The 10 best games on the Sega Dreamcast
She’s Thinking…
The Sega Dreamcast was the first video game console I bought with my own money and although its run was only four short years in the US – five in Japan – it gave us some great software titles that would have been genre-defining hits on a Nintendo or Sony platform. The demise of Sega as a hardware developer was related to many factors, most but not all of them the fault of corporate mistakes relating to the Sega 32X and the botched launch of the Saturn a few years prior (even the use of a proprietary disc system rather than DVD like the PlayStation 2 was related to the poor decisions around the earlier console), but that doesn’t make the Dreamcast any less of a great console with a library of fantastic games that is well worth your time.
There are ways even now to easily and cheaply get games that are incredibly rare on GD-ROM. So I won’t tell you how to get and play these games, just that you should. I owned every single one of these games on GD-ROM either when they were new, or else shortly later on the used market.
Honorable Mentions.
There were a lot of great games for the Dreamcast. Sega seemed to understand that this was their last shot as a console manufacturer, and they made and licensed a lot of great games for this console in its abbreviated run.
Frame Gride (From Software, Japan only)
No, the title there is not a typo. This is a game I wish that From Software had imported into the US. I fumbled my way through the game when it was first released, figuring out the functions from context. It’s a fun mech-bashing game in the flavor and style of Vision of Escaflowne, but the lack of an English translation sadly sunk it below the top-10. Still a solid game with good mechanics, albeit a bit slower than From Software’s sister series, Armored Core.
Armada (Metro3D)
I'm old enough to have fond memories of blowing rocks and aliens away in the obscure late-80s arcade game Blasteroids, and Armada scratches that itch nicely. Armada has the same top-down 2D format as Asteroids and Blasteroids, which makes no sense whatsoever in outer space but what the heck. Action is frenetic and frequent, and the game handles extremely well. However, there are at least 10 other games with better music and action, including a space sim by a certain legendary duo of programmers, so they made the top-10 list, and Armada didn’t.
Power Stone (Capcom)
Capcom were the kings of fighting games in the 1990s, and Dreamcast launch title Power Stone was a masterclass in why. Each of its characters is absolutely bursting with personality, which their stages complement, and the game is an early example of the highly-stylized visuals that the console excelled with. It was hard to place this game outside the top 10, but its frenetic pace and free-for-all gameplay make it a must-play game for the system.
Worms Armageddon (Team17)
One of two iterations of the venerable Worms franchise for the Sega Dreamcast, Armageddon is exactly the kind of turn-based blast-away mayhem that you expect from a Worms game. Goofy terrain and your own teammates present obstacles as you try to shoot, stab, dragon punch, fireball, nuclear-strike-from-orbit and generally obliterate your invertebrate opposition. One of several games for the Dreamcast that is an absolute blast of a party game, and one with online support. The other Worms game to appear for the console is Worms World Party.
Now that the Honorable Mentions are out of the way, here’s the top 10.
10. Chu Chu Rocket (Sega)
Chu Chu Rocket is an absolutely addictive multiplayer puzzle game! Save the mice, the cats are scary, rockets are awesome! The simple, addictive gameplay concept is to put direction devices to save your mice and direct the hungry cats to eat the mice of your opponents, denying them scores that they need to win the level while scoring many, many times yourself. Chu Chu Rocket is pretty good in single-player mode, but it is LUDICROUSLY fun in multiplayer.
9. Starlancer (Warthog Games)
Designed by legendary game producer brothers Erin and Chris Roberts, Starlancer is set in the distant future and acts as a prequel to semi-MMO PC shooter Freelancer. Starlancer is basically Wing Commander VI, for the Dreamcast, but with Evil Humans subbing in for the Kilrathi. The Wing Commander franchise became heavily deprecated after the 1998 box-office bomb and Wing Commander Strike Team, Privateer III, and Privateer Online all fell into Development Hell and were eventually cancelled with the late-2000s folding of Origin Systems Inc., leaving Wing Commander Arena as a sad semi-coda to a once-great franchise. Starlancer is clearly heavily derived from its older siblings and retains most of Wing Commander’s concepts and gameplay. As a Wing Commander-loving kid from the 90s, I was instantly hooked and the action-heavy gameplay makes this a must-own if you’re a space sim fan and a Dreamcast owner.
8. Napple Tale: Arsia in Daydream (Sega)
This was the longshot game I was most hoping would be brought to North America, but it wasn't. I bought it on import, long after the console’s run had ended, and played it with a translated script in my lap. It was 110% worth the effort. Napple Tale is a highly charming adventure-platformer based extremely loosely on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll (Arsia’s name is an anagram of one of the ways to spell “Alice” in kana), and its candy-coated graphics make it a fun ride. The fact that I had to play it through the mediation of a printed-out translated script is the only reason it’s not higher on this list.
