ITT: We post series where the controls SOMEHOW kept getting progressively WORSE.

[Anonymous No.10521568]

I know this might sound like an odd topic, but I'm genuinely curious about it now that I've seen it happen, and I want to know if there are any more cases, maybe even well known ones than the case I've experienced, since I know it's somewhat obscure in the grand scheme of things. I'm a fan of Spider-Man since childhood, loved the comic books, TV shows, films and, of course... the video games. Well, recently I decided to go back and try some of the stuff I might've missed out on as a kid. I didn't own an original Game Boy growing up, started out with the Game Boy Advance to be quite honest, so I missed out on a lot of stuff...

One of the things I missed out on was LJN's Spider-Man trilogy on Game Boy, called The Amazing Spider-Man... I recall the 1st entry being somewhat known due to an AVGN episode that was quite popular, but the other ones feel a lot more obscure, couldn't even find manual scans for the 3rd one, and the less we say about the Arcade's Revenge port the better, those who owned it on SNES and Genesis know how garbage it is, an inferior handheld port is exactly what you think it'd be like... garbage. Now, the original trilogy is way more interesting, and to my surprise... they just kept getting WORSE.

The 1st entry is made by Rare, and it's fine, a few of the moves are not intuitive, but when you know what buttons to press it works... the 2nd one, by Bits Studios, felt worse as soon as I picked it up because they made the mistake of trying to do a lot with few buttons... but at least it's the same in how, when you know what button combinations do, it's alright, though more janky than the 1st... and then the 3rd one, I don't get it, it was made by Bits Studios again... HOW did they make it worse here? It feels like every button takes 2 seconds to respond! It's like I'm fighting the video game itself! I'm in genuine disbelief...

[Anonymous No.10521634]

The worst part of Arcade's Revenge, a game that no one has beaten, is that Arcade escapes in the end.
Ultimate blue balls.

[Anonymous No.10521658]

>>10521568
I got Spiderman 2 on gameboy for Christmas when I was 8 years old or something, with no box or no instructions or anything, just the cartridge. I couldn't get passed the first level for like a year until I saw some kid playing his gameboy on the playground and he was playing that game. He explained how to get passed the first level and from there I eventually figured out how to get to the final level but it was way too hard. I've never been able to beat it in 25 years.

[Anonymous No.10521763]

>>10521634
Arcade's Revenge genuinely feels like it was made out of ill intent, spite and wanting for people to suffer... I'll never get this garbage. What sucks is that the OST is a banger and it actually plays fine... but they had to make so many AWFUL design decisions... if they hadn't made it with limited lives/continues, I think it'd improve 10x and I'm not even kidding on this.

>>10521658
I'll admit that I had to look it up, the 1st section from the entire playthrough just happens to be the most cryptic BY FAR. I have no idea how it's actually gone through testing, I suppose if you play it for months you'll eventually figure it out, or by pure luck, but finding out is just stupid to reasonably do, and even then executing it isn't very straight forward... but, if you get past this part, everything else is quite simple, besides a section at the end with the ride in the park, it's quite tricky at first, but eventually you'll get it. I'd say this one is worth beating still, so go for it!

I mean, besides the fact that it doesn't control too well at first, it still feels fine after reading the manual and seeing how to pull off all of the moves, and then it's a genuine Spider-Man that plays like a MetroidVania, and it's sweet! When you know what to do to get past any of it's few cryptic parts, at least... anyways, it's still a fine Spider-Man title, unlike the 3rd installment...

[Anonymous No.10521798]

>>10521763
>Arcade's Revenge genuinely feels like it was made out of ill intent, spite and wanting for people to suffer
I agree.
It's either made by misanthropes, or as a sort of backlash to a command decision from above.
Like, they get the order "HARDER. MAKE THE GAME HARDER"
And the guys were like "Oh yeah? Fuckface? How's this. Hard enough? Stupidly fucking hard enough yet?"
And then it actually got shipped.

[Anonymous No.10521806]

>>10521798
I believe this could've really happened, it's one of the few ways I could explain what went down to make it this unbearable to play and especially to attempt completing it, not worth it AT ALL.

