Dreamcast Was the Dreamcast the best gaming console ever made?

[FiorDiLoto]

Over the years, I've been digging more and more into the Dreamcast's history, and I've completely fallen in love with it. Unfortunately, I've never had the pleasure of owning one or even seeing it in person. But from everything I've watched and read, man, was it ahead of its time. It’s just such a fantastic piece of hardware.

Now, I don't want to turn this into a super technical deep dive (mostly because it's not my area of expertise), so I'm throwing the question over to you guys, since you're definitely more experienced with it than I am. Do you agree with the title or not? Care to explain why? I'd really love to hear your thoughts on this incredible machine!

 

[Megarockman _1987 Megarockman _1987]

Not really, but I think Dreamcast is underrated
It had very good graphics for its time, the best arcade ports even internet connection

 

[ShadowsofCreationAga]

Nah. Not enough RPGs xD

Joking aside, hardware means nothing without the library to back it up. Dreamcast's library is actually pretty solid, probably above average in terms of not having as many 'bad' games... but it also wasn't alive long enough to have a huge library of greats that weren't just arcade ports.

 

[Russianbias]

Library is what makes platform/console great. Dreamcast had almost none. So no. Definitely not the best.

 

[CG4R12I4N]

That title belongs to PS2, Dreamcast died way too early before it had the chance to grow though its small library literally had no bad games whatsoever.

 

[Russianbias]

That title belongs to PS2, Dreamcast died way too early before it had the chance to grow though its small library literally had no bad games whatsoever.

- nah, PS2 is one of the things that tanked game development in the 00's due to its hard hardware limitations and popularity that mostly was carried over from PS1 era.

 

[Sorion]

not even close, but it's good system, maybe even a great system, it's a shame it went out of buisness so early because it's game library is a bit short and it's because of it's short lifespan of about 3 years

 

[ZeromusVX4]

It was the best due to the the fact it killed Sega's console development and made it possible for Sonic to be in Smash Bros Brawl

 

[JellyjamLu]

To me it is, but as stated by others, just underrated.
but if you really dig into the library and use peripherals like the maracas, fishing controller etc. its pretty unique and fun arcade experience and it has weird games, really weird, which I adore.

 

[Graw]

The Dreamcast is just one of those systems that came out at the wrong time. It was better than all the 32-bit systems and the n64 but fell short of the ps2 and Gamecube. The homebrew Dreamcast port of San Andreas shows just how much weaker the console actually was. It's like a lot of the other consoles that came out just a bit too early. The turbografx is similar. It's a lot better than the nes and master system but not as good as the snes or genesis.

 

[Stare best girl]

Dreamcast is a great console but... Sega Saturn is the better console

 

[otogirisou]

No, it's ps2

 

[Psychonara]

A lot of the love for the Dreamcast came after its discontinuation when it was easy to pick up the thing for pennies cause most people had already started moving on to the Playstation 2 & Xbox. It was actually less successful than even the Saturn, considering the Saturn's relative success in Japan. With the Dreamcast, it's less about what it was than about what it could have been had a few things been different. It was good & clever hardware and it had some very underrated and underappreciated games as well as a number of classics that first appeared on it. And because of how easy it was to pirate for it and how inexpensive they were for a time on the second-hand market, it really helped to kickstart a lot of the modern homebrew & unlicensed game development scene in general, which up until that point was mostly dominated by very bad Famicom & NES bootlegs.

I remember I got in a debate about this years ago with folks when it came to Jet Set/Grind Radio specifically. A really great game, yes. But if you looked at how much praise the game gets in the internet gaming space now, you'd think the game was a major hit when it came out. It wasn't. Critics were kind of divided on it and very few people bought it at the time.

People think a Dreamcast fan's library looked like this:

When in actuality, our libraries often looked more like this:

 

[Icaro...]

Unless if by that you do mean "It can takes tons of abuse and still works." ...no.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

For me, it was.

I was always saddened by the fact that my friend and I were the only ones who owned one.

