dreamgazer
HRG Experienced
Nostalgia Addict
Posts: 27
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Post by dreamgazer on Jul 30, 2020 11:55:28 GMT -5
When we talk about retro games, there tends to be a positivity bias. After all, who is still talking about Ken Griffey Jr.'s Slugfest after all these years, when SM3 exists?
When I was a kid I saw an ad on my Wii for Indiana Jones: the Staff of Kings. I was absolutely lured in by the idea of going on a fully-fledged Indiana Jones adventure in the form of a video game. The combat looked amazing. I mean just look at the trailer, the game looked bad ass!
After many weeks of saving up money from mowing lawns and scraping extra lunch money together, I finally convinced my mom to take me on that fateful trip to Gamestop. When I got home, I excitedly popped the disk in my Wii, and waited for it load. I was expecting an action-packed beat-em-up with Zelda-like dungeons and an exciting story to unpack. What I got, well, Rerez has a pretty good breakdown of every issue in this game....
So how about you guys? Are there any games you remember being hyped for as a kid that just didn't turn out how they should have?
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Post by Xeogred on Jul 30, 2020 12:52:36 GMT -5
I wish I could recall my reaction to Blaster Master 2 on the Genesis, in the early days of the internet and emulation when I probably discovered it. Growing up, Blaster Master NES was and is still one of my all time favorites on that platform. But the Genesis game... I don't know what that is. Realistically, in retrospect it doesn't seem all that bad, but it's never looked like the ideal sequel to me at all. And I always wanted an SNES game.
I bought Perfect Dark Zero before I even had a 360. Had that thing sitting on my shelf for months, maybe even some glossy special edition since I remember a glimmering case? I probably only sunk an hour of my time into it when I finally got around to playing it and quickly sold it. I spent hundreds of hours in the first game across its campaign and multiplayer. What an absolute flop of a sequel.
Red Faction 2 was terrible as well. I loved the first game, but 2 ditched the red Mars theme, had worse explosion tech, and 80% of the game was on forced rails from what I recall.
Cliche' perhaps, but Super Mario Sunshine and Wind Waker were huge disappointments to me. I didn't even finish Wind Waker on the Cube', but I beat the Wii U remastered version. I don't plan on playing it again. Before anyone freaks out, I actually do adore the cel shaded graphics and that holds up nicely, the swordplay itself is some of the best in the 3D games, but everything else is average at best. It's funny, Metroid Prime going first person had me thinking it would be the worst decision and take on one of my most cherished franchises... now THAT game blew my face off and I'd still champion as an absolute classic. That was a good positive surprise.
I've fallen off Onimusha Dawn of Dreams (4) the two or three times I've tried playing it. I love 2-3 though. I didn't like Ninja Gaiden 2 (Xbox) initially either, despite absolutely loving the first one. Now I've played the PS3 version of NG2, but I'm excited to give the 360 version a shot since it sounds pretty different in ways. I don't think think any of the sequels match up to the first, but they're still my kind of games.
I'll have to rack my brain for more, but I think it's hard to recall much 8/16bit wise. That was almost 30 years ago at this point for me and as a super young child, you kind of just played whatever you got or rented. I'm sure I had some stinkers, but I even played Kung Fu to death.
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Post by Sarge on Jul 30, 2020 16:43:41 GMT -5
I actually have Staff of Kings now, that I bought for all of $2. I didn't get it for that game, though, but the included Fate of Atlantis!
I definitely think there are a few games that didn't turn out quite like I'd hoped. I mean, I bought Treasure Master. Whoops. Metal Dungeon on XBOX looked great, but is honestly pretty terrible. I'll try to think of more later, but I've definitely had my share of disappointments, although it's rare that I got outright bombs.