7. Sonic Adventure (Sega)
Like many of you, this was a launch-day purchase for me for the Sega Dreamcast, and UGH SO GOOD. Its faults to me seem only to highlight the many, many things this game does well, and it is one of the only 3D Sonic games to make Sonic feel truly at home outside of his 2D platforming origins. Big the Cat would be better as an avoidable DLC, but other than that, Sonic Adventure tells a pretty good story using the characters of the Sonic the Hedgehog series.
6. Gauntlet Legends (Midway)
One of MANY spot-on arcade ports for the Dreamcast, and Gauntlet is always a hoot in multiplayer. The only fantasy beat-em-up game that I rate more highly than Gauntlet Legends is Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom, which was available for the preceding Sega Saturn. Still, Gauntlet Legends is an incredibly solid arcade experience, brought home with few to no hitches or glitches.
5. Soul Calibur (Namco)
This bright, glitzy launch title pushed the Dreamcast hardware early and often, providing a seldom-eclipsed benchmark as to the capabilities of the platform. Its fighter-game mechanics make for a great excuse to make a game that uses the maximum amount of the Dreamcast’s 3 million polygon power on its player characters, and the result is a technical tour-de-force that’s also a better-than-arcade conversion to a classic arcade game. The series has taken a dip in the last few iterations, but the second game in the Soul series was a hell of a ride. That I put Soul Calibur in the #5 slot should be an indication of how unbelievably good the top 4 games are.
4. Bangai-O (Treasure)
If they called this game "CRAZY MECH" it would be an absolutely true title. Made by legendary producer Treasure, Explosion Invincible Bangaioh (its original title, inexplicably cropped to just Bangai-O for Western release) gives you an excuse plot and a tiny, tiny robot that seems ludicrous considering the giant sprites the console is capable of... but the purpose becomes immediately apparent once you start playing: The further the game is pulled out, the more explosions can fill the screen! Bangai-O pushes the sprite-blasting capabilities of the Dreamcast to their absolute limit with literally thousands of tiny missiles, and the game just looks completely gorgeous.
3. Jet Set Radio (Sega)
As a roller derby skater, you would expect this game to appear high on my list, and it does! Jet Set Radio, inexplicably released as Jet Grind Radio for the Dreamcast but rereleased under its original title later in the decade, is everything the Dreamcast does well: An unbelievably good playlist of turn-of-the-century dance tunes; sprites that are just bursting with personality; and frenetic action that hardly ever lets up until the game’s relatively rudimentary story reaches its unbelievable conclusion. Jet Set Radio is a top-3 title on the console for many excellent reasons. A disappointing coda to the excellent game is the only reason this isn’t #1.
2. Skies of Arcadia (Sega)
I barely ever finish RPGs; I find their style of gameplay remarkably artificial and random encounters start to get boring after a while. But Skies of Arcadia is a breath of fresh air in the grim darkness of late-90s RPGs and it's genuinely fun. Its villains are fun, its heroes are more fun, and the paper-rock-scissors nature of airship battles adds a whole new dimension to familiar RPG game mechanics. Skies of Arcadia is the first video game that truly made me sad that it was over, but there is just one game that ranks above it in my list of favorite Dreamcast games.
And this leaves what I believe to be the best Sega Dreamcast game of the console’s entire too-abbreviated run:
1. Crazy Taxi (Sega)
Never has a game's title more succinctly described its content. I played this game incessantly in the video arcade at my university, and the game was a first-day purchase when it became available. The small number of additional modes added to Crazy Taxi, including an additional, New York City-themed city to roam in and run cab fares, just underscores the excellence of the original arcade mode and how perfectly focused it and its tight time limit are on making sure that you do the craziest stunts you can to shave precious milliseconds off your transit times and extend your game. And the classic punk-rock soundtrack goes further in pushing the atmosphere to the limits. Crazy Taxi is the best game on the Sega Dreamcast.
This list is so short. Whole genres are left off the list - Dreamcast had a slew of excellent sports titles like World Series Baseball 2K1 and one of the best ports of NBA Jam; experimental games like the bizarre, not-entirely-successful Seaman; flying games like AirForce Delta and Aerowings. There were dozens of fighting games and over two hundred games in all over five years. Dreamcast may not have succeeded in the market, but the games that were made for it remain some of the best games ever made for any video game console.
Sega - SHIRO!
Segata Sanshiro
Segata Sanshiro
Sega Saturn… Shiro!
