If you're into imports, you love the Dreamcast.  It's a fact. Most other systems have to be modded or messed with to play non-domestic games, but the Dreamcast can play imports with only a Gameshark or DC-X boot disk.  Another more important reason that Sega's final system is so popular in the import scene is simply because there are so many great games that never made it to the West.  You know how Scrooge McDuck jumps into a pool full of gold coins and jewels?  The Japanese Dreamcast library is kind of like that, but with shooters and fighters.

Hit the link for our top ten Dreamcast imports.

10. The King of Fighters 2002

If you lived in North America and wanted to play King of Fighters 2002 you had no choice but to wait until 2005 for its PS2 and Xbox ports.  If you were a Dreamcast importer, though, you could have had a great port as soon as June of 2003.  Returning to the 3-on-3 format, KoF 2002 ditched the Strikers idea, which was a wise choice.  It's classic King of Fighters, but '02 plays smoother than anything that came before it.

9. Segagaga

This one needs a decent grasp on the Japanese language (or a FAQ) to understand, but it's the idea behind the game that makes it so great.  Sega knew they were going under, so as a final farewell, they created Segagaga, a "Sega simulator."  Set some time in the future, Sega only holds a 3% marketshare, thanks to their rival company, DOGMA, which is a parody of Sony.  You and your business partner must do all you can to revive the ailing business.  You will face development holdups, alcoholic employees, and terrible American box art, as well as make exectuvive decisions like whether or not to rush or delay a game.  And don't forget to keep your staff under control - fights with employees resemble normal turn-based RPG battles, but your character attacks with verbal assaults rather than sword slashes.  You think I'm making all of this up, don't you?

8. Psyvariar 2

If your heart gets pumping after several near collisions with enemy ships or bullets, Psyvariar 2 is for you.  In order to get a decent score, you need to "buzz" passing bullets, meaning you have to scrape your mech up against them without getting too close as to avoid being shot down.  This game from Success will definitely have you on the edge of your seat.  And that's not even to mention the great visuals and excellent music.

7. Radilgy

Radilgy, Radirgy, Rajirugi, Radio Allergy - whatever the hell you want to call it, it's a great game.  The cel-shaded game borders on the vertical cute 'em up genre thanks to the ridiculous amounts of candy that fly across the screen, as well as the bright graphics and cute sound effects.  Radilgy lets the player choose from three different weapons - spread shot, laser shot, and bubble gun, all of which play differently, adding a lot of replayability to the game.  Like Milestone's other shooters, your ship also has a shield which can protect you in certain situations as well as act as a melee attack on close enemies.  As an added bonus, you got the game three full years before its US release on Ultimate Shooting Collection if you imported for Dreamcast.

6. Capcom vs. SNK 2

Sure, you could pit your favorite Street Fighter characters against your favorite King of Fighters characters on PS2, but then you might hit a wall of slowdown.  If you played Capcom vs. SNK 2 on the Dreamcast, however, you'd be playing an arcade-perfect port of what is, in my opinion, the best of the Capcom vs. titles.  Like Ikaruga, CVS2 was developed for Sega's NAOMI arcade hardware, so creating a perfect port was not the chore that it is today.

5. Border Down

Border Down is a weird game.  At its core, it's a horizontal shooter, but developers G.rev added quite a bit of flair to their tribute of Taito's Metal Black.  Most shooters give the player three credits to beat the game with.  Border Down gives you only one.  There are three "borders" or difficulty modes - green, yellow, and red - which are switched when the player is destroyed.  For example, that means if you start on green (or easy) and die, you will start the level again at yellow (or medium), where enemy fire is far more difficult to navigate, but the level itself is shorter.  This gameplay device makes the player strive to stay alive, whereas in other games, the only reason to preserve one's life is to keep his or her weapons, lives, and points.  And like I said, once you die in the red border, it's game over - no continues.  I told you this game is pretty weird.  It's a rare one, too.  There were only 10, 000 regular copies (half of which are reprints) and 5, 000 special editions.

4. Cosmic Smash

The sport of squash is lame.  But squash plus Arkanoid equals the fourth best Dreamcast import game ever.  Developed by Sega's AM-3, Cosmic Smash is based on the same engine as Virtua Tennis, but instead of hitting a ball back and forth between two people, your trippy avatar has to tactically ricochet the ball against the walls and try to destroy all the moving panels before time runs out.  Like the graphics, the physical game itself looks awesome.  The disk is printed on a shiny orangey-red disk which is kept in a transparent frosted custom-shaped DVD case.

3. Rez

This trippy rail shooter came out in Japan a few months before it came to the West on the PS2.  That's not a long time to wait, but the Dreamcast version had something that the PS2 version didn't - VGA support.  That's right - the Dreamcast could put out better graphics than the PS2, which didn't even support anti-aliasing.  But graphics aren't everything.  The cyberpunk-infused game is simply amazing.  Developed by some members of the Panzer Dragoon team, Rez almost made up for the Dreamcast's lack of a fire-breathing rail shooter.

2. Under Defeat

Ikaruga is hard.  Really damn hard.  Some might even say it's too hard.  But Under Defeat's difficulty is perfect.  Rather than spending months and months training, Under Defeat can be beat after practicing for only a few weeks.  The game really gets the difficulty right - it's not so easy as to allow the player to quickly beat the game and feel unfulfilled, nor is it so hard as to discourage the player.  It's also pretty original without being gimmicky.  Rather than playing as a normal jet or ship, you play as a helicopter.  This allows you to turn and shoot at different angles, which makes bullet patterns and enemies much more interesting to deal with.  Under Defeat also has what are quite possibly the best graphics on the Dreamcast.  It wouldn't be a stretch to say the game looks like an Xbox title.

1. Ikaruga

The only way to play Radiant Silvergun in the west was to import it for the Sega Saturn.  And for a while, the only was to play its spiritual successor was to import it for the Dreamcast.  The DC version is the preferred port for the bullet-eater purists.  The arcade original was developed for Sega's NAOMI hardware, which was practically the same as the Dreamcast.  Due to the hardware similarities, the Dreamcast was able to run an arcade-perfect port of Ikaruga.  I just wish I had a vertical screen so I could play the game without borders.

Comments (1)

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Add Comment