Gaming The Dreamcast Thread

[James]

[center][img]http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/3970/dreamcastthread.jpg[/img][/center]

[font=franklin gothic medium]After seeing just how many Dreamcast fans are still around on OB, I thought I'd [i]finally[/i] start this thread. I figure this would be a good place to discuss all things Dreamcast, but it might also be a good place to discuss imports and things like that.

Dreamcast is recognised as being pretty much the ultimate hardcore console. It's gained that reputation over the years, but I really think it lives up to that. And if you're unfamiliar with the console - or if you just never owned one - there's never been a better time to buy. Given how cheap they are now and the fact that there are still plenty of games and accessories available, you have plenty of choices.

It's hard to describe exactly why Dreamcast is so loved among gaming enthusiasts, but I think there are a few obvious examples that make it clearer. For one thing, the period between 1999 and 2001 was possibly SEGA's most creative period. Games like Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5, Seaman, Shenmue and even the still-rare Segagaga were all born in that period.

SEGA also pioneered in a number of fields, including online gaming (by being the first company to introduce an in-built modem in a mainstream platform release) and voice recognition software (Seaman was entirely voice controlled).

Unfortunately the Dreamcast died a premature death and there are a number of reasons behind that (I won't go into 'em right now though).

Still, we can look back and enjoy the Dreamcast for what it was - especially now that it's in its tenth year of life (er, well...second life, maybe).

Dreamcast's uniqueness was not only exhibited in its brilliant games, but even in its marketing. In Japan, for example, many of the TV commercials actually featured the company's president Hidekazu Yukawa, also known as "Mr. SEGA" (at one point you could even purchase a bobble-head figure of him).

Here are a couple of Japanese Dreamcast ads, which kind of show why Mr. Yukawa developed such a cult of personality (and just look at how personally Mr. Yukawa takes criticism from a school kid about Dreamcast being out of stock):

[center][youtube]IaRWBBIPFfA[/youtube][/center]

I actually don't have many Dreamcast games, probably by virtue of the fact that the console wasn't well-supported here in Australia. At the moment I only have Jet Set Radio, Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Shenmue and Shenmue 2.

I've only just bought Shenmue 2, which I imported from the UK. I posted a bit about that at [url="http://www.theotaku.com/worlds/otakuboards"]OB World[/url], but when I finish it I might actually attempt to post a longer article just about Shenmue.

Anyway, I'm now in the process of setting up a room just for retro gaming stuff and Dreamcast comes first. I've just ordered a [b]DC-X[/b], which is basically just a disc that allows you to play all-region software. I've also ordered a "new" copy of Daytona USA 2001 from Japan.

Other than that, there are a ton of games I want to get. I thought this thread would also be a great place to post recommendations (and maybe even reviews?)[/font]

[Magus]

[size=1][color=darkred]I can always go for some recommendations for the Dreamcast since my library was relatively small as well. I "had" Shenmue, NBA2K1, NFL2K, Soul Calibur, King of Fighters (99 I think), and Ready 2 Rumble. Out of those games I've only played Shenmue, NBA2K1 and Soul Calibur numerous times with Shenmue being played the most. For some reason it just gives off a tranquil tone that puts me at ease every time I play it, and there are no other games that does that for me. (Okami might be another but I haven't played a lot of it)

My brother and I (....) had a lot of fun when it came to Soul Calibur since we'd usually go toe-to-toe. His character of choice was Maxi and mine was Kilik. And we would just go at it. I don't know what happened with the later games in the series. My brother stopped playing and I grew to hate the rest of them games...

I was quite a force with the NBA2K games. Of course I never really challenged myself and set the difficulty to it's hardest, but I knew when I won by 100 pts against my brother that I could do some damage. Give or take we both had created characters, but he constantly went for 3 pointers and that kept getting on my nerves.

