Battered and bruised from the release of the Saturn, Sega decided to tackle the dominance of Sony’s PlayStation with one of the most groundbreaking videogame consoles of all time. But beware if you wish to relive the magic today. ‘Cos this is gonna cost ya.
In 1999, Sega signed a sponsorship deal with Arsenal Football Club which saw the videogame giant plaster the name Dreamcast across the front of the team shirt. At the time, Arsenal were riding high. They’d not long won the Premier League and FA Cup double and their run of success would continue for a few more seasons.
It was a sign of confidence at Sega, too, where there was a firm belief its new Dreamcast console would propel them back to the glory days of the Mega Drive. Launched in Japan in 1998 (and in Europe and the US a year later), the console could go online thanks to its bundled modem. Since it was built using the same architecture as the arcade board NAOMI, it could also benefit from super-quick ports. The Dreamcast was the first console to have DLC too. Yet, like Arsenal, the real glory days would begin to fade.
Despite that, the Dreamcast has retained and attracted many fans. Gamers will claim, hand on heart, that it was the best console of all time and it’s hard to argue against that. But because it wasn’t hugely popular at the time, some of the games didn’t sell as well as expected and others were criminally overlooked. It means there some expensive rarities knocking around as we can here. Bagging the lot is going to batter your wallet…
Cannon Spike
Boating a roster of Capcom characters from Mega Man to Street Fighter II‘s Cammy, this arcade port and Dreamcast exclusive has certainly become an eBay seller’s dream. Taking cues from games of old yet polishing it for modern players, Cannon Spike was a superb multi-directional shooter that not only pressed the right nostalgic buttons but pitted us against a host of ever more difficult bosses spread across 10 tight levels.
Similar to another cult classic, Smash TV, it nevertheless seemed to be denied a wider audience by virtue of the EU release being as late as 2002 – some time after the console itself have been discontinued. Complete boxed versions have seen gamers parting with around £220.
Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves
Originally produced for the arcades, the ninth and final instalment of the fighting game Fatal Fury series was initially ported to the hugely expensive Neo Geo console before the more accessible Dreamcast (at least until a PlayStation 2 version emerged a few years later). Of those versions, only the Dreamcast port made its way out of Japan to North America and, because that was in November 2001, it didn’t quite enjoy the sales it deserved.
Even so, interest in the game has seldom waned, piqued by reveals of visuals for a canned sequel and its appearance on more modern consoles, particularly over the past five years. You can get your sweaty mitts on a North American Dreamcast version for £50 but there aren’t loads around.
Illbleed
It may have flopped at the time but the blood, sweat and tears that went into the survival horror game Illbleed wasn’t entirely unappreciated. Created as an exclusive Dreamcast title, it aped the debut Resident Evil in some sense with its ropey dialogue and acting. Yet it shifted itself away from such previous scare-games by placing a far greater emphasis on tackling terrible traps strewn around a horror theme park. All told, it made for an original, if not a little infuriating stop-start jaunt packed with numerous ways to die, but it remains a tad obscure. We found a new, sealed copy fetched £288 on eBay.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future
Based on the Manga series popular in Japan, this four-button 2D fighter featured the original version of the arcade game along with its Japan-only sequel. As such, it was spread across two discs, with the updated game boasting extra characters and enhanced animation.
The game stood apart from other fighters at the time thanks to the innovative ‘stand’ button which brought forth a fighting buddy and increased your reach and power. But what makes this version rare is the fact it was the only actual physical release – no other console got this cool original-sequel combo. Expect to battle it out for about £50.
Power Stone 2
In taking everything that was good about the debut 3D arena fighting game Power Stone from 1999 and chucking in some revolutionary simultaneous four-player fun, Capcom’s crazy creation went straight to the hearts of gamers everywhere with its cosmetic upgrades and cool combat system. New weapons, characters and maps put extra distance between this and the original, giving gamers a wealth of options in a game that would enhance any party. Little wonder that it still has plenty of fans today and will cost you upwards of £90 sealed.
Giga Wing 2
Playing Capcom’s vertical scrolling shooter felt short and sweet, almost as if it was mirroring the lifespan of the Dreamcast itself. That said, it was still a treat for gamers, released towards the end of the console’s natural life in 2001. It boasted some of the most beautiful graphics to grind through its chips – thanks in great part to the original arcade version from 2000 being published on Sega’s NAOMI arcade system board. Finding Giga Wing 1 is easy-ish but you’ll need to dig deeper for this sequel. Expect to pay upwards of £85 for one in mint condition.
