Is Flipout as bad as they say?

[EmOneGarand]

Well, I need to eventually get this for my collection lol but going through all my old Gamepros for reviews on all the retro stuff I collect for the Flipout review is pretty fresh in my memory from back when I first saw that review which wasn't very good. (long before I had given the Jag a chance when I played Blue Lightening on a demo unit at a No Body Beats the Wiz lol.. does that chain still exist?) So heres my questions and opinions (from having never played it)

 

Graphics: Gamepro called them pretty bad, 8-bit to some degree. I found that claim rediculous. The graphics being prerendered looked pretty good to me. Now Gamepro had it's biased moments but they were pretty lenient to the Jag unlike some other magazines, hell they did a special review section on the Telegames releases back in 96 ( need to dig out that mag again ) Since I've never seen the animation I can't really say if their review holds any truth. How is this game graphics wise?

 

Gameplay: It's a puzzler which can only go so far but I love a good puzzler, Gamepro said it's a decent puzzler but the controls and rules of playing were alittle frustrating. What does everybody else think of the gameplay?

 

Sound: They said it's pretty average and not annoying. I kinda believe them here, after playing Kasumi Ninja I can understand bad music lol.. but alot of other Jag games had excellent music. Your opinions?

 

Replay Value: What I really wanna know is if this is a game you can pick up and play on a weekend when you have nothing else to do, or is this a game that people generally just buy for the sake of owning for their collection?

 

Either way I'll eventually own a copy lol but I would like to hear others opinions first.

[BuddyBuddies]

Well, I need to eventually get this for my collection lol but going through all my old Gamepros for reviews on all the retro stuff I collect for the Flipout review is pretty fresh in my memory from back when I first saw that review which wasn't very good. (long before I had given the Jag a chance when I played Blue Lightening on a demo unit at a No Body Beats the Wiz lol.. does that chain still exist?) So heres my questions and opinions (from having never played it)

 

Graphics: Gamepro called them pretty bad, 8-bit to some degree. I found that claim rediculous. The graphics being prerendered looked pretty good to me. Now Gamepro had it's biased moments but they were pretty lenient to the Jag unlike some other magazines, hell they did a special review section on the Telegames releases back in 96 ( need to dig out that mag again ) Since I've never seen the animation I can't really say if their review holds any truth. How is this game graphics wise?

 

Gameplay: It's a puzzler which can only go so far but I love a good puzzler, Gamepro said it's a decent puzzler but the controls and rules of playing were alittle frustrating. What does everybody else think of the gameplay?

 

Sound: They said it's pretty average and not annoying. I kinda believe them here, after playing Kasumi Ninja I can understand bad music lol.. but alot of other Jag games had excellent music. Your opinions?

 

Replay Value: What I really wanna know is if this is a game you can pick up and play on a weekend when you have nothing else to do, or is this a game that people generally just buy for the sake of owning for their collection?

 

Either way I'll eventually own a copy lol but I would like to hear others opinions first.

Flipout could be worse,but really its not that bad,although there isnt much to it,still a fun game in a weird way,lol....

[Gunstar]

It's a unique puzzle game with multiple puzzle games and unique/interesting graphics. It's well done IMHO, but I'm not a big puzzle game fan.

[ovalbugmann]

Is Flipout as bad as they say?

 

that review which wasn't very good.

 

Graphics: Gamepro called them pretty bad, 8-bit to some degree. I found that claim rediculous.

 

Gamepro had it's biased moments

 

can't really say if their review holds any truth

 

Yeah, it's a pretty unique concept puzzler, pretty fun and challenging and humorous. It does have good replay value and doesn't get boring. It has good graphics and decent sound. I picked up a cart only, no manual version on ebay, and I found myself enjoying it within minutes, and I am a shooter fan! It took about 5 minutes to understand the controls then a halfhour later I was completing levels and really enjoying it. It's kind of funny there is an alien that gets in your way and can get squashed under the tiles. Not bad, Good for a puzzler game.

 

I wouldn't believe the reviews in the magazines or online as you should know by now, anything Jaguar is not going to rate very high in the magazines especially with the more current reviews online. It's just someone's opinion, and you know what they say about opinions. Just like with movie reviews if Ebert & Roper say, "this is a mindless violent nonsensical movie with no plot, rampent unwarrented nudity, and runs for far to long because of poor editing so we give it a two thumbs down" Well then, I know this movie is going to be great! and will try to see it. It's all about opinions, and none is "correct."

