Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas r/patientgamers! I renamed the title of the series & rewrote the rules to be more clear. Hopefully less outrage this round ;)

RULES

1. This is NOT a retrospective. This is a list of games that are exclusive to this console, or the console is the best way to play it NOW. Only the best version of a game can make the list. If you think I missed a classic game, there's probably an explanation in a comment I made on the post as to why, and what platform I recommend.

2. All games on a list are worth playing despite any criticisms I may have for them.

3. Ranking is not necessarily by which is the best, but in terms of what I most recommend playing. For example, perhaps my theoretical opinion is that the worst Mario is better than the best Street Fighter. But the best Street Fighter would still rank higher, because it's a unique experience, and the best version of that experience.

4. Only consoles & PC (Windows/DOS) are considered. No arcade/Neo-Geo, mobile, or other home computers. MAME is difficult to work with & high maintenance. Mobile changes architecture too often for all-time lists, and often don't support controllers. Other home computers rarely meet rule 1 & rarely have controller support.

5. I default to PC when available. If it's better on console, I'll put it on the console's list. Usually though, it's better or the same on PC, and more accessible.

6. Games with the same name will be clarified by year or console within (). Games not released in North America will have the region abbreviation within []. Alternate names will be included within {}.

7. My lists are in increments of 10 to make it easier to track & for quality control. If there are 61 good games, I make a cut to make it an even 60.

#30: Spider-Man (2000)

This game was the coolest thing ever at the time, but felt like a relic in short order. It's not unplayable, but we got Spider-Man The Movie The Game 2 years later (1 year from the Dreamcast port), and Spider-Man 2 4 years later (3 years after this port). 2000 pales in comparison to both, especially SM2. And yet, there's something about it that just works. It's very charming, with Stan Lee as the narrator, good comic continuity references & characters, and bad voice acting that is more cute than annoying. Monster Ock is very much a kid in his bedroom playing with toys idea for a villain, but I like it unironically. I only barely recommend it objectively, but there's a lot of fun to be had with it subjectively. I WANT to like it despite the shortcomings of the controls & budget, which is better to me than begrudgingly appreciating something.

#29: Cannon Spike

This is a run-and-gun that I have very little to say about. Controls are tight, which is good because the difficulty requires precision & twitch speed. The level design is average. The boss battles are above average. It has Street Fighter characters which is cool. It's really short so not much of an investment, but still fairly memorable & replayable. If you don't particularly like run-and-guns, this won't be the one to convince you, but it's solid if you're a fan.

#28: Sonic Adventure

I somewhat infamously don't like this game. While my original review is something of an exaggerated rant, I haven't particularly changed my mind. No, I didn't actually die as Tails "countless times", it is not "impossible" to maintain speed, but the controls are bad and they should feel bad. Just about any popular 3D platformer is better. And that's not even the worst issue. Why on the list then? Sonic Adventure may be low effort in many ways, but it's also very high effort in others. People clearly enjoyed making this game, and it is still engaging. The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. That is what sets Adventure apart from something irredeemable like Bubsy 3D: I could not care less about Bubsy, and neither could its creators. I don't quite HATE Adventure either, though I do openly dislike a lot of it. Even the shockingly bad parts are fun to laugh at and make a reddit rant about.

#27: Toy Commander

Toy Story, but with only vehicle toys. Levels have a wide variety of objectives, from racing, to rescue missions, or sillier things like cooking by dropping ingredients in a skillet. Good vehicle selection. A bit garish in color palette, but that isn't too surprising given the concept. TC has an interesting premise & level design, but is failed by the clunky controls, which clashes with the steep difficulty curve. Music is a bit repetitive, which isn't noticeable unless you're replaying the same level a lot, but you usually do so because of the controls.

#26: Crazy Taxi 2

2 has a change in location to essentially New York, and makes a few changes to controls, such as a jump button (yes, the whole car jumps). There is a bit more content than in 1, especially with challenges. On paper it should be a worthy sequel, but Crazy Taxi has such a uniquely West Coast attitude that East Coast feels wrong: New York does not have the same kind of manic energy in the culture. The soundtrack is not as good in 2 either. 3 has maps from 1 & 2, with the jumping & better graphics, so 2 feels almost extraneous.

#25: Giga Wing 2

2 does expand on some of the concepts in 1, such as absorbing enemy fire to power a bigger laser instead of just reflecting fire. But ultimately the level design is better in 1, and 2D games look better with sprite work in my opinion. However, the game still has its moments visually, with dynamic camera angle changes similar to Einhander, and explosions particularly looking nice. It's even shorter than the first...if you REALLY know what you're doing, it can take as little as 15 minutes. Would not recommend spending money on it, but for emulation, it deserves to be on the list.

