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Forums - Gaming Discussion - The Dreamcast turns 20

To this day Skies of Arcadia is my favourite JRPG. What a gem



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This is the most underrated console of all time, I have some of the best memories of my 30years of gaming from this console, games such as Shenmue, Skies of arcadia, crazy taxi, Virtua tennis, sonic adventure, sega rally, soulcalibur, jet set radio, metropolis street racer, resident evil code veronica and many more. By far the best years of my gaming life.

I also loved the controller with the VM unit it was great, it even had rumble on the controller.

It was also the first time I tried online, actually the first time I used internet because I was poor didn't have a PC until years later, and back then there weren't any smart mobile phones, so the dreamcast was not only the most fun gaming console but also my first internet device, I even had the keyboard for it, might actually have ruined my life because life was better before the internet :)

I still remember I had friends with a PS1 and they would come to my house and be stunned by the graphics and the fun games, games such as powerstone, virtua tennis, soulcalibur were perfect to play with friends, and to this date they haven't done a better tennis game or fighting game.

Back then, sony was concentrating on story games such as metal gear, final fantasy, while sega was all about the fun, just like going out to play on the arcades.

To this day, I still wish sega had been successful instead of sony, imagine the fun games we could have had today instead of movie games that we get. Look at something like red dead 2, sure its nice, and Im enjoying it, but its nowhere near the fun as we used to have with sega when games were fun without cutscenes or story needed, the problem nowadays is overcomplicated games, I finish work tired and go home and want to relax, put red dead and have to remember all the buttons, example, want to pick up your gun its this button, want to pick up your pistol, its another button, want to do this, another button, sometimes I just don't have the pacience for it, while those sega games were basically 1 joystick, 2 or 3 buttons and 2 triggers, straightforward.



SammyGiireal said:

The Sega Dreamcast turns 20 today. Sega's last console released on 9/9/99 with a multi-million dollar marketing campaign was Sega’s last effort in the hardware business. By late 2000 rumors were that Sega would pullout of the Hardware business, and they did in 2001-02 effectively killing the Dreamcast. We won’t go in depth today into what went wrong with Sega, and the system as we would rather celebrate its life. 

The Dreamcast had a short lifespan but that didn’t stop the system from receiving some great titles. The Dreamcast in 1999 was a true revelation in terms of graphics, even out shining the N64 which by this point was on its last legs. The foggy look in order to conceal pop up, low res textures, and blocky graphics were a thing of the past as the DC was a true generational leap over the previous consoles. 

The Dreamcast also introduced the world to online gaming almost half decade before online gaming became a standard feature in consoles. There are so many things that the Dreamcast did right, and I have so many memories of it that I would have to go in depth in order to cover all of bases in one single article. So for today, here are my top ten DC games:

1. Skies of Arcadia- Sega’s last great RPG and a game that RPG enthusiasts still remember fondly with hopes of a sequel being made by Sega some day…one can always dream.

2. Resident Evil Code Veronica: The most realistic graphics of its time, a true showcase of the DC’s horsepower, and the best Resident Evil game I have played behind RE2 and RE4.

3. Shenmue- An expensive (as in 70 million) real life simulator of sorts that took you back to Japan's 80s and ambitious project that has yet to be completed as we still await for episode 3 of Yu Suzuki’s saga. 

4. Soul Calibur- At the time of release the greatest looking game in the Dreamcast's library, and an excellent fighter to boot probably the highest rated game in the 90s along side Ocarina of Time, and Metal Gear Solid. 

5. Grandia II- One of the greatest stories ever told in a beautiful RPG that looked worlds better than the PS2 port of the same name.

6. Power Stone- A Smash Bros. Type of fighter that easily rivaled the former more popular title in both quality and fun.

7. Sonic Adventure- Sonic’s first foray into 3 Dimensions was gorgeous, and in some ways ahead of its time. 

8. Record of Lodoss War- Based on the popular Lord of the Rings esque Anime series, this Diablo styled Action RPG was fantastically fun.

9. NFL 2K- The most realistic looking and playing football game of its time, it was one of the reasons why I decided to jump into the “128 bit” gen with the DC.

