Dreamcast
And in the number 1 position we have Sega’s final home console that they released before going third party. Many things have been said about the Dreamcast over the years about how that it was ultimately still a victim of Sega’s mistakes during the Saturn era that Sega couldn’t recover from. This is probably true, and whilst it wasn’t able to turn things around for Sega, the fact that it burned so bright during it’s short lifespan has added to it’s mystique. Sega were against the ropes and they really threw all their creativity into the little box with the swirl on it.
Games like Shenmue, Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Sonic Adventure, Samba Di Amigo and Virtual Fighter 5tb were all great first party Sega games, and Soul Calibur and Resident Evil Code Veronica were examples of incredible third party support. Sega also lead the way with online console gaming with Chu Chu Rocket and Phantasy Star Online, but unfortunately for every success Sega had with the Dreamcast, there were many reasons why the platform ultimately failed. Some of these were Sega’s direct choices, and some of these were things out of their control, but either way, they were not able to control the message to give consumers enough confidence to back the Dreamcast enough to keep it alive.
Sega advertised the Dreamcast with the slogan of 6 billion players in reference to the promise of online play, but this wasn’t ready out the box and when it did arrive months and mont has later it was with the 2D puzzle game Chu Chu Rocket. Imagine what a difference maker it would have been if Sega would have launched with online play figured out for Virtual Fighter 3tb, Soul Calibur, and had the likes of Quake 3 Arena and Phantasy Star Online at or near launch as well. This alone would have put the system in a league of it’s own a year before the PS2 would come out.
And of course the PS2 was announced and so many people just waited for that machine as it promised to be significantly more powerful than the Dreamcast and have the likes of Gran Turismo and Metal Ear Solid as exclusives, as well as having a built in DVD player, which was a huge part of it’s appeal at the time.
And for whatever the reasons or politics were that EA decided to very publicly not support the Dreamcast with any games at all meant that gamers who would have loved an early 128 bit FIFA or Madden game would have to wait for the PS2. This was a huge blow to Dreamcast and other third parties progressively lessened their support. Capcom gave huge support to the Dreamcast as they did with the Saturn, but the les of Square, Konami and Namco were either completely non existent or barely there. Even after the praise and success of Soul Calibur Namco didn’t give Sega the sequel or a release of a Tekken game.
Despite what went wrong and people’s dreams of what could have been, the Dreamcast still features an incredible amount of great games to play on it. Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, Shenmue 1 and 2, Resident Evil 2, 3 and Code Veronica, Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi 1 and 2, Phantasy Star Online, Headhunter, Unreal Tournament, Street Fighter 3 3rd Strike, Illbleed, Power Stone 1 and 2, The Typing of the Dead and so many other games means that the Dreamcast will go down in history as the greatest of Sega’s console efforts.
Until next time make sure you subscribe to the Extreme Improv Xstreamed YouTube Channel for lots more gaming content and also check out our weekly Geek Battle comedy panel show! And also check out the Gaming Section of the site on XStreamed.tv
