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Last Topic's Ratings:
Action Man: Operation Extreme - BBGBGG - 50% (6)
All-Star Racing - BBBBB - 0% (5)
ESPN Extreme Games - BBBAABB - 14% (7)
King of Fighters 96 - BAAGAGGA - 63% (8)
Syphon Filter - GABGGAGGGGAGGGGAGG - 83% (18) (1 SR)
V2000 - AAB - 33% (3)
I still feel like Action Man got the short end of the stick here, I guess that's what happens when your title is that generic. It was also interesting to see how the reception to KOF improved, I wonder if it will continue to get better with each game.
Games for this topic:
Chill
Disney's The Emperor's New Groove
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete
Mighty Hits
OverBlood
Tokyo Highway Battle
I remember being totally obsessed with The Emperor's New Groove when it came out, I watched the movie a bunch of times and I was really excited to play the game, but for some reason I remember basically nothing about either of them. I feel like I should probably watch the movie again for context. Oh, speaking of things that are nostalgic, we also have Lunar SSSC. I'm quite curious to see what people have to say about this one, as I feel it's a bit of a period piece.
Chill - B
ReplyDeleteDisney's The Emperor's New Groove - G
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete - G
Mighty Hits - B
OverBlood - G
Tokyo Highway Battle - A
Chill is very close to being what I want out of a snowboarding game. Compared to earlier snowboarding games (ie, Coolboarders, 1080), it feels much more open, with a better physics engine that makes it easy to pull off tricks and a more significant emphasis on slopestyle events, thus baring a bit more resemblance to later games like SSX or Shaun White. However, for some reason, it features among the worst controls in a game of this type, with extremely sluggish, slippery controls that just make the game feel like a chore to play, and it kills almost all of the enjoyment. It's a shame too, because with proper controls and a better trick system this game would probably be G.
The Emperor's New Groove is another game that I'd kind of describe as "discount Spyro", but it's got a fair number of things going for it. Right off the bat, I appreciate the use of scenes from the movie before each world. These do a lot to help tie the action to the original movie, though it does also make it obvious that the game doesn't have the original voice actors. Despite this, the voice work is still decent and I feel the game does a good job highlighting the personality of Kuzco. As for the gameplay, it's fairly basic, but does have a decent amount of variety. You might think that having a number of zones in each area would get repetitive, but it generally doesn't since the game does a decent job of mixing things up. There's nothing super groundbreaking here, but it's a decent time and feels authentic to the source material. Certainly not a terrible licensed effort by any means.
Lunar SSSC has been one of the hardest games to rate for GAB that I've ever done. I've often said that the quality of a game is usually evident right away, it's often the case that in the first 10 minutes I already know which way I'm leaning on my review, and then I just keep playing until I'm sure, but with Lunar, that never happened. I played quite far into the game, but at no point did my feelings ever solidify, they kept bouncing back and forth between A and G, to the extent that I actually wrote two totally different blurbs for this game, one giving it an A rating and one with a G rating. Let's start by explaining why I think it might deserve each grade. For starters, Lunar is a pretty basic RPG. It has many similarities to Game Arts' later series, Grandia, in that it's very linear, you have no control over your party, and there's not a lot of customization (none whatsoever in Lunar's case). It also has a bit of a strategy to its battle system, but again Lunar is more limited here. Compared to the complex and interesting timing guage system from Grandia, Lunar instead has a system where the characters move around a bit in battle, but it is largely inconsequential, characters can move quite far with each attack, so situations where you avoid an attack due to good positioning are rare. It occurs enough that sometimes you'll feel like "aha, killing that enemy first paid off" but not so much that it plays a major role. I feel that, at least on paper, Grandia is clearly a much better game. Now let's talk about why it might be G. For starters, the game has a lot of charm. The pixel art is quite nice, particularly in towns, NPCs have a lot of unique and often funny dialogue, the music is pretty good, and the plot, while simple, is carried well by good writing and characters. I also feel that the game is generally paced well, when I played Grandia, there were several parts where I felt like the game dragged a lot, but I don't feel that way about Lunar. I really like that Lunar has visible encounters, and that the dungeons generally aren't too big, as I feel that this keeps the game moving well. Also, the game is challenging enough that even though the only real strategic decisions you're making in battle is when to use your MP, it still feels interesting enough that I didn't get bored. Playing the game also feels nostalgic in a way that I can't completely place, even though I never played it too extensively when it was new. So how do I make my final choice? Even though my brain says that Grandia is clearly the better game, I think I might actually like Lunar more, and either way, I don't think Grandia is even one of the top RPGs on PS1 (it's a strong field). I think the best thing I can come up with is "it's fun, so it's G". Despite the fact that I played it for a long time for this review, it never really felt like a bother. I wasn't exactly blown away by it at times, but it was good enough that I could see myself finishing it. The fact that this game has been remade a bazillion times also probably indicates that there was something good about it, even if it's something more nebulous like good design or pacing. Maybe I'll go back and regret this one later and feel like I should have given it an A, but for now, this was the analysis that seemed more correct to me.
DeleteMighty Hits is basically just way worse Point Blank. There's really not much more to say about it, the ideas behind the games are generally similar to Point Blank but have way less nuance and personality. Basically, everything that sets Point Blank apart from a typical light gun game is missing here, and this game is so inferior that I can't see why you'd ever play it over one of the titles in the Point Blank series.
OverBlood was a pretty surprising title for me. For starters, it's a 3D horror game, complete with third and first-person camera options, and this greatly enhances the experience compared to only using fixed camera angles. It's also kind of tense and creepy in a good way, probably due to it having a decent setup for its plot and a mystery that slowly unfolds, and the ability to switch between characters to solve puzzles is also a decent feature. The only unfortunate thing is that, kind of like Echo Night, it's not quite as scary as I would have liked. As I was playing it, I kept saying, "okay, now I'm going to get attacked", but it pretty much never occurred when I thought it was. For example, the first time you encounter one of the monsters, it's apparently dead, and you have to explore a nearby area solve some puzzles. Obviously it's going to get up and chase you at some point, right? Well, it doesn't, and even when you do fight some of them the combat is fairly mundane and lacks the tension that you'd get in something like Resident Evil, probably because, for one thing, your health is only shown when you are in some kind of danger and refills after every dangerous situation is dealt with, so that takes some of the tension out of it. The game is also very linear and lacks any of the adventure elements that you'd find in Rez Evil or similar games. Despite this, I still had a pretty good time with it, and it was clearly innovative for its time.
DeleteTokyo Highway Battle has solid fundamentals, with generally good controls and physics. Compared to something like All-Star Racing, you can just instantly tell that this game feels way better to play. However, it's still a fairly limited game, with only a few tracks and modes. The biggest issue I have with this game though is the parts system, there are tons of parts to buy for your car, but the game doesn't really make it clear how they affect your car's performance outside of a very scant description and the game also doesn't bother to show you what parts are compatible with your current car, which makes car customization more frustrating than fun. Still, the racing mechanics here are solid and this game is part of a series, so this seems like something that could easily be polished up in the sequels.