20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 20: A game that truly scared you

Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 3: A game that's so bad but so good

I can’t really think of one I’ve played recently, but I can think of one I’ve played when I was young.

And that game is Pokémon Battle Revolution!

I used to play it a lot as a kid, I thought it was cool to see your carefully trained Pokémon battle it out on the big screen, and the game was really fun. But now that I’m older, I’ve realized how bad it is. I now think the battles are repetitive and the last time I played, it wasn’t as fun as it used to be. I’m glad I don’t like the side games and spin-offs of Pokémon as much as I used to nowadays!
 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 3: A game that's so bad but so good

Tonic Trouble

I had of fun with this when I was a kid, but looking back on it now, it kinda sucks. But despite the quirky camera and bad controls, it still managed to be somewhat enjoyable.
 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 3: A game that's so bad but so good

I think I will have to go with Sonic R.

sonic-r_1.jpg


This game is basically a Sonic game, and unlike many other Sonic racing games, the characters race on foot with some driving vehicles, namely Amy and Eggman. So why did I put this game in the "bad" category? It's because the game is quite unbalanced. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are characters that can hold their own against others, but Amy and Eggman have trouble catching up because of their slowness. That's not all: the other unlockable characters are of a better performance compared to the initial five that choosing the initial five against the others is putting yourself at a handicap. Seriously: Super Sonic is the best character that only Metal Sonic and Metal Knuckles have the best chance in competing.

One thing that I was wowed by this game was that each race course is very elaborate like a 3D platformer level since it has many branching paths (except the last one) and the scenery is somewhat detailed for its time. However, there were also only 5 courses, which made me impressed by Super Mario Kart for having 20 tracks even though several of them share a theme with others. The game at least put the elaborate courses to good use by having a "find 5 balloons" mode, so that's pretty good.

So why is this game still great in some form? Easy: the music. Every piece of this game's songs are top notch, and this is pretty much the game's saving grace. The developer was concerned that not everybody would love it, but the general consensus now is that this is the best thing about Sonic R. Super Sonic Racing is the most noteworthy track that it's even made it to Smash Bros. and even Sonic Generations! Though with that said, I like this one too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTyRWTpMyd8

Thank you for reading.
 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 3: A game that's so bad but so good

Sonic X for Leapster. It defined my childhood before I was introduced to real games on the Wii, and as such I have quite a bit of nostalgia for it, but outside of nostalgia I really have no reason to play it anymore, being an edutainment game intended for 5-year-olds and all.
 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 3: A game that's so bad but so good

winstein said:
I think I will have to go with Sonic R.

oh man this is my answer as well, and for basically the same reasoning as you have
the only other thing i have to add onto that is that, despite the playable character roster being terribly unbalanced, i love the idea of having different characters with different abilities and being able to go a different path depending on who you use, like being able to use knuckles and glide waaaaay off the normal path of the track and basically take a huge shortcut that characters like sonic can't use. it makes me wish that character-based non-car racing games were more of a thing
 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 3: A game that's so bad but so good

My pick for this is Ride to Hell: Retribution. It's essentially a game that's so atrocious that it's hilarious.

I've never played the game itself, thankfully, and I just got most of my information of it from reviews, but it's so hilariously inept at everything it tries to do that you just can't help but laugh at it. Even when it has atrocious sex scenes with females that you rescue as rewards from killing a bad guy. The combat is derp, shooting is abysmal, and the driving sections are Big Rigs -esque. Voice acting is one of the worst ever in video games. There's a part of the game where how the protagonist deals with an electric fence obstructing his path by stealing a truck, driving it quite a bit of distance, and then blowing up an electrical power plant. The weirdest part of this game is is that it's functional garbage. Crashes and unplayable states don't occur all that much and it's quite a long game too, yet somehow the game is still playable.

It's essentially a perfect type of game to just laugh at it all the way through.

ProJared has summed it up quite nicely in his review of the game, though Angry Joe does a much more through takedown of it. Though I'll just let this We Broke video take care of it for its straightforward badness.

 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 3: A game that's so bad but so good

1. Etrian Odyssey Untold. I was on holidays without internet at the time which probably helped give it a lasting impression, I had to figure out everything on my own. I feel like I never give myself the chance to do that these days or at least it's the only game that I've played completely blind that wasn't easy or held my hand so it actually had an impact.2. Estelle Bright in Trails in the Sky. Shit dude, if anybody plays this series and doesn't love her by the end then they're dead inside. I still don't really understand how they handled having a female protagonist so well, it's just a slow progression over two games from a one dimensional dumbass tomboy into a fully emotionally developed character influenced by and influencing the rest of the cast. and it worked so well. Too bad Falcom has found out male mc harem shit sells better.3. Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. I feel like this whole game is low quality, gimmick races with some shitty side missions to pad out the game and re-used assets to double the track count. I played the fuck out of it though and really enjoyed it. I even played it again this year and still enjoyed it, though it was just to scratch a random itch to see what the game was like now that I'm older.
 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 3: A game that's so bad but so good

The best (or worst) video game I can think of in this section has to be Superman 64. I never played the game, and believe me, I do not want to. But from the footage I saw, it's pretty hilarious to see the game glitching and seeing how poorly made the game was: The city is completely empty, the controls are really clunky (never played it but from the footage I've seen, literally no-one is good at the game) and it can't be taken seriously.

