Webhead123

3 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

It is bananas that people don't like collecting Atari games.

Atari box covers were spectacular. Among the posters decorating the walls of my game room, seven of them are Atari covers.

3 hours ago, RH said:

It might not have made a game good for a review, but if you have a killer box art, there was a reasonable chance you'd sell more than a few copies of your game.

Exactly right. Precisely because graphics capabilities were so limited, putting evocative art on the game's cover (and, occasionally, in the manual) was the publisher's way to spark the customer's imagination. Sure, they might just be differently-colored pixels on-screen, but with the right cover, you could convince people that those pixels were space ships or robots, or tanks, or wizards..

On 3/19/2024 at 8:31 PM, RH said:

The games don’t matter.  Everyone needs to be given an Atari 2600 and a bag of commons and told that’s all they can play for three months.

I unironically agree. Moreso than any other era, I think the Atari age represents an experience unique to all others. Before graphics. Before music. Before storytelling and world-building. Raw gameplay and player imagination. Games couldn't hide behind gimmicks, fancy systems or flowery writing. It was just you, a joystick and a high score.

9 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

I'm not sure Activision Blizzard would ever deliver the game anyone actually wants when they make the majority of their money from mobile game microtransactions, season passes, etc. I know Starcraft 2 is the best RTS I'll ever get because I can't imagine a modern Starcraft 3 ever comes out in a "just buy the game and have it" format.

It's an honest tragedy to witness just how far Blizzard has fallen since the acquisition by Activision. To be fair, almost none of the core minds from "old" Blizzard are still there anymore and all of their games have ridden the greed-train so long that they are almost unrecognizable. Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft, WoW, Overwatch...these guys used to rule the world.

I played quite a bit of Warcraft II (and even more Starcraft) but I've never played Warcraft III and I probably never will. The RTS genre just doesn't hit with me anymore and I vastly prefer turn-based strategy games. In fact, I was initially really excited for Dune: Spice Wars until I learned that it was an RTS. I'll probably never play that game either, unfortunately.

I really can't weigh in meaningfully on any of these as I've not spent more than a couple minutes on any one of them. But from what I know of them, what little I've played and the conversations I've had with a friend of mine, the ones that I'll probably get the most out of would be Baba is You and Obra Dinn. The Witness is a genre of game that I haven't been terribly impressed by and Tunic seems like territory that I've tread many times over already (and the cutesy animal aesthetic is fine but doesn't do anything for me).

There's just no way I can give this less than a 10. Call it nostalgia if you want to but this is honestly one of my favorite games of all time and so stupidly replayable. Still my favorite mainline Mario game.

I really wanted to like Sekiro and gave it more than a few fair shakes. In the end, it felt too punishing for me in my current stage of life and I just don't think my skill level and patience were up to the demands required to feel like I was making progress. Keep in mind, I'm very hyper-critical of the "Souls-like" genre on the whole and if I like a Souls-like game, it's in spite of its difficulty. I appreciate challenge in games. I even don't mind replaying portions of a game to "master" it, to an extent. I remember how beating Ninja Gaiden on X-Box felt like one of the greatest accomplishments ever. But that was...damn...18 years ago and these days, games have to give me a reason to want to come back to them, either by rewarding my effort or by at least acknowledging what it demands of the player. Sekiro has a very fascinating world and setting...but I couldn't see much of it because it kept putting up walls for me to beat my head against until my vision was blurry and my head was hurting.

Take all that with a grain of salt or two.

This is a good example of a quality early title for the Genesis. That is to say, it has lots of great qualities...and only suffers because it was an early release. It's not exactly pushing the hardware in any way but the play control is good, the graphics and music are quite excellent (again, for an early title) and it's one example of licensed games done right. It's fairly slow-paced for some and I get that. It's also pretty dang easy. But it's still great. I struggled between a 7 and 8 but I think it's not quite up to the task of the top-tier.

So, 7 out of 10 it is.

Well...here we are.

My personal nostalgia for Sonic 2 is stronger than for Gunstar Heroes but setting that aside and trying to be at least slightly objective, I think Gunstar is just an overall better game. I still love and appreciate Sonic 2 but I don't think it would even rank in my top 10 Genesis titles, let alone meet my standards for best game on the console.

Next question: When are we doing this for the Super Nintendo? 

I give it a Ghostly Space-Clown mixing Whiskey Sours out of 10. Would recommend.

It's no NBA Jam but it's got the same spirit. This, Tecmo Bowl and Mutant League Football are pretty much the only football (both kinds) games I'll bother playing.

I'm feeling generous and nostalgic, so I'll give it an 8/10.

Some tough choices, here. I really like the Genesis Ghouls 'N Ghosts but putting it up against Gunstar Heroes...

Same could be said for all of these matchups, really. In my opinion, Sonic 2 is the weakest on the list but even that's still a great game. Goes to show how strong the library really was.

Played the first Crash (original and remaster) but never any of the sequels or spin-offs. The first game was fine enough as an early 3D platformer but didn't exactly blow me away. I own the N-sane Trilogy, so I guess that gives me an excuse to fire up Crash 2 at some point but it's not truly a priority for me.

Shaun!

Never played it/10

Revenge of Shinobi

I can appreciate Pitfall for what it is. Probably in part because I didn't own it at the time, it never became one of my favorites on the Atari and I'd say that rings true even today.

5/10

Castlevania: Bloodlines

15 hours ago, Gloves said:

Bro I play for ten minutes and I'm bored. 

That's me with just about every Bethesda or From Software game. 

I've played about 5 minutes of DKR and found it...okay. The N64 era was not my favorite for racing games as-is, so I probably don't see myself visiting the game much beyond that.

River Raid has some special significance to me, so I'm hoping (although it seems unlikely) that we'll get to discuss that one.

Does Tabletop Simulator count? 

There are thousands of great mods and add-ons for that singular "game".

Super Mario RPG had lots of fun little cameos and easter eggs by the likes of Link, Samus, Culex, etc.

It has seriously been decades since I last played it but...as the only kid I knew that had a Sega CD, I absolutely had to rent this one and I recall renting it at least a couple of times. The intro and music were pretty spectacular and I thought the game itself was great fun, possibly my favorite of the Sonic games, although I admit that I didn't own or play much of Sonic 3 or Sonic & Knuckles at the time.

My foggy nostalgia goggles say 8/10 but I'm not sure how well that would hold up if played today. Honestly...I kinda miss my Sega CD.

It's been a very long time since I last played it but it was a great run 'n gun for its time. The difficulty was kind of aggravating toward the final stage or two but it manages to stay fun and charming enough to be forgiven for a little cheapness. Also not a terribly long game, so that helps it stay appealing.

7/10

On 2/6/2024 at 1:22 AM, Sumez said:

Super Cyborg - Beaten 25/1

Nice! I actually just installed this the other day and going to finally try to knock it off my list. By all accounts, I think I'll quite enjoy it.