The Dreamcast was Sega’s final console, and it was undeniably a great system to go out on. During its brief lifespan, the Dreamcast received a flurry of great titles, including Sonic Adventure and Rayman 2: The Great Escape, both of which helped influence gaming for years to come.
While many Dreamcast games found a wider audience after they were ported to other systems, some titles faded away after the Sega console stopped production, which is a shame. Games like Super Magnetic Neo have been forgotten, but they’re shining examples of what made the Dreamcast special.
Segagaga Is a Celebration of Sega
Segagaga is an RPG that is set in the year 2025 under totally implausible conditions. Here, Sega is still in the console market, although, just like in real life, its glory days have long passed. Instead, it is DOGMA that is holding a commanding chokehold over the console market, and if Sega goes down, they’ll have a monopoly over the gaming industry.
It’s easy to dismiss Segagaga has a coping mechanism for Sega, which stopped making consoles the year the game was released. However, it’s a game where all the best Sega characters, including Sonic the Hedgehog and Alex Kidd, come together to take down a near-monopoly. While it was never released outside Japan, Segagaga is worth playing.
Blue Stinger Is a Surprisingly Weird Action Game
Blue Stinger is an action-adventure game set 18 years after an earthquake causes much of the Yucatan Peninsula to sink into the Gulf of Mexico. All that’s left behind is a small island dubbed Dinosaur Island, which has become a global research hub. When the island is struck by a meteorite, all kinds of monsters are unleashed.
It’s easily one of the weirdest Dreamcast games, which is only masked by Blue Stinger‘s seemingly simple premise. At times, the game plays more like a survival horror romp, but it’s far more action-oriented than contemporary Resident Evil installments and, more relevantly, Dino Crisis. That actually works in the game’s favor, but it hasn’t done much to help gamers remember it.
Illbleed Is an Underrated Horror Game
Illbleed is a survival horror game set in an amusement park that’s more than it seems. Main character Eriko Christy just wants to find her friends who have gotten lost within the park, but during her search, she encounters all sorts of creepy creatures, many of which want nothing more than to torture and mutilate her and her friends.
It’s a shame that Illbleed remains stuck on the Dreamcast. Each stage pays homage to all kinds of horror films, with terrifying enemies and deadly traps that have to be carefully neutralized. There are virtually no other survival horror games like it, and its B-movie tone makes the whole thing a blast.
Toy Commander Isn’t Just Another Toy Story
Toy Commander is an action-adventure game with a premise not wholly unlike that of the classic animated film Toy Story. The human boy in both cases is named Andy, and like in Toy Story, the Andy in Toy Commander has gotten new toys for Christmas. However, that’s all the two have in common, since the toys in Toy Commander go to war against each other.
What makes Toy Commander so fascinating is how its seemingly simple family-friendly premise turns into something so delightfully action-packed and chaotic. The same can be said of the gameplay, which has the new toys going all around the house and taking down the old toys. Some of those toys function as weapons themselves, such as a helicopter equipped with a rifle.
Super Magnetic Neo Is an Amazing Sega Platformer
Super Magnetic Neo is a platforming adventure game set in the high-tech Pao Pao amusement park. The place is usually joyful, but that isn’t the case right now. Pinki, Yasu, and Gasu, all residents of the park, have formed a gang and taken over the entire establishment. It’s up to the robot Neo to reclaim Pao Pao and stop the so-called Pinki gang from furthering its plans.
By taking place at an amusement park, Super Magnetic Neo sets up plenty of fun platforming challenges for the player to get through. Neo himself has special abilities that can help him overcome obstacles or eliminate those in his way. It all comes down to whether he has enough energy to intercept enemies or destroy them. That element makes Super Magnetic Neo all the more fun to play.
Tech Romancer Is an Underrated Mecha Game
Tech Romancer is a fighting game that, like most Dreamcast games, was originally released in arcades before making its way to the Dreamcast. The game takes place in the distant future, where aliens are carrying out an assault on Earth. Thankfully, many of Earth’s inhabitants are equipped with top-of-the-line mecha robots.
While it’s from the first fighting game to feature mechas, Tech Romancer is particularly clever in how the exact specifications of these robots affect their performance against other mechs. Mechas must have the right amount of armor and power-ups to take down the aliens. Tech Romancer is a highly strategic game, which makes it all the more engaging to play.
Cannon Spike is a multi-directional shooter with elements of the fighting game genre added in. Its premise is that, somewhere in the distant future, terrorism is running rampant all over the world, thanks to a faltering global economy. In response, global authorities establish special military units equipped with motor boots, which help them combat these terrorist organizations.
This title is basically Capcom and the Dreamcast’s answer to Super Smash Bros., with characters from Capcom franchises including Street Fighter, Mega Man, Ghosts ‘n Goblins, and others. However, what sets it apart is that these classic characters are teaming up to battle enemies instead of each other.
Cannon Spike has short missions that end in a boss fight, and that setup almost makes it feel like a boss rush game filled with fan-favorite characters. It would be amazing to see Capcom revisit Cannon Spike on another system.