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.

c'mon now...

[ansleybean]

Nobody mentions Rez? Sure it had a PS2 version, but the dreamcast one actually ran better. And it was astounding.

PSO

[nomadic]

Phantasy Star Online was easily one of the most gorgeous games I've ever seen; vibrant colors, detailed artwork, and the music was pretty kickass too. The gameplay was more like a networked Gauntlet rather than a real MMORPG, and there's nothing wrong with that.

The cheating, however, made it completely and utterly unplayable. Stupid game genie or gameshark or whatever the hell those cretins used.

Re:The broadband adapter was barely worth noting.

[nvrrobx]

Phantasy Star Online did indeed support the Broadband adapter. I wasted several months of my life on that game.

The US release would use the BBA if it was configured, but you didn't have a way to configure it without the Japanese Broadband Passport disc (which I had).

Quake III Arena was the other game that supported it (the US release) and it worked really damned well.

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.

Re:Yet another Wikipedia scouring

[a gash]

If you wrote it on Wikipedia, him pasteing segments of your article here is COMPLETELY fair use.

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.