Console By Genre Debate #2: Which is the Best Console for Playing Simulation Games From the 5th Generation?

[SilverspoonGaming | 331]

Lets limit this list to "Construction and Management Sims," and "Life Simulation," as reading through Wikipedia's definition of a sim game, I dont agree that racing games classify as simulations like SimCity.

5th Generation Consoles:

1. 3DO
2. Atari Jaguar incl. Jag CD
3. Sony Playstation
4. Sega Saturn
5. Nintendo 64
6. Apple Pippin
7. Sega 32X

Definition of a Simulation Video Game:

     Simulation video games is a diverse super-category of games, generally designed to closely simulate aspects of a real or fictional reality. - Wikipedia

 

Edited December 14, 2020 by SilverspoonGaming
Fixed the title.

[SilverspoonGaming | 331]

Im not too big into Sim games, but the 5th generation is where gaming meant more to me than any other generation because my PS1 got me thru the worst times of my life, and without it, I probably wouldnt be here.

Obviously PC dominated this genre at this point in history, but we are debating consoles here.

I remember trying Command and Conquer on the PS1 and just didnt understand or enjoy it, and that was the biggest chunk of my experience with the genre at the time.

Looking back now, as a collector, a much more skilled player, and a wiser person in general, I would back the PS1 in this category due to the amount of sim games over the other consoles of the period, as far as I can think of off of the top of my head, and the controller was better suited for the gameplay of a sim, as they had more buttons typically, and were better laid out.  Also, the graphical style of the genre, and its most popular games, would be displayed the best thru the PS1, as I think of how terrible a SimCity game would have looked on the N64, even though they did release one for the DD.

[Tanooki | 4,930]

I'd give it to the 64 just because of your width labeling of a sim there and the variety, plus just how well the oddly played on there for the games it did have.

There were racing simulations, various sports, "pro" wrestling sports, real time simulations, tactical, flight, and more.

Something about the hardware and that (to some) weird controller lended itself to really making things work out.  On the racing side there were those try hard simulations of F1 racing, then the GT style with World Driver too.  Sports, you pick, plenty and between them and what the others on that list did, they tended to be a bit nicer.  N64 was king on wrestling and people still live by going back to those 25 year old games to get a proper simulated pro wrestling beat down.  On the RTS side you had the likes of Command & Conquer which played marvelously but also the stunning Starcraft 64 which works insanely well and even added a whole other campaign the PC+expansion brood war lacked.  Tactical not a lot, but hey Ogre Battle.  Flight, kind of the same but there's Pilotwings.  There are options, throw in the Japanese and even worse 64DD side then SimCity and a few others come into play.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,510]

Seems like the genre could be interpreted many ways.  I was gonna say that there arent any sim games on N64.  Unless we're counting Golden Nugget...

I would definitely never think of RTS as "sims" though.  Ditto for Ogre Battle (even if the box says otherwise).

[DefaultGen | 5,399]

Can I vote for none of them? I guess PS1? It's got A Train and SimCity 2000 but I don't want to play mouse cursor games with a dual shock. It also has the two Theme Park games which I think are both mediocre, but what is the competition? Other SimCity 2000 ports? Dino Park Tycoon?

[RH | 4,895]

Virtual Pool 64 is definitively, the absolute best pool hall sim ever made.  I remembered that after I cast my vote for PS1.  I should have went with N64.

Edited December 14, 2020 by RH

[DefaultGen | 5,399]

A PS1 list based on Googling:

Theme Park
Sim Theme Park
Railroad Tycoon II
A Train
SimCity 2000
Theme Hospital
Transport Tycoon
Constructor
Sim Town

For a genre frankly not well suited (and clearly weirdly ported) to consoles, that's an impressively big list. I haven't played most of them, so they could all be great or terrible but damn if everything didn't come to the PS1.

[Br81zad | 628]

I SIMply can't interpret RTS games or Tactical games as "Simulation" games. (catch the pun?  )

 

Anyway, because of that the PS1 is the only console even worth considering.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

19 hours ago, SilverspoonGaming said:

Lets limit this list to "Construction and Management Sims," and "Life Simulation," as reading through Wikipedia's definition of a sim game, I dont agree that racing games classify as simulations like SimCity.

5th Generation Consoles:

1. 3DO
2. Atari Jaguar incl. Jag CD
3. Sony Playstation
4. Sega Saturn
5. Nintendo 64
6. Apple Pippin
7. Sega 32X

Definition of a Simulation Video Game:

     Simulation video games is a diverse super-category of games, generally designed to closely simulate aspects of a real or fictional reality. - Wikipedia

 

"Simulation" is a pretty broad genre, and PS1 was the introduction of racing games shifting from being very "gamey" to being "driving simulations" (i.e. Gran Turismo 2 really ratcheting things up with the use of analog sticks)

 

"racing games" aside from the Gran Turismo series, at least at that time, all tend to either be kart racers or arcade racing games.  (similar to how few airplane focused games of the time are actually "flight simulations" rather than being more akin to first-person arcade shooters)

Edited December 14, 2020 by arch_8ngel

[Gloves | 11,761]

Any console matched against the PS1 in any regard will lose to it. 

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

31 minutes ago, Gloves said:

Any console matched against the PS1 in any regard will lose to it. 

FPS was a viable genre on the N64 and I don't recall it being particularly stand-out on the PS1.

[TDIRunner | 2,725]

Based on the way that I define the genre, I would think PS1 would be your best bet.  But this is a type of genre that doesn't play well on home consoles.  

