How many of you have or at one time had a Dreamcast? Probably most of you if you’re around my age (21). When it came out, I just mooched off my friends who had one until I got my own Dreamcast console by trading my friend a copy of Metal Gear Solid 2 for his. Unfortunately, thanks to the innovation that was trading games in for cash, I immediately went to the nearest gaming store and sold it for $30. I didn’t realize at the time what a profound impact the Dreamcast had on the gaming world and how even after nearly a decade people enjoy playing their Dreamcast and its games.
I remember seeing NFL 2K on display at Toys R Us and being completely mesmerized. When I went over to my friend’s house and watched him explore the world of Grandia II, I couldn’t tear my eyes from the screen. Dreamcast was the first next generation console and it showed gamers a whole new level of graphics and game play not seen on previous consoles like Nintendo 64 and Playstation. Zombies looked exactly how zombies should look in House of the Dead 2 and Skies of Arcadia took role players to new heights in terms of game play and graphics.
I still speculate today about why the Dreamcast crashed and burned, starting out strong for a bout a year until the PS2 came and finished it off. Despite the difference in hardware specs between the two consoles, it was hard for me to find a discrepancy in graphics between them.
Of course there were many factors that contributed to Dreamcasts’ downfall, one was the reputation of its main rival, PlayStation 2. Gamers already owning a PlayStation were steadfast in their loyalty to Sony and Sega’s attempts to persuade them were in vain. Even so many people at the time were predicting that Dreamcast would win the console wars, since PS2 games introduced when the console came out were pretty awful, so its future was fairly uncertain.
Despite that, the legacy of the Dreamcast will live on; classics like Shenmue, Soul Calibur and Sonic are still enjoyed today by nostalgic gamers. Who knows? Maybe the pleas of gamers will be heard by Sega and they will come out with what everyone really wants, Dreamcast 2.