Real Talk: Which Dreamcast classics still hold up ten years later?

[Great Rumbler]

It's been ten years since the DC came, well ten years yesterday, but that's beside the point. A lot of games felt new and fresh and fun to play then, and some of us look back fondly on those games, but just how much fun are they to play TODAY? Let's find out!

The System - Started right up despite dust, grime, and yellowed plastic. Sturdy little thing!

The Controller - Terribad. It forces my hands into a cramped position and I feel like I'm squeezing the controller the whole time. Button placement is okay, though, except for the D-pad which forces you to change the position of your left hand to get to it. Analog stick is very close to cutting into my thumb.

Sonic Adventure - Roland Emmerich-esque opening is LOL, theme song is UGH. Voice acting and dialog is LOL. At one point in time, early 2000, I thought that the graphics in Sonic Adventure could never be surpassed. I was a naive youth, though in my defense this was just coming off the N64 and PSX. Gameplay draws a bit too much from the "Here's something cool to watch while I play the game for you" well. Analog controls feel a bit too overly responsive. Walls and objects feel a bit too "sticky". Lots of pop-in. Attack targeting of enemies is still cool. Some of the music is really good, not the vocal tracks though.

Shemue - Coming Soon!

Crazy Taxi - Arcade-y fun. Good sense of speed and urgency. Vehicle controls are floaty and collision detection is very awkward, doesn't detract too much, though. Music is dated and MEH. Overall, graphics still look okay. I actually still remember some of the tricks, like switching from Reverse to Drive right before you start to get an extra boost!

Bangai-O - Coming Soon!

Skies of Arcadia: Coming soon...maybe. Should be around somewhere, but I haven't found it yet.

Jet Grind Radio: Lots of funky music, art style holds up pretty well. Movement is, at times, clunky and unresponsive. On the second level I quit in frustration because, for the the fifth time, I fell down in the sewers as I was trying to skate across a chasm on top of a crane because I couldn't get my character to move in a straight line.

Sword of the Berserk: Guts Rage - Slow, awkward, and repetitive. Puck is annoying as hell. Graphics are bland and barren. VA is LOL. Excessive violence doesn't save it from aging very badly. Theme song is pretty BOSS though.

[Don Flamenco]

Bangai-O - still awesome
Ikaruga - get the XBL version, still awesome
Cannon Spike - meh, nice crossover though
JSR - never saw the appeal
Zombie Revenge - an under appreciated brawler
Dreamcast console - loud, screeeeeeeeeechy disc reads
Shenmue 1 and 2 - fucking horrible.  Still.
MvC2 - get the XBL version, overrated as fuck

[demi]

Answer: NONE

[Great Rumbler]

Ikaruga - get the XBL version, still awesome

I had the GC version a few years ago. It was fun, but I died a lot.  :'(

Zombie Revenge - an under appreciated brawler

Yeah, I liked it. I got rid of it a long time ago though.

[Raban]

Typing Of The Dead - FUCKAWESOME

[Don Flamenco]

Typing Of The Dead - FUCKAWESOME

oooh yeah.  this game will never get old. I gotta get bootcamp on my mac so I can play it    

Yeah, I liked it. I got rid of it a long time ago though.

The game has a special place for me.  When I had a PS1, I pretty much ignored everything, didn't keep up on gaming.  I went to a pizza place one day and they had Zombie Revenge.  It blew my fucking mind.  The graphics, animation, all the weapons and moves...I thought the game was the best thing ever. 

Everyone talks about the first time they saw Mario 64 or summons in FF7...for me, it was Zombie Revenge

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Hate to break it to you, but Sonic Adventure is not a good game.

[The Sceneman]

Shenmue is like the 4th best game of all time

[Junpei the Tracer!]

Hate to break it to you, but Sonic Adventure is not a good game.

Yes it is. Shows what you know.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

I don't understand why Sonic Adventure gets a pass, but no other 3D Sonic does. It's just as shitty as the rest of them.

[Robo]

Shenmue is like the 4th best game of all time

 

[Great Rumbler]

Hate to break it to you, but Sonic Adventure is not a good game.

It gets a pass because at the time it was a fun game and a show piece for what the Dreamcast was capable of. The other don't get a pass because by the time they started to come around, the sheen was gone. If I picked up Sonic Adventure today, I probably wouldn't like it that much.

The shoehorned story, the laughable dialog and voice acting, the stupid and/or boring friends, and the gameplay quirks are all marks against it and are pretty glaring in retrospect, but I still remember playing it for the first time back in 2000 and being wowed by it, so I'll give it a bit of a pass.

