RH

Two points--you don't have to like the game design, but what I am saying is what you are calling "broken" I'm saying is by design and some of us enjoy that--it comes down to preference. Plus, in there own way, I never found Sonic games to be harder than Mario games back in the day. In fact, I've beaten Sonic 2 and I got pretty far in both Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles. I didn't beat SMB1 or SMB3 until I was an adult on an honest, no-cheats playthrough. And regarding game size and replayability, SMB3 was at the end of Nintendo's personal support of the NES and cartridges were a lot bigger then than when they started. My reference point of making games hard to add value was a mindset that started in the developers in those older, earlier days but it carried on for a while as the system matured because that's what they were use to doing. I'd argue that even some SNES games are "hard" but yes, as RAM size increased, dev studios could become more recreative in how they added content and value to their games.

I can't disagree with this any more. Your personal opinions are your own, and that's fine but let's be clear--I was a "Nintendo" kid. After the Atari 2600, I got a NES. Loved it, and I loved Mario 1 and 3. Hands-down, Mario 3 is my favorite 2D Mario game and it's a masterpiece. I played it a bunch as a kid and I enjoyed it. After the NES, I got a Game Boy. Since it was several years after the that time that I finally got a TV in my room, I spent a TON of time on my Game Boy. Every Mario game got better and my Metroid II was probably my favorite first party title, and Metroid for the NES was also probably my second or third favorite title on the NES. Of course, time went on and I managed to get a PSX and an N64. The only Sega system I had as a kid was a Game Gear. The Genesis was relegated to playing with friends and family when I went to their homes. My dad would rent a Genesis about once a quarter when my brother and I went to his house and if we got one game, it was Sonic 2. Later, I'd go over to a cousins house and we spent countless hours playing the Genesis and a large part of that time was playing Sonic Knuckles. I say that to say this--I love Mario and I love Sonic, but the experiences are vastly different. As a kid, I found myself liking the Sonic experience far better. Your criticisms aren't entirely fair because they are misinterpretations. Most games start with an "easy mode" and that what you get with waves 1-1 to 1-3 in Sonic 2. It's easy to go fast and it establishes that it's partly a desired goal. So why does it get difficult after that? Does Sonic as a game lose it's way? No, part of the difficulty is struggling through the levels as if they are any platformer but the ADDED benefit is once you can navigate the level, you can further improve your game by learning optimized paths that allow you to blaze through the game, but you have to EARN that. This is not broken, but intentional game design. Sonic games are intended to be fast, but that expectation comes with a price. First you learn your levels, then you master those levels. When you've mastered them, that's when you can blaze through them. IMHO, it's a master class in creating game replayability. People use to, and still do, cry that "NES games are too hard". I'd argue this was partly intentional because most platform based NES games can be beaten in 20 minutes once you master them. Cartridges were smaller so adding high-degrees of challenge added value. However, once you beat a game, usually there wasn't much replay value unless you wanted to truly master a game. Sonic takes that same mechanic, makes it's games modestly difficult (compared to old NES games) and highly incentivizes the desire to come back to the game. Finding those optimized paths and gaining that speed run speed, back in the early 90s, WAS rewarding unlike other platforms on the NES or Genesis. I thought Sonic was better than Mario as a kid. Comparing the eras, I still do, although at this point Mario has so much amazing 2D IP, it's no longer apples to apples. I'm not saying you have to love Sonic. Everybody has their preferences, but you're misreading the room. What you're seeing isn't broken game design--it's different game design. But that difference is intentional, and I don't think the kid that grew up strictly on NES/Mario platformers are too prone to give Sonic a chance for what it is.

It's a PC game, or rather, it's taken from the PC version of a game. Man, I enjoyed that game too. I could see this being at the beginning. Another game featuring crates is is Final Fantasy Tactics, but I don't think there's any form of that game on PC.

It's a remarkable example of contradictory greatness in a game. I've said both of these points before. First, I never beat the game either. I got close to the end, but the long text-based cut scenes were so long, I didn't finish them towards the end of my senior year, and I just didn't get back to it. But with that said, the gameplay was a 10 in my book. It has hands-down been my favorite RPG I've ever played. I rate it a 10 not because the whole thing is perfec.t It's not, it's flawed. But what it does get right, it's so right that to me, it is "perfect", and that's what I enjoyed. I really hope if they make a remake of this one they keep some semblance of the original but flesh out the whole thing. I know it was on a leaked list from a credible source as being one of the titles on SE's backlog to make, but that list was pre-COVID, so I'm sure SE's priorities have changed.

Xenogears = greatest game ever made. Xenoblade = eeeeeeeeeh, nah.

Ah, I felt there was something I was just forgetting. Yeah, I got a Switch and bought BotW on eBay. Not wanting to wait for BotW to show up on my door, I bought Xenoblade Chronicles 2. I restarted and tried to get into that game multiple times and I couldn't. Being that I like physical games, I went and bought the physical version between my first and second attempts at getting the game going. I didn't like it. I regretted double-paying for the game after really, really trying to like it. The good news was when I finally decided to sell my physical copy, the game had been discontinued for a while so I recouped most of my costs, so I guess I don't really regret it. Still, having a DLC game I paid full price for really compels me to this day to try to pick up and get back into and to play it to completion, or very close to it. It's just... in some ways it's too complex and in others it's too easy. The story is fine and semi-enjoyable, I just find some of the characters to be grating.

Dude, it's fine. You can play it cool and let that last image set for 24-48 hours. I just like talking and speculating. It's half the fun. I'm sure I've not played it because PC games are the lowest priority for me and, if I do, it's usually older FPSes like Portal, Half-Life or DN3D. Still, it's fun to pick apart the details.

