Love the Aesthetic / Hate the Gameplay (and the Reverse)

[NostalgicMachine | 235]

On 12/25/2023 at 12:10 AM, GPX said:

One good example of a “great visual but poor gameplay” is Fantasia for Megadrive. It’s prequel, Castle of illusion, was one of my favourite games of all time. Fantasia continues the trend of gorgeous graphics, BUT…has extremely poor hit detection that I couldn’t even get past the first stage! Absolute travesty of a game! 
 

I TOTALLY forgot about that game. Great choice! I feel like I rented Fantasia and Castle of Illusion quite a bit on the Genesis. There was also that Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote game on the Genesis (Desert Demolition) that was strangely good for what it was.

[Sumez | 2,951]

Fantasia features very high on my "worst games I ever played" list. The gameplay is a complete mess, with impossible controls and hard to discern hitboxes. The platforming is atrocious, and the soundtrack - based on fantastic classical compositions - is so screwed up you can hardly make it out, it sounds awful.

It's a prequel to Castle of Illusion only in the sense that it features an earlier iteration Mickey Mouse cartoon  It was made by Infogrames, the Illusion games were made by Sega  

[CMR | 520]

GODS for the Amiga/SNES/Genesis.  Looks great and has some neat puzzles, but not that great to play.  Another similar game IMO is Shadow of The Beast.  It was one of the most amazing looking games when it came out, but the gameplay is terrible.  It was more of an experience than anything you would want to play again and again.  The Amiga had a lot of games like this.

[GPX | 1,369]

7 hours ago, CMR said:

GODS for the Amiga/SNES/Genesis.  Looks great and has some neat puzzles, but not that great to play.  Another similar game IMO is Shadow of The Beast.  It was one of the most amazing looking games when it came out, but the gameplay is terrible.  It was more of an experience than anything you would want to play again and again.  The Amiga had a lot of games like this.

Thanks for reminding me of another decent looker but poor mechanics - Sword of Sodan for Megadrive/Genesis. Those era of big juicy sprites but butt ugly gameplay!

[NostalgicMachine | 235]

Friday the 13th on the NES has awesome colors, sound, and overall visuals IMHO despite the terrible controls.

The cabin theme is low key one of the best on the NES!

Edited December 31, 2023 by NostalgicMachine

[mbd39 | 2,020]

On 12/29/2023 at 3:22 AM, GPX said:

Thanks for reminding me of another decent looker but poor mechanics - Sword of Sodan for Megadrive/Genesis. Those era of big juicy sprites but butt ugly gameplay!

Some games are "back of the box" games. They look great on the back of the box until you play them. Sword of Sodan is a definitive example.

 

[Sumez | 2,951]

Coincidentally, Gods and Sword of Sodan are also both inherently Amiga games - I wasn't even aware the latter was ported. And if there's one thing Amiga games were great at, it was looking fantastic while playing like sticky mud  

[koifish | 556]

On 1/2/2024 at 2:15 AM, Sumez said:

Coincidentally, Gods and Sword of Sodan are also both inherently Amiga games - I wasn't even aware the latter was ported. And if there's one thing Amiga games were great at, it was looking fantastic while playing like sticky mud  

and then meanwhile, there are some speccy games that look like something you scraped off of your shoe but play circles around the pretty amiga games.

Speaking of, video olympics/pong sports and warlords (both on VCS) are more fun than many games made on much more capable and beautiful machines.

As for games that look good but don't mesh with you, honestly Metal Slug games for me. I just don't care for run-and-gun stuff.

[Sumez | 2,951]

That said, Metal Slug's run n gun gameplay is also absolute top of the line, and exemplary in many regards. Other games would do well to take inspiration from them

[RH | 4,903]

I knew that in the back of my mind, there was a game that fit the "Amazing Aesthetic" category that just wasn't fun.

I know we tend to not talk about mobile gaming much, but if you can enjoy a well designed interface and game, I highly recommend downloading and playing "Gubbins" on iOS or Android.  It's a word game and, honestly, it's not really that fun to me nor was it for my wife, and she kind of enjoys casual word games.

But with that said, the interface and overall design is fantastic and fun.  Though I didn't enjoy the game, I did enjoy interacting with the game and UI for the sheer look and presentation.  It's a free app, so if you have time, check it out.  Especially if you liked an old school late 60s/early 70s vibe.