 

However, I really do like to read all kinds of reviews, walkthroughs, ads, write ups of a game, etc. that I am playing or are going to buy, just to get all the info on it I can, even if it is negative, because I think when you read about a game it gets you more into it and I find all info on a game I happen to be researching, entertaining. And whatever someone says about a game in any form is only for your information purposes only, a potential guideline but certainly not a fact, because you will, and should, come to your own conclusions about it after you play it. How would anyone know what you will like anyways, they can only tell you their opinion. My opinion is yes, it's worth buying, and you could go the cart only route on ebay (about $10) and print up a manual from Atariage.

Edited June 14, 2007 by ovalbugmann

[EmOneGarand]

thought I'd share what GP had to say

[Gunstar]

Gameblow is the reason magazines are refered to as "rags." They were probably the most biased against the Jaguar of any mag of the time, and their claims here are obviously worthless and totally exagerated, like the blatantly ridiculous claim that FlipOut looks like something for the Gameboy, with the screen shots right next to that blurb that show it to be obviously at a graphic height that the Gameboy could never reach, even in B&W. They always just made fools of themselves IMHO. While Blue Lightning isn't the best Jag game out there, and does have flaws, it's obviously better graphically than the far older Afterburner and IS faster too. I'm not saying it's better gameplay wise, I won't go that far, but these two reviews are good examples of how low gameblow will go...one could look in issues of other magazines of the day at reviews of these same games, magazines that, like most, still always gave the jag a bad rap, and STILL get a review/ratings much higher than what Gameblow passed off as gaming literature. If you want reviews of Jaguar games that are at least close to truthful, from that era, Diehard Gamefan was one of the few that at least gave the Jag the benefit of the doubt and at least really tried to give an honest review, mainly from one of the writers on staff at the time with the handle of Takara, IIRC, who was a person who at least liked the Jag as a gaming console. Most other writers, and definately Gameblow's writers, were all a bunch of Nintendo and Sega lovers who would bash all things Atari just becuase they were fanboys of the Jap systems. I would stake my life that half the time they wouldn't even play the game before writing a review, and IF they actually did play it, it was anything but quality time like an honest reviewer should do, after all, it's their job. I've read blogs from some of these people years later blatantly stating that they would only play a Jag game for literally a couple minutes just to say they played it, then write a biased review so they could make their favorite system's look better and make the Jaguar look like crap. There are a few Jaguar titles that have general concensis from jaguar fans that are bad, and we'll let you know what they are, but other than that, it's basically comes down to your personal preference and you can't trust anyone but yourself to decide if the game is good or not. And most Jag games are decent to fantastic. less than ten I would consider as subpar or terrible.

[+LS650]

Well, in my humble opinion Flipout is a pretty poor game. Graphics are okay I suppose, but certainly not anything better than you might find on the Genesis or SNES.

 

Gameplay is where FO falls down. The first couple of puzzles are fine, but after that it just gets repetitious and boring. On a scale of 1 to 10 I'd be hard-pressed to give it a 5.

Edited June 14, 2007 by ls650

[ovalbugmann]

Thanks for the scan, man! I like seeing old print articles on the Jaguar, I never saw them back in the day.

[eric_ruck]

The graphics aren't that great but serviceable I suppose. The animation is pretty terrible. I like the idea of the puzzle but I found it way too easy.

 

Eric

[Pete5125]

The Gamepro review wasn't that far off...the graphics seemed good to me not mind blowing 64Bit you couldn't do that on Nintendo...but its a puzzle game (did Tetris on the NES show off the 8 bit graphics power of the system or did it show me a game that could be done just as well on my TI-85/Atari 2600).

 

Puzzle games are ment to present a small challenge to get you hooked then increase in difficulty. That said w/ this and Zoop being your only real puzzle games on Jag I would rank it as #2, I still think Zoop has more replay value.

