Games you didn't expect much from... then they won you over

[mikey.shake]

inspired by the “which games were you excited for... then disappointed with” thread...

Which games were slow burners that won you over unexpectedly? Despite owning a handful (Space Invaders, Galaxian, Spider Fighter, Phoenix, ), I was never a huge “vertical space shooter” fan. I liked them, I respected them, I understood their place in gaming development, and I even completely understood why people like them -- but I rarely ever wanted to play them myself.

Then I picked up Demon Attack. I only got it because it was a dollar and it’s raved about by certain shooter fans. I threw it in, expected to play for 5 minutes then move on, but I’m hooked. I played for over an hour straight the night I got it, and another last night. In spite of my usual complaints about shooters like that (repetitious/no variation, limited gameplay), I can’t help but love it. I'm not even any good, but I keep playing it.

What about you? Any games you expected little from, only to find yourself addicted?

[Army Of 2600]

The original Football went from awful to awesome once I hit my twenties and discovered drugs.

[+KaeruYojimbo]

Up n Down. I never played the arcade version and the screenshots of the VCS version looked terrible, but I found a copy last year and it's been a lot of fun to play.

[+cvga]

For me it's Kaboom! I was never overly excited about this game as a kid but find it highly addictive now.

[BassGuitari]

For me it was mainly games I'd never heard of or knew much about, or that simply flew under the radar.

 

Star Ship: I don't know if I'd even heard of this one when I came across a beat up copy in 2003, so I didn't know what to expect. Firing it up didn't really clear up any questions, nor did the fact that I couldn't get the game to do anything. Once I figured out the game uses the right joystick instead of the defacto P1 left, it quickly became one of my favorite 2600 games. Primitive, yes, but multiple gameplay modes and competitive 2-player games keep this one fresh for me.

 

Canyon Bomber: What's really great about Canyon Bomber is the "B-Side" that nobody talks about, Sea Bomber.

 

Air-Sea Battle: Another early game that's fun in small doses but really comes alive with two players, whether the default Anti-Aircraft games or the Submarine or Bomber/Polaris games. I only wish the computer could at least act like it wasn't just laying on its fire button.

River Raid II: For years this was one of those games that I really WANTED to like but in my heart of hearts just didn't. Years later, I can honestly say I think this is a great game, and a great example of the depth of gameplay being exhibited in 2600 games in the system's twilight years.

[Super Bagman]

There's probably a few others I'm not thinking of in the moment, but one that comes to mind is Infiltrate by Apollo. I got it in a lot of carts years ago, and figured I'd give it a try. It's a bit repetitive with the elevators and goal appearing in the same spots each game, but the gameplay is fast, the playfield is colorful, and its a lot of fun in short bursts. I did need to read the instuctions online; I assumed given the name 'Infiltrate' that the enemies were spies or enemy agents, but without explanation they sure look a lot like McDonalds' Fry Guys.

[Tinman]

The original Atari Football was far more fun than it should have been, but the one that really surprised me was Superman. For some reason, I had low expectations for it, but it ended up being one of my favorite games.

[Atarian7]

For me it's Kaboom! I was never overly excited about this game as a kid but find it highly addictive now.

I feel the same way. When I was a kid I don't think I could get past level 5. About 13 years ago I decided I would try to master the game I couldn't even play as a kid. I didn't play it as consistently

as I do now but played off and on until I started participating in the "What have you actually played" tracker. Now I play almost every day , but still haven't reached 999,999.

[Mister-VCS]

RealSports: Volleyball

[Papa]

Rampage (2600)..I expected it to suck but it turned out to be a very fun port.

 

Double Dragon (7800). I played the living crap-lights outta this game until my hands hurt (1 1/2 minutes.. jk) and I beat it with help from my coaxed kid brother.

Joust (VCS). I was not a big fan of the arcade game, but was pleasantly surprised by how the simplified VCS port was. Bird A$$, as it's called. Now I like the arcade game a bit, too.

 

Kaboom. I thought it looked stupid but was actually hooked pretty hard.

 

Defender (VCS). I also thought the arcade game was just full of distractions and very hard to play. I thought the VCS port was funner (I'm weird like that).

 

Asteroids (A$$-turd-roids.. ) (VCS). The arcade game was frustrating for me due to the lack of any real controls, but I could play the VCS one well and my wife and I enjoy it (oops, I teleported..). She cannot be beaten in this game and I really need to put up a picture of one of her scores, 'cause it's ridiculous.

 

Galaga (7800).. I didn't like the box art and thought they should have tried to accurately portray the ship, but was surprised at how great it plays and, again, the wife loves it big time and plays it in our arcade.

 

Pacman..I wasn't really into ol' Puckman when it was all over the arcades, but really had fun with the VCS version. I played it a lot and am currently loving the 4K and 8K versions. 8K is just awesome!

[Ransom]

Seaquest (2600). It seemed like it'd just be yet another shooter, but the play mechanic is compelling. It's as much of a "one more game..." cart as Kaboom! for me.

 

Dig-Dug (2600). I'd moved on to the 400/800 by the time this came out for the VCS, so when I got it years later I didn't expect much. But it's actually one of my favorite implementations of the game. The graphics aren't much, but the play is solid.

 

Crystal Castles (2600). Same as with Dig-Dug, I didn't expect much form this. I mean, how well could the VCS do Crystal Castles? As it turns out, it can do it pretty darned well.

 

Blueprint (5200). I never saw this in the arcade, and from the description it didn't seem to be my kind of thing. But, once I sat down with it, I was hooked. It's a solid game that keeps me coming back for more.

