Hello,
I played through a bunch of old games in 2016 and I'm here to talk about them. I want to note that I only included games I actually finished on this here blog. Brace yourselves, it's a real barn burner.
The Middling
Jotun [2015]
Jotun has a fantastic classical cartoon art style going for it, and the bosses are fun challenges. The parts in between the jotun fights are where things fall apart, save for a couple of areas. Cool concept, but a classic middling game.
Diablo III [2012]
Diablo III grabbed me for longer than I thought it would, but I wouldn’t consider the time I spent on the loot grind to be valuable. It’s got the potential to get its hooks into you, but I don’t think it’s that great of a game. It’s competently made, but I haven’t enjoyed this sort of action RPG since Snowblind was involved with Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance and Champions of Norrath.
Torchlight [2009]
As I sort of said, I really loved what this genre had to offer at some point in my life, but sort of ignored it for many years since Snowblind got scooped up by Monolith. I figured since I’d already got around to Diablo III I’d give this one a shot too, and it’s a pretty average affair. I do remember the initial $20 price tag being a selling point, but if this came out with any opposition, I’m not sure it would’ve made much of an impression.
Killer Instinct [2013]
Fighting games have never been my thing and when they are it’s generally because they’re Mortal Kombat. Killer Instinct seems like a great fighting game to my “appreciate the genre from a distance” view. It’s just not the sort of game I’d ever sit down and sink hours upon hours into.
Cobra Triangle [1989]
I’d never heard of this one until the Rare Collection came to be. Having bought an Xbox One, I figured I’d do the smart thing and play old games on it. This game is pretty cool for something I’d never heard of. It gets overly difficult as games of the era often do, but it’s a neat thing with a decent amount of variety.
Blast Corps. [1997]
Blast Corps. Is a cool game at times and it suffers from its few drifting sections that control really awkwardly. If it wasn’t for those sections I might include this in the good section, but even then the fun parts of blowing stuff up is ultimately fleeting.
Halo Wars [2009]
ALL UNITS. I remember when this was announced I was so excited, a blend of Halo and a favorite genre, what could be better. For whatever reason I never got around to it, and I don’t think I missed out on too much. It’s just an okay blend of two cool things.
Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos [1990] and Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom [1991]
Why these games all insist on hiding their genuinely great design behind an impenetrable difficulty is beyond me. The difficulty in the second game matches the first where if you fail on the final boss even with max lives you have to restart the entire level, despite that never being the case on any prior area of the game, even checkpoints within the final level. The third matches that and gives you a continue limit. It’s almost unforgiveable because you think they ought to have known better or learned along the way, but it just got worse. These games are really awesome and at the time they were pioneering storytelling in games, and even though the stories were bad, they didn’t care if you got to see them resolve in the slightest.
Twisted Metal [1995]
Twisted Metal is a neat car combat proof of concept. I was particularly surprised about the first person cams being so flavorful. It’s sort of got that fighting game element, where each character you play as does the same thing and then you get a new ending every time. Overall though, Twisted Metal is just kind of a okay relic of gaming, being the first in the longest running Playstation Franchise.
Crysis 3 [2013]
Crysis 3 is probably better than I’m giving it credit for, considering Crysis 2 felt like a big mistake. Crysis 3 rights a lot of thoses wrongs, but still doesn’t even hold a candle to the first Crysis. It is pretty though.
Super Mario Land [1989]
Super Mario Land is a decent Mario game. It’s got some good tunes and offers some vehicle sections to mix up the standard platforming. Easter Island heads are enemies, it’s not all bad. It’s just that compared to others in the series it doesn’t really measure up in a meaningful way.
Kid Dracula [1993]
Castlevania for kids! Except now you play as Dracula! But he’s a Kid! It’s a charming little game, but there’s little in the way of challenge and the experience is pretty fleeting.
The Bad
Medal of Honor [1999]
Medal of Honor is a bad game. A product of the time to be sure. It does offer a control scheme similar to modern shooters, but it’s so slow to move and turn and all around clunky. I haven’t done it, but I’m certain if I went back to play GoldenEye as it was when it released it would play better. The only interesting bits of Medal of Honor come from the historical context and the brief stealth sections where you show people your papers.
Call of Duty 3 [2006]
This is the most herded around I felt playing a game all year. It was impressive just how narrow and confined all the combat spaces were. Sure, you bounce from set-piece to set-piece and that’s fine, but man I could have used some room to move around. I have no problems with a lot of the First Person Shooters people complain about for being too linear, but now when the debate comes up, Call of Duty 3 will immediately come to mind.
Tekken 2 [1995]
Another product of its time I’m sure, but I couldn’t see how this game was impressive then other than the 3D models being impressive to look at at the time. I’m no fighting game expert, but it felt slow, awkward and clunky the entire time I spent playing.