[ch1nchilla]

Jet Grind Radio.

[Great Rumbler]

Jet Grind Radio.

That's next up for replay.

[fistfulofmetal]

from what i've seen in the giantbomb quicklook, power stone 2 looks like it holds up pretty well.

[Third]

2D fighters like Marvel vs. Capcom

Nothing else.

[Great Rumbler]

Jet Grind Radio - Lots of funky music, art style holds up pretty well. Movement is, at times, clunky and unresponsive. On the second level I quit in frustration because, for the the fifth time, I fell down in the sewers as I was trying to skate across a chasm on top of a crane because I couldn't get my character to move in a straight line.

Controller - Analog stick is very close to cutting into my thumb.

[cool breeze]

I hooked up my dreamcast again a few weeks ago when I got my VGA box, and most games held up fine.  The only thing that didn't is the controller.  I even opened a brand new one, and still it has squeaky triggers, loose analog stick that cuts into your thumb and still doesn't give you a good grip.  The D-Pad is embarrassing considering the Saturn (2nd controller) and Genesis have he best D-Pads.  They dropped down to four buttons for some reason, the cord comes out the bottom, and with the grips, it's just uncomfortable to hold.  Worse is when you plug in a rumble pack or VMU and the already poorly balanced controller starts to sink backwards when you hold it.  Complete shit controller.  The system is also incredibly loud, like, it makes my 360 seem quiet.  And the VMU battery seems to last for a few minutes.

I wish they would start doing Saturn and Dreamcast collections for 360/PS3 so I can be done with the console and controller.

I forgot that the 3D Saturn controller was even better than the Dreamcast one, but it too has a crappy analog...ball?

[bork]

Pretty much the Capcom stuff (most of which you can better versions of on other platforms), Jet Grind Radio, Chu-Chu Rocket (also on GBA), Rez (oh wait it's on PS2 and XBLA), Space Channel 5 (on PS2), the Sega Japan-made racers (and some of these are on other platforms), the SNK stuff (which can also be found on PS2 and/or other platforms), and I guess some of the shooters like Ikaruga (and hey, you can get that on XBLA too!).

At this point the only game I really care about re-playing is Jet Grind Radio.  If they port that to another platform, it will probably be time to look into dumping my DC.

[Great Rumbler]

Complete shit controller.

That sums it up quite nicely.

At this point the only game I really care about re-playing is Jet Grind Radio.  If they port that to another platform, it will probably be time to look into dumping my DC.

Have you played the sequel that was on the Xbox? It's backwards compatible.

[bork]

played the sequel that was on the Xbox? It's backwards compatible.

Fuck yes, of course I have!  When it first came out in 2001, I almost made the huge mistake of ordering a Japanese XBox just so I could play it a week early.   

I like the original Jet Set Radio more than Future.

[Great Rumbler]

played the sequel that was on the Xbox? It's backwards compatible.

I almost made the huge mistake of ordering a Japanese XBox just so I could play it a week early.   

 

[bork]

I had it all figured out...sell my Xbox and a few games back to the store I was working at, and maybe a trade in a few other things, and I wouldn't have had to spend too much.  It just would have been pointless and stupid to do this, but back then I was insanely impatient when it came to video game release dates.     Had I done it, things would have really sucked when the realization that the system was region-locked set in.

Back in 1996, I traded a Neo-Geo AES system for a copy of Samurai Spirits III on the GAMEBOY.  Mind you, no importers had the game and the Neo cost me like $50, but I was still pretty nutso back then.

[Chussy Pacer]

Mar Matrix

MDK 2

[Great Rumbler]

MDK 2

I had a demo for that and really liked it. For some reason, though, I never did get the full version.

[Bebpo]

I'd say 50% of the library holds up.  Especially the arcade types like shmups, beat'em ups, virtua on, rez, etc...  The more "normal" full length games like Blue Stinger or Code Veronica or Sonic Adventure.......not so much.  I'd like to think JSR holds up but I doubt it; JSRF is a bad game but it probably holds up better.

