Help My Friend Find a Dreamcast Game He Likes

[Nz17]

Okay so here's my problem: I really love my Dreamcast (Over half of my games are probably imports, and I likely have eighty games for it.) and I want my friend to find that "special game" that will come to his mind when he thinks of the Dreamcast. The problem is that while he loves the Dreamcast hardware and concept, he has a hard time finding games that "do it for him."

To understand where he's coming from, he grew up on the Super Nintendo (missing that blessed 8-bit era). His favorite game companies are Capcom and Nintendo. He doesn't like difficult games. Games with zombies, vampires, or other horror creatures he can't handle (though lately he's been taking a shining to the portable Castlevania games). He doesn't care for shooters or fighters, though he loves beat-em-ups. To him a game is more like a passive form of entertainment that shouldn't present a challenge. His favorite games on the Dreamcast are Shenmue and Phantasy Star Online. His favorite game series are Mario, Pokemon, and Mega Man.

So I beseach you, fellow DP members, to help compile a small list of games that would match his tastes. I know it is difficult with the bevy of arcade games and shooters that the Dreamcast has, but I know we can do it!

[hydr0x]

you might want to try Ecco the Dolphin, or maybe Seaman. Another one might be Donald Duck Goin Quakers(sp?)

[Nz17]

Since I own both Ecco and Seaman, I might have to let him give those a try. He does seem to like voice recognition and Brain Training (DS) so Seaman might be up his alley. Of course, with Ecco he'll probably complain about the difficult controls or some such.

Also of note for future recommendations, he doesn't like driving games or puzzle games. He sure is picky, eh?

[Enixis]

Cannon Spike. Its a beat'em up and its by Capcom.

[roushimsx]

Dynamite Deka 2 / Dynamite Cop sounds like it may do it for him. Beat 'em up, not too difficult + unlimited continues in case you just want to roll around and fuck stuff up.

edit - did i mention the game has PIRATES? That's right, fucking PIRATES. You know it's good.

[Nez]

Zombie Revenge is another beat em up not the best get Dynamite Cop and Cannon Spike first they are better.

Expendible might be ok its ok but you need at least one firend to make it any good.

Crazy Taxi is a great game to sit back and have some fun.

And Typing of the Dead just rocks so I reccommend that one as well.

[segarocks30]

You know what? I think you should get the Sega Smash Pack vol. 1 and Streets Of Rage 2 is on there. You said they like beat em ups so.....

Even though they don't like shooters, I bet he will love Unreal Tournament. Ready 2 Rumble is pretty fun. Well, does he like Soul Calibur type games? Oh, it says he doesn't really like fighters...Well I don't either but Soul Calibur is real fun, especially with another player.

[Masco73]

Does he like racers?? I'll second Crazy Taxi and also suggest Hydro Thunder. Both great looking games that are so close to the arcade originals.

[Vectorman0]

Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 are both good games I would recommend. They aren't perfect and they have some problem, however I enjoyed both of them immensely. I don't remember them being too difficult either.

[lordnikon]

Make way!!! I have THE game!!!

*drum roll*

ARMADA

A dreamcast exclusive, Armada is basically a fusion of asteroids, a shmup, and an RPG. You choose from a variety of races, and your ship levels up as you gain more experience points. Every 4 levels your ship will change its look. You can buy new equipment, and fly to various space ports looking for different items to buy.

There are no penalties for dying! You just get sent back to the homeworld after dying 3 times.

The space is practically infinite, with the enemies becoming harder as you venture further out into space. So the difficutly is determined by how far out into space you fly. The user has control over how challenging the experience is for them.

This game is very relaxing. It is fun to just sit back and kill hundreds upon hundreds of Armada ships.

Not only is this game great for solo play, but it gets even BETTER with multiple players. The game can support up to 4 players. Not only this, but it keeps the character data and mission data seperate! So if you and your friend are working on your own saves. You guys can team up and go into each others saves to tackle a certain boss, or start a fresh brand new save together with your already leveled ships, seperate from your personal mission saves!