I could have gone with ET, which can hardly be called a game, but it looks really boring and I only look at 5 seconds of gameplay before getting bored and stop watching the video about that game.
 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 3: A game that's so bad but so good

I thought about saying Mario Party Advance for this one, but then I realized that it's not exactly good because it's bad. Its an awful game to give the Mario Party title to and it's altogether middling, but it has its charming moments and was creative enough to come up with some new characters and find use for old ones at the time. Plus, the Gaddgets are at least occasionally entertaining and most of the minigames are good.


But, more to the question, I'd have to go with Sonic Adventure 2, which I've played on the Gamecube. It's not without issue or oddities, but it all comes together to have some level of, as TVTropes might put it, "narm charm." Its flaws tend to be of the more charmingly bad variety. Not to mention it has the Chao Garden, which can occasionally draw you back to the game after a break to work on it for a few hours or so.
 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 3: A game that's so bad but so good

For 2, I'm undecided. It's either Starlow, Princess Peach, Princess Zelda, or Wendy (Koopaling). They all look like good females to chose as a favorite.

For 3,
Miki Hoshii said:
3. Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity. I feel like this whole game is low quality, gimmick races with some *bleep*ty side missions to pad out the game and re-used assets to double the track count. I played the *bleep* out of it though and really enjoyed it. I even played it again this year and still enjoyed it, though it was just to scratch a random itch to see what the game was like now that I'm older.
Hmm... Yeah. That is a bad game that is good. It took me a bit to get the control down, but once I did I liked the gameplay. Although, I believe I still have some trouble. But, I like those tracks and they are very different from the regulars.
 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 3: A game that's so bad but so good

I'll pick Mario Kart 64 for this. It's probably the only Mario game I've played so far that I inherently dislike with an open mind (wonky controls, item physics etc), but it still introduced some nice racetracks with great music, and it can still be fun to play with friends
 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 3: A game that's so bad but so good

Day 1 - Game That Left A Lasting Impression: Super Mario Galaxy.

Day 2 - Favorite Female Video Game Character: Marie, Rosalina, Vivian and Blaze.

Day 3 - A Game That Is So Bad That It's Good: Ben 10: Protector of Earth (DS) is a game that I have quite a bit nostalgia for, even though I can now see some of the chinks in it's armor upon a recent playthrough awhile back.
 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 3: A game that's so bad but so good

a game that's so bad but so good...hmm there's definitely a few games i know kinda suck alot in retrospect but i still enjoyed the hell outta of them. the one that stick outs the most to me is Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring for ps2. (specifically the ps2 version because iirc there were some differences between the games and that's the only one i played). most post 2000 LOTR games are exclusively based upon the hit movies rather than the books because $$$. however this particular game is actually based entirely off the books and is a bit more accurate to them as such. however rather than just be a continual hack and slash fest or really badly made rpg it's actually switches off between a badly made hack and slash and a stealth/adventure type game.

the plot pretty much follows the book to the point of often using the same exact dialouge iirc. you start out as Frodo in the shire who's fixing to leave on his big quest to throw a piece of jewlery in the fires of mount doom in order to defeat the evil dark lord Sauron. for the first couple hours or so (depending on if you speedrun it i guess) you frolic around the green hills of the shire making some last minute preparations for Frodo's journey out into the big world. you can also partake in various small sidequests if so choose to gain some items that will make the rest of the game easier (albeit just a bunch of healing stuff). the music is actually pretty good in both this part and the whole game and really compliments the innocence of the shire. but after that you have to leave in the middle of the night. evading Nazguls and wolves alike (the latter of which i super appreciate because wolves coming into the shire was actually one of the signs that Sauron was on the move again and i love little tidbits of lore like that.) you escape into the old forest. i'm not gonna bother going into details but basically a fuckton of shit involving Barrow Whites, giant spiders, and giant killer trees, (as well as trees that move when you're not looking) takes place but Frod and co. eventually safely arrive at the village of Bree. the game then actually switches you over to Aragorn and you finally feel like a badass who can kill stuff instead of a hobbit who's always running and sneaking and literally fighting everything using a walking stick. which imo is actually good game design as it the experiences of using a new character actually make me want to keep playing as opposed to same tiring shit i've already been dealing with forever. after killing orcs and wargs and trolls in the wilderness you eventually reach the city of rivendell. there you meet the fellowship etc. and continue on the journey. the next part of the game actually has you assume the role of gandalf which means you can actually get to use magic for the first time in the game which is rewarding experience. blasting enemies with lighting and fire never felt so good. for the rest of the game you then switch between using frodo/aragorn/gandalf culminating in a final battle on the banks of the Anduin river where you get to kick the ass of the nazgul who you had to run for your life from at the beginning of the game. unfortunately it ends there and as this game wasn't successful for reasons i'm about to go into, the sequel, which was to be known as The Treason of Isenguard (a scrapped beta name for the Two Towers book), was scrapped.

