Unpopular Opinions - Video Game Edition

[AdrenalineRush1996]

Am I the only one who considers PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S to be part of the eighth generation instead of the ninth generation?

 

[Fone Bone]

Really, I own a lot of videogames for the Switch, but the truth is the only games I actually LIKE are 2-D cartoon platform games like Super Mario, Kirby, Donkey Kong Country, Disney Games, and Sonic. Those are pretty much the only ones I actually play.

 

[Pooky]

The first Busby game is fine. It's fine. Yeah, I get it; "ooh, he's corporate!", "ooh, he's obnoxious!", "ooh, he had a bad cartoon pilot and a terrible 3D sequel!", "ooh, this internet reviewer made fun of him!", "ooh, this other internet reviewer made fun of him in a slightly different way!" But the game itself? Perfectly playable early-mid 90s platformer. A few strange quirks, and not in the very top tier of platformers, but still fun.

 

[Classic Speedy]

The first Busby game is fine. It's fine. Yeah, I get it; "ooh, he's corporate!", "ooh, he's obnoxious!", "ooh, he had a bad cartoon pilot and a terrible 3D sequel!", "ooh, this internet reviewer made fun of him!", "ooh, this other internet reviewer made fun of him in a slightly different way!" But the game itself? Perfectly playable early-mid 90s platformer. A few strange quirks, and not in the very top tier of platformers, but still fun.

Bubsy 2 wasn't that bad either. I'm probably biased since I owned that game growing up and when you're younger and don't own as many games you just play the crap out of the ones you DO have, but there have definitely been worse platformers.

Now if anyone defends Bubsy 3D, that would be a truly unpopular opinion. Or, even worse, says it's better than Super Mario 64 the same year! Go on... I DARE you.

 

[GWOtaku]

I've got a big one - it's insane how much this industry outside of Nintendo perpetually can't imagine a future that doesn't involve ever-growing development costs and chasing graphics no matter what. I picked up on two articles written back to back on different days about two guys that see the problems with the industry and how (un)sustainable it is, and the mindset is just 100% "well we either keep going with this or we just accept we can't anymore."

I mean, Nintendo is right over there and we have a former big shot lamenting how hard it is to compete with games on phones these days. Are you serious?

 

[JoeMabbon]

The Disgaea franchise (and Nippon Ichi as a whole) has retread their story beats so many times that they're now predictable.

 

[John Pannozzi]

I hope some indie developers take good advantage of the public domain status of Mickey Mouse's earlier works.

There currently are two different indie games based of the public domain Little Nemo in Slunberland comic strips that aim to be spiritual successors to Capcom's NES cult classic Little Nemo: The Dream Master.

Hopefully, some non-Disney-affliated indie game developers will try to make a similar tribute to beloved retro Mickey games like Castle of Illusion, The Magical Quest and Mickey Mania.

 

[khuddle]

The PS5 has been a mess so far. Released in 2020, there are still barely any good games for it -- Diablo 4, Baldur's Gate 3, that about covers it. Now Sony is coming out and saying the PS6 will be released in 2028. In contrast with the PS4, which had a steady stream of good games for its entire 10 year lifespan, the PS5 is looking (at least for the moment) like very poor value for the money.

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

I've got a big one - it's insane how much this industry outside of Nintendo perpetually can't imagine a future that doesn't involve ever-growing development costs and chasing graphics no matter what. I picked up on two articles written back to back on different days about two guys that see the problems with the industry and how (un)sustainable it is, and the mindset is just 100% "well we either keep going with this or we just accept we can't anymore."

I mean, Nintendo is right over there and we have a former big shot lamenting how hard it is to compete with games on phones these days. Are you serious?

Well, I feel like the person in charge of Nintendo would feel the same way as those in charge of Sony and Microsoft.

 

[khuddle]

I've got a big one - it's insane how much this industry outside of Nintendo perpetually can't imagine a future that doesn't involve ever-growing development costs and chasing graphics no matter what.

As a consumer, I'm perfecty content with the graohics on my PS4. Play games like The Last of US Part 2
or God of War; Ragnarok on the PS4, the graphics are breathtaking. Sony released the PS5 in 2020, the truth is the PS4 probably had at least another 5 years in its lifespan -- they should have released the PS5 in 2025. Now, as I mentioned in my earlier post, Sony is going to be releasing the PS6 in 2028, and the PS5 barely has any (good) games on it.

It really does offend a person's sense of efficiency.

 

[Pooky]

Carrying on from some of the comments on the NES TMNT and Mega Man games in the Entertainment Board Thread, I think the Angry Video Game Nerd and others since, intentionally or not, over popularised the over simplified idea that "Difficult=Bad", especially as it pertains to 8 and 16 bit games. Sometimes difficulty is the result of bad design, other times it's just a good old fashioned challenge.

