I've said it before many times but I'll say it again - for my money, the Dreamcast is the best, most fun video game console I've ever owned with the best range of games. This is no mean feat as my childhood was dominated by the Mega Drive/Genesis, I loved playing on the SNES my cousins had, my original Xbox packed more raw power than I could have previously conceived in a console, and my Wii redefined the way we all approached video games to the point where family members who had never touched a video game before could join in the fun straight away. All of those consoles meant a lot to me at various times of my life, but none more so than the Dreamcast.
I remember desperately waiting for it's release - it had been out in Japan for a year prior, an official Dreamcast magazine packed full of previews, reviews, launched in the UK prior to the console itself which sent hype levels to the max.... I remember the adverts - "It's breathing".....
And then I got one. Holy fucking shit. This thing screamed. It had online access. (I remember taking it downstairs in the middle of the night to play Quake 3 online because all the phone sockets in my dads place were downstairs). It had an insanely cool memory card system where your memory cards had screens that would slot into the controller and on some games, display hints and tips that related to the game you were playing.
And most importantly, it had some of the greatest motherfucking games I've ever played. Here's some of the games that I had insane amounts of fun with.
Shenmue/Shenmue 2 - I'm not going into this again, my love of Shenmue is well documented on this board. Simply put - IMO, the single greatest video game experience of all time.
Jet Set Radio (Jet Grind Radio) - whoa, what the fuck is this? A neo-futuristic cyberpunk skating graffiti game with fantastic cell-shaded 3d manga style graphics and a pulsing electronic hip-hop soundtrack?! This game was epic amounts of fun.
Sonic Adventure - the greatest Sonic game ever made. Yes, better than Sonic 3. I was so skeptical of how a 3d sonic game might turn out, as I was addicted to the traditional side view 2D sonic games when I was younger. But Sonic Adventure just freaked my mind! Too much fun.
Soul Calibur - the greatest fighting game ever. IMO better than Street Fighter, better than Mortal Kombat, better than Tekken. I remember spending weeks completing all the missions, only to discover there was a whole next difficulty level after you completed them all. Then after I beat that level, I accidentally deleted my save. Was I pissed off? A little bit - then I thought of all the fun I would have doing it again.
Resident Evil: Code Veronica - still one of the best RE games. So fucking hard though, but so creepy.
Crazy Taxi - this was epic amounts of fun.
House of the Dead 2 - possibly my favorite light gun game ever.
Power Stone - this redefined fighting games!!
Sega Bass Fishing - who thought fishing could be so much fun!
I could go on, but these were the ones I had the most fun with.....my regrets with the Dreamcast were that I never got the chance to play Phantasy Star Online, or Sonic Adventure 2....
Anyone else here have a Dreamcast? I think I'm gonna set it up later today in honor of the 10th anniversary and rock out.
