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Classic games that are > newer games of the same genre
- Thread starter alr1ght
- Start date
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I was thinking about this today: Did sidescrollers ever really evolve beyond Mario, Sonic or Megaman?
Zombie James
Banned
Super Mario Bros. 3 > Any 3D Mario.
platypotamus
Member
Tribes > any other first person shooter
CajoleJuice
Member
Tetris = Tetris Attack > any other puzzle game
HyperZone<3
Member
sixteen-bit
Member
HyperZone<3 said:
**** the Master System version.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
Firestorm said:
QFT.
Edit - What's with the dude in the top left hand corner of the MD cover of SoR2 above? They changed it so he's sitting on her leg or something? :lol
HyperZone<3
Member
has yet to be surpassed.
GitarooMan
Member
Wing Commander 2 > Any space flight/combat game since (cue X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter fanatics)
lordfroakie
Member
I'm going to say that Castlevania went from action/horror side-scroller to action/rpgish game.
Night_Trekker
Member
_dementia said:
Of all existing and possible posts in this thread, this one contains the most truth.
EDIT:
ssoass said:
And within seconds, I'm made to eat my words.
mr_sockochris
Member
Super Mario Kart > all kart games (yes, that includes MKDS)
A Black Falcon
Member
TIE Fighter is the best FPS ever, not any Wing Commander game (overrated games...)... 
Agreed that Grim Fandango is the best adventure game ever, though. Lucasarts was by far the best in the industry, and when they stopped making adventure games, the whole genre's quality went down dramatically and has not come even close to recovering.
Alpha Centauri... Alpha Centauri is great, but I'd say that it's the second-best TBS ever, not the best. Civilization II is the better game... still though, those two are certainly better by far than anything else the genre has to offer, before or since.
Hardball III for me (that is, a 2d baseball game that I consider the best ever in the category)... great game... despite having good depth for an early '90s baseball game, it uses just one button (and directional controls of course) for everything. I thought that that worked really well, so many other games make the controls needlessly complex...
"Torment > any RPG ever" would be more accurate. Baldur's Gate II isn't far behind though... but Torment is a special case. It's so far from being a normal RPG that just saying "it is great" doesn't really show how unique it is, or how amazing it was that even one such game was made, much less another...
Hmm... for some new stuff, I'll mention a few games I still consider the best in their genres, even though they are older...
-Starcraft -- my favorite game ever
-Zelda - Ocarina of Time -- best console game ever
-Star Wars: Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight and its expansion Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith -- best FPS ever
Agreed that Grim Fandango is the best adventure game ever, though. Lucasarts was by far the best in the industry, and when they stopped making adventure games, the whole genre's quality went down dramatically and has not come even close to recovering.
Alpha Centauri... Alpha Centauri is great, but I'd say that it's the second-best TBS ever, not the best. Civilization II is the better game... still though, those two are certainly better by far than anything else the genre has to offer, before or since.
Hardball III for me (that is, a 2d baseball game that I consider the best ever in the category)... great game... despite having good depth for an early '90s baseball game, it uses just one button (and directional controls of course) for everything. I thought that that worked really well, so many other games make the controls needlessly complex...
"Torment > any RPG ever" would be more accurate. Baldur's Gate II isn't far behind though... but Torment is a special case. It's so far from being a normal RPG that just saying "it is great" doesn't really show how unique it is, or how amazing it was that even one such game was made, much less another...
Hmm... for some new stuff, I'll mention a few games I still consider the best in their genres, even though they are older...
-Starcraft -- my favorite game ever
-Zelda - Ocarina of Time -- best console game ever
-Star Wars: Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight and its expansion Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith -- best FPS ever
8-bit/16-bit Shmups > Later Shmups
Shmups are a casual's game (since they were arcade games all the way back to Space Invaders). Now, weirdly, shmups are considered 'hardcore' which is true that they have become niche. But they are niche because the shmups of today have become unimaginative, with bosses and enemies that resemble geometric shapes rather than anything interesting, with focus more on bullet sprays than level design, and if you say these new shmups aren't 'fun', then you are teh 'weaksauce' and not a TRUE hardcore gamer (apparently someone who enjoys dodging bullet sprays and shooting geometric designs). A few shmups are really noteworthy today such as Ikaruga (but its killer gimmick of polarity had the downside of every enemy being in dull black or white).
