So, what you playing at the mo? Retro Edition

Retr0gamer · 19-08-2009 2:04pm

Had a quick go of Donkey Kong Country 2 there. While I think Donkey Kong Country is an overrated game and is average at best. DKC 2 is a whole lot better it seems. Also it's one of the most impressive looking snes games I've ever seen. The first water level has some spectacular transparency and mode 7 effects.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeU82Vk12FQ

CCCP^ · 21-08-2009 9:03pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

While I think Donkey Kong Country is an overrated game and is average at best.

Oh be quiet. Anyway, got Quake for the N64 and I'm just playing through the start of it now, not as nice visuals as the PC or Saturn version but it's grizzly and entertaining nonetheless.

corcaigh07 · 21-08-2009 9:34pm

Eamo87 wrote: »

I just finished Sonic CD on the Sonic gems collection for the gamecube last night. I enjoyed it but I dont understand why its so highly rated. I'm interested to hear what other peoples thoughts on the game are.

i feel the same, just couldnt warm to it. I would like to see Evil Metal Sonic used again though sometime...

also, Donkey Kong Country is a great game....that is all.

Eamo87 · 21-08-2009 11:55pm

corcaigh07 wrote: »

i feel the same, just couldnt warm to it. I would like to see Evil Metal Sonic used again though sometime...

also, Donkey Kong Country is a great game....that is all.

I loved the first Donkey Kong Country. Got it for xmas one year. I enjoyed the sequels but I have so many great memories playing the original. The mine cart levels were great

Retr0gamer · 22-08-2009 5:00am

It's aged pretty badly though. Most people not affected by nostalgia say the same. It's constantly coming up as a joke on the retronauts podcast.

Gummy Panda · 22-08-2009 12:27pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It's aged pretty badly though. Most people not affected by nostalgia say the same. It's constantly coming up as a joke on the retronauts podcast.

A lot of RARE games aged really badly. At least they were still good at the time unlike their attempts on gamecube.

CCCP^ · 22-08-2009 8:25pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It's aged pretty badly though. Most people not affected by nostalgia say the same. It's constantly coming up as a joke on the retronauts podcast.

**** Retronauts. The only opinion you can trust is your own. I'll allow you your own opinion on this one, but if it's influenced by them, then faff off. What, is the game supposed to look like it just came out on the 360? Of course it looks dated, it was made in the 90s for the Super Nintendo ffs. Donkey Kong Country is still an amazingly fun game and very entertaining. Nostalgia has nowt to do with my appreciation of it.

Retr0gamer · 22-08-2009 11:34pm

It's not that it looks dated, the level design and gameplay isn't very good at all.

NeoKubrick · 22-08-2009 11:35pm

CCCP^ wrote: »

**** Retronauts. The only opinion you can trust is your own. I'll allow you your own opinion on this one, but if it's influenced by them, then faff off. What, is the game supposed to look like it just came out on the 360? Of course it looks dated, it was made in the 90s for the Super Nintendo ffs. Donkey Kong Country is still an amazingly fun game and very entertaining. Nostalgia has nowt to do with my appreciation of it.

Agreed. The Donkey Kong Country series produced three good platform games, specially the second and third games. The state of its graphics is irrelevant to its gameplay.

Most gamers' retrospective opinions on Rare's games on the Nintendo 64 and SNES are unreasonable. It's as though they haven't actually replayed the games to verify that the games have aged.

CCCP^ · 23-08-2009 1:36am

NeoKubrick wrote: »

Agreed. The Donkey Kong Country series produced three good platform games, specially the second and third games. The state of its graphics is irrelevant to its gameplay.

Most gamers' retrospective opinions on Rare's games on the Nintendo 64 and SNES are unreasonable. It's as though they haven't actually replayed the games to verify that the games have aged.

I didn't have a Super Nintendo as a kid, our house was Sega only. I just got a Snes recently and got DKC and cleared it earlier in the year, just before the Summer I think, so there's no rose-tinted glasses on me.