I highly recommend Armada!

[Xexyz]

Cannon Spike. Its a beat'em up and its by Capcom.

Actually it's a 360 degree shmup/run 'n gun made by Psikyo, published by Capcom. Still, a fun game, but if he wants a real beat em up, give him Dynamite Cop! to play through.

[ubersaurus]

Perhaps he'd like powerstone 2? It's anything but a traditional beatemup, and has great multiplayer.

[Aussie2B]

Your friend sounds a lot like me. Not necessarily his tastes and views on games, but I too have the same issue with the Dreamcast. I love having it and I think there's a great quality to crap ratio, but... I can't find anything that I want to put a lot of time into. It's a very arcade-ish library of games, and for the most part, I'm not an arcade gamer. It's great for fighters, but I can't seriously get into those either. It's great for shooters too, but from my perspective, most of the shooters are of a similar style. I really love some shooters, but I'm not a hardcore shmup fan so I really get into specific kinds (and it's not a vertical vs. horizontal thing). I guess I prefer slower, more old school style where its more about strategy than bullet hell madness and quick reflexes, and an unusual theme will do a lot to catch my interest than yet another generic space/technology theme (which is why I love stuff like TwinBee, Dragon Spirit, Cho Aniki, etc.)

The genres I like best are platformers and RPGs, but the Dreamcast seems lacking in both. What few RPGs were brough to the US don't interest me much, and I'd say the same for the platformers.

Ah well, maybe someday I'll find something that'll really put my Dreamcast to use. I wish I could recommend some great game for your friend that was the turning point for me, but I'm still in the same boat. At least you can tell your friend that he's not alone. :P

[Nz17]

A followup: I took your guys' advice on games for my friend to play, and made a mental note to pick up Cannon Spike for myself. :P

He doesn't like racings games or FPS, so I didn't take any of those. Although he likes fighters to a limited extent, as I said he doesn't like challenge and will feel inadaquate if he is beaten at competitive games, so though Soul Calibur is excellent and he likes it I thought it best not to make him question his gaming prowess. He did take a shining to Rez until I insisted he play it in the dark, and then it made his eyes go wonky. I told him to borrow it and be sure to play it in the light so he can get "the feel" for the game to realize just how awesome it was.

He was let down by Chu Chu Rocket, and I tried to explain to him how it is really more a party game. He wasn't thrilled at the notion of Cool Herders and was done with the game after a set. He liked Bomberman Online though, and said it was better than the GameCube Bomberman games.

He didn't want to play Seaman ("idea about a fish with a human face is too weird") or Ecco, but he did seem genuinely interested in Armada, which we didn't have time to play so I let him borrow it.

He found Typing of the Dead fun and funny but felt inadaquate due to his typing abilities (especially compared to mine). I told him to borrow my keyboard so he'd have two and that he should play with his father and brother and see just how fun it can be.

He liked Sierra Maximum Pool though my copy didn't want to cooperate at first. (When I bought it years back the shop owner offered a free scratch removal that made it hard for the DC to read the disc. Roughing it up a bit on my sleeve seems to help it "grip" the boot sector.) He declined borrowing it though.

Anyway I left him Spiderman, SEGA Smash Pack and some of the other games we didn't get to play so that he could play them over the course of the next week at which point I'd take them back. He suggested to me that we play some light gun games next time so I imagine we'll play Viruta Cop 2, House of the Dead 2, and Death Crimsom OX.

I told him he should invest in Dynamite Cop! and Expendable. Of course, he has the goal of collecting all the U.S. GameCube games so he'll probably just ignore our advice.

I'll update this thread again once I retrieve my games and find out how he liked the remainder of them.

