"I'm afraid it's not thinking anymore, doctor..."

"Daddy, what is a 'Dreamcast'...?"

An awkward name for a console that launched in the US at an unorthodox date: 9/9/99. It was the first 'next-generation' system, and its -short- existence could be summarized by one word: progress.

Indeed, the project behind the Dreamcast was exceptionally ambitious: Sega wanted to create a 128-bit system with popular and inventive games and be the pioneer of the console online gaming at the same time. The Dreamcast was a way for the parent company of the blue hedgehog to move on with its past and unite gamers from all horizons, and their marketing strategy clearly put the emphasis on this point.

The console itself showed that Sega had listened to the players' wishes: a small and slick look, four controller ports, memory cards -called VMUs- that could be used as a handheld, a new support to discourage pirates, a controller with both analog and digital sticks... But what's more, the Dreamcast had an incredible potential: superb graphics processor, good sound chips and large amount of RAM. Need I say more?

"'Dreamcast'...?"

A system that struggled against many skeptical gamers due to Sega's previous failures, namely the 32X, the Sega CD and the Saturn, and partly died because of the gamers' bias towards Sony and their PlayStation 2.

The Dreamcast apparently had all you need to become the favorite console of the next decade: good and original games, small price and attitude. But in the end, it turned out to be a nightmare.

The Dreamcast had a very good game selection in almost every genre, but it was very soon labeled as an 'arcade console'.

Where is shines the most is in the fighter genre: every fan owes it to himself to get a Dreamcast to enjoy great games such as the King of Fighters games, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, Marvel versus Capcom 2 and SoulCalibur. It would be tedious to mention all of them, but Guilty Gear X, Project Justice and Last Blade 2 also deserve a mention. Sega even produced a very good arcade stick in cooperation with Agetec, although I hear that it's getting hard to find nowadays. The Dreamcast also fares very well in the shooter genre: between Mars Matrix, Bangai-o, Cannon Spike and Gigawing 2 you will surely find a game to your taste. Some of the best sport games ever have been Dreamcast exclusives for a long time thanks to Sega's Sports 2K series. For you platformer fans out there, it can also play both Sonic Adventure games and Rayman 2. The only area in which this dream console isn't that good is in the rpg department: late fans that discovered this unique genre will be disappointed to find out that only Grandia 2 and Skies of Arcadia are really worth their time. The Dreamcast also has some of the best racers, like F355 and Test Drive Le Mans. You're a FPS fan? No problem, Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament are just for you!

And there are the other games, the ones that totally reflect this idea of 'progress'. Jet Grind Radio, although not as innovative as it was hyped to be, showed the creativity of the Sega developers. Seaman, an odd game in which you have to raise an animal by talking to him through a microphone, was an adventurous enterprise, too. Space Channel 5, a game in which you do nothing but make the crazy Ulala dance. Shenmue, a controversial realistic rpg. Samba de Amigo emphasized on the idea of fun by making you shake your maracas...

But let's be honest, as every console, the Dreamcast also had its share of bad games. Mortal Kombat Gold, Blue Stinger, Godzilla, Evolution and Climax Landers were all pretty crappy. Outtrigger was also disappointing. However, this console has a very good good games/bad games ratio.

"Then what the hell went wrong?"

Many things, to be honest:

First off, the Dreamcast probably came out at the wrong time: most players were still hooked on their PlayStation and decided to wait for its successor. In retrospection, the Dreamcast was way ahead of its time. One look at Namco's SoulCalibur's graphics should force anyone to admit that its potential was impressive. This title had the effect of an atomic bomb on the gaming community and contributed a lot to the hardware's success in the US. But sadly, sales never took off in Japan. Sega understood this and did everything to please American players (Seganet free trial, good prices, extras added for certain games), but it seems Japan is still where it counts the most: most third party developers -including Namco- slowly decided to quit the ship, and let the Dreamcast sink like the Titanic.

Sega's "original" titles basically all bombed, mainly because of their poor marketing technique. I remember the Genesis commercials from a while ago, and they had this coolness factor that the Dreamcast's seemed to lack. They forgot to focus on the most important thing: showing game footage. Sega's obscure ads made the Dreamcast appear as a hardcore gamer's console.