I do have some nice Elton John glasses though.

CiDeRmAn · 23-08-2009 10:26am

Love the visuals on the DKC series, to knock those now and we may as well start doing the same to Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World, simply because they were all superceded in time by further games that had "better" graphics.
Not the case, each game was excellent in it's day, still excellent now and couldn't be bettered by replacing the original visuals with up-to-date ones, in fact a lot of the charm is lost with messing with them.
DKC established the Donkey Kong brand for the rest of the decade and into the next after the brand had faded to obscurity with DK, DKjr and DK3, the games with the DK brand since, DKRacing, DK Jungle Beat and the rest all rely on the visual flair that was introduced by Rare in the DKC series.
So, give the games a break, yes?

Retr0gamer · 23-08-2009 12:17pm

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

So, give the games a break, yes?

A good game is a good game no matter how dated the visuals. DKC just isn't that good a game compared to the other quality platformers of the day.

Snesfan · 23-08-2009 12:26pm

Ah you can't say bad things about DKC, alright 2 probably is a better game but DKC got the snowball rolling, Plenty of diversity in it and I think to this day it still plays very nicely.

There is a feeling that they tried to bite off more than they could chew with the first one and the graphics aren't as good as they should have been but its still a very pretty game compared to most just in comparison to 2 and 3 its graphics do suffer slightly more ageing.

Retr0gamer · 23-08-2009 12:53pm

Well it's not altogether terrible but it's not great either. Above average but there's no way in hell I'd rank it up with Sonic, Mario, yoshis's island, do re mi, etc. It was an uninspired game that looked great at the time (it looks awful and plasticy now with the exception of some excellent snes effects). There really isn't any diversity either. Bosses are repeated and aren't much different from each other. Most levels play the same with only the water, dark and mine cart levels offering anything that stands out from the rest. It's fun but there are far better games.

LoGiE · 23-08-2009 1:06pm

I have fond memories playing DKC and In my opinion it was a great game. Ok it was no Mario World in the playability stakes but it was entertaining and the graphics were ground breaking in 1994. I dont's believe Rare bit of more then they could chew. They where pushing a console to it's limits , no other game at the time looked like it.

CiDeRmAn · 23-08-2009 4:37pm

I'd certainly rank it ahead of Sonic, especially the first one, never liked it, the series got better but the original Megadrive game was over rated imho.
DKC took a the side scrolling Nintendo blueprint and made a nice, if simple, platformer out of it and was great fun, the games Retro mentions are, by and large, iconic 16bit games, truely compared to the majority of platformers on the market DKC was better, certainly better than average, given we were stuck with Bubsy and Plok!

There was a real effort on the part of the 16bit players to bring the next gen to current gen machines, Uniracers, DKC, VirtuaRacing, Yoshis Island, StarFox, Stunt Race FX, Doom and even the likes of Red zone on the Megadrive, all pushing the respective consoles further and further, not always to everyones taste, certainly, but impressive none the less, given the sprite based limitations of each system.

Pity we don't see such dedication from devs now.

Retr0gamer · 23-08-2009 5:58pm

Isn't Plok! meant to be rather good though?

Snesfan · 23-08-2009 8:27pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Isn't Plok! meant to be rather good though?

Ya Plok (from memory of playing it when it came out) was quite a good game, can't remember much else about it.

I'm afraid to say it due to my name but were sonics ever any good? I know nostalgia is going to give you a twisted view of them, but all my friends had segas so I practically grew up with sonic too. Where is the diversity in levels in that game? sure they all look different but aren't they just pretty much the same loops and running around and what not? at least with DKC you had the cart levels, swimming levels and the bonus levels.

I think DKC was in the upper quartile of its genre, it does probably get more respect than it deserves but hey thats nostalgia! (thats why ye guys keep raving about sonic :eek:)

CCCP^ · 23-08-2009 8:39pm

I like the first Sonic alot. Not just because it was the Sega icon, but it was fun to play. There wasn't exactly depth to it's gameplay, but it was bright and colorful, and I loved building up speed in those loop-the-loops. No part of the game felt half-arsed, it had decent production values.