Now the Saturn...holy crap that is a system where the games do not hold up.  In fact I think it'd be fun to figure out what system libraries generally hold up still and are fun to play even today imo:

Collecovision/Commedore/Atari .....I will break hearts and say, in general, NO
NES ... probably less than 50% hold up so...NO
Genesis... same as nes ...NO
SNES ... probably more than 50% since 2d ages well and it was before unskippable cutscenes .... YES
TG-16 ... I dunno.  Some do, some don't.  I don't play enough TG-16 to decide ... FENCE
Lynx ... lol
N64 ... I'd say NO, games look like ugly shit and play pretty bad outside a handful... NO
Saturn ... again, horrible visuals (PRE-RENDERED CG SPRITES AHHHHHHH), horrible loading, awful presentation....NO, NO, NO
PS1... hmmmmmmm.  Most of the 2d stuff holds up (rpgs), the simple 3d like Crash, Jumping Flash holds up.  MGS holds up.... will say YES, barely.
DC.... YES, graphics still look fine today, presentation is fine, controls are ok, loading is not too bad
PS2 ... duh, YES
Xbox ... yeah, generally YES

[Himu]

I would put up my dreamcast if stuff like cosmic smash, shenmue 1, and jsr and other games were put on other systems.

JSR holds up very well.

JSRF is by no means a bad game. Fuck off.

[Himu]

Saturn still holds up, very very well.

The 2d games on the saturn are amazing.

wtf, bebpo.

[Bebpo]

Saturn still holds up, very very well.

The 2d games on the saturn are amazing.

wtf, bebpo.

Every year I buy retro Saturn games.  Then I try to play them and they are horribly unplayable and shit.  Sure the 2d games on saturn hold up, but they are an oasis in a desert of awful 3d and pre-rendered sprites.

I loved the Saturn in its day, but that system is fucking disgusting now outside the 2d fighters/shmups

[Himu]

Most of the best games on the saturn are 2d.

So your complaint makes zero sense since EVERYONE knows that Saturn's main strength is 2d games and not 3d games. Sure, Saturn had stuff like Panzer Dragoon, Virtua Cop, Daytona, Virtua Fighter, but they are not what Saturn is known for at all.

[Great Rumbler]

I enjoyed my Saturn, even though I bought it long after it was already dead.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

I know it came out on like a billion other consoles, but man was Rayman 2 sweet.

[cool breeze]

I know it came out on like a billion other consoles, but man was Rayman 2 sweet.

Dreamcast had the best versions of Rayman 2 and Soul Reaver. 

[Yeti]

Seaman

[pilonv1]

all of them

[Sho Nuff]

San Francisco Rush 2049 

[cool breeze]

Maken X - didn't care too much for at first, but it's pretty good

Maken X was awesome.

I think Retro stole the controls for Metroid Prime from it.

[bork]

I need to go back and see how Maken X holds up.  I re-tried Maken Shao a little while ago, and it was just  .

[ch1nchilla]

CHU CHU ROCKET HD XBLA 5-800 POINTS. DO IT, SEGA.

[Bocsius]

I'm just saying if they released Crazy Taxi on XBLA, I'd buy it.

And NFL 2K1 remains my favorite football game to date.

[Van Cruncheon]

rayman 2 remains fuck amazing

[bork]

Releasing games like Chu-Chu Rocket and Crazy Taxi on XBLA would be a smart move, guys.  So Sega naturally won't do it.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

I know it came out on like a billion other consoles, but man was Rayman 2 sweet.

Dreamcast had the best versions of Rayman 2 and Soul Reaver. 

I couldn't remember if it was the DC version or the PS2 version of Rayman 2 that was considered better. I think I may bust out my DC again just to play it again.

[bork]

Those were the early PS2 days.  It had to be better on the DC. 

[EmCeeGrammar]

Jet Grind Radio has very frustrating controls and the music wears thin fast.  Having tag/center camera on the same button is nonsensical considering there were other buttons available.  The collision detection with rails can be extremely iffy and the trick system was underdeveloped.  I had more fun with the gba game partly because it handled momentum better. 

Crazy Taxi still holds up well.  Its simple and to the point.  The offspring music fits as far as I'm concerned.  I remember when I started getting good at time extensions and marveling at just how large the city was. 

Space Channel 5 is a glorified game of simon, but its still a fruity guilty pleasure of mine.  Again, its a simple game so you can't really mess it up too much.  Its short though

Chu Chu Rocket-There's nothing WRONG with it.  It's just that it has zero replay value and its completely disposable.  Its kind of the type of game I see too much on the dd services these days.  Puzzle packs with a few hundred levels and a gimmick.  You finish it and there's no reason to play it again.

I can't remember what else I bought, but there wasn't too much stuff that interested me.

[muckhole]

I need to go back and see how Maken X holds up.  I re-tried Maken Shao a little while ago, and it was just  .

