OK games.

[Anonymous No.7177548]

Tired of all these stupid recommendation threads and stealth recommendation threads. Here's a thread for talking about retro games that aren't great, but still good or alright. Post the game, what it's about, what's good, and what's bad about it. I'll start.

Return Fire. A spiritual sequel of sorts of the earlier Fire Power for Amiga, by the same devs came this 3DO title that was quickly ported to PSX and Windows when they realized the 3DO was dead in the water. The game is simple, use the four different vehicles available(jeep, tank, rocket truck, helicopter), destroy your way into the enemy base, find the flag, and use the jeep to drive the flag home to your base. It's actually pretty fun at first, and flying around in the helicopter can be enjoyable.
The downside is how the game loop gets old. After the first couple of maps it devolves into running your tank/helicopter into the enemy base, blowing up tons of towers, then running back home for repairs so you don't lose a vehicle, until you finally punch through. The later levels starts throwing enemy helicopters at you non-stop, so you constantly have to defend from that and heal more often.
It's probably more fun in two-player mode, but I've never had the chance. Single player can be fun, but it gets less fun the deeper you get into the game thanks to the repetitive gameplay and never ending stream of helicopters.

[Anonymous No.7177569]

>>7177548
Kye. Windows 3.1 only. A rare example of charityware software, in order to get the full version of this shareware game you had to make a charitable donation to a certain charity and send the dev a copy of your receipt. It's an action-puzzle game, in which the goal is to collect all the Diamonds without being touched by any of the enemies. The game had a lot of different levels to play, a level editor for making your own and sharing them with others, and a lot of different behavior from the blocks based on their appearance. Some blocks would follow a "gravity", others would remain stationary unless pushed, some would vanish on being touched.
The downside was the game often depended on the player taking advantage of some gimmicky or inconsistent behavior of the game. One level I remember required you to dump a large pile of round blocks into an area below while moving with the pile to reach a passage under the pile. Knowing what to do and how to do it didn't matter, since you would only randomly wind up in the passage and not buried under blocks. You had very little control once you started moving through the pile, since the pile pushes you, at random.
Still a fun little action puzzle game, but it does have some flaws that keep it from the level of Lolo or Fire'n Ice.

[Anonymous No.7177592]

>>7177569
Solar Winds. There were two of these games, but they used the exact same engine so it doesn't really matter. DOS shareware, you pilot a spaceship and play the mercenary. Take missions, earn money, use it to upgrade your ship. You also could pull power from parts of your ship and spend it elsewhere, like taking power from your engine or sensors to give to the shields. It gave you a really big universe to explore as well. There's a hyperdrive type system that burns your power, but moves you very fast. With that system, you can reach the furthest planet from the start in about two minutes. It's about an hour flight otherwise. There's NPCs to talk to, fights to get into, and all sorts of shit to see.
The downside is the game doesn't really play fair. CPU controlled units can move better and faster than you, and they don't seem to lose power ever. The most common method of death is getting into a fight with a relatively easy enemy, and accidentally getting him behind you in a loop and being unable to shake them off. The other way is getting pelted from enemies off-screen. Speaking of loops, the controls are tank-style. You turn left or right, and give yourself movement forward, or hit the breaks. That's it. People who complain about tank controls in RE games would have a fit with this game. Oh, and when you die, that's it. Game over, hopefully you saved recently. Oh, and it's more than possible to eat up too much power with your engine and put yourself in an unwinnable state. Or accidentally say the wrong thing to an NPC and end up in an unwinnable state.
Decent game, but it certainly feels like a one man operation, complete with lack of beta testing.

[Anonymous No.7177613]

I guess I'll contribute. Sensible threads are definitely rare.

