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What are your favorite Dreamcast games? Any odd or unique ones worth playing?
I was impressed with our community’s response to this same question for the PlayStation.
I’m thinking of focusing my gaming habits on the Dreamcast for the month of September by emulating some old classics and hidden gems. I’d love to hear this community’s recommendations for the greatest underdog console of all time.
Let me know what games for Dreamcast you think are still worth playing today, especially less well-known ones, and why!
Homebrew and fan translations are also eagerly welcome!
Skies of Arcadia was a favorite. The Gamecube version has a bit of extra content but the Dreamcast original still has all the stuff that makes it a classic. Such a good, unique RPG.
Skies of Arcadia definitely a classic for me.
I love this fully voice acted Jello playthrough, for those who don't have time for a fully jRPG
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0lKTk3axDWk
Thanks for that, it was an excellent chance to revisit the game.
LOVE this game. The GameCube version is genuinely improved, as it reduces the frequency of the annoying random encounter battles (in addition to the extra content you mentioned). That said, the Dreamcast original has a unique game you can download onto the VMU, and (most notably) has much higher quality audio. The music in this game is so good, but it sounds like garbage on the GameCube! I keep hoping to find a hacked ROM somewhere with the best of both worlds but I’m pretty sure I read somewhere it’s considered impossible for handwavey technical reasons.
There are so many good Dreamcast games out there, it was so ahead of its time. The best part was that you could download and burn copies of games, so there are some really obscure but fun ones out there. I'll try to hit on some ones that haven't been mentioned yet in this thread but I could go on and on.
Power stone - awesome 3d fighting game with up to 4 players. Has a similar party fighting game vibe as smash bros, imo.
Jet Set Radio - great music, rollerblade around and do graffiti.
Rez - fly around, shoot to the beat of the music. The whole game is like a scene from Hackers.
Ikaruga - classic vertical scrolling shmup. Use your shields to absorb shots and block attacks.
Phantasy Star Online - one of the original MMOs that could be played over dialup. There's still an active community playing to this day.
Bangai-O - here's a pretty obscure one, a 2d game where you fly around in a mech and shoot cites and enemies and stuff. Very goofy but fun.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - 2d fighting game with lots of crazy special moves. It's a fun one especially if you're familiar with the anime.
Totally forgot about Power Stone until you said something. That was a pretty fun one! And Phantasy Star Online and Jet Set Radio - had both of those, too. I hit up GameStop clearance after Dreamcast died and picked up whatever used games were around that looked interesting, and I think all three of those were part of that.
I'm terrible at most genres of games but Ikaruga I still really love despite lack of skills. Such an innovation at the time and I'm so glad this title has been ported to basically every platform, as recently as PS4
Well, my friend only had two... Crazy Taxi and Soul Blade. Soul blade was the better of the two but I still liked crazy Taxi.
Love the original Crazy Taxi. The sequel is great too, and the DC is the only place to play it.
Lots of great suggestions here already, but my favorites that haven't yet been mentioned are
Sonic Adventureok, Sonic Adventure was mentioned but it was really good and Resident Evil: Code Veronica. I'm honestly not sure how well they hold up today, but they were my favorites back then.As far as obscure, Armada was SO FUN. 2D space shooter but it was open world and had lots of stuff to do.
One I always wanted to rent but never got around to it was Record of Lodoss War (I think). I can't say any more than "it looked pretty fun."
We had Armada, too! Man, Dreamcast had so many great games!
We constantly played this game called the Pen Pen TriIcelon that was sort of like a kart racing game, but had walking, swimming, and sliding sections. It wasn’t great, but we certainly owned and played it, and many of the things the ‘wacky’ announcer said still live rent free in my head.
Other than that, Sonic Adventure was the first game I ever truly beat. Played lots of Hydro Thunder and Gauntlet Legacy. Got Samba de Amigo after Dreamcast was dead, but never got the maracas (I’ve been enjoying the Switch one with JoyCons).
OH! Skies of Arcadia was another great one I beat! That was the first game I used an internet walkthrough to figure it out - I was stuck at the beginning for an embarrassingly long time (maybe a year of trying and abandoning every couple months because of this wall of rocks I didn’t understand I could go through).
Great system. Probably had another 10-15 games like Sonic Shuffle, Sonic Adventure 2, Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX, Crazy Taxi, Space Channel 5, others I can’t recall at the moment.
My sibling and I spent a truly ridiculous amount of time playing Pen Pen Triicelon.
Second the Mat Hoffman’s BMX recommendation, shame that my copy is so scratched up - that was a great game.