#24: Ecco The Dolphin - Defender of The Future

An accurate follow up to the Genesis games. A little too accurate: DotF has pretty visuals with good sound design, but also insane difficulty spikes. I really don't understand the need to continue doing it that way, if you want gamers to stop & stare the visuals, we need to have an opportunity to relax to do so. Still, it transitioned decently to 3D, better than some franchises did.

#23: San Francisco Rush 2049

Futuristic arcade racing game. Emphasis on the arcade, and that is to its detriment, I fear. I love many arcade racers, but I prefer the car to move in such a way that's at least MILDLY consistent with reality, such as Burnout, Need For Speed, or even Mario Kart. None of those even approach simcade physics, but I feel that I know what to expect, and that's not really the case for SFR. It's not like Tokyo Xtreme Racer where you're mostly going straight, but neither is it a good idea to brake, otherwise I get overtaken immediately. Nor can you turn too hard at speed: the analog stick is very sensitive. I found mild success in releasing the throttle off & on when turning, but either way, I can rarely overtake anyone, the rubber banding seems to work only against me. It's not as funny or off the wall as Cruis'n Blast, which has similar physics. All that sounds like I think it's a bad game, and I don't, it's just not for me. SFR is still an extremely well done arcade port, which Dreamcast is known for. The visuals & performance is great, and there are additional modes added that weren't in the arcade, which is honestly, to me, the reason to play the game. I particularly enjoyed battle mode.

#22: Virtua Fighter 3tb

Another fantastic arcade port, with intricately designed controls that are still realistic instead of over the top like some complex fighting games. It's not easy to learn, but satisfying to pull off. I also like the stage hazards a lot, though many people seem to hate them in this & Tekken 4. The visuals are below par for Dreamcast, though in fairness the arcade came out in '96. I almost prefer 2's extremely blocky look, at least it is sort of stylized & iconic that way. Heck, they even used 2's look for Smash Ultimate's Virtua Fighter spirits. Sound design is weak, with bad voice acting, low quality sound, bland music, and repetitive sound effects. I like this game, but it has a hell of a hard time standing out next to 5, 4, or even 2, and the trend setting that it had, like an evade button, feels old hat today.

#21: Outtrigger

The premiere FPS of Dreamcast, and one that actually competed with Quake at the time. Not only was the online ahead of its time, buy you could play with keyboard & mouse (something you haven't been able to do very often until literally CURRENT console gen), and you could play online with Dreamcast players in the arcade version too. Without online? Still pretty good, there are challenges to keep you busy, but not much of a "campaign" as we think of it today. The controls on gamepad work...fine...if you pick the right control scheme, but you're going to want to use KBM, even more than you usually would.

#20: Maken X

First person sword combat, and that alone makes it worth playing because it's such a rare genre. The combat is well thought out, and satisfying. There is only a single analog stick, so turning is not as fluid as you may be used to in first person games on gamepad. The presentation is mixed. It has a strong visual style with good graphics & frame rate, but the voice acting is not very good, and the music is meh.

#19: Napple Tale - Arsia In Daydream [JP]

It was through Neil Gaiman that I first read about the concept of stories themselves having a gender. Not necessarily written by a woman, or geared towards girls, but the very piece of art itself being male or female. It may sound like pretentious nonsense, but can see it in Gaiman's art: his work often alternated genders even in the same book (such as Sandman). And I can see it here too. It feels like something my sisters would have come up with in a fever dream when they were tweens (then smoothed over with professional writing). And I love it for that. It's rare to see art that is female in the weird ways too, and the ladies who made this seem to have had a great time doing so. The world is charming, with memorable characters. Great music. The gameplay is not nearly as inventive. It's a bog standard 2.5D platformer, with predictable combat that isn't very engaging. The boss fights are occasionally frustrating, though it is one of the only times the gameplay displays innovation, so there's that. Overall, the combat feels obligatory, like a concession. At that point though, if you're willing to do all this, just go full hog...err...rather NO hog with the concept, and do something like Disco Elysium where the whole game is talking. Or exploring, or whatever direction they actually wanted to take, because I feel like it wasn't this. It should be an easy slam dunk classic but it is just not quite there, unfortunately, as much as I love rooting for it to get literally any recognition.

#18: Ready 2 Rumble Boxing

A very charming, arcadey fighting game. It has very good presentation, with impressive graphics, art design, and sound design. Runs at a perfect 60 FPS even on hardware, and is generally memorable. This is easily the best spiritual sequel to Mike Tyson's Punch Out that we ever got. The gameplay is simple, but has some amount of skill ceiling to it. The Ai is far too easy though, so this is a game to play with friends almost exclusively.

