Must-Have Games For The Dreamcast?

Thanks to EntDepot.com for their roundtable discussing the shiniest, best, and most under-rated Dreamcast games, as Sega's defunct console starts approaching cult status. The article starts: "It seems as though Sega has been all but forgotten as the system innovator that it was. As cliched as it sounds, the Dreamcast was years ahead of its time", and some of the now-inexpensive recommended DC titles include Mars Matrix ("a simple top-down, vertical shooter that we have all grown to love and cherish"), Samba De Amigo ("Get a pair of third-party maracas, [and] come to terms with the fact that you'll soon be flailing your arms around like a jackass"), and the less easily purchasable Propeller Arena ("the best game AM2 never released.")

Sword of the Berserk

[1arkhaine]

What a fantastic game. For us poor Westerners, the end of the Berserk DVDs was the end of the series, even though in the Japanese manga it was really only the beginning.

Sword of the Berserk changed this. We got to find out more about Guts, find out that Caska really wasn't dead (yay!) and just explore the world that I know I had come to love. And it had Puck!

Great game, highly recommended. Unless you have a problem with fighting with swords bigger than yourself, then I am not sure I even want to speak to you.

What about?

[Anonymous Coward]

Chu-Chu Rocket?

Space Channel 5?

Hell, what about Seaman (any game with an ugly fish and Leonard Nemoy gets points in my book) or any of the Sonic games?

Skies of Arcadia?

And for fuck's sake, why wasn't SOUL CALIBUR mentioned?!

Great titles on that list, but there are many greats they left off on this one (and I'm sure I missed more than my share as well).

Cult Status

[Anonymous Coward]

If your interested in what the homebrew scene has to offer for the dreamcast, then I recommend checking DC Emulation. [dcemulation.com] Also for the DDR fans, check out Feet of Fury. [feetoffury.com]

Shen Mue

[neostorm]

Did no one like Shen Mue 1 and 2? I absolutely fell in love with both games despite I usually hate games-that-try-to-be-movies. I can't believe it hasn't been mentioned.
Fantastic games that made a huge effort for something new. More than just big production, but fun gameplay and very well done story. The world of both games felt more "alive" than any other title today.

I know some people probably dislike them, and I know some love them, but I hope they get the credit they deserve as must-haves.

Powerstone...

[JAYOYAYOYAYO]

i've only played powerstone2, it was great fun in the dorm... its like smash bros but with a way more interactive 3D environment, made by capcom. basically, youre beating the shit out of each other, trying to pick up some 'power stones' so you can be the ultimate shitkicker. tons of fun.

My own Dreamcast picks

[MilenCent]

Chu Chu Rocket! You really need other people to play it with, but find them and you have a game that can almost challenge the mighty Bomberman for multiplayer mayhem. I hear the network play was very laggy but playable, but since all the Dreamcast online servers are now dead this is a dead feature now. But the four-players-on-one-system mode is a masterpiece. (There is a GBA version of this game, and a small 1p version is a secret in Billy Hatcher.)

Grandia 2. Some people mentioned it on the site already, but yeah, they're right, this is a severely underrated game. Some of the best writing and voice acting you'll hear in a RPG. Not too challenging (unless you count the secret extra dungeon late in the game, which has some hard foes in it), but the brilliant combat system created for the first game really comes to shine here. And the trademark loveable, personality-filled Game Arts characters are the icing on the cake. (There are also PS2 and PC versions of this game.)

Crazy Taxi & Crazy Taxi 2. The first game is available for all three current consoles now, but the sequel was never released for anything besides the Dreamcast. This is the game I spent the most time on on my Dreamcast, and for a while there I was in the running for, what was it again, 8th place in the Twin Galaxies record books when they were running a high score contest, with a score of over $69,000. (I never sent in my tape, though.) These are among the best designed games for any system. I thought that CT3 (X-Box) didn't have enough additions over the second game, though it was nice being able to explore new places in the original arcade city. (CT1: also available for PC, GC, X-Box and PS2, CT2: DC exclusive.)

Seaman. Yeah, it was funky, and kind of boring after a while, but it was truly fresh and different, and for a little while actually caused us to forget we were playing a game as we talked to a little Japanese-headed fish/frog guy with a microphone plugged into the controller. Ten times cooler than Nintendo's Hey You Pikachu!, which is the only other game of this type I can name. (DC exclusive)

Space Channel 5. The hippest videogame of all time. It doesn't look like it at first, but it is.

NesterDC/DreamSNES/GNUBoy/other emulators. Yeah, they're free and quasi-legal when played with ROMs, but these babies can pack new life into your DC. http://www.dcemulation.com/ for more information. Of special note is the Atari 800 emulator, which can emulate M.U.L.E., possibly the best designed game of all time and a formidable multiplayer game, flawlessly and with the exact same four-controller-port configuration the original computer had. NesterDC emulates almost all NES games perfectly, and on your TV screen. That is too cool for words.

What about...

[FinestLittleSpace]

Rez... massively overlooked games, possibly one of the best games to have ever emerged on the console... and looked a million times more crisp and sexy than on the PS2....

Lovely visuals, great sound, vastly addictive.

Beautiful. Never sold though...

Ikaruga

[mraymer]

Even though it's out for the GameCube now, Ikaruga [penny-arcade.com] is still worth mentioning. ;)

Dreamcast game servers still online

[Stormwatch]

Source: [ http://www.onlineconsoles.com/ ]

4x4 Evolution
ChuChu Rocket (USA version works, EURO down)
F355 Challenge
PBA Bowling 2001 (via GameSpy)
Quake III Arena (private servers and clans)
Sega Swirl
StarLancer (via Gamespy)
Worms World Party

Figher love

[jayhawk88]

Several people have mentioned the lack of Soul Calibur, but Dreamcast is perhaps one of the best figher platforms of all time. Marvel v. Capcom 1 and 2, Capcom v. SNK, several Street Fighter and King of Fighters versions. To say nothing of Dead or Alive 2