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Post by akumajobelmont on Jul 3, 2015 10:05:58 GMT -5
Tho original SEGA Rally Championship. Very rarely does it ever get a mention these days, and for how influential it was, that's a bit of a crime. Yes, it looks dated now, and there have been many Rally games over the years that built on it and were deeper, but I defy you to boot up the Saturn version and not have at least a little fun with it. It still plays like a dream, and the course design is still amazing. The music is still fantastic too, pure SEGA of OLD. SEGA Rally these days seems to be a punchline more than anything, with the whole "Game Over YEEEEEAAAAHHH" thing. If it had no staying power, and not worth discussing, then why is it still a staple in almost every pub and arcade out here in Australia? The game is pure wizardry. WIZARDRY. STILL!!! Ahem... It seems to me like Sega Rally got mostly supplanted by Initial D, at least here in the US. Yeah, Initial D is everywhere here in Australia too, and rightly so, it's a great, great game. Still, every pub with arcade machines that I've ever been to has Daytona, Sega Rally, or both akumajobelmont : SEGA Rally Championship was just huge in arcades where I lived at the time. So was Daytona USA. But when the Saturn converions came out, the media attention completely focused on Daytona, although SRC was clearly the better product for me. This seemed to seal the fate of the franchise on consoles; SEGA Rally 2 on Dreamcast was also pretty quickly forgotten, even though, as a launch game, it was incredibly impressive (but a lesser conversion than SR 1). It's a shame, because as you said, Rally was hugely influential, and was unbelievably fun. I still largely prefer it to Daytona's gameplay to this day, but once again, there is an HD version of Daytona, but nothing for SEGA Rally. Sad, but at least the game led me to the Colin McRae series, and that was just a beautiful thing! Also, yeah... the music in Rally 1 is awesome. The replay music is classic, perfect tracks. So joyful! Here in Australia, and I know the UK magazines too, Sega Rally Saturn was pumped like you wouldn't believe. For years afterwards too, it ended up on best-of lists till after the Xbox/PS2/GC was done - it seemed that the 360/PS3 generation forgot about all the classics. Apart from Goldeneye, Crash Bandicoot (it's crazy how many people here in Oz STILL talk about Crash Bandicoot) and of course, Nintendo's stuff. Daytona USA better be coming to the Xbox One with the whole backwards compatibility. It's the only classic SEGA Arcade Racer still left on the store, as far as I know. I'm stoked that I jumped on Sega Rally Online Arcade and OutRun Online Arcade while they were up. They went the way of Afterburner Climax. Man, SEGA really needs to get their shit together... obvious, I know, but still... so. Fucking. DEPRESSING. Pardon the language
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Post by 1983parrothead on Jul 3, 2015 16:07:55 GMT -5
Mad Stalker: Full Metal Force. It's like a cross between a mirrored Spartan-X / Kung-Fu Master with special moves inspired by Ryu of the Street Fighter series. Two of Takashi Nishiyama's works combined into one. It makes it more interesting to know that in one of the last Nintendo Power magazine interviews, Mad Stalker and the Alien VS. Predator arcade were the main inspirations for Guardian Heroes. It was later remade for PS1 while its engine and design were used in not only Panzer Bandit, but also Phantom Breaker: BattleGrounds and its upcoming PS4 version, Phantom Breaker: BattleGrounds Overdrive.
Galactic Warriors. This Konami arcade title is where numerous ideas were later reinvented in modern fighting games like telescopic attacks, flying, etc.
Asuka 120% BURNING Fest. franchise. Debuting in the Fujitsu FM Towns and revisioned in Sharp X68000 while receiving numerous sequels, this was the first all-female fighting game without hentai content. Some of its features were reused in Guilty Gear and Arcana Heart titles, such as anime designs, multi-hit chains and gravity-defying air combos. It even features double jumps, dashing, air juggles, and the easy 'canceling' of special moves.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2015 16:15:16 GMT -5
Got some games over the years that while I either haven't played or played very little I have read about some good things about them and aren't talked about almost at all here. Second Sight Metal Arms Glitch in the System As someone who owns a copy of Metal Arms I can tell you that the reason nobody talks about it is because the difficulty is a royal bitch and barely anyone finishes it. >:C That much said, yes, Second Sight was a surprisingly fresh title from back in the days when games were trying to first cash in on Havok physics and its neglect is a tragedy.
