Which highly rated retro games did you dislike?

[Asura]

You what?

Are you being deliberately obtuse or just outright weird? I don't even know what you are trying to say...

"Wall of sound" is a concept in music, particularly applied to pop music. It was developed in the 60s and is one of the many reasons why pre-60s and post-60s popular music sounds so different. "Wall of sound" used a variety of techniques to blend together many performances for a single track in an "echo chamber" (and other tools) to make music feel "fuller". It's hard to describe in words but it's quite a well known thing. You can hear it if you compare something like early Johnny Cash to later Beatles stuff.

Sonic was, for me, the video game equivalent. When I think of how it looks, it makes me think of this:



vs this



It always makes me think of that.

I know I'm not comparing like-for-like (Mario 2 NES vs Sonic MD) but this was my limited experience as a kid. Sonic 1 seemed to have this kind of full-frame, bright, colourful, complete image, whereas every game I played before that often had large areas of flat colour, such as a single blue coloured sky, maybe with 1 random cloud. The Sonic image above typifies this; the texture of the grass, the shadow it casts beneath, the parallax of the water, the shape and distribution of the clouds making a well-composed frame... It just represented a massive visual quantum leap that I feel time has extinguished a bit.

As an Amiga-owner at the time, what I was seeing in Sonic was something very new. Again, this may have been the particular collection of games I had, and may not mirror the experience of others.

[boxhead]

"Wall of sound" is a concept in music, particularly applied to pop music. It was developed in the 60s and is one of the many reasons why pre-60s and post-60s popular music sounds so different. "Wall of sound" used a variety of techniques to blend together many performances for a single track in an "echo chamber" (and other tools) to make music feel "fuller". It's hard to describe in words but it's quite a well known thing. You can hear it if you compare something like early Johnny Cash to later Beatles stuff.

Sonic was, for me, the video game equivalent. When I think of how it looks, it makes me think of this:



vs this



It always makes me think of that.

I know I'm not comparing like-for-like (Mario 2 NES vs Sonic MD) but this was my limited experience as a kid. Sonic 1 seemed to have this kind of full-frame, bright, colourful, complete image, whereas every game I played before that often had large areas of flat colour, such as a single blue coloured sky, maybe with 1 random cloud. The Sonic image above typifies this; the texture of the grass, the shadow it casts beneath, the parallax of the water, the shape and distribution of the clouds making a well-composed frame... It just represented a massive visual quantum leap that I feel time has extinguished a bit.

As an Amiga-owner at the time, what I was seeing in Sonic was something very new. Again, this may have been the particular collection of games I had, and may not mirror the experience of others.

Haha, yeah. I know what wall of sound is but the analogy seemed like a very weird one.

I get where you are coming from.

[samanosuke]

Some of you people are crazy. I can understand not liking games that divide opinion such as Goldeneye or Shenmue, but when I am hearing people not liking Sonic 2, Rondo, Zelda: OoT and Super Mario Kart, well, I just can't abide that! We are all gamers here, well versed gamers at that, which is why I find it so difficult to believe someone could dislike Rondo but love Castevania IV, or love platformers other than Sonic. Just my tuppence

Slightly OT but when Asura mentioned wall of sound it reminded me of this:

[noobish hat]

I don't think it's a coincidence that all these games are in series with other critically acclaimed entries for people to prefer.

[Team Andromeda]

Shenmue has terrible control issues and loading problems. It's massively flawed but it's not a bad game. What I don't like most about it is the pedestal it gets put on but then it's a DC game so it's expected.

Grandia has terrible characters, rubbish half gen visuals and a shocking plot. It still has a great battle system. Mechanically it's sound. Give any 30 plus year old person a few hours with it and they will snap the disc due to the dialogue and hateful characters.

I don't see how you can knock Shenmue for loading times when that's more of a Hardware issue and I think the DC joypad does Shenmue no favours and so that's more of a Hardware issue too . Shenmue 1 is for me just a boring game and as soon as it starts to get going the game finished . Grandia II I'll just have to disagree I loved it and thought it was better than Skies . Loved the world and thought the graphics (other than the basic character models) were great with some really impressive magic effects and great compression to get it all on one disc .

Rondo doesn't have control issues

It does for me . The Jump mechanics are from for the best (much like Part IV) | hate the fact there is no diagonal support for the whip (unlike Part IV) and also the way the you climb and up and down the stair is far from the best (much like part IV). It was such a letdown after the magic of Part IV (which for me is the 3rd best game on the Super Nintendo).


Anyway some more games that I didn't really get into but seemed like the world loved them was

Monkey Island

Gunstar Heroes

Mars Matrix

[Asura]

Shenmue 1 is for me just a boring game and as soon as it starts to get going the game finishedx

I must admit, I loved it at the time (more as a 3D tech demo than anything else) but I've tried to play it in recent years and it's like watching paint dry.

[Dogg Thang]

Watching awesome paint dry though, right?

I have never ever heard of Mars Matrix. How highly rated was it?

[boxhead]

I don't see how you can knock Shenmue for loading times when that's more of a Hardware issue and I think the DC joypad does Shenmue no favours and so that's more of a Hardware issue too . Shenmue 1 is for me just a boring game and as soon as it starts to get going the game finished . Grandia II I'll just have to disagree I loved it and thought it was better than Skies . Loved the world and thought the graphics (other than the basic character models) were great with some really impressive magic effects and great compression to get it all on one disc .



It does for me . The Jump mechanics are from for the best (much like Part IV) | hate the fact there is no diagonal support for the whip (unlike Part IV) and also the way the you climb and up and down the stair is far from the best (much like part IV). It was such a letdown after the magic of Part IV (which for me is the 3rd best game on the Super Nintendo).


Anyway some more games that I didn't really get into but seemed like the world loved them was

Monkey Island

Gunstar Heroes

Mars Matrix

Mars matrix was amazing. You clearly didn't put in the hours or didn't understand it. There's no way you could dislike that game if you played it properly.

[Team Andromeda]

You clearly didn't put in the hours or didn't understand it

No I just spend ?50 on a game back in the day so I don't play it and can slate it . Give me a break and also this is a thread about games you didn't like but others did and reviewed well.

[Colin]

Mars Matrix is utter gumph.

[boxhead]

Lol!!! How can you even pretend that Mars matrix isn't one of the greatest shmups of all time?

Are you trolling or something? It's epic in every way. Apart from the weird lag on the shield, terrible pre-rendered graphics and forgettable sound track.

[nakamura]

I thought Mars Matrix was a bit poo.

[Colin]

Can't speak for the others, but it was definitely one of those games I had MAJOR regret over buying (at release) when the DC was receiving other much, much better shooters. Can't think of a single thing I like about it, I feel the same way about Gigawing as well, awful.

[JazzFunk]

I loved Mars Matrix. And many aspects of it might be rank...but it just had something about it...

Gigawing, I agree though.

[randombs]

Watching awesome paint dry though, right?

And asking various drops of paint what they remember about a particular day.