Dreamcast game recommendations?

[Kae]

So I'm kinda dumb and bought a Dreamcast for really cheap but I have no games to play for it, now unlike the PS2 the after market for Dreamcast isn't as common as other retro consoles here and I can't find almost any games laying around in second hand stores so I kinda have to deliberately seek them out and buy them online, and I've realised that I know of almost nothing for it.

I'm game for almost anything so long as it's interesting, I know it has some pretty solid arcade ports in like SHMUPS & Fighting Games and I know Power Stone is supposed to be good, I also really like shitty horror games but I already have Code Veronica for PS2, I know Blue Stinger and Carrier are things that exist and supposedly pretty bad and so far that seems like what I'll be looking for and I know there's a horror RPG called D2 for it which is supposed to be interesting, I also know Illbleed exists and is garbage but it sounds like my kind of garbage, but besides that I have no idea what I should be looking for in Dreamcast games, also some of those games are kinda expensive and for the moment I'd rather look for cheaper stuff.

But yeah what's the Dreamcast good for?

 

[Worgen]

Sword of Berserk is quite good. I think there is also a Record of the Lodoss war hack and slash that is fun. Its hard to argue with house of the dead, but those are on pc now. Skies of Arcadia is fantastic but the better version is on the Gamecube. Sonic Adventure 2 if you want something bad but I like. Blue Stinger for a really weird suvival horror game, Carrier for a pretty good survival horror game, Illbleed for a weird campy survival horror game. Crazy Taxi is good but very much an arcade game. Fur Ffighters is really good but the better version is on PS2. Power Stone 1 & 2 are fantastic arena fighting games, better with other people though. I didn't think Resident Evil Code Veronica was that good but its never been ported and people love it. I also remember having fun with Zombie Revenge, its kind of a top down beat em up type thing.

Anyway, those are the only ones that come to mind.

 

[Kae]

Sword of Berserk is quite good. I think there is also a Record of the Lodoss war hack and slash that is fun. Its hard to argue with house of the dead, but those are on pc now. Skies of Arcadia is fantastic but the better version is on the Gamecube. Sonic Adventure 2 if you want something bad but I like. Blue Stinger for a really weird suvival horror game, Carrier for a pretty good survival horror game, Illbleed for a weird campy survival horror game. Crazy Taxi is good but very much an arcade game. Fur Ffighters is really good but the better version is on PS2. Power Stone 1 & 2 are fantastic arena fighting games, better with other people though. I didn't think Resident Evil Code Veronica was that good but its never been ported and people love it. I also remember having fun with Zombie Revenge, its kind of a top down beat em up type thing.

Anyway, those are the only ones that come to mind.

Carrier is good?
I heard it was kinda bad, I was already planning to get it though because that sounds like my kind of game regardless of if it's good or bad.

But I'll keep an eye on Record of Lodoss War and Sword of Berserk, I do like Crazy Taxi though but I already have that on Gamecube and PC, Jet Set Radio might be worth getting, but yeah, it doesn't seem at least at first glance like there's much for Dreamcast, Like I was planning on getting Shadowman because I like that game but the PC versions controls are just something I can't get used to, and the Dreamcast version seems roughly on par, but Night Dive studios announced they're doing a remaster of that game with modern controls and support for modern resolutions, and since their remasters have been pretty damned solid until now I think I'm better off waiting for that version to drop.

 

[Worgen]

Carrier is good?
I heard it was kinda bad, I was already planning to get it though because that sounds like my kind of game regardless of if it's good or bad.

But I'll keep an eye on Record of Lodoss War and Sword of Berserk, I do like Crazy Taxi though but I already have that on Gamecube and PC, Jet Set Radio might be worth getting, but yeah, it doesn't seem at least at first glance like there's much for Dreamcast, Like I was planning on getting Shadowman because I like that game but the PC versions controls are just something I can't get used to, and the Dreamcast version seems roughly on par, but Night Dive studios announced they're doing a remaster of that game with modern controls and support for modern resolutions, and since their remasters have been pretty damned solid until now I think I'm better off waiting for that version to drop.