Bard's Tale (2004). This is the only game I've ever played that has managed to get some genuine laughs out of me. The writing is hilarious, the voice acting and songs are top notch, and the story is pretty clever. Everything in terms of its presentation is a 10/10. The gameplay, on the other hand, is pretty goddamn shallow and uninspired. It consists primarily of swapping out minions that you can summon with "tunes" you find throughout the game. That and some mediocre sidearms and their respective upgrades. Basically, if you're gonna play this game, it's going to be for everything BESIDES the gameplay. So overall, I'd say the game is a solid 7.5/10. The presentation is fucking sublime and it's got as much polish and personality as a Blizzard game. If you can get past the droll gameplay then you'll find a lot to like here.

[Anonymous No.7177632]

Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat

fun top-down arcade racer with upgrades in between levels, i played the NES version first but the arcade version is better. normally i don't like top down racers that aren't Neo Drift Out but this one is alright. i think there's a couple other titles based on the same gameplay

[Anonymous No.7177660]

>>7177632
So that's where Ironman Stewart's Off-Road Racing got it's engine from.

Tombs & Treasure. This is an NES remake of a JP computer game from Falcom. The game is a sequel to Asteka, and like the original is about South American ancient history. The game is an adventure puzzle game, where you free wander around a decent sized map, and have first person scenes of the individual locations on the map. You can manipulate things on the screen, get items and use items from your inventory, and switch between three characters with different abilities. There's also some tacked-on RPG element where you need to solve enough puzzles to be strong enough to beat bosses.
The bad thing is, it doesn't really do anything right. The puzzles are chock full of shit that will make you think "how in the FUCK was I supposed to figure that out?!", even for experienced adventure gamers. Clues? What's a clue? Wasn't getting killed by that boss clue enough you didn't figure out everything? No going out of order either, the bosses will kill you for trying. Traveling on the main map is so boring you wish they would just give you a list of locations you can visit instead.
A neat concept, but one that fails hard in execution. Can be halfway fun if you have a tolerance for ridiculous puzzles.

[Anonymous No.7177665]

>>7177548
Holy shit man, I totally forgot about this game and I used to love it! And yes, it was indeed a blast playing with a friend.

Fallen Haven (1997) Turn-based strategic and tactical game. I guess I liked it back then because it was not overly complicated. The campaign is not scripted and there several territories to conquer.

[Anonymous No.7177674]

>>7177592
Theres a game like this that has very similar ships and characters, but you fly around above a city taking missions. The protagonist is a girl. Anyone?

[Anonymous No.7177734]

>>7177613
Played through this earlier this year and can second the recommendation. The remaster is on the gamepass.
Cary Elwes is the voice of the protag and the writing is actually really good, poking fun at itself and many fantasy game tropes.

>>7177660
>So that's where Ironman Stewart's Off-Road Racing got it's engine from
It's the other way around.

[Anonymous No.7177965]

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero

Finished it yesterday - I'm going through every console game by release year (as long as they seem semi-decent from a quick look at their longplay)
This game is at the absolute threshold where I would include it in my curated list of decent games for the NES.
It's a game with some interesting ideas that aren't done too well. Like character swapping. If one of your men die, you have to start the boss fight or sub-stage again - except you lose that character and do not regain any health lost by your other two men.
There's an argument that this is actually a good directorial choice - as it means you have to work as a team, and adds significant weight to the death of any one character.
In practice though - you drain through the health of all your characters. One dies. The boss regains all health. You don't. You die - because of impossible odds. The game reloads the boss one last time for your final character (at one health). You commit suicide.
Still - It has decent graphics, music, controls. It just falls short in level/boss design sometimes, and the characters could have been a lot more diverse. Some of the mechanical vehicles are really cool - but they are not always fit for the levels they appear in.
In summary - It's the very definition of an alright game. Perhaps the most okayest game of all time.

[Anonymous No.7178001]

>>7177548
Castlevania 64

I should have given this game a chance sooner... I had a lot of fun with it and am replaying it on hard mode. A lot of the criticism out there is of things I had no trouble with. The puzzles weren't cryptic at all IMO, and the controls work fine if you take advantage of L targeting, dodging, and accustom yourself to holding the jump button to grab ledges by default.

It's nowhere near as bad as people claim once you get past a couple of the issues.