What sucks the most is that SEGA has made both a good Spider-Man title, Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin on Genesis, and would go on to make a couple of good X-Men on Genesis aswell... if they had the license to make a Spider-Man and X-Men crossover video game, it would've been awesome to see... but NO, instead LJN got it and probably made things hell for their developers as usual.

[Anonymous No.10521807]

>>10521568
Stop making insufferable verbose blogposts about Spider-Man games.

[Anonymous No.10521817]

>>10521807
My friend, there are about 150 threads up on /vr/ right now, this is just a single one, and regardless of the IP used as an example to get this thread going, the idea behind it is to see if I could find other examples of sequels not getting worse due to the content being more lacking or level design not being up to par, which is often the case, but the actual control getting worse somehow too.

I experienced this with the trilogy I mentioned, and though it'd make an interesting topic, I don't see the issue with the topic nor the IP used as a starting point for the OP, so what's the issue?

If you don't like these posts/threads then again there are over 100 threads to browse too, anon.

[Anonymous No.10521849]

>>10521807
I like this thread. Op is right that these games aren't well known. It's fun talking about a game that I played a lot but not a lot of other people have.

>>10521763
It's impossible. The ride at the end just moves too fast. You get instakilled if you hit one of the electrical generators or whatever they are, and i'm pretty sure carnage can isntakill you as well. The most difficult part is moving up and down on the web while the ride is moving, and then it takes so long to get back if you die.

[Anonymous No.10521876]

>>10521849
>I like this thread. Op is right that these games aren't well known. It's fun talking about a game that I played a lot but not a lot of other people have.
Thank you, anon! I agree, it's one of the reasons I've made the thread, to me it was a fun topic, and they're a chance to talk about some more obscure licensed titles from the 90's instead of Mario and Zelda for the millionth just this month or something, variety's always nice to have here.

>It's impossible. The ride at the end just moves too fast. You get instakilled if you hit one of the electrical generators or whatever they are, and i'm pretty sure carnage can isntakill you as well. The most difficult part is moving up and down on the web while the ride is moving, and then it takes so long to get back if you die.
I don't think Carnage himself kills you in a single hit, but his hits knock you into the generators sometimes and they will kill you instantly, there are many close to the ground and Carnage makes sure to hit you when you're close to one of them as you're walking to the ride. It really does move fast, and sometimes just the side you're facing can be the difference between making it or not, the way I did it was to memorize, so I didn't have to react fast, I knew what was coming and what I'd have to do, but it was the hardest part of the entire thing... but still, I'm sure you can pull it off!

[Anonymous No.10521920]

>>10521568

I liked the first Game Boy Spider-Man game for what it was. Was not a fan of Spider-Man 2 and 3. This music track still gets stuck in my head sometimes.

https://youtu.be/U0n6fKsFyNU?list=PLL-sMa2lHYj2zYCY8KEuEi7csDwRsLR3l

[Anonymous No.10522143]

>>10521568
3D Sonic

Adventure 1's controls were flawless.
Adventure 2's controls were worse, but still functional.
Heroes' controls were extremely slippery, and often lead to deaths that could have easily been avoided.
Shadow's controls were somehow simultaneously slippery and stiff, and the mere act of moving around feels awful when you're not in a scripted loop or grind rail.

[Anonymous No.10522623]

>>10521568
>>10521798
Does anyone remember in the late 90s when you could go into KMart and they'd have a bunch of GameBoy games without any boxes or manuals for $5? It blows my mind that was a thing in such a retail store.

Got reminded because I picked up Spider-Man & X-Men and my experience was that the first level was good and so was Gambit's, but the rest were poo poo and I don't think I managed to beat any of it.

[Anonymous No.10522971]

>>10521920
I also only liked the 1st one, but after giving the 2nd one more time I got used to it, and managed to appreciate what it attempted to do, with the whole MetroidVania thing and all... but the 3rd one managed to be 10x worse, I have no idea of what they were thinking when they made this...

>>10522143
I had completely forgotten about this. Adventure felt SO GOOD to control Sonic in, and Adventure 2 didn't feel far behind for me... but then Heroes happened and I have no idea what they did, how did they make tight and responsive controls turn into something to slippery and sensitive? What were they thinking? What's worse is that Heroes could've been good, but the control kills it.