Space Channel 5 is such a bizarre game. Technically unimpressive, short and shallow… but inexplicably a ton of fun to play. You just have to embrace the camp! The music is fun and the endgame is satisfying.
Red dog - single player was a tank game, but the multi-player was where it's at. Besides fps-like multi-player, it also had other modes like hot-potato.
I know people said powerstone, but I think powerstone 2 was much better. Bigger and crazier, the levels kept going and moving.
Chu-chu rocket. It was popular enough to be released on Gba, but the dreamcast 4-player mode was nuts.
Dead or Alive 2 was an excellent fighter which had levels where you could knock people off cliffs, down stairs, etc... Think Tekken but in powerstone's world. Also, the counter button really changes the fighting dynamics
Also, no one's said them yet - I'm not sure why - but jet grind radio and marvel vs Capcom 2 were the best games on that system.
How could I forget Chu Chu Rocket!? Classic stuff. Played the Apple Arcade sequel for a bit (RIP) which brought back fond memories.
No mention yet of Fur Fighters? That was a gem of a game, a great 3rd person shooter with a cast of adorable fluffy stuffed animals. The gameplay itself was fun but what really made it amazing was all the charm in its art direction, level design, soundtrack, and sense of humor. It’s also got a really impressive sense of scale, it feels bigger than maybe anything else I remember playing on the Dreamcast (excepting maybe the Shenmues but that’s comparing apples and oranges). The 4-player split-screen “fluffmatches” were a riot too.
Someone else mentioned Re-Volt but didn’t go into any detail about that one. I was blown away by the graphics but especially the smooth 60fps frame rate (IIRC). Some really inventive courses and vehicles and love how it really feels like driving tiny little RC cars. The multiplayer in that one is great too, it has a great tag game.
In a similar vein, no one mentioned Toy Commander? Another fun one with a great multiplayer mode. Hmm, I’m only talking about the games that prominently feature toys. Weird, haha. I love a ton of stuff on the Dreamcast but most of my other picks have already been praised here.
For anyone interested in re-visiting Re-Volt, there's a great source port called RVGL you can use with the PC version.
You can also use Luxtorpeda with the Steam version to easily install it on the Steam Deck. I recently replayed the game, and it (mostly) holds up!
I know I’m way late with this, but I wanted to let you know that I clicked on this thread with every intention to extol the virtues of Toy Commander if no one else had gotten to it yet. I messed around with it on my Steam Deck and it plays great!
Thanks to everybody for the recommendations! I got ROMs set up for all of the games mentioned in this topic (except for Segagaga, which doesn’t have an English translation).
And then I got a lot more, lol. 😂
Also, RetroDECK is incredible. I can’t believe I have a portable Dreamcast in my hands.
Anyway, I’m going to post a topic in September celebrating the Dreamcast’s 25th anniversary, and I plan to spend that month playing through DC games that are new to me to see what I missed on the system. If anyone is wanting to join in my “celebration” I’d love some company!
By the way, my plan to play during September has already failed, because I started early: I booted up Rez, which is an old favorite of mine. It still looks and plays great!
Also, in looking for games, I learned that there are a surprising number of indie games that have released for the Dreamcast in the years since its sunset, including some that are very recent. For example, here’s Driving Strikers which is a Rocket League-like which features online PC/Dreamcast cross-play. It released last year: in 2023. That’s wild!
The DC always was The Little System That Could, and it warms my heart to see it’s still getting releases to this day.
Thanks for the link to Driving Strikers, that’s wild! And while that sort of game isn’t really my cup of tea, it (as you say) warms my heart to see the fan community alive and kicking after all these years.
Just the other day I dusted off my Dreamcast and 20-game collection, plus all the demo discs from my Official DC Magazine subscription, and I’ve been tripping down memory lane with this Tildes thread in hand. I’ve got a VGA box and HDMI converter, and it looks better than ever on a modern TV! My only gripe is a couple games — looking at you, Hydro Thunder — don’t support VGA mode and I can’t boot them without analog connectors. Also my CD burner bit the dust a while back so I can’t really explore the homebrew space. I’ve been dreaming for years about installing an SD card hardware mod, but my stock GD-ROM drive still works so I can’t justify the price.
Anyway, time for me to come on over and have some fun with CRAZY TAXXXXXXI!
hey Hey HEY, it's time to make some CRAY-ZEE MONEY! Are you ready? Here. We. Go!
