I Heart Sega

A couple of days ago the Dreamcast's 10th anniversary marked a strange day of nostalgia for long time Sega fans. Many great games defined the system such as Skies of Arcadia, Shenmue, and the Power Stone series; but many more obscurities exist that I remember just as fondly like Blue Stinger and Chu Chu Rocket. The Dreamcast was Sega's farewell to the console wars, and marked their emergence as a third party developer. Some say the PS2 killed the system before it even had a chance; but I think rampant piracy also played a good hand in the Dreamcast's demise. The piracy thing is actually strange to me as the Saturn's game discs were almost impossible to copy. All rambling aside here is my personal top ten Dreamcast games:

10. Powerstone 2 - The perfect party game with insane characters and trap filled stages. Also did I mention there are hundrends of items scattered around each stage?

9. Sword of the Berserk - This game's story takes place after the Berserk anime as Guts searches for a cure for Caska. This is one of the goriest hack and slash games for any system, and the story rocks.

8. Marvel vs. Capcom - Everyone loves Marvel vs. Cpacom 2 since it has a million characters; but for me this is the better game... plus the music doesn't suck horribly like the sequel.

7. Sonic Adventure 2 - The last good Sonic game in my opinion. No werewolf Sonic bullshit here.

6. Skies of Arcadia - A beautiful RPG about sky pirates. The graphics are great, it has a memorable soundtrack, and cool skyship battles. It is way better than anything Square has done recently.

5. Bangaio - One of the wackiest and most fun titles for the system courtesy of Treasure. What other game let's you fill the entire screen with missiles?

4. Street Fighter 3 (series) - The Dreamcast remains the only system to have all three versions of this game. 3rd Strike was great...but checkout Hugo's stage in Double Impact, it is awesome.

3. House of the Dead 2 - This was my first game for the system and it is still one of my favorites. The game has some of the worst ( and funniest) dialogue ever record. It is a perfect port of the arcade game, so grab a buddy and kill some zombies!

2. Last Blade 2 - One of the best fighters for any system that no one has ever heard of. The game has nice 2-D artwork, and a great battle system. I wish this would get a port to Xbox live...

1. Shenmue (series) - The Dreamcast's finest hour, sure people may mock the game these days (where can I find some sailors?) but the storyline is epic. One of the most detail infused games I can think of, I mean what other game lets you work a job, talk to every townsperson, and drink a Coke afterwords? Too bad this series seems to have been put on indefinite hold to many fan's chagrin.

That's the list folks. Maybe one day Sega will get their shit together again and give us a new system. Till then I will only imagine the awesome launch titles they could start with : Shenmue 3, a Sonic sequel that doesn't suck, and Panzer Dragoon Saga 2 (I know that's from Saturn but a man can dream.)
One last thing: Support indie Dreamcast development! Checkout http://www.wind-water.net/