now as for why this game is bad well...the combat for starters. quite honestly it sucks for the most part until you get to play as Gandalf and even then that's for one section of the game. the rest of the time you are literally just pressing the square button repeatedly and mindlessy. you can block granted and use ranged attacks but blocking doesn't open up enemies for counter attacks and your ranged weapons do almost no damage which makes them both rather pointless. and even when you do kill something it really feels more like you've just smacked someone to death with a pool noodle rather than epicly thrust your blade through the corpse of a defeated foe. the game is also horribly linear, even moreso than classic zelda or hell most oldschool jrpgs. there's also about 5 (maybe not even that it's been ahwile) voice actors total in this game so you will be hearing the same voice coming from a variety different characters mouth which really kinda breaks immersion which imo is very important for a game like this. also when you get back to the aragorn segments after playing the Moria part it just gets really dull and repetitive. kill orcs. kill orcs. kill wargs. kill a troll. kill more orcs. kill another warg. etc. really gets boring after awhile. it's also a ps2 game so uh yeah the graphics aren't up to par which while i don't think that matters too much it would be really nice if some of the charaters didnt look so....bleh

however as for why i like it, the atmosphere and progression. as i said earlier the music does a very nice job of conveying the mood of where you're currently at. from peaceful violin and flute tunes in the shire to the drums nerve-gratingly beating whenever wolves are attacking to eerie melodies in the dark mines of moria. the way in which you switch characters is also really neat. you start out as a hobbit with a stick and have to run half the time away from enemies. but then you get to be a badass ranger with an actual sword and bow and get to hack up shit that would've killed you easy if you tried to fight them earlier, and then once that didn't seem to grand anymore you got to be a motherfucking wizard who can shoot lightning and stuff. plus in addition to that the enemies actually seem gradually more powerful to match your new powers. at first you only saw wolves, then it's giant ass spiders, then it's ghouls, then it's wargs which are about 4 times the size of the wolves, straight up groups of orc, then a troll who's twice the size of a character who's three times the size of the character you started out as. and then a bunch of that stuff all at the same time

are there tons of better games out there and does this deserve the rap it received from critics? hell yeah. but i did unironically enjoy it? absolutely and i would definitely recommend this to someone seeking a simple fantasy adventure and/or anyone who's big into the lotr franchise like i am.
 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 3: A game that's so bad but so good

Baby Luigi said:
it's so hilariously inept at everything it tries to do that you just can't help but laugh at it
the menus use ridiculous keys, the beginning of the game places you in a turret segment, terrible cinematics with absent sound effects and music and weird cuts in videos, nonexistent cover, bullet sponge enemies, broken combat where only kicking works, women treated like actual objects whose only goal is sex and promptly disappear after you're done and you get the benefits, this game has it all

"All Enemies In The Area Are Dead", I think that's the only moment in a video game where the HUD actually lies to you.

But another of my vote would be that Star Trek game (also from We Broke)

 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 3: A game that's so bad but so good

the issue is I can't really name any truly shit games I've enjoyed despite them being kusoge, and I (un)fortunately haven't played devil may cry 2 yet to decide if it hits that spot. like mario pinball land was what i was considering answering since i DID play that, but that's just flat out bad and unenjoyable

mario kart 64 isn't really inherently bad so much as it just aged badly, but I also don't have that much attachment to it. on the flip side, i think double dash also aged roughly because of the controls being a hydroplaning simulator, but i love the gimmick and the race courses so i'd go with that for my answer despite it not matching the question exactly
 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 4: Game that hit an emotional spot in your ❤️

Here we go! Day 4: A game that hit an emotional spot in your heart! Super excited to hear about the games that you hold near and dear to your heart.
 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 4: Game that hit an emotional spot in your ❤️

I'll go with Fire Emblem Awakening. I really connect with most of the characters (only ones I don't think I do are Gangrel and Aversa), and Owain is just an absolute blast. I don't really get emotional over fictional characters, but they did a good job with Emmeryn's "death", imo. While it's not my favorite FE game (PoR has a better story and group of characters (but lacks Owain)), the amount of time I spend playing Awakening and the fact that I can put myself into it just drives me to like the characters more.

