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Post by ninjarygar on Mar 20, 2007 5:56:23 GMT -5
IS IT REALLY GETTING BETTER?!
How many Nicktoons Mariokarts are there? Spongebob mario party? SHREK SMASH BROTHERS?! Crap like a "That's so Raven" GBA platformer and "Lizzie McGuire: The game".... This stuff is terrible and the list is so long it's embarassing... but you know some dumb ass kid with a gamecube is going to spend his money on a Billy and Mandy fighting game because the only game he's played on his gamecube in 5 years is Smash Brothers and he didn't even unlock everything.
And you know some poor 14 year old is going to unwrap a present from his Aunt on his birthday only to find a powerpuff girls game for the n64 even though he has a damn Wii. And the only Wii game he's got is "open season" because he had his dad sleep outside the target one night and that was the only game they had.
You know you bought your nephew F-Zero GX for that Gamecube of his the day it came out to try to get him interested in it but he still ends up playing some Dukes of Hazard game his mom got him because blockbuster had like... 50 of them one week and they couldn't GIVE them away. He loves it though, cuz you get to honk the horn.
And you remember rumaging through your alchoholic uncle's Genesis collection looking for Gunstar Heroes or Echo or friggin SONIC... you know... SOMETHING to do during thanksgiving dinner when they're all screaming at football on the big screen in the living room leaving you with the small tv in the bedroom they use to watch Leno. And instead of any games you might actually want to play you find licenced movie games like Jurasic park and disney's beauty and the beast. You wonder if your uncle really liked platformers... or if he was too drunk to realize he was buying Genesis games instead of the actual VHS tapes.
Years later you're in the same house listening to how he's complaining that the graphics in Madden 01 aren't as good as they were in 2000... and you're trying desperately to explain that he bought the Playstation ONE version and not the Playstation TWO version... but he's too busy thinking that you're still buiding that bomb in your room back at home.
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Post by kyouki on Mar 20, 2007 6:16:49 GMT -5
I agree with Ninjarygar, this is what killed the GBA and GC for me... SHELVES of Shrek party games, Nicktoon racers and platformers, etc etc.
It really takes a special development group to make a good licensed game. Face it, you can make an awful game and slap a license on it and you will be guaranteed some sales. To go the extra mile, spend the extra money, on making it a good game a lot of times isn't a good business decision.
Having said all that, there are several great licensed games:
-Batman (NES) is a really great side scroller -DBZ: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (PS2/Wii) is preferable to the Budokai games imo because while Budokai games play like a limited Tekken, the Tenkaichi games are more like DBZ sims than fighters. -Hajime no Ippo 2 (PS2) is the best boxing game ever! It's lightning fast and takes a ton of practice to get good at it and on top of that has possibly the deepest career mode in a sports game ever. -Hokuto no Ken (PSX) is a very fun beat em up with outstanding for their time graphics.
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Post by daimakaimura on Mar 20, 2007 10:24:54 GMT -5
only Good licensed game i now : Batman Returns on the Super Nes it's even better than the movie
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chewy
Full Member
There's only one beer left...
Posts: 218
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Post by chewy on Mar 20, 2007 11:17:31 GMT -5
James Bond (Domark) on the Mega Drive was very enjoyable. Mick and Mack Global Gladiators was good too. But my favourite licensed game has to be Ren and Stimpy on the Mega Drive! ^_^
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Post by vysethebold on Mar 20, 2007 11:27:46 GMT -5
I actually hear that Chicken Little for the Wii is rather good. I may actually cave and try the game out next time I go to the game store.
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Post by brianc on Mar 20, 2007 13:02:03 GMT -5
I agree with Ninjarygar, this is what killed the GBA and GC for me... SHELVES of Shrek party games, Nicktoon racers and platformers, etc etc. It's a bit unfair to let crappy games kill a system. Those GCN Shrek party games, Nicktoon racers, etc are on Xbox and PS2 too. The GBA does get a lot of crappy licensed games, but it has plenty of good games. Crappy games are on every system. It's the amount of good games that count. Crappy games can be avoided. The GBA doesn't have many good licensed games, but it does have Astro Boy, which is one of the best games on the system. Astro Boy was also one of the few games that was actually improved for US/EU. Tony Hawk 2 and 3 also turned out extremely well. I also heard good things about Treasure's Hajime no Ippo GBA game.