 

[Classic Speedy]

^ It depends on what the difficulty is because of. If it's clunky controls and engine annoyances (bouncing back after being hit), cheap/overpowered AI and pointless restrictions (no continues, spitting you back a ways to not give you a chance to practice on harder sections), it deserves to be called out. But if it's a fair challenge, nothing wrong with that.

And FTR the Nerd has praised many games that are considered difficult, like Ninja Gaiden, DOOM, Castlevania, the NES Mega Man games, etc.

 

[BigFatHairyDeal]

I got through the underwater level on my own. Practice, practice, practice. Also it's only the second level so having to start over again wasn't a huge deal when I was getting the hang of it.

Going to reply in the suggested thread...

I feel like the big stumbling block for the underwater level is that a lot of gamers don't realize that you can switch Turtles in the middle of the action. I mean, they know they can, but they don't think of it as a solution when they're swimming through the narrow corridor with the electric seaweed. I used to think that section was nearly impossible until another kid at school told my brother to swap Turtles if I'm about to die. Problem solved.

Anyway, you only get about 2:30 to get through that level and it's not so big that you easily get lost like in a game like Castlevania II or Zelda II. The time limit is a bit punishing for the first few go-rounds, but it's simply not that hard compared to the other challenges within the game (IMO). That's more evidence to your point that if you know the hacks, it's not that difficult.

The last level inside the Technodrome is insanely difficult. The water level was a piece of cake in comparison. How did I finally learn the trick you described? Game Genie. It allowed me to practice and me to learn how to beat the game without it.

I had put the game aside after repeated failures in the Technodrome when I came across a Nintendo Power issue at K-Mart (dating myself here...) that showed me the hack. I think the issue insisted you should stop, duck, and shoot the bad guys with scrolls or boomerangs, so I always made sure I farmed for those subweapons, but it turns out that shooting your subweapons was unnecessary.

All this being said, there are some legitimately difficult aspects of the game. One is areas that require half-jumps. I could not reliably get the half-jumps on demand, but luckily for me, I had an Advantage controller with turbo fire, and rapid turbo fire makes half-jumps something from an iffy proposition to something you could execute 100% of the time. Another one that sticks out to me is the closing-in, spiked walls in the 4th stage. They're not that terribly hard to avoid, but if you make a mistake it's instant death. As a kid, that part of the game always stressed me out. It doesn't help that the game feels like there's a small amount of input lag when you walk off a ledge. When you're stressed out, you will want to walk quickly to the gaps, but you may not time the drop and instead walk over the gap (cue AVGN).

...

I don't know how controversial this is, but new fans to the Zelda series (i.e. people who've only started playing durin the Switch era) need a proper introduction to the Triforce. Storywise, that's my biggest complaint of the last two major releases.

 

[BigFatHairyDeal]

^ It depends on what the difficulty is because of. If it's clunky controls and engine annoyances (bouncing back after being hit), cheap/overpowered AI and pointless restrictions (no continues, spitting you back a ways to not give you a chance to practice on harder sections), it deserves to be called out. But if it's a fair challenge, nothing wrong with that.

And FTR the Nerd has praised many games that are considered difficult, like Ninja Gaiden, DOOM, Castlevania, the NES Mega Man games, etc.

This is why Mega Man 2-6, IMO, aren't on the same tier of difficulty as many of the other notoriously difficult games on the platform. The password system whittles down the difficulty significantly.

Now imagine if Ninja Gaiden had limited continues... the number of people who beat the game in the pre-emulator era would probably shrink by like 70% hahaha. Really speaks to the difficulty of that game when you can continue as many times with you want (albeit with some pushback to checkpoints) and people still quit. Though honestly, in that series's case, it might simply be the end boss gauntlet is too much. I remember watching a friend always intentionally lowering his life stock to one because dying against the Ninja Gaiden II boss always pushed him back to an earlier point of the game than dying in the middle of the stage would... now that's some BS that needed to be called out...

RC Pro-Am had multiple BS things working against it: limited continues and that yellow car...

 

[Pooky]

I don't get the appeal of the Sunsoft NES Batman game. It's kind of ugly, it's not much fun to play and it doesn't make much use of any unique qualities from the 89 film. Maybe you had to be there? I much prefer the arcade game based on the 89 film, at any rate.

 

[Moe]

Secret of Mana remake based on Sword of Mana for GBA should happen at first place.

Secret of Mana didn't port to GBA at all until Switch.

 

[Classic Speedy]

The recently-released New Star GP has gotten rave reviews from a lot of outlets and players. I was pretty underwhelmed, frankly. It looks great- it nails that Model 1 arcade look that Virtua Racing had. But the courses are not what I was expecting- the original VR had tracks that weaved through mountains and natural landscapes, whereas New Star's tracks are mostly of the "race track" variety, which isn't as interesting to me. I also don't care for the fact that races are four laps instead of three, as it just makes them drag. Finally, I'm not a fan of having to pit my car during most races, even on races that are only four laps. I guess that's supposed to make it more realistic, but I don't care about realism in racing games, I just wanna go fast!