I remember quite enjoying although keep in mind this was like 18 years ago or something. I really liked the setting and I remember the combat being pretty good. I think there were respawning enemies that sucked though.

Sword of the Berserk was my reason for keeping my Dreamcast as long as I did, it is pretty fantastic. I remember liking Shadowman on the n64 but its one of those that I would wait for a proper remaster of since it was kinda jank.

I only kinda think that Record of the Lodoss game is the one I am thinking of, I checked it on youtube and it looked different then I thought the one I remembered did. Anyway, check this out.

 

[BrawlMan]

Carrier is good?
I heard it was kinda bad, I was already planning to get it though because that sounds like my kind of game regardless of if it's good or bad.

The gameplay is decent, but overall, it's so bad, it's good. The game even has a character looks like Claire Redfield.

Games to recommend:

• Dynamite Cop
• Sonic Adventure 2
• Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II
• Marvel vs. Capcom 2
• Jojo's Bizzarre Adventure
• Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
• Dino Crisis
• Resident Evil 2 & 3
• Capcom vs. SNK
• Power Stone 1 & 2
• Soul Calibur

 

[Dwarvenhobble]

But yeah what's the Dreamcast good for?

Games you've likely played on other systems and a few rare ones I'd say.

But actual recommendations for stuff that wasn't ported or wasn't ported to as easily accessible places (Note I don't know prices for some of these so you may find they're expensive):

Powerstone 1
Powerstone 2
Both are worth getting as each has a different kind of feel to it with Powerstone 1 having less characters but more moves and feeling more like a fighting game and Powerstone 2 having a lot more characters but less moves per character feeling more like a party game with the levels having a lot more elements of them that evolve as the fight goes on.

Toy Commander - Hard to really define this as much other than an action adventure game somewhat in the vein of Army Men but not always just a shooting game.

Evolution
Evolution 2
Your JRPG fix which I think got a sort of port for Gamecube but they're hard to get hold of there too (maybe harder)

San Francisco Rush 2049
Welcome to near future racing with Jet cars that have wings to help control them if they launch off ramps. It's a faced pace racing game but also has a stunt mode and challenges you to find various medals hidden round the race and stunt levels to unlock different cars. You'll probably spend more time exploring levels and hidden routes in free racing mode than actually racing other people or at least I did.

Coasterworks
I think there's a similar game on other consoles or PC but there's not been one quite like Coasterworks. You get given specifications to meet and have to build a roller coaster to meet them while also not being deemed too dangerous. You can also try out your creations after. It was and maybe still is one of the most free form roller Coaster design games out there allowing a lot more freedom.

Time Stalkers - RPG which can best be described as kind of a bit of a roguelite game where each dungeon sees you start having to level up from the start oh and a sort of pokemon style mechanic where you can capture enemies to fight for you.

Vigilante 8 second offense - I think this is the only console it came out on and it's a very fun car combat game with a kind of bonkers Sci-Fi plot

Ecco the Dolphin Defender of the future - Underwater adventure game

Fur Fighters - heard this was a surprisingly good shooter game

Gauntlet Legends - considered one of the better versions of the game Gauntlet that's been made.

Loony Tunes Space Race - It's on PS2 as well but the Dreamcast version of this Loony Tunes branded Kart racer is considered the better one

Ready to Rumble Boxing - It's a somewhat cartoon boxing game.

Red Dog - A military vehicle game where you control the supposed new military super vehicle.

Spawn in the Demons hand - action shooter game with spawn in it. More of a novelty really but I hear it's fun.

Confidential Mission - You'll need a CRT tv and a lightgun thing to really play it but it's kind of like playing a cheesy James Bond adventure complete with over the top villain.

Novelty stuff:

Samba De Amigo - with maraca controllers
Sega Bass Fishing with fishing reel controller

 

[Kae]

The gameplay is decent, but overall, it's so bad, it's good. The game even has a character looks like Claire Redfield.

That is in fact what I wanted from Carrier, so that's more reason to get it, honestly I'll say it very clearly I really like weird trashy kinda garbage games, I don't know why I just do so anything weird and off-beat is probably something I'd be interested in.

