This topic is now closed
Gamefaqs Link
Last Topic's Ratings:
Builder's Block - GA - 75% (2)
Global Domination - BB - 0% (2)
King of Fighters 97 - GGAA - 75% (4)
Option Tuning Car Battle 2 - GA - 75% (2)
Skeleton Warriors - BAAB - 25% (4)
Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey 98 - GG - 100% (2)
Not too many votes this time, I thought there'd be more votes for Wayne Gretsky, but maybe everyone played in on N64 (which is regrettable as I think this version is better). Also, I highly recommend checking out Option Tuning Car Battle 2, I've been playing a lot of it since the topic went up.
Games for this topic:
Glover
Lego Racers
Little Big Adventure
Macross Digital Mission VF-X
Rushdown
Uno
In case you can't find it, this release of Uno is actually a Japanese-exclusive and is part of the Superlite 1500 series, which is odd because GF considers it to be multiplatform with most of the US releases. Little Big Adventure looks interesting, I'm surprised I've basically never heard anything about it.
Glover - G
ReplyDeleteLego Racers - A
Little Big Adventure - G
Macross Digital Mission VF-X - A
Rushdown - A
Uno - G
I feel like we've already discussed Glover pretty extensively. For the uninitiated, it's a 3D platformer where you control a glove and your goal is to get both glove and ball to the end of each of the game's levels, while collecting various things, solving puzzles, and avoiding or defeating enemies along the way. Compared to other 3D platformers, it's a lot more methodical and slower due to the need to bring and protect the ball. Situations where you need to leave the ball somewhere, do something as Glover, then come back and get the ball are common, which can result in a fair bit of backtracking, and trying to get all of the collectables slows the game down even further. I can see how this may have annoyed people and I do think the game would have benefitted from some simplification, in particular I don't think the ability to transform the ball into various forms was really a necessary mechanic. The game also famously ramps its difficulty much too fast, the second world is already super tough and most people will probably give up there. Either way, though, it's a very unique game and I kind of like it. Regarding the PS1 version, it actually has some changes from N64. For starters, there are some enhancements as this version came later. There's a new tutorial, a new camera system, and the controls are now always displayed on screen. The new tutorial is decent and displaying the controls actually helps quite a bit since they are complex. As for the camera system, I'm a bit mixed on it. It does sometimes help you see more of the level but it also occasionally frames the action from bad angles and manipulating it during gameplay is tough. The game's performance is also somewhat degraded on PS1. Not drastically so, but the framerate is noticeably a little worse and this sometimes hampers controlling the ball. Overall, I'd say the two versions are probably about equal. If you didn't like the N64 version this isn't going to change your mind, but if you like the game either version is fine.
By contrast, the PS1 version of Lego Racers is definitely a little better than the N64 version. The core concept of making a lego car and then racing it remains cool, but on N64 the controls are so atrocious that it's not fun. On Playstation, the control has been tightened up a fair bit and as a result the game now feels noticeably better to play. Item spam is still really strong and the game still feels fairly simplistic overall, but it's much more playable now.
Little Big Adventure is quite an interesting game. In many ways, it reminds me of Crusader: No Remorse, but I think it's actually a little better than that game. Like Crusader, it's an isometric adventure game set in a dystopian setting, where you'll defeat or sneak past a lot of guards, find items, and solve puzzles. The game revolves around four "stances" for the main character, normal (which is used for talking / searching), discreet (which is used for stealth), aggressive (which is used for combat), and athletic (which lets you run and jump). These modes are wisely mapped to the four shoulder buttons, and once you get used to which button does what it's quite easy to control, which is a big advantage over Crusader's cumbersome controls. There's also a bit more of a story aspect here, you'll need to converse with a number of characters throughout the game in order to proceed, and the setting is actually surprisingly interesting. When it comes to combat, you're usually outmatched by the enemy forces, who have powerful guns that can make quick work of you. Your initial form of attack is just a series of punches and kicks (which you do by holding down the attack button while in aggressive mode), which can quickly subdue enemies but you have to get quite close to use it, so you have to be sneaky. Later on you get a ranged attack, but it's no match for a gun, so it's generally best used against slow but tough opponents who the melee attack isn't useful against. A lot of the time, the best option is just to keep a low profile and try not to get spotted, and run away if you do, which kind of makes sense with the theme and lore of the game, you are a fugitive after all. Overall, it's quite an interesting title, and quite a long one as well, that's well worth looking into if you enjoyed Western adventure games like Crusader or SNES Shadowrun. Incidentally, the US name for this game (which is only on PC), "Relentless", is a vastly better title, it perfectly captures the feeling of being a lone renegade against a corrupt empire.
DeleteMacross Digital Mission is an interesting but flawed title. For starters, for a game that came out as early as it did, it's extremely ambitious. It's a flight game, where it's key mechanic is that your craft can transform between three different modes, a plane, a flying mech, and a ground mech, each of which controls very differently. The plane is almost impossible to actually use in combat due to its twitchy controls, and mainly exists to get from one place to another quickly, but the two mechs are fairly useable, with the ground one probably being the best for general combat, and the air one generally being useful to spam missiles. The game is divided into a variety of missions which generally fall into three general types, space missions, planetary missions, and city missions. The first two both share the same problem, which is that the targets for these missions are generally absurdly spread out, forcing you to spend multiple minutes in the plane mode simply flying from one location to another. I imagine they wanted to make the game feel like it has a large scale, but flying towards an indicator for 40 seconds before you get to fight something for 10 seconds just feels dull. The cityscape missions are much better because the area is smaller and the combat is more constant, though the framerate often tanks here. You have various special moves you can use, which are kind of cool (though they're also limited to a certain number of points per mission) and there's also a decent amount of voice acting and little anime scenes, so there's definitely a bit to like here, but it's also not quite all it could be yet. Still, it's an intriguing first effort and I'm interested to see what the other games from the series manage to pull off.
Rushdown is tolerable. It's a racing game comprising three different types of events, but they're all fairly similar. Snowboarding is probably the weakest of the lot, it's a very basic implementation of the sport with no tricks or anything, and the controls don't feel particularly good. The best of the three sports is kayaking, if only because it's slower than the others and this helps the controls feel adequate. The graphics also probably look the best on these courses. BMX is almost the same as snowboarding but there's more obstacles you have to jump over, once again the controls aren't great and you have to use the power turn a lot, which kills any real sense of speed. There are 5 courses for each sport, for a total of 15, and the AI in the championship mode is very cheap and heavily rubber-banded. The visuals and music aren't great either, the graphics are generally quite blocky and the soundtrack repeats often. Overall, it's fairly clearly a budget game. It has a decent amount of content, but none of it is particularly good. A low A at best.
DeleteDespite being part of the Superlite 1500 series, Uno is actually a pretty solid version of the game. Obviously, everyone knows how to play Uno, and it's pretty hard to screw up the implementation of the mechanics, so basically the only thing that differentiates different versions of the game is the presentation, and a surprising amount of work has gone into this aspect of the game. You play as one of a group of anime high school students, each of whom have unique voice acting and little cut ins for when they call Uno, win, win or lose challenges, etc. It adds a decent amount of flair to the game, which helps a lot considering most versions of this game will be largely interchangeable from a gameplay standpoint. There's also a variety of different modes and rulesets available, including a doubles mode and a story mode, which help flesh out the experience a little more. It's still Uno and there's not too much reason to search this out unless you're a huge fan of the game, but for $15 this is a solid product.