/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.9558489]

Is there a resource to learn the nuances of certain game genres ?
Like what made certain side scrollers good compared to the bad ones or why Street Fighter got a million different versions.

[Anonymous No.9558493]

Yeah fucking playing them lol

[Anonymous No.9558496]

>>9558489
That resource would be called reviews by expert gamers which is hard to find because we've been flooded with reviews by casuals and journalists for about 25 years.

Good luck finding a review of Streets of Rage by someone who was not only actually familiar with the progression of the genre from playing it, but can play arcade games at a high enough level to even appreciate the genre.

[Anonymous No.9558506]

>>9558496
Yeah thats what I was worried about, I was wondering if there was a legitimate website where someone who is well known with the genre reviewed them.
It's mostly for arcade genres that I'm interested in since there were so many clones and different versions of those games.

[Anonymous No.9558518]

Play them and learn the nuances

>>9558496
Streets of Rage was never an arcade game, it was made for the Genesis.

[Anonymous No.9558524]

>>9558506
Well finding out what the good ones are is not hard. Racketboy is a good website and youtube has good "hidden gems" "essentials" list for just about every format. If it looks like it's made by a passionate gamer its going to be a good list. If it looks like it's click farm its going to be questionable. You can find 90% of the good games on a given format very easily this way.

As for the reasons why. Well that's a tall order. Most of the reviews written in the past were really just trying to give you enough info so you could decide if you wanted to buy it while pointing out some obvious issues in hopes the dev would read them.

Take that tiny pool of players who are experts in the genre: they can play them at a high level and have played them all. Ok, well among that group you need someone who has the second talent of being very good at introspection, why he likes one more then another, and he needs enough communication skill to be able to put it in writing in the way the rest of us will get it.

Yes those types of reviews exist but they are scattered.

[Anonymous No.9558526]

>>9558518
He's talking about the genre. You can't place Streets of Rage's place in the genre without knowing arcade because 80-90% of the games worth talking about are on there.

Basically to place a game in the genre, and do it with the highest level of expertise, you need to ha

[Anonymous No.9558530]

>>9558493
fpbp

[Anonymous No.9558532]

>>9558489
Battletoads was good because it had the Dark Queen.
Wanna know why the Dark Queen was so good? You know how rare bimbo character designs are? To this day they are as rare as useful female video game developers.

[Anonymous No.9558534]

>>9558526
*Post happened before I finished typing*

Basically to place a game in the genre, and do it with the highest level of expertise, you need to have played most of the good games on all the relevant platforms, know roughly the order they came out, and have played a lot of mediocre and bad one so you know the contrast. And you need to know the basics about what was going in each era. For example if RPG elements or multiplayer is not common in a certain era and a game has that it's notable.

[Anonymous No.9558548]

>>9558524
>Racketboy
This is pretty much what I was looking for, thank you.

[Anonymous No.9560349]

bump

[Anonymous No.9560409]

>>9558493

[Anonymous No.9560421]

>why Street Fighter got a million different versions
Because updating games through the internet wasn't a thing yet.

[Anonymous No.9560425]

>>9558489
>Like what made certain side scrollers good compared to the bad ones
Aesthetics and difficulty. Streets of Rage 2 had fantastic sound design (not just the music) and a few different difficulty levels, none of which were made bullshit just to suck quarters out of you because it was designed as a console game. Most belt scrollers suck because they're all about finding that one thing you do to beat every enemy and finding the One Weird Trick you use to beat each boss. The problem is that none of these tricks were ever intended so they're almost never fun. In the original Final Fight you beat most stuff by doing a little jab infinite, and the original Streets of Rage is basically the same thing. 2 actually gave you a bunch of different options for dealing with normal enemies, different grabs you could do, its weird vaulting mechanic they expanded on for 2, and for the most part they toned down jabs on higher difficulties.

Street Fighter 2 got a bunch of different versions because World Warriors was a glitchy mess released with 4 characters you could fight against but not play as. They had a lot to expand on so they did.

[Anonymous No.9560658]

>>9558506
Other than that guy who weote the academic papers on a few games i dont think there is anybody. Unfirtunately he focused mainly on jrpgs

[Anonymous No.9561884]

>>9560658
Links, please.

