It's official:
Sega is putting out Dreamcast games on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. The two "launch" games, Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi, aren't exactly mindblowing choices (and have already showed up on several other systems since their Dreamcast debuts), but that hasn't stopped the public -- and us! -- from immediately wishing for more DC classics to show up afterward. With some help and personal input, I compiled a list of Dreamcast games that I think would make great downloadable titles that are also representative of what made the Dreamcast great. Bear in mind, though, that the choices are also somewhat within reason. Yes, there's a couple of Japan-only games I slipped in, with plenty more I'm sure you're already writing comments about (and please do!), but we're not going off the deep end, either.
Let's start with games that have the best chance of showing up.
Likely Candidates
ChuChu Rocket!: ChuChu Rocket is, without a shadow of a doubt, the only puzzle game on Dreamcast worth giving a damn about. It's like a top-down, claustrophobic version of Lemmings where-- all right, it's really more its own thing, namely a cacophany of mayhem when you're in a full four-player competition of routing and re-routing mice into your repsective rocket. Aside from a Game Boy Advance port almost two years later (which is, incidentally, also one of the few GBA puzzle games worth giving a damn about), it never once showed up again. Instead, Sega banked on rehashing the
Puyo Puyo series. It's a fair assumption that this is the DC game people want the most, and if Sega doesn't deliver soon, who knows what kind of vicious internet petitions will appear?
Space Channel 5: SC5's heroine Ulala came close to being the Dreamcast's unofficial mascot, but it didn't exactly pan out. Still, her game couldn't have come at a better time, when the console could've used a nice original rhythm game to compete with the likes of UmJammer Lammy on PlayStation. Its "future mod" stylings were fresh for the time, and, honestly, the choreography was pretty cool. If I had my druthers, I'd pick the superior sequel (which showed up on PS2 over here), but the original SC5 has plenty of merit, too. If nothing else, we probably wouldn't have had
Rez without it.
Grandia 2: The Dreamcast didn't have a stellar RPG lineup, but the best examples stood up just fine to the best the PlayStation had to offer. Grandia 2 fell in that line, a surprisingly pretty follow-up to the slightly more cartoony original, but with a healthy amount of adventure and an an enjoyable battle system. In hindsight, its story and characters were on the shallow side, but hey, we were all young once.
Skies of Arcadia: Grandia 2 has its fans, but there's no one who likes Skies of Arcadia. Rather, there are incredibly rabid, frothing, nostalgia-addled people who love it with ever fiber of their being. It was special, for sure: A ragtag group of sky pirates going all around the world fighting rivals and experiencing a great grand ol' adventure from some of the key staff of the original Phantasy Star games. Not to mention Pinta Quest, the best VMU minigame ever.
Power Stone: Perhaps second only to Soul Calibur on the list of most-loved DC fighting games, Capcom's Power Stone was filled with pure fun; arguably the best four-player fighting game at a time when
Super Smash Bros. was still in its infancy. There's already Power Stone Collection on PSP, which isn't the best choice of platform for it anyway, so why shouldn't we have it on the big screen again?
Jet Grind Radio: Rumors have encouraged people to believe it's coming, but we still want it. It's probably the Dreamcastiest Dreamcast game: A super-colorful, super-hip, super-Japanese action game that, naturally, became a cult classic. The Plus, its sequel,
Jet Set Radio Future, showed up on the original Xbox, so reintroducing the franchise on XBLA/PSN seems like a no-brainer.
Long Shots
Shenmue: OK, maybe it's neck-and-neck between Shenmue and Chu-Chu Rocket as to which one has been begged for the most, but we're not as confident Yu Suzuki's infamously unfinished magnum opus would end up for download. Yeah, someone from Sega recently said they'd love to do Shenmue again, but it's also a pretty big game, and one that might not fit with Sega's plans for the DC download rollout. And by this point, Shenmue is nothing without
Shenmue II, so Sega would have to release them at the same time, or at least very close together. It might happen, but we'll err on the side of caution.
Seaman: Yes, Seaman's key input device, the microphone, can be easily replicated with the 360 and PS3's headsets, but the game itself wasn't exactly a "mass market" title. Considering that Sega's starting with Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi, they're definitely going for the games people best remember the Dreamcast for, and maybe not the ones people were charmed by the most. Still, we'd love to see our old sleepy-faced fish friend in this virtual pet-style aquarium sim once again.
Cosmic Smash: One of the best Dreamcast games was sadly only released in Japan, but it's simple, stylish, and devoid of a language barrier. Like handball with a paddle, Cosmic Smash has you whacking a ball back and forth against a wall, but the setting -- a spacelike void with smooth electronic music -- is still incredibly unique for anything remotely considered a sports game. You may want
Virtua Tennis, but Cosmic Smash is where it's at.
Resident Evil Code: Veronica: This might go either way. Code: Veronica was originally a DC game and made a sizeable splash, but it was later ported to PlayStation 2 with a handful of enhancements, making that one the "complete" version, regardless of any nitpicks one may have about graphics quality. There's been persistent rumors that Sony will offer up PS2 games for download via PSN, so the PS2 Veronica would make just as nice a candidate.
Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future: True, Sega trots out the Genesis Ecco games whenever there's money to be had in a retro compilation, and people have plenty of fond memories of all of them, including Defender of the Future. But I wouldn't call it the best Ecco game, and it rather quickly fell off the radar after it came out. It's probably the most likely to come out out of the four preceeding games, but it also all depends on if Sega really wants to bother with it.
Keep Dreamin'
Propeller Arena: It was set to be one of the last great Dreamcast releases, but this game where propeller planes zip around cities and other landscapes while dogfiting was immediately drawn back after the 9/11 tragedy, when no one really wanted to talk about aircraft for a while. As a game, though, Propeller Arena had all the markings of another good solid arcade port for the system, But Sega didn't even try to release it later, either in arcades or on another platform. The damage has been done, so it's likely no one will play Propeller Arena in an official manner.
Napple Tale: This 2D-plane platformer is one of the cutest, if not outright girliest DC games, but damn if it isn't fun. You take the brave Poach through the Napple World to get rid of the evil presence that's taken it over, but mostly you're running and jumping through elaborate levels reminscent of the Klonoa games. Like so many other games Sega made for Dreamcast, it's certainly different, and surprisingly well done, including a fantastic soundtrack produced by Yoko Kanno.
Tokyo Bus Guide: Somewhat of a laughing stock, Tokyo Bus Guide is actually a pretty legit Japanese release. From a country where public transportation jobs are serious freakin' business, Tokyo Bus Guide is an unsurprisingly challenging bus driving sim, demanding near-mathematical precision in maintaining speed, braking distances, and of course, parking. Sounds boring as hell, but like its distant cousin, the arcade railway sim
Densha De GO, Tokyo Bus Guide can spark some real determination in the right player.
Daytona USA: Despite some kwirks with the steering control, this semi-remake of Daytona was the best version you could find in the home. However, Sega's long since lost the Daytona license, and even though they brought it back to arcades as the more generic "
Sega Racing Classic," they probably won't (or can't) rework the DC version for a console homecoming.
Record of Lodoss War: A niche favorite, Lodoss War is more than just another anime/manga-based game; it's actually a competent action RPG that takes many cues from the
Diablo series, and that's not a bad thing in this case. If only more cash-ins could more properly rip off popular games! It doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of reappearing, though, because while it would be a great re-release, it's unfortunately the victim of both a lapsed license and a not-as-active publisher.
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