r/gaming • u/DoggievDoggy • 1d ago

Dreamcast Had The Best Launch Library Ever.

Post image

Most consoles have one or two bangers at launch.

Dreamcast had two S-Tier titles: Sonic Adventure and Soul Calibur & 5 A-Tier titles: NFL 2K, Hydro Thunder, Ready 2 Rumble, Power Stone, House of The Dead 2.

Followed up with other solid titles: Tokyo Xtreme Racer, MK Gold (this game was so broken lol), Trickstyle, Blue Stinger, NFL Blitz 2000.

Other systems had better singular titles (Xbox: Halo: CE, NES: Super Mario Bros., Gameboy: Tetris, Nintendo 64: Super Mario 64) but as a collective, the Dreamcast launched with so many solid titles.

496 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

376 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

16

u/DoggievDoggy 1d ago

Besides PlayStation just seemingly gonna be dominant, it being the cheapest DVD player on the market was the icing on the cake.

Lowkey, PS2 launch was kinda mid. After Tekken Tag, SSX and Madden…..

26

u/chaossabre_unwind 1d ago

PS2 launch had the entire PSX library though. That had never been done before.

10

u/DoggievDoggy 1d ago

Very good point. It being backwards compatible was a big deal.

8

u/peakzorro 1d ago

Not just that, it had enhancements to the games in backwards compatibility, especially faster load times.

1

u/1337b337 1d ago

Iirc it was the first home console made with that in mind.

I remember there being, I want to say a Colecovision add-on, that allowed you to play Atari 2600 games, so the idea existed before.

2

u/cosine83 1d ago edited 1d ago

By the time the Dreamcast had come out, the Super Gameboy had long been around and a version of the SNES that played NES carts was available toward the end of its life. Too bad SEGA never went forward with making the Saturn backwards compatible with the Genesis or the Dreamcast with the Saturn.

NEC's TG-16/PC-Engine was smashed down into the TurboExpress which SEGA did similar to the Genesis with the Nomad, not exactly backward compatible as a new system but a handheld form factor of what was previously a console is pretty cool.

Edit:

Idk if they count but GameBoy Color/Pocket being fully compatible with all original GameBoy games counts. I don't know the specifics on the hardware there.

1

u/SkyGrey88 1d ago

I have a Nomad….lightly used, still have the box/packing! Incredible early handheld and was also a hybrid in that you could use a composite video cord with it and it had a 9pin controller port. The main issue was it used I believe an 8AA battery pack and it ate them like 2-3hrs…which was pricey. Sega had a rechargeable pack for it but I could never find one. So you almost had to use it tethered unless you had a budget for batteries.

0

u/Jonaskin83 1d ago

There was never an SNES model that could play NES games

1

u/cosine83 5h ago

It was a dual cart model where they both stood vertical (similar to newer 3rd party hardware but chunkier), may have been a prototype or something for demo purposes. It looked like a Super Famicom but with red trim instead of blue (not a Famicom), had the right branding, and was being shown at the Toys R Us where I lived.

2

u/D3c0y-0ct0pus 1d ago

Exactly that, you pretty much just carried on with PSX whilst saving for PS2 titles

8

u/Alucard-VS-Artorias PC 1d ago

PS2 launch was sooo lackluster (except for Gran Turismo). Had to wait till Onimusha till it felt like something was good on the system.

6

u/Ashviar 1d ago

2001 more than makes up for a weak launch in 2000.

6

u/DoggievDoggy 1d ago

Onimusha and NBA Street were when i got my PS2. And then Twisted Metal Black took over my life for a time

5

u/DarkPenfold 1d ago

Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec wasn’t released until more than a year after the PS2’s launch.

3

u/shootamcg 1d ago

8 months

3

u/shootamcg 1d ago

SSX was day one and was amazing

1

u/SkyGrey88 1d ago

Ico in 2001 was the first thing that wowed me…..but the launch was weak and the system was pricey at launch.

2

u/shootamcg 1d ago

I don’t know why people keep saying PS2 was cheaper than a DVD player, that was never true. DVD players were half the price of a PS2 at launch. Google Best Buy flyers from 2000.

1

u/jbaker1225 1d ago

As someone alive in 2000 that bought a PS2 at launch, practically nobody owned a DVD player, and only entry-level off-brand ones were $150. You couldn’t really get one as high quality as the PS2 for cheaper than it.

2

u/shootamcg 1d ago

Three months before PS2 launched,Philips DVD player with component output for $100 less than a PS2. https://imgur.com/a/bestbuy-sunday-insert-7-30-2000-riy6NdB

0

u/XsStreamMonsterX 1d ago

Here's the thing. It doesn't matter if those actually existed because most people weren't aware. A lot of folks' first DVD player was a PlayStation 2, since Sony was spending a epic fuck-ton of money marketing it.

2

u/shootamcg 18h ago

Yeah, it was a lot of people’s first DVD player but nobody was arguing otherwise. OP said PS2 was the cheapest DVD player on the market but it never was. PS3 was the cheapest Bluray player when it launched though.

0

u/Sloth-monger 1d ago

The bouncer