[Late to the Party] Week of 3/9/08

[sabrecat]

SabreCat:

I rather enjoy doing these little reviews of games and such, so I'm going to make a "column" out of it. I'll call it "Late to the Party," because the vast majority of stuff I write about on here is months or years old. And the tagline and LJ-cuts will alert the uninterested to skip it without any extra effort, heh.

Comments

[zombie_dog]

Startropics was a big deal for me. I'm not sure exactly why. I just know that it was one of those games that filled an important niche in my childhood.

Wow. I should play through that game again.

[sabrecat]

I had it recommended to me by a friend with much the same relationship to it.

I never owned an NES, so I don't have quite the same nostalgic attachment to most of these titles (the rare exceptions being those I played at a friend's or cousin's house). I find it kinda amusing how accepting folks were of really infuriating gameplay. xD

[zombie_dog]

Well, back then, that was all we had! Game design has come a long way. When titles that were less frustrating started coming in, most gamers happily switched to them. Our fondness for the old titles comes, I suspect, mainly from nostalgia!

I mean, have you played Super Mario Brothers lately? It's-a really frustrating!

[sabrecat]

Hehe, I was thinking in part of the original NES Mario when I said that.

I rather wonder if some of it had to do with the storage limitations of the cartridges--it was technologically impossible to make the 50-hours-of-gameplay epics that are standard today. But you could make a short game that was really really hard, so the player would have to put in those 50+ hours to get good enough at it to play through to the end.

[arinwolfe]

i love elebits:)

[sabrecat]

Gladly, beer or not! You can even do multiplayer, where one player guides the camera and the rest of the group competes to snag as many Elebits as possible. I imagine it'd be hilariously chaotic. ^.^

LTTP=Link to the Past?

[kmbrown6]

How did they handle the letter that you were supposed to dip in the water? I guess that was Nintendo's crack at those strange copy protection schemes that were all the rage on computers back in the day. It is a creative setting. I must admit, that it does seem a bit of a Zelda clone, but does not play as well. So I don't know if the "good for it's time" arguement would hold as well in this case. From what I have seen I could imagine that people could have fun with it. "Average for its time", perhaps? I have a copy I rescued from a Gamestop, but I never got very far

Re: LTTP=Link to the Past?

[sabrecat]

You have a PSP now? Did I miss (or forget) something?

I do have a PSP! I didn't make a big deal of it, but yeah, I bought a phat off a friend for $50, ha.

The result was I knew an answer about Joan of Arc. Go me!

Neat! What was the trivia question?

Do you Smash? I'm expecting Smash Bros. when I get home.

I just got Smash, aye! And it is truly an excellent piece of work. (I mean to write a post about that and other first-impressions soon.) My Brawl friend code is 2707-1277-4067. Post yours when you find it out!

Mysterious Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer! That's the game for you!

Hehe! I saw it talked up on DSFanboy, so I picked up a copy around the same time I got Brawl. Dunno when I'll get around to it, though, as Brawl is pretty engrossing...

Re: LTTP=Link to the Past?

[kmbrown6]

I do have a PSP! I didn't make a big deal of it, but yeah, I bought a phat off a friend for $50, ha

Re: LTTP=Link to the Past?

[sabrecat]

How do you get the hammers? I used one up just figuring out what it did, but I have another one...

Oh, and I overlooked the question about the StarTropics letter. It's rather silly, actually. The letter is included in the "operating manual" Home-button dealy, and there's a little bucket of water icon you click on that shows a little animation of dunking paper in it and the needed numbers appearing. I did it by accident even before I got to the point in the game where it was needed. :P

[celowin]

Of those games, the only one I've played (and the only one I have the capability of playing) is Jeanne D'Arc. I pretty much agree with everything you wrote, but since I'm not a tactical rpg fanatic, I got bored before finishing it. I do want to go back to it, someday....

The fantasy elements didn't bother me as much as they did you. While I agree that they seemed a little silly, all of the character designs seemed silly as well.

[sabrecat]

The turning point was when the burning at the stake was followed immediately by a scene with a talking frog. >.<

Like I tried to say, it didn't bother me overall--it just made the storyline weaker than it might've been.