SB 64 part IV: diamond is not crash (voting ends october 17!)

King of Posters
44

CHRONO TRIGGER
vs.
BUBBLE BOBBLE

When I was 12 my brother in law downloaded a bunch of Snes roms for me and I went looking for some of those pixel art Mana-likes.

Chrono Trigger clearly stood out; it looked, sounded and felt astounding in every way (Toriyama art aside) There was no French translation at the same time but I HAD TO play it, so I grabbed a French-English dictionary and went through the entire game checking the translation of every three words. Then I replayed a bunch of times until I didn’t need the dictionary, and eventually moved on to other English games.

I learned English thanks to Chrono Trigger and this second language was like the #1 sellable thing I had for a while, without it I definitely wouldn’t be here today (neither in my life nor on this forum) CT rules

When I was 6 to 10 my cousin had a NES and I often came to play co-op Bubble Bobble with him. He had down syndrome and couldn’t get very far, and especially not past level 57 or past the final boss. He still stayed to watch me play a bit though. And in that context the ending that tells you to go fuck yourself if you can’t reach it with two bubs felt especially insulting. Fuck Bubble Bobble

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45

Fight me

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49

Re: Gunstar Heroes vs Super Mario Bros. 3

It’s true that Gunstar Heroes is the coolest videogame. It’s the videogame that everyone should aspire to aesthetically and in its tone and freneticness. All videogames should have cool phrases like BE AGGRESSIVE! and bosses that are called MELON BREAD and CURRY AND RICE. Every video game should have its developers actively flexing the cool shit that they can do and make wild setpieces out of that. Here’s a stage inside a spaceship in which you can see through its giant windows and feel through the screen shaking the actual spaceship crash-land against the moon and it’s playable while it goes through this whole animation and violent shaking, instead of stopping you to make you watch that cutscene happen so that the stage can begin. The last stage being all the previous main bosses watching you progress through a TV screen and one by one exiting the main room so they can have a rematch with you is unrivaled in terms of personality and fun. Some people talk about the Shovel Knight dinner table boss rush but Gunstar Heroes imo still trumps that handily. Gunstar Heroes is one of the prettiest, if not the prettiest Mega Drive game.

That being said, playing it is less than ideal. After the first few stages, checkpointing becomes stricter and meaner and bosses just get tiresome and frustrating. The Orange and Green re-matches are just these godawful battles of attrition where you can only deal damage to them so little at a time because they get in his hitstun invulnerability state so often and it’s just not fun at all. With a game with so many boss ideas, couldn’t they have figure out that some of them were just terrible or went on for too long?? It really does feel like the game gets less fun as you progress through it. The damage system is also weird and nonsensical. How do I know whether this attack will just deal 15 damage in one hit and that’ll be it, and when it’ll be this multi-hitstun garbage that will tear my lifebar in half? Who knows!! I also wish the weapon combination stuff was way more interesting than it is, most of the weapons feel similar but with slight variations, and said variations just aren’t that interesting. You can either play as a Bad Version of this weapon, or a version of this weapon that will deal more damage and more consistently. My relationship with Treasure games is always wishing that they were as good as they feel like they should be.

Super Mario Bros. 3 is a Boring Choice but it is also incredibly good. It does have too much fat, but also, like, I can count the levels that suck with one hand. OK, maybe two. It’s a game that’s so good that there’s too much good game in it!! I struggle to think of what to say of it that wouldn’t be treading tired old ground at this point. To be frank I don’t hold the same high opinion of World and 64, just 3. The biggest issue I have with it is the lack of save system because its game length really dictates that it should have one, and the warp system just isn’t good. Both of these are whatever issues when playing in modern releases thankfully. I also don’t like the minigames but those are completely optional so it’s another non-issue when I play it. Frog suit is not a good powerup and the Hammer Suit’s kinda whatever, but part of me actually likes that the Frog Suit sucks. I misremembered thinking that Princess Peach had a different line if you rescued her with the Frog Suit so I tried beating the last level only using it and it was a fun challenge

