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Gamefaqs Link
Last Topic's Ratings:
Actua Ice Hockey - AAA - 50% (3)
Bug Riders - AAA - 50% (3)
Creatures - BBBB - 0% (4)
Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors - AAGGG - 80% (5)
Kyoro-chan no Purikura Daisakusen - AB - 25% (2)
Vandal Hearts - GGGGGGA - 93% (7)
A pretty average topic this time, I certainly thought Tobal No 1 would be more popular. It just goes to show that just because you've heard of something a lot doesn't mean people like it.
Games for this topic:
Adventure of Little Ralph
K-1 Grand Prix
MediEvil
Motocross Mania
Space Rider
Turnabout
I've actually wanted to try Adventure of Little Ralph for quite some time now. Also, I always get Oddworld and MediEvil mixed up, even though they have nothing to do with each other.
Adventure of Little Ralph - G
ReplyDeleteK-1 Grand Prix - G
MediEvil - A
Motocross Mania - B
Space Rider - B
Turnabout - G
The Adventure of Little Ralph is indeed a pretty cool game. On the surface, it looks like a pretty basic platformer, albeit one with good controls and visuals, but it has a number of interesting ideas. For starters, it's a rare platformer from this era that still uses a point system, and it's actually fairly involved here, not only are there tons of hidden collectables, but fruit will often pop up as you go through the stages and if you can collect them all quickly you can get a lot of bonus points (which give extra lives) and sometimes powerups. You'll want those lives and powerups, too, because the game is fairly challenging, though it is thankfully generous with checkpoints (though this can be a double-edged sword sometimes if you get stuck in a hard section with no powerups). There's also kind of a bizarre addition where some of the later boss fights play like a fighting game, complete with blocking and special moves. It's oddly well-fleshed out, but feels somewhat underutilized as you don't even start to encounter it until over halfway through the game. Still, it doesn't hurt the package and the core platforming experience is pretty strong. Definitely worth looking into for anyone who wishes PS1 had more 2D games.
I wasn't sure what to expect from K-1 Grand Prix, but it's actually a pretty good game. Longtime followers of GAB will have seen me complain about older boxing games and how they're basically just button mashers where you can't possibly react to anything and they need to start becoming more like fighting games, and this is finally that game. K-1 is ostensibly a kickboxing game, but it plays a fair bit like a 3D fighting game, albeit one without special moves and with more of a focus on stamina. As you throw punches and kicks, you progressively get tired and need to back off to catch your breath for a bit, so there's a bit of a risk / reward factor to trying to go for long chains of attacks. You have a lot of control over your positioning, too, with multiple types of sidesteps, sways, forward steps, and so on, which is crucial because whiffing attacks wastes valuable stamina. Overall, the core fighting action feels well-designed and satisfying. There's also a very well-fleshed out create a character mode, too, where you'll control every aspect of your character's training from coach selection to the individual exercises performed during your routine. Early bouts tend to take forever, though, as neither you or your opponent are likely to have enough offense to really knock each other down, luckily there's a maximum of 5 rounds before a match goes to a decision. A pretty cool game all around, too bad I ended up doing these out of order.
MediEvil is clearly a very ambitious game, but it's also definitely very rough in some respects. The game is predominantly an action game, albeit one with some light adventure elements. One of the concepts I like is that on each stage there's a hidden chalice which can be used to obtain a new weapon, which helps add variety to the game, though I feel that the game's combat is generally its weakest aspect. Combat in the game just generally feels kind of mushy, there's no mercy invincibility and when you hit enemies they just kind of bounce back a bit, so it doesn't really feel satisfying, and that's kind of a problem because there's a ton of it. The platforming isn't really a lot better either, Dan's jump is a bit stiff and the running control also feels weird (who maps run to double tap in a 3D game?). Then there's the camera, which is merely serviceable at the best of times, but often gets stuck in various locations and rotation is frequently disallowed, forcing you to walk towards the camera or view the action from some other heavily suboptimal angle. The game is definitely charming in a subtle kind of way and it definitely has its moments, but it's also clearly a very early attempt at 3D. I actually kind of want to see what they did with the PSP remake and the upcoming one for PS4, because this seems like a game that's ripe to be remade.
DeleteThere was a big argument in the last N64 topic about games that people find difficult to play due to the frame rate and other things, and I think I'm going to have to open up that can of worms again for Motocross Mania. The word I'd use to describe this game is "jittery", the combination of poor framerate plus a camera with too much vertical movement creates a strange jitter effect that gradually gives me a headache and makes the game not very fun to play. Pulling the camera back with circle helps a bit, but it's still a pretty lousy game to look at. This is unfortunate, because the game actually does have decent track variety, though the handling also feels kind of weird, the game seems to almost decide whether or not you land jumps successfully at random and turning also never feels great, the brake is far too strong. The one thing I do like is the trick system, it's very simple and is exactly how tricks in a game like this should work, but it's not enough to salvage the overall package.
Space Rider is an absurdly simple game, so much so I was convinced it had to be part of the Simple 1500 series, but it seems not to be. In any case, it's the world's most basic rail shooter. Gameplay consists almost entirely of shooting missiles, flying through rings, and trying to avoid enemy missiles, which is hard because it's very tough to judge how close they are to you and the game loves screen flashes too much. You can see basically all this game has to offer in 10 minutes.
Turnabout is a very simple puzzle game which you literally only play with the DPad. The goal of the game is to rotate the maze, which shifts the gravity and causes certain objects to fall, and ultimately you want to guide elements of various colours to each other. Sometimes there are multiple elements of different colours, so you have to keep track of several things at once, but despite this it's generally a pretty chill game. Games that are this simple often get an A grade, but this game does quite a number of things right, the Kaleidoscope backgrounds are pretty neat, it has nice, relaxing music, and I appreciate the fact that there are no lives or anything to contend with (I don't know how so many games get this wrong). There's also an edit mode that lets you make your own stages. Overall, it's a very simple game, but I didn't want to stop playing it.