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Last Topic's Ratings:
Armorines: Project Swarm - BBBA - 13% (4)
Bishi Bashi Special - GGAA - 75% (4)
Final Fantasy 4 - AABGAGAG - 63% (8)
Monaco Grand Prix - AAAAA - 50% (5)
One Piece Grand Battle - AABBA - 30% (5)
This is Football - GG - 100% (2)
I was a bit surprised to see Bishi Bashi Special get 4 votes. Maybe the series is a little more well known than I thought.
Games for this topic:
NBA Hangtime
Pacapaca Passion
Time Commando
Virtual Hiryu no Ken
Warzone 2100
Wipeout XL
We finally get to NBA Hangtime, so I can stop accidentally putting up games that are sequels to it. I'm also kind of interested to try Virtual Hiryu no Ken, after playing the scaled-down version of it in Flying Dragon on N64.
NBA Hangtime - A
ReplyDeletePacapaca Passion - A
Time Commando - A
Virtual Hiryu no Ken - B
Warzone 2100 - G
Wipeout XL - G
NBA Hangtime on PS1 is a clear downgrade from the N64 version in almost every way. The most obvious is that it has load time, though actually, this is the least of my concerns. It also has downgraded animations, with I would guess about half of the animation frames being cut compared to N64, and the game might also run at a lower framerate, either way it feels choppier. Neither of these are the issue that pushed me to A, though, the bigger problem is that the PS1 version has control issues. For some reason, the throw elbows and spin move, both of which are mapped to double tap turbo, are extremely unreliable on PS1, I find I often have to mash the turbo button 5-6 times to get them to come out, which makes the timing of when the move actually occurs very unpredictable (as well as often causing it not to come out when it is needed). I have no idea what's up with this, but I tested it dozens of times and it was always an issue, while N64 works properly. Of course, the AI has no issue doing these moves, so this isn't any kind of intentional nerf or anything, and it makes the game feel quite a lot worse to play as these moves are pretty important. With all of the different downgrades here it's a bit hard to recommend this version unless you don't have an N64, and if you don't, you might want to stick to one of the newer games instead, like NBA Jam On Fire Edition or NBA Playgrounds.
Pacapaca Passion is an okay rhythm game. Its most unique feature is that every song in the game is divided into 4 tracks representing different instruments (Piano, Guitar, Drums, Brass, etc), and unlike some rhythm games, your performance directly determines how well the music is played. This is fairly novel for its time, and the game's presentation is also not bad, the music is decent and I like the unique visuals for each stage, in many ways this feels a little ahead of its time. One way in which it is definitely not ahead of its time though is the UI. The game features a strange visual interface where a bar gradually moves from the top of the screen to the bottom, and you have to hit notes as it passes over them. I find this to be vastly harder to read effectively compared to the traditional "notes flow towards the top / bottom of the screen and you hit them when they cross a certain threshold" UI, and combined with the very high level of difficulty of many of the songs (there's tons of 16th notes and the position is all over the place, you'll almost never get a simple quarter note rhythm or anything) I feel this makes the game feel inordinately difficult to play. If you're willing to put up with a very steep learning curve there's some fun to be had here, but it's for the very dedicated only.
I kind of like Time Commando. The basic idea is that it's an action game where you fight your way through time, from the prehistoric era to the future, picking up and using various era-appropriate weapons to defeat enemies and avoid traps. The game has an interesting aesthetic where it uses prerendered backgrounds in a manner not totally dissimilar to most JRPGs, but they also pan and move as you go along. Sometimes it looks a little weird, but it also ensures that the stages look quite visually distinct from each other, which is important since the time travel aspect of the game is the main appeal. Controls and combat are a little on the clunky side, you hold Square and press left, up, or right to attack (each does a different move), and down blocks. You can do combos by pressing different directions in a row, but it also locks you in place so it feels somewhat stiff. Movement uses tank controls and the jumping is absurdly slow, though it's not necessary to do it often. Shoulders change weapons, and finding weapons is key. There's a new set of weapons in each era and this gives the game a decent amount of variety, while you start off with mostly melee combat, you eventually start using guns and explosives and other things like that, which actually helps each era feel commendably different from the others, so even though it wasn't the most polished game, it did make me want to keep playing to see what would happen next. It would definitely be nice if it was a little more polished, but I think it does a decent enough job of getting its idea across.
DeleteUnfortunately, Virtual Hiryu no Ken is pure crap. A better version of this game is included as part of Flying Dragon on N64, and although that version has only about half the characters, it runs much faster, looks much better, and also plays better, for example the jumps aren't nearly as floaty and you can cancel moves much better. Even then, it still kind of sucks and I doubt anyone ever plays that mode much. This version, while having more characters, is almost totally unplayable, being one of the stiffest fighting games ever created. It also lacks the movelist of the N64 version, so good luck if you don't have the manual or something, though the game controls so poorly that there's not even a lot of point in knowing what the moves are. Definitely not worth your time.
Warzone 2100 is an RTS game somewhat in the same vein as Command and Conquer, though quite a bit more complex. It features a lot of typical genre conventions, you can build structures, queue up units and multi-select them, assign control groups, set rally points, attack move, research new units and upgrades, etc. The game runs well on PS1 and there has been some effort to optimize the UI for console, though it's not nearly as easy to use as Command and Conquer and I find I press the wrong buttons often and my control groups keep getting unassigned. Thankfully there is a decent tutorial to get you started and the game is playable enough once you know the basics. In terms of features, there are two unique ideas here. The first is that you unlock new things to research by finding Artifacts on the map, generally near enemy bases and such. This is kind of an interesting way to tie base-building and combat together, though of course it would only really work in single player. Secondly, the game doesn't have preset vehicles, many research topics give you vehicle parts, of which you then combine 3 together to make a vehicle. Of course, there are many possibilities, though I feel this level of complexity is not especially well-suited to console even though the interface isn't too had to use. As for the campaign itself, it's decent, something interesting is that many missions are divided into parts where your progress carried over from each part to the next, however, like most RTS games on console, the campaign is all there is, there's no multiplayer here. Overall, I feel this is clearly a fairly decent effort for a console RTS, certainly one of the best ones of this era, even though it's still a genre that's probably best-played on PC.
DeleteCompared to the first game, Wipeout XL makes a lot of good improvements, though there's still some weirdness here. For starters, this game introduces the energy meter. If you get hit by too many powerups, you can now be straight up eliminated from the game. I'd consider this a key part of the series, but you can't absorb powerups for health yet, instead you have to use a pit lane, which feels kind of awkward, particularly as the pit lane is not marked terribly well and I often fly right by it. Physics have also noticeably improved since the first game, handling feels better and collisions are also a lot better. As always, the game also looks good and runs great, in particular, I feel the UI is a big upgrade, and we've now got the robotic voice that announces weapons that helps keep track of what's going on. The one thing that hasn't improved here is the progression. This game has maybe the strangest progression out of the entire series. In the single race mode, only certain tracks are available at certain speed classes, for example the first two tracks can only be played at vector, while the second two are only at venom. Once you win all the single races, you unlock the tournament mode, which is also a bizarre departure from series norms. It's really more like a race gauntlet, as even though it takes the form of a 6-race series on Rapier, you have to win every race with limit retries in order to proceed, rather than using a more standard points-based system. This is definitely an issue and I could see people dropping the rating based on this, but I feel that this game does enough things right to offset it. I think you couldeven make the case that this version is better than the US released version of Wipeout 3, which, while having some major improvements, also has a worse UI and debatably worse tracks. Of course, Wipeout 3 Special Edition is another story entirely, but that's a topic for another time.