Game you never figured out the point of?

[Foxy Cleopatra]

Okay I was never the best classic gamer. I kicked butt at Burgertime on the Intellivision, and actually beat Adventure but the one game i never could figure out nor play was Joust. That game was just a quarter-sucking, Game Over-flashing horror for me. Anybody else have a game they could just NOT play?

[MegaManFan]

Okay I was never the best classic gamer. I kicked butt at Burgertime on the Intellivision, and actually beat Adventure  but the one game i never could figure out nor play was Joust. That game was just a quarter-sucking, Game Over-flashing horror for me. Anybody else have a game they could just NOT play?

 

Somebody's gonna shoot me for saying this...

 

Final Fantasy.

 

I'm sorry, but I never played this game back in the "classic" era and when I got into Final Fantasy games I started with VII. I had no problem working my way back to Final Fantasy 4 (FF2 SNES) 5 (PSX) or 6 (FF3 SNES) because I could deal with the semi-3D graphics and music. FF1 is just a little too primitive for me though, especially given that I expect Legend of Zelda type RPG's on an NES platform and well.. FF just bores the shit out of me. I play it for five minutes and I start falling asleep.

[liquid_sky]

Timber. Sure it was fun and all, but it gets old pretty fast.

[chrisbid]

final fantasy 1 is very overrated. the first console RPG of merit IMO is Phantasy Star

 

Im kindof a tweener in terms of classic gamers (im 26), i had an intellivision in the early 80s, but i was too young to play any arcade games of the day very well. So except for the few games ive put some time into in recent years (galaga, ms pac man, etc), im pretty bad at most classic arcade games

[MegaManFan]

final fantasy 1 is very overrated.  the first console RPG of merit IMO is Phantasy Star

 

Even if I wasn't an SMS fan, I'd have to agree.

[Ze_ro]

Personally, I think Ultima 3 was the first "good" console RPG... but I was always a big Ultima fan on the C64, so my opinion is somewhat biased I guess. I also never liked the combat system in the Final Fantasy games. It seems so un-strategic to not be able to avoid hits.

 

As for games I never figured out, I'd have to say that Dragon's Lair and Myst topped my list. Dragon's Lair is a good cartoon, but the gameplay is simply awful. Why people shelled out quarters for this is beyond me. As for Myst, it's a decent puzzle game, and has nice graphics (although nothing revolutionary... it's just still shots), but I never thought it was very fun.

 

I also have to mention "realistic" FPS games like Counterstrike. Pardon the pun, but "realism" is unrealistic, and no matter how hard you try, making a game realistic and fun at the same time is an exercise in futility. Obviously, there are people that like it... but I'm not one of them.

 

--Zero

[Mindfield]

The first game to truly stump me beyond any reconcilliation was Destructor on Colecovision. I was 11 at the time, and borrowed it from a friend, but had no manual or anything. I did have the steering wheel it required tho -- I was quite addicted to Turbo. Upon plugging it in and spending, over the period of a few days, four or five hours on it, I just couldn't work it out. I was this bug-like vehicle with front-mounted pincers, starting each game at a home base. I could pick up these crystal things. Somewhere around was this nasty insect-type thing that followed me around and would kill me if it touched me. After barricading myself in a tight spot by placing crystals in its path, I discovered it could eat through them and still get at me eventually anyway. The point of it all, however, completely eluded me.

 

It took a good 16 years and the mirable of emulation before it occured to me to try taking the crystals back to home base...

[eric_ruck]

Anyone want to explain Quest for Quintana Roo (5200) to me?

 

Eric

[NE146]

final fantasy 1 is very overrated.  the first console RPG of merit IMO is Phantasy Star

 

Even if I wasn't an SMS fan, I'd have to agree.

 

First RPG I ever played on a console was Phantasy Star.. I loved it and played it several times (heck I'm playing it NOW on the GBA). But afterwards I got Final Fantasy and liked it just as much! They're pretty much different, and each has their qualities.. Final Fantasy sure did evolve rather steadily though. But Phantasy Star is always a favorite. They're both good.