#17: Sonic Adventure 2

"Will he hate this one too?" Drumroll please...it's alright. Only improvements here: the controls are better, they fired the worst characters, added better ones, no hub world. SA2 doesn't take as many risks, but this is more what I would have expected for a first real attempt at 3D Sonic. Linear but with fun set pieces to distract you, more streamlined, etc. I still have some of the same complaints as before, especially the sound design. Dialogue is badly edited in nearly every scene, with different audio levels & characters talking over each other. Some voice actors are alright, some are very unprofessional, some are annoying (the hint voice sounds like a condescending preschool teacher). It's not a must play, but limits the rage inducing parts to near zero, and it works well enough to be entertaining this round. And, I'm not going to pretend that I care even a little bit about Sonic lore, but even I have to admit: Shadow is pretty DAMN cool.

#16: Power Stone

Power Stone is a very different type of fighting game, with 3D free roam, simple controls, and stages that have a high amount of interactivity. Items & parts of the stages themselves are intractable & destructible, and stages contain a wide variety of weapons. This, and the titular power stones are a great equalizer for casual players, although the stones are a little bit too prevalent & too powerful. I prefer 2 because it's a better party game, and a better summation of what the series is trying to do. However, 1 is a better, more rounded fighting game, despite the reliance on power stones. It's often better to get someone hooked with 2, then bust out 1 if they want to get more serious with the general format.

#15: Border Down [JP]

BD is a horizontal shmup, whose main gimmick is having 3 different paths in each level known as "borders". If you die in one path, you go a border down, which gets increasingly difficult. Enemy type, behavior, and level design varies between borders. If you die at the bottom border, game over. You can eventually go back up if you get a certain power up. As such, it is not memorization based, keeping you on your toes, and it is this aspect in which the game succeeds the most: by making you enter a flow state to proceed.

#14: Puzzle Bobble 4 {Bust-A-Move 4}

Puzzle Bobble is, unsurprisingly, a puzzle game with Bubble Bobble characters. It's essentially Breakout with color matching 3 or more gems in a row (you've probably played a knockoff on mobile before). 4 adds pulleys & antigravity gems, which allows for more in depth strategy. Not much more to it than that, but it does what it does well, and has plenty of content with charming presentation. 4 is the best in the series, and one of the best Breakout-likes in general.

#13: Project Justice {Rival Schools 2}

On a different system, this would be the premiere fighting game that is still ranted and raved about 20 years later. Unfortunately for Project Justice, it's only the 4th best fighting game on this list, and that's not including games like SF3, SFA3, CVS2, KoF98, and Garou, which are better on other platforms. Even so, PJ deserves some spotlight. The story involves high school students from rival schools who aim to defeat a villain bent on taking over Japan...and also severing the teenagers' bonds of friendship...look I don't write this stuff, but it's pretty charming, in depth, and a unique plot for a fighter. The soundtrack is great too. It's a 3-on-3, similar to Capcom's own Marvel VS Capcom, but PJ is 3D with sidestepping, and the execution is far better than any other 3D Capcom fighter. The main gameplay gimmick is being able to easily launch enemies, and a subsequent focus on chaining air combos.

#12: Giga Wing

Excellent bullet hell vertical shmup with solid sprite work. The main gimmick is being able to absorb enemy bullets & fire them back. It is fairly straightforward & short, but the scoring system adds to replayability by allowing combo chaining, leading to scores in the millions.

#11: Virtua Tennis 2

A sports game? This high? I'm just as surprised as you are. What can I say, it just works on every conceivable level. It's addicting to play, runs well, the visual style still holds up. The mechanics are rock solid, easy to pick up but in depth: a nice blend of arcade & sim. Like most sports games, it's much better with friends, but the single player progression is still fun, varied, with lots of content, custom character options, and fun minigames for training. I've yet to find a better tennis game.

#10: ChuChu Rocket!

CCR is best described as an action puzzle game, but also has DNA of a party game with the level of depth put into multiplayer modes. The objective is to guide mice through a board by placing arrows, while avoiding being eaten by cats. There are multiple other modes, online, and a level editor to make your own. My description may not sound super exciting, but neither does Tetris ("Match falling blocks"). But rest assured, CCR is one of the best puzzle games out there.

#9: Headhunter [EU]

Dreamcast was definitely a mid-gen console, to a humorous extent. Sometimes you get 2D or 1996-era 3D (Virtua Fighter 3tb), and sometimes you get Headhunter, which looks like an Xbox game from 2004. The presentation is great. Impressive textures, real-time lighting, FMV cut scenes, good scripting & voice acting. Level design is incredibly varied. Comparisons to MGS are inevitable, but not particularly fair or true. Inspiration is taken, but Headhunter takes just as much from Resident Evil & puzzle games, and is comfortably its own thing as a result. The gameplay is harmed by the lack of a second analog stick, meaning you can't aim manually, and the auto aim is spotty at best. The camera is at times erratic or "cinematic", making aiming even more unreliable. This wouldn't be so bad if stealth wasn't a focus. These issues prevent Headhunter from being an all-time classic, but it's certainly worth the mild frustration to experience the great plot.

