15. Headhunter (SEGA/Amuze)
Sl: What excited me about Headhunter back in 2002, was that it looked like it was set to bring Metal Gear-style stealth gameplay to the Dreamcast. It ended up being far more than that though, with a great futuristic storyline and a mix of genres ranging from driving to puzzle solving. For me though, theres also poignancy to Headhunter. The fact that it released towards the end of the Dreamcasts short lifespan makes it notable for being one of the last truly great games for SEGAs console. I got this the same Christmas my brother got Floigan Brothers and, with that adventure game's abysmally short playing time (it took less than two hours to complete), my gift was clearly the winner. We both ended up taking turns on Headhunter - a 3rd person shooter which took its cues from Metal Gear Solid. It was also the first time I'd ever encountered the now omnipresent cover mechanic so popular in the likes of
Uncharted and
Gears of War. Set in a future Los Angeles, the game basically had the same dystopian idea as the 2010 film Repo Men, with the government taking the organs of criminals and selling them to the wealthy. You play as Jack Wade, a cool guy with unkempt facial hair and a thing for driving around on his sleek motorcycle in piss-poor open world sections. The corridor-sneaking shooter gameplay was some of the best I've ever experienced, though I distinctly remember the punishing difficulty of the final mission prevented me from completing the game at the time.
14. Skies of Arcadia (SEGA/Overworks)
RC: Skies of Arcadia: a game I loved so much, it took me two years to complete - purely because I didnt want to finish it! I have never been an RPG fan but I have never been so immersed within a video game in my entire life. It's the game I usually think of to try and justify my selling a saxophone to buy the console, mostly because it has influenced my current career path as a storyteller trying to break into the film industry. What really got me was the ability to fly your pirate ship between islands, getting into ship-to-ship battles. You got to be your own captain of an awesome looking ship called the Delphinus (Ive always said if Im rich enough to own a boat, Im going to call it The Delphinus). You even get your own pirate island where you can build it to your liking and recruit your own crew from all over the world. Beautiful in-house turn-based JRPG loveliness from SEGA which, with the help of a Gamecube port, has become a favourite for fans of the genre. Dreamcast had a few fairly decent JRPGs to sing about, including
Evolution 1 &
2,
Grandia 2 and
Time Stalkers, but Skies of Arcadia was the pick of the bunch without a doubt. In fact, second hand copies of the DC version often fetch in excess of £70 on some reputable bartering sites, making it one of the most rare and valuable games on the console (boxed copies of Shenmue 2 don't sell for half as much). As Robert Cook's enthusiastic appraisal above explains, the game sees you as a pirate adventurer, captain of a Jules Verne-esque flying galleon. The windswept, blue skies look of the title is even more appealing now than it was ten years ago thanks to the proliferation of grey and brown games on offer today. Beautiful game.