I love Ikaruga from an aesthetic, mechanical, and presentation perspective.
But it's been 23 years and damned if I still don't suck at that game. This coming from someone who can fairly reliably at least see the final boss of Progear on one credit.
The visuals and music are what kept me coming back to it for years hah, but I've only beat it scrub style with the assistance of ROM rewinds. Some games are designed to eat quarters, I think Ikaruga was designed to drain paychecks.
I gave up on DoDonPachi. Same thing, 20 years of just grinding and sticking with it, even did the classic "final final true boss has one hit point and I choke" move.
Now I'm 49, my reactions will never be what they were when I was younger, the dream is over.
I like the fact that there are games that are still best played on the Dreamcast, or only played on the Dreamcast, since there was no follow-up console after it, or because the ports were not great. Today there's always a remaster, backwards compatibility with the next console, or at the very least a sequel, so games just move along with the hardware. But the Dreamcast had some games that just lived and died on that system.
Weirdly, most of these turned out to be fighting games. Probably because Capcom liked the Dreamcast.
My favorites that are still best (or only) played on that system:
Crazy Taxi (the ports don't have the original soundtrack, an absolute sin)
Power Stone and Power Stone 2
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (literally one of the best fighting games ever, and it can't be purchased on any systems today)
For sure. Plus, I'm a sucker for fighting games where the characters are 2D sprites in stead of 3D models. The DC probably had the best lineup for that, ever.
Metropolis Street Racer was utterly brilliant and I remember being annoyed when I heard the sequel was going to that new Microsoft console called XBox. That was of course Project Gotham Racing.
And Rez which I love so much I bought it remastered on Xbox360, again on PS4 and one final time on Quest 2.
Mine was Skies of Arcadia - I know it also came out on GameCube, but I first played it on the Dreamcast. It was also (somehow) my first experience with a jrpg.
I used to love those! I never had a Dreamcast but I used the hell out of those for my original Playstation. And I think PS2? I forget if they still had those with the PS2.
Power Stone 1 and 2, so much fun in college. Space Channel 5, just loved the retrofuture ascetic and rhythm games. Same for Rez, a rhythmic shooter. Oh, can't forget Jet Set Radio, loved that so much.
Wasn't Border Down the very last Dreamcast game? I think it might have been. (Well, the last official one, anyway. Homebrew games are still coming out.) I bet a lot of people missed it for that reason. I hadn't heard of it until a couple years ago. I hear it's good, though.
Nester DC. My first introduction to a Dream Cast and wow, what a ride. It was amazing being able to replay all the games from the NES that I thought had vanished into the past.
This was 2001-02ish, so well before streaming and online emulators were really well known.
This game was great! Managed to run up a huge phone bill with that built in dialup modem back in the early 2000s, I don't think my parents even knew it had one when they bought the console.
I didn't know own a Dreamcast myself but had always wanted to.
The games that sounded most interesting were my friend talking about Sonic Adventures. There was also a magazine I owned with a feature on Phantasy Star Online, and man, it made me so jealous. It sounded so cool! I couldn't believe we had the technology for an MMO on a console at the time lol.
NFL 2K, enjoyed playing it with friends a lot more than madden at the time.
Fire Pro Wrestling D - absolutely one of the greatest wrestling games of that generation IMHO. I remember my friends and I trying to figure out WTH we were doing for awhile before getting the hang of it.
I had this really strange game called Seventh Cross Evolution. It wasn't really a good game, but I loved it.
You started out as a tiny amoeba, and ate food to gain evolution points. You'd then use those points to add colors to a grid, I think you had six colors. The arrangement of those colors in the grid would unlock new body parts, like tentacle legs, or human arms, or a shark head.
It was super weird and clunky, but I loved it as a kid. I would spend hours just making pictures and seeing what I'd get. Might have to revisit that one soon, could make a fun stream game.
I had that game! It was so weird! Cool concept but I never had any idea what I was doing. The DNA sequence minigame (?) was neat but it was never clear how you get any specific results. I wonder if there's just an RNG behind it and none of your actions really mattered.
I got to the gold man level (which I guess is the pique of evolution and the end stage) and the game didn't really end. I just was able to walk around slapping animals and taking almost no damage.
I picked it up again used and threw it in my dreamcast and couldn't get through it. I found it tedious and kind if dull. Would be interested in seeing a remake though- I bet modern engines could do a solid job with some of the ideas in it.