By Cliff O'Neill
Designed by Katie Bush
Sadly, the Dreamcast will soon be occupying an empty grave beside the late Saturn in the dreaded console graveyard--but its games will indeed live on! While the beloved 128-bit system never saw sequels to Panzer Dragoon Saga, NiGHTS, or Burning Rangers (among other Saturn favorites), the little white console with the triangular orange light and noisy internal fan can rest peacefully knowing that it--along with its older brother, the Saturn--laid the foundation for online console gaming and delivered a diverse lineup of quality games. And the games are still coming, though only a handful will be major releases, Shenmue II and Tennis 2K2 among them. Nope, we will not see Virtua Fighter 4 nor the next Sonic game on the Dreamcast, but rest assured that Sega is finding new homes for all of its popular game series.
Debuting quietly in Japan on November 27, 1998, the Dreamcast managed to deliver a great deal of game-playing enjoyment in just a few short years of life. The system launched strongly in North America on September 9, 1999, with several key titles--namely, Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur, and NFL 2K--making for a very successful launch, one that set records for system sales and the number of available launch titles (nearly 20). A built-in 56k modem, proprietary GD-ROM format, and unique Visual Memory Unit (VMU) peripheral drew curious gamers to the console with the promise of new gaming possibilities. Dozens of memorable games followed in all the major genres, and games such as Seaman, Jet Grind Radio, and Shenmue attempted to stretch the boundaries of gameplay, graphics, and sound. Sports games, both traditional and extreme, were plentiful and attracted various sports fans, while music and dance games such as Space Channel 5 and Samba de Amigo lured many nongamers, as well as the ever-elusive female gamer, to the system. In addition, RPG lovers had a good assortment of role-playing games from which to choose, including Grandia II, Skies of Arcadia, and Phantasy Star Online.
Like the Saturn, the Dreamcast received several superb ports of hit Sega-made arcade games, and Capcom, Tecmo, and Namco supplied the system with stellar arcade translations. Unlike the Saturn, however, the Dreamcast had strong third-party support--at least initially--though famed developer/publisher Electronic Arts thumbed its pretentious nose at the system. Capcom's blend of survival-horror graced the Dreamcast with the beautiful, fully rendered Code: Veronica and high-res ports of Resident Evil 2 and 3 and Dino Crisis, scaring a new crowd of gamers. Finally, with the Dreamcast, Sega aggressively tackled online console gaming, launching its very own online-gaming service, SegaNet, and providing an array of cooperative and competitive online-gaming scenarios, ranging from traditional racing action and bloody FPS deathmatches to the wondrous role-playing experience that is Phantasy Star Online.
Although Sega is abandoning the Dreamcast and exiting the hardware business altogether to focus on what it does best--making games--the Dreamcast still has some game left in it. In this feature, we explore the last batch of American releases during the system's final days above ground.