Long story short, I missed out on the Dreamcast when it came out. I recently found a Dreamcast emulator that works pretty well on my PC, and was curious what games were really good for the system. I figured I'd just ask you guys, seeing as Sega made the system and you guys would probably know more about it than I do. (Plus, I prefer actual opinions rather than reading list articles on websites, because an in-person opinion can tell you what it was about the game that made it any good, while a list article's little snippet doesn't generally sum up more than "we remember really liking this game. Moving on..." So yeah, what Dreamcast games do you guys remember really enjoying when they came out. (Also, for obvious reasons, skip Sonic Adventure 1 and 2.)
Ecco Defender of the Future, although with some caveats. It's a little aimless, and there is a revised PS2 version which has a clearer sense of progression, a little nicer graphics (although inexplicably missing mipmaps), and more robust control with the use of the second analog stick. It has worse audio though. Nothing can beat dat Dreamcast DSP. The story goes from basically unimportant to front and center and then mediocre as you progress, if you ask me, but that's not as important as the gameplay. :v: That aside though: Power Stone 1 & 2 Phantasy Star Online Dead or Alive 2 Sega Rally 2 Space Chanel 5 Jet Set Radio (although cool is not as amazing as everyone says; don't kill me!) Sonic Shuffle (the sonic cannot be halted) Puyo Puyo Fever Shenmue 1 & 2 Ikaruga Rez Disney's Dinosaur (surprisingly solid top-down adventure!) ChuChu Rocket Looney Tunes Space Race (can you tell I like this console)
Crazy Taxi and Crazy Taxi 2 were pretty damn good. Also, Dreamcast has arguably the best version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (though 2X for the Xbox is also noteworthy for including pretty much the entire first game).
How about a relatively obscure game, even for the Dreamcast? If you're a fan of platformers, Super Magnetic Neo is an incredibly quirky one with a cool gimmick. You can hold down the B or A button to magnetize your character to either north or south polarities, and all kinds of enemies and gimmicks throughout the stages make use of that in some pretty neat ways. It also runs at 60fps, and was one of the first 3D games I ever played that did. I was blown away by how smooth it was.
Not counting the token two Sonic entries, I'd say that I quite enjoyed Power Stone and Rayman 2 a bunch, and I suppose it may not count because I didn't originally play it on the Dreamcast, but when I demo'd Rez on Xbox 360, I had a blast. I wish I had more Dreamcast games back in the day.
Mars Matrix: vertical shmup with a lot of depth and game modes and a shop that will take forever to buy everything in. I come back to this one time and time again. Seaman: Just has to be experienced at least once, the writing and the interactions are just genius. Not sure how easy this would be to emulate though. Project Justice: Rival Schools 2 and Tech Romancer: Underrated and somehow still exclusive to the system Capcom fighters that you don't have to be an expert at fighting games to enjoy. Wind and Water Puzzle Battles: Fantastic indie puzzle game with so much deth it's maybe a bit daunting at first. Also loads of neat little extra mini games. Dynamite Cop: This is just dumb fun, and has quite a lot of extra content despite being a model 2 arcade port. Lack of Love: Surreal unique and haunting little adventure game quite unlike anything else. Also you get to pee on things. If you want a great racing game that can be both as much of a sim or an arcade game as you like, you can't go wrong with Le Mans 24 Hours . Other daft unique games that are worth a look if you use guides to help past the lanugage barrier include Segagaga, Roomania #203 and Tokyo Bus Guide. This is just a handful.
PSO v1 & v2 were digital crack for me. I remember how good Forest looked and sounded... and just how fun all the sci fi and menus and control felt. Really enjoyed SA1, but not SA2. Daytona 2001 was pretty awesome. Ran like butter, played like the arcade (ie, not like CCE). Its steering was tricky to get used to though. Quake 3 was great also; I was really impressed with it. Played it a heap in split-screen too. Oh, how could I forget, Soul Calibur. What a launch title that was... such a great game in its time. Still holds up but obviously there are umpteen sequels now. I recently got Soul Calibur V on the Xbox360, but it's like how the mighty have fallen. Dreamcast Soul Calibur was full of modes, unlockables, a really big campaign mode. SCV kind of has a character designer and a couple of cheap modes and you're done. The House of the Dead 2, AND The Typing of the Dead. BOTH great. :D Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, played so well. Rez was awesome. Metropolis Street Racer... loved it. Fond memories of progressing through that; loved its menu music too. Skies of Arcadia; nice clear and bold visuals and combat. Oh man, Marvel vs Capcom 2; loved it, it was so in your face. And Ecco definitely deserves to be in there too. It was a bit slow but if you were into it, it was rewarding just for how pretty and tough it was. If I had to choose 3 they would be PSO, Soul Calibur, annnd I can't even pick a third one. Looking back, there are also so many good games I *didn't* play. /> As ill-fated as it was, the Dreamcast was a really fun console to own. It had plenty of good games, and plenty of original games. Nostalgia overload... I don't have time to play all this stuff again.
I used to have a list for this, but can't find it, so I'll just recreate it and probably have to edit in games I've forgotten later: Shenmue Shenmue II Chu Chu Rocket Jet Set Radio Skies of Arcadia Rez Space Channel 5 Crazy Taxi Daytona USA 2001 Bangai-O
For something recent, Gunlord is a pretty awesome Turrican-like. And this dude named Taxman once made some sort of Sonic thingy that wound up being sort of a big deal, that got an early Dreamcast port.