3d didn't kill shmups. Shmups committed suicide when they started focusing on being 'hardcore' instead of remembering their 'casual' roots.
And why hasn't there been another shmup like Zaxxon? It was released back in 1982. Is twenty five years too long to expect a spiritual successor?
Shmups are a casual's game (since they were arcade games all the way back to Space Invaders). Now, weirdly, shmups are considered 'hardcore' which is true that they have become niche. But they are niche because the shmups of today have become unimaginative, with bosses and enemies that resemble geometric shapes rather than anything interesting, with focus more on bullet sprays than level design, and if you say these new shmups aren't 'fun', then you are teh 'weaksauce' and not a TRUE hardcore gamer (apparently someone who enjoys dodging bullet sprays and shooting geometric designs). A few shmups are really noteworthy today such as Ikaruga (but its killer gimmick of polarity had the downside of every enemy being in dull black or white).
3d didn't kill shmups. Shmups committed suicide when they started focusing on being 'hardcore' instead of remembering their 'casual' roots.
And why hasn't there been another shmup like Zaxxon? It was released back in 1982. Is twenty five years too long to expect a spiritual successor?
A Black Falcon
Member
Lapsed said:
Zaxxon Motherbase 2000 on the 32X? ... that one didn't get good reviews though...
soul creator
Member
Lapsed said:
I wonder what game you're referring to...:lol
sixteen-bit
Member
Scullibundo said:
Those are actually two different people. Max is elbowing one thug in the face, while Blaze is tripping the same thug. I think that is supposed to be Max, who is not a playable character in the MS version, which is why he's only on the Gen/MD cover.
First, Gradius V, Border Down, and the like have as much of a focus on level design as the genre ever has, if not more so. Level design in vertical shooters has always been about enemy placement over environmental design, and that's the same today.
Second, while there's no denying that dense bullet patterns and tiny hitboxes are all the rage (and have been since the mid-90s), how is designing and placing a pattern any different than designing a level? It's not like these games are designed without any thought to what is thrown at you.
Third, where are all these abstract shooters outside of the "indie" scene? Kenta Cho has his thing, and you'll get a few games inspired by that (Clean Asia), but by and large modern shooters aren't a bunch of "enemies that resemble geometric shapes".
Fourth, anybody who uses any kind of casual <-> hardcore barometer is a tool in the first place.
I still find myself thinking that Mega Man 2 and Mega Man X are probably the two best games that came along for the Blue Bomber.
To this day, I don't think any subsequent games in the series added all of the right touches, in all the right areas, save for these two games.
And I really don't count Zero, ZX, EXE and DASH in this light, because those are basically different games entirely...
To this day, I don't think any subsequent games in the series added all of the right touches, in all the right areas, save for these two games.
And I really don't count Zero, ZX, EXE and DASH in this light, because those are basically different games entirely...
Oldschoolgamer
The physical form of blasphemy
Super Mario 3 > any other mario game. It had co-op and more replayability than the rest.
GitarooMan
Member
Banjo-Kazooie > any 3D platformer since
Tain said:
I'm using sales as my barometer. Shmups used to be extremely popular. There were tons of shmup clones. Now, shmups are rare and do not sell much. This is odd since 2d platformers are still around (now just moved to portables), and they still sell like hotcakes. But shmups like poor Gradius V and Final R-Type didn't set any sales records on fire. Why not? Gradius and other shmups did.
Usually when I find a shmup fan of today, they tend to spend hundreds of dollars importing certain games as well as spending well over a hundred just on a japanese joystick (!). Why? Is it because they believe they are 'hardcore'? Anyone throwing hundreds of dollars away like that would be closest to the persona of a 'tool'.
Shmups used to be mainstream. If shmups are so much better 'today', then why aren't they selling? Maybe you need to consider they are nowhere near as good as you want to believe.