In the glory days of the Dreamcast Sega produced a lot of high quality titles. Unfortunately the ease of piracy on the DC along with several other reasons killed Sega’s hardware department. Luckily they realize that Dreamcast games themselves are still very much in demand today. They’ve brought Crazy Taxi and Sonic Adventure to Xbox Live Arcade.  Those were bundled with Space Channel 5: Part 2 and Sega Bass Fishing on disc earlier this year, and the former two titles are slated for later XBLA release. Even still we have a long list of titles that are must have on XBLA. Among those are Jet Grind Radio, Shenmue, ChuChu Rocket! and Sonic Adventure 2.

What should change:

Online multiplayerSonic Adventure 2 came with a multiplayer mode that allowed players to race against each other, attack each other in walkers or go on a treasure hunt. It was a bit of a diversion, but being able to play online, particularly with more than the original two players, would be a great little diversion when players need a break.

HD output – To be clear here we’re not talking an HD remake, we’re talking the same game with 1080p output. There’s no need for complete remodels, we simply want a proper HD port. The original Sonic Adventure suffers from a 4:3 aspect ratio with dark blue buffer bars on either side. It just feels like no love was put into the port, and considering the love fans have for classic Sega games it’s the least we can do.

What should stay the same:

Classic Dreamcast goodness – The game had a certain charm when it was released on the Dreamcast. The GameCube version was really strong as well, but with the additional content it changed little quirks about the game. Cutscenes played with different camera angles, animations, and even speeds. For the purists things like this need to be in an optional, inexpensive DLC patch.

GameCube chao setup – Sadly, the 360 doesn’t support the Dreamcast’s VMU. The GameCube didn’t either, so when Sonic Adventure 2 was ported the raising of chao was completely revamped. It’s akin to how the original Sonic Adventure handles chao raising without a VMU. Sure, it’s not “pure” but there’s just no realistic way to have your chao dancing on a little screen in your controller.

Why it would succeed:

Love it or hate it, the original Sonic Adventure has been a total success on Xbox Live Arcade. It sold over 85,000 copies in its first three months. Crazy Taxi has also done well, with around 35,000 sales in its first six weeks. Clearly players are once again heeding the call of Sega. And given Sonic Adventure‘s sales alone it’s clear that we still love the sneaker wearing blue hedgehog. We hope that they see success with bringing Dreamcast games back to consumers. Most of all, we hope that somewhere on a list inside Sega headquarters staff are looking at a list of games to port and that Sonic Adventure 2 is on it.