The Sega Dreamcast holds an interesting place in gaming history. As the last console released by one of the most famous companies in gaming history, a variety of issues caused its life to be cut short. As a result, it garnered cult status with gamers, eventually being praised as a console that was well ahead of its time that laid the groundwork that most consoles we love to use today.
Unfortunately, we may have gone a little too far with our nostalgia. That isn't to say the Dreamcast isn't worthy of praise. In fact, it deserves a lot of credit, but in some ways we've built the console up to be something it never was. With that in mind, we are going to look at both ends of the spectrum. Here are 5 reasons why Sega Dreamcast was the best, and 5 reasons why it's overrated.
10 Best: The First Party Games
While one can argue the PlayStation 2 had the best lineup of games for its generation, The Sega Dreamcast had the most unique. With games like Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Shenmue, Seaman, and more, players were introduced to one of the most varied libraries in gaming history. All of this happened between 1999 (the console's North American release) and 2001 (when the console was eventually discontinued).
That's without mentioning the genre-defining games in its library like Skies of Arcadia, Sonic Adventure, and Sonic Adventure 2. The fact is, if you owned a Sega Dreamcast, you were treated to games aplenty, and for a period of time, they were exclusive to that console.
9 Overrated: Big Games Ported To Other Consoles
Unfortunately, a console generation doesn't end when one manufacturer calls it quits. When Sega dropped out of the console race, Microsoft was more than happy to fill that void, and Sega became one of the generation's most reputable publishers. Sonic Adventure and its sequel were ported to the Nintendo Gamecube alongside Crazy Taxi and Skies of Arcadia, while Shenmue II found its way to the Xbox. While this is hardly all of Sega's library, they were big games that ended up on other systems.
Aside from that, games that were once exclusive to Sega platforms like Marvel vs Capcom 2 ended up on more lucrative platforms as well. While, for its time, the Dreamcast had a great library, for the most part, you didn't need the console to experience a majority of its greatest hits.
8 Best: Arcade Fidelity
If you loved arcade games in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Dreamcast was your system of choice. Not only did you have the pick of the litter when it came to Sega's arcade offerings like Virtua Cop, Crazy Taxi, and House of the Dead, you were also treated to perfect ports of games like Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Soul Calibur.
The fact of the matter is, no console was able to house arcade games like the Dreamcast, and back in that time, that was a fantastic leap in technology.
7 Overrated: Less Powerful Than Competitors
While the Dreamcast was built for arcade games when the next generation of consoles came from Sony and Nintendo, Sega's console wasn't as impressive. In fact, the Dreamcast was less powerful than its biggest competitor — the PlayStation 2. While we won't get into the numbers, it's widely accepted that the PlayStation 2 could do things the Dreamcast simply couldn't.
While that doesn't mean the system wasn't capable, there is a reason why the console's biggest games had definitive editions on systems that were once its competitors. Making matters worse, the Dreamcast didn't offer DVD capabilities, which hurt its chances against the second Sony console.
6 Best: Online Play
Before the Sega Dreamcast, online gaming was not a realistic option on home consoles. Sure, PC players were probably accustomed to this feature, and Apple's brief foray into console gaming did host online play, but the Sega Dreamcast was the most realized online gaming platform at the time.
Allowing players to take on others from across the globe, there was nothing like this experience before, and it took until the launch of the Xbox for players to experience it again. Interestingly enough, Sony did not include online play in the original build for the PlayStation 2, meaning the Dreamcast was ahead of its time in this department.
5 Overrated: Short Life Cycle
While the Dreamcast is a console of extreme highs, it's also one of extreme lows. Perhaps the lowest anyone who owned a Dreamcast felt was on March 31, 2001, when Sega stopped producing the system. That puts the system's life cycle at just under three years in North America (four in Japan). To put into perspective how short that is, a general rule of thumb is that a console's life cycle lasts around five years.
Interestingly enough, however, the PlayStation 2 was officially discontinued in 2013. While that is a rarity, when you consider how that was the console's biggest rival, it really puts how short the Dreamcast's life cycle was.
4 Best: The Controller
One of the best things about the Sega Dreamcast is something that looks pretty bad — its controller. While it is clunky, only has one control stick, and has a wire that came out the bottom instead of the top, the controller works for the console.
Fitting perfectly in the user's hand, it also features triggers, which were an anomaly at the time. Adding to this, the controller came with a removable memory card — dubbed VMU for Visual Memory Unit — this little guy also acted as a simple portable game system. This addition allowed players to take a piece of their games on the go, even if it was extremely basic technology.
3 Overrated: No Killer App
While the Sega Dreamcast had a wide variety of good to great games, it failed to host a game that captivated an entire generation. The Xbox had Halo, the PlayStation 2 had God of War and Shadow of Colossus, and the Gamecube had Super Mario Sunshine, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, and Metroid Prime, while the Dreamcast's most popular title was arguably Sonic Adventure.
For whatever reason, the Dreamcast failed to host a title that worked its way into the collective consciousness of the gaming community, but that wasn't for a lack of trying.
2 Best: The Sports Games
One thing the Sega Dreamcast holds over its competitors was exclusive sports titles. This is because of a falling out between the console maker and EA caused by some business decisions during the Sega Saturn years.
To deal with this, Sega launched the 2K line of sports titles, and for a time, they rivaled everything EA offered. Aside from that, the Dreamcast was also the host console for Virtua Tennis, which still plays like a dream 20 years later. Compared to the competition, the Dreamcast killed it in the sports game department.
1 Overrated: Easy Pirating
The Dreamcast's biggest flaw is easily its issues with piracy. While for the average player, this probably wasn't that big of a problem, this problem is arguably the biggest factor in causing the downfall of the system.
This is because, unlike other consoles of the time, Sega went with GD-Roms as the console's main disk format. Unfortunately for the console maker, the system's architecture could be used to read burned CD's, meaning it was easier for players to just pirate titles compared to buying them outright.