Battletoads [1991]
With the ability to rewind in the Rare collection I was able to see this game to the end. What a shit show. It’s constantly throwing bullshit at you from every angle. The limits on continues makes me question any person’s sanity who stuck with this game to the end in its day. The game itself is a decent one, but not worth seeing through the end the way it was initially made.
Dark Cloud [2001]
Dark Cloud is something I shouldn't have saw through to the end. Something in me (Stockholm Syndrome?) made me see it through to the end, in which the final boss is presented as the only real challenge up to the point. After it ended, it was like here's another 100 floor dungeon for you to do, and I was like "No thanks." This is a game about grinding and grinding and then accidentally breaking your weapon and grinding another weapon all the way back to where that one was, or just reloading your last save from 3 hours ago, because that would be a better way to save time, because it honestly would be. There is a lot of charm to what writing is there and the Actraiser-esque city building is neat, but the core gameplay loop is a most dull affair.
The Good
Galak-Z: The Dimensional [2015]
Galak-Z has a lot of cool elements and freshens up the rogue-like-lite-like genre with some light storytelling and breaking the game up into chapters, so you’re not playing the entire game in one sitting, and that’s kind of nice that the game from this genre actually wants me to be able to finish it.
R.C. Pro-Am [1988]
R.C. Pro-Am could be seen as a sort of a pioneer for kart racing, the weapons really mix up the races and keep you on your toes. Playing it was a fun look back at a genre I don’t spend much time with anymore.
Halo 5: Guardians [2015]
It’s a good Halo game. It’s not making waves like the original trilogy, but goes to show that Halo is still a quality series.
Nuclear Throne [2015]
This game just feels good. I found melee weapons to be infinitely more useful than guns, which seems odd for a twin-stick shooter, but it all feels really good anyway.
Twisted Metal 2 [1996]
Twisted Metal 2 better executes on the car combat concept. It’s still controls roughly by today’s standards, but it’s a lot smoother and the environments are bigger, more interesting and the weapons more varied and easy to use. I can see why it’s revered, as it holds up just enough today for me to include it here.
Rise of the Tomb Raider[2015]
I think the Tomb Raider reboot games are impressive considering how rough the original series looks. They do however seem to be cashing in on the train Uncharted started, though Rise adopts some survival/open world elements to distinguish itself.
Sunset Overdrive [2014]
It’s not the best game I played or anything, but I’m fairly certain if the masses weren’t so against Microsoft at the launch of the Xbox One, Sunset Overdrive would be a modern classic. It’s hitting the same notes as the Deadpool movie did with its referential wit and fourth wall breaking. It’s Exhilarating over the top pop punk action (my review)
River City Ransom [1990]
Now this is a quality beat ’em up. I’d always heard great things about this one. I decided to give it a shot and really dug the addition of the light RPG stuff and the school setting. I thought it impossible that a beat ‘em up could be fun these days, but I was wrong.
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening [1993]
When I was a kid I was really dumb and couldn’t figure this game out at all. As an adult it’s actually not as obtuse as I led myself to believe. It’s a pretty good Zelda game with a lot more crammed into it than I would’ve guessed considering the Gameboy’s capabilities. I’d rate it pretty low among the Zelda games I’ve played, but that’s okay, because pretty low quality Zelda is still a quality game.
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap [2005]
This is one of the better Zelda games I’ve played. The interesting hook of shrinking down to a size where leaves are bigger than you, seeing enemies you’re used to fighting as a normal person suddenly tower over you adds a really neat element.
Gargoyle’s Quest [1990]
Gargoyle’s Quest is an impressive early Gameboy game. It’s got some RPG flavor with fun action platforming representing the core gameplay loop. Compared to the other Gameboy games I played this year Gargoyle’s Quest really stands out as a good game in its own right rather than just a good game considering the hardware.
Fallout 4 [2015]
I got around to wrapping up Fallout 4, one of three behemoths I’d yet to complete from 2015, the others being Metal Gear and The Witcher. It’s probably the least impressive of the bunch. It’s a pretty standard Bethesda affair, but as it turns out, that means it’s pretty good. I do wish Bethesda would take more risks with their work, but I can’t say I expected anything other than what I got out of Fallout 4. It’s a good game that I had plenty of fun with, but I'm starting to think Bethesda needs to adapt their formula when developers like CD Projekt with The Witcher 3 are coming along and beginning to outclass the formula.
And the awards go to...
Best 2015 Game in 2016: Fallout 4 - Bethesda's still great, but I think their time as the open-world RPG kings is drawing to a close.
Best Visuals: Jotun - See image above. The one with the bird.
Most Middlin': Halo Wars - Across the board just a standard okay game, no glaring issues, no glaring amazing things happening
The Clunk Award: Medal of Honor - Ugh...
Worst Old Game of the Year: Dark Cloud - Really ugh...
Old Game of the Year Runner Up: River City Ransom - The impossible, a beat 'em up that holds up? Yes.
Old Game of the Year: The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap - You can turn little and run around town and be little.
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