Was every classic game really the "best game ever!" when it came out?

[Multijointed Monster Maker]

I find this very annoying when it came to game reviews. People acting like every classic game was significantly better than the last one in order of release dates. Such as every game made in 1994 had better gameplay, graphics, animation, sound, etc, than every game made in 1993, and 1992 and so on. Every single then-cliched aspect in a game, people pretend like it was the first game that ever done it, even if it was done better in a game 5 years prior to. Everything is some Oh-My-God technical accomplishment that nobody thought was possible despite being already used in 100 games by then.

 

Everytime somebody plays an SNES game and see a screen-filling boss, they are like Oh My God, I didn't know the SNES could do that?, it must've been some technically impressive programming going on. ...Except that having screen-filling bosses was commonplace in the NES era.

 

I'd complain about a game lacking in a graphical aspect "for example lack of boss animation in Chrono Trigger" and the usual response is:

 

"Remember that it was 1995 and that the SNES was only 16-bit. Technology wasn't that advanced yet. It was still the best the developers were capable of under the limited technology they had and bla bla bla!"

 

Dude, ever play Super Mario World? That came out 5 years prior to Chrono Trigger and THAT had animated bosses?

[Austin]

Eh.....

 

Am I the only one that has been facepalming a lot lately in the Classic Gaming General forum? Just wondering...

[Koopa64]

Dude, ever play Super Mario World? That came out 5 years prior to Chrono Trigger and THAT had animated bosses?

 

SMW is a platformer and Chrono Trigger is an RPG... Your point? They are two completely different beasts. From a programming standpoint, a platformer is nowhere near as complicated as an RPG. Think of all the Monster AI that has to be programmed, which is just the tip of the iceberg.

[chrisbid]

the lack of boss animation hampers your enjoyment for chrono trigger?

 

lame

 

 

you either like the game or you do not. do not rationalize your position based on technicalities. fun isnt a sum of logic, it is a feeling.

[Multijointed Monster Maker]

the lack of boss animation hampers your enjoyment for chrono trigger?

 

lame

 

 

you either like the game or you do not. do not rationalize your position based on technicalities. fun isnt a sum of logic, it is a feeling.

 

No. It being an RPG hampers my enjoyment for Chrono Trigger.

[Multijointed Monster Maker]

Dude, ever play Super Mario World? That came out 5 years prior to Chrono Trigger and THAT had animated bosses?

 

SMW is a platformer and Chrono Trigger is an RPG... Your point? They are two completely different beasts. From a programming standpoint, a platformer is nowhere near as complicated as an RPG. Think of all the Monster AI that has to be programmed, which is just the tip of the iceberg.

 

I don't want to sound like I have a platformer biased, but how in the world is an RPG more complicated to program than a platformer?

 

RPG's don't have physics, enemy AI, object management, dynamic animation loading schemes, etc, etc.

[Gabriel]

No. It being an RPG hampers my enjoyment for Chrono Trigger.

 

Thanks for confirming that you're not worth paying attention to.

[chrisbid]

the lack of boss animation hampers your enjoyment for chrono trigger?

 

lame

 

 

you either like the game or you do not. do not rationalize your position based on technicalities. fun isnt a sum of logic, it is a feeling.

 

No. It being an RPG hampers my enjoyment for Chrono Trigger.

 

 

thats fair, but then what is your point?

[HatefulGravey]

No. It being an RPG hampers my enjoyment for Chrono Trigger.

 

So why did you bring it up at all then? Seems like you wanted to point out that you don't like it, and then compared it to a game you do like. You pretend not to like it because it isn't a technical wonder on par with modern gaming but then say you just dont like RPGs... I'm not following you on this one.

[Koopa64]

RPG's don't have physics, enemy AI, object management, dynamic animation loading schemes, etc, etc.

 

Wrong. physics and collision detection are aren't THAT complicated (or at least, GOOD physics and CD). Enemy AI in a platformer? Are you for real? *Koopa go left, if hits wall, go right, if falls into pit, remove from level* That's pretty damn simple compared to an RPG monster that needs to calculate all of it's moves if it wants to be anywhere near convincing enough. How would you like an RPG monster that only attacks, blocks, attacks, blocks etc for the whole battle? That's pretty lame. Now if a Monster could know when to use a healing power (if it has one) on itself or it's comrades, or if maybe it should use a special attack right now, run away, block or any of that stuff. I suppose a really difficult RPG would let the monster look at the hero's statistics, which adds even more to the math needed for all the monsters.

 

EDIT: Fixed a typo.

Edited April 11, 2011 by Koopa64

[Multijointed Monster Maker]

You pretend not to like it because it isn't a technical wonder on par with modern gaming.

 

I was doing it sarcastically because I was criticizing those kind of people.

 

People keep trying to convince me to start liking RPGs because of stupid technical shit, when no amount of stupid technical shit is going to make me want to play a game if I don't find the game fun.

Edited April 11, 2011 by Multijointed Monster Maker

[Koopa64]

Seemed like pretty serious complaints to me, however retarded they were.

 

If I try to convince someone to like an RPG, I tell them to think of the strategy involved with surviving, instead of how boring it might otherwise appear to be.

[toptenmaterial]

It is true that programmers pulled off some fancy tricks on limited hardware- nowhere is this more evident then on our dear old 2600. This is also somewhat true on the SNES (for what I've read) with mode 7 creating some pretty believable 3D. Now, in terms of "this game was sooooo revolutionary", I do wonder if the revolutionary part is inevitabe. I have always sighted NES games like Super Mario Bros and Zelda for defining post-crash gaming, but the question is, were they the essential building blocks of the post crash industry in terms of steering us away from high score arcade type games? Remember too that everyone wants to identify with their favorite games and put them on a pedistal, and I'm just a guilty as the next nerd.

[Petran79]

I was not amazed with the snes graphics due to an amiga 2000, 4 years prior to the console's release.

There were great 16 bit (non-japanese) rpgs too.

If you want my opinion, at that time what mattered more was a trademark, something that would shape the new breed of players. Out of nowhere came Link, Mario, Sonic and other games from japan, replacing previous video game characters. To the older players it did not matter and they might have hated those games. But to us kids who could not afford a pc or play complex games those games were labelled as classics. Now i find a lot of flaws in them and adult gamers back then would have done the same. But there was a dichotomy between pc and console players, with arcades been the only uniting factor when we were together.

[Tr3vor]

How would you like an RPG monster that only attacks, blocks, attacks, blocks etc for the whole battle?

 

See Dragon Warrior. I like that game.

 

Anyway this thread has turned into a "your opinoin vs mine" thread. Typical.

[Koopa64]

RPGs being complicated programs is not an opinion. Hell, even Watermelon, the guys who made Pier Solar on the Genesis (very good RPG I might add) said that RPGs take a lot of processing time to be any good. One of the team members said that they couldn't have a lot of monsters on screen AND animations for them at the same time, so they kept the onscreen monsters low and gave them some nice animations.

[Cynicaster]