[Anonymous No.7178007]

>>7177548 (OP)
Castlevania 64

I should have given this game a chance sooner... I had a lot of fun with it and am replaying it on hard mode. A lot of the criticism out there is of things I had no trouble with. The puzzles weren't cryptic at all IMO, and the controls work fine if you take advantage of L targeting, dodging, and accustom yourself to holding the jump button to grab ledges by default.

It's nowhere near as bad as people claim once you get past a couple of the issues.

[Anonymous No.7178020]

Lucasarts shallowest game, yet also their bestselling. Great production values, but the humor and story are fairly bland. It's okay I guess...

[Anonymous No.7178036]

>>7177548
If you like Return Fire, also check out these similar games:
- Mass Destruction
- Jungle Strike
- Swiv 3D

[Anonymous No.7178047]

>>7178020
they must have bundled this game with the imac or something because my non-gamer stepdad had it

[Anonymous No.7178076]

Not as unfamous but:

Syndicate

Why should you play it? The writing in the game is pretty good and the main driving point. Each missions briefing is not too far fetched and gives the world and game a believeable feel.
Play it on pc for the most detailed ingame graphics or on snes for coolest agent profile pictures and up to 4player coop.

Police and guards on snes are replaced by drones to be less cruel. Cars can be problematic in syndicate so use them wisely

[Anonymous No.7178086]

OP here, glad to see people are getting the idea. I've got some more.

The Addams Family(8-bit version). Originally an US NES game, was ported to the SMS in the EU, and the Game Gear in the US and JP. Nowhere near as polished and enjoyable as the Amiga/SNES version by the same devs. That being said, the game isn't a complete trash fire. It's a platformer with some adventure/puzzle elements. Like the other version, you need to travel around the mansion collecting money and rescuing family members. Unlike the more action oriented gameplay of the Amiga/SNES version, this version is more about figuring out puzzles and where you need to go next. The mansion is big and has a lot to explore, plus more than a few hidden rooms.
Unfortunately, the poor controls and character control means you spend most of the game trying the same jumps over and over until you land them. And since you actually NEED to collect money in this version to access the final room, you have to collect nearly every single dollar, gold bar, and sack of money you see throughout the game.
Not terrible, but not great either.

[Anonymous No.7178249]

>>7177548
I still remember the death laugh

[Anonymous No.7178278]

>>7178020
First game I bought with my own money when it came out. I was 13-14 or so and games cost an arm and a leg here. Think it ran me for like 60 dollars even back then. I was pissed when I finished it in two days.

Also, pic related to the thread. Great music, shit voice acting, subpar story but likeable characters, interesting battle system with a shit side to what was supposed to be the focus(nobody turned into dragoon form because base forms were much better. Unless you went to heal or something). It is a perfectly average game with a pretty dedicated fanbase

[Anonymous No.7178408]

>>7177613
I will third (or fourth whatever we're up to) this suggestion. I would like to add that the songs are really good.

I will suggest Knight Shift. Its a pretty neat RPG/RTS thing. It mostly light hearted and I really regret that when I played it in 2003 I basically rejected it on those grounds. Also it has lovely theme music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgAXbaFiQ8o

[Anonymous No.7178429]

>>7177613
I want to add that the songs are really good.

I suggest Knight Shift (2003), a neat PRG/RTS game. It's got a light tone which caused me to reject it out of hand back in 2003, which I regret now because its quite decent. I never thought I would come to be nostalgic about those graphics but here we are.
It also has a very good soundtrack.

[Anonymous No.7179605]

What is the averagest game ever?

[Anonymous No.7181080]

I now know Arkista's Ring to be the definition of good enough, thanks to that one anon who posted about it some weeks ago.

[Anonymous No.7183375]

>>7178007

Yeah it's fine. It's just kinda bland I think, but it fits just fine in this thread.