 

oops.. guess I was a little off-topic there eh

[cimerians]

swordquest.

 

I had no clue what was going on with this game back in 1983.

 

I still don't understand it.

[RMila75]

I have never been able to play Gravitar with any success.

Never have figured out Orb-3D.

And I don't think I ever lasted more than a few seconds on Dragon's Lair.

[Ze_ro]

I never understood The Sims either. I loved SimCity (up until 3000, where I just couldn't keep up with things), but The Sims was just a giant bore-fest to me. There was no real purpose to the game other than performing more and more mundane tasks. At least in SimCity you had the success of your city as a goal. I guess this is one of those things you either love or you hate.

 

I never bought the game, but a few of us got together at a friends house, and someone brought it. We had it installed long enough to convince two girls in the game to kiss, and then we uninstalled it. As far as I can tell, we beat the game.

 

Although I never much appreciated Pokemon, at least there was a point to the game..

 

--Zero

[Ze_ro]

As for games I could never figure out how to play, I think Sentinel on the C64 was brutal. It seems like it would be an interesting game if I could figure out what was going on though.

 

--Zero

[NE146]

AHA! THAT'S IT!!! SIM CITY.

 

Man what the heck is the point of that game So I built a city.. then I look at it.. then it just never ends! :?

[deadtech]

I may be mistaken, but I think in some versions of SimCity 2000 at least, if you get enough Arcologies built, they will launch off into space. And the game will end at that point. I have never personally seen this occur, BTW.

 

-deadtech

[Ze_ro]

I think that was just a rumor...

 

Besides, once you could build Launch Arco's, the game lost all it's appeal, and your population just skyrocketed to stupid levels. Once I got this far, I usually limited myself to just a handful of Arcos to make sure the game stayed sane.

 

Man what the heck is the point of that game So I built a city.. then I look at it.. then it just never ends!

 

The sad part is that I always cheated at this games. Always. Then I'd just build for hours, and I had tons of fun. Every time I even tried to play the game fair, my town died a slow and painful death.

 

I'm still not sure how I can like SimCity that much, yet completely despise The Sims...

 

--Zero

[joeybastard]

The first game to truly stump me beyond any reconcilliation was Destructor on Colecovision.  I was 11 at the time, and borrowed it from a friend, but had no manual or anything.  I did have the steering wheel it required tho -- I was quite addicted to Turbo.  Upon plugging it in and spending, over the period of a few days, four or five hours on it, I just couldn't work it out.  I was this bug-like vehicle with front-mounted pincers, starting each game at a home base.  I could pick up these crystal things.  Somewhere around was this nasty insect-type thing that followed me around and would kill me if it touched me.  After barricading myself in a tight spot by placing crystals in its path, I discovered it could eat through them and still get at me eventually anyway.  The point of it all, however, completely eluded me.

 

It took a good 16 years and the mirable of emulation before it occured to me to try taking the crystals back to home base...

 

I LOVE DESTRUCTOR!!! I had the same problem although I had the book. It just took me forever to bother to read it. My vote for this topic is The Sims (so incredible dull and slow to me) and Myst. I was amazed at the beauty of Myst and bored out of my skull playing it.

[MegaManFan]

The sad part is that I always cheated at this games. Always. Then I'd just build for hours, and I had tons of fun. Every time I even tried to play the game fair, my town died a slow and painful death.

 

A-yup. Once we found out there was a cheat for SimCity, everybody got the $1,000,000's of money and just went wild building stuff. If you played "fair" you ran out of money way too quick, and if you raised taxes to get more everybody abandoned your town. It was ridiculously too hard.

[George Gray]

Okay I was never the best classic gamer. I kicked butt at Burgertime on the Intellivision, and actually beat Adventure  but the one game i never could figure out nor play was Joust. That game was just a quarter-sucking, Game Over-flashing horror for me. Anybody else have a game they could just NOT play?