>>10522623
Arcade's Revenge is fine at first, all versions have a decent 1st level with Spider-Man, and then they all go to SHIT the further you go with BS levels and limited continues, it's just not worth it at all.

I'd rather play Spider-Man 3 on Game Boy than Arcade's Revenge, and that's saying something.

[Anonymous No.10524147]

>>10522971

[Anonymous No.10524196]

>>10521634
Surprised to see someone mention this game. I started playing it when I was like 5, and after about 20 years of being hellbent on finishing it and literally thousands of attempts, I beat it during lockdown. It was the snes version. I'll never touch it again.

[Anonymous No.10524202]

>>10522143
The pinball controls in SA1 are totally off the rails.
>>10521568
have you tried odama?

[Anonymous No.10524210]

>>10524147
MJ really is a beauty, or at least was before the folks over at Insomniac took over and made her this naggy and unloyal journalist who's mean to Peter and also hideous, she looks 50 in the new title really... I miss 80's and 90's MJ, a model or actress, gorgeous, gentle to Peter and simply all nerd's dream trophy wife, it's no wonder comic books actually sold a little back then, it was nice.

>>10524196
Arcade's Revenge hurts to think about, because it's the kind of title you can see they made hard for the sake of people buying it instead of going out of their ways to beat during a rental... but all that did was make it so no one would actually do want to buy it after renting it and feeling pissed due to how BS it is... if only it had unlimited lives or continues, passwords... it'd been really good.

>>10524202
No, I've never played it before. I'll be honest that I've only heard about it now from your reply and had never seen it mentioned before, what's it about? Why did you mention it, anon? I'm curious

[Anonymous No.10524409]

>>10524196
That's the most horrifying thing I've ever heard dude.

[Anonymous No.10524430]

>>10522971
It makes life worth living knowing that someone out there has a life with a dream woman like MJ. There's gotta be someone so lucky, and fuck it, if I have to be here to enable that to happen, maybe life ain't so bad. I'm happy for the guy.

[Anonymous No.10524438]

>>10522143
Came here to post this

[Anonymous No.10524441]

>>10521817
Ignore that stupid faggot, I promise you, PROMISE you he does not post that in OOT or sonic threads

[Anonymous No.10524502]

>>10524409
This.

>>10524430
Heck, maybe one day we might get lucky and BE that guy... I mean, we can all dream, right?

>>10524441
I answered mostly because I like to have a good talk and maybe have someone take into account the things I've said, though I know that's rare on pretty much any website, most people just like to fight, and that's fine, anyways I agree with you, we get a lot of threads about the same IPs, and I don't see the issue, but then I talk about an IP I like on a few threads and that's bad, it's dumb.

[Anonymous No.10524631]

A funny one that probably wouldn't be anyone's first thought, if we're to count "controls" as the control the player has over the character he is playing as too and not just literally which buttons you press to move one.
>Thief 2 removed bunny hopping and forced you to move like molasses over large areas
>Thief 3 went full body simulator which meant turning around on narrow beams was enough to make you fall off, among other things, all movement in first person was actually being played out in third person primarily which lead to sluggish and awful movement
>Thi4f is not retro but somehow was even worse than 3's body simulation elements, removing jumping entirely and replacing it with "swooping"

[Anonymous No.10525973]

>>10524631
Why would they do this?

[Anonymous No.10525995]

The camera in 2 makes it almost unplayable

[Anonymous No.10527175]

bump

[Anonymous No.10527243]

>>10525995
Why is the girl not green.

[Anonymous No.10527625]

>>10527243
because SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEX

[Anonymous No.10527626]

>>10527243
In Army Men's canon, being green represents having a soul, and she's the only woman in the cover, so it's fair.

[Anonymous No.10527628]

>>10525995
I rented this when I was a kid once when I was sick and it made my nausea worse. I had to stop playing it, never touched any army men games again

[Anonymous No.10527737]

>>10527628
Are you sure you weren't playing 2?

[Anonymous No.10528251]

>>10527243
She's not an army man.

[Anonymous No.10528262]

I havent gone back and tested it recently, but i seem to remember the controls in Twisted Metal 3 being far worse than in the other two

[Anonymous No.10530052]

>>10527243
she's real, they're plastic