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Post by cambertian on Jul 3, 2015 16:59:29 GMT -5
Whatever happened to Advance Wars? From what I remember, the series was huge and well-received, yet somehow ended up dead and buried in favor of Fire Emblem.
I'm also a big fan of Chibi-Robo, but I haven't heard praise or even disdain towards the games for quite some time. Heck, even Earthbound is more popular, and that fact alone should shatter the entire universe! Are the Chibi-Robo games really that unremarkable?
Also, because I listed all Nintendo games beforehand... Why no love for Taito's Gunbuster? It's a really solid Wolfenstein-style FPS that apparently included Deathmatch modes and all sorts of other features before most competitors. There should be some kind of revival project in ECWolf or ZDoom for it!
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Post by vetus on Jul 3, 2015 19:01:57 GMT -5
Tho original SEGA Rally Championship. Very rarely does it ever get a mention these days, and for how influential it was, that's a bit of a crime. Yes, it looks dated now, and there have been many Rally games over the years that built on it and were deeper, but I defy you to boot up the Saturn version and not have at least a little fun with it. It still plays like a dream, and the course design is still amazing. The music is still fantastic too, pure SEGA of OLD. SEGA Rally these days seems to be a punchline more than anything, with the whole "Game Over YEEEEEAAAAHHH" thing. If it had no staying power, and not worth discussing, then why is it still a staple in almost every pub and arcade out here in Australia? The game is pure wizardry. WIZARDRY. STILL!!! Ahem... Isn't it the most popular Sega Rally game? It was at many arcades, it was one of the reasons people bought Sega Saturn...it even got a PS2 port as part of Sega Classics. Chibi Robo Park Patrol on the DS is one of my favorite games no-one ever talks about. That was because it was released in America as a Wal-Mart exclusive and didn't got a European release. The original Chibi Robo for Gamecube was already niche despite its praising (still it became more popular after the years, just like Earthbound's case) and Nintendo had the "brilliant" idea to make such a limited release for Park Patrol. I also love Chibi Robo Park Patrol even if it was kinda repetitive.
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Post by Gendo Ikari on Jul 4, 2015 6:56:45 GMT -5
So much. It's easy overall (once telekinesis is upgraded to have effect on living people you can choke them Darth Vader style most times, with minimal PSI energy consumption) but so fun, has nice detals (the computers with minigames and screensavers) and a main character that's not good-looking, nor likeable at first, but not in an exaggerate way. It's also one of those rare games whose story, in my opinion, may be adapted into a movie with not much to change: nothing groundbreaking but a solid action/sci-fi with a fantastic twist at the end. Having just finished it I'd add Cryostasis - The Sleep of Reason to the lot. It gets a lot of deserved flak for its poorly optimized engine, much less deserved for the combat - yes it's clunky, but fits with the setting and atmosphere perfectly - and the environments, which are obviously restrictive and not so varied but what do you expect from a huge ice-breaker in the Arctic? Even if the enemy encounters become very predictable by the last third the atmosphere is among the best I've ever lived in a game, and despite all that mindscrew the ending made sense to me. What these two games have in common, and is probably a further cause of the little attention they still get, is that they were both removed from Steam, GOG and other digital outlets, so for the increasing number of gamers used to digital delivery they are "lost" games. Speaking of something older, Apogee's Monster Bash. I often feel it gets little attention compared to the likes of Keen or Bio Menace.
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Post by Snarboo on Jul 4, 2015 10:22:28 GMT -5
Having just finished it I'd add Cryostasis - The Sleep of Reason to the lot. It gets a lot of deserved flak for its poorly optimized engine, much less deserved for the combat - yes it's clunky, but fits with the setting and atmosphere perfectly - and the environments, which are obviously restrictive and not so varied but what do you expect from a huge ice-breaker in the Arctic? Even if the enemy encounters become very predictable by the last third the atmosphere is among the best I've ever lived in a game, and despite all that mindscrew the ending made sense to me. Russian and Eastern European games in general are hardly talked about outside of the big hitters like The Witcher, STALKER and Metro series. I imagine a lot of that comes down to how obtuse and unforgiving they can be, but I've been shocked by the number of Eastern European games hitting Steam as of late. Even dubious titles like The Stalin Subway have made their way onto the service. It seems most of the people buying them are from that region, however, since most of the forums threads are in Russian. :p
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Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2015 10:27:35 GMT -5
You say Russian/Eastern European games are unforgiving. Any particular reason for that? Some sort of Cold War cultural malaise, or just an unexplicable fetish for that fresh feeling of flailing with the controls as some irradiated gribbly attempts to de-face you?