I remember clearing that game about 6 or 7 years after getting it with the MD. Accomplishment washed over me in an awesome wave, I just wish I could put stuff like that on a CV.

Snesfan · 23-08-2009 8:44pm

Ya I know what you mean, for me that moment was F-Zero, still haven't finished star-fox for some reason

Retr0gamer · 23-08-2009 11:30pm

Yep the Sonic games still hold up for me although the first one isn't has aged a bit. After that they are all good until after sonic and knuckles. There's plenty of variety in the levels, it's the GBA games and Sonic CD that suffer from lack of variety.

valleyoftheunos · 23-08-2009 11:38pm

Snesfan wrote: »

Ya I know what you mean, for me that moment was F-Zero, still haven't finished star-fox for some reason

Aged 12 I played Fzero non stop for months and months trying to win the race at Fire Fields, I can still remember doing it, I was exhausted. I turned off the SNES for a number of months afterwards.

Snesfan · 24-08-2009 12:11am

valleyoftheunos wrote: »

Aged 12 I played Fzero non stop for months and months trying to win the race at Fire Fields, I can still remember doing it, I was exhausted. I turned off the SNES for a number of months afterwards.

What a game though, I absolutely love it......... Dominated my childhood too, I remember my cousin had it and she gave me a loan of it for about a year, I played it constantly.

CiDeRmAn · 25-08-2009 9:21am

F-Zero, on the Snes, never liked it, I simply never warmed to the Mode 7 thing the Snes had going on.
F-Zero on the N64, on the other hand, now that was excellent, the only game to really challenge the Wipeout series for future racing thrills, aside from the wonderful Rollcage games.
F-Zero GX on the GC, one of the most awesome visual spectacles I have ever seen, and all moving so fast, with so many competitors too, brilliant!
Given that it was released while Sony saw fit to insult us with Wipeout Fusion and then only suceed in it's attempts to update the franchise by moving it to the PSP, for big screen, high speed thrills, little could compete with F-Zero GX, imho, at least until Wipeout HD/Fury came out, years later.

That'd be a cool cool thing to see, a Wii edition of F-Zero, no motion controls thank you!
Also, a DS version could be really sweet, especially with a verison of the 64DD track editor added in!

Retr0gamer · 25-08-2009 11:09am

IMO the F-zero series is way ahead of Wipeout. Wipeout is like mario kart with a futuristic setting. It relies on lucky item drops and weapons rather than on driving ability. F-zero on the other hand is all about the racing and is an incredible game once you get used to the speed. It's so much faster than wipeout. F-zero GX for me is the finest racing game ever made. And one of my favourite things about it, no cheating AI! If you get way ahead of the pack they won't magically catch up with you and your rival doesn't always come first which is great because it's almost impossible to place first on the higher difficulties.

Also nobody should insult their memory of F-zero by playing the PAL SNES version. The NTSC version is so much faster.

CiDeRmAn · 25-08-2009 11:46am

Did anyone put in any time on the arcade version, F-Zero AX?
Was it any good?

Retr0gamer · 25-08-2009 12:02pm

I don't think any cabinets made it over here. I think even in japan it was very rare to find. I think it was only the last few tracks in F-zero GX (which I still haven't managed to unlock) with some new pilots. All of them could be unlocked in F-zero GX anyway. The only difference with AX was that it ran in HD (I think).

CCCP^ · 25-08-2009 2:33pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

IMO the F-zero series is way ahead of Wipeout. Wipeout is like mario kart with a futuristic setting. It relies on lucky item drops and weapons rather than on driving ability. F-zero on the other hand is all about the racing and is an incredible game once you get used to the speed. It's so much faster than wipeout. F-zero GX for me is the finest racing game ever made. And one of my favourite things about it, no cheating AI! If you get way ahead of the pack they won't magically catch up with you and your rival doesn't always come first which is great because it's almost impossible to place first on the higher difficulties.