[Anonymous No.9561889]

>>9558489
punchpedia is a pretty good resource for beat em ups

[Anonymous No.9561902]

>>9558532
>Battletoads was good because it had the Dark Queen.
>Wanna know why the Dark Queen was so good? You know how rare bimbo character designs are? To this day they are as rare as useful female video game developers.

[Anonymous No.9562178]

>>9560425
One thing OP could do is ignore this guy

[Anonymous No.9562185]

>>9558489

bro just approach the screen and play the game

[Anonymous No.9562197]

>>9558489
yes, youtube retrospectives by zoomers who just completed their first playthru

[Anonymous No.9562308]

>>9558489
If you know the basics of wikipedia HG101 can be helpful, the reviews there tend to not be as braindead as the average and they make a nice emphasis on historical context for most games.

[Anonymous No.9562313]

>>9558489
>Like what made certain side scrollers good compared to the bad ones
Does it feel good to play? It mostly boils down to controls and responsiveness for belt scrollers. Enemy variety helps a lot.

[Anonymous No.9562319]

>>9562178
He's right about some things. He just made an overly longwinded post like a faggot who wants to look smart.

[Anonymous No.9562330]

>>9562197
>”Is fallout 1 as good as I’m going to pretend to remedy?”
>”let me tell you in a monotone voice everything from the wiki link ver a 4-8 hour video of me walking through the same footage at least 1000 times!”

[Anonymous No.9562345]

>>9562319
I'm right about everything. It's hard to get opinions on "good" belt scrolls because in my experience it's the genre most deeply rooted in nostalgia. Technically speaking, Final Fight isn't a good game at all, but you'll have plenty of people, even people who know the genre well, swearing up and down that it's a masterpiece. If you want a good belt scroller to play and you're someone who doesn't already love the genre or have nostalgia for some game in it, the list of actually good fun games is really short.

Also why the fuck would I want to "look smart"? It's an anonymous image board. You can't look smart because you don't even exist outside of your single post.

[Anonymous No.9562378]

>>9558506
The only thing like that I can think of is one blog by a guy who has made it his life goal to play through and beat every computer RPG in existence. He also talks about if the game is good or not and why. He may or may not be biased, but you can at least be sure he's actually familiar with the specific genre of games he talks about. He also tells you how long it took to beat, how hard it was, and gives a general rating. He's done 479 computer RPGs so far. CRPG Addict is the name of the blog if you wanna google it.

[Anonymous No.9562457]

>>9562197
the people autistic enough to really understand these games are not going to give you the articulate critiques you're looking for.

[Anonymous No.9562865]

>>9562319
SoR2 is "we have Final Fight at home", literally

jank and busted

[Anonymous No.9562940]

I am a zoomer. Ask me about any retro game and I will give you my nuanced opinion on its quality.

[Anonymous No.9562970]

>>9562940
What did I think about supper mario?

[Anonymous No.9562975]

>>9562970
The first two games are the best (both Japanese and American for SMB2 - Lost Levels is kino). The controls might seem stiff at first, but in my opinion the feeling of momentum is the best in the whole series. SMB 3 is great and all, but I dislike the P-running mechanic, and that game is way too easy. SMB1&2 have solid challenge, and it's very possible to lose all your lives and get a game over, but if you've gotten a game over in SMB3 you are a literal infant. That game showers you with lives and powerups, it's just way too easy. This got even worse in SMW, which is boring as fuck in my opinion.
I'm currently playing SMB2J to try and get all 8 stars so I can access the secret worlds - I've beaten it twice so far.

[Anonymous No.9563045]

>>9562975
Shockingly close to my own opinion. Super Mario Bros 2 (USA) is my favorite in the entire series

[Anonymous No.9563117]

>>9562940
Galaga

[Anonymous No.9563160]

>>9563117
Uh... getting to rescue your ship is cool and it feels good to line up all of the aliens in the bonus round and spam the button.

[Anonymous No.9563795]

>>9558489
>or why Street Fighter got a million different versions.
beacause money

[Anonymous No.9563801]

>>9563795
>beacause money
It really do be that way.