10. Speed Devils Online- This game is responsible for my mediocre High School grades. I was just as addicted to this online racer, as kids these days are with Fortnite.

Record of Lodoss War I really enjoyed that game even if I'm still haunted by the sound of those boots.

Grandia II was great but my copy locked up and I was frustrated, eventually I paid out for another copy imagine my shock to find out that it happened with just 3 minutes left in the game.

Shenmue - jet set radio - Metropolis street Racer (with online functions written on the front) - LE MAN 24 HR - Skies of Arcadia -Sega Rally 2

another game I enjoyed was Draconus Cult of the Wyrm made by Treyarch of all people.

Last edited by mjk45 - on 13 February 2020

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sales2099 said:
To this day Skies of Arcadia is my favourite JRPG. What a gem

Yeah, I actually bought the Dreamcast looking forward mostly to Grandia 2 as a long time RPG fan...I remember it was a Saturday morning I went with my mom to the mall, and I saw the game (Skies of Arcadia) on EBs shelves, and I decided to take the plunge. Man, Grandia 2 was a very good Dreamcast RPG but as you say Skies of Arcadia was an all time great contender. The graphics were fantastic, as the setting, the Sky in those days seemed impossibly endless. Skies is what RPGs should be about. It had a heck of story with a great cast, and  the sense of discovery was unmatched. A real journey. Skies of Arcadia low key was probably the best RPG of that PS2/GC/XBOX/DC gen.



victor83fernandes said:

This is the most underrated console of all time, I have some of the best memories of my 30years of gaming from this console, games such as Shenmue, Skies of arcadia, crazy taxi, Virtua tennis, sonic adventure, sega rally, soulcalibur, jet set radio, metropolis street racer, resident evil code veronica and many more. By far the best years of my gaming life.

I also loved the controller with the VM unit it was great, it even had rumble on the controller.

It was also the first time I tried online, actually the first time I used internet because I was poor didn't have a PC until years later, and back then there weren't any smart mobile phones, so the dreamcast was not only the most fun gaming console but also my first internet device, I even had the keyboard for it, might actually have ruined my life because life was better before the internet :)

I still remember I had friends with a PS1 and they would come to my house and be stunned by the graphics and the fun games, games such as powerstone, virtua tennis, soulcalibur were perfect to play with friends, and to this date they haven't done a better tennis game or fighting game.

Back then, sony was concentrating on story games such as metal gear, final fantasy, while sega was all about the fun, just like going out to play on the arcades.

To this day, I still wish sega had been successful instead of sony, imagine the fun games we could have had today instead of movie games that we get. Look at something like red dead 2, sure its nice, and Im enjoying it, but its nowhere near the fun as we used to have with sega when games were fun without cutscenes or story needed, the problem nowadays is overcomplicated games, I finish work tired and go home and want to relax, put red dead and have to remember all the buttons, example, want to pick up your gun its this button, want to pick up your pistol, its another button, want to do this, another button, sometimes I just don't have the pacience for it, while those sega games were basically 1 joystick, 2 or 3 buttons and 2 triggers, straightforward.

Yeah I was addicted to Speed Devils Online for a while, I, like you, didn't have a PC back in 1999 ( I used to do my school papers on a type writer my mom got me) so the dreamcast was not only my first foray into online gaming but also my first internet browser. The Dreamcast did so many things right, it even had a better more varied library of games than the PS2 (at least during Sony's first year with the PS2), but the PS2 hype was just too great, and it killed the DC right out of the gates, people held back from buying the system because they were waiting for the PS2.



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It released in the States exactly on my birthday, how curious. I'll admit I always saw it as the weird Chinese Xbox knockoff with games of subpar visual quality when I was a kid. I've had the opportunity to play a few of its games since then and a lot of them are unique and special. Skies of Arcadia was a standout, though I played it on the GameCube.



My bet with The_Liquid_Laser: I think the Switch won't surpass the PS2 as the best selling system of all time. If it does, I'll play a game of a list that The_Liquid_Laser will provide, I will have to play it for 50 hours or complete it, whatever comes first. 

victor83fernandes said:

This is the most underrated console of all time....

Is it underrated though?  I've heard nothing but love for the DC for twenty years now.  

It definitely underperformed.  But, I can't agree that it was underrated.