9 Likes
50

I just played through this for the first time on the 3DS version, with heavy save-state reloading and the Max Life setting on to give me a bit of a health cushion because of my poor reflexes, and totally feel you on this. I heard myself saying “man this is too long” too many times to feel comfortable about the game. Also the sprites are really tiny compared to, like, Alien Soldier (maybe it wasn’t helped by playing on a 3DS) and it’s hard to be mobile enough to possibly avoid every projectile and enemy thrusting itself at you. I kept wondering how can anybody tell what’s happening without having to squint at everything.

After typing that I played Alien Soldier up to the roof of the train (on a version that didn’t have any save states or assistance for bad-at-games folks like me) and I struggled just as much as when I ran through GH 3DS, but maybe these games need to be played on a TV or non-portable screen to be legible. I definitely can’t blame either for my poor reflexes or lack of patience.

4 Likes
51

All decisions based on my own stupid criteria, and are not final.

SUPER MARIO 64
vs.
IKARUGA

Ikaruga wins, but only if you are playing the original arcade release or the DC prot because then the soundtrack lines up perfectly with the opening ship launch and it feels great. I don’t even really remember the Mario64 music. It’s probably fine. Ikaruga’s is better though.

DARK SOULS
vs.
FINAL FANTASY VI

Dark Souls rules, but I remember really liking the one FFVI song on the first Black Mages CD, so that wins here. I have no idea who wins this one overall though.

PORTAL
vs.
ICO
Portal has a Jonathan Coulton song at the end. I saw Jonathan Coulton play a live show once. He seemed perfectly nice. He is on NPR now. I hate what that song became, though. Ico doesn’t have a Jonathan Coulton song, so Ico wins.

KANE & LYNCH 2: DOG DAYS
vs.
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: LINK’S AWAKENING

One of these games has a soundtrack that is half industrial drone noise/halg Chinese pop jams. The other does not. Dog Days is the most honest game about violence, right down to the soundtrack.

SONIC ADVENTURE
vs.
SKY ODYSSEY

I bet Sky Odyssey has a wonderful soundtrack. I have never heard it. But Sonic Adventure has “Open Your Heart”, so I am opening my vote.

DOOM / DOOM II
vs.
OUTRUN

I can’t vote against one of my “i wanna feel good” albums. The Doom music is great, but man the Outrun music makes me feel good. Like real good. Like smiling. I can’t imagine fighting people when listening to the Outrun soundtrack, and that is a good thing. Doom music maybe makes me want to punch something in a way that is good for that game, but on its own? Outrun forever.

NIER
vs.
DONKEY KONG '94

I;m rating games based on soundtracks so this shit should be obvious like c’mon y’all.

CHRONO TRIGGER
vs.
BUBBLE BOBBLE

The Bubble Bobble music is just such a part of the game for me and that is that.

DRAGON’S DOGMA
vs.
UMIHARA KAWASE

I don’t really remember the music for either of these so…

SUPER MARIO BROS. 3
vs.
GUNSTAR HEROES

I have paid for the Gunstar OST on vinyl and I will never regret that decision. It rules.

QUAKE
vs.
STREETS OF RAGE 2

I have paid for the SoR2 OST on vinyl and I will never regret that decision. It rules. I will regret that it isn’t hte SoR3 soundtrack, which I like even more and also paid for on vinyl.

Sorry Trent, I haven’t bought the quake one yet, but I will. It rules too.

10 Likes
52

I respect the purely musical criteria. Hard to disagree about the quality on show here.

2 Likes
53
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54

A strong argument approaches.

55

so good they patched it out of the game.

2 Likes
56

only played dark arisen and feel robbed

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58

Yes basically something like this. the intro blast off timing is just slightly off and it feels so off if you played the DC version first.

