wonderful and classic games that VGC hasn't reviewed yet

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TheEagleXIII
Posts: 283
Joined: December 22nd, 2019, 9:33 am

Re: wonderful and classic games that VGC hasn't reviewed yet

Postby TheEagleXIII » December 5th, 2021, 9:23 pm

The awfully rebranded and endorsed Jarrett & Labonte Stock Car Racing on PS1. Better known outside North America as TOCA World Touring Cars.

For me, this is the best racer on the PS1. Perfectly strikes a nice middle ground between the pure sim of Gran Turismo, and the full-on arcade action of Ridge Racer.

The TOCA games were big in Europe, and got the recognition they deserved. But I never hear them talked about anymore, especially outside the PAL region, and that’s a shame.

I can only imagine it’s because the first two games were modelled after our British Touring Car Championship. Whilst it was quite prestigious at the time, racing at Snetterton or Outlon Park isn’t exactly glamorous compared to what other racing games offer. The championship’s rules didn’t exactly make the game super accessible either, to be fair.

They changed that for WTC, featuring simplified (fictional) championships across the globe, and real world famous tracks. As such it has the best career mode of any sports game on the PS1. The first tier has you competing in national championships. Then second is continental. And third is world championships.

I can see why they rebranded if TOCA 1 & 2 didn’t sell well. But this is the kinda endorsement that makes it sound like there’s a crappy game hiding underneath. From what little research I did, neither of the two drivers were big deals anyway. It all just sounds like an unlicensed NASCAR game.

Anyone into racers from this time should check it out. The regional differences are minimal, but the NA version has superior gameplay without the notorious PAL slowdown.

Gonna stick my neck on the line and call it worthy of that hidden gem icon! :P

VicViper
Posts: 124
Joined: October 22nd, 2015, 2:36 pm

Re: wonderful and classic games that VGC hasn't reviewed yet

Postby VicViper » December 6th, 2021, 1:09 pm

Blinx 1 & 2 on OG Xbox. These two games are fairly obscure now, but when I think OG Xbox, I kind of think about those games as a family friendly mascot for the console.

Jet Set Radio Future (or Jet Grind Radio Future, maybe) on OG Xbox too. I keep on hearing it's all better than the first game, and it's killing me that it hasn't received any rerelease. At least the upcoming Bomb Rush Cyberfunk seems to be a great future alternative (and it has the same composer!) : https://store.steampowered.com/app/1353 ... Cyberfunk/

A bunch of PS1 Disney games. Emperor's New Groove is pretty damn good, and although I've heard a lot of people gripe over Aladdin: Nasira's Revenge, I always had a decent time with it. Soundtrack's undeniably great though. I have a weird nostalgia for Disney's Dinosaur (and somehow the PS1 & Dreamcast versions are different games with seemingly the same gameplay style), even though it's reportedly rather bad.

Toy Story 2 is an excellent game, it was the Super Mario 64 of my childhood, but the Dreamcast version makes it play lousy; it's a very bad port job that somehow feels like it runs worse (it has framerate dips on a PS1 looking game!!) and has more noticeable graphical artifacts than the PS1 version, and it's much better as a D-Pad game from my recollection. The critic mentioned on the Dreamcast test that the analog controls are an absolute nightmare, and I concur that they do indeed suck. If there's a version of it to play, it's the PS1 version. (I doubt the N64 version is much better than Dreamcast) I had good memories of A Bug's Life as well, which was pretty much a proto-Toy Story 2 (you can feel it's the same engine).

Similarly to Toy Story 2, I keep on bringing up Tomb Raider IV on PS1 specifically. The Dreamcast pad is just not fit for this type of gameplay, or they didn't optimise it well enough for it. I mean, it's not gonna erase its warts (Cairo after the excellent first 2/3rds is kinda miserable, and it kinda doesn't know when to end), but I felt it was much more accessible, creative, and less hair-pulling than Tomb Raider III, and having good controls is better to make the adventure more palatable, it's not its fault if the Dreamcast controller doesn't do it justice. (had there been a hypothetical GameCube version of Metroid: Other M with joystick controls as opposed to the D-Pad only controls of the actual game, it would've been the better version by default even with worse graphics)

Both The Conduit and Conduit 2 on the Wii. Especially the sequel, I hear so rarely about it. I remember the advertising at the time calling the first game "the most graphically impressive Wii game [2009]", and uh... not really, but at least it had a great multiplayer and it's one of the few FPS I can recommend for the console (hard to believe that the console that had God's gift in terms of aiming & shooting controls had so little in terms of quality FPSes, the best was undeniably Red Steel 2, but it was also sword based).

Zack Burner
Posts: 1209
Joined: May 3rd, 2019, 6:01 pm

Re: wonderful and classic games that VGC hasn't reviewed yet

Postby Zack Burner » December 6th, 2021, 3:18 pm

Forgot about another rare gem on Xbox and Gamecube: Freedom Fighters, a great military style game that has you commanding troops against the Commies in an alternate timeline.

jon
Posts: 1562
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 4:30 pm

Re: wonderful and classic games that VGC hasn't reviewed yet

Postby jon » December 9th, 2021, 11:04 am

Triple play 98 for ps1

Cafeman
Posts: 331
Joined: July 27th, 2016, 8:28 am

Re: wonderful and classic games that VGC hasn't reviewed yet

Postby Cafeman » December 25th, 2021, 5:53 pm

Ps1, Wipeout XL.

lynchie137
Posts: 539
Joined: November 15th, 2016, 6:46 pm

Re: wonderful and classic games that VGC hasn't reviewed yet

Postby lynchie137 » December 26th, 2021, 12:38 pm

The Magic of Scherherzade, Little Ninja Brothers and The Guardian legend. All for the NES

Also, I wouldn't mind seeing The Critic review some of the many hacks and homebrew games for the NES. Games like Punch Out Turbo, Bald Bull's Punch Out, and Super Mario Bros 3mix, which combines the play mechanics of SMB1 and SMB3, the level design of the latter and throws it in a blender with a few surprises as well. Such a fun and refreshing take on an all time classic...

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ASalvaro
Posts: 745
Joined: May 24th, 2019, 11:51 pm

Re: wonderful and classic games that VGC hasn't reviewed yet

Postby ASalvaro » January 9th, 2022, 5:02 pm

i just noticed there's no review of Neo Mr Do for the Neo Geo! that game is really fun once you get used to it

jon
Posts: 1562
Joined: April 9th, 2015, 4:30 pm

Re: wonderful and classic games that VGC hasn't reviewed yet

Postby jon » January 10th, 2022, 8:47 am

ASalvaro wrote:i just noticed there's no review of Neo Mr Do for the Neo Geo! that game is really fun once you get used to it


I'm going to try this one out. It would be epic to see individual reviews of the Last Blade games and others that have been reviewed for compilations on other systems. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of Neo Geo games left for the VGC to review.

Edit: I just watched a clip of Neo Mr Do and the first thing I noticed was how amazing the graphics are. Does anyone except the Neo Geo have the capability to look that great, I don't think so. It's such a Neo Geo game.


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