CCIV: Game of the Year 2000 - Round Six

[Neon Ignition]

It's not Taco Tuesday! It's Round Six Tuesday! Another batch of year 2000 games line up as we reach the mid-point in our latest journey


Which of the above games are amongst the best of 2000 and why?

[dataDave]

Some pretty good Ms there, but nothing that screams GOTY, to me at least.

[Atticus]

Metal Slug 3. This was the point I got on board with the AES (not sure that was a good move in retrospect). My first Slug and probably the last great one.

[dataDave]

It was the only one I’ve ever owned in cart form. I very nearly earned the 1cc with it, which turned out to be a bit of a headache if I’m honest.

[wakka]

I've voted for two - Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel and Metal Slug 3.

I recently wrote up my impressions of playing MGS GB through for the first time in the 'What are you playing (retro)' thread. It's a really good game, and an interesting reimagining of MGS as a direct 2D sequel to the earlier titles. The storyline and characters are completely different and build more directly on the earlier titles, as you once again return to Outer Heaven.

It's more oriented around puzzles - some of which are enjoyable, some frustrating - but it's a true blue MGS game, with the wacky band of psychotic/supernatural mercenaries as bosses, heartfelt CODECs, plenty of different weapons and the obligatory plot twist (although if you're a Metal Gear vet, you'll probably see it coming from miles off).

A good game and certainly one of the most ambitious GB/C titles.

Metal Slug 3 was my introduction to the Slug series, via an arcade cab in a hotel we stayed in on a school trip in about 2001 (so it must've been pretty much brand new). Myself and another kid absolutely hammered it, pumping in the lire to try and get as far as we could.

I then owned it on the PS2 and I've played it in many emulated guises since. It's easily one of the best Slugs, let down only by its ball busting difficulty (which I personally think is set far too high - Slug 1 is far better balanced). But there are so many cool ideas in this game. Becoming a zombie, getting fat, piloting the submarine, and so on. Brilliant graphics, too. In some ways the peak of the series.

[QualityChimp]

All the Metal Slugs merge into one, to be honest.
I was tempted to vote for The Little Mermaid II: Pinball Frenzy, just to mix things up.

Of that list, it's Marvel Vs. Capcom 2.
Wow, what a blast!
More characters than Marvel Super Heroes and totally bonkers.
I'll never stop loving the look of this game that's kinda at the end of the pixelart phase.

[dataDave]

I'll never stop loving the look of this game that's kinda at the end of the pixelart phase.

Unfortunately the games on the NAOMI (Dreamcast-based) arcade hardware all output in 480i video, meaning we never got to see CvS or MvC2 sprites in their 240p/scanline glory. They look like paper cut-outs, especially against those 3D backdrops.

[Asura]

I voted for Marvel Vs Capcom 2 out of some sort of obligation, but while I like messing around with it, going to Japan absolutely killed my love for it

I'm a pretty competent fighting game player; I was never the sort who would win at Evo but I've won small competitions and I understand the games very well (as in, all the jargon; I can watch a pro fighting game round and when someone wins, I understand how/why).

But MvC2 is unusual because of its mechanics. When watching the game played at a good level, out of the 6 characters in the two teams, it's like there are 5 onscreen nearly all the time. The game is so utterly chaotic and frenetic that I can't keep up with it. In the arcades over there I played it a few times against people who clearly knew how the game was meant to be played, and it was an absolute washout And I've got no beef with that. It was actually really fun to get inside that and start to understand it. But I very quickly realised it was a style of game that I just didn't want to master, and as a result, I lost interest.

Since then I've watched some high-level matches online and it's kinda amazing to watch, in how the game is something of a broken mess and it's an arms race to try and break it more than the other person.

[Neon Ignition]

MSR baby, the later games might have been better but as of 2000 that game was absolute top tier

[fuse]

Voted for MvC 2 as it's great, even though I do have more of a soft spot for the first game - mainly given my preference for the 6B setup, but music, characters, and backgrounds also playing a bit of a part.

Mars Matrix and Ghost Babel are on the list that could've been in with a mention had I played them more, and while Metal Slug 3 is decent it is where I feel the series' decline starts - general quality's still pretty high on this one, but the length of it works against it for me.

[wakka]

I think Metal Slug 3 has got some of the best ideas in the series, but it's much too long and much too difficult. The amount of HP some of the bosses have is demented.