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Post by Ex on Jul 31, 2020 0:41:54 GMT -5
I also own a copy of Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings for Wii. I have never played it though. I only own it, because there was a period of time when I was a fervent collector of Wii games. I had over 300 physical Wii games at one point. I've since sold off most of my Wii collection since, sans the games I haven't played yet (which is about 70-ish). Are there any games you remember being hyped for as a kid that just didn't turn out how they should have? Back in 1991, when I was 12 years old, I knew that Phantasy Star III was about to be released. I knew because I read gaming magazines at the time. I had already begun to warm my mother up to the idea of buying it for me, "as the one thing I want for summer vacation". So indeed, I did receive Phantasy Star III in July of 1991. I had planned to spend the rest of my summer vacation conquering it. You see, I expected PS3 to be a long and difficult experience, just as its predecessor PS2 had been. Instead I finished PS3 in two days.
Obviously I was disappointed. Not just in the low difficulty, but the overall plot and final boss sequence were massive letdowns compared to both PS1 and PS2 (I had beaten both before PS3). The two aspects I do recall appreciating though, where the fact that player sprites and town buildings were of the correct proportions. And the way new protagonists were created in each successive generation, based on parental choices the player made. (And by the way, PS3 beat DQ5 to this concept by over a year prior.) In retrospect, I think that PS3 is still an above average 16-bit JRPG. It's still better than a whole lot of other 16-bit JRPGs for sure. But the truth is, PS3 was not as good as the PS entries before it, and doesn't even being to approach the majesty of its sequel.
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Post by paulofthewest on Aug 1, 2020 10:43:09 GMT -5
Final Fantasy 7. Ya, after 6 I was expecting more (in number) diverse characters, better mechanics, and plot. Sadly, we has 7 characters, I didn't like the materia, three character battles, and a plot I didn't care about at all. I get how some people liked it, but as a kid I didn't care of the wall-market scene, Japanese Mr. T, or the strange translations. Also, I'm not big on Gaia theory so that probably didn't help.
On the modern front I looked forward to Starcraft II for the longest time. I even waited for all three chapters to come out. While the game itself was on the positive side, the constant neo-Blizzard updates and rules took away from the entire experience. Especially since I'm in BFE and have 3mbps connection. Starcraft I, on the other hand, had a ton of fun mods...
Ha, I just check, Star Craft II came out in July 27, 2010--it counts
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Post by anayo on Aug 1, 2020 11:52:25 GMT -5
Final Fantasy 7. Ya, after 6 I was expecting more (in number) diverse characters, better mechanics, and plot. Sadly, we has 7 characters, I didn't like the materia, three character battles, and a plot I didn't care about at all. I get how some people liked it, but as a kid I didn't care of the wall-market scene, Japanese Mr. T, or the strange translations. Also, I'm not big on Gaia theory so that probably didn't help. Oh man I'm laughing so hard. This is the gospel truth.
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Post by toei on Aug 1, 2020 12:42:42 GMT -5
I thought Barrett was cool, Mr. T stand-in or not. I had a similar experience as Ex with Phantasy Star III, except I played Phantasy Star IV first and then went backwards, so it's probably even worse. The very beginning feels more finished than the rest of the game - you've got that story scene surrounding the wedding, meeting Mieu, the towns feel a little more lively. But as I advanced, I was really disappointed by how sparse the story was and how the characters in your party pretty much never spoke or interacted with each other after the initial meeting, especially in contrast with PSIV where they felt much more fleshed out and actually talked to each other. In retrospect, that's a pretty common difference between early '90s RPGs and mid-'90s RPGs, with PSIV being a bit in advance over the rest of the genre (1993 in Japan). The worst part was getting to the 2nd and 3rd generations and finding one ghost town after another. They're not supposed to be deserted, there's no story reason for it, but they just ran out of time to populate the world past the 1st gen and the key moments of the 3rd, so you just find these towns that have literally one NPC in them and it feels so lacking. I was also disappointed with the lack of proper boss fights, especially, again, because PSIV had a ton of them, and they usually packed a punch - Lassic/Lashiec especially is a bad mofo. PSIII has a half handful of complete pushovers, and one battle that sort of feels like a real boss (Dark Force). In retro action games, I much prefer the levels to the bosses, but in turn-based RPGs, the bosses are usually the highlights in terms of gameplay. I played through the game many times, like all kids with few options did at the time, and eventually I grew to sort-of like the game. The potential is obvious, what with the branching generations and the setting, and there are actual qualities; some of the music is great, the illustrated cutscenes, though way too few and far between, look really nice, etc. The problem is that it feels like the skeleton of a really good RPG.