 

Dig Dug. What the hell? Even today, it just goes over my head. Call me stupid. It's on my Namco Museum Collection (N64). I try and try. But, alas, it escapes me.

 

I used to have the same opinion of Tempest. That is, until I got that Microsoft Arcade collection several years ago. Now, I get it!

[chromizone]

wth??? i mean myst was AWESOME its only people that have never played anything but fast paced ACTION-type games that hate it i mean if you actually play it for lets say a couple of days to try and progress you will start to LOVE this game the puzzels are awesome.....

 

ne wayz out side of that i would have to say the game i just NEVER got the knack for would have to be..... dance dance revolution

 

i dont know what it is but... i just CANT play that game

i mean its fun and all but.. i just suck

[+RangerG]

It's Fathom for me. I know I need to look at the instructions, but I have before and I still get confused about when and how to change from a fish to a bird to a something and then why am I searching for pieces of a trident?? I know this games has its fans, but how long does it take to finish and do you then just start over? I don't get it -- maybe I'm just a simpleton

[Ze_ro]

What about Ecco the Dolphin? I bought this game a while back, and couldn't really get anywhere in the game. It's an interesting concept, but something's just not clicking for me. A friend of mine had the same experience, and he couldn't even get past the first part where all you have to do is jump out of the water! I'm really surprised this game got such good reviews...

 

And Myst is still boring

 

--Zero

[Nukey Shay]

Any "adult" title for the Snes. I could never figure out if this was supposed to be erotica or something else (?) With the gfx hues chosen, the images could be girls who were excited, or just had bad kidneys. And they looked waaay too young to be in an adult game in the first place.

 

 

Those bizarre asians again.

 

Regarding SimCity (Snes)--

I've got a city up at Zophar.net that has over a million sims. No police, no firemen, 20% taxes, and NO POWER...they won't move away. [/plug]

[Mindfield]

I LOVE DESTRUCTOR!!!  I had the same problem although I had the book.  It just took me forever to bother to read it.  My vote for this topic is The Sims (so incredible dull and slow to me) and Myst.  I was amazed at the beauty of Myst and bored out of my skull playing it.

 

Oh, don't get me wrong, I liked playing Destructor. I just didn't get it, not one iota. I just tooled around shooting crystals at that nasty bug thing, but really not accomplishing much.

 

As for The Sims -- I suppose it's an acquired taste. I actually find it kinda cool. Sort of like playing God with people. Something about manipulating the minutae of virtual people's every day lives that's somehow oddly satisfying. Not in that power-trippy sort of way -- well, not for me, anyway, but more in that vicarious lifestyle sort of way. It lets you do in virtual space what none of us really get to do in real life: Observe and shape someone's -- or several someones' destiny from a safe distance without any of the real hardships that exist in reality. I guess it's a bit of escapism into a world that's far closer to a Utopic world than we'll ever know. Lame? Maybe. Personally, I'd like to design a virtual city simulator where you can walk around anywhere, go into stores, affect anything and everything in it. It sounds a bit weird, but it'd kinda be relaxing in a way -- like going out for a walk without the grassy patches covering land mines of dog poop... no, there'd be no point. But then I'm the kinda guy that likes to explore every nook and cranny of every game I play regardless of whether or not it's relevant to the game.

 

And Myst? It's 1.1 gigs of eye candy and 2 megs of actual, useful code. The first time I played a game like that (it was The 7th Guest) I said, "I could write a game like that without all the crap FMV on one disk." (referring, at the time, to an Atari ST disk) I never followed through, but I'm still certian I could have. In compiled GFA Basic, no less. Of course, the same goes for pretty much any of those FMV puzzle games.

[Nukey Shay]

I hear ya...how about Mystery House? That one had everyone who had tinkered around with the Apple's graphics kicking themselves when it launched an entire software company.