Many consider Sega’sDreamcastto be one of the greatest video game consoles ever made and it’s very easy to see why. As well as having a small yet impressive library of high-quality games, theDreamcastalso helped to pioneer online console gaming, motion controls, and second screen peripherals, among many other things. Despite all of its accomplishments though, the Dreamcast is widely regarded as having been a failure, with sales of the system being dwarfed by those of Sony’s PlayStation 2.
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A big part of this was down to poor third-party support brought about by Sega’s earlier hardware failings, though the decision to use proprietary GD-ROMs rather than DVDs also played a big role in the console’s demise. Being able to double up as a DVD player made the PS2 a much more appealing proposition to many gamers, while the 4.7GB capacity discs allowed developers to cram more than four times as much data into PS2 titles. This led to some Dreamcast games coming on more than one disc, including many ofthe system’s best titles.
Grandia 2will not be included in this list, as although the game did ship with two discs, the second disc was an audio CD containing the game’s soundtrack rather than an actual game disc.
Metacritic Rating
75
Together with Capcom’sResident Evilseries,Alone in the Darkhelped to define the survival horror genre of video games.Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmarewas the series' fourth mainline installment, and, as far as many are concerned, the last goodAlone in the Darkgame ever made. With anotherAlone in the Darkreboot having been announced in August of 2022 though, that may all change in the coming years.
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Another survival horror game,D2was a Dreamcast exclusiveand the follow-up to the 1995 game,D. The game was written and directed by Japanese musician Kenji Eno and takes place primarily in the Canadian wilderness. The game reviewed fairly well, but was never released in PAL territories, meaning that many Dreamcast owners never got a chance to play it.
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Deep Fightersought to capturethe high octane action of aStar Warsdog fight, though, rather than being set in space, the action instead took place deep underwater. The submarine simulator served as a spiritual successor to a little-known game calledSub Culture, which featured similar gameplay mechanics and themes.Deep Fighterreceived mixed reviews from critics, with one of the main criticisms being that gameplay was just far too slow.
July 13, 2025 (EU)
87
There weren’t many PAL-exclusive Dreamcast games despite the console having sold reasonably well in Europe.Headhunterwas one of a select few, with the action-adventure game releasing in late 2001. North American gamers would eventually get a chance to play the game, however, with a PS2 release coming just a few months later. The game even got a sequel calledHeadhunter Redemptionin 2004, though, by that point,the Dreamcast was dead and buried.
77
Though the Dreamcast’s GD-ROM discs were considerably larger than the standard optical discs used by the PS1, the extra storage space still wasn’t enough to squeezeResident Evil 2onto a single disc.Much like the PlayStation version of theResident Evil 2, Leon and Claire’s stories were each given their own disc for the Dreamcast release, allowing players to start playing the game with either character.
94
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Capcom was one of the few external publishers to really throw their weight behind the Dreamcast, providing the system with several big exclusives. Most of these were fighting games, thoughthe Dreamcast did also get its very ownResident Evilgamein the form ofResident Evil – Code: Veronica. Following the console’s death, an enhanced version of the game known asCode Veronica Xwas ported to other platforms, though it didn’t review quite as well.
GameRankings Rating
89
When most people think of the Dreamcast,Yu Suzuki’sShenmueseriesis usually the first thing that springs to mind. Its impressive recreation of 1980s Yokosuka helped to popularize and shape early open-world video games, while its fully-voiced cast of NPCs made it an incredibly immersive experience. Naturally, all this innovation resulted in an awful lot of data.Shenmuecame on four discs, though one of these was an online passport.
July 30, 2025 (EU)
88
Developed in tandem with the original game,Shenmue 2picked up where the original left off, both in terms of the story and the impressive technical accomplishments. Due to the death of the Dreamcast, though, a Dreamcast version of the game was never actually released in North America, with those living outside of Europe and Japan having to wait more than a full year for an Xbox port of the game.
93
Skies of Arcadiais one ofthe best JRPG games of all time. Released for the Dreamcast in late 2000, the game followed the story of a group of young air pirates as they attempted to prevent an evil empire from bringing about the end of the world. With a 93 average on Metacritic, it’s one of the Dreamcast’s highest-rated games and a must-play for fans of the genre. The Dreamcast version came on two discs, though the 2002 GameCube port,Skies of Arcadia Legends, required only one.
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Based on ananimated children’s television shownamedSpace Goofsand released in mid-2001,Stupid Invaderswas one of the last Dreamcast games that had more than one disc. The humor was a little puerile and the gameplay wasn’t great, but the game’s voice acting really is top-notch. Most of the show’s original cast reprised their roles and were joined by the likes of Laraine Newman, Rob Paulsen, and the great Billy West.
