Wow, it's already been 25 years and all of the great game systems are starting to be able to drink! These are the games we grew up with, now that we have our white hair, canes and breathing problems! This is when we leapt from the 32-bit era and delved into graphics that were once only meant for arcade cabinets!
We here at Planet Virtua feel that the Dreamcast was a beloved sendoff to the Sega consoles and the fact that so many people are celebrating its brithday gives us great joy. To mark this momentous occasion, we have decided to put together an article that shows off what made Dreamcast great in its time. There are so many ways this console was great, it really is a shame so many people didn't see it for the marvel it was.
Games like Jet Grind Radio (in the US), Crazy Taxi, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Shenmue, Sonic Adventure and so many more are chiseled into its history. These games have been remade, reported and revamped so many times because they were great to begin with. Some of these were once Dreamcast exclusives and people loved them so much that they wanted MORE! Fans have come out with fansubs, fan remakes and nothing but love for this wondrous Swan Song and detractors can easily be ignored because we don't need them!
The open worlds and the large, engrossing landscapes are one of the qualities the Dreamcast excelled in. Games like Skies of Arcadia, and Shenmue showed these huge graphically enhanced environments. Phantasy Star Online was the first of its kind as a successful console based MMORPG, and this was just the start of it! The Dreamcast was also the earliest example of a console having a built in modem, allowing you to play online with friends. Was this the greatest internet brought to you by Sega Net? No, in fact, many still had dial-up internet and even with a fast internet, there were several problems with connections for many, many people.
That does not stop the system itself from being spectacular. It had cool features like a screen menu on start up, the online stuff and even some very early downloadable content, but that was not the focus. The games still came first! With Virtual On, you were able to customize your own robot and save that robot to a file in either a flashdrive or the Dreamcast itself. This is what people used for Virtual On Dreamcast competitions! You come the scene at a convention and play with one of those, you're one of the cool kids!
The graphical capabilities were only magnified by Sonic Team and Sega putting their brains together and making the best use of them. Crazy Taxi was one of the best sellers on the system because it was near, shot-for-shot, just as good as the arcade (sans the cool controls, of course). The driving was smooth and the controls, even on the regular controls, it was very easy to learn.
The controller, modeled after the Saturn 3D Pad, wasn't quite as popular among gamers, and even the original Xbox had The Duke. Both were seen as large and especially cumbersome to use. Being one with very large hands, this was never a problem for me. There was also the Xbox controller, but there is something to be said about one of the very first iterations of a console controller having a small, flat joystick.
This console had the potential to become absolutely great to the wide public. The mistakes Sega made with the CD's and their security files, some of the mechanical issues with loading and other such little things had a bad effect on sales. It really undercut the whole experience because so many people were selling Dreamcast games bootlegged and people were buying them, or even figuring out how to make the CD's themselves. It's obvious the console wasn't perfect, but that was not at all having to do with a lack of a gaming library or good games.
Whatever has happened to your Dreamcast, whether you sold it, broke it or its simply been neglected into catching dust, do yourself a favor, and seek out these games. Crazy Taxi, Grandia 2, Sonic Advneture DX and so many other titles for this machine are now wholly accessible on the Steam store, and several of them are available elsewhere as well. Shenmue III just had a release, and while it wasn't universally well received, the Shenmue fans got something out of the deal. If we can keep this up, along with all of the other Dreamcast titles getting a resurface, rebuilding your old school collection should be much easier now, more than ever.
If you never loved the Dreamcast, there's not much to say. It can be viewed as mediocre, with a small gaming library, by comparison, and an old relic that old people just can't stop fawning over. Well, that's your view and it is not ours. The Dreamcast came at the right time, when people wanted more of their favorite games and it brought us sequels that we love as well as brand new titles we still love to this day. Anything from House of the Dead II, Space Channel 5, Power Stone and even Resident Evil: Code Veronica first found their home on the Dreamcast and it is the best way to play them: Old School!
So, here on this day, we remember the day of 9/9/99 and reflect on a system that carried the torch until its dying embers. Thank you, Dreamcast, for the memories. Also, for the dreams. Virtua Dreams.