Games to recommend:

• Dynamite Cop
• Sonic Adventure 2
• Phantasy Star Online Episode I & II
• Marvel vs. Capcom 2
• Jojo's Bizzarre Adventure
• Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
• Dino Crisis
• Resident Evil 2 & 3
• Capcom vs. SNK
• Power Stone 1 & 2
• Soul Calibur

Dynamite Cop looks like something you would only find on Dreamcast so yeah that looks worth getting, also I was unaware Dino Crisis was on Dreamcast, I can only assume it must be a bit better than the PS1 versions so that's great, I'll look for that, and excellent fighting game arcade ports is probably the Dreamcast's best asset so I'll keep an eye for all of those, I'll skip the Sonic games but only because I already have them on Gamecube, like since I was a kid, Phantasy Star Online 1 & 2 are available on multiple formats so I'll investigate what's the best version to get, since I do have Gamecube and I think there are still fan servers going on the PC version so if I find someone else interested in going through that game online it might be worth it to get that version instead, you because since I live alone couch co-op isn't going to do me much good but I'm aware it has that and that's great.

Games you've likely played on other systems and a few rare ones I'd say.

But actual recommendations for stuff that wasn't ported or wasn't ported to as easily accessible places (Note I don't know prices for some of these so you may find they're expensive):

Powerstone 1
Powerstone 2
Both are worth getting as each has a different kind of feel to it with Powerstone 1 having less characters but more moves and feeling more like a fighting game and Powerstone 2 having a lot more characters but less moves per character feeling more like a party game with the levels having a lot more elements of them that evolve as the fight goes on.

Toy Commander - Hard to really define this as much other than an action adventure game somewhat in the vein of Army Men but not always just a shooting game.

Evolution
Evolution 2
Your JRPG fix which I think got a sort of port for Gamecube but they're hard to get hold of there too (maybe harder)

San Francisco Rush 2049
Welcome to near future racing with Jet cars that have wings to help control them if they launch off ramps. It's a faced pace racing game but also has a stunt mode and challenges you to find various medals hidden round the race and stunt levels to unlock different cars. You'll probably spend more time exploring levels and hidden routes in free racing mode than actually racing other people or at least I did.

Coasterworks
I think there's a similar game on other consoles or PC but there's not been one quite like Coasterworks. You get given specifications to meet and have to build a roller coaster to meet them while also not being deemed too dangerous. You can also try out your creations after. It was and maybe still is one of the most free form roller Coaster design games out there allowing a lot more freedom.

Time Stalkers - RPG which can best be described as kind of a bit of a roguelite game where each dungeon sees you start having to level up from the start oh and a sort of pokemon style mechanic where you can capture enemies to fight for you.

Vigilante 8 second offense - I think this is the only console it came out on and it's a very fun car combat game with a kind of bonkers Sci-Fi plot

Ecco the Dolphin Defender of the future - Underwater adventure game

Fur Fighters - heard this was a surprisingly good shooter game

Gauntlet Legends - considered one of the better versions of the game Gauntlet that's been made.

Loony Tunes Space Race - It's on PS2 as well but the Dreamcast version of this Loony Tunes branded Kart racer is considered the better one

Ready to Rumble Boxing - It's a somewhat cartoon boxing game.

Red Dog - A military vehicle game where you control the supposed new military super vehicle.

Spawn in the Demons hand - action shooter game with spawn in it. More of a novelty really but I hear it's fun.

Confidential Mission - You'll need a CRT tv and a lightgun thing to really play it but it's kind of like playing a cheesy James Bond adventure complete with over the top villain.

Novelty stuff:

Samba De Amigo - with maraca controllers
Sega Bass Fishing with fishing reel controller

That's cool, general consensus is that I should get Power Stone, so I guess that's decided then, but I'll look into those games, yeah it seems like there's a port of Evolution for Gamecube called Evolution Worlds and it apparently has the 2 games, I'll investigate what the differences are and which version is better.

