Lynx Games to Avoid

[Rick Dangerous]

So I started collecting for lynx lately and I have about 14 games or so. I'm starting to build my collection and I'd like to avoid the real duds. There must be plenty. What from your experience, should I really steer clear of?

 

Thanks and much appreciated!

 

 

[famicommander]

Kung Food is pretty terrible. Bad controls, bad collision detection, extremely repetitive.

[PFG 9000]

Yeah, you're gonna get some mixed opinions on this one.

 

I happen to love Kung Food. I don't see how anybody could fault the controls. It is repetitive, but not as much as most side scrolling beat-em-ups are.

 

Anyway, I'd say avoid Batman Returns. It's ridiculously difficult, to the point where it's cheap. You only get one life, and the enemies come at you so quickly it's hard to avoid a lot of their attacks.

 

I never cared for Dirty Larry. It seemed overly difficult, simplistic, and rather boring.

 

Hard Drivin' is among the worst Lynx titles. It's impressive that it even runs on the Lynx, but the framerate is so choppy and the control response is so delayed that it's nearly unplayable.

[Bald_Bull_jr]

I was never a fan of 'Hydra', and the LYNX version of 'S.T.U.N. Runner' only gave me headaches.

 

Also, I was born in Burlington, VT.

[roland p]

Most Lynx games are good

[Bald_Bull_jr]

Most Lynx games are good

 

I had around 20-30 Lynx games, years ago. I played 1/2 of them in regular rotation. (Maybe I didn't have many 'good' games?)

[Jess Ragan]

Gordo 106 is a mess. Skip it and go directly to Toki.

[Rick Dangerous]

I have a few of these mentioned and here are my thoughts:

 

Batman Returns: Good graphics and music but ridiculously hard and cheap enemy tactics (constantly throwing unavoidable explosives.) Also batman has no jumpkick move or even just kick. You can stand there and punch. A missed opportunity for a great game IMO

 

Dirty Larry: Again, good graphics and music (when it exists), but overly difficult, no continues or passwords, you eventually just run out of ammo and die. Also, when you duck, you still get hit by bullets so ducking is basically useless. No music during levels so it's like playing a beat em' up in a library.

 

Roland, it's good to hear that most games are good, I have heard that from a number of people now. I suppose people mileage may vary with different titles, that's why I'm asking for only the ones that are definitively BAD.

[roland p]

I didn't care much for Batman returns and Dirty Harry either.

 

I've just checked the list of Lynx games, and there are just not many titles that suck. Of course you don't have to like every game.

 

One game I was really dissapointed with was Dracula. It's a good looking adventure, but much too short (probably due to ROM space) with a dissapointing ending.

[+davidcalgary29]

Gordo 106 is a mess. Skip it and go directly to Toki.

 

Oh, I completely agree with this one. I've never liked the jerky camera, and the game's plot is just creepy and depressing. That being said, I don't think that it's at the bottom of the barrel.

 

 

I didn't care much for Batman returns and Dirty Harry either.

 

I've just checked the list of Lynx games, and there are just not many titles that suck. Of course you don't have to like every game.

 

One game I was really dissapointed with was Dracula. It's a good looking adventure, but much too short (probably due to ROM space) with a dissapointing ending.

 

There's been a rumour floating around for about forever that about 1/2 of Dracula was cut from the commercial release and that an unedited beta is floating around somewhere. I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for it.

 

The worst of the worst:

 

Pit Fighter

Hard Drivin'

Basketbrawl

Tournament Cyberball

Hockey (included for listing Winnipeg as "Winepeg")

NFL Football

 

Everything else is at least playable, and about half of the library is excellent. You can certainly skip Fat Bobby and Hyperdrome, which are both disappointing, and Switchblade II is just boring. I've been a perennial critic of Ninja Gaiden III, but suppose that my resistance has been worn down with time -- I just don't play it anymore.

