10 Dreamcast Games That Shaped Modern Gaming More Than Players Realized

I never had a Sega Dreamcast growing up. It betrays my Sega Genesis upbringing, but once I got a Game Boy Color and got introduced to Pokémon, my family just followed Pikachu wherever he went. I didn't get any whiff of the Sega Dreamcast in my purview until I got a copy of Sonic Adventure 2 Battle for Christmas, and I think you know already that it was just too late at that point. I'm making up for lost time by exploring the console's extensive library, and one truth keeps smacking me in the face.

I missed out. There were so many cool games that either captured what would be groundbreaking in the future. The Dreamcast was filled with creative, exclusive titles. These titles have been so broad and innovative that plenty of people have looked back and seen the emergence of important genres and business practices that would sweep gaming in the future.

Let's take a look at them all together. If I don't make your jaw drop at least once while you read, then I think I failed somewhere.

10 Samba De Amigo

A Wii Game Before There Was a Wii

Samba De Amigo is one of those games where players look back and realize it was just a bit too early for the party. Samba De Amigo was originally an arcade game where you used maracas with magnetic sensors, shaking them to the beat. The console version found a way to include the maracas with ultrasonic transmitters, but the US had a third of the maracas available for every copy of the game.

On the surface, it might be easy to think that Sega was six years ahead of Nintendo on the way the Wii handled motion controls, but truthfully, I'd argue something else. Samba De Amigo was eventually remade for the Wii itself, and it gave a chance for everyone to play the way Samba De Amigo was intended without having to spend money on rare unique controllers. Whether it was the motion controls itself or Samba De Amigo fitting right in with Wiimotes, this little excitable monkey was ahead of the game.

9 L.O.L.: Lack of Love

The Experimental Minimalist Game You Missed

There are a number of games that manage to be engaging and relatively quiet about what it's leading up to that captivates players. Ico and Shadow of the Colossus come to mind, but what if I told you that the Dreamcast had its own Ico just a year earlier? This is L.O.L: Lack of Love. An RPG, in terms of its creators, that remained exclusive to Japan, but wins the hearts of those who run across it.

I don't want to say too much, but its title ties into how its mechanics work, how you explore the world, and the overall story. You need to gather energy to be able to evolve, and you gather it by helping the surrounding creatures. There are plenty of games like L.O.L. that serve as quaint little artistic experiences that make you think about things, especially in the indie scene these days. L.O.L: Lack of Love's most surprising detail might be that it might be one of the first.

8 Time Stalkers

The Trendsetter No One Talked About

Time Stalkers is a very weird game. Before you get mad at me, I'm saying that affectionately, but when you look at it in hindsight, you can't help but go, "Huh." You travel through procedurally generated dungeons, picking up items and battling enemies in turn-based combat. It's also an RPG made to celebrate a crossover, albeit of Climax Entertainment's own IPs. Pretty daring move, considering it only had six games to pull from, and that's if I'm generous.

Has it clicked for you yet? While there were a number of Mystery Dungeon games around thanks to Spike Chunsoft, it wasn't nearly the popular genre it would become when Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games started being made. On top of that, Time Stalkers' Mystery Dungeon mechanics effectively make it a Roguelike way before indie games like Hades made the genre into a gigantic phenomenon. There's also something to be said about it technically being a crossover JRPG ahead of Kingdom Hearts. Neat.

7 Draconus: Cult of the Wyrm

The Dark Souls Before the Soulslikes?

Now, this one is a bit more debatable. Some retrospective analysis has looked at Draconus: Cult of the Wyrm years later and seen it as a bit of a Soulslike before Dark Souls even existed. In my opinion, it's a bit more tricky than that.

It has the third-person perspective of most Souls games, it has the same sword-and-shield-wielding combat, and a lot of the fights require you to understand the enemy's attack patterns to block attacks and deal hits of your own. At the same time, Draconus is very lenient in terms of difficulty, which is how some people consider it a hack-and-slash game. Cult of the Wyrm's forward-thinking is definitely worth a look, if people are willing to unearth it from the Dreamcast's library.

Personally, I don't think it should take the credit head of Dark Souls just because the camera during battles is so terrible that I feel like I might get motion sick because of it. That says something, because I rarely get motion sick.

6 Napple Tale: Arisa in Daydream

An RPG That Came and Went Like a Dream

In a world full of games claiming to be RPGs, you always want to do something different. For Final Fantasy, that typically means inventing new worlds and characters to get attached to. For the Persona series, there's a lot of exploration of human emotions and inhibitions that keep one from being their true self. And for Napple Tale: Arisa in Daydream... wait. What do you mean Napple Tale did both before Persona truly took off?