#8: Mars Matrix

Best straightforward shmup on the list. It is a spiritual successor to Giga Wing, but more polished. Like GW, the gimmicks are being able to absorb enemy bullets & firing them back, and the combo scoring system. You can't rely on reflecting for long, but managing the meter for it adds strategy & a crutch for the difficult sections. Which is most of them. MM is not for the faint of heart, but if you're a shmup fan, it is a must play.

#7: Ooga Booga

Ooga Booga is a party game with a cartoonish Maori mythology aesthetic. The most popular mode is a 3D brawler/fighting game with power ups, not too dissimilar to Power Stone. This probably has the most depth put into it. However, the polo mode is just as fun, riding on boars instead of horses, and using a large boulder instead of a ball. The boar rodeo is more of a minigame, but also quite entertaining. I don't have any complaints, except I'd prefer more single player content. Or at least more accessible content, I got stuck on progression because it was too hard. It runs at a steady 60 FPS even on hardware (not in split screen mode but that's to be expected). Easy to pick up, medium skill ceiling, good controls, good color palette with good contrast to see what you're doing. There was even online...in 2001!

#6: Bangai-O

A side scrolling 2D shooter with a jetpack & great use of verticality, like an advanced version of Ranger-X. You can fire in different directions from which you are moving, which opens up strategy a lot. The stages & enemy placement is designed with this in mind, and the game doesn't take it easy on you. You are forced to git gud at the mechanics, including a combo chaining system that can do full screen wipes. This is frustrating, and a barrier to entry, but satisfying to learn. It's also short, which is disappointing, but understandable given how fast paced & well made it is. The story...exists. No idea what the hell is happening though.

#5: Power Stone 2

Power Stone scratches that itch of fighting game + party game on a level matched only by Smash. 2 introduces 4 player, dynamic stages, an item crafting/combination system, and a variety of additional modes. The only downside is that there is very little single player content, and few stages to choose from, as great as they all are. It is almost exclusively a local multiplayer game, but one of my favorites of all time.

#4: Crazy Taxi

Ya ya ya ya ya!

Day after day, your home life's a wreck

The powers that be just breathe down your neck.

You get no respect you get no relief

You gotta speak out and yell out your piece

So back off your rules, back off the jive

Cause I'm sick of not living to stay alive

Leave me alone, askin' a lot

I don't want to be controlled

It's all I waaaaaannnnntt

All I waaaaannnntttt!

#3: Soul Calibur

3D fighter perfection. I like it better than Tekken, honestly, the weapons add a lot. There is also 8-way movement & forgiving timing for combos, which means the positioning, timing, and attacking low middle & high from different angles tends to be more important than mastering dialing in combos, which I greatly prefer. The character designs are all incredibly memorable. And yet it all seems almost...grounded? Not quite realistic, but believable.

#2: Rayman 2 - The Great Escape

It's easy to dunk on 3D mascot platformers for being unoriginal clones of Banjo or Mario 64, but Rayman 2 deftly dodges these complaints. This game freaking SLAPS. There are things to collect, but it's not a collectathon. Jumping & platforming is important, but you have a glide instead of double jump. You can fire projectiles, but not very far or precise, so it doesn't feel like a third person shooter. Like many Dreamcast games, the performance is a rock solid 60 FPS. The presentation is fantastic: great graphics for the time, good art design, imaginative level design, and a unique tone. Despite being cartoonish with bright colors, the story begins with Rayman being sold into slavery, and there are similarly dark story beats throughout. The music matches this well, being at times dramatic, at times quirky, almost always memorable, but not distracting. There are multiple well designed mini games, and unlockable content. Despite all these ways that the game is ambitious, it doesn't ever seem to go too far, and keeps it simple enough to follow along at all times. Even the dynamic camera functions better than most games of this era, though it's not perfect, and the adjustment method leaves a lot to be desired since it isn't smooth. The controls could be slightly better, but are rarely frustrating.

#1: Marvel VS Capcom 2 - New Age of Heroes

As perfect as Soul Calibur is, SC2, 6, 3, and arguably 4 are better in different ways, with different features. MvC2 is the best version of this type of team-based 2D fighting game to date, and probably will continue to be for the rest of time. It's not exactly...balanced, but the meta that has developed over the years is fascinating, as are the match-ups & movesets used. And that's just at the competitive level. It's a blast casually, in fact it's intended to be played that way. There are a ton of characters, with a lot of generally viable combinations & style types to keep you busy & experimenting. The sprite work is A1, the music is memorable, and the controls are perfectly responsive. MvC, especially 2, is an amazing love letter to Capcom & to Marvel before it got Disney-fied, yet still manages to be an entirely unique concept for a fighting game mechanically, and one of the greatest video games of all time.

Think I missed a classic game, or question why I chose the Dreamcast version? Check here and here respectively.