VO II is more or less the best DC game ever made. It’s by far the best looking DC game. And the gameplay is just so deep (even deeper than VF).
Its SEGA’s best Arcade to Console conversion EVER.
Also some other top DC games that are overlooked are D2 (Awesome game), Marvel Vs II, Maken X, Super Runabout, Berserk, Speed Devils
[quote=“Team Andromeda”]
Its SEGA’s best Arcade to Console conversion EVER.[/quote]
Well, yeah, thanks for that. It’s only the game that I couldn’t play because SoE decided that the European public wouldn’t buy it sob
I loved VO on the Saturn and I was really annoyed when VOOT wasn’t released in Europe.
Bangai-o was good, but I wouldn’t put it in my list of favorite games ever. It was great fun to play for short periods of time, but it can get bit monotonous. The plot was… unique.
What the what is VO??
Virtual On.
my are:
1:skies of arcadia, i have it on the gamecube too.
2:shenmue 1/2.
3:soul calibur
4:grandia 2.
5:phantasy star online.
6:sonic adventure
7:D2
8:sword of berserk.
I just picked up Crazy Taxi 2 for the stunning price of ?9.
I’m debating whether to sell it on for a an appalling profit or keep it in my already overflowing collection.
Chances are I won’t play it much, but if I do sell it, I know I’ll regret it. I think I will, at least.
:-/
I actually thought the Berserk anime sorta sucked. I’m an avid fan of the manga, and so much was changed that it reallly lessened the impact for me.
And since I already knew the story going into the anime, what I was looking for was a great presentation of the story. Instead, what I got was a low budget anime that uses still shots with camera pans to portray action sequences o_O
As for the Sammy published game, it’s being developed by the same team as the original. But, the game will follow the storyline of the manga, was is WAAAAY beyond where the anime left off.
I can better that. I got it for free off a mate who thought it sucked. Fact is, he couldn’t crazy dash, or limit cut, so of course he thought it sucked.
Funny time travel/ancient history reading the old posts above this so shortly after DC’s death. I probably overhyped some stuff like Quake III just to give the ol Dreamcast some more of the praise it didn’t get (and at the same time hadn’t yet had the chance to play other great games, like the mentioned VIrtual On 2) 
I’ve now played Aero Dancing i and it would have been a favorite if I had it back then. I guess the same goes for Aero Dancing F/AeroWings 2: Airstrike but i is another step above, as F/2 was from the original. It is up there with the best of Dreamcast both as a game and visually (alongside the bonus disc Jikai Saku Made Matemasen, but the full game is the one with just the first simple name, don’t go by sega retro calling the former an updated edition as it doesn’t include the original missions, though it’s worth getting after you exhaust the main game and want more, like the Harrier Jump Jet it includes). It’s the last of the series on the Dreamcast (before it was abandoned after a PS2 entry) which once again improved across the board.
Graphically it doesn’t appear to lack anything compared to its (other, as it also released on the PC itself) contemporary PC flight simulators (like 2001’s legendary IL-2 Sturmovik many months later). It has detailed plane models with sharp textures, good looking terrain of various types, some perhaps old school effects for things like missile trails that still look pretty great as a whole aesthetically, a very reasonable draw distance for the dense 3D buildings in the city based mission areas and practically infinite for the levels that only have certain 3D landmarks, bases, carriers, etc. to populate them alongside potential targets.
It also plays great with the series’ usual realistic flight physics and systems, while they also added manual target and weapon selection (that seemingly couldn’t fit in the previous game given the Dreamcast pad’s limited inputs leaving those up to the cpu and situational context). It even has 2 player split screen pvp dogfights that seemed to perform just fine. It’s probably among the most underrated games too, there’s almost no footage of good 60fps (yep, it’s a slick 60fps game, when playing solo at least) quality.
It’s playable despite the Japanese as the training is first done on auto pilot to demonstrate so you just repeat afterwards and the mission objectives are simple to understand even if tough to accomplish. I guess you can always play the previous games to get the gist of it better first.
Is everyone familiar with the changes to DOA2’s Japanese release? Apparently it has some higher detail models and balance/move changes that bring it more on par with the arcade Millennium release. That’s another worthy favorite regardless of version but yeah, go for that one if any on the Dreamcast. You could also play as Bayman and the final boss in that version, though not in the story mode. Also, apparently the polycount of the models is higher than the conversion of Virtua Fighter 4 to PS2 which reduces the arcade game’s to half (plus you can see up to three characters at once for the tag moves and everything without so much as a hitch, though tag matches are restricted to the smallest arena and character polycounts are only part of the equation). Oh what could have been with another year or two of life for the ol Dreamcast.