But yeah that's a lot to look into I'm sure at least some of that will be cheap, unfortunately I currently don't own a CRT so Light Gun games are out, I've had to avoid some for PS2 too, but yeah I'll keep this in mind.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Skies of arcadia was one of my favs. A pretty solid rpg for the time.

Tokyo xtreme racing was a pretty slick street car fighting game that i loved too. If you like to drive, customize cars, and hunting down rare racers, it is a good grab.

 

[Kae]

Skies of arcadia was one of my favs. A pretty solid rpg for the time.

Tokyo xtreme racing was a pretty slick street car fighting game that i loved too. If you like to drive, customize cars, and hunting down rare racers, it is a good grab.

I'm aware of Skies, I know it has a mini game on the VMU not available on the GameCube version, but supposedly the GameCube version has some extra quests, that being said the GC version is absurdly expensive so if the Dreamcast version is cheaper it might be worth it.

As for Tokio Drift, I'm always on board for a good racer.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I'm aware of Skies, I know it has a mini game on the VMU not available on the GameCube version, but supposedly the GameCube version has some extra quests, that being said the GC version is absurdly expensive so if the Dreamcast version is cheaper it might be worth it.

As for Tokio Drift, I'm always on board for a good racer.

It is an awesome racer that most people dont know about. Plays like a fighting game sort of.

Basically you have two health bars up top like a fighter. You deal damage to your enemy by being in front of them. The further ahead you are the faster their life ticks down.

So you drive around the track and when you see a car you can race, flicker your lights to challenge them and after a short countdown off you go.

Each racer is part of a gang and once you beat the minions you instantly get challenged by a boss. And some enemies require some pussle shit to challenge. Like some wont challenge you ilunless your car is a specific color. Or you have to have the stupidest spoiler. Or it has to be a certain time of day. All sorts of shit.

There are lots of cars to buy and customize straight up FAST AND FURIOUS style.

So it is a really cool concept that got two games on the DC and 1 on the ps2.

 

[wings012]

I don't own one but my friend does and I spent countless hours at his place playing pretty much nothing but Powerstone 2 and Rush 2049.

If you have mates to play with and four controllers, those games are a good time.

Powerstone 2 is just hectic beat'em up fun. I like to think of it as a sorta isometric Smash Bros. They are different games but I feel they scratch a similar itch. As long as you're not into competitive 1v1 Smash with no items anyway.

Rush 2049 offers a lot of modes. I'm not a racing fan, so I mostly played deathmatch and stunt modes. Deathmatch is kinda a Twisted Metal lite, I think I enjoy it more than TM at times due to tighter design. Stunt is just Tony Hawk, except all you can do are aerial spins with a winged car. I'm not sure how well it holds up now to be honest but I have fond memories.

There's a number of fighting games on the platform too. SC1, MvC2, DoA2 - might be worth checking out if you don't have access to these titles on other platforms. 4P tag battle in DoA2 is pretty hilarious.

I know there's some obscure Gundam games exclusive to the platform, so if you're a Gundam fan it might be worth digging about.

Virtual On Oratorio Tangram is also on there. I'm a big fan of VOOT. But if you have a 360 I think the version there might be better.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Obviously Seaman. If you are looking for interesting games, this is it.

This is Seaman, he'll have conversations with you about a wide range of topics such as science, philosophy, media, and more. Keep him happy and healthy so he can evolve. The Narrator of the game (not the fish) is also Leonard Nimoy.

 

[Kae]

Obviously Seaman. If you are looking for interesting games, this is it.

This is Seaman, he'll have conversations with you about a wide range of topics such as science, philosophy, media, and more. Keep him happy and healthy so he can evolve. The Narrator of the game (not the fish) is also Leonard Nimoy.

Yeah, that looks like a trip, going to need to get a hold of the microphone too though.

 

[Piscian]

It's difficult to recommend dreamcast games because people gush over it already so much that it's hard to imagine someone doesn't know all the great ones. I'll just point out a couple I think have gotten lost in the noise

Armada - Great spaceship RPG. It's co-op up to 4 players very similar to Diablo. It's actually now an indie hosted MMO on PC.