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Post by Xeogred on Aug 1, 2020 13:18:17 GMT -5
Final Fantasy 7. Ya, after 6 I was expecting more (in number) diverse characters, better mechanics, and plot. Sadly, we has 7 characters, I didn't like the materia, three character battles, and a plot I didn't care about at all. I get how some people liked it, but as a kid I didn't care of the wall-market scene, Japanese Mr. T, or the strange translations. Also, I'm not big on Gaia theory so that probably didn't help. On the modern front I looked forward to Starcraft II for the longest time. I even waited for all three chapters to come out. While the game itself was on the positive side, the constant neo-Blizzard updates and rules took away from the entire experience. Especially since I'm in BFE and have 3mbps connection. Starcraft I, on the other hand, had a ton of fun mods... Ha, I just check, Star Craft II came out in July 27, 2010--it counts Well some here know I'm probably the biggest FF7 fan around these parts, Barrett (along with Tifa) have always been some of my favorite FF characters period. Well before the remake too! I can easily see how FF7 was a dramatic shift for old FF fans though. It may have been the first one I was exposed to, with my "PSX friend" in grade school who showed me the holy trinity... FF7, MGS1, and RE2. But I'm quite sure I played FF6 first via emulation. FF9 is the one I'm iffy on in retrospect, even if I did 100% it back in the day (even got all the cards), and I didn't like FFX either despite getting to the end. Though I love FFX now after revisiting it with the remaster. I just love FF for the most part all around though.
Starcraft I probably sunk dozens/hundreds of hours into and played that one off and on for years. Loved the campaign, LAN parties, Battlenet, etc. Despite all that, still to this day I have had zero interest in II. I'm not even sure quite why, I just look at Starcraft II and aesthetically it doesn't look appealing to me at all. I guess I can say that about 90% of Blizzard's stuff in general.
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Post by Sarge on Aug 7, 2020 23:40:15 GMT -5
I missed a chance to bash on FFVII! (I kid, I kid.) For the record, though, it did go into the "disappointment" bucket, even though it was good. There was absolutely no way it was going to measure up after having to wait until Christmas of 1999 to play it, and coming off of both Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger. Just too much hype to live up to. And I think part of me held at least a little resentment towards it being called the "best RPG of all time" by some folks. I mean, seriously, y'all, I know it's your first RPG, but did CGI cutscenes really add that much to the affair? (Actually, they were kinda cool, as was the scale available on some enemies. Just let me release some pent-up performative old-man rage! )
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Post by Xeogred on Aug 8, 2020 14:21:09 GMT -5
I missed a chance to bash on FFVII! (I kid, I kid.) For the record, though, it did go into the "disappointment" bucket, even though it was good. There was absolutely no way it was going to measure up after having to wait until Christmas of 1999 to play it, and coming off of both Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger. Just too much hype to live up to. And I think part of me held at least a little resentment towards it being called the "best RPG of all time" by some folks. I mean, seriously, y'all, I know it's your first RPG, but did CGI cutscenes really add that much to the affair? (Actually, they were kinda cool, as was the scale available on some enemies. Just let me release some pent-up performative old-man rage! ) I think I generally hear people in your age bracket tend to share these opinions.
Which again, makes me weirder I guess since I had emulated FF6 and other SNES JRPG's before playing FF7. But I still loved it. To be fair though, even as a kid without the internet to sway me or anything either, I don't know if I ever once thought FF7 beat CT, FF6, etc for me.
Super Mario RPG was the first RPG for me and I still freaking love it.
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