Sega probably tried too hard, sometimes. They spent ungodly amounts of money advertising a game with basically no mainstream appeal like Space Channel 5. They also decided not to release the House of the Dead 2 official light gun, which was a mistake. They tried too hard to make the online experience a success by spoiling Americans and forgetting the rest of the world. But Phantasy Star Online is a nice illustration of the current state of console online play: it's uncontrollable. The game was a success for a few months, before a bunch of bandits armed with Gamesharks decided to ruin the game by stealing and killing everyone. Maybe it's just too soon.

Finally, their "extraordinary" new format, the GD-rom, was actually nothing special. Since most games don't use the full capacity of the support, pirates could just rip the game info onto a normal CD. While piracy didn't kill Sega, it probably helped a bit and discouraged them.

"Is the Dreamcast dead?"

Yes. No. Maybe.

Pick one.

Yes, it is already dead, in the sense that it is clear that only a few titles are going to be released on this platform from now on. The announcement of the production stop last March was only the "coup de grace" to Sega's last attempt at producing hardware: you cannot ask a company to take a "life-threatening" risk by supporting a product and ignoring its own financial problems, that would be just... dumb. Anyone who remembers them saying that they have "learned from their past mistakes" must recognize the fact that it was at least partially true. The Dreamcast was an exceptional console with no apparent flaw, and its failure is another sign that the gaming scene has evolved in some way. RIP Dreamcast 2001.

No, it is not dead, because as long as you continue playing a system or a game, it is not dead. And many people still play Dreamcast, especially hardcore fans, apparently. But it is true that this summer appears as a drought period, the quietness before the storm (presumably the releases of Nintendo's Gamecube and Microsoft's X-Box). People still play the Playstation and the Saturn today. It probably sounds too much like a cliché, but nothing ever dies until it is totally out of everyone's minds.

Maybe. It only depends on you, reader, actually. You decide whether you want the Dreamcast to be forgotten and when you want to see its games to off the shelves. You decide if you want to keep discussiong the Dreamcast on message boards and help people realize how great this system was during its short lifespan.

"Don't blame Sega, blame Sony of course!"

Strangely enough, most Sega fans seem to blame Sony for their beloved machine's death. But I don't get that. It has ALWAYS been about money. No company blindly decides to listen their fans' requests without thinking about profit. Every company has realized the potential of home systems when Atari systems and later the NES have been a huge successes around the world. Sure, we can acknowledge the fact that some companies seem to have different marketing techniques, and offer better deals for the gamers, but it's all about the benjamins, baby! If Sega was in Sony's position right now, they would probably act the same, sell unnecessary accessories for unaffordable prices, refusing to lower the price of their baby (yes, we understand that damn chip is expensive to produce, but given how fast computer prices evolve, it shouldn't be a factor anymore in a few weeks...), and sounding somewhat arrogant in their press conference releases. Sony did not kill anything... In a capitalist world, "this" was meant to happen, and as sad as it may sound, there is no turning back now. Personal gripes is one thing, lack of knowledge of the market is another one. Don't hate on Sony just because they "won".

"The last word...?"

That being said, the Dreamcast is still an excellent console today. With its unbeatable price and its great selection of titles, it's still heaps better than the PS2, one year after its launch. The big PS2 games keep getting delayed or are just plain disappointed, and the next generation of consoles is almost here already... The Dreamcast was the first one to fall in the war, but it won't be the only one.

I recommend the Dreamcast to anyone who pretends being a videogame fan. It's an interesting experience that can't be forgotten. Don't let Sega's previous mistakes fool you: this is one of the best sytems ever. It's true that there are very few games coming out for it now, but you will surely be busy with the ones that are out already. Sega's last console was a failure, but it's still an exceptional system, which shows that the gaming world has somewhat changed: it's not about who does the better games anymore.

But the PS2 is better because it can play DVDs.

Only kidding. The Dreamcast simply kicks the holy ass.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/18/01, Updated 02/02/03