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Gamefaqs Link
Last Topic's Ratings:
Ballblazer Champions - AA - 50% (2)
Bio Freaks - BBBA - 13% (4)
Denpa Shounenteki Game - BB - 0% (2)
Krazy Ivan - GAAGA - 70% (5)
Need for Speed: V-Rally - ABAAB - 30% (5)
Star Ixiom - GA - 75% (2)
Kind of a low-rated set, but a huge improvement for Krazy Ivan compared to the Saturn version. I wonder what the most disparate port is between the systems in terms of ratings?
Games for this topic:
Baroque
Gran Turismo
MDK
Snowboarding
Street Fighter The Movie
World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks
There's a translation available for Baroque. I've always been kind of curious to see the original, having played the Wii remake. It didn't really feel too notable at the time, but a generation earlier it might have been quite impressive. We also have Street Fighter The Movie again, which I'm always down to play more.
Baroque - G
ReplyDeleteGran Turismo - G
MDK - A
Snowboarding - A
Street Fighter The Movie - G
World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks - A
It was actually very interesting to try out the original version of Baroque. I've played the Wii version, and I knew it was a remake of a PS1 game, but I assumed the PS1 game was basically the same but with slightly worse graphics, but they're actually almost completely different games, and IMO, the PS1 version is quite a bit better. The first and most obvious difference is the style and tone. The PS1 version is a dark, victorian-style horror game, while the remake is a bright and cartoony anime-style game. It's hard to overstate how drastically better the original style works for the game, it's a far better fit for the game's narrative, and the creepiness of the PS1 version makes the game feel much more tense and gripping. You can instantly get a feel for the difference between the two versions by watching the intro cutscene, the PS1 version is very dark and mysterious, whereas the remake looks like something out of Sonic Adventure 2. This extends to the design of pretty much all the enemies and characters in the game, all of whom look drastically better on PS1, and I think it also preserves the sense of mystery far more to have the unseen protagonist rather than the blue hair anime boy of the remake. The other major difference is to the gameplay. Baroque is essentially a slightly actionized take on the Mystery Dungeon formula. Pretty much all of the same concepts that you'd find in a game like Shiren the Wanderer are here, but it plays in real time and from a first-person perspective (on PS1). The remake goes much further towards action by having it play from a third-person perspective and giving you multiple types of attacks, not unlike something like Phantasy Star Online, though with a completely terrible camera and generally clunky controls. The problem here (besides the atrocious camera that pretty much forces you to use the first-person mode, which still controls worse than the original) is that if you get good at the action combat system, you can avoid almost all damage and this trivializes most of the Mystery Dungeon-style mechanics of the game, for example the throwable items are a godsend on PS1 for disposing of scary enemies but in the remake they're mostly trivial. After playing the original, I honestly wonder why they remade the game at all. The original game is actually quite solid and has held up much better than the remake, and it doesn't at all feel like an incomplete or unrealized game. They probably should have just made a completely new game for the new consoles instead, or at the very least also translated and ported the original when they released it, as I feel it's instantly clear that the original is way better if you play them back to back.
Fans of later games in the Gran Turismo series might be a bit surprised to return to the first game, as it plays quite differently compared to later games in the series. While some of the concepts of what the franchise would later become are here already, compared to the rest of the series this game plays far more like an arcade racer. Sure, you do still need to use your brakes occasionally, but there's a ton of powersliding and even low-performance cars can corner perfectly well at 100mph, which they certainly can't in later games. Rather than the simulation-style physics, then, the selling point of this game is its absolutely massive lineup of cars. I love how there's a ton of cars to choose from at the start thanks to the used cars, which actually gives the game a lot of replay value. I also love the idea behind the prize cars, which you can earn by winning events, and tuning up your various cars is fun and rewarding, though it's more simplistic here compared to later games. The car lineup isn't the only thing that should get praise, however, the game also has a ton of tracks as well, and the production values are also very strong, with the game featuring excellent technical performance and also looking pretty excellent for the system. My only gripe is the license test feature, which I find to be somewhat tedious, especially on repeat playthroughs, and I wish it was optional. Still, this is a fantastic racer and actually remains my favourite game in the series, as I'm not a big fan of how their idea of "increased realism" in later titles basically just meant making the cars spin out easier with each game.
DeleteMDK is a really weird game. At its core, its a third-person shooter. When it's playing like a third-person shooter, it actually plays really well. Movement in the game is fast and fluid, thanks in large part due to the main character's parachute, which you can deploy at any time by holding the jump button. This feels really great to use and gives you an excellent degree of air control that generally makes firefights in the game feel really fluid and fun. Unfortunately, the game spends a lot of time not being a third person shooter and most of these moments are pretty bad. For starters, sometimes you're forced to switch into sniper mode to fire at targets, and these moments are quite bad, as this robs you of all of your freedom of movement and the sniper controls are generally pretty clunky. A memorably bad moment is a boss fight where you have to fire mortars into 4 tubes. The mortar shots are affected by gravity, which makes aiming them a complete crapshoot, and enemies will gradually show up to fire upon you while you do it. There are also segments where you have to control vehicles and these are also generally slow and boring compared to the main gameplay, as well as some puzzle segments as well. Overall, it's not a terrible package and the main gameplay is actually quite good, I just wish they had put a bit more nuance into it, say, by giving you more weapons for the third-person part, and spend less time on the other stuff.
In case it's name didn't tip you off, Snowboarding is an extremely simplistic snowboarding game. It actually looks and controls all right, but is marred by an extremely strange decision to make it impossible to fall down by missing jumps or hitting things, which makes the race mode completely trivial to play. The game plays somewhat better in the trick mode, which features an interesting system where the races are timed, but to get more time you have to do tricks, which actually would be a pretty cool slopestyle system in a better game. You actually can fall in the trick stages, but it doesn't matter, you still get points for your tricks whether you land them or not, which again renders this mode somewhat insultingly simple. The game also seems to boast a large number of tracks, but don't let this fool you, it's really just the same track with a number of small variations. It's not nearly as bad as the early Cool Boarders games and the trick mode is kind of enjoyable but you can tell this didn't get as much effort as something like Street Sk8r.
DeleteIt boggles my mind that people rated Street Fighter the Movie low in the Saturn GAB. This game is basically just Super Turbo but hilarious. Sure, the frame data isn't totally accurate, but it's still very close to the original, just with funny visuals and the addition of EX moves. Something that I didn't comment on the first time that I find very funny is that many of the characters in the game don't have new voice actors, they instead use their voice clips from the Alpha series, and hearing those voices from the digitized actors is hysterical. Compared to the Saturn version, the two versions seem to be almost identical. I think the PS1 version maybe has a little less detail in some of the backgrounds, but to be honest I was having too much fun to scrutinize it that closely. Even the music is pretty solid, despite being totally original for the game. I basically never get tired of playing this one, it's such a fun twist on the classic game.
WDL: Thunder Tanks is extremely similar to Battletanx, apparently being made by the same developer, though even though it came out later it feels worse. I suppose you could say that this game is basically Battletanx but without the filler, you basically just do a handful of deathmatches, flag captures, and short solo missions against various opponents, but it feels like it's too watered down and most matches go by way too quickly. One thing that is nice is that you can pick different tanks, though the tank that has the roll move is so powerful compared to everything else that you would only not pick that one if you really want a challenge. Overall, it feels all right, the environmental destructibility is fun and it's kind of satisfying to play, but it doesn't feel nearly as polished as it could be.