Retro gaming to avoid, the worst of the worst.

[ShadowDancer]

Without staying off topic, I remember a mega drive and snes rental store, and with games being around ?30-?40 then....and my current apprentice rate of ?34.99 weekly, I rented games, anything special, I would have bought for me on birthdays et cetera...most games could be beat in a sitting, stuff like chuck rock, lion king for example, but e.g of something special..i bought Comix Zone...which is actually on its way to me as of an hour ago, courtesy of someone nice on Acade Otaku :-)

[ShadowDancer]

Was quite lucky though, including neighbours and college friends, there was around ten of us swapping games.
I miss all that to be honest. Still, my gaming tastes haven't changed that much apart from really getting off to FPS games in the 128 bit era.

[Asura]

Battle Arena Toshinden sucked big time on both PlayStation and Saturn amazed it managed to get the number of games it did.

I'm not certain, but I suspect it was the characterisation that pushed it. I may be in error but I think it had a companion manga and anime. Virtua Fighter has always been a great game, but the characterisation in VF1/2/3 was pretty dreadful. Tekken 1 wasn't much better (though it was better than VF!).

[Leon Retro]

8. Axelay - Not as bad as others on this list but still style over substance.

9. Super Aleste - worst game in an incredible series. Overly long levels get really boring.

Axelay is my favourite shooter of all time. I love everything about it. I think you have enough substance - each level is very distinct with memorable graphics and music - and it has a decent amount of action.. As a fan of all sorts of shooters - from Raiden to Gradius V - I've nearly played them all and Axelay is the one I rate the highest. I think the designers, in all areas, did a brilliant job. Of course, there are lots of different types of shooters, so people will have styles they like more than others. Axelay does its own thing and won't gel with every shooter fan.

I will agree that Super Aleste isn't a very good game; it's far too slow and plodding. I remember thinking it was technically quite appealing and the music was good, but I don't think it's a very fun game. Other games in the series are far more exciting.

[Leon Retro]

Paperboy 64 is a true abomination. I played it in a shop back in the day and couldn't believe how bad it was.

[nakamura]

Super Aleste is awesome.

[Asura]

Almost a bit disappointed with this thread. We haven't had any of the more cliche, divisive answers, such as...

Sonic Adventure series
Eternal Champions series
The entire output of the Saturn, Mega-CD and Wonderswan*

*Incidentally, I saw something about the Wonderswan recently that really made me think. I used to think it was a big success in Japan - certainly the journos of those late 90s-early 00s mags gave that impression, that it was this big, amazing thing that was being kept in Japan for secretive reasons. It turns out it wasn't actually that successful (not a failure, just not a big deal), and the reason most people thought it was successful is that Bandai/Capcom/Squaresoft had their hand in a lot of anime production at the time, so their protagonists always seemed to own one - and they portrayed a fiction where it was really successful, hoping it would rub off on people.

[Team Andromeda]

it's far too slow and plodding

Of coruse its a SNES shooter :P

[wakka]

Almost a bit disappointed with this thread. We haven't had any of the more cliche, divisive answers, such as...

Sonic Adventure series
Eternal Champions series
The entire output of the Saturn, Mega-CD and Wonderswan*

*Incidentally, I saw something about the Wonderswan recently that really made me think. I used to think it was a big success in Japan - certainly the journos of those late 90s-early 00s mags gave that impression, that it was this big, amazing thing that was being kept in Japan for secretive reasons. It turns out it wasn't actually that successful (not a failure, just not a big deal), and the reason most people thought it was successful is that Bandai/Capcom/Squaresoft had their hand in a lot of anime production at the time, so their protagonists always seemed to own one - and they portrayed a fiction where it was really successful, hoping it would rub off on people.

That's really interesting, I can recall a lot of times when I've seen people in anime using them - and now I know why.

[ShadowDancer]

Always fancied a wonderswan Crystal and the golf game. Wasn't there even a Klonoa on it..nah, I must of dreamt that!
I only really dislike Tomb raider, because I really do think its awful, even if I was honest and admitted it was pretty far out for way back then, I still think its awful.

[wakka]

There was a Klonoa I think. I've always liked the look of Beatmania for Wonderswan, lol.

[Dogg Thang]

Wonderswan also got the only handheld version of Pocket Fighter, which is crazy because that should have been on everything and we should be on Pocket Fighter 4 Hyper Turbo Edition by now.

[Baseley09]

Wonderswan deffo has some big franchises on it, also if you are a Japanese speaker there is rich content in terms fo Square RPGs etc.....if you can actually see them on the appalling Swan Color screen - apparently the Crystal is better, never used one to say.

[Leon Retro]

Of coruse its a SNES shooter :P

There's just not enough horsepower in the CPU. Musha Aleste on the MD shows what Super Aleste should have been like if the SNES had a fast CPU.

Axelay isn't a fast game, but the pace is fine. Super Aleste's severe lack of pace just bores me to tears. It could have been a really good game if the developer had been able to use a special chip to allow for more speed.

Despite slowdown in all SNES shooters, I still like many of them: Gradius 3, Parodius(all three games) Macross:Scrambled Valkyrie, Pop 'n Twinbee, Area 88 etc.. You get great graphics and sound, with only the CPU letting things down with slowdown.

[Asura]

Wonderswan deffo has some big franchises on it, also if you are a Japanese speaker there is rich content in terms fo Square RPGs etc.....if you can actually see them on the appalling Swan Color screen - apparently the Crystal is better, never used one to say.

It's one of the few consoles that I haven't even played a single game on. I've never held one that was turned on (though I've come across them in second-hand shops).