I have to say that I quite like the gaming environment and aesthetics of Batman Returns, so can't say that it would be at the bottom of my list. I've also enjoyed Kung Food, Dirty Larry, and Hydra, and think that STUN Runner is in the top of the Lynx library, so you may have to take my picks with a grain of salt.

[+Atari_Warlord]

I can't really think of any Lynx games that I hate, but here are some that I played a lot and enjoyed:

 

Crystal Mines II

Electrocop

Gates of Zendocom

Klax

Pinball Jam

Todd's Adventures in Slime World

Xenophobe

[Casey1334]

The Bill & Ted game was terrible! Avoid it at all costs!

[roland p]

The Bill & Ted game was terrible! Avoid it at all costs!

I LOVED Bill & Ted's Excellent adventure. If you like top-down adventure games, this should be on your list!

 

Favorite lynx games:

A.P.B.

Awesome Golf

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure

California Games

Rygar

Shadow of the Beast

Steel Talons

[Casey1334]

I'll give it another chance. I just don't know what to do. I guess its better than the NES version.

[woolfman]

Batman for sure, and Hard Drivin as well.

[doctorclu]

Most games I don't like I wouldn't like on other platforms too, like sports games. Never cared for them. I think I even tried Basketbrawl which I hoped I would like in the way I like Brutal Sports Football on the Jaguar since it is sports with extreme violence, but I don't think Basketbrawl was violent enough to make up for the fact it was a sports game. Brutal Sports has swords, bombs, eventually opponents heads bouncing all over the field, and Basketbrawl had none of that, just punches and kicks, no heads flying.

 

Batman is tough. I can barely make it to the second stage, but well, this is BATMAN we're talking about here. I simply figured I am not Batman, so therefore I got my rear handed to me. As I have improved over time, I have a sense of accomplishment that I am little more Batman.

 

Also not a fan of Pac-Man games, so Ms. Pac-Man had no appeal to me when I found that at a store.

 

So to summarize, I think the games on the Lynx are generally good or accomplishing what they are trying to do. The ones I did not like I generally don't like.

 

Edit: The only exception to the sports rule above was Bikini Volley Ball.

Edited May 22, 2014 by doctorclu

[LynxVGL]

Robo-squash. (shudder) The horror... the horror...

[Thibr]

Kung food, hard drivin' and pit fighter.

[legeek]

Heh, I was pretty good at Hard Drivin' and could loop the speed track back in the day. I have no idea how it holds up now, though.

[atarian63]

I was never a fan of 'Hydra', and the LYNX version of 'S.T.U.N. Runner' only gave me headaches.

 

Also, I was born in Burlington, VT.

Stun runner is arcade perfect!

[+Stephen Moss]

You are always going to get some people while like a particular game and others who hate it.

I would suggest downloading a copy of Handy, the Lynx emulator and the game ROM's, that way you can try them and decide which for you personally are the real duds before purchasing a physical cart.

[+Nathan Strum]

Kung Food is catastrophically bad. Hard Drivin' never should have been attempted. Avoid them both.

 

My favorites would be:

 

Checkered Flag

Qix

Toki

Rampart

Awesome Golf

S.T.U.N. Runner

 

Worth trying:

 

Paper Boy (surprisingly good!)

Road Blasters

Block Out

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (I thought it made clever use of time travel)

[+madman]

I'll put another vote in for Hard Drivin'. Overall, I think the Lynx had a pretty darn good ratio of good games to bad games. Very underrated system.

[Geoff Oltmans]

I loved my Atari Lynx back in the day. STUN Runner was the main game I bought the system for since I was addicted to it in the arcade. There are a lot of great games available for it. I'll say that my least favorite were Batman, Scrapyard Dog (although looks like a decent game, was just ridiculously difficult), and Hydra.

 

I'd say it has a more favorable good/bad game ratio compared to a lot of other systems, including Gameboy.

[LynxVGL]

Oh, Turbo-Sub too. Ick.