The Top 7… Best Dreamcast games of all time

This week marks the 10-year anniversary of the launch of Sega’s Dreamcast, possibly the most beloved failed console of all time. Following a thunderous, record-breaking launch on Sept. 9, 1999, the Dreamcast died a quiet death less than two years later, when Sega opted to pull the plug rather than compete head-on with Sony’s PlayStation 2 juggernaut. In that time, however, it built up an impressive library that included some of the greatest, weirdest and most beloved games of its generation - and we can’t think of a better way to kick off a week of Dreamcast love than by paying tribute to the seven best.

Above: Marvel vs Capcom 2, for the record, would be our No. 8

Trying to nail down the absolute best games for a system that’s been officially dead since 2001 is tougher than you might think, and so our staff fought long and hard over what should be included. As a result, some old favorites – including Crazy Taxi, Seaman, Power Stone and Samba de Amigo – got edged out, but what’s left are seven top-notch titles good enough to redefine what a “next-gen” game (by 1999 standards, anyway) could be.

Contributing editors: Mikel Reparaz, Eric Bratcher and Henry Gilbert

7. Sonic Adventure 2

The first Sonic Adventure was a fantastic launch title, but it doesn’t hold up so well today. Chalk it up to scattershot gameplay, poor pacing or a weirdly dull presentation, but mostly it’s because Adventure delivers too few moments like this:

Above: OH SHIT

And way too many like this:

Above: Oh, shit

Nearly two years later – after the Dreamcast’s plug had officially been pulled – Sonic Adventure 2 came roaring in to send the system off with a bang. If the first Adventure was about Sega going nuts trying out new things on the Dreamcast, then Adventure 2 was about the company showing off what it had learned since then; the gameplay was faster and more focused, the story was divided into two good-and-evil plotlines instead of six, and the cartoony presentation was more in line with the series’ character.

Additionally, Adventure 2 was the first Sonic game to give players a chance to see the story from Eggman/Dr. Robotnik’s point of view, even if he was just stomping around in a robot walker that was nearly identical to the one Tails used in the good-guy storyline. And in the name of symmetry, it also introduced Sonic’s black-furred nemesis Shadow, who – despite later being held up as an example of everything wrong with the Sonic franchise – was a pretty cool addition to the cast. Or at least, he was better than all the other additions the Adventure series made.

Above: Oh, so you’d rather play as Big the Cat, then?

What made it the best: A few other Dreamcast platformers might be remembered with a little more fondness than Sonic Adventure 2, but none of them delivered quite as much as it did. Each of the game’s six characters played identically to their good/evil counterparts, but their segments – which included shooting as Tails/Robotnik and hunting for emerald shards as Knuckles/Rouge the Bat – were actually fun to play, instead of just being filler between the faster Sonic levels. It also saw the return of the first Adventure’s virtual pets, the angelic Chao, who – aside from being able to absorb the appearances of adorable baby animals and level up on the Dreamcast’s VMU memory cards/handheld consoles – were entirely optional.

Best moment: The game’s first level as Sonic, a breakneck run down the hilly streets of San Francisco that began with Sonic leaping out of a plane, continued with him demolishing traffic on a snowboard (on asphalt, yes) and concluded with him being chased by a runaway 18-wheeler. Granted, it was never quite that awesome again, but we couldn’t have asked for a more explosive opening.

6. NFL 2K2

The original NFL 2K was a huge hit when the Dreamcast launched, and NFL 2K1 introduced online play a full two seasons before Madden would add it. But NFL 2K2 was the Dreamcast’s pigskin pinnacle.

The 2K series had always been defined by fast-paced action, gameplay that was deep but still totally accessible, and graphics so realistic you mistook them for a TV broadcast of a real football game. That last one seems ridiculous now, but the other two bits, speed and accessibility, were critical in setting the game apart from Madden. Everything in 2K2 was quicker and more arcade-like, more concerned with “was it fun to juke that chump and dance into the end zone?” than “would a 227-pound man really be able to switch direction that quickly when running full-tilt, or should the controls be more sluggish to reflect real-world momentum?”

What made it the best: Setting aside the whole Madden rivalry, NFL 2K2 played like a dream. In its day, it was arguably the apogee of video game football. It had a huge number of game modes, it had online play (Madden didn’t yet), it was a snap to pick up but tough to master, and the on-field play was top-notch. NFL 2K2 was the best version of the Dreamcast’s flagship series. It just plain rocked.

In fact, it rocked so hard that the series continued after the Dreamcast died. It even sold okay, right up until 2004, when Madden publisher Electronic Arts gave the NFL a brazillion dollars for the exclusive NFL license.

Best moment: The exact moment was different for every player, but they all happened because NFL 2K2 recreated the emotion of real football better than any previous game had. This felt like the NFL, from the roar of the crowd to the heartbreak of watching your opponent steal your victory by scoring a touchdown on the last play of the game.