Ten Great Dreamcast Games That Most People Never Played

[Christuserloeser]

via Rev. Rob Times

To celebrate the closing of the tenth year of Dreamcast gaming in the United States, The Rev. Rob Times proudly presents a synopsis of ten great Dreamcast games that most people never played. They’re not the ten best, but far from the ten worst. The thing they all have in common is style; the originality and quirkiness that defined Dreamcast. That, and none of them were big sellers.

[DaMadFiddler]

Hm... didn't really care for Dragonriders, and Sword of the Berserk was decent but had trouble holding my interest (felt too much like just button-mashing my way through crowds of enemies).

Charge & Blast was a momentary diversion, but felt like a budget title.

Draconus is a decent pick; it's sort of a streamined version of a western RPG, with more focus on the action. Unfortunately, its roots still mean you're stuck with the slightly wonky controls of western RPGs. Decent, but unrefined.

Super Magnetic Neo was actually fun. I had a copy of this up until my Dreamcast was stolen, though I've never beaten it.

Never played D2. (In fact, it's the only game on this list I haven't played). I started D on the Saturn once, but it was a little too slow-paced for me.

Starlancer is just a generic space dogfight game. It looked pretty decent for the time it came out, but these games are a dime a dozen.

Typing of the Dead absolutely does deserve to be on this list, but I'm not really sure it was as unplayed as the article's conceit would indicate. If they're going to stretch the premise like that, why not include Half-Life? (It technically fits; lots of people have played Half-Life, but probably not too many have played it on Dreamcast). Or big titles that weren't released in the US, for that matter? Headhunter, for example. Or Shenmue 2. Or

I really don't understand what Toy Commander is doing on the list.

And Propeller Arena really only achieved its notoriety due to the story surrounding its (non-)release. It's very polished, and good for what it is, but again it's just a generic dogfighting game. It's got lots of that Sega arcade flair, and it's fun in short bursts, but it gets old fast.



This list seems rather shallow, willing to slap anything passably decent up just because it didn't sell well. This is especially egregious since there are some real gems out there that aren't very common at all. Of the list, I'd keep Super Magnetic Neo, Typing of the Dead, Propeller Arena, and *maybe* Draconus and D2. However, there are some glaring omissions: Lack of Love, Cosmic Smash, Evil Twin, SeGaGaGa, and Omikron: Nomad Soul would all definitely be on the list for me, and I'd be tempted to list either Border Down or Under Defeat if the system weren't so inundated with sh'mups. And that's just off the top of my head; I'm sure there are several titles more deserving of spots on this list than the comparatively common fare the author chose.

[Quzar]

It looks like they went through the reverse ordered list of worst sellers and just picked the first 9 that were any good at all...then propeller arena.

Good that anyone's talking about the DC though, and they managed to pick a few goodies.

[Specially Cork]

To be fair, most gamers never played any Dreamcast games.

[cube_b3]

I like Bezerk, if only the Anime was still on I could get into it.

Unfortunately it only has Manga and I'm not into those.

I have Draconus, which has great voice acting but it feels like a PS1 game.

[Sweater Fish]

I can appreciate what this guy was trying to do. Almost by definition, a list like this is going to be walking a fine line between games that are not really that obscure (especially to people like us who are still visiting a Dreamcast forum 10 years later) and games that are not really that great.

Sword of Berzerk is a game that belongs on a list like this. It is totally button-mashing through crowds of enemies and that's what makes it great, the downside is the many and extremely long cutscenes that kept interrupting my button-mashing ecstasy.

Charge'n'Blast is another one I like a lot. A stripped down arcade game for sure, but that's a big part of what the Dreamcast is all about and this one's fun and actually surprisingly "deep" in some ways once you get the hang of the controls and patterns.

I'm actually often surprised at how many people don't know about Toy Commander or who don't like it (which I can only assume means they haven't played it very much). It did get a lot of attention when it was new, but it seems to have been forgotten more than many of the Dreamcast's other A+ titles.

Propeller Arena is one title I would defintely take off the list since it wasn't actually released. It seems like this guy was limiting himself to domestic releases (which makes sense), but wouldn't that also mean he'd limit himself to...actual releases?

Some more games I'd have on my own list:

Armada
Ooga Booga
Dynamite Cop
Zombie Revenge
Red Dog
Silver


...word is bondage...

[DaMadFiddler]

Oh: also, Headhunter. Don't know how I forgot that one; it was one of my favorite DC games back in the day, despite the horrible load times.

[Specially Cork]

Oh: also, Headhunter. Don't know how I forgot that one; it was one of my favorite DC games back in the day, despite the horrible load times.

It was one of my favourite DC games because the PS2 just got GTA3 and MGS2 a couple of weeks before and I realised I might've made the wrong console choice. Headhunter made me feel like I hadn't - despite it being pretty average then and terrible now. It also ended up on PS2 anyway.

[DanteJay]

I very much liked Industrial Spy: Operation Espionage. I found it refreshing to control a team of espionage agents. The story and characters felt real, and I liked the puzzlyness aspect of figuring out where trap doors/enemies/switches and such were located. It got so intense that at one point in the game I started writing things down on paper so I would remember later.

I would totally buy a sequel.

[Stormwatch]

Oh: also, Headhunter. Don't know how I forgot that one; it was one of my favorite DC games back in the day, despite the horrible load times.

They weren't that bad. Want to see some really atrocious load times? Check this.

[Quzar]

Oh: also, Headhunter. Don't know how I forgot that one; it was one of my favorite DC games back in the day, despite the horrible load times.

They weren't that bad. Want to see some really atrocious load times? Check this.

I remember quite well that that game had really high load times on PC too.

[DanteJay]

I very much liked Industrial Spy: Operation Espionage.

I must seriously be the only person that's ever played this game. -_-