Arcadia is a magical world in which folks float through the air on giant airships. A young and lively air pirate, named Vyse—who leads the swashbuckling Blue Rogue pirates—spends most of his time traveling from floating island to floating island. While touching down on the Valuan Empire one fateful day, Vyse and his sidekick Aika rescue a mysterious girl, named Fina, who was captured while trying to find six magic crystals that are used to summon Gigas—powerful ancient weapons. Naturally, the Valuans want the Gigas for their own malevolent political plans; Vyse, Aika, and Fina, then, set out to find the precious, scattered crystals and fight enemies (both human and nonhuman) to keep the world safe from tyranny.

Graphically, Skies of Arcadiais surreal and stunning. In total, there are six huge lands to explore, with many different kinds of environments—such as villages, dungeons, forests, and deserts, as well as otherworldly locations.

The turn-based combat system is effective, with more than 70 customizable weapons to use (based on different colors) and more than three-dozen magic spells (and special attacks), as indicated by the game's "spirit bar," shown on the screen. The visuals during the fight scenes might cause your jaw to fall to the ground, with its bright lights and mesmerizing colors and textures.

Skies of Arcadiais a highly addictive, gorgeous, huge, and deep RPG, and worthy of your attention. Kudos to Sega for creating a breathtaking fantasy that likely will be a mainstay in Dreamcasts, well into the spring. —Todd Mowatt

Pros:

• Awesome graphics

• Solid story

• Lots of customization

Cons:

• Random battles can become tiring

See if this sounds familiar: You're from an outcast mercenary class that upstanding folk don't want around until there's trouble. You're sent on a mission with an innocent, idealistic woman with whom you don't immediately get along. Forces of darkness, safely contained until recently, have escaped and are threatening a world-ending clash with the forces of light, unless you successfully intercede. This is one of the safest templates for console role-playing games, as well as the story in Grandia II.

Thankfully, however, everything else in the game is fresh and provides hours upon hours of fun. The backdrops and character designs are colorful without being flashy, the game has a great pace (for an RPG), and players never have to stand around too long for the next thing to do. Even the writing, within its cookie-cutter plot, is smart, well translated, and occasionally funny.

The game's strongest element, though, is its battle system. Taking the best of turn-based and real-time battle engines, Grandia IIforces you to choose your moves carefully with respect to timing and position. The battles are very simple in the beginning, but grow increasingly complex as you fight larger numbers of monsters with a growing party of allies. How you meet your encounters—whether you initiate the fight, are ambushed, or meet head on—affects both the timing of the blows and the positions of the contestants. Battles emphasize counterattacks and combination blows, but you'll soon find that movement and defense keep you alive against the tougher enemies. Elemental magic, items, and skill books are just icing on the cake. Even if the battles do grow old, the random fights are fairly easy to avoid, and a versatile AI option lets you cruise-control through the rest.

Grandia IImay just be the traditional role-playing game that Dreamcast owners have been waiting for. The question of whether or not it is too traditional doesn't matter, since it offers a better experience than most that have come before. —Porter B. Hall

Pros:

• Battle system creates interesting, complex fights

• Solid, traditional role-playing game for a system with few others in the genre

Cons:

• Predictable plot and characters

When longtime Sega mascot Sonic the Hedgehog made his debut on the Dreamcast console in Sonic Adventure, gamers were stunned. Sega had not only used the game to show off the tremendous possibilities of the then-new hardware, but they had reinvigorated the platform-style arcade adventure genre with massive, intricate levels, gleefully distracting minigames, and even a new kind of virtual pet, called a Chao, that could be combined with other pets, traded with friends, and even exchanged over the Internet. Sonic Adventure 2ups the ante of its predecessor with all-new puzzles and levels, and even faster action reminiscent of the early Genesis-era games. Knuckles and Tails are back, as are the Chao pets (who can now talk!).

Realistically animated fighters, wonderful 3-D environments, and the deepest gameplay to grace the fighting genre—what more could you want? Although Virtua Fighter 3 tb isn't without fault, it valiantly manages to bring all those things to the Dreamcast incarnation. VF 3 tb has always been less about over-the-top acrobatics and more about the raw realism of martial arts. In fact, one of the game's characters, Shun-Di, virtually mimics Jackie Chan's "drunken style" from the Drunken Master movies.

New to this third installment of the Virtua Fighter series is the team battle mode, which lets you take a team of three fighters head-to-head against either the computer or a human opponent. The U.S. version also sports a much-improved practice mode: you can now set the computer opponent's difficulty levels and even configure their attacks. VF 3 tb successfully combines stunning visuals with multilayered gameplay, which makes it a must-buy for fans of the series. —Sajed Ahmed

Pros:Deep and rewarding gameplayNew versus mode and improved graphics for the U.S. versionArcade-quality character and environmental graphicsComplicated fighter artificial intelligence is effectively challengingCons:Only 12 characters, and no hidden fightersFighting depth can be lost, as success can also be had through button mashingLack of peripheral options such as the now-standard theatre or quest modes

Fresh from the arcades, Dynamite Cop is a no-holds-barred, fast-action fighting game that will keep you entertained from the moment you power up your Dreamcast. The game begins with the kidnapping of the president's daughter on a cruise ship. Your goal is to rescue her from a gang of strange-looking thugs by kicking, punching, and shooting your way through multiple environments of the cruise ship.

