/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.8963630]

Carmageddon became popular due to a gimmick (gore), but it was a great racing game with impressive car physics for the time.
Mortal Kombat became popular due to a gimmick (gore), but it was a mediocre fighting game with gameplay that couldn't rival the lowest tier Japanese fightan.

How many shit games do you remember becoming a hit due to a gimmick?

[Anonymous No.8963754]

>>8963630
"Gimmick" is a tricky word; I appreciate you present both a positive and a negative example, but discussion of this topic in /vr/ will be difficult as the term is mostly used as a fallacious self-evident argument for criticism, implying that since you can attract attention to your shitty product with a quickly understandable promise of novelty and originality, EVERY quickly understandable promise of novelty and originality must imply a shitty product. For example, /vr/ tends to argue that most Treasure games are built on "gimmicks", simply because they bank on very distinctive gameplay high concepts.

You could even argue that respected (if curiously divisive) games like Sonic the Hedgehog became popular because of a gimmick: not counting general presentation, speed -a heavily promoted feature of the game- though a real element of the gameplay, was hardly essential for progress and often nullified by the level layouts; and yet it was a very important element of the player "experience", which is a tangible and important aspect in any game. In a way, that's a very similar concept to gratuitous gore in your examples; and so would be broader traits like appealing character designs, high quality visuals, or even mere storylines. So where is the line drawn for an element unrelated to gameplay strictly speaking to be considered a "gimmick"?

[Anonymous No.8963775]

I'm still fucking pissed SCi rushed Stainless to release Carma II in time for Christmas.

[Anonymous No.8963779]

>>8963630
That goddamn interview, subtle to say
>baka gaijin can't do fun

[Anonymous No.8963789]

>Jap dev complains about violence while his buddies in craft developed an actual rape-stalker simulator
SuperMonkeyBall

[Anonymous No.8963830]

>>8963754
>Speed in Sonic is a gimmick because you can’t just hold right on the D-pad to win
Playing the game a few times to git gud and learn what paths to take and when to jump to speed run stages does not make the speed mechanic a gimmick. That’s like calling combos, special moves and perfect games in fighting games gimmicks because you need to play them for a while to master them despite being a feature intended impress prospective players.

[Anonymous No.8964427]

>>8963630
>picrel
Holy fucking cope. What exactly is stopping Capcom from having more than a pose and one-liner at the end of a match in Street Fighter?

I have had tons of fun playing Mortal Kombat, I don't even know how to do the fatalities.

[Anonymous No.8964480]

>>8963630
Ah yes, the deeply understated merely technical appeal of the Street Fighter design philosophy. Good for you Ono

[Anonymous No.8964612]

>>8963830
>>playing game just to speed through it
the original speedtranny game then?

[Anonymous No.8964721]

>>8964480
The original in-game portrait is hands down the hottest Cammy even to this day

[Anonymous No.8964892]

>>8963630
>Carmageddon
>it was a great racing game with impressive car physics for the time.
Have you played it? No it fucking was not.

[Anonymous No.8964901]

>>8964480
Gameplay design, you illiterate goon. Also there's absolutely nothing wrong with SF's character designs.

[Anonymous No.8964957]

What a bullshit interview.
It'd be like comparing joust to bubble bobble and extrapolating that Western games are fundamentally more bird-oriented while Eastern games are more gay dragon oriented.

[Anonymous No.8965186]

>>8963775
It's pretty good game even if it might be rushed

>>8963630
>gore = gimmick =! game is bad

[Anonymous No.8965664]

>>8963630
i like mortal kombat because street fighter (along with most capcom fighters) are rather bland.

it's not even an "east vs west" thing either. i'll take MK, soul calibur & anime fighters like jojo, persona arena or gundam vs over street fighter anyday of the week.

[Anonymous No.8965792]

>>8964957
>Western games are fundamentally more bird-oriented while Eastern games are more gay dragon oriented.
very true in my experience

[Anonymous No.8966038]

>>8964427
Cool. That doesn't change the fact that the only reason MK got popular was the girls with big titties and ass (which to be fair, was lar for the course in vidya let alone fighting games) and the level of blood violence and the gory fatalities. MK plays like ass objectively and they only got around to fixing that towards the 6th gen with Armageddon's and Deception's stance chabge mechanic, which was pretty deep all things considered and very nice to play around with.

[Anonymous No.8966054]

>>8966038
>MK plays like ass objectively
How so? Be specific. I've seen many people hate on this game and their arguments always essentially boil down to "it's not Street Fighter".

[Anonymous No.8966092]

>>8966038
>MK plays like ass objectively
I never noticed, but I'm not an esports FAGGOT

[Anonymous No.8966169]

>>8966092
You don't have to be an esports faggot to notice flawed game design, you incompent retard.

>>8966054
It's way too easy to get repeatedly stunnlocked and thrown into an infinite. The mocap makes the attack frames all kinds of wonky, something that while does exist in drawn fighting games, isn't as common due to the sprites being designed around the animations. A fucking block button in a 2D fighting game. Not a 3D one where that makes sense and is necessary. A 2D 1 on 1 fighter that uses a back button instead of just pulling the joystick in the opposite direction of the opponent. Also, no dashing but I think KoF was rhe only fighting game to have dashing off the bat.

All in all, it's not complete ass but MK is not what anyone would call designed well. It's clear that the dudes at Midway weren't looking to do that and it was kiterally just capitalizing on the spectacle of the fatalities. They fixed some of the issues with later iterations but it still couldn't hold a candle to anything Capcom, SNK or Namco was making until the 6th gen (and really just for the 6th gen. MK is pretty shit now since it doubles down on the gore at the expense of good mechanics).

[Anonymous No.8966184]

>>8966038
>>8964427
It's true.
Mortal Kombat was carried by gore, hot girls and action, the movie itself is the epitome of 90s culture. Then the lore carried it because gore stopped being a "shock" factor and people got somewhat invested in it.
Look at it now, they removed the big tits, the lore is a dumpster fire, the game is f2p tier and the gameplay is still nothing to talk about, the franchise is an abismal flop carried by paid esports sponsors.

[Anonymous No.8966194]

>>8963630
Street Fighter is BTFO by Guilty Gear, though.

[Anonymous No.8966239]

>>8966184
Of course. The first 4 MK games were full of soul and are great games to play with friends. They are objectively fun even if they are flawed. I'm not saying the OG MK games are bad. But let's not pretend they were pinnacles of game design. It had Kerri Hoskins, Elizabeth Malecki and the other qt playing Sonya Blade, so it has a massive leg up over any 2D fighting game. I know you lovely ladies aren't here, but thank you for making me a man and hours of fun with my fightstick.


>>8966194
That's unironically true. The only SF gsmes that measure up to Guilty Gear (minus the first one, which is kinda shit) are Alpha 3 and the SF3 trilogy.

[Anonymous No.8966325]

>>8966239
>mfw they didn't force Kerri Hoskins to shove an air pump up her ass and inflate her to monstrous gargantuan proportions to make the animation for Katana's kiss fatality "more realistic"

[Anonymous No.8966341]

>>8966325
Netherrealm's Studio had one job and they failed at doing it. They also failed to make any MK games in the past the 6th gen that aren't shit, but that is the true tragedy.

[Anonymous No.8966754]

>>8964480
This was one of only a few bits of lewd fanservice in the SF2 series. Your argument is very weak.