Video Game Lane: Sega Dreamcast

Here's a small grouping of games I liked for the Sega Dreamcast. I decided to make this list after visiting a site called videogamecritic.com. Great site for game reviews and nostalgia.












Crazy Taxi: The game that never ended, yet strangely enough, I kept coming back to. Drive around town picking up passengers and dropping them off as fast as you can to earn the most cash. Of course, traffic laws didn’t apply here- So you could smash and weave in and out of cars for kicks. Had various mini-games as well which were pretty good (especially learning how to properly fish-tail) Was lacking a two player mode to make this game perfect.













House of the Dead: You and a pal shoot up zombies advancing towards you. Some are slow- others wield axes. Made you jump like crazy and glad you had so much practice with games like Lethal Enforcers.













Jedi Power Battles: The controls sucked. Jumping was insanely difficult. Yet this game was great. Huh? A two-player side scrolling adventure in which you control Jedi. Jedi with light sabers and telekinesis. Slashing through an army of battle droids or slamming them into each other with the Force was a blast. But sadly, the controls ruined what could have been the best two player game on the Dreamcast.













Jet Grind Radio: Tagging (graffiti) while rollerblading was the odd concept behind this eye candy of a game. You play as various skaters tagging the city to mark your turf or tag over another rival gangs. The police would get involved too sending out swat-like cops, dogs, and even helicopters to try and stop you. The first of many cell-shaded games, Jet Grind Radio fit the style of urban street art perfectly. All but the controls of creating graffiti were smooth. (Arrows would indicate which way to spray, then change, and change again. This got to be aggravating later on with larger tags and a time limit.) Overall though, one of my favorite Dreamcast games- gold.














Marvel vs. Capcom 2: Wow. The best fighting game I’ve ever played. It combined my love of Capcom fighters with comic book characters. What more could you ask for? The best part was combining three characters together and unleashing a ridiculously high attack- like a 286 hit combo. It also featured characters from other Capcom games including Jill from Resident Evil, Darkstalkers, and a Lego man with a giant mallet. I think he was from a Mega Man game….














Powerstone 2: The best multiplayer game ever. Characters run around a fully interactive area using everything to knock out their opponents from simple boxes to gun turrets. Each character can also power-up into a giant monster of sorts to wreck havok. The stages changed as well- one minute you’re fighting on a ship in the sky- the next it’s blow apart and you’re falling to the ground punching and kicking all the way. My favorite was the Indiana Jones level where a giant boulder would come rushing towards you as you fight each other. Chaotic, addicting, and extremely fun. I want this game back!














Sonic Adventure: Dizzy, addicting and super fast. Sonic Adventure didn’t disappoint- except for the other character’s missions which didn’t feature the blinding speed I had grown accustomed to. Bigs the Cat- crap in a hat. I don’t care about your damn pet frog. Yet I had to play through it just to get back to the sonic levels. Running had never been so fun.














Sonic Adventure 2: The debut of Shadow the Hedgehog, who would later cripple the Sonic franchise. Thanks a lot. Anyway, this game was equally as good as SA, and didn’t have crappy character missions. Featured a neat two player race mode and more of that Sonic speed I love.














Spider-man: The first 3-D Spiderman game from the makers of Tony Hawk, narrated by Stan ‘the man’ Lee and a boatload of extras. Web slinging, wall crawling, even Spidey’s classic quips were all here. A great game for a great character. Bravo Spidey!


And that's it. Dreamcast didn't have that great of a shelf life. But, thanks to it's failure I can now play Sonic on my Nintendo Wii.