Skies of Arcadia
Ask Dreamcast aficionados to name the best games for the system and you can bet that Skies Of Arcadia will be in their lists. If it’s not, then it’s likely those you’ve approached have simply failed to play this traditional turn-based Japanese RPG – and, sadly, they wouldn’t be alone in that either. For while Skies Of Arcadia is lauded as being a damn fine fantasy, it fell far short of Sega’s sales expectations, certainly outside of Japan, which developer Overworks later put down to Western preferences for sports games and realistic characters. A sealed copy can fetch £170.
Bangai-O
Originally created for the Nintendo 64 and released in September 1999, Bangai-O was in the hands of Dreamcast owners just three months later – with better graphics, audio and tweaked gameplay. Trouble is, it was only in Japan – Dreamcast gamers in Europe and North America would have to wait until the following year while equivalent N64 owners were forever stuck with importing the Japanese-language version. It meant that anyone wanting to enjoy a translated copy of Treasure’s 2D side-scrolling multidirectional shooter needed the Dreamcast version, whacking up its value. You’re still looking at paying £100 for a sealed copy today.
Tech Romancer
Another exclusive arcade-to-Dreamcast port, Tech Romancer brought the giant mechs of Capcom’s 3D one-on-one fighter to Sega’s final console. In doing so, the developers stunned gamers with polished retro-esque cartoon production values and numerous nods to anime conventions. They also created a nifty game engine that meant the action moved at a fair old pace. While the game lacked depth and, in reality, added little to an over-crowded field, it still became popular among collectors. Fork out about £40 on this daftly-named game and it’s all yours.
Marvel Vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes
Despite its name, this is actually the fourth instalment of a popular crossover fighting game series that mixes characters from Capcom’s stable with those from Marvel – making 56 in total. Having been released in the arcades in 2000, its fast and furious action was widely ported to many machines but the Dreamcast iteration is arguably the best, not least because it was the lead console platform and also offered online play. Metacritic scores it 90 and we found folk willing to pay up to £82 for this one on eBay.
Shenmue Limited Edition
Name a defining Dreamcast game and Shenmue will inevitably trip off the tongue. As an exclusive release for the console, it was envied by players who bought rival machines and there was no doubting that it was neck-deep in ambition. After all, it cost a staggering $47 million to develop (a little less than the $70 million Sega originally claimed, for sure, but still enough to put it in the top 25 most expensively developed games to this very day!). And what do publishers like to do with games like this to scrape some of the cash back? That’s right, release a more expensive Limited Edition. Spread across five discs and coming with two manuals, it remains a collectible. Expect to splash out £140.
Mars Matrix: Hyper Solid Shooting
Another Capcom classic and a Dreamcast exclusive to boot? You betcha. As before, this was a game which debuted in the arcades before being ported to the console and, given it was at the hands of the Takumi Corporation which had a knack for jaw-dropping shooters, it’s unsurprising that it’s of the utmost quality. Takumi was particularly prolific around 2001 and it managed a near-perfect arcade conversion. Completing this tricky game was a triumph, however, and anyone who wants to rise to the challenge should expect to pay around £120 for the pleasure.
Street Fighter III Third Strike
For a while, home gamers could only play this game on the Dreamcast – it would be another four years before the PlayStation 2 version was released. In that time, players could get stuck into one of the finest Street Fighter entries – one that appeared graphically inferior to the previous game, Double Impact, but brought along some fresh characters and continued to use the new parrying system. This one tends to go for around £100 today.
Project Justice
Sometimes it feels as if there is no justice in the world and that was the case with Project Justice, the 3D fighting sequel to Rival Schools: United By Fate. The game sold so few copies in relation to its greatness. And yet – in mitigation for all those Dreamcast owners who didn’t buy it – Capcom knew that the console was going to discontinued but decided to push ahead anyway, localising this Japanese game for a worldwide audience and releasing it in Europe and North America in April and May 2001. It can sell for about £160 today.
Re-released for Android and iOS in 2016 and Nintendo Switch in 2018, the Dreamcast version of this game by acclaimed developers Psikyo is still the one that collectors crave – not least because they can actually get their fingers on a physical standalone copy (the Gunbird Special Edition for the PlayStation 2 bundled the debut and sequel together so it’s not quite as “pure”; the others were digital). One of the great tricks of this 2D top-down vertically scrolling shooter was how it managed to stand out amid the glut of shmups released for the console. A sealed copy can fetch about £140 on eBay.
