Dreamcast, the next and final step in Sega's evolution, as far as we know it. This is the system that was the swansong, but not by any outward ineptitudes with its game library or selection of high quality games. We're not here to talk about how short lived it was, we're here to talk about how amazing of a continuation this system was for the Saturn and how we can benefit from having both systems in our collections.
If you are a Sega Saturn fan and have not gotten into the wonders of the Dreamcast library, you are depriving yourself of amazing games. These not only improve on the Saturn ports, but also bring games about that should have been on the system. As small as the Dreamcast library is, it also brought about a wonderful density that allowed for very few bad games. Obviously, there were some pretty nasty titles, but we'll get into that later.
There are games such as Resident Evil 2 that were marked for a Saturn release, but were pushed back to the Dreamcast. This was either a development problem or the fact that the Saturn did not have the lifespan they were expecting. There were games like Virtual On that had a Dreamcast port that was vastly superior in graphics and controls. These games show such an amazing bump in quality, it's hard not to really admire the hard work behind them.
Then, there are the games that seemingly came out of nowhere, exclusive to the Dreamcast and blew our minds out of the water! These games could have gone on to become amazing series and games that charmed the pants out of anyone who played them or even looked at them. The sad part is, thanks to Sega's falling out of the console industry, going for games only, a lot of their intellectual properties started to fall into obscurity as a result.
Crazy Taxi hit arcades in a big way and the Dreamcast port was beyond addictive to play. It didn't matter if the breaking system was awful, that just made for more bombastic, awesome crashes as a result. This game got one sequel and has remained very quiet since then. Skies of Arcadia was an astoundingly beautiful game that dazzled everyone with graphics and open gameplay that was both addictive and beyond fun to play. It got a remake on the Gamecube and then fell right off.
Jet Set Radio, Power Stone, Ready 2 Rumble, all of these either got minimal to no continuation or recognition in later consoles. Some of them can be found on PC game stores like Steam, but a lot of the time, that's the best we can hope for. Like the Sega Saturn, the Dreamcast has had a very hard time remaining playable by the mass public. If you don't have the original system, a lot of these games are either impossible to find, or require a lot of digging.
This will be a series of articles celebrating the Sega Saturn's worthy successor and final work of art. It remains a giant among Sega's accomplishments for innovations with console internet gaming and exclusive Sega series games that make it an indispensible time capsule of gaming greatness. So, here's to the Dreamcast and let's give it its due diligence for no other reason than I'm bored and there's a lot of good games I want to talk about. I'd also love to talk about the bad games, because that can be even more fun at times. Does that make me Virtua Evil?