We've also rented a couple of games as well. Power Stone and Dead or Alive 2. Power Stone, till this day would be what I want all my fighting games to be like. I love it when you can use the environment as a weapon. Kicking through walls, off of buildings is ok, but being able to slide/fling chairs at your opponent, roll over tables like a Jackie Chan movie made the game even more awesome. It's sad too, that a lot of these creators aren't implementing any of these things into their games. They continue to stick with throwing/knocking people throw walls and off of buildings and that stuff is old and boring. The only reason I'd choose Street Fighters over Power Stone is because SF has more memorable/iconic characters. Also, I believe this was the only game I've played where my brother was actually better than me at.

Dead or Alive 2 was also a great experience for my siblings and I (......). Got my sister in on the game, but it was basically me and my brother going at it. My choice was Ein while his was Jane Lee. Seeing people go off of buildings was great, and even now it's still good, but all of it is growing old, but Team Ninja deserves credit because at least they are implementing more environmental fighting than other 3D games.

One game I'd like to give another go would be Dynamite Cop. I hardly remember the game, but I do remember having fun with it. I think I recall there being QTE's in that game as well. Had I known Marvel vs Capcom 2 was on the Dreamcast early I would've saved my money and brought it. And comparing the price of it now to the ps2 and Xbox, the Dreamcast version is the cheapest from what I've seen. I also would like to get my hands on Skies of Arcadia as well as Grandia just to see what's all the rage about them.

It really sucks that my brother don't know how to take care of anything. (The Dreamcast was his) He left it lying around on the floor collecting dirt till it don't even work anymore. I would love to get my hands on another Dreamcast along with Shenmue again because I am definately lacking my tranquil experience right now, and I've been needing it over the past few years. (No job, no money)

If you can't tell I really liked the Dreamcast. (2nd to the ps2)[/size][/color]

[James]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Oh yeah, that's what I forgot to mention: Soul Calibur. I own that as well. It's one of the few fighting games I really loved, as I'm not really a big fighting game fan in general.

Having said that, I [i]loved[/i] Power Stone. Apparently Power Stone 2 is much better and there are copies around, but PS2 seems harder to find than the original.

If you do get the chance to buy another Dreamcast, I strongly recommend importing Shenmue II. It's going to be a bit more expensive than other titles, but I think it's well worth it.

Shenmue II is really bigger and better than the original. There's just a whole lot more to do. The actual geographical area is much larger and you can walk into most buildings/stores, which is pretty cool.

The only downside is that there are also a lot more loading points as you move from district to district. I find this frustrating at times, but I have to remember that this is because I'm used to games like GTAIV, which stream everything dynamically.

One thing I like about Shenmue II is that there are many more options for making money. In the original game you were sort of funnelled into one particular job, but in Shenmue II you have a few different things available depending on what you prefer.

The downside, though, is that you'll [i]need[/i] the extra money. There are more maps to buy and you have to pay board (at least in the early part of the game).

I've just ordered Daytonua USA 2001 and it's just been shipped. It's the Japanese version and I haven't yet received my DC-X thing yet, so I hope the latter arrives and I can actually play it!

Has anyone played Daytona on Dreamcast? I heard the controls were crappy. I'm hoping they aren't too bad.

Oh, and also, if you like Dreamcast artwork...try this out:

[url]ftp://segapr.segaamerica.com/SEGA_ARCHIVES/Dreamcast_Games/[/url]

I saw a link to it on a Dreamcast blog and there's some pretty awesome stuff in there.[/font]

[CaNz]

I loved my sega dreamcast... unfortunately mine fell apart on me after my third move, i wasn't to sad to give it up though because most of my games stopped working a while before that... I rigged a way to play some of them by manually pushing the laser scanner thing... but even so i do miss playing my sonic adventure game, trying desperately to get S ranks on all of those missions. god... i hate those snowboarding ones.

my favorite game on dreamcast had to be time stalkers.
it was a RPG game following a rag tag band of heroes (okay that parts not unique but it gets better) from all different times and dimensions. the world for some reason is being smashed together and the times a merging together. the story has quite a few holes in it, and you never really get all the characters back stories, but the game-play is so much fun for an rpg.
you pick one of the main cast as your lead hero, then you go and brave a dungeon. you always start at level one and you can only carry a couple items so each dungeon run is like starting from scratch... really the only leveling you do is your max potential.
along the way you fight loads of monsters, but what sets this one apart is that you can capture any monster aside from bosses to fight on your side, you can the n level the captured monsters up as well!
the final fantasy rpg mixed with pokemon game-play is seamless and will give you more replay value than any other rpg on the market.

i highly recommend it if you like rpgs even slightly.

