I was an early adopter of Dreamcast and never regretted it. The sheer amounts of exclusive quality games released for such a short console lifespan is amazing.
Soul Calibur (masterpiece launch title), Sonic Adventure 1+2, Metropolis Street Racer, Skies of Arcadia, Outrigger, Powerstone 2, Ferrari F355 Challenge, Sega GT, Shenmue 1+2, Resident Evil Code Veronica ) to name but a few.
Its specs were quite good for its time (Dead of Alive 2, Le Mans, Shenmue were visual showcases), the games were plenty, it came with online gaming, innovative games (Seaman, Jet Set Radio, Illbleed, Space channel 5 etc), four controller ports for Quake 3 4-player local split screen (good times), easy to program for and had a small form factor.
Having said that, the console had to face the best-selling video game console of all time PS2) which launched with DVD player integrated and the hype levels at maximum given the amazing PS1 release. It also released after Sega burned social currency with consumers and developers after Saturn’s failure.
It didnt help either that may video game magazines (our source of information at that time), wrote articles dooming Dreamcast and setting the hype for PS2 long before the latter released.
Even EDGE magazine published an article that pretty much nailed the coffin for Dreamcast opting gamers to wait for PS2!
Its games library legacy passed to Xbox when it was released as an agreement to release many Sega IPs to MS console was reached (Sega GT, Panzer Dragoo Orta, Project Gotham Series, Phantasy Star online, House of the Deadm Crazy Taxi etc).
One of my favorites consoles of all time.