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Post by zzz on Mar 20, 2007 14:57:44 GMT -5
As far as what gets released in America I would say it is getting better. At least we have the okish DBZ fighters these days. I never got into the old American released licensed games at all. As far as quality of overall releases of licensed games to any region, I would say it is worse. Most of the licensed games that I like are FC and SFC games.
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Post by vysethebold on Mar 20, 2007 21:25:21 GMT -5
Also, did anyone try Alien 3 for the Genesis? It was pretty awesome and had a Metroid style to it and was different than the other versions of the game. Check it out if you get a chance.
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Post by wyrdwad on Mar 20, 2007 23:42:33 GMT -5
Another game that wasn't mentioned: Addams Family for SNES. That one was an honest-to-goodness AMERICAN-MADE licensed game from back in the day, too, and STILL turned out pretty good. It took a while to get into, and was INSANELY DIFFICULT if you didn't know about the secret 1-Up Room, but it was still a game that I remember quite fondly from my youth, and despite its frustration, offered quite a decent amount of fun.
Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt, on the other hand, took the difficulty of the original Addams Family game, and just jacked it off the scale entirely. There's hard, and then there's PUGSLEY hard.
Still, I know this is a repeat of what I said before, but Willow for NES, man... Willow is the standard to which all developers of licensed games should be held. That game not only managed to be a fantastic action RPG in its own right, it also managed to ONE-UP THE MOVIE in terms of story development, AND innovate the genre in ways that are still unique today! Like the fact that any new weapon you acquire has to be "broken in", and can't be wielded very quickly until you've gained a level or two with it equipped... or the awesome spirit sword ("Devil Eye Sword", or something like that), acquired very near the beginning, which is far and away the single most powerful weapon in the entire game by a HUGE margin... but has a completely incorporeal blade, making it totally ineffective against normal enemies (though it's the ONLY weapon that can hurt ghosts).
And the presentation was amazing, too... whenever enemies would appear on screen, the wind would begin to blow fiercely, and the whole screen would erupt in movement: grass flipping about, trees swaying... nothing else like it on the NES. At the time, it was absolutely breathtaking.
-Tom
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Post by mainpatr on Mar 21, 2007 13:21:02 GMT -5
Willow for the NES was one of the best action RPGs of its time, and still is fairly impressive when you consider how ahead of its time it was. And if you're counting Japanese games, the PSP Brave Story title is absolutely OUTSTANDING. Easily the single best licensed game I've ever played, period. -Tom I just just an E-mail from XSeed games saying they are going to put Brave Story in English this year. www.xseedgames.com/news.php?id=17
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Post by jameseightbitstar on Mar 21, 2007 16:42:34 GMT -5
Another game I have to add:
I recently got an NES title called Godzilla: Monster of Monsters, which takes some getting used to but is pretty decent.
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Post by wyrdwad on Mar 21, 2007 20:20:05 GMT -5
Yeah, I heard about Brave Story PSP coming to the U.S. from several sources today... SUCH good news!! Anybody who owns a PSP and enjoys turn-based RPGs owes it to themself to give this game a shot, as it seriously is fantastic in almost every respect. Awesome, awesome game!!
-Tom
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Post by Allie on Mar 21, 2007 22:29:50 GMT -5
Astro Boy GBA Activision's X-Men Legends/Marvel Ultimate Alliance series Ghost in the Shell PSX WCW/NWO Revenge (if wrestling games count) The Warriors (PS2) Initial D : Special Stage (PS2) and Street Stage (PSP)
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Post by wyrdwad on Mar 21, 2007 23:22:45 GMT -5
Actually, another good (albeit insanely hard) licensed game from back in the day was the very first TMNT for the NES. The subsequent ones were pretty decent, too!
-Tom
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Post by aggroger on Mar 22, 2007 5:39:59 GMT -5
Never played the NES Willow,but I remember the MSDos version,it was really awful.
Anyway,other games worth mentioning are Batman The Movie ( Commodore Amiga;the driving section is awesome ) and Asterix ( Sega Master System ).
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