[BassGuitari]

Fast Eddie and Fantastic Voyage were others for me. I wasn't expecting anything from Fast Eddie at all (just the name sounded stupid) but it ended up being a great game. I didn't know what to expect from Fantastic Voyage since it seems like it's rarely discussed, and I was surprised by the quality of it.

Oh, and Warplock. It's probably made its rounds on "Worst 2600 Games" lists, and while it can't truly be called a "good" game, I've had a lot of fun with this one. Can't go wrong with paddle shooters. Ditto for Astroblast; at first blush it's just a port of Astrosmash, but it takes on a life of its own with paddle control.

[BigO]

I knew nothing about Supercharger games. Once I got a Supercharger and the Stella Gets a New Brain CD I found I quite liked playing Communist Mutants from Space. Now I play it on my Harmony.

[WolfAmongWolves]

Shark Attack, which I bought as a kid. I knew I was taking a risk because the back of the box didn't have a picture of the actual gameplay on it, so I was purchasing it on the strength of its box art and exciting description only. I remember opening it in the car while my mom was driving home, and feeling utterly disappointed when the gameplay pictures in the manual suggested I had blown about a month's worth of allowance on a Pacman clone. I didn't have a lot of games back then, so wasting my sparse allowance on a clone of a game I already owned was a huge bummer. I inserted it in my Atari with really low expectations, and was then pleasantly surprised over and over again. I loved the way you had to finesse the corners to avoid getting stuck in the seaweed. I loved the way you had to return to the shark cage in the center of the screen in order to score points for the gems previously collected, which added a whole new layer of strategy. The first time the Loch Ness monster appeared it almost gave me a heart attack, and its appearance (especially that sound) definitely quickens my pulse to this day. But the absolute best feature was the two-player mode, which switched to the other player each time a screen was cleared, so you didn't have to wait forever for your turn if the other player was good. I'm not aware of any other Atari game that does this, and I still enjoy Shark Attack to this day.

[R.O.T.S]

Cosmic Ark and Joust

[+Cafeman]

Stampede. The game rocks but I ignored it for a long time.

[JamesL]

For what should have been just another run of the mill shooter from an obscure 3rd party, I really like Encounter at L5. The 3D effect (the ships getting larger the further they come down from the sky), and using the paddles to fire your cannon in different directions when you hold in the fire button, are 2 unique features that set this game apart IMHO.

[Feralstorm]

Adventure and Superman. both are easy games to dismiss on first look or first play, but the fun really creeps in with a little perseverance, and better understanding of the nature of the games.

[LynxHandyCaster]

Turmoil: I don't recall this game at all back in the day, but I heard a few solid reviews about it just last year, so I picked up a cheap loose cart on eBay. It's a really fun, fast-paced game with colorful graphics and great sound. I love it.

[Cynicaster]

 

 

I was never a huge “vertical space shooter” fan. I liked them, I respected them, I understood their place in gaming development, and I even completely understood why people like them -- but I rarely ever wanted to play them myself.

 

Same for me. For example, Galaga. It's OK I guess, but if I'm at an arcade, the game choices would have to pretty slim (or available time pretty abundant) for me to ever be bothered dropping a quarter in that game. But for some reason, Megamania is one of my favorite 2600 games nowadays. I had the game growing up but didn't find it all that interesting back then. Not sure what changed, but I love it now.

 

 

 

I really like Encounter at L5

 

 

 

Turmoil: I don't recall this game at all back in the day, but I heard a few solid reviews about it just last year, so I picked up a cheap loose cart on eBay. It's a really fun, fast-paced game with colorful graphics and great sound. I love it.

 

Yes, and yes.

 

The 2600 is great, but for me, the games are primitive enough that they usually require at least some level of "nostalgia" to keep me interested for more than 5 minutes; I often have a hard time getting enthusiastic about "new to me" games on the system. That's not to say it never happens, though, and the Harmony cart has been very enlightening in this respect. These are two games that I will go back to time and again to play, even though I never played them in the 80s.

[VectorGamer]

Death Star Battle was a game I owned for years and never played it. I hate having to read manuals to learn how to play a game but I did for this one and ended up loving it.

[Epx998]

..... ET

[+TwentySixHundred]

Reactor by Parker Bros: Booted it up, took one look and thought 'you got to be joking' however within minutes i was hooked and wouldn't hesitate to place in my top 20 favorites.

 

Mountain King by CBS: Really did not like pressing up to jump although the gameplay is fairly solid.

 

Code Breaker by Atari: Believe it or not but i received the game as a present back in the day, well it wasn't much of a game but as it was in my collection i gave it a go. Turned out for some odd reason i actually enjoyed playing it regularly.

[BassGuitari]

Code Breaker by Atari: Believe it or not but i received the game as a present back in the day, well it wasn't much of a game but as it was in my collection i gave it a go. Turned out for some odd reason i actually enjoyed playing it regularly.

I'll have to give Codebreaker another shot. I last fired it up over 10 years ago and I remember having some fun with it, but somehow never came back to it. Must not have felt like digging out my keyboard controllers and hooking them up.

[Nutsy Doodleheimer]

Blueprint. I would have thought this game would have been a kiddy game and somewhat confusing. But I actually tend to like it. The 5200 version would be much better due to the non self centering controls. It's almost a game of concentration and memory to remember where the pieces of the contraption are. And I was confused on why the bullet doesn't shoot fast when attacking Ollie Ogre. You have to hold the joystick up as you fire. Overall, I really seemed to enjoy it.