2017/3/26: Playstation: Primal Rage, Snowboarding

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VideoGameCritic
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2017/3/26: Playstation: Primal Rage, Snowboarding

Postby VideoGameCritic » March 26th, 2017, 12:47 pm

Let me know what you think of my latest Playstation one reviews!

Sonicx9
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Re: 2017/3/26: Playstation: Primal Rage, Snowboarding

Postby Sonicx9 » March 26th, 2017, 1:33 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:Let me know what you think of my latest Playstation one reviews!


Between the PS1 and Sega Saturn versions of Primal Rage, which is the better/more fateful port of the Arcade original?

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Re: 2017/3/26: Playstation: Primal Rage, Snowboarding

Postby Retro STrife » March 26th, 2017, 1:42 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:Let me know what you think of my latest Playstation one reviews!


Nice reviews. I have fond memories of playing a Primal Rage cabinet in a restaurant as well. Do you have a preferred home version? I only own the Genesis version. I'd be worried about load times with the PS1, but you didn't mention an issue with that in your review, so maybe I'll have to give it a shot.

I like the Snowboarding review too and may have to pick it up. The "budget title" icon rears its ugly head for the first time on a retro title, though. You might recall, for the people that opposed it two of the bigger concerns were that (1) it'd be hard to go back through all the retro titles and properly apply the icon, and (2) it's not meaningful for older titles because they are no longer on retail shelves, so you judge them on their merits at this point and no longer cut them a break for being a budget title. I think both apply to Snowboarding. And I thought you had agreed and said the icon was mostly for the new crop of games on modern systems that get released in the $20-$30 price point (though I could be remembering wrong).

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Re: 2017/3/26: Playstation: Primal Rage, Snowboarding

Postby VideoGameCritic » March 26th, 2017, 8:19 pm

I don't think there's a problem with applying the budget icon to Snowboarding, because that was a cheap, no-frills title from the start. I don't think there's much ambiguity in this case.

Come to think of it, the Playstation was probably the first console to have budget titles. I remember a bunch of them first appearing around the year 2000 with names like "Shooter". Prior to that most games were sold on cartridges, so it wasn't practical to release them for $20-$30.

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Re: 2017/3/26: Playstation: Primal Rage, Snowboarding

Postby Retro STrife » March 26th, 2017, 8:59 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:I don't think there's a problem with applying the budget icon to Snowboarding, because that was a cheap, no-frills title from the start. I don't think there's much ambiguity in this case.

Come to think of it, the Playstation was probably the first console to have budget titles. I remember a bunch of them first appearing around the year 2000 with names like "Shooter". Prior to that most games were sold on cartridges, so it wasn't practical to release them for $20-$30.


I agree, at least in my gaming lifetime, the PS1 probably had more physical release budget titles than any other console (since modern consoles mostly use digital downloads for "budget" titles), though I wonder if the 2600 also had a bunch of cheap releases, especially later in its life. But that's part of what makes it tough- you've already reviewed a bunch of old budget titles (PS1 included), and it's hard to go back and add the icon to all of them, and it also will be difficult to find old price info for games to know if they had a budget release price (Snowboarding is just easy to tell only because its cover art has that low budget look).

Not a big deal though. Was just saying that using it here is different than was mentioned in the original topic for the budget icon:

viewtopic.php?f=5084&t=15357

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Re: 2017/3/26: Playstation: Primal Rage, Snowboarding

Postby Stalvern » March 27th, 2017, 1:40 pm

3DO: "This version also incorporates full-motion video sequences, but I wish they hadn't bothered. [...] Fortunately it's possible to disable these wretched cinematics via the options menu."

Saturn: "The game also includes the pre-rendered introductory scenes (like the 3DO version), but I recommend turning these off. You might be able to stomach their rudimentary pre-rendered 3D animations once, but that's it."

PlayStation: "All of the awesome cinematics are included, along with several extraneous modes I never play."

Huh? The arcade game does have an awesome intro, but the home versions' FMV is as lame as it was made out to be in those older reviews. It was slapped on purely to pad out the CDs. (And how do two alternate modes count as "several"?)

The rest of the review is good and is probably the definitive VGC opinion on Primal Rage in any format, but I do have to point out the typo in "Vertigo splits at the camera" and that the review weirdly ends with almost exactly the same sentence that the Saturn review does.

Sonicx9 wrote:Between the PS1 and Sega Saturn versions of Primal Rage, which is the better/more fateful port of the Arcade original?

For some reason, the PlayStation version's graphics are darker and slightly less detailed. Here's the arcade version:

Image

And here are the Saturn (left) and PlayStation (right) ports:

Image Image

The highlights at the tops of the stones are a muddy green mess in the Saturn version, but the PlayStation version has crummy-looking vines, ugly transitions at the bases of the stones, and worse detail in the villagers and the shadowed parts of the dinosaurs. Overall, the graphics are definitely better on the Saturn.

On the other hand, "glitchhunter09" on YouTube has playthroughs of both ports, done about two weeks apart, and mentions "a few AI flaws in the Saturn port to exploit as Sauron" in the Saturn video's description. This isn't a whole lot to go on, but it means that the PlayStation port is probably programmed better.

Also, the Saturn version doesn't have the tug-of-war and endurance modes that the PlayStation, 3DO, and Jaguar CD versions have, but those aren't in the original arcade game and are terrible anyway.

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Re: 2017/3/26: Playstation: Primal Rage, Snowboarding

Postby mbd36 » March 27th, 2017, 3:50 pm

VideoGameCritic wrote:I don't think there's a problem with applying the budget icon to Snowboarding, because that was a cheap, no-frills title from the start. I don't think there's much ambiguity in this case.

Come to think of it, the Playstation was probably the first console to have budget titles. I remember a bunch of them first appearing around the year 2000 with names like "Shooter". Prior to that most games were sold on cartridges, so it wasn't practical to release them for $20-$30.


Mythicon released some budget titles on the Atari 2600. Of course they're notoriously awful.

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Re: 2017/3/26: Playstation: Primal Rage, Snowboarding

Postby VideoGameCritic » March 27th, 2017, 9:32 pm

Whoops I didn't catch the "splits at the camera" typo. Fixed.

The only fighter who can properly split at the camera is Jean Claude Van Damme!

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Re: 2017/3/26: Playstation: Primal Rage, Snowboarding

Postby goldenband » March 27th, 2017, 10:20 pm

I haven't played Snowboarding, but I'd like to check it out. I have a soft spot for those D3 Publishing/A1 Games/Agetec releases that were originally part of the Simple 1500 Series in Japan, like Tennis and RC Helicopter.

They're very no-frills, but that's exactly what I like about them -- no complicated win conditions or unlockables to deal with, just an unpretentious way to while away an hour or two.


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