[Anonymous No.7183392]

>>7177548
If you're willing to talk about PS2 games, I remember when I rented Test Drive Unlimited from Blockbuster two or three years before the one in my town closed. Its the only one in the series that I've played, and I found it enjoyable. The map is a fair size, and the races I should've played more, I mostly drove around and got the cops on my tail. I wish the series continued with integrity but from what I've heard, it's sequel is ridden with microtransactions.

[Anonymous No.7183405]

Cool Spot

A short but satisfying platformer with nice graphics and decent controls. Good but doesn't stand out.

[Anonymous No.7183432]

>>7178007
Always glad to see someone else give CV64 a little love. Not a great game nor hidden gem by any means, but always really enjoyed the atmosphere.

[Anonymous No.7183574]

>>7177548
Damn, lots of fond memories about this game. Me and my friend used to play shit out of a demo version which had only 1 or 2 maps. Eventually we started to play against the tower defences in tandem and tried to survive against the submarine missiles with the helicopter. Good times. Although the game was a big hit on 3DO, or so I've read, it fits definitely nicely in the "ok game" category. Anyone played Return Fire 2?

Rich Diamond is a fun isometric adventure / puzzle game. Nothing special about it, but it's a nice small game.

[Anonymous No.7185514]

>>7177569

There's a Mac game called Blobbo with similar graphics/gameplay.

[Anonymous No.7185538]

>>7179605
Defender (2002)

[Anonymous No.7185689]

>>7177548
Buddy had RF on PSX. Played it again on emulator a few years ago and I think it still plays very well. I only have experience on PSX version but it is really fun as two player game. Getting that flag while ur buddy chases you desperately with helicopter is just a massive thrill!

[Anonymous No.7185738]

>>7178020
Well, Full Throttle might've been a bit of a let down but it's only average on LucasArts standards. TeenAgent by Metropolis software, on the other hand, sits firmly in the average category and shows how hard it is to make a polished adventure game. It's free on GOG.com (probably because Metropolis was later acquired by CD Projekt) so everyone can try it themselves.

[Anonymous No.7185743]

>>7177592
Solar Winds was one game, split into two episodes (episode 1 was shareware).
I think I spent more time searching warez sites for a copy of episode 2 than i actually spent playing it.

[Anonymous No.7185754]

>>7177965
I used to play the crap outta this as a kid. God damn I loved this game and gi joe. Not sure how it'd hold up now if I played it but im sure it'd be tolerable.

[Anonymous No.7186816]

>>7177548
I always confused that game with Mass Destruction. Which was a very fun arcade on DOS, but i don't know anything about other platforms.

[Anonymous No.7186862]

>>7186816
Also ported to Saturn and PS1.
From a chat I had with developer Paul Griffiths 14 years ago:

"I wrote the Saturn version, and it ran at a constant 60 fps. The PSX version could only manage 30 fps though.

The Saturn version got the extra performance from having some custom hardware that really helped that particular game. The terrain was displayed much like Mode7 on the SNES, ie a scroll screen that could have a perspective transformation to display it at the correct viewpoint to match the polygonal display drawn over it. It wasn't tiled by the hardware though, I used the bitmap mode, and dumped the tile data in 2 strips, to update the horizontal and vertical edges. Since the scroll screen wrapped round in both directions, it gave a seamless scrolling landscape.

The PSX had to draw the terrain as a grid of polygons, and so was forced to run at 30 fps due to the limited rendering power of that console generation. Without the scroll screen hardware, the Saturn version would also have been stuck at that frame rate.

The game was written almost completely in C, with a few SH2 assembler functions to handle the update of the scroll screen data in the vertical blank. This was the first game I'd written in C at that point, everything prior I'd done in assembler. I used the SGL libraries, as these were far more capable than the SBL libs that were initially available.

The Saturn hardware also allowed me to have parts of the scene reflected in the water, by drawing the reflected geometry inverted and using various priority/blending settings in VDP2 to combine the frame buffer and scroll screens.

As for programming the Saturn now, I'm sure you'd find the stuff available on the web will cover any of it admirably.

This was my only Saturn game, after that I moved on to various crappy projects on the PSX, and then PC."