Tokyo Xtreme Racer - I love this RPG racing game because it reminds me a lot of "Initial D", you can even use the AE86. It's not a traditional racing game. YOu drive around Tokyo challenging racers from other illegal racing teams to duels. You outrace them in a ad-hoc duel where in the your cars HP declines the further away the cars are over a timed period. When you win you get money to build up your car or buy new cars. This to my knowledge is still pretty unique.

Tech Romancer - 2p fighting game where you play as Kaiju. It's actually got a full story mode with alternate paths and endings. Extremely good.

Also worth mentioning if you didn't know, the dreamcast is actually an arcade console. It shares a nearly identical motherboard/architecture with both the Sega Naomi and Sammy Atomiswave. The Atomiswave is a successor to the SNK Neo Geo. The majority of Dreamcast titles are arcade direct ports. You can actually download all the Atomiswave games to the dreamcast on either disc or SD.

Dreamcast Atomiswave ports

*I have a Sega naomi project ongoing at home

 

[BrawlMan]

It's difficult to recommend dreamcast games because people gush over it already so much that it's hard to imagine someone doesn't know all the great ones. I'll just point out a couple I think have gotten lost in the noise

Armada - Great spaceship RPG. It's co-op up to 4 players very similar to Diablo. It's actually now an indie hosted MMO on PC.

Tokyo Xtreme Racer - I love this RPG racing game because it reminds me a lot of "Initial D", you can even use the AE86. It's not a traditional racing game. YOu drive around Tokyo challenging racers from other illegal racing teams to duels. You outrace them in a ad-hoc duel where in the your cars HP declines the further away the cars are over a timed period. When you win you get money to build up your car or buy new cars. This to my knowledge is still pretty unique.

Tech Romancer - 2p fighting game where you play as Kaiju. It's actually got a full story mode with alternate paths and endings. Extremely good.

Also worth mentioning if you didn't know, the dreamcast is actually an arcade console. It shares a nearly identical motherboard/architecture with both the Sega Naomi and Sammy Atomiswave. The Atomiswave is a successor to the SNK Neo Geo. The majority of Dreamcast titles are arcade direct ports. You can actually download all the Atomiswave games to the dreamcast on either disc or SD.

Dreamcast Atomiswave ports

*I have a Sega naomi project ongoing at home
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Do you have Demolished Fist by any chance? A pretty decent brawler from 2003. For all that is Sonic, Sega had a weird habit of making 3D or 2.5D brawlers and not making them Streets of Rage 4 or some type of 3D spin-off. In the end, their stubbornness and incompetentence paved the way for someone else to do a better job.

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[Piscian]

Do you have Demolished Fist by any chance? A pretty decent brawler from 2003. For all that is Sonic, Sega had a weird habit of making 3D or 2.5D brawlers and not making them Streets of Rage 4 or some type of 3D spin-off. In the end, their stubbornness and incompetentence paved the way for someone else to do a better job.

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Yes and no. I actually collect sammy carts, but I havent been able to talk myself into picking it up. I want a non-bootleg, but they start off pretty pricey. Im hoping the whole dreamcast port thing starts eating at the price of games that never got a retail port which I believe DF and Dolphin Blue did not. I can however play it on my naomi. I'm using a tool that lets me webhost all my games and Flash them to the naomi ad-hoc so I can play it, it's in my collection. My friend Marrisa has a real cart so Im gonna pretend like I own it

 

[stroopwafel]

I got a dreamcast back in the day for Code Veronica and the only games I ever played on it were that one and Skies of Arcadia. After that the PS2 came out and the dreamcast was kind of left to collect dust. I remember both games were great though but I have no idea how well they've held up. But atleast you have the opportunity to play them on original hardware which is always the best way to play a game.

 

[BrawlMan]

I got a dreamcast back in the day for Code Veronica and the only games I ever played on it were that one and Skies of Arcadia. After that the PS2 came out and the dreamcast was kind of left to collect dust. I remember both games were great though but I have no idea how well they've held up. But atleast you have the opportunity to play them on original hardware which is always the best way to play a game.

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