Your setup is awesome! I used to have a very similar one -- VGA box and all. The VGA box was actually the "secret sauce" that let my Dreamcast become my favorite console ever. At the time everything else used composite or s-video to hook up to TVs, and every console we'd had up to that point had been connected to our family TV. That meant we all had to split our screentime, so I couldn't always play whenever I wanted, and when I did, I often had to stop early to let one of my siblings use the TV (my parents did a very good job at enforcing fairness).
I somehow learned at the time that the Dreamcast had a VGA box (the first time I'd ever heard of one), and we had an old computer monitor in our house that wasn't being used at all. I convinced my parents to let me get the Dreamcast in part because I'd be able to hook it up separately and put that old monitor to good use -- how economical! What this really meant was that I could play the Dreamcast from the comfort of my room, whenever I wanted, and completely uninterrupted. I think that's why I fell in love with the console more than I ever did with my NES or my PlayStation -- it was the first one that felt like it was truly mine.
Unfortunately, I did opt to get rid of my physical Dreamcast collection a few years ago. It was bittersweet, because I loved it so very much and I had also fleshed it out over the years (I had multiple light guns and mice and keyboards!), but it was also just gathering dust in a closet. Emulating is just easier for me at this point, and it's gotten good enough that it's almost comparable to playing the games on hardware. I don't miss burning CDs; I was always wary about ruining my DC by trying for something like the SD mod; and I definitely don't miss the VMU screech whenever I turned it on. I do miss the controller though. It was amazing. Those triggers felt so good, and it fits great in big hands.
I did make sure that it went to a "good home" with someone who'd be able to fully appreciate it for the treasure that it was.
With your CD burner out this doesn't really help you, but I definitely remember there was a way to burn a copy of a game and either change the flag for VGA support or force it through the boot disc? I can't remember the exact details anymore, but it was definitely possible somehow. I don't think it worked for all games, but it definitely let some games run that would otherwise balk at a VGA box run. I also might be creating a false memory here, but I think I might have even hot swapped for some games -- boot them in composite mode and then kick over to VGA after they loaded? (Mine had both sets of inputs and a switch).
Anyway, my little nostalgic interlude aside, knowing that you're playing on the original hardware brings me joy. I'm delighted that you're also feeling the Dreamcast love! It's hard to believe it's been 25 years!
The hours I racked up on Crazy Taxi...
This little game called "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater." The first and second got Dreamcast ports and they emulate better than PSX. Just check it out. I'm half-joking but these are my favorite versions to emulate It blew my mind when I played it because it didn't have the PSX's distorted meshes.
I'm also keeping an eye on this thread as I never had a Dreamcast. I played one a few times but that's it.
I'm always attracted to the weird when it comes to older consoles. There was a lot of one-off ideas that were never repeated and they're worth the effort to experience unlike precursors to still-ongoing genres which really feel their age.
Illbleed - An absolute fever dream unlike anything I've played before. To say more would spoil the experience if you haven't already heard where this game takes you. A perfect game for the upcoming spooky season.
LOL: Lack of Love - A bizarre puzzle/"life simulation" game made by Love-de-Lic. Its bewildering text-less gameplay reminds me of Spore mixed with a point and click and features a unique soundtrack (and core narrative) by Ryuichi Sakamoto of Yellow Magic Orchestra fame. (He also made the startup theme for the console!)
Frame Gride - Long before Dark Souls, From Software made a medieval-themed Mecha battle game exclusively for the dreamcast. It's not really worth playing but the concept is something I just have to mention.
Dreamcast is much more difficult than PS1 for a number of reasons. 1. far fewer games. 2. much more varied quality. This means not as many games stand the test of time. Sadly, I could count on one hand my all-time classics. So this list is more forgiving than PS1.
Anyway, here we go.
(I'll try to add descriptions later)
Multiplayer
Single player
Games you are better off playing on other systems
ps: I'd love to know how you got on playing the recommended PS1 games, what your favourites turned out to be, and why.
Someone else actually posted the PlayStation topic — I just loved the quantity and variety of answers it got and wanted to see if we could do something similar with the Dreamcast (despite, as you noted, its much more limited library).
I do intend to play a bunch of the stuff recommended here and will probably do some writeups in the weekly gaming topics. My current plan is to block out this September as “Dreamcast month” for myself (25 years! — can you believe it?) and exclusively play DC titles during that time. My goal is to play titles that never made it outside the system (through remakes or re-releases) and that I haven’t played before.
If you can read Japanese, play Segagaga - you play as heroes working for Sega and trying to save the company from the evil, oppressive media corporation whose new console is trying to squash you. It's a super funny and self aware love letter to Sega franchises throughout the years.
