Have you ever like the oddball in a series?

[Atma]

Zelda 2 and Xenosaga 2. Bring it.

[Jave]

Feb 26, 2011 21:38:04 GMT -5 loempiavreter said:

Zombie Revenge? I think its one of the best game available on the Dreamcast, maybe even in the HOTD series. But dreamcast/sega fanboys seem to flame me if I put that on top of some dreamcast top 10 list :/ But I think even in the gameplay section its pretty tight, I wouldnt call it kusoge... Looks only bit jerky in animation.

For what it's worth, Tycho and Gabe thought pretty highly of Zombie Revenge.

[kal]

Zombie Revenge's biggest flaw is there's a bunch of great items but you don't actually get to use them when you find them...it's so weird. The gun mechanic is very cool.

I've always liked Warrior Within. It's so god awfully pulpy (loaded with Angst too) and ridiculously sexualized but personally I find that makes it while not necessarily better still great. Plus the platforming elements are in top form and the combat was years ahead of any of the other Prince of Persia titles.

[KeeperBvK]

Feb 26, 2011 18:22:42 GMT -5 kitten said:

Oddballs in the series, huh?

Does the Mega Man Legend series count? If not, The Misadventures of Tron Bonne surely does, right? I loooove those games.

That's actually my absolute favorite in an already fantastic series. I love tMoTB and can't understand why next to nobody seems to ever have played it.

Oh and I also love Castlevania 64. I've beaten it five times back in the days and still argue about it when I hear people on the internet spreading stuff about it that's simply not true and was mostly just made up the Angry VG Nerd. Gee, he's done one of his most terrible jobs on this one and people just go and take it for real.

[Ryu the Grappler]

Snake's Revenge deserves more credit than it gets. It's a decent addition to the series and the better of the two Metal Gear games for the NES. The only people who seem to hate it are mostly Metal Gear Solid/Hideo Kojima fanboys who seem to care more about the series' ridiculous storyline than the games themselves anyway.

If people would stop pointing out that Street Fighter 2010 has nothing to do with Street Fighter, then they would find out that it's quite a decent action game that offers quite a bit challenge too.

The NES version of Double Dragon III is one of my favorite games in the series, although I prefer the NES version of II, III is not as bad as most people make it out to be (I blame the friggin' AVGN).

Same thing with Ninja Gaiden III. I actually remember liking it more than II when I was younger (*gasp* blasphemy).

I also really liked the PS2 version of Shinobi too, but I haven't play enough of the Genesis titles to form an opinion about them.

[thethird]

I'm not exactly sure if they would count for the general gaming populace, but for the really hardcore fans of each series, I really dig both Super Smash Bros. Brawl and DMC4. Despite the recycling used for the last half of the game, I thought DMC4 stayed fun and just ridiculous enough throughout (plus, it's one pretty looking game). As for Brawl, I like the new characters, stages, and mechanics added and I'm not proficient enough at the Smash series to really care too much about the finer stuff they changed (though I will never say anything positive about tripping).

[X-pert74]

I'm having trouble thinking of "oddball" games in a series that I love. I guess the Mega Man Legends series as a whole counts; I think those games are incredible. While I don't like The Misadventures of Tron Bonne quite as much from a gameplay perspective, I still find it very entertaining and charming to play.

I think I'll go through my backloggery to try and find oddball games that stand out:


- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers is definitely an oddball game. It's a spinoff of a spinoff, and most people won't give it the time of day. It's personally one of my favorite adventure/sandbox games I've ever played, though. There's just so much to mess around with in the game, which won't be apparent if you're rushing through the game (like most reviewers did). I think it would have been more appreciated if it didn't have either "Final Fantasy" or "Crystal Chronicles" in its title.

- Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble isn't as appreciated as either of the first two games in the series are, but I personally think it's great. As someone who gets tired of a lot of Rare's collectathon games, I didn't find the collecting in DKC3 to be overbearing. It's still a great game from a level-design perspective, and it has some of the best boss fights in the series.

- Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald is a game (or set of games) that I initially hated without ever even giving a chance, simply because of not being able to transfer my old pokemon over, and the initial removal of some of my favorites such as Meowth, and my finding the male character's design to be stupid. I gave Sapphire a try last fall though, and found it to be quite fun! It's not a perfect game by any means, but I found it to be very enjoyable. I especially enjoy the fast speed that battles take place at. It's kind of lame that the fourth-gen Pokemon games are so slow in comparison; going from the fast speed of Sapphire to the molasses feeling of Pearl was agony.

[Ryusui]

Loved Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter. First BoF I actually beat. BoF2 was the first I played (which should surprise no one), but I was underwhelmed by the translation and permanently put it on my backlog after SimaFort.

...It probably helps that BoFV's translation was done by Alexander O. Smith. :3

So yeah, if you've ever wondered why the BoF2 retrans calls them Bosch and Lin instead of Boche and Rinpoo, or hell, why Bolt X/Mjollnir is called Valhalla...there's your reason. ^_^;

[Ninten]

Ryusui

I loved your translation! Thanks to that, I've managed to finish BoF2.

[Jave]

It's kind of lame that the fourth-gen Pokemon games are so slow in comparison; going from the fast speed of Sapphire to the molasses feeling of Pearl was agony.

Did you turn off the battle animations?

[klausien]

Feb 26, 2011 16:28:02 GMT -5 Jave said:

Metroid: Other M

It's one of those games that I think would benefit from a second playthough, now that all the sticking points were worked out the first time around and all the cutscenes can thankfully be skipped (Samus is still a total badass during the runny shooty parts of the game, just saying)

It's still a deeply flawed game, but I still found it very enjoyable.

Agreed. I played the game to first completion (a rarity for me nowadays), and definitely had more fun with it than say, the Castlevania reboot on the HD systems (that was a bit of a slog). The story was disappointing and beyond cringe-worthy, and I had some qualms about the controls, but the actual movement and fighting were quite polished and subsequently a lot of fun. Samus actually felt like classic Samus instead of the sluggish, tank-like FPS Samus of the Prime series. I wish there were a nunchuck option, but the focus of professional reviews on the laughable plot and remote-only control hiccups missed the point of the game.

Another full game using the Other M engine, only stripped of the story and left more open like the first 3 games, would be the best Metroid since Super. Absolutely

[retr0gamer]

Every fawns over Ocarina of Time but I think Majoras Mask is a far superior game. Ocarina is fantastic but it's a remake of LttP in 3D. Majoras Mask however is not only different from all other zelda games but also from anything else which is what I love about it.

I also like Castlevania 64. I think many people were disappointed because it wasn't an amazing game, people expected a lot more coming off the back of SotN and were disappointed. The disappointment got over exaggerated to hate.

Anyone that prefers Suikoden 4 to 2 is sick and wrong

[X-pert74]

Feb 27, 2011 10:55:21 GMT -5 Jave said:

It's kind of lame that the fourth-gen Pokemon games are so slow in comparison; going from the fast speed of Sapphire to the molasses feeling of Pearl was agony.

Did you turn off the battle animations?

No, I didn't... most of the time. I usually turn them off if I'm EV training (which I didn't start doing until after I'd already beaten Pearl and moved onto HeartGold), but I like seeing my pokemon's attacks. Even when they're turned off though, while it helps, it still isn't as fast as generation III's games are with animations turned on.

[Jave]

The animations drove me crazy in SoulSilver, particularly when fighting monsters that would incessantly self-heal. I don't think I could play a Pokemon game with the animations on. Admittedly, my experience with the series pre-generation IV is extremely limited.

I hear they've addressed the battle speed issue in Black/White.

[llj]

Feb 26, 2011 16:31:57 GMT -5 Feynman said:

Phantasy Star III is more fun and interesting than anybody gives it credit for.

I will say that when if first played this, I thought it was better than PS 2. But I never completed PS2, I only went about halfway before the grinding numbed my mind to the game. I may pull out my Genesis collection and try to beat PS2 someday.

I also fail to see how PS 3 is "awful" like many people claim. One review I read claimed that the game makes you want to "gouge your eyes out". HUH? It's a little bland-looking, perhaps, but the challenge is fair, it doesn't require massive grinding, and it has the interesting (for its time) generational concept. The "story", such as it is, is no better or worse than most RPGs of its time. You could argue that the game is mediocre, but I don't see how it deserves its "awful" tag.