[James]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Well, my copy of Daytona USA still hasn't arrived. Not sure what's happening there. I suppose it's only been about 6 business days though, so I can't complain too much. Yet. :catgirl:

And I'm still slowly working my way through Shenmue II. I'm finding that it gets more enjoyable as it goes on, but man...those regular loading sessions suck! I remember being annoyed by the loading even when the game was new, but these days it's even harder to deal with.

What other good Dreamcast games can you guys recommend? I think next on my list will have to be Power Stone 2.[/font]

[Korey]

[FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"][SIZE="1"][COLOR="Navy"]I loved my Dreamcast for the period that we had it. But I wanted to point out one of the biggest things that led to the downfall of the Dreamcast during it's natural life period was the fact that games could be hacked for the Dreamcast rather easily. So it was easy to find a torrent of any desired game, format it onto a CD and play it on your dreamcast. It was also easy to mod the Dreamcast to be region-free (James mentioned the DC-X), so you could get import games (and burn them too). So it was tough for Sega to generate income with people pirating games.

Also, Sega had the really crappy timing of releasing a system that was only in it's second to third year of system life (system life usually varies, but it averages around to 5-6 years) before the Playstation 2 was released. The PS2 just plain out-gunned the DC in terms of processing speed, features (backwards compatibility being the big one) and having a killer launch lineup.

All the naysing aside, I have to recommend a few games that people haven't mentioned:

[B]House of the Dead 2:[/B] This game was an arcade classic and it was fun to re-create the experience with the Light Gun that we had (although my dad liked to cheat with Auto-Reload). You could easily beat the game in 20 minutes and that's about all there is to do (the other game modes are ehhhhhh), but it gets fun when you play with other people.

[B]Sega Bass Fishing[/B]: Again, another arcade game that got a console port. But this one seperates itself from HoftD2 by having a career mode (that got kinda tedious). The game is susprisingly fun for a fishing game and really easy to pick up.

[B]Marvel vs Capcom 2:[/B] A lot of people will vouch for Soul Calibur, but I think that MVC2 needs a special recognition because it was a fast-paced, fun game that had a lot of characters and is easy enough for anyone to just pick up and play. Also, it's the closest port (MVC2 had a PS2, XBOX and DC port) to the acutal arcade version.

[B]Skies of Arcadia:[/B] Dude, if you want a flying pirates/spacey/ awesome RPG, this was it. I started this game when we had our DC and I just finished it about 4 years ago. This game is so much fun and it was one of the best JRPGs the DC put out.

[B]Crazy Taxi:[/B] Yeah, another arcade game that got a home port. But this game is suprisingly fun and original. Really fun to pick up and play and I had spent many an hour trying to beat all my high scores and unlock the bike.

[B]Resident Evil: Code Veronica:[/B] This game kinda gets shuffled along as far as RE games go, but this game was another gem in this series in my opinion. It was awesome in the fact it had Claire Redfield, which is instant win.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[Humaru]

I love having a Dreamcast. I play it still from time to time. It had some pretty great games that you couldnt really play for any other system. I really limited myself to playing only few games constantly. My favorites goes like this:

[B]Power Stone[/B]: This game was sick. It was very creative and I love beating people down in it. I got really good. Probably the best Dreamcast only game during its time.

[B]Marvel vs Capcom 2[/B]: The single greatest 2D fighting ever. Bold statement......I know.

[B]Sonic Adventure[/B]: My favorite 3D Sonic game. Great music, gameplay,and controls.