Also nobody should insult their memory of F-zero by playing the PAL SNES version. The NTSC version is so much faster.

I can't say I agree with your opinion. The earlier WipEout games like WipEout XL and 2097 require alot of skill and fast reflexes, they were all about speed. The fighting part of the game isn't as detrimental to gameplay as say in WipEout Fusion. The WipEout series were some of the best games I have played on the PSX, they had great graphics and incredible soundtracks.

Alot of people don't like WipEout Fusion at all because of the direction it took the gameplay, fighting over racing, and some lag issues with too many objects on the screen. I really like it, it was gritty and addictive. I am very surprised that it didn't get a follow up. I bought Pulse recently for the PS2 and its definetly a return to the older days of pure racing. You still need to know where the power-up's are going to be to get a tactical leverage over opponents. There is alot more depth in the gameplay and the different tournaments you have to partake in than previous WipEout games, but shamefully, I haven't played it in awhile. The graphics are good to boot for a PSP game on a PS2.

Not to say that F-Zero isn't badass. I have only the Snes and N64 versions of the game. My favourite is the N64 version. Mute City soundtrack

it definetly gives WipEout 64 a run for it's money.

Gummy Panda · 25-08-2009 6:38pm

I'm loving Policenauts. It reminds me of some film but i can't think of it. its like Rising Sun/blade runner in space.

CCCP^ · 25-08-2009 6:52pm

I have been playing Quake 64 solidly for about a week now. I think it must be one of the best FPS for the N64. The smooth framerate is nice, and the controls are easy to adapt to. Some of the level design is genius, I am playing one level at the moment that is an absolute bastard but I know I am going to clear it with a little more time and effort. I love the creatures in Quake, especially the Shambler! There's plenty of "Oh ****!" moments in this game which I live for.

Gummy Panda · 25-08-2009 7:11pm

I heard one of the Turoks was good on N64. Infact i believe it was the only good Turok and is the only reason that some of the **** they made on ps2/gc/etc was actually bought.

CCCP^ · 25-08-2009 7:56pm

Gummy Panda wrote: »

I heard one of the Turoks was good on N64. Infact i believe it was the only good Turok and is the only reason that some of the **** they made on ps2/gc/etc was actually bought.

I've read reviews and seen gameplay on youtube and Turok hasn't impressed me one bit, but maybe I'm wrong. I think the two best FPS for the N64 are Quake and Doom 64. Goldeneye holds a special place but it's annoying to play due to lag and the enemies are stupid. Perfect Dark is a little of the same, even with the red chip thingy in your N64.

Retr0gamer · 25-08-2009 9:55pm

Gummy Panda wrote: »

I'm loving Policenauts. It reminds me of some film but i can't think of it. its like Rising Sun/blade runner in space.

I've heard it's very like Lethal Weapon if thats what you are looking for. Can't wait to play it, I loved snatcher.

CCCP^ wrote: »

I have been playing Quake 64 solidly for about a week now. I think it must be one of the best FPS for the N64. The smooth framerate is nice, and the controls are easy to adapt to. Some of the level design is genius, I am playing one level at the moment that is an absolute bastard but I know I am going to clear it with a little more time and effort. I love the creatures in Quake, especially the Shambler! There's plenty of "Oh ****!" moments in this game which I live for.

Why? It's better on PC!

Gummy Panda wrote: »

I heard one of the Turoks was good on N64. Infact i believe it was the only good Turok and is the only reason that some of the **** they made on ps2/gc/etc was actually bought.

CCCP^ wrote: »

I've read reviews and seen gameplay on youtube and Turok hasn't impressed me one bit, but maybe I'm wrong. I think the two best FPS for the N64 are Quake and Doom 64. Goldeneye holds a special place but it's annoying to play due to lag and the enemies are stupid. Perfect Dark is a little of the same, even with the red chip thingy in your N64.

I think the good one is supposed to be Turok 2. I've heard it's aged pretty badly though. Turok 1 is awful, some really bad jumping bits, crap level design and horrendous fog.

