16
SoulCalibur
System: SEGA Dreamcast
Genre: Fighting
Year: 1999
Rank last year: 14 (v 2)
The best Dreamcast game is also the best fighting game. SoulCalibur's smooth fighting mechanics are the pinnacle of the genre for sure. On top of that it's also quite deep and has a lot of content. Moreover, when this game came out it was beautiful beyond belief. 'Next Gen' had begun with this game. In fact, we were so impressed, that there was never a need to get a PlayStation 2. That system seemed like a let-down at the time compared to the Dreamcast's capabilities. We all know how history went though, and maybe it was a mistake, but when the Dreamcast died, the XBox and GameCube were on their way which both made the PlayStation seem inferior. The PlayStation 2 went on to become the biggest console ever, but it's one of the few I'd never touch.
Personally, this game came at the height of our family's console gaming life. As far as multiplayer console gaming goes, this game together with Virtua Tennis, another Dreamcast game, and Mario Kart 64 took the playtime-cake. For this game in particular, we frequently held tournaments and everyone would develop their favorite play-style with their favorite characters. The game made me get SoulCalibur II on GameCube and SoulCalibur IV on PlayStation 3, but they never had the same impact as the original, and our family's gaming life, died off.
