Sega Dreamcast

 It had been a few years past 2021 and it reminded me that it had been a little over 20 years since the death of one of my favorite video game systems ever in the Sega Dreamcast.

I was only nine years when the Dreamcast first burst upon the scene of the video game industry. I remember watching Gamespot TV when they had the launch special and getting excited for it. It’s hard to explain, but something about it made it just caught my eye.

I was so excited when I was told that we got a Dreamcast and believe me, I wasn’t disappointed. From such games like Crazy Taxi, the Sonic Adventure series, Jet Grind Radio just to name a few, really made me fall in love with video games.

One game though that stands out to me was Shenmue. The creation of the great Yu Suzuki, it was one of most unique games I had ever seen. Not only was it an amazing story, but the gameplay was truly incredible. Also you could do so much in the game as well like if you're tired of doing missions, you can go relax at the arcade, you could train and practice your moves, heck you could even have a job.

Another reason for what made the Dreamcast so special was that it was the first time a console featured online play. Nowadays online play is a major factor when it comes to gaming, but it was Sega who started it all with the Dreamcast.

One of the games that took advantage of the online play was Phantasy Star Online. It garnered favorable reviews by critics and is still played by many people today on private servers.

Some of the games I remember playing were games like Virtua Tennis, Virtua Fighter, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Capcom vs SNK, Soul Calibur, Jet Grind Radio.

But the game I remember the most was Sonic Adventure 2. In my humble opinion it was not only the best game for the Dreamcast, but it was the best Sonic game I had ever played. From the amazing characters like Sonic, Tails and the evil Dr. Robotnik.

This game also introduced a new character in the form of Shadow the Hedgehog who was dubbed “The Ultimate Lifeform”. 

There were three separate stories which interconnected with one another. You can choose between the Hero story or the Dark story and after completing both stories you get to finish the game with a third story which ends with Sonic and company saving the earth from certain doom from a falling space colony called the Ark.

But sadly, the Dreamcast was taken away from us way too soon. Sometimes I do admit, I wish Sega could get back into the console game and make another Dreamcast, but no pun intended it only seems to be nothing more than a dream.