Twenty-five years ago today, the Sega Dreamcast hit North American shelves.

I remember this launch like it was yesterday. I saved all Summer for the system, a VMU, and copies of Sonic Adventure and Soulcalibur. I remember grabbing the tickets from Toys R Us’s video game department, paying my pre-order deposits, and holding onto those tickets and their stapled receipts like they were the nuclear football.

What I didn’t expect, however, was how this system would become my favorite video game system of all time. As a console, it had a short lifespan, being discontinued in March 2001 – but the legacy it left reverberates even today.

So many hours spent with the Sonic Adventure games, taking the SEGA mascot into 3D for the first time. So many hours playing the amazing Soulcalibur, the first time I can remember a home console version looking better than the arcade. So many hours playing the Marvel vs. Capcom games, the perfect party game fighter, showing the comic heroes in a light we’d never seen before. So many hours playing SEGA classics-in-the-making, like the arcade perfect Crazy Taxi, or the stylish Jet Set Radio.

It was even easy to play import games, where the 1-2 punch of my first real disposable income met the ease of access via the Internet of ordering Japanese titles. I spent far too much time creating, tweaking, and then playing characters in Fire Pro D.

And this doesn’t even include the quirky titles like Seaman or underrated games like the Power Stone series.

Developers were making their art. Trying new things. Each game felt so different from what Sony was producing. It was truly a special time.

In many ways, you can see a shared DNA with what the Nintendo Switch has become, but there truly is, was, and likely never will be anything like the Dreamcast.

25 years on, I salute you. Even if your “It’s Thinking” tagline would be considered a threat in 2024.