A game I really liked is Gundam Side Story 0079: Rise From the Ashes You pilot mobile suits from a first-person cockpit view (regular GM units against Zeon suits). It's a Gundam game of my dreams, honestly: piloting big robots in a non-Warriors style.
Weird associated memory: leaving school early on Sept 11, 2001 after everything happened, and playing this game with my friend.
As well, Armada (as mentioned) was a fun game!
chu chu rocket was always fun for me, especially if you have 4 people playing
My partner would say Sonic Shuffle. I keep telling myself that's a joke so I can stay sane.
Another interesting (but not really unique today) one is Hoyle Casino, seemingly one of the first to have craps. (I might be proven wrong on that one.)
I came her to check if there were some games that weren't mentioned.
I see nobody mentioned Soul Calibur. I think it was a launch title, or close to it and it created quite a stir.
One of my top DC games, too. Another great one is Toy Commander
Seaman is the best game on Dreamcast by a wide margin.
Not sure if it can be properly emulated but if it can - holy fuck there isn’t another game like it.
Wow, I had totally forgotten about a lot of these old games! I am surprised that so far no one has mentioned Shenmue! My little brother and I got really sucked into it, even though it was not at all the kind of game we would normally play.
One of my favorites back in the day was Maken X. It's a little bit rough around the edges to say the least, but it was a solid and difficult game with interesting mechanics. I remember it being one of those games I would struggle to defeat bosses in over and over, but it was so rewarding finally pushing through.
On that note - another Dreamcast game in the same vein is Sword of the Berserk - Guts Rage. Incredibly satisfying to run around and destroy stuff as Guts, but it has some seriously unfair QTEs and boss fights. Still, really fun to play through even if a bit infuriating.
Nights into Dreams is a surreal game with innovative movement mechanics. It feels like the video game transition from 2D to 3D took a turn through an M.C.Escher staircase overlooking isometric grids. It's technically an on-the-rails platformer, although it feels anything but. Flashy colors, fun sound effects, and the feeling of being at the helm of Mister Toad's Wild Ride make this game noteworthy. If only for the game controls alone.
Others here mentioned Rez, which has a multi-platform HD version worth checking out. It, too, has an extremely unique control system that has yet to be replicated in other games. My suggestion for adapting the game to modern controllers is to control the cursor with gyro and use a trigger button for marking targets. Feels almost like a lightgun game that anyone can pick up at that point.
I love Nights into Dreams too, but that was a Sega Saturn game, not Dreamcast. I had a Saturn, there were tons of cool and unusual games for it too. I wouldn’t mind another thread about that specifically…
Sega even seemed to forget which system Nights came out for. It’s included in the Dreamcast Collection on Steam!
A Saturn topic would be interesting to me too (honestly, I think it would be cool to do these for most of the major consoles). I never had one, and I’ve also never gone back and emulated it as Saturn emulation wasn’t very good until relatively recently.
There are soooo many interesting Saturn games. But the sad thing is that most of the most interesting stuff never made it outside of Japan.
I can second a lot of the games already mentioned here, but I wanted to add a few I didn’t see for anyone else that’s looking for recommendations.
A beat-em-up arcade game sequel to Die Hard Arcade but without the licensing. It lets you use items you pick up from the environment as weapons, including ridiculous stuff like baguettes. I used to play it over and over again, trying out the different branching paths of its relatively short campaign.
I never played the first one so I don’t know how it compares. In this, you challenge other drivers on the highway to impromptu street races in hopes of winning and getting credits to buy better cars so you can win against harder opponents. It’s kind of repetitive, as you race the same stretches of road over and over again, but it’s also kind of chill and relaxed for a racing game, which is something I liked about it.
This was a launch title for the system that was a bit rough around the edges but still managed to be fun. The game consists of very floaty hoverboard races. It genuinely takes a bit of time to get comfortable with the controls, and even then they can still feel wobbly and imprecise. It was made by Criterion, who would go on later to develop the Burnout series.
If you have a mouse and keyboard for your Dreamcast (or can emulate them — is that even possible?):
A third-person arcade shooter. I thought it was very clunky with a controller but much nicer on a mouse and keyboard. I honestly don’t remember a whole lot specifically about the gameplay, but I do remember liking it.
It’s The House of the Dead 2, only they replaced a light gun with a keyboard. Zombies have text boxes on them, and you have to type out their contents to fight the horde. Instead of guns, the in-game character models have battery-powered Dreamcasts strapped to their backs with keyboards held up by shoulder straps in front of them. It’s cute.