 

[What's His Face]

Yes.

 

[aquova]

Overall, no I don't think so. An argument could be made though that it had one of the best first year or two ever though, despite not selling well

 

[Onicat]

The Dreamcast (as a system) was, rather... severely underdeveloped. It was incredibly powerful (and had a 56k modem, yay) but incredibly unpopular among game developers. And it died quickly. The game library was too small. Plus, the games weren’t very well-known in many of the countries where the Dreamcast was sold. Basically, back then, the only Dreamcast games many people (i mean like casual gaming people, not a hardcore gaming nerds like us, - back then video games weren't as mainstream and socially acceptable as they are today) had heard of (but hadn’t played because they didn’t have a console for which there were no games) was Shenmue and Jet Set Radio. You could find them in the pages of many gaming magazines. Of course, we have the interwebz now and can quickly find the names of the handful of games that were released for it (which are now considered cult classics by us, like Crazy Taxi of Skies of Arcadia). But us kids back then (i got online sometime in the late '90s and was able to read about games that weren't covered in print magazines), it was a “strange console with no games.” One that couldn’t even compete with the technically outdated PS1.

 

[G.L.a.D.O.S.]

I wouldn't say it was perfect, far from it. It was an amazing system, with loads of good titles such as Skies of Arcadia, Jet Set Radio, Shenmue to name a few. among many others. Yes, I know you can get those titles now in HD on other systems, but they got their start on the Dreamcast. And no, I’m not going to argue about the PS2, we all know it has an incredibly large and great library of games, which isn’t even a question.

I would say the Dreamcast was one of the better systems released, but nowhere near perfect. No game system is perfect, as every system has flaws. For example, the PS2 had a huge library but underpowered hardware; the Dreamcast had a loud optical drive and faulty lasers, the Xbox experienced severe hardware decay. But that’s not to say the Dreamcast isn’t pretty close.

I do have A lot of love for the Dreamcast, don't get me wrong.

 

[Sheepy765]

I wouldn't say it's the best, but it certainly has a lot going for it. The library is small but pretty solid, the controller was pretty neat, and the VMU was a unique gimmick that I enjoy.

 

[Kremiso]

love it
in that specific timelapse, it was

 

[Kovlak]

It had the potential, but it never materialized. But it's runtime had a legendary game output.

 

[hazys]

The Dreamcast is my favorite console and it was quite ahead of its time, but no, it'd be hard to call it the "best console ever." Its lifespan was cut short so its library is limited (though still very impressive), its graphical capability lagged behind the sixth-gen consoles, its default controller was pretty bad (for fighting games especially)... what people like about the Dreamcast is that it had a distinct identity and style, from its games to its hardware design, and that it represented a new frontier of console gaming with online play, crisp 3D graphics, quality arcade ports, the VMU, etc.

I do sometimes dream (ha ha) of what could've been if the Dreamcast hadn't been discontinued early... or even gotten a more powerful "Pro" version to compete with the PS2/GCN.

 

[sandogma sandogma]

The Dreamcast was a fun console. I owned one during the generation it was in. It isn't the best console ever made because it wasn't supported long enough to achieve that kind of status. But the potential was there.

 

[Lena CE]

It was certainly a trailblazer in many ways and foreshadowed what games would become in the coming decade and in that sense it is an amazing piece of tech. Ultimately though it was the weakest system of its generation with the worst controller. I do think that in many ways the library is one of the most impressive things about it considering how many amazing games would get crammed into a mere 2-3 year timespan. If the kinds of games hitting that system were your thing it was unmatched, but if you craved RPGs or platformers then it didn't have the most to offer you. The library is really only cheapened by most of its key exclusives becoming multiplatform over time, with many of the later ports becoming definitive editions for most players.

I love that system, it will always be a top 3-5 console for me. Best console of all time though? Eh, I see the argument but it didn't live long enough to fully earn that, though up until 2002 I'd be willing to entertain the notion that it was the best console. I think I'd still take the PS1 though just for sheer library size and quality.