Radio almost invented Cell Shading techniques that have since been done to death. Great game, too.
10. Legacy of Kain, I think that's what it was called. Highly regarded, though I didn't like it too much.
11. 2D Fighting games out the wazoo. Marvel vs Capcom, Street Fighters in every incarnation, Capcom vs SNK, and just on and on and on. The DC was just heaven for fighting game fans!
12. Skies of Arcadia. Many people probably remember this game fondly, though for me it was just a reminder of how much I hate console RPGs.
13. Unreal Tournament and Quake 3, with support for online play. A console first, though I never tried it.

What a great system. You were taken from us too young, may you rest in peace.

Re:The best Dreamcast game

[numatrix]

Amen.

I still remember my epic three hour run. I'm sure other folks on the internet are easily able to beat it, but at the time, my fellow geeks in the dorm were cheering me along as if I were a professional sports athelete. Ahh, fond college memories.

If you liked PSO...

[ral8158]

You should definitely try the PC version, and the new game of the series coming out, called Phantasy Star Universe. Blue Burst (Aforementioned PC version) has episode 4, which is short, but very cool, IMO, and tons of the cool online quests. And no iffy console-to-the-internet issues. I'm kind of playing on-and-off, but once I get my new MacBook Pro :)

Fighters

[dreemernj]

Capcom vs SNK 1 and 2, Guilty Gear X, Marvel vs Capcom 1 and 2, Street Fighter 3: Third Strike (still great on DC despite the input flaws), Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Soul Caliber, SFZ3 (IMO, I know a lot of people disliked the balancing + the errors in translation from arcade), the Dark Stalkers collection, Project Justice, Virtua Fighter 3, Power Stone 1 and 2...

So yeah, it had the fighters lined up. For a lot of the DC fanatics, much like the Saturn fanatics (since that had a great turn out for fighters as well), the volume of near perfect arcade translations made the DC amazing. But, I guess that could be attributed to the quality of the arcade/console hardware as well. Naomi 1 and 2 and Atomiswave all being based around the same system making translation to the DC so easy really created a fighting game monster.

Soul Calibur

[DaveCBio]

SC was the game that made the Dreamcast for me and pretty well everyone I worked with. The combination of a DC with the arcade sticks couldn't be beat. Hell, we had the Japanese version first and when it was released over here we switched over to the North American release, but the Dreamcast in the lunchroom never went more than half an hour without someone starting up a match. It was a game that was fun for a newb and got more fun as you learned. I love the way you could basically make your own combos and you didn't need to memorize 15 button moves to kick butt.

Yet another Wikipedia scouring

[Captain Spam]

Y'know, it's nice that this person put Chu Chu Rocket in his "Games That Nobody Played - But You Should" list. Really, it is. I've always considered it a classic and hope that Sega eventually makes a WFC version of it for the Nintendo DS.

But for as much as this guy likes the game, it'd be nice if he wrote his own synopsis rather than cutting-and-pasting verbatim sections from the Wikipedia article on the game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_Chu_Rocket). I kinda recognized key phrases (especially "Although a simple concept, this quickly becomes frantic with the relentless speed of the mice and four players fighting over them."), given that I wrote the majority of the article over a year ago.

This somewhat makes me want to look up, on Wikipedia, the other games he mentioned. I wonder if I should be a jerk.

Ahhh, what a great subject

[analog_line]

I love the Dreamcast. Still have mine plugged in, and my collection of Dreamcast games close at hand.

My top five would be:

1. SoulCalibur. It still looks great, still plays great. Raised the bar on fighting game quality higher than any other game had, and kept it high for a long time after the Dreamcast was dead.

2. Jet Grind Radio. Possibly the only Dreamcast game I've played more than SoulCalibur.

3. Skies of Arcadia. I consider this to be one of the top 5 console RPGs I've ever played, and boy have I played a lot. Huge explorable world, a plotline you didn't see every twist coming a mile off in, and characters that weren't paper cutouts. And at the time the graphics were jaw dropping.

4. Toy Commander. One of the most difficult "kids games" I've ever played. The replay value is great, it's quite a long game, the variety of vehicles and environments are awesome. It really does feel like playing with toys as a hyper-imaginative kid.

5. Ikaruga. I downloaded this game once it became obvious that it wasn't going to be released in the US for the Dreamcast (and its release was unconfirmed for the Cube) and this was the title that decided that I was buying a GameCube. It may not be the best shoot-em-up ever made, but it just blew my mind the first time I played it.

There are SO many more awesome games that hit this system that languished in obscurity that I could (and have) talk for hours about them. The day the Dreamcast died was a sad day for me.

Re:Ahhh, what a great subject

[Life2Short]

I am sad that I had to scroll most of the way down the list of posts before I finally saw a "Toy Commander" comment. Thank heavens you mentioned it! This is the most innovative and engrossing game since the original Doom. If you haven't played it, you really owe it to yourself to try this one. An evil Teddy Bear mutates and takes over a really cool house. You have to use your toys to fight against his toys in every room, advancing to a showdown. I never really got past the level where you launch your planes from a Japanese carrier in your parents bedroom and try to take out a naval base in the master bath. It was just too much fun and I kept replaying it over and over again. Amazing!

Re:"Do you know where I can find some sailors?"

[LoveMe2Times]

Good lord, what luddites we have today! The voice acting wasn't that bad, and you were waaay too caught up in it. And it gets better as the game progresses, which you didn't apparently do. In fact, what you played was completely non-representative of what the game was about. Hell, you probably never got to the training or fighting parts at all. Play it all the way through, and you may understand why I think criticizing the voice acting is just petty. Complaints about slow pacing or having to wait for things to happen are much more valid complaints, although I also think those are misplaced. I always had plenty of interesting things to do while waiting, and in fact that's part of what made the game cool. But complaining about the voice acting is like complaining that Mario is too kiddy to be enjoyed by adults. Rubish and besides the point.