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Post by Snarboo on Jul 4, 2015 10:38:18 GMT -5
They're unforgiving in the same way that old DOS games were. That either implies a lack of exposure to more modern design principles (Eastern European game development didn't really start until the early to mid 90s), budgetary issues necessitating that they spend less time on QA, or the audience they are catering to is more hardcore and willing to invest time into learning how to play the game. It could also be poor English translations that make it more difficult for western audiences to play them. :p
Edit: It should also be noted that Eastern European games take after European game design in general. If you've ever played an Amiga or C64 game, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2015 10:42:16 GMT -5
Ahhhhh, okay. I've played Turrican, so yyyyep, I do I do I do. Bloody good game that my skin isn't thick enough to survive!
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Post by GamerL on Jul 6, 2015 6:56:04 GMT -5
Rule of Rose: This is a game that is certainly flawed, but it's interesting and unique enough that it deserves to be a bigger cult classic.
There's a certain lushness and attention to detail in Rule of Rose that is rarely seen in any game, the locations of the game feel like real, lived in places and the story strikes that perfect Silent Hill balance of being vague enough to get your imagination going and wonder what it all means, also like the original Silent Hill it leaves it up to you, the player, to take your time, pay attention and explore to piece together and fully understand the story, and what a story it is, fascinating and pretty much completely unique in video games, it has a Charles Dickens by way of David Lynch vibe to it.
If you're like me and a fan of "traditional" survival horror Rule of Rose is a must play, especially considering it's pretty much the last hurrah for the genre.
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Post by shelverton on Jul 6, 2015 7:53:03 GMT -5
Puppeteer (PS3) deserved more attention, IMO. I rarely see anyone mention it, ever. It was my favorite platformer on PS3.
Fragile Dreams (Wii) is perhaps not the greatess game ever made but it doesn't even seem to have a cult following. I liked it!
Henry Hatsworth (DS), which is maybe talked about sometimes, somewhere... But I think it deserved more love cause it is pretty awesome. I could've sworn there was some kind of connection between Hatsworth and the DS game Monster Tale but I can't seem to find it right now. I thought they were developed by the same team or something? Seems not...
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Post by Colonel Kurtz on Jul 6, 2015 9:44:20 GMT -5
No-one ever really talked enough about TecnoSoft's magistral Herzog Zwei. One could argue it is the best Mega Drive game. It was immensely influential, it is still fantastic to play, and it'a shame so few people really got into it! cambertian : I'm totally with you regarding Advance Wars. The two DS incarnations, while they basically played the same, had wildly different art styles, which made each game feel fresh. It's a series I really miss and I'd trade a Fire Emblem game for a new Advance Wars. On the other hand, the two DS games are pretty perfect as they are, difficult to imagine what the 3DS could bring to the table, so my advice would be to get those DS games and have fun with them (so much fun!)
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Post by GamerL on Jul 6, 2015 9:50:18 GMT -5
I would love a new Advance Wars as well.
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Post by 1983parrothead on Jul 7, 2015 8:23:18 GMT -5
No-one ever really talked enough about TecnoSoft's magistral Herzog Zwei. One could argue it is the best Mega Drive game. It was immensely influential, it is still fantastic to play, and it'a shame so few people really got into it! Tecno Soft games don't get enough attention. Herzog was the original version of Herzog Zwei for Japanese home computers such as the PC-88. And here is something related: Arsys Software was composed of former Tecno Soft employees, and created the award-winning Star Cruiser series that predates Star Fox (polygons) and DooM (FPS). During the same year Star Fox and DooM came out (1993), Star Cruiser II also came out that year if sources were correct, but never succeeded as well as the first game.
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