[Cryomancer]

Your friend sounds a lot like me. Not necessarily his tastes and views on games, but I too have the same issue with the Dreamcast. I love having it and I think there's a great quality to crap ratio, but... I can't find anything that I want to put a lot of time into. It's a very arcade-ish library of games, and for the most part, I'm not an arcade gamer. It's great for fighters, but I can't seriously get into those either. It's great for shooters too, but from my perspective, most of the shooters are of a similar style. I really love some shooters, but I'm not a hardcore shmup fan so I really get into specific kinds (and it's not a vertical vs. horizontal thing). I guess I prefer slower, more old school style where its more about strategy than bullet hell madness and quick reflexes, and an unusual theme will do a lot to catch my interest than yet another generic space/technology theme (which is why I love stuff like TwinBee, Dragon Spirit, Cho Aniki, etc.)

The genres I like best are platformers and RPGs, but the Dreamcast seems lacking in both. What few RPGs were brough to the US don't interest me much, and I'd say the same for the platformers.

Ah well, maybe someday I'll find something that'll really put my Dreamcast to use. I wish I could recommend some great game for your friend that was the turning point for me, but I'm still in the same boat. At least you can tell your friend that he's not alone. :P

Longshot, but give Elemential Gimmick Gear aka E.G.G. a try perhaps, it's zeldalike but I like it better than many zeldas. You didn't like the DC RPGs? What did you try? Grandia II, Skies of Arcadia, Shenmue, are the well knows. Timestalkers has a very unique setting.

And if you want a truly unique setting give Illbleed a shot.

[nate1749]

for light gun I'd recommend confidential mission, that's one of my favorites on the system. Also, I've never played it, but was popular enough for the system (and I'm not sure if it doesn't meet one of your criteria), but Jet Grind Radio?

Nate

[All Things Sega]

He can always try Sword the Berzerk. Its not very scary but its a cool beat up em game that he can beat pretty easily. Plus enjoy the cheesy in game cinemas

[CosmicMonkey]

Yeah, go for Jet Set/Grind Radio everytime. Absolue classic.

Also, for some RPG love try Skies of Arcadia. Now, I hate turn-based RPGs, I gave up on disk1 of FF7! But there was something about SoA that kept me playing it. Initially, it was because it was about the only decent RPG available at the time. But after a few hours I got sucked into that gameworld. Yeah, the constant random battles are annoying, but there's something absolutely incredible about the game.

And for some shmuppery, how about Zero Gunner 2 and (go on, guess.......) Under Defeat. ZG2 is a great shooter that isn't too difficult, but it has an interesting control scheme and looks great. Under Defeat is just amazing.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

Anyone who doesn't love Virtua Tennis must have huge hangups. Same for Crazy Taxi, whether or not the person generally likes racing games. Games like that are right at the heart of the Dreamcast experience in my opinion. Also try Sports Jam and Super Runabout for similar--but different--experiences.

Star Wars Jedi Power Battles is a pretty cool semi-2D beat'em up style game and it's another one that's really great for multiplayer. Sword Of The Berzerk is another great beat'em up, though I guess it's got some pretty creepy mutants and monsters in it. There's also Silver which is an RPG with a kind of beat'em up interface (somewhat like PSO in that respect). Same for Rent-A-Hero No.1, though that's in Japanese of course which can certainly be a turn-off for some people (I know it's why I haven't finished the game myself).

And one more recommendation out of left field, try Pen Pen TriIcelon. Once again it's a racing game-but not a racing game. Really fun, especially multiplayer. Multiplayer games are really one of the Dreamcast's strong points, so make sure to play stuff like Pen Pen or Armada (which I'm really glad to see someone recommended--that game doesn't get enough respect) or Power Stone together for the proper experience. There's also dRxLax which is a really beautiful multiplayer homebrew game and there's also Super Mario War, which I bet he'd like if he's into Mario anyway.


...word is bondage...

[Flack]

You should burn him a copy of the Super Nintendo emulator for Dreamcast. Then everybody wins.