[B]Project Justice[/B]: It was a sequel to the Rival Schools game but it had a great selection of characters.

[Magus]

[quote name='James'][font=franklin gothic medium]If you do get the chance to buy another Dreamcast, I strongly recommend importing Shenmue II. It's going to be a bit more expensive than other titles, but I think it's well worth it.
[/font][/QUOTE]

[size=1][color=darkred]Are there any differences between the Xbox and Dreamcast versions? I played Shenmue 2 on the Xbox, and I did have fun with it, but I tend to favor Shenmue 1 over 2. I think it's because of the "Practice" part of the game.[/size][/color]

[James]

[quote name='Magus'][size=1][color=darkred]Are there any differences between the Xbox and Dreamcast versions? I played Shenmue 2 on the Xbox, and I did have fun with it, but I tend to favor Shenmue 1 over 2. I think it's because of the "Practice" part of the game.[/size][/color][/QUOTE]

[font=franklin gothic medium]As far as I know, the Xbox version runs a little bit better (i.e. slightly less slow down and pop up). Also, with the Xbox version, when you start a new game I think you actually get a lot of items in your inventory - whereas the Dreamcast version relies on your finished save file from the first Shenmue.

What do you mean by "practice" part of the game?

Also, side note, but I finally got Daytona USA 2001 a little while back. I'm loving it - it really is [i]the[/i] definitive Daytona! Only problem? It's [i]hard![/i] Haha

I'm finding it very difficult, in large part because the controls are so unforgiving. It seems tougher on the Dreamcast than it was in the arcades. I'm starting to wonder if I need to invest in a wheel or something.

And speaking of Power Stone, I've ordered Power Stone 2 which should be arriving soon. I did play the original a bit (only rented), but apparently the sequel is better. Can anyone vouch for that?[/font]

[Magus]

[quote name='James'][font=franklin gothic medium]What do you mean by "practice" part of the game?[/font][/QUOTE]

[size=1][color=darkred]Where you go into empty places and just practice. I really enjoyed that aspect of the first game, whereas, in 2 the only way to master your moves are by getting into actual fights. Of course there's nothing wrong with that (and it's completely understandable in sense since a lot of the moves that were taught to you required a sparring partner), but I still would've liked to have gone into an empty lot/warehouse and just practice by my lonesome, or actually have someone you can fight as many times as you want without the need of story progression of some sort.[/size][/color]

[Korey]

[quote name='James'][font=franklin gothic medium]
And speaking of Power Stone, I've ordered Power Stone 2 which should be arriving soon. I did play the original a bit (only rented), but apparently the sequel is better. Can anyone vouch for that?[/font][/QUOTE]


[FONT="Franklin Gothic Medium"][SIZE="1"][COLOR="Navy"]Actually, I think the first Power Stone is better than the sequel. While both were party games, the second game got a little more like [b]Super Smash Brothers[/b] when it added four player game play and huge stages. It felt less like a 3D isometric fighter and more like a Party fighter. Also, the controls were a little more stingy in the sequel than the first, in my opinion.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[Magus]

[size=1][color=darkred]While I've never played Power Stone 2, and after watching it on youtube, I have to agree with Korey. It definately looks more like a Smash Bros game with the ability to run around the area, and I do not like them Smash Bros games. I just never could get into it.

From what I've seen of it, James, you just might like it more than the original since you like the Smash Bros games. Or do I have you mixed up with Des?[/size][/color]

[youtube]hgT1tqSL1Qg[/youtube]

[CaNz]

i think the game was Sonic Shuffle, basically mario party but with (you guessed it) sonic.
not the best game in the world but i got it for free with my console.

though the mini games sucked in comparison and some of them could easily take you from first to last place, it did have some upsides, such as each character having a unique ability. they were all equally lame except supersonic, but they did make replaying the game with new people more fun, and dreamcast did take advantage of four controllers.

if anyone still has an actual dreamcast with more than one controller id say get it and annoy the poop out of your friends.