I have to agree that Quake and Doom 64 have probably aged the best. Doom 64 is well worth playing since it's basically a whole slew of new levels, reskinned enemies and a great soundtrack. Best played through something liek Legacy though on a PC. I've said enough about goldeneye and perfect dark.

CCCP^ · 25-08-2009 10:30pm

Just tried Sonic Adventure for the first time on the DC. I actually feel sick after playing it. Terrible camera angles and controls. Ugh. I'll go back to it tomorrow but I was not impressed initially by this game

Stoner · 25-08-2009 11:15pm

just finished metal slug 4 on the PS2, got it on ebay last week, it plays well, but with all the free continues we finished it in 30 min, but it only cost me €5 on ebay, still though it's not the same when you are not limited by 20p

Tallon · 25-08-2009 11:20pm

I keep meaning to play that but never ever opened it.
I might give it a wack tomorrow night

Retr0gamer · 25-08-2009 11:24pm

CCCP^ wrote: »

Just tried Sonic Adventure for the first time on the DC. I actually feel sick after playing it. Terrible camera angles and controls. Ugh. I'll go back to it tomorrow but I was not impressed initially by this game

It was the first game I played when I got my dreamcast about 2 years ago. I was the same. Played for 30 mins, gave the controller to my brother for 30 mins. Then played Under Defeat and power stone 2 instead. Wasn't impressed and really wondering what people see in it to proclaim it a great game. Could be rose tinted glasses again. I just found sonic too fast to control with too much inertia and spent most of my time walking into walls like when I first played tomb raider.

Stoner · 25-08-2009 11:25pm

yeah i have metal slug anthology for the wii, but i hate the wii controller, so I'm looking to pick it up on the PS2, but I'm not paying €22, been looking to see if someone will exchange a PS2 copy for the wii one, but have had no luck.

CCCP^ · 25-08-2009 11:52pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It was the first game I played when I got my dreamcast about 2 years ago. I was the same. Played for 30 mins, gave the controller to my brother for 30 mins. Then played Under Defeat and power stone 2 instead. Wasn't impressed and really wondering what people see in it to proclaim it a great game. Could be rose tinted glasses again. I just found sonic too fast to control with too much inertia and spent most of my time walking into walls like when I first played tomb raider.

I felt exactly the same, the controls are just awful. You move too quick and when you try to change direction you just smack into a wall with the slightest touch. It felt really mediocre. I briefly played Sonic Adventure 2 and thought the first one would be worth a look but oh no. It cost feck all off ebay, and I am willing to give it another 30 mins tomorrow and see if it picks itself up.

CiDeRmAn · 27-08-2009 8:05am

I quite enjoyed Sonic Adventure on the DC, back in the day, I bought the jap edition on release and had great fun, in retrospect though it was a little uninteractive at times! But the Sonic scenes are the best 3D realisations of the blue mascot thus far.
I have Wipeout 64, and tech limitations aside, it's a great game, but not a patch on FZero.
I also have Quake64 and, apart from the Saturn version, it's pretty brilliant, and scary!
The Shambler rocks and I especially love the Lovecraft "Elder Ones" theme that runs through it, sadly replaced by a scifi cliche for Quake 2/4/Wars.
I would really like a true sequel to Quake, not holding out too much hope some 14 years after it's initial release!
Turok sucked, the fogging was truely atrocious, dinos and enemies running at you from this pea-soup mist, the amount of platform jumping was odd as well, the FPS perspective not lending itself well to precision leaps, leading to many falls and restarts.
Turok 2 only trumped it by having better visuals and awesome weapons, still too much fog though!

corcaigh07 · 27-08-2009 11:09am

its by no means a great game but i enjoyed sonic adventure and its sequel, the best 3d sonics available (which isnt very hard I know)

Gummy Panda · 27-08-2009 11:18am

I can't stand Sonic Adventure. Wtf was sonic doing in the real world helping cops.

Stupid game.