Jokes aside, where is that. I could see this meme being offensive to the Catholics but... yeah, I mean, look at that. WTF is that art in the background. It definitely evokes those feeling of walking into the first major boss battle of needing to kill a "king" who's really the puppet to the true mastermind of all the games antagonism.

Well, I'm not going to be the one to organize it and, to each there own, but this was the "2024" brackets, so I'm hoping that maybe the next system pops up this time NEXT year. It is playing off of college basketball "March Madness", so I see the theme. SNES in 2025? NES in 2026? Action Max in 2035 when we've run out of systems?

I believe you Gloves, I just have no clue what it is, especially since it's seems to be a PC game coz ur not emalating. Anyway. Good luck to whomever. I don't need to win this one but man, these type of images really get me. Posting the common stuff like crates makes it more fun. Like many of you, you just feel like you've seen it before but can't place it because these items are typically background filler assets. (But, maybe that's not the case for this game.)

Ok, cool. Now I get it. I don't know that game, but seeing it native, it does feel like an older PC game OR, possibly, an emulated PS1 game with some minor texture adjustments. You don't have to yes/no these assumptions BUT, I could see this being something _like_ a PS1 title on a PC emu.

Tails is a fine character. As a player/mechanic tho, I can do without him, personally. IMHO, he's a great tertiary character.

Ok, one last question because I think it's fair for all of these images we post, but is this from an emulator, an image of a CRT or a YouTube video. Scaling matters. I don' necessarily need direct hints for a system but depending on how those textures are processed make a difference. Of course, feel free to NOT answer. I just think knowing the type of output source helps interpret the image some times.

I think this is one of those cases where you are so personally familiar with a game that might be popular, that you think other people would recognize a common, background object. I mean, maybe we'll all be like "ooooOOOOoooh!" when we figure it out, but right now, to all of us it's just a crate. I'm going to assume this is a PS2 game. The resolution and texture quality seems very PS2-like. Maybe XBox, but I never pinned you as an Xbox guy. I guess it could be on the GameCube as well.

Yeah, the games not better because of Knuckles. It’s better because it’s just a further refinement of what was good about Sonic to that point and, after that, they started relying on novel changes to sell the series like Chaotix and Sonic 3D being isometric. Woof! (Actually, I have fond memories of Sonic 3D, but it’s just not a real Sonic game.) Sonic 1 was fun enough, but the controls needed “something” more. Sonic 2 had marginally improved level design but immensely improved the experience with the dash. Control perfection, achieved. Sonic 3 further improved the level design, story telling and pacing. Level Design perfection, achieved. So yeah, S3K > S2 > S1. Each one has their strengths but no doubt every game built on top of the last one of the series and I just don’t see how one could argue that any of the older ones are better than the newer ones. But here we are. Between these two games for the poll, Sonic 2 FTW.

Yeah, I completely agree with that. I mean, if anyone has played at least one Genesis game, it’s probably Sonic 2, but if you’ve played 3-5, you almost certainly played Sonic 3 and/or Knuckles. I guess it comes down to experience and maybe people haven’t or, *gasp*, there were just enough people who like Sonic 2 over Sonic 3! But that’s nuts. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles is the perfection of the Sonic series.

Well, he has an account on here. He made a “Hello!” Thread and that was the only post he made. @Mr.Nintendo, any chance you could show off that collection?

After getting a new PC for work (which they allow us to use personally) I decided to finally install Portal. Or in this case, Portal RTX. Holy cow, I see what everyone was raving on and on about all these years, not that I didn't have a general idea of what this game is about. It really is a well crafted mini-game and I honestly have no clue why they didn't turn this into a longer, more fleshed out game. I need to get back to Final Fantasy VI in my off time but of the 19 stages, I'm on stage 18 and I think I've put between 1 to 1.5 hours into it, so this truly is the definition of a short game. I think I paid $10 for the pair of Portal games and I feel like that's too expensive for any game you can beat in under 3 hours, but this game is so good, I don't mind. Of course, I have Portal 2 to look forward too and the general opinion I've read online is it's more of the same, but longer. I guess it makes the full purchase worth the price, if that's true.

Hater's gonna hate, but Sonic 2 > Gunstar Heroes in my book. Yes, I think there are some better Genesis titles but this is where we are, and that's my opinion.

Ok, wait a second. Is that the original one that started the discussions from years ago? I recall that the label looked to be damaged on one corner so it was assumed it was a a label swap. Yours does have label damage but not in a corner, which is typical of someone trying to remove the label to put it on another cartridge. This thing might be for real?! If it is, I wonder if these were NFRs?

Yeah, I'm still locking for that. I've seen subsequent Playtronic copies but none have been yellow. Why is it yellow?! WHY????

1111. All of these were easy for me but that last pair. Being born in 81, I feel like musically I'm more a kid of the 90s and Heart-Shaped Box is peak Nirvana. Good stuff and definitely hits the nostalgia chord hard. But the older I get the more I find myself loving music like Journey. It stung a little, but I had to go with Separate Ways.

Dude, I'm SO glad I stopped taking variant collecting serious and became casual about it. That fake/real/GOD ONLY KNOWS Black Killer Instint kept me up waaaaaaaay to many nights!

Well, if you go back and slog through this thread, I always speculated that the no-dashes were print errors. The text was already thin and I kind of assumed when the ink was running a bit thin, those lines simply didn't print on the no-dash variants. That wouldn't fit this copy though. Clearly, there's one dash, but not the other.

Wow. That's the blackest of black box editions, I've ever seen. What is it?!