Oh Sega, remember way back when you used to make hardware and there came this little white hope that would usher you in a new generation of on-line home video game consoles? And then you killed it before it had a chance to blossom?!! Well, I have not forgotten and with the 10 year anniversary coming up for the Dreamcast (9/9/09), I felt it would be appropriate to pay homage to the under appreciated genius of it.
From its quirky logo and ridiculous controller cord, the Dreamcast had all the potential in the world of becoming the next big thing, until Sony stole its thunder and sent Sega running to the software industry like no tomorrow. Sure, you still make arcade games Sega, but the idea of a home console designed by you seems like a distant memory. Speaking of arcade games, that is why I fell in love with the Dreamcast in the first place, because of how many of Sega's best arcade titles were so easily ported. I could go into an endless list of fighting games that made the system great, but rather, have chosen to explore some of the other unique games which made the console great. This is not a list of the best games the system had to offer. Its more of a list of the games that I remember fondly. Enjoy!
Sonic Adventure - has to be the last Sonic game that I not only played all the way through,
but enjoyed at the same time! Think about it, when was the last time anyone could say that about a Sonic game? The characters were fantastic and the 3D models really got me excited about the Dreamcast's potential. Despite a unique take on traditional platforming of the series, the sense of speed was still fantastic. Don't forget the portable memory mini-game involving the Chao, probably not Sega's greatest idea, but ambitious. Sadly, Sonic would only begin to age worse as time went on and until they go to a 2.5D High Definition Sonic game, I wish this mascot the long sleep he deserves. If only to keep them from making another Wii game...Jet Grind Radio - looking into how games have changed over the past 10 years, cel-shading
has become almost common place. There are even new designs types to the genre of cel-shading as Gearbox Studios tries to interpret it differently (Coined "Concept Art Style") or Mad World, who did it all black on white with a red motif. Though anyway you slice it, Jet Grind was the first to do it in my memory and it fit perfectly into the DJ/Raver generation in which it was released. Racing around the shopping district of Shibuya, tagging, picking fights with rival gangs and the police were the staple of Jet Grind. And Beat with his iconic goggles, gigantic headphones and personalized t-shirt earned him a place in Sega's history. Seaman - where do I begin with this monstrosity. Seaman was like a bad acid trip where somebody took the business model of a
tamagotchi, the face of a Japanese salary-man and the personality of Oscar the Grouch, then slapped all this on a fish. Finish by having Leonard Nemoy narrate, now you have one of the most interesting games to date. The objective of Seaman was raise this little guy from a tadpole like state to a full amphibian, legs and all. But the charm came from your interaction with Seaman, where through a microphone you could teach your seaman to talk, respond and eventually critique your personal flaws. Ignore the game long enough and you would be greeted by one pissed off fish. Tell him to "eat shit" and he would defecate on your TV. Like I said, charming...Soul Calibur - Fall in love with 3D fighters all over again. That is how this game came to the
marketplace and sucked a couple hundred hours out of my life and and the lives of my friends. Sure, it is probably the easiest 3D fighter out there or at least the most approachable for the masses. But that only made it more entertaining, since anyone gun shy was immediately won over. The hardcore had to love it anyway, since it offered a ton of content ranging from a plethora of diverse characters, alternate costumes, unlockable art, multiple fight modes and lets face it, Ivy's breast. Stop looking at me like that... I mean, you played this game too, right? Nuff said.Power Stone 2 - For round 2 on Capcom's 3D fighter, they a
dded support for one of the best multiplayer functions to date, up to four challengers. This made the replay value on versus battle extremely high, packed with frantic multiplayer and some ridiculous brawling. Plus, adding new level designs, character models and weapons that dropped, helped to make the game feel fresh over its predecessor. I enjoyed this game much more than Smash Bros at the time, not only cause of the 3D environment, but I felt the graphics put Nintendo to shame. 10 years later Smash Bros has become Nintendo's competitive fighting game, while Power Stone is subjected to becoming a collection on UMD, for shame. 
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