 

The problem is while Flip-Out is a simple enouth Ide you flip tiles so that you can complete a level...Flip-Out added a new unpredictable chalenge and that is the little alien guys that are rooting for you to finish help the game cheat in that they will eat your tiles, jump on tiles to mess up the flips, graphity your tiles.

 

This doesnt sound bad but it is like trying to play connect 4 against a 2nd player and a 3rd guy randomly comes by to throw blue checkerds in the game boardwhich make it where you cannot beat player 2 for an extra 10 moves when it would of only took a few moves to win.

 

This is why Flip-Out never became Atari's answer to Tetris or even as popular as Klax or known as well as Zoop.

 

I bought the game for $5 it was ok played it a few times but I didn't realy get into the game...while biased the Gamepro review was acurate...(graphics seem beter than 16bit to me)

[+davidcalgary29]

The Gamepro review wasn't that far off...the graphics seemed good to me not mind blowing 64Bit you couldn't do that on Nintendo...but its a puzzle game (did Tetris on the NES show off the 8 bit graphics power of the system or did it show me a game that could be done just as well on my TI-85/Atari 2600).

 

Puzzle games are ment to present a small challenge to get you hooked then increase in difficulty. That said w/ this and Zoop being your only real puzzle games on Jag I would rank it as #2, I still think Zoop has more replay value.

 

Both are terrible, IMO. I've always had an irrational hate for Flip-Out, but most saner individuals have also had a hard time loving this title because of its bland and washed-out colour palatte, irritating graphics, and terrible controls.

 

Homebrews aside, there's only one good puzzler for the Jag, and that's Vid Grid. It's such a shame, as the Jag would could do an awesome job with a port of Lumines.

 

And yes, GamePro was full of it, because anyone who loved Klax will be horrified by Flip-Out.

[ZylonBane]

Gee david, troll much? Flipout's color palette is hardly washed out-- if anything, it's excessively vivid. And the controls? You have a cursor. It moves when you press the joypad. What the hell is there to complain about?

[+davidcalgary29]

Well, it looks like I've rooted out one fan of the game!

[+orpheuswaking]

I really liked flipout, it's a simple concept and easy to play... I play it probably every couple of months if I have a spare hour

[Gunstar]

Well, in my humble opinion Flipout is a pretty poor game. Graphics are okay I suppose, but certainly not anything better than you might find on the Genesis or SNES.

 

Gameplay is where FO falls down. The first couple of puzzles are fine, but after that it just gets repetitious and boring. On a scale of 1 to 10 I'd be hard-pressed to give it a 5.

 

The graphic resolution and 16-bit color (65,000) is FAR beyond ANYTHING the SNES or Genesis could do alone. Regardless of gameplay. That's what is so obviously biased about people saying games look 16-bit on the Jaguar; sure, it may be a game that could easily be DONE on a 16-bit machine, but only at a lower resolution and FAR lower color depth. A game may PLAY like a 16-bit game, but the graphics, if nothing else, propel it to the level of 32 or 64-bit. PERIOD.

[+Stephen Moss]

Personally I think its ok to play now and again when I am bored of playing everything else in my collection but its not a game that I actively search out, for one IIRC its not that difficult until you get to the last planet.

Second they are too many alien mischief makers to remember what effect each one has (for me at least).

Third although generally good I don't think the graphics for the mischief makers are good enough to distinguish which one is which even if you can remember what they all do.

So better than Club Drive but no better than average IMO.

[+LS650]

A game may PLAY like a 16-bit game, but the graphics, if nothing else, propel it to the level of 32 or 64-bit. PERIOD.

Pffft. "PERIOD."

C'mon, don't be such a fanboy. No, the graphics aren't that impressive.

[82-T/A]

This is how I feel about the game. It IS a fun game, but it's one of those kinds of games that you more or less need to be in the mood to play. That said though, the graphics are as good as they could possibly NEED to be, for a game of this type. It is more or less just a puzzle game (unless I'm mixing itup with one of the others?). But once you're into it, it is pretty addictive and it is fun to play. The game doesn't slow down at all at any point.

 

I say it's worth buying. You can probably find a copy on eBay shipped for less than $20.

[Gunstar]

A game may PLAY like a 16-bit game, but the graphics, if nothing else, propel it to the level of 32 or 64-bit. PERIOD.

Pffft. "PERIOD."