I’m also partial to Daytona USA 2001 that I didn’t mention in my first post. It wasn’t a port, it wasn’t a sequel, but it was all Daytona and I really enjoyed it. It’s not like the Saturn Daytona games that were either very technically hampered or nothing like Daytona, it’s definitely got the series’ charm and looks beautiful too.
Similar to Aero Dancing i, F355 Challenge is one of the few racing sims I find myself actively trying to learn how to play and have fun doing so. It’s another Yu Suzuki classic with a wonderful port to the Dreamcast.
Back to the arcade side, Tokyo Xtreme Racer 2/ Tokyo Highway Challenge 2 was a very unique game at the time (well, not counting its predecessor). Though I was initially very disappointed it didn’t have the rad drifting of Saturn’s Drift King '97 from the same company, it was a very addictive game unlike any other.
And yeah, I only recently played Zero Gunner 2, after the (inferior) modern rerelease and it’s indeed super fun even though I’m not a huge fan of the genre (I guess mainly because I suck and can’t improve at all). Of course the Dreamcast has a host of great shmups but I couldn’t begin to tell you which are the best on it (alongside Ikaruga obviously). Under Defeat and Psyvariar 2 among others look pretty sweet however.
Rise from the Ashes is not the most amazing game but I simply love first person mech shenanigans and it seems like a spiritual successor to Saturn’s own Gundam Side Story games which were also rad (but not as rad as GunGriffon). It just needed some more tactical depth and missions but is ace regardless, I think they did a pretty great job with the concept given the Dreamcast gamepad’s undisputed deficiencies.
Sticking with Gundam the arcade port of Federation vs. Zeon DX (for some reason a 2 disc release with the non-DX version) is spot-on and offers some great fun, though it’s no Virtual On! It seems that recently fans have even revived its online mode and you can find some matches to watch on youtube. I know this series continues to be popular but is no longer made by Capcom, I wonder how it’s changed, from footage everything about it seems way more hyper and fast and over the top, like comparing SFA3 or MvC to SFII.
The Crazy Taxi games are impressive considering all the great vistas, the amount of traffic and even pedestrians in the most populated areas, etc., all at 60fps, making some pop in easy to forgive. People who said Dreamcast can’t do open worlds based on Headhunter’s deficiences couldn’t be more wrong.
And here’s a Shenmue II video dealing with some of my favorite parts that I mentioned in that ancient post.
I still liked the original more as an experience but there’s definitely more game there and it’s still damn ace. And then there was the great Code: Veronica which is one of my favorite old school Resident Evil games. These days you can even acquire a fan translated version of Code: Veronica X for the Dreamcast.
Phantasy Star Online is another game I spent ages on even though I never got to actually play it online…
A pretty great game that’s not often discussed is MDK2. The Dreamcast version is actually superior to its contemporaries with faux dynamic shadows even the PC lacked and better performance than the PS2. It’s not the greatest third person shooter nowadays but at the time it felt like an early genuine attempt at something along the lines of Halo, an experience to be recogned, tying everything together with great gameplay and a wonderful cinematic (if comedic and B movie esque) presentation. The Dreamcast version is also the toughest, often frustratingly so, as it lacks some refinement and difficulty options.
Speaking of what could have been, Agartha and GunValkyrie were super promising back then, it’s such a shame the former was abandoned and not moved to another system when the Dreamcast went belly up.
You can acquire the cancelled but complete Propeller Arena among others however and it’s pretty fun. It gets old pretty fast without the multiplayer it was meant to have (maybe even with it, it seems there aren’t any particularly in depth modes besides deathmatch and the “training” which takes you through a series of wacky challenges akin to the Crazy Taxi mini game modes) but it looks pretty damn great and could be seen as another example of a late Dreamcast game that showed some more of what it could achieve.
What else have you lot played and thought is worth a look, back then or even after the Dreamcast’s death? I’ll post every Dreamcast game if you let me keep talking to myself. Where are the Dynamite Cop, Maken X, Virtua Striker, Metropolis Street Racer, Fur Fighters, Project Justice, Record of Lodoss War, Grandia II, Jet Set/Grind Radio, Skies of/Eternal Arcadia, Hydro Thunder, Marvel vs. Capcom (& 2), Rez, Giant Gram, Virtua Tennis, The Typing/House of the Dead (2), Test Drive/Le Mans, Confidential Mission, Virtua Cop 2, Power Stone (& 2), Elemental Gimmick Gear, maybe Silver or Time Stalkers or overall Dreamcast fans at?