The best Sega Dreamcast games of all time

A successor to Soul Edge on the PlayStation and arcade, Soulcalibur is one of the best fighting games of all time. With nearly 20 playable characters, the weapon-based fighting game was deep, replayable, and inspired a multiplayer community that remains strong today. Though the excellent create-a-character option wasn’t introduced to the series for a few more years, the Dreamcast’s Soulcalibur not only proved that the fighting genre had a home on the Dreamcast, but that is was also a far more capable platform for those games than systems like the PlayStation and Nintendo 64.

The recently released Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite quite possibly killed one of the best superhero games series for good, but it was at its absolute peak with Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes. Released in the arcade before coming to the Dreamcast, the game throws the most famous Marvel superheroes up against Capcom’s deep roster of characters from series like Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, Mega Man, and Resident Evil. It isn’t the deepest roster ever, but the tag-team fighter had enough depth to make it a competitive staple. Unfortunately, the game is now extremely rare, selling for more than $50 used from third-party sellers.

First available at the arcade and on SNK’s Neo Geo system before coming to the Dreamcast in 2001, Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves’ status as a port likely allowed it to keep its crisp, sprite-based artwork instead of the 3D character models that were quickly becoming the industry norm. The crime-themed fighter’s cadence was similar to Street Fighter or Tekken, but with just enough extra flash. The series was killed off after Mark of the Wolves’ release, but it has aged much better than many other games for the Dreamcast.

A stylish and goofy school-based 3D fighter, Project Justice is a sequel to the game Rival Schools, and uses a similar fighting style. The team-based fighter allows players to use special “Party Up” techniques to deliver damage with all teammates simultaneously, and individual fighters’ moves are based on their school specialization. With an over-the-top story that would be at home in manga or anime, Project Justice is perfect for fighting game fans who don’t take themselves, or their games, too seriously.

The House of the Dead series is great fun for when you want to blast away zombies with a light gun, but it doesn’t really help you learn anything. What if you fight for your life, kill zombies, and learn a little something in the process? Typing of the Dead mixes typing tutor with zombie survival by replacing your gun with a keyboard. The reticles on the screen are replaced by words that you must type in order to survive.  Silly as the premise is, The Typing of the Dead is super addicting, and it genuinely helps you type more quickly and with fewer errors. After all, if you fail, you die, or you have to watch Uwe Boll’s horrid House of the Dead movie, which is a fate much worse than death.

Seaman is a truly unique game that combines a little bit of everything, from baseball to gangster rap, to create a captivating yet bizarre experience. The game’s mission is to oversee the upbringing of a marine-like being who you nourish and enrich intellectually by conversing with it through your microphone. You have to monitor things like temperature and health to make sure it’s safe and thriving. As the Seaman grows, it will begin speaking to you, learning vocabulary, and even mimicking slang. To keep your new friend intellectually stimulated, you need to provide fresh conversation, asking questions, and offering inspiration. The more you engage with your Seaman, the more he’ll share with you – so you need to be sure not to bore him into silence. Players who keep up with it will learn the centuries-long history of the Seaman.  Probably our favorite part of the game, though, is the narrator, the late Leonard Nimoy. Seaman will draw fans of novelty games and delivers on many levels.