Retr0gamer · 27-08-2009 11:30am

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

the amount of platform jumping was odd as well, the FPS perspective not lending itself well to precision leaps, leading to many falls and restarts.

I think it's funny that a lot of people from the turok development team went to retro studios and perfected FPS jumping in Metroid Prime after failing miserably in Turok.

Gummy Panda · 27-08-2009 3:20pm

Ever get a restless bored feeling when playing through your games. Today I'm off work and it feels like i can't decide what to play. When i do pick something it can't keep my attention for too long. Now these are good games that would normally have me playing hours.

Is it due to expanding my games library too fast and having too much choice?

Policenauts was also pissing me off today

o1s1n · 27-08-2009 3:33pm

Gummy Panda wrote: »

Is it due to expanding my games library too fast and having too much choice?

Yep, that's exactly it. Spoiled for choice. I think the biggest example of this is with emulators. You go to play something and instead flick through a couple, get bored and turn it off.

Best way around it is to make a point of beating specific games rather than randomly just dipping in to your collection on any given day.

Retr0gamer · 27-08-2009 4:10pm

Agree entirely with the above.

CCCP^ · 27-08-2009 4:44pm

Gummy Panda wrote: »

Ever get a restless bored feeling when playing through your games. Today I'm off work and it feels like i can't decide what to play. When i do pick something it can't keep my attention for too long. Now these are good games that would normally have me playing hours.

Is it due to expanding my games library too fast and having too much choice?

Policenauts was also pissing me off today

Yeah, that happens. I just stick with a few consoles. My room is like this: PS2, N64 and Dreamcast all setup. Playing a couple of different games on each - Sonic Unleashed, Pro Evolution Soccer 6 and Tomb Raider Anniversary for the PS2, Quake on the N64 and Jet Set Radio on the DC. When I get sick of one game, I just put the other one on. There's enough diversity between those games to keep me going. Jet Set Radio I am starting to get into, beautiful visuals in that game, easily rival anything on the PS2 or Xbox.

CiDeRmAn wrote:

I also have Quake64 and, apart from the Saturn version, it's pretty brilliant, and scary!
The Shambler rocks and I especially love the Lovecraft "Elder Ones" theme that runs through it, sadly replaced by a scifi cliche for Quake 2/4/Wars.
I would really like a true sequel to Quake, not holding out too much hope some 14 years after it's initial release!
Turok sucked, the fogging was truely atrocious, dinos and enemies running at you from this pea-soup mist, the amount of platform jumping was odd as well, the FPS perspective not lending itself well to precision leaps, leading to many falls and restarts.
Turok 2 only trumped it by having better visuals and awesome weapons, still too much fog though!

Quake64 is pure genius. Easily the best FPS for that console console, I am addicted to it. I would love to see a Quake remake in the near future, whatever console had it I would buy straight away. CiDeRmAn, have you ever heard of call of Cthulhu for the Xbox? I was interested in getting it at one point, I love Lovecraft stories, but apparently it's not that good

Retr0gamer · 27-08-2009 5:04pm

I preferred Quake 2 on the PS1. It was a stunning conversion and a technical marvel. The dual analogue control system was excellent in it as well and one of the first uses and multitap 4 player was excellent.

What I usually do is concentrate on one JRPG or long game and keep 1 or 2 dumb action games in reserve when I get the ineviteable JRPG burnout after a 5 hour session.

Gummy Panda · 27-08-2009 5:04pm

CCCP^ wrote: »

CiDeRmAn, have you ever heard of call of Cthulhu for the Xbox? I was interested in getting it at one point, I love Lovecraft stories, but apparently it's not that good

If you love Lovecraft, then Eternal Darkness is a great game to get for the GC.

Retr0gamer · 27-08-2009 5:06pm

I didn't like Eternal Darkness that much.

The story was excellent, the soundtrack, effects and atmosphere were excellent and the writing and voice acting some of the best ever. The game however was just a dog to play.

So, what you playing at the mo? Retro Edition

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