I've got Maken X and a small pile of other DC games that I've never fired up after cleaning out a game store's used inventory on the cheap. I think I'll bust the DC out next week and have a little nostalgia trip.

[Great Rumbler]

Jet Grind Radio has very frustrating controls and the music wears thin fast.  Having tag/center camera on the same button is nonsensical considering there were other buttons available.  The collision detection with rails can be extremely iffy and the trick system was underdeveloped.  I had more fun with the gba game partly because it handled momentum better. 

Yeah, that was pretty much how I felt going back to it. It was a game that I really enjoyed back when it first debuted, but the game doesn't seem like it can recapture that magic.

[Himu]

You people are crazy. JGR has amazing level design. The worst thing about it are the controls.

[Great Rumbler]

You people are crazy. JGR has amazing level design. The worst thing about it are the controls.

Uh...I don't think either of us said anything bad about the level design. They have a pretty decent flow to them overall and have lots of different areas that branch off in different directions, but the controls really get in the way of having fun with them. That's the biggest problem I have with the game and it's a really big problem.

[Himu]

Get used to them then.

Popping in a game for five minutes ten years after it came out to say "lol this hasn't aged well" and turning it off doesn't make sense to me at all. I guess I am in a minority when I don't think of games aging in terms of graphics or controls, because they're impossible to "age". If the controls are weird, I take 5 minutes to get used to them and play the game.

Can't wait for people to do a post-mortem of God Hand and ps2. People will pop it in, be like,"Man these controls are weird" and turn it off. Allah sheds a tear.

[Mr. Gundam]

Anyone notice how Napple Tale has become a rare title? It's a fun little game and Yoko Kanno's score is great, too.

[Great Rumbler]

Popping in a game for five minutes ten years after it came out to say "lol this hasn't aged well" and turning it off doesn't make sense to me at all. I guess I am in a minority when I don't think of games aging in terms of graphics or controls, because they're impossible to "age". If the controls are weird, I take 5 minutes to get used to them and play the game.

I played it for about twenty or thirty minutes, not five.

[EmCeeGrammar]

Get used to them then.

Popping in a game for five minutes ten years after it came out to say "lol this hasn't aged well" and turning it off doesn't make sense to me at all. I guess I am in a minority when I don't think of games aging in terms of graphics or controls, because they're impossible to "age". If the controls are weird, I take 5 minutes to get used to them and play the game.

Can't wait for people to do a post-mortem of God Hand and ps2. People will pop it in, be like,"Man these controls are weird" and turn it off. Allah sheds a tear.

I played it to the last stage.   So yeah, it was my first time playing the game, and I gave it a few days.  Its just not good.  I even went down some alley at one of the levels' edge and discovered an unfinished area that had my character fall forever in a void.

And the level design is good in visual concept only.  As I said its hard as hell to sustain the momentum required to take advantage of the rails for traversal.  The controls are to blame for this.  So I end up taking the stairs or having to do awkward jumps between precipitous rooftops.  Oh but you can skate backwards, thats worth at least 8 points right?

[The Fake Shemp]

The controls sucked then, and they suck now.

[etiolate]

If you can count legends version with reduced encounters then SoA still rocks

[Himu]

The level design is great because it's about 1. timing 2. getting jet ranking (highest possible score) , 3. knowing when to tag and what to tag.

The levels that give you 999 seconds to complete the level, and place tags in a shit load of areas are excellent. Getting every red tag and more in just a few minutes (2 or so) resulting in getting a jet rank is a thrill.

Of course the level design wouldn't be good if you actually think tricks mean shit. It's not Tony Hawk.

What does an incomplete level have to do with the game's quality? You haven't played games where they have incomplete sections that you can ONLY find on accident?

[Great Rumbler]

If you can count legends version with reduced encounters then SoA still rocks

I might pick that up sometime when I have some extra money to spare.

[EmCeeGrammar]

I didn't find it on accident, its an alley in plain sight that goes behind the level. Once there I fell through a floor and its an infinite drop into blackness. 

[Don Flamenco]

SoA never came off as required playing to me.  I got it based on the hype, then realized it was mostly excitement over one of the few JRPGs on the system.  

[bork]

JSR's controls are fine.  You have to get used to being a character on skates; you're not running around like in other platformers.  SMH.   :'(

Anyone notice how Napple Tale has become a rare title? It's a fun little game and Yoko Kanno's score is great, too.

I never got the appeal of this game.  Imported it back then and sold it off pretty quickly.