[Classic] Dreamcast Love it or hate it?

I loved mine for one reason: Fighting games. It's still the only console with a good home version of Marvel vs Capcom 2 (and 1, for that matter), the ONLY one with Project Justice, and it played host to Street Fighter 3 (the first and second ones actually haven't been ported to any other system), Capcom vs SNK 2, Guilty Gear X and several cool SNK fighters before they (or their various sequels) were ported to other systems or emulated competently. The Dreamcast Agetec stick is still my preferred fighting stick and I'm amazed the one I have has lasted as long as it has.

I personally never got much out of the rest of the DC's library. Skies and Grandia 2 were nice RPG's, it had some great arcade racers (Hydro Thunder was something I bought at launch), some cool arcade conversions (shmups, Cannon Spike, Crazy Taxi and Mr. Driller!) and Sonic Adventure was...decent at best. I mean, it was only around for about a year and a half, so it's unfair to base it off the PS2's library, but there was still the issue of the controller (WTF were they thinking?) and I would have liked to see some hint of the Sakura Wars games or even Segagaga.

But overall, I understand the business decision of what happened...3rd parties gave up on the system once PS2 was out. It never sold well in Japan and pirated games effectively stopped it from ever turning a profit (since hardcore gamers were the system's core audience and probably the ones most knowledgable about making copies). It never had support from EA and Square. Basically, it got killed by the Sony hype machine and by lack of foresight on Sega's own designers (I don't see how Japanese gamers would have ever taken to the controller, given the massive size...And amazingly, Sega didn't learn a thing from the whole Sega vs Accolade mess).

All in all, I got my money's worth and it was a decent run. It did succeed in making the PS2 look very bad at launch, as there was absolutely ziltch worth playing, compared to the relatively rich DC lineup.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by speculative

Have you played Rayman 2 for DC? SA's graphics are top-notch, but I feel the art direction in Rayman 2 is world's ahead of it, which for me puts it on top...

Rayman 2 wasn't a launch title. It came along later in the DC's life. :doh:

I remember the press was balls-up for Soul Calibur the entire holiday season, a large part due to the graphics (which were redone from the arcade version). I'm kind of in agreement on Sonic Adventure being a great looking launch title (possibly the best looking), since the smoothness of the worlds wasn't possible on the N64 or PS1 and it still looks quite pleasant by today's standards.

There's nowhere I can't reach.