Last weekend, on Sunday the 9th of September, marked the eighth birthday of one of the most underrated and underappreciated console to grace the American market. In a nutshell, it ran on 128-bit hardware, had a load of A-list titles, and was just awesome to play. But because of poor marketing decisions, it went into a downward spiral of low sales figure. To say it wasn’t commercially successful was an understatement. Ironically, Peter Moore, former Xbox 360 PR mogul, used to helm the marketing side of this console. Perhaps his venture in Sega was a lifelong lesson on how he should improve his marketing and PR skills before working for Microsoft.

Moving on, I would like to point out the many landmarks the Dreamcast created, both the good, the bad, and the obligatory “WTFs”.

- It started Cel-Shading

Jet Grind Radio. That’s all to it. This title brought in a new graphics engine which made cartoon-style graphics vibrant and possible. What could have been laughable and ridiculous ended up being a tour-de-force of a whole new art style; so much to the point that a few years later, other games copied the style to the point of it being overused. Of course, you can’t have just good graphics unless you have gameplay to back it up, and Jet Grind Radio has it in spades. You pretty much have the freedom to grind on almost anything while spraying the city with your funky graffiti to incite the ruthless authority of the city. You don’t see games like Tony Hawk attempting that.

This picture has nothing to do with the article. I just happen to like this skin a lot.

- It started a revolutionary fighting game franchise

The soul still burns….

Let’s be honest here: as much as Namco’s Soul Blade/Soul Edge was good, it was put down as being “Tekken with weapons” and not much else. So what better way to one-up their “second” weapons-based game (WeaponLord was first, look it up) onto a console built like an arcade system? SoulCalibur improved Soul Edge in a lot of ways: new characters with rather interesting playstyles, has a semblance of a plot worth giving a damn in a fighting game, refined parries and guarding system, great graphics, and a soundtrack to die for. It’s not that often you hear symphonies and orchestras contributing to the soundtrack of a fighting game. The extra modes in this game also gave it a lot of replay value.

Killer app? Yep, that IS a valid title of honor for this gem. All of this placed SoulCalibur above the pack of 3D fighting games. Well, until the “spaced-out-title “sequels watered down its quality, balance, and credibility, but that’s a story for another time (and one I wouldn’t be touching with a stick anytime soon, I hope)

- It started the downward spiral of a mascot

All things need to step forward into the 21st century eventually. We can’t all just play Space Invaders until the end of time: humans crave innovation, or at the very least, style and substance. Thus it would make sense that the Sonic games, in which you just run as fast as possible through craftily-designed levels, needed an upgrade. Hence, Sonic Adventure 1 & 2, followed by Sonic Heroes and the magnum opus, Shadow The Hedgehog. Not a wise move in the long-term run, Sega.

To be fair, when you play as Sonic, it was pretty fun. Blaze past the level, use your new Homing Attack (which fits well and conveniently, given his new 3D bearings), be careful of the big, fat whale, but enough about my A-Level “female” classmate. It was that one bit where Sonic roams around the Town Hub which definitely turned the series into something slower paced. Any word synonymous with the word “slow” in a Sonic game is what constitutes as retarded logic. With so much running back and forth, equipped with disorientating camera angles, it was as if our blue buddy was trying too hard to please the next-gen crowd.

On top of that insult was the introduction of the sidekicks and their adventures that bogged his status. Tails and Knuckles were more than enough: do we really need Sonic’s stalker..i mean fangirl and a big blue fishing cat as playable characters? Do we really need a poser dubbed in black paint equipped with roller skates? Do we really need an anthropomophic bat that would elicit the furry community into a masturbatoric frenzy?

No further badgering, even Penny Arcade stated that one of the Sonic Adventure games was “best Sonic game in which didn’t star Sonic.” I’ll just stick to the Virtual Console and Live Arcade for my old-school Sonic fix. Oh yeah, and the Nintendo DS too.

- It heralded the MMORPG revolution

Put it this way: World of Warcraft owes a lot to Phantasy Star Online. It was one of the few games which built the template for accessible online RPGing. With the Dreamcast’s broadband capabilities, people from all over the Americas and Japan could play with each other with a smooth connection, killing space beasties, completing missions in co-operating harmony, and communicating without a fuss with the Symbol Chat. For those feeling inferior with starting off online weak, you can also buff yourself up in Normal Mode. I didn’t play this one much, but a few of my friends overseas did, and they did have a ball of a time.

And how does Sega treat this dignified franchise? By turning it into a card game. As I stated before, Sega runs on retarded logic.

- It was the template for a ridiculous control scheme
As much as some people proclaim the Dreamcast’s controller as “ungodly to hold”, I actually liked the D-pad and the overall handling to it. Pulling off moves and tricks felt more comfortable on its well-crafted Directional Pad, as oppose to the “d-pad” on the Playstation controllers. Above all else, this was a precursor to what people will be using in the next few years during the console’s descendant into obscurity: the X-Box Controller.(make comparison)

Look at it: Analog and D-pad almost in the same spot, the awkward size, the placement of the right-side buttons with the same colors to boot.

- It turned into a “home arcade” of sorts

Street Fighter 3 or Mark Of The Wolves? Play both, dammit! They’re both hella sweet!

With a system that could run just as powerful as, oh say, a NAOMI arcade board, the Dreamcast housed a lot of Capcom arcade games. Capcom VS SNK, Marvel VS Capcom 2, Tech Romancer, Cannon Spike, the Powerstone series. Some series, like Puzzle Fighter and Super SF2 Turbo, comes with a matching service system for online play, to take advantage of the broadband adapter. On Sega’s part, we’ve got Daytona and Virtua Fighter 3, just to list a few. Let’s also not forget that it housed arcade faves like Street Fighter 3: Third Strike and Garou: Mark Of The Wolves. Believe. Oh wait, wrong console.

- It had a library of good titles

Skies of Arcadia, Bangaio, Ikaruga, the second Rayman game, Samba de Amigo, Bomberman (equipped with cel-shading!), Looney Toons Space Race. Those are just a few that sprung to the top of my mind.

- ….marred with a few bad ones

Illbleed, DeathCrimson OX, Carrier, Blue Stinger. Apparently, the Dreamcast was a bastion for badly-made survival horror games. Bonus points to Carrier for having the best name ever for a female protaganist: Jessifer. The designers couldn’t choose between Jennifer or Jessica, so a combination of both names would sound plausible in theory. Once again, retarded logic crashes into this party.

Another year, another anniversary date has passed us by. Fare thee well, Dreamcast, and may your memories both good and bad resonate into the hearts of those who basked in your gloriness. So readers, what ARE your favorite Sega Dreamcast moments? Post your comments as I part this column with a candidly loving shot of a SoulCalibur alumni, Xianghua.

My soul’s not the only thing burning, baby

Pictures courtesy of VGMuseum, GIA, and their respective owners.

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