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It's no accident that so many games from the Dreamcast era are enjoying a second life on Nintendo's Wii. Years before Nintendo's revolution, Sega tried desperately hard - maybe too hard - to sell Dreamcast as a lifestyle accessory. Those who remember the official magazine might remember its fashion spreads and lifestyle sections. Others might remember Sega's Dreamcast-themed sponsorship of Arsenal. Sega tried to capitalise on this with a whole series of games designed to pull in what we might now call the casual gamer. Remember Sega Bass Fishing and its rod controller? Samba de Amigo and the Maracas? House of the Dead 2 and its light-gun? Space Channel 5? All of these games put the emphasis on simple, accessible fun. These weren't games for lone players in their bedrooms, but games to be enjoyed with friends on the living room sofa. Nintendo took things a step further by reinventing the motion-sensitive controller and making it the standard way to play games on Wii, but Sega saw the potential there before.

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Samba de Amigo was, quite simply crackers, but once played, it was never forgotten.

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What's more, Sega was prepared to embrace a more experimental visual style in games. While PlayStation and PlayStation 2 constantly pushed visual realism as the vital metric, Sega encouraged artists and designers to take a more imaginative path. Jet Set Radio's hip-hop influenced, cel-shaded style is one case in point, Space Channel 5's oddball mix of retro and futuristic themes another. And if you want to talk about innovative gameplay, can you think of another game that made an open world so rich and open before Shenmue? Would we have had Ico, Okami, Viewtiful Joe, Killer 7 and Yakuza without these games? Maybe, but Sega definitely played a pioneering role in the ‘arthouse game.'

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Ulala made a recent return to the limelight in Sega Superstar Tennis, but it was Space Channel 5 that made her famous.

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Of course, Dreamcast has its share of more traditional titles too. We can comfortably blame Sonic Adventure for being the game that started the hedgehog on his downward spiral, but otherwise Dreamcast played host to some genuine greats. Soul Calibur, Power Stone and Power Stone 2, Dead or Alive 2 and Marvel vs. Capcom were exemplary beat-em-ups. Rayman 2 and Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver were fine platform adventures. Ferrari F355 Challenge took the racing game to new - and slightly excessive - levels of realism, and Metropolis Street Racer added fun to the Gran Turismo style of realistic racer. Add Resident Evil: Code Veronica, Fur Fighters, Ikaruga, Baku Baku Animal, Virtua Tennis and Skies of Arcadia to the mix and there's no way you can accuse Dreamcast of lacking quality games.

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Shenmue was ambitious but superbly realised - now, can you tell me where sailors hang out?

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What's more, Dreamcast was the first console to take the PC FPS and make it work. Sure, we'd had Goldeneye and Turok on the N64, We'd also had reasonably successful PlayStation versions of Doom and Quake to get on with. Dreamcast, however, bought us faithful conversions of Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament that worked perfectly well on the Dreamcast joypad but could also function with the optional Dreamcast keyboard and mouse. At E3 2000 you could even see a port of Half-Life up and running, though sadly the thing never saw a legitimate release.

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