Resident Evil 4 is the best game for the..

King of Posters
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The N64-Gamecube game got me thinking about a couple of things. Is Resident Evil 4 even a Gamecube Game anymore? You can play it on PS2, PS3, PS4, PC, Xbone, 360, Wii, iOS. And with minor differences are all the same game. Like Ports were-are a thing, but with this standardization of execution of game is there any identity? Like it did come out first on the gamecube.

Slightly switching gears Where do ports sit in a game’s library. Like a lot of the best Sega Saturn games are ports almost overwhelmingly so. 10 years ago you could spend money for all the 2d shooter/fighter ports or…just play them in MAME. Now that Saturn emulation is more or less here thats murkier. If a system is seen as a port haven and now you can just emulate it all…

Then you start having to talk about Unique features. The 32x gets a lot of flack but it has pretty good Space Harrier, Virtua Fighter, and Afterburner ports on it. That’s also about the only good thing on them. They also have distinct differences that makes playing them different from an Arcade rom.

HG101 is wonderful for this but trying to figure out if there is anything unique or hidden in a specific port is maddening.

When it shouldnt be the answer should just be if game is fun continue if not stop. You will be okay.

Then I start thinking about when you construct loose or strict lists for the best games of system X. Going back to RE4, it is just on there for Gamecube because well there is not a whole lot of competition for the best 10-20 Gamecube games.

If we go to PS3 do you include RE4 in the discussion because it is one of the best games there is? Or leave it out in favor of games actually made for the system (Killzone 2, Killzone 3, Resistance 1, Resistance 2, Resistance 3, MAG).

Heck i forget the Orange Box is right there on PS3/360 and despite everything everyone should play Portal. Portal is one of the best games you can dang play. Sure does feel weird to drop that in a list of recommended PS360 games.

It is all becoming blurry. Now if I write a list of 20 NES games I go ahead and include Rockman 4 Minus Infinity. Emulation equalizes all.

When we did the Genesis list (not doing that again!) I tried really hard to argue the Genesis Six Pack for the list. That cart had i Sonic 1, Columns, Hangon, Golden Axe, Revenge of Shinobi (boring version), Streets of Rage. Thats an incredible list in a commercial product. One cart, one rom. All of those games are Arcade-like experiences that require little time to know and enjoy.

In my system Super Mario allstars is also on a list. But that’s different because those are different distinct games from the 8bit Originals.

Finally i am thinking the difference between Virtual Console and distinct ports. Is there really any difference between Vc Sonic 2 and box release of Ghost Squad?

May this thread lead to fruitful discussion.

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Lately, as I get less and less free time but my taste in games gets more and more outlandish, I’ve definitely started to see games more as aesthetic objects (including box/disc/cart/console/controller/context) than something I actually have time to play. In this framework I actually end up buying a lot of ports, mostly because of, as @nickperson said, cool box art. Also just like… I really like Cave Story, so of coruse I’m gonna buy the new one. Maybe I’ll play it again, maybe I’ll just play an hour or so to see how it feels with the Switch Pro Controller, and then I feel relatively satisfied with my purchase. (this is hypothetical, i actually did play the whole thing, but i could just as easily not have)

Actually, games that are almost-the-same-but-not-quite are very interesting in general. Like, the subtle differences in balance or pacing between one simplistic, exploitative iOS clicker game and a different simplistic, exploitative iOS clicker game that make one somehow “better” than the other even though they’re the same dumb bullshit.

I agree that emulation-based ports are kinda pointless though, cuz you’re not getting subtle differences between two different hardware platforms you’re just getting a flawed imitation. Which is to say: an audiovisual difference in an emulated bug can’t, in my mind, be seen as anything other than a “mistake” in representing the “real” game, whereas differences between say, the PS4 or Switch versions of Sonic Mania are valid, and both games are “real,” to me (even knowing that PS4 was the “target platform”).

The moral of the story is I have like 4 afterburners and intend to have more :stuck_out_tongue:

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Examples that popped up in my head of arcade to home console ports that are scaled down to function on console hardware but the developers try to make up for the loss in fidelity by adding neat things.

The Genesis/MD Super Hang-On was set back by not having Super Scaler hardware, but the RPG-like “original mode” (like “Saturn” or “Dreamcast Mode” frequently used for bonus modes added to arcade-home ports) had you buying parts and maintaining your bike with prize money in between races.