I'm still playing the game, I will not be satisfied until everyone is a tank.
 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 4: Game that hit an emotional spot in your ❤️

I haven't played enough story-oriented games to have such a feeling about an impactful death or something that makes me emotionally tear up. The closest I've gotten to that was the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games but even then I knew the status quo would be god and what happens to the characters at the end wouldn't be permanent so I can't say it has hit me particularly hard. I know I had played Tales of Symphonia but I don't quite remember anything emotionally memorable. In addition, while I did feel quite upset at the babies leaving the Mario Bros. in Partners in Time, it hadn't had that profound impact that I'm looking for.

latest


I guess I'll pick Metro 2033 Redux for emotional spots (its sequels would count for something too I guess, since what I'll say applies to them) though it's not exactly a very happy one. The game has a very depressing and pessimistic tone that it has most certainly made me feel quite depressed and pessimistic too for hours in the end and has kept me up just thinking about its story, themes, and setting. The continuous struggle of humans against the apocalypse in their little stations, seeing the snow-covered, monster roaming, poisonous ruins of the once-thriving and bustling Moscow, the fear of the unknown, the humanoid creatures that mutated from the radiation, the sense of loneliness, the corpses of people called stalkers who are sent to find supplies aboveground and never made it back, etc. So far as I played the game, I think the first time you go above the surface ala Dead City is the best level in the game because of those feelings of isolation and desolation exemplified at most, as you don't know quite the extent of the apocalypse has on surface life until you get to there.

I mean, I don't think there's any other game I played that has evoked quite the amount of sadness I received from this. They're usually just badass or happy go-lucky (like Mario) but I haven't played a game that's could be emotionally described as "sad", and that's why it's so unique and very special to me.
 
20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 4: Game that hit an emotional spot in your ❤️

All main series Pokémon games. I cherish every one I own!
 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 4: Game that hit an emotional spot in your ❤️

Team Kirby said:
Super Mario Galaxy

Same.

I was a wee little lad. My simple mind never liked challenge, so as a kid, I had some sort of dislike towards this game, (nowadays it's my favorite of all time) and there is just something about it that is so magical, so endearing. Whenever I hear a piece of that stellar soundtrack, I can't help but smile. The ending always has me at least feel a little crack in my heart.

This game is special. I will continue to cherish it forever.
 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 4: Game that hit an emotional spot in your ❤️

I also could go with Mario Galaxy, but I chose Super Paper Mario for this one.

I owned this game in 2013 (that would make me around 8 years old). I played the game and finished it. The ending was something I did NOT expect:

Just when I thought all was good when I defeated the final boss, I saw that two of the game's main characters (Tippi ans Count Bleck to be exact) die at the end, because they sacrifice themselves. This nearly made me cry the first time I saw it, but I was too young to understand. I was really confused. However, after thinking a little, I knew what ACTUALLY happened. This is a moment I will always remember as heartbreaking and emotional.
 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 4: Game that hit an emotional spot in your ❤️

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door

You know that scene where the appropriately named "We Believe in You, Mario!" theme plays, the one where the Crystal Stars travels across the various locations that Mario and co. previously been to on their grand adventure to gather all the hope and prayers from everyone they helped in a last ditch attempt to nullify the Shadow Queen's power? This scene never fails to jerk a tear from my eye even on repeat playthroughs. I know that the whole "pray for the heroes" trope isn't anything inherently groundbreaking since games like Earthbound and later Okami for example did something similar to this scene for their respective endgame scenarios, but I had pretty strong emotional attachment to TTYD and it's world growing up so I guess it just hits me on a deep level seeing all the NPCs Mario aided on his quest return the favor ten-fold.

Also I guess Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter (DS) and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: EoD/EoT/EoS as runners-up as well.
 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 4: Game that hit an emotional spot in your ❤️

I'll just go with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of mystery dungeons. Even replaying it this year knowing what happens hit me a little. Specifically breaking down on the beach, oof.

A more obscure one would be the ending of Ao no Kiseki when Lloyd gets to finally meet his deceased brother again in the World of Zero but rejects a possible world where he didn't die because play the game and find out lmaooo. The scene following it was good too but this one had more impact on me. In a game about overcoming walls (physical and metaphorical), having a scene where Lloyd overcomes his biggest personal wall; it was so good.
 
Re: 20 Day Video Game Challenge - Day 4: Game that hit an emotional spot in your ❤️

earthbound and mother 3 for me

earthbound was a nice and happy game for me to play and have fun with when i was super depressed and it genuinely helped with that, while mother 3's story is probably the most impactful story i've ever been through
 
Back