C'mon, don't be such a fanboy. No, the graphics aren't that impressive.

I'm not saying the graphics are necessarily impressive, just that the SNES or Genesis couldn't pull them off by the mere fact that the SNES and Genesis don't have 16-bit color depth for the 65,000 colors used in the graphics of this game. What's so hard to accept about that? It's simple fact. And as I stated earlier, I don't really like this game, so it has NOTHING to do with me defending it for "fanboydom."

 

Could the game be made for the SNES or Genesis? Of Course! But they would be restricted to 256 or 64 color respectively! Therefore, the Jaguar version is NOT a 16-bit game, it requires the 32-bit and/or 64-bit processors in the Jaguar to display the graphics at it's 65,000 color depth mode. I re-iterate...PERIOD.

 

Now if we were discussing Flashback, which is basically the same game and amount of colors as the Genesis version, with only smoother animation, then yes, it could be considered no better than a 16-bit game, or we could compare Pitfall: The Myan Adventure to the SNES version, which both only use 256 colors, and again, only slight improvements in animation were made for the Jaguar version, then again we can say it's no better than a 16-bit game. But we are talking about FlipOut!, which uses 16-bit color only available in the graphic mode that the 32 and 64-bit RISC chips offer, that the SNES and Genesis don't have!

Edited June 16, 2007 by Gunstar

[+LS650]

Pfft. 16 bits worth of color and 2 bits worth of gameplay.

[Gunstar]

Pfft. 16 bits worth of color and 2 bits worth of gameplay.

That may be true, but it doesn't change the fact it's more than a 16-bit system do.

[+LS650]

It's still a crappy game.

[Pete5125]

Personaly, I wouldn't give more than the 5-10 range. it is an ok game w/ major gliches(Cheating aliens) and no 2 player game that I remeber.

In my ranking it is 1 of the bottom 10 cart games. I would only buy it for completeness but both Vid Grid and ZOOP are 100 times better than it...I know now that everyone has told you it is bad you will play it and justify it; Hey its not as bad as Checkerd Flag at least I can controll the pieces, its not as bad as Supercross 3-d at least it doesn't slow to a craw when more than 2 things are on screen, Hey it has music so it must be better than Trevor McFur, etc etc.

 

But, play it w/ an open mind is as good as any other puzzle game I have played...nope(it cheats).

[DracIsBack]

They were probably the most biased against the Jaguar of any mag of the time

 

While I don't disagree with your arguments, I still maintain that this title falls to ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY.

[Gunstar]

They were probably the most biased against the Jaguar of any mag of the time

 

While I don't disagree with your arguments, I still maintain that this title falls to ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY.

It is a close call with several magazines back then, out of the dozen or so, but there were one or two as I recall that were more even handed with Jaguar reviews, (Diehard)Gamefan was one, becuase they had one or two staffers who owned&liked the Jaguar, at least as a secondary system. I also recall another mag that gave honest reviews, but I don't recall it's name, I think it was VideoGames mag(though I could be completely wrong, but I'll use VideoGames as a place-holder here). I came across it near the Jaguar's end, and it had reviews of Missle Command 3D and other late, top Jag titles in it and the reviews were honest and spot-on. Then there were a few, including EGM(which I don't deny is one of the worst, if not the worst, as you feel) who were pro-Jag early on, but after Atari failed to get more softrware to market quicker in the first year or so, on top of some of the bad releases like Checkered Flag and Kasumi Ninja, among others, they were both disillusioned with the Jaguar and also taking "donations" from the other video game companies to dis' the Jag and promote their respective systems. But they (EGM and others) did a COMPLETE 180 and went out of there way to trash even very good Jaguar games. (DIEHARD)Gamefan was one that at least stayed fair to the end in most reviews, even if they started disrespecting the Jaguar in general as a viable option near the end. The blatant bias was clear when standing at a magazine stand with a mag like EGM or GamePro sitting there next to Diehard Gamefan or VideoGames, and the same games in EGM&GamePro were given very low ratings, but in Gamefan or VideoGames very high, MC3D was one of several treated in this manner. Of course we all know the general consensis in the Jag community is that MC3D is a good-great game, so the truth is out there...

Edited June 17, 2007 by Gunstar