Edited December 14, 2020 by TDIRunner

[Reed Rothchild | 9,510]

3 hours ago, Gloves said:

Any console matched against the PS1 in any regard will lose to it. 

3D platformers

[Gloves | 11,761]

43 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

3D platformers

I actually meant to say "from that gen". Regardless, yeah I guess that's valid. Spyro and Crash, tho... It's no slouch.

[Sumer | 221]

So, speaking of this, I just bought Railroad Tycoon II for PS1.  I always wanted to play it and can't play it on my computer since I have a Mac.  I haven't started the game yet, but does anyone know if it plays well on PS1?  I bought it, but not sure if I want to sink a lot of hours into it if it is too "held back" on the PS1 controller and interface compared with a computer and mouse.

[Tanooki | 4,930]

20 hours ago, arch_8ngel said:

FPS was a viable genre on the N64 and I don't recall it being particularly stand-out on the PS1.

Definitely, and wrestling games too.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

16 hours ago, Gloves said:

I actually meant to say "from that gen". Regardless, yeah I guess that's valid. Spyro and Crash, tho... It's no slouch.

Ape Escape clobbers most 3D platformers from that era.  Camera control for 3rd person 3D platforming was way stronger on the PS1.

Edited December 15, 2020 by arch_8ngel

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

3 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

Definitely, and wrestling games too.

Yeah, N64 with built-in 4-player as a default dominated a number of genres that were big on local multiplayer.

I don't recall having any 4 player games on PS1 except for Bomberman.

Edited December 15, 2020 by arch_8ngel

[Tanooki | 4,930]

9 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

Yeah, N64 with built-in 4-player as a default dominated a number of genres that were big on local multiplayer.

I don't recall having any 4 player games on PS1 except for Bomberman.

Yeah definitely.  N64 may have had a sliver market over PS1, but it still dominated with Party games, WWF/WWE stuff, FPS games, Kart racing, and not needing 4p, 3D platformers.  Outside of that, things got a bit slim, good still, just slim.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

50 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

3D platformers. 

To each his own, but I think this one isn't a clear-cut victory for N64.

The 3rd-person camera control on PS1 was generally much better, to my recollection, and you had more functional buttons accessible to you (without moving your hands to a different orientation).

And while N64 had a better "Kart Racer", PS1 dominated realistic racing games for that era.

[Tanooki | 4,930]

I could see that.  I never thought Crash was much good, kind of stuck on an aggravating path and all, but Spyro was pretty solid.  N64 Mario aside though, it had Rare, and then you had even some pretty solid others like Bomerman Hero, and I guess technically  Mystical Ninja even if it was a bit more Ocarina like in style.  And I agree on racers, Nintendo had plenty, just not as many, though some of them like the F1 games they did do better there, but Sony nailed it on the GT side of things, and more futuristic stuff too as Extreme G was extreme average while F-Zero was the stand out.

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

15 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

I could see that.  I never thought Crash was much good, kind of stuck on an aggravating path and all, but Spyro was pretty solid.  N64 Mario aside though, it had Rare, and then you had even some pretty solid others like Bomerman Hero, and I guess technically  Mystical Ninja even if it was a bit more Ocarina like in style.  And I agree on racers, Nintendo had plenty, just not as many, though some of them like the F1 games they did do better there, but Sony nailed it on the GT side of things, and more futuristic stuff too as Extreme G was extreme average while F-Zero was the stand out.

Don't really care about either of your PS1 platformer examples  -- APE ESCAPE is probably the best 3D platformer of that era.

[Tanooki | 4,930]

I've had that off and on over the years, it seemed like a pretty good upgrade/learning example for them with the dual shock, but I never found it had the solid control and camera handling of some N64 titles.  It's a great little game of monkey shines at its finest though.

[SilverspoonGaming | 331]

2 hours ago, arch_8ngel said:

To each his own, but I think this one isn't a clear-cut victory for N64.

The 3rd-person camera control on PS1 was generally much better, to my recollection, and you had more functional buttons accessible to you (without moving your hands to a different orientation).

And while N64 had a better "Kart Racer", PS1 dominated realistic racing games for that era.

So much for ever covering that topic in this series...

[SilverspoonGaming | 331]

On 12/13/2020 at 9:14 PM, Tanooki said:

I'd give it to the 64 just because of your width labeling of a sim there and the variety, plus just how well the oddly played on there for the games it did have.

There were racing simulations, various sports, "pro" wrestling sports, real time simulations, tactical, flight, and more.

Something about the hardware and that (to some) weird controller lended itself to really making things work out.  On the racing side there were those try hard simulations of F1 racing, then the GT style with World Driver too.  Sports, you pick, plenty and between them and what the others on that list did, they tended to be a bit nicer.  N64 was king on wrestling and people still live by going back to those 25 year old games to get a proper simulated pro wrestling beat down.  On the RTS side you had the likes of Command & Conquer which played marvelously but also the stunning Starcraft 64 which works insanely well and even added a whole other campaign the PC+expansion brood war lacked.  Tactical not a lot, but hey Ogre Battle.  Flight, kind of the same but there's Pilotwings.  There are options, throw in the Japanese and even worse 64DD side then SimCity and a few others come into play.

I disagree with your views on racing games and sports games being sims 100%.

Is Madden a sim or a sports game?

Gran Turismo is absolutely a racing game, and not a sim, even though it marketed itself as the Real Racing Simulator, but its a racing game.

Flight sims, I would say Flight Simulator is the only one that qualifies as a sim, but being on PC, its excluded from this conversation.

Im not trying to sound like a dick whatsoever, but Im just trying to get my thoughts across.