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Download Services Have Missiles, Dolphins
This week both Nintendo and Microsoft's downloadable game services have some great titles to offer. The Wii will soon be playing host to Super Mario Bros. 2, Ecco: Tides of Time, and Dragon Spirit . Xbox Live Arcade, meanwhile, has up an update of Missile Command . This latest follows on the heels of Pac-Man: CE , a worthy and well-received updating of the arcade classic. Ars' comment about Ecco is dead on: "I used to love this game, just swimming around and doing those flips out of the water as Ecco was pretty calming. Then you tried to actually play the game and found out just how excruciatingly difficult it could be. While the Dreamcast update lost some of the magic, the original Ecco is still a neat twist on 2D games. Who knew that taking a platformer and setting it underwater would be so much fun?"
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I thought that this would be a story about thePirateBay.org taking over Seaworld and defending themselves with missile armed dolphins. The real story is an anti-climax :(
Rational thought is the only true freedom
I take it you never owned an Atari (or Atari clone) system?
I did, and the 2600 version of Missile Command absolutely sucked compared to the arcade machine in all its multi-button trackball glory. If anything, Missile Command would be far better suited to an update on the Wii where at least the Wiimote would be more interesting than moving crosshairs around with a joystick.
My Atari was sold at a yard-sell before I ever got around to getting into all of the games. All I really remember is being consistently pissed off at Pitfall's difficulty.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
I'm sure Mario and Ecco will probably perform better than Missile Command at least at first, but provided it's a decent Missile Command conversion that's the one which has the more timeless gameplay. It's definitely the one you're more likely to go to for a 20 minute gaming burst, which is the kind of situation these games should be targetting.
Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
Excruciatingly difficult says it all, really. Seriously, I almost threw the fucking console at the wall because of that thing. "Whoops, you brushed against some weeds, so you're going to be stuck here until you press all the right buttons in the right order for the right amount of time, or until you drown. Either way, you're stuck." I think that's the first game where I've actually been more satisfied skipping levels.
Grr. I'm all angry now, reminded of that.
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I LIKED SM 2 for the original Nintendo (and it remains my favorite Mario game to date [Which is relative, considering the only other Mario game I ever liked was Mariokart]...and it wasn't really a "Mario" game, just a Japanese game that switched out some Mario characters).
Wait...we're not talking about that Super Mario 2, are we?
Pac-Man CE claims to have "the first new Pac-Man mazes in more than 26 years." I didn't realize 1996 was 26 years ago.
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I dunno, I'm probably in a minority, but SMB 2 was probably my least favorite of the early SMB games. I've downloaded SMB and Super Mario World from the Virtual Console, and I like those ones (and liked them when they were new too). I'd much rather see SMB 3.
As for Ecco, I'm actually surprised it is as popular as it is. I owned it back in the day when I had a Genesis, and it was okay, but I didn't think the gameplay was that good. I remember being impressed by the graphics at the time, though.
Missile Command and Pac Man seem a little weak, but then Microsoft doesn't have the vast array of existing console games to choose from that Nintendo does.
Yeah, they changed base-10 arithmetic 18 years ago (1998). Where were you?
why? forty-two.
I used to love this game, just swimming around and doing those flips out of the water as Ecco was pretty calming. Then you tried to actually play the game and found out just how excruciatingly difficult it could be. While the Dreamcast update lost some of the magic, the original Ecco is still a neat twist on 2D games.
WTH? The Dreamcast version was incredible. The graphics were amazing, the controls were fantastic, and the only thing that keeps it off my top 10 list is the fact that it was so damn hard that it got in the way of the enjoyment. But if they put it on the Wii I'd definitely get the Wii just for that game.
Then you tried to actually play the game and found out just how excruciatingly difficult it could be.
Some of the later levels have names like "Nightmare of Human" and "Nightmare of Dolphin".
I thought that exact same thing. Maybe I suffer from Slashdot groupthink.
God spoke to me.
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Then, don't buy it. Since when did Nintendo force you to buy the game multiple times? Some people don't have a NES, SNES or GBA and still would like Super Mario 2; some would like to have the series on one console; some may simply not fancy connecting up their old systems for impulsive Mario Bros.
If you're happy with what you've got, then good for you, enjoy it and stop complaining that - heaven forbid - you have some choice in the world.
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If you still have them, play them! I do, and I do. Now quit your bitching.
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It's still in stark contrast to Sony's "If you already bought this game for PSP, you can download it to your PS3 for free" policy.
And why is the new Nintendo and Microsoft downloadable content getting free ad-space when Sony has new games available this week too?
try 7 hours before losing all your cities! - I loved that game back in the day. Probably the longest time I've ever played a single game of that type. Even pacman I couldnt keep going for that long.
There are 10 types of cliches in this world. Those that are new, and those that aren't.
Either 1. put an emulator and the original ROMs up, or 2. do a rewrite that has EXACTLY the same gameplay as the original. None of this Donkey Kong with the hammers in the wrong place and the second level missing crap.
How we know is more important than what we know.
To this day Super Mario Bros 2 is my favorite of the entire series. I don't know what it is. The game just seemed even more surreal than any of the others. The enemies seems more inventive too. The others are all great, but there's something I just like about that particular version.
I'm a bit underwhelmed by Pac Man CE, particularly graphics wise. So they put the effort into making the states rendered in nice high resolution and they couldn't be bothered to have done the same with Pac Man and the ghosts? I don't see the nostalgia in keeping them pixelated like that. And there have been numerous inventive Pac Man clones through the years, especially on the PC.
The interesting thing about many of these old games is how awkward their control schemes feel. Most anyway, Super Mario Bros and a handful of others still feel very fluid and natural to this day. But most take some getting used to. Some games I had fond memories of I found myself disappointed by because of the controls to the point where I couldn't be bothered to play them very long. One particularly aggravating example is Bionic Commando.
Interestingly, I've never had a problem graphics-wise. I maintain that 2D sprites age better than 3D graphics, especially those aiming for realism. However, given my experience with emulation, I have a hard time spending money buying Virtual Console games. To be honest, I prefer the approach seen on Xbox Live where developers take an old game and update the graphics and gameplay. It would be interesting to see this done with some of those old Nintendo games.
There are good missile command clones for every imaginable platform - I used to play this on an old Apple ][. There's only one Super Mario Bros 2 (well, there are two, if you count Doki Doki Panic :-).
No. He's talking about Super Mario Bros 2, which was a sprite switch of a Japanese game called Doki Doki Panic.
Maybe they meant "the first designed by the original Pac Man designer since 26 years."
Is this the part where I say "you must be new here?"
demi
I did already know the answer, of course, but what actually does surprise me is that I didn't get modded down.