1 Like
59

mario 64 is the meat-ier one in terms of how deep i can get into it and for how long. ikaruga, i can only have a little of it, every now and then. mario 64 wins

dark souls wins lol

ico is a pretty game where you can sit with your friend on a nice cold bench along a green field, filled with history and quiet. portal, though, is a toy of a game, and i like when games are toys.

right now i’m leaning w portal, but i’m still not sure

love dog days to the death. these past days i’ve been watching the original trailers and i’m itching to play it again soon, both the campaign and the multiplayer. still remember fondly at the good time i had playing w @The_Blueberry_Hill and @parker a while ago :grin:

i never liked a sonic game. sky odyssey wins

love that shotgun. doom / doom ii wins

nier is one the most “made inside a toy box” video games, for good and bad. i can’t tell donkey kong games apart. nier wins

still don’t know what bubble bobble is. chrono trigger wins

just like shiren in the last round, i just know that when i play dragon’s dogma i’ll absolutely love it. however, it hasn’t happened yet, so umihara kawase wins

i’d feel bad voting for two mario games, so even though i prefer the feeling of mario’s ice-skating-shoes-like controls, gunstar heroes wins

streets of rage 3 is the one i like. quake wins

4 Likes
61

Bubble Bobble is also generous with its “delicious” collectibles, including WcDonald’s fries.

wcd

(This is from the SMS version.)

(Is it correct to call something a “collectible” if it isn’t counted anywhere but simply converted to points? The collectibles in this game are an end in themselves. I don’t think the typical player cares about points at all but is nevertheless impelled to pick up as many of the things as possible.)

7 Likes
62

Ah, but which first 20 minutes of SM64? There are dozens of possible routes, a pick-and-choose playground buffet on display before you! Seriously though, it’s ridiculous and funny having to compare these 2 games (and most of the rest! Undertale vs. Crazy Taxi lol), they are so dang different. It’s like, sandbox gymnastics journey vs. playing guitar to a favourite album. If this video doesn’t excite one for long leaps of ludum bliss then it’s probably just not one’s cuppa, and fair enough!

(and now I’ll lay off the compulsive SM64 evangelism (for now?))

7 Likes
63

Some of these matchups are just, wow lol, but I appreciate that they’ve either forced me to replay, play for the first time or watch enough media of the games in each bracket to try to follow the discussion.

3 Likes
64

I’ve got to go back and try SoR3. For some reason as young teens were were at some college kid’s apartment to play Shadowrun and one of us totally derailed the night when we took a break to play his brand new copy of Streets of Rage 3. It didn’t feel as cool and moody as 2 with all the robots and whatnot.

I’m still not sure who that guy was or why he thought we’d be good to hang out with. He got super annoyed and kicked us out.

2 Likes
65

Nah man. I mean, they both have great music. Mario 64 wins for me because I like it more and I think it’s a better game. Ikaruga boss music is good… Overall it’s a bit too dramatic for me. Give me some cheesy CAVE stuff any day.

4 Likes
66

everyone please vote for ikaruga here i’m going to die if you make it fight yume nikki in the first round of losers

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if we’re voting on the basis of music Sonic Adventure wins this whole voting proccess by default and I’m not even talking about the deliciously cheesy vocal tracks. The whole soundtrack is incredible and immense. There are so many great tracks even dedicated to like, incredibly small scenes or events that didn’t need to rip so hard, but they do.

Why did they record a minute and thirty banger when Big manages to hook a fish?? A push-and-pull event that lasts for maybe 20 seconds at most?? Why does it have to go so hard??

Does anyone remember where this insanely cool track plays?? Apparently it plays for a 10-second cutscene. The whole soundtrack is extra like this.

In respect to these and other qualities that Sonic Adventure has, I will abstain from voting against it. Sky Odyssey seems really cool but I tried it in an emulator and I can’t get the hang of flying the plane well!!

9 Likes