RayCrisis, Taito’s last Ray-series shmup (which I just now realized has a phone version), came out in arcades using a souped up PS1-based arcade board and in the home release lost seamless transition between levels and a 2-player mode. To compensate on its PS1 release they added another soundtrack, a “special mode” where instead of playing a few of the possible levels in an order you chose you marathoned all of them in one sitting while trying to collect items that keep your “encroachment meter” down (a timer pushing you to keep the screen clear of enemies or get forced into the bad ending/an early game over), bonus ship colors and the R-Gray ships from RayStorm (R-Gray 1 is the ship from Rayforce), a minigame on the PocketStation (Sony’s answer to the VMU) and loading screens that made the pauses between levels tie into the narrative of you being an antivirus trying to stop the Con-Human AI from Rayforce.
(arcade ver.)




Like the other 32-bit era Taito shmup ports (see the weird pauses in G-Darius on all home ports except the direct arcade emulation on Taito Legends 2) the soundtrack seems to be streamed off of the disc/redbook audio rather than played “live” by the console sound chip so you get fadeouts instead of cold endings.

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i realized my thoughts about this are complicated but here they are in a series of paradoxical statements

resident evil 4 might be the best game cube game, but the game cube version of resident evil 4 is not the best version of resident evil 4

resident evil 4 was better when it came out on game cube than it has been ever since on any other platform, but if you had to pick one version to play now it probably wouldn’t be that one

resident evil 4 is the best game in the resident evil series, but it is not the best resident evil game

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that’s pretty much my exact read too (maybe i wouldn’t say it’s the best gc game but it’s up there)

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it is definitely behind these four for examples

otherwise agree though yeah

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I’m not sure I would want to play this game with up-rezzed graphics or on a controller that’s not a GC controller.

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when I heard that the wii version allowed you to move and shoot at once

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also fun fact: itagaki hated RE4 because you can’t move and shoot

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b&

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I might have made sense in the wake of Gears of War to look at RE4 as a touching point for a nextgen of cover shooters but I think time has been kind to it and it truly stands above the games it influenced. Later RE5 and especially 6 prove how useful ‘don’t move and shoot’ is as a mechanic; Vanquish is fast and bright and more Sega than Capcom but it doesn’t have the grinding clockwork gears of RE4 and the expert tension, advancing in a grim pendulum. That specific combination of extremely slow-moving enemies with random sprints, extremely strong knockback, and slow repositioning seems only understood by the first big fight in RE5 and then lost to history.

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But, RE5 has co-op and gun porn, so honestly in terms of fun factor the games are basically equal in my head. I mean, ONLY in co-op though, singleplayer RE5 is a useless and near miserable experience.

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resident evil 4 and 5 are mercenaries modes to me forevermore. a single stage of mercs in re4-6 is more valuable to me than any single-player campaign in any RE. mercs is fucking amazing. also re6 is amazing, though it’s amazingness is not limited to just mercs (which is maybe the weakest mercs of the 3? but still amazing) and extends to the two hardest difficulties on co-op (some of the other bonus modes/dlc modes are really cool, too. also the pc version has a super mercs where they take advantage of the extra horsepower and multiply the number of zombies appropriately).

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RE6 removed gun porn and is therefore useless to me.

I am a very particular man with very particular needs.

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i don’t know what that means

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it means he needs gun porn and re6 doesn’t have it

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Someday soon I’ll dig deeper into RE6 but I played it with my brother a month ago and it was even worse than I remember. That core loop based on limited mobility and limited enemies is completely destroyed and everything is both too fast and too slow. I can’t think of how that’d work in a limited mercenaries mode right now—

The other production foibles remain hilarious; to put it in space-age terms, it’s even more incompetently produced than FFXV

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90% of people will hate re6
5% will concede that the combat is decent but the rest of the game is trash
5% will defend the game to the death because of the incredible, perfect combat that has never been remotely approached and apparently capcom will never follow up on

what core loop is that? re6 doesn’t play like the previous games, it fully embraces the divide between RE1-3+CV and RE4&5 and sheds any facade of adhering to the loops of earlier games. it also goes further and leans harder into action oriented play, even bringing cheesier b-movie trappings to go along with it. a massive mechanical and tonal shift, and not to be directly compared to the previous games lest one miss the point

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I actually stil have it on my list of “games to buy when I see it and have the cash first” just cuz o your staunch defending

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I’m also an RE6 lover. This video at least explores how someone else loves it too. Though with a bit more focus on the campaigns. RE as a series always kinda just missed me during the PS1/2 days. It wasn’t until RE5 I started giving it attention. Have such a little connection probably made RE6 that much easier for me to get into.

RE6 might have less guns but the “gun feel” is still pretty strong and that what I look for in my gun porn. Using the anti-material rifle and watching a line of targets fall over is super satisfying.