While single-player action is adequate, this game truly shines during the dual-player mode. With enemies attacking from every possible angle, the onscreen action can be overwhelming at times. Almost anything onscreen can be used as a weapon—and we do mean anything. For example, in one scene the fighting takes place in a public restroom. Let's just say that the urinals on the wall make wonderful weapons. Other innovative weapons include a vacuum cleaner, a couch, and—egad!—even a fish!

Dynamite Cop is instinctive and easy to use. Advanced gamers will likely breeze through the three distinct missions in this game, while casual gamers will appreciate the simplicity. —Brett Atwood

Pros:Fast, furious actionInnovative weaponsCons:May be too violent for young children2-D graphics are a bit dated

In Jet Grind Radio, you play a whacked out kid who's completely torqued off about the system. It seems that the city of Tokyoto is not terribly kid-friendly and wants to keep things neat and pretty. You, the skater punk, figure that the only way to rebel is with your inline skates and a couple of cans of Krylon. That kind of attitude can lead to trouble when you're in the real world; but, in the world of Jet Grind Radio, there are no paint fumes, and it's all done in the name of fun and scoring points.

Jet Grind Radio's gameplay has some of the feel of Crazy Taxi. As you skate, you see little floating arrows that indicate where you should go (and where you should be tagging). Also, like in Crazy Taxi, the pace of the game is absolutely nonstop. There is moving traffic in the street, and nearly everything can be jumped, hopped, or ground. Underscoring all of this action is a DJ at the local hip-hop station, who spins cool tunes while you tear up Little Tokyoto.

The game starts out with a training course that's designed to bring you up to speed. Pay good attention to this section; it teaches you the basics, and you're tested on one of the lessons right away. Learning how to hop over obstacles while keeping a rail grind going is particularly helpful.

After graduating into the real game, you have the option of going it cool or easing up and figuring out how to do the flips, splits, and other midair antics that make this game so much fun. Once your skating skills are set, you'll learn the spray-can side of things. You pick up cans of paint as you maneuver around (keep your eyes open—some cans are placed in those hard-to-reach places, so that you'll have to catch serious air to get them). After securing your fill, use the left trigger and the analog to spray as you pass by areas that have been indicated by the arrows.

The game's tunes are right on schedule. Much of the Japanese soundtrack has been

As first-person shooters go, Rainbow Six is to Dreamcast what GoldenEye 007 is to the Nintendo 64: the most innovative and intriguing title of its kind for the platform. Borrowed from Tom Clancy's novel of the same name, Rainbow Six offers a fascinating first-person adventure through lush worlds and highly detailed environments that have yet to be seen on gaming consoles. But don't stop to smell the roses too often or you'll end up staring down the business end of an oncoming Stinger missile.

You command an elite antiterrorism force through a series of stealth and action missions. Sometimes you will need to sneak through a foreign embassy in the dark with your night vision goggles on, while other times you'll need to launch a full-on weapons attack on your enemies. The game does both types of missions well, but you'll have to spend some time planning with your team before you start each level. Plotting out missions in advance and positioning team members lends a unique real-time strategy feel to the already excellent shooter aspect of the game.

As the team leader, you are solely responsible for making sure each mission goes well. Direct and protect your squad, save any hostages who might be hanging around, and accomplish your main mission objectives. The latter may include sabotage, simple spying, or even assassinations. Good luck. —Bill Hutchens

Pros:Perfect mix of first-person shooting and strategyComplex environmentsFoes boast realistic intelligenceCons:No multiplayer supportMultiple objectives are sometimes overwhelming

After several years in video game retirement, Sonic the Hedgehog returns as the star of a graphically stunning 3-D adventure game that blows away every other game in the genre. Sonic is joined by five of his friends in a massive quest that spans over 50 game levels filled with remarkable visuals and a pulsating soundtrack. Taking full advantage of the unprecedented processing power of the Dreamcast, Sega's development crew, Sonic Team, has designed several gravity-defying game levels that will keep gamers hooked.

Our favorite level is Windy Valley, which requires you to survive the stormy perils of a tremendous tornado. This tyrant of nature chases you relentlessly before ultimately sucking you into the air and up through its eye. During the chase, the tornado manages to tear up just about everything on the screen. This dizzying visual spectacle moves so fast that you will literally hold on to the game controller for dear life.

Assuming you survive the tornado, there are several more challenging areas to conquer, including a level that requires you to snowboard directly in the path of a fast-approaching avalanche. During the Emerald Coast level, you will race across a precarious dock as a killer whale attacks from below, destroying the wood planks underneath your feet while you attempt to outrun the crazed creature.

We also liked the numerous mini-games scattered throughout this title. When you least expect it, Sonic Adventure tosses in some old-fashioned arcade action, such as pinball or bumper car racing. In between, you can raise virtual pets, known in the game as "Chao." These characters, which are saved using the optional Visual Memory Unit (VMU), can be combined with other Chao characters exchanged between friends or downloaded via the Internet.

Gamers looking to show off the strong processing power of the 128-bit Dreamcast will definitely want to pick up this title. Simply put, Sonic Adventure's graphics surpass those of any other game currently available on any home video game system. Let the Sonic assault begin. —Brett Atwood

Pros:Strong replay valueStunning graphicsBonus virtual pet gameSix different game characters

Cons:May be too fast-moving for some playersAwkward camera angles can inhibit gameplay in some areas