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Gamefaqs Link
Last Topic's Ratings:
Alfred Chicken - BBG - 33% (3)
Command and Conquer - AGGAG - 80% (5)
Gamera 2000 - GGG - 100% (3)
Need for Speed 2 - AAAA - 50% (4)
NHL Blades of Steel 2000 - AAG - 67% (3)
Zero Divide - AAAA - 50% (4)
I was pretty surprised by the low ratings count in this topic, I thought Command and Conquer and Need For Speed 2 would draw a larger crowd. Maybe most people played Command and Conquer on PC instead.
Games for this topic:
Arc the Lad 2
Clock Tower: The First Fear
Doraemon: Nobita to Fukkatsu no Hoshi
My Disney Kitchen
NFL Full Contact
Rollcage
To be very clear, the Clock Tower game in this topic is the first game, which is a port of Clock Tower on SNES, not the game that is just called "Clock Tower" in the US, which is actually Clock Tower 2. This one wasn't released stateside, but it does have a fan translation available. I'm also looking forward to trying the Doraemon game. The N64 ones were a little disappointing, but maybe Epoch got it right here.
Arc the Lad 2 - G
ReplyDeleteClock Tower: The First Fear - A
Doraemon: Nobita to Fukkatsu no Hoshi - B
My Disney Kitchen - A
NFL Full Contact - B
Rollcage - A
Arc the Lad 2 is a massive improvement over the first game in almost every way imaginable. For starters, it's a vastly more fleshed out and more complete game compared now. The original game was very short, had very basic progression, a pretty basic story, no real equipment system, no team customization, etc, all of these aspects are drastically improved for the sequel. A couple of my complaints still weren't addressed (I continue to be annoyed that you can't ground target area spells), but the game is much more obviously G now. Of all the changes, I think I particularly appreciate the improved story. I feel like the sequel picks up so much quicker and does a lot more to hold your interest, due to generally strong writing and pacing through the game. As with the first game, the voice work and animations also remain a strong point, and I feel it has quite good music too. This is just a very solid game all around. I guess the real question is whether or not it's worth playing the first game beforehand (it has a save transfer bonus ala Suikoden 1 and the story is also connected), though regardless of your feelings towards the original you should give this one a shot.
Clock Tower on PS1 is extremely similar to the SNES version, being a nearly exact port. The two versions are so similar that I had to play them side by side to notice any differences at all, and even then they are extremely slight, mostly just two or three added close-up scenes, some minor changes to music and sound effects, and a couple very tiny gameplay changes. Back on SNES, I said that it was innovative and pretty creepy but I found the controls a bit cumbersome, which I still do. One annoyance is that many scenes are quite tightly packed with objects and it can sometimes be hard to tell which one the cursor thinks you're looking at, I feel it would have helped a lot to include the name of the selected option in the lower pane. Also, in the PS1 version, you now tire absurdly quickly when running (except during chase sequences), which means you effectively have to explore the mansion at a very slow walking pace, which I suppose is intended to build tension but it feels very tedious. Actually, to be honest, the health system is probably the worst thing about the game, you can get all your health back quickly when you're out of danger, so it's not a survival mechanic the way it is in, say, Rez Evil, and many dangerous situations can kill you instantly anyway, so the health meter is basically just a nuisance that slows down the gameplay. That being said, it's still a fairly solid game for horror fans, though I feel it has lost a bit of its luster by now with the horror genre being significantly more developed this gen.
Sadly, the PS1 Doraemon game isn't really any better than the N64 games, in fact it's actually probably worse. The game's biggest issue is that it's too zoomed in, you can't really see much around you most of the time, which is bad because the game revolves around a "plane switching" mechanic where you can jump between a foreground and background layer, but when you're in the background, you can't see the foreground. There is a button you can press to pull the camera back a bit, but it doesn't go back far enough, so it doesn't really help. The game's physics are also not great and the boss battles are super lame, with the bosses not visibly reacting to damage in any way, making it hard to know if your attacks are doing anything. The game also features obnoxiously long cutscenes between stages, which take way too long and have terrible 3D compression, though thankfully you can skip these with Start + Select. This makes the game a little more tolerable, but you're probably best just skipping the entire game instead.
My Disney Kitchen is a surprisingly fully-featured cooking program. I use the word "program", as this is not really a game, at no point that I've discovered does the game ever challenge you to make anything specific or present you with any kind of objective. Instead, you're simply left to just fiddle around with the tools available and find what types of foods you can create which is actually a surprisingly large amount and the cooking process is fairly detailed. For example, when I tried to make a hamburger, after cooking the burger and placing it in a bun, I wanted to add ketchup, but using the ketchup on it only poured ketchup on the top of the burger, in order to put ketchup on the burger I had to take the top bun off and then squirt the ketchup in the middle. Although the game doesn't rate or grade your works in any way, it was surprisingly satisfying to put together a somewhat competent meal. One thing that does annoy me a bit is that Mickey and Minnie constantly drop in to comment on what you're doing, and you can't skip their dialogue. You can hang up on them when they call you on the phone, though, which is hilarious, but when they come to the door you're stuck listening to them yammer on. If you could close the door in their face I'd probably have given this a G.
DeleteNFL Full Contact is super primitive for a PS1 Football game. For starters, the presentation is so bad that there are 16-bit games that look better than this. All players look exactly the same and have very few frames of animation, and the resolution of the game generally looks awful, it all has a very pixelated look that just looks bad. Commentary is also nonexistent and what voice clips there are limited and repetitive. Secondly, the gameplay is super basic as well. There are very few plays available and offense is generally too strong, with it being very hard to ever prevent any play from getting at least a few yards. It also lacks the mechanic that most games have where players run slower when they have the ball, so if anyone ever breaks away it's a guaranteed touchdown. I think this one came out near-launch but even at the time I wouldn't have recommended it over some of the later 16-bit games.
Rollcage is a pretty interesting game with some neat ideas. For starters, it's a very fast-paced futuristic racing game with boost arrows and weapons, so comparisons to Wipeout are unavoidable, though it has many features that make it stand out. The main gimmick of the series is that the cars have the ability to drive upside down, like some similar-looking RC cars with huge tires, and you also have the ability to drive on walls or ceilings to make use of this. Unfortunately, in the first game, it doesn't really work all that well, attempting to flip the car also often results in it being turned around as well, and the turning control can be a bit stiff so it can be very hard to get straightened out again. Generally, in the first game, you want to try to avoid going upside-down whenever possible, which is a bit lame since it's supposed to be the standout feature. Beyond this, the tracks also feature some destructible elements, which you can break using weapons to screw over the other racers. This is quite cool and works well, and it's impressive to see it in a game of this age (I think this must have been one of the first racers to ever do this). The game also features decent visuals and good music. The biggest thing holding this game back from G is that its sequel, Rollcage Stage 2, is vastly better in every possible way. For starters, the physics are fixed, so that flipping the car now feels "right" and is something you want to do often, rather than avoiding it, and the turning control feels better too. There's also tons more cars, tracks, and pretty much everything else as well. The first game is not a bad proof of concept but they haven't really nailed it just yet.