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Last Topic's Ratings:
Battle Athletess: Daiundoukai GTO - GA - 75% (2)
Hi-Octane - BB - 0% (2)
K-1 The Arena Fighters - BBB - 0% (3)
R-Types - GGGAGGG - 93% (7)
Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha - GAAGGGGG - 88% (8)
This is the first topic with only five games listed because it turns out we had done VR Soccer before (As Actua Soccer). I'll try to keep a closer eye on this in the future.
Games for this topic:
Alundra
Backstreet Billiards
Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout
Gubble
Hit Back
Speed Machines
I'm very curious to see what the reception is to Dragon Ball GT Final Bout. My friend had it and we played it a lot, so it's a game that comes readily to mind when I think about PS1, but maybe everyone else thinks it sucks or has never heard of it. IIRC it released a few years before Dragon Ball really got big in North America.
Alundra - G
ReplyDeleteBackstreet Billiards - G
Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout - B
Gubble - A
Hit Back - A
Speed Machines - B
Alundra is frequently compared to Zelda, though to me it feels more like one of the Quintet games. In any case, it definitely feels very much like a Super Nintendo game, the visuals, music, and gameplay are all a dead ringer for the types of releases we saw towards the latter part of the system's life. Like the Quintet games, Alundra is an Action game with significant Adventure elements. The game is quite linear and has a significant story focus (this is one of the main reasons I feel the Zelda comparison doesn't really work), which is carried by good pacing and a somewhat unique premise. I do have a couple minor gripes, one of the biggest ones is that the game is quite fond of platforming, Alundra can just barely jump 2 tiles worth of distance, but it requires you to be lined up pretty exactly with the last pixel of the surface you're jumping from, and there are many sequences where you have to make a lot of these jumps in a row. I'm fairly used to it from long years of playing such games and so I didn't tend to fail them too many times, but it can definitely be a bit obnoxious and kind of feels out of place. I also feel like the game's combat is probably a little bit too simplistic for its own good (compared to Illusion of Gaia or especially Terranigma, it's much more straightforward), and it's also fairly easy, as abundant healing items ensure that you're not likely to ever be at serious risk of running out of health. Still, the game has that unmistakable 16-bit charm to it that can suck you in for hours, so it's definitely worth a look for Super Nintendo fans.
Backstreet Billiards is a cool game, probably one of my favourites in the genre. For starters, it's quite mechanically competent, with good controls, AI, and a wide variety of modes. However, what sets this game apart from other pool games is that it also features a story mode, which features a protagonist trying to track down a legendary pool cue that was also a gift from his father. This isn't simply a sequence of matches with a little dialogue in between, it's sort of structured like an adventure game, where you can visit various places, talk to people, search for hidden items that can boost your stats, and of course, challenge various people to games of pool. The areas that you visit are introduced with a neat little 3D cutscene and the pool matches you play accurately capture the backdrops of the various environments, which feels pretty cool, there's even some pretty decent music in some of the locations. Overall, it feels quite well put-together and really helps give the game its own identity. Definitely worth a look for pool fans, and possibly even those who usually find this genre somewhat boring.
There are still a couple things I like about Dragon Ball GT Final Bout, but it's also way clunkier than I remembered and I can't even give it an A in good conscience. First thing's first, the core fighting system in the game is atrocious. It's extremely clunky, melee attacks barely work, flying completely breaks the game, there are no throws or other guard breaks, and most of it revolves around charging up and spamming special moves (so at least this part is authentic to the show). The game does feature one unique feature, which is a build-up mode where you progressively get stronger by beating opponents. This mode is legitimately cool, but the terrible fighting mechanics severely limit the experience. If it had been even competent this would have been enough for A for sure, but it's simply not good enough for this to have significant appeal. Something else that's really funny about the game is that it is dubbed, but it does not have the official voice actors, which sounds completely hilarious, even though the dubbing is not bad, it just sounds so wrong compared to the voices we're used to, so at least there's so comedy value there. Still, you'd do much better to play any of the DBZ games from next gen, like Super Dragonball Z or Budokai Tenkaichi, they're miles better.
DeleteGubble is okay. It's a little bit like Pac-Man, you have to collect power tools and use them to unscrew all of the nuts / screws / bolts / nails / whatever on the board in order to win, while avoiding various enemies. Specific tools are needed to get rid of specific types of screws, and you can press X to ditch your current tool, which also protects you from enemies, so much of the gameplay just consists of holding X when enemies get close and waiting for them to go away, which doesn't feel especially clever. Pretty much everything about the game feels pretty average, but I guess one good thing is there are a lot of levels if you're looking to kill a fair bit of time.
Hit Back is interesting, it's basically like a kind of 3D Arkanoid. You control a character who kicks a ball down a hallway with a wall at the other end, with the goal being to take out all the enemies in the stage by hitting them with the ball. Obviously, you lose a life if the ball gets past you on the way back, which can be tricky because the ball can bounce high and you may have to jump to get it. At the end of each stage there's a boss, who you similarly have to hit a bunch of times with the ball, but they can toss it back to you in odd patterns that can be very hard to block successfully. You can also do a sort of power kick that powers up the ball, making it home in on or even pierce enemies, but this comes at the expense of it bouncing more so it can be risky. It's an interesting idea and the presentation is nice, though I feel like it can be a bit unfair sometimes, you don't have quite as much control over the ball as I'd like and when enemies get close to the screen it often feels like it's barely possible to hit them without losing the ball, since you have a kicking animation every time you hit it that locks you in place for a second, preventing you from hitting it and quickly moving to the next spot. At least you have infinite continues.
Speed Machines reminds me of a worse version of Sports Superbike. Like that game, it's another very barebones racer from a progression perspective, you basically just choose races from the menu and that's it. Compared to Sports Superbike, the driving engine is not as good, it's not completely terrible but it feels a bit stiff (particularly the go-karts) and its visuals are also a little worse. The game is not completely terrible, but the lack of any kind of progression system leaves little room to bother with it when many better racing games are available.