Yes. Despite its cutesy appearance, much like the Klonoa games, Napple Tale hides a sincere story about life, death, and what's worth holding onto that I doubt anyone expected behind its cute cover art. I doubt anyone expected it to have Yoko Kanno as its composer, either, so the entire soundtrack is a treat from start to finish. Like a lot of unique games, though, Napple Tale sadly remained Japan exclusive, but translations exist that help expand the game beyond the language barrier. I highly recommend giving it a try.

5 ChuChu Rocket!

The Future of Gaming Online is Finally Here

Online gaming is such an important part of our daily lives now that it's hard to imagine the rough start that it had. We've been trying to bridge the gap between playing with people online since the 1980s at the earliest. Sega would show some success with getting ahead in the market, but the most impressive display was with ChuChu Rocket, the first game for the Dreamcast with online multiplayer. You might be picturing the worst online play imaginable after everything I just said, but ChuChu Rocket actually performed incredibly well.

ChuChu Rocket was created to show the Dreamcast's processing power, rendering all the mice. It was also made to stress-test the Dreamcast's online servers in preparation for future titles. There was still a bit of lag for some players to deal with, but compared to some issues we deal with today (Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, I'm looking at you), ChuChu Rocket's online play was very impressive. Depending on the angle, we might have even regressed compared to what ChuChu Rocket gave us, too.

4 Sonic Adventure

An Unsung Look Into the Future

Sonic Adventure was incredibly advanced for its time. It was a visual spectacle, and no matter what anyone tells you these days, it was given plenty of 4-out-of-5 star reviews by the critics at the time. It certainly deserves to be seen as one of the best Sonic games of all time. While we're giving credit where it's due, though, there's one part to Sonic Adventure's impact you might not be aware of. Sonic Adventure was the first game to introduce DLC as we know it today.

There were a few downloadable content options in the past, like Game Line and Sega Channel. Sonic Adventure, though, would display special images and objects in Station Square depending on the real-life events happening at the time, including a special Dreamcast-themed launch party for Europe. DLC like this wouldn't be given a price tag until the Xbox 360 entered the market.

Now, I'm looking at games like Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds with all of its DLC and real-time events, surprised at how Sonic Adventure led the series and gaming so far.

3 Rune Jade

How Far We Have Fallen

On the same topic of downloadable content and live-service events, the internet is so important to games that we have entire titles that live on the internet. These games eventually reach the point where companies announce their end of service, and fan-favorite games are no longer obtainable or playable. It's even evolved to the point where games like Overwatch and Concord, which had physical releases, have disks that are no better than that coaster on your dining table, unused and stained with coffee.

In times like these, it's a bit sad to discover that one game got it right at the very start of the online gaming phenomenon. Rune Jade was a console MMORPG that was built to be played offline from the start. So, when the day came when Dreamcast games were eventually left without working servers, Rune Jade was far from lost forever. You can still play it today with a translation patch and even private servers.

Hopefully, we'll reach a day when Rune Jade and other, similar games, aren't ahead of the curve of the most popular live-service games of today. As long as we keep fighting for video game preservation, I'm sure we'll get there someday.

2 Shenmue

The Origin of the Open-World Genre as We Know It

I feel like Shenmue needs no introduction. Some players have issues with its voice acting, mechanical design, and combat, but for everyone who dislikes those aspects, there are people who enjoy them as they are. I'm a big fan of its atmosphere and graphical design myself. I think everyone agrees that the best part about Shenmue is the lengths it takes to give you a section of Japan to explore in the finest detail. Days pass through a day-and-night cycle, and the citizens you get to know and speak to have schedules you'll need to understand to talk to them when you need them.

When revisiting Shenmue for this list, one thing stuck out to me. Shenmue would have been a big hit today if it remained as detailed and as driven to immersion as it was when it was first released. Shenmue has been seen as one of the precursors to the open-world genre as we know it now, and it still feels very freeing and alive compared to other games' maps and run times twice as big. Shenmue might have helped get us to open-world games sooner, but many of them forget how to make their worlds feel just as real.

1 Phantasy Star Online

The Good Ending For All MMOs

You've wanted me to mention this game this whole time, didn't you? It certainly deserves it. We've discussed the dawn of DLC, online gaming, and offline play for online games. Phantasy Star Online was emblematic of all that and more. What I want to focus on today is its status as a console MMO. MMORPGs had been around for a few years by the time PSO came out, but it was the first one made for consoles.

Even though the Dreamcast wasn't long for the world when Phantasy Star Online released, PSO had made a very clear statement that MMOs didn't need to be restricted to a keyboard and mouse. After the Dreamcast was discontinued, the game had been given new life on the GameCube. What's probably the most surprising is that Nintendo even developed a unique modem adapter for the GC so the game's online functionality could be kept. All this time, and Phantasy Star Online is one of Nintendo's first online multiplayer games.

If this isn't enough, Phantasy Star Online was developed to be played offline, just like Rune Jade, from the start. Internet, servers, or no, you could still enjoy PSO. It's a happy ending that I can only hope will possibly lead the way for other MMOs like it.