Overrated games. EXPOSED!

[Omegamatrix]

I always hated Pitfall II. I just didn't like having to wait forever while the player backtracked to the starting point when he got hit. The music started grating on my nerves too.

 

 

The original Pitfall is still fun for me though.

[Algus]

 

I don't think Laser Blast is overrated, since it seems to be pretty-much universally hated.

 

 

I wanted to like Laser Blast so much but man there is just nothing going on there. Take a look at Astroblast with how nuts it gets at just 1k points. Now why can't you turn that around and be the attacker but have the defense get super good and fast?

 

Such wasted potential in what could have been a classic

[Atariboy]

Laser Blast is certainly a shame. Nice graphics, nice audio, clever ideas, and interesting gameplay. But the difficulty plateaus at what feels like just a few seconds in and never becomes ruthless and is always managable.

 

Wish someone would hack it to increase the difficulty since the ease of it is the only thing wrong with it.

[Torr]

Freeway came first. There was no Frogger then.

 

I knew someone would point this out...

Both games are from '81, and I remember reading somehwere that both games were being worked on at the same time and it's coincidence that they're so alike because neither knew about the other.

 

Then again, I don't trust that David Crane with his big grinny smile on the back of his game manuals... he had insider information and just wanted to beat them to the punch!

[Master Phruby]

I think the original AtariAge exclusives are overrated and overpriced. Quadrun makes absolutely no sense. It's kind of pretty to look at but what are you suppose to do? Just because it has a second of unintelligible speech at the beginning doesn't make it worth so much. Crazy Climber is a poor translation of the arcade game. Spiderman does a much better job at capturing the original game and you get to sling webs. Both games would be huge failures of released commercially.

[Hatta]

I think what makes Yar's Revenge stand out and get a little more acclaim than it should is becuase it was completely original. Not an arcade port and not a vague/reworked port of an arcade game with a new name.

 

That's exactly what Yars Revenge is though. It was originally going to be a port of Star Castle, but the coder decided it couldn't be done on the VCS. So he drew what inspiration he could from Star Castle to make a game that would work on the VCS.

 

 

Star Raiders: Starpath and Activision beat Atari at their own game. Star Raiders is OK, I guess, but I never got engaged into it like I did Phaser Patrol. Years later I would also get engrossed into Starmaster. It's hard to pick which game of the three is best, but it's certainly NOT Star Raiders. Also, why the funky controller??

 

Try playing Star Raiders on the 800 sometime. It is simply the best space combat sim until Wing Commander in 1990. Elite gets honorable mention, but I don't think the combat is nearly as fun as Star Raiders or Wing Commander. The funky controller is because Star Raiders was written to take advantage of the 800's keyboard.

[Emehr]

Trying. Can't think of any overrated Atari games. That's probably because I've never heard anybody rave about a game to the extent that the accolades outweighed the quality.

 

Pitfall gets a lot of attention because it was the first game of its kind for the Atari. I remember playing it at a friend's house back in the day and being in awe. Sure, compared to Super Mario Bros it is a little lightweight but then again, you can't run left in Super Mario Bros.

[5200FoxFlash]

I'll be honest and say Demon Attack. Good game, but I have more fun with Phoenix and Space Invaders. I do think there's quite a few people here listing games that I never thought were highly regarded at all. Certainly not Outlaw, and I had Superman back in the day and that game used to get tons of abuse from my friends.

[Master Phruby]

I've never played Superman until I recently bought it and I find it quite fun. It's a simple run around and do the tasks type of game like Adventure. I think it's still the only Superman game ever made that was well thought out and fun. Beyond this game, Superman has never gotten a decent game. I'm looking at you Superman 64!

[5200FoxFlash]

I've never played Superman until I recently bought it and I find it quite fun. It's a simple run around and do the tasks type of game like Adventure. I think it's still the only Superman game ever made that was well thought out and fun. Beyond this game, Superman has never gotten a decent game. I'm looking at you Superman 64!

 

I like it too. I think the randomness of the screens and the flickering graphics put many people off though. But think about it, they put in Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Superman, Lex and his cronies, the Daily Planet, kryptonite, x-ray vision and Superman could fly. And you had to repair the bridge and capture Lex and his goons. All of that in a 2600 cart in like '78 or '79. Most of the Superman games that followed just had you beating up guys.

[Tickled_Pink]

I have to disagree on Atlantis. I played it to hell and back - always trying to beat my last score. As for overrated games:

 

Pole Position - I'm afraid this pretty much killed my interest in the 2600. It was the last game I bought back in the day. I bought it mail order from Silica Shop and was obviously excited when it arrived but it didn't take long for me to realise it was worse than 2600 Pac-Man. It's mind numbingly boring.

 

Pitfall - Just don't get the excitement.

 

River Raid - Again, I get the feeling a lot of Activision games became 'classics' just because it's Activision. Same as Koronis Rift is a minor classic on the 8-bit because it was made by Lucasfilm. Nobody understands the game but, hey, it was made by George Lucas so it's great.

[shadow460]

River Raid is a decent game. Those who want a different flavor of vertical shmup should try Fantastic Voyage. They both get about equal play time in my house.

[Master Phruby]

I kind of like the Koronis Rift. It reminds me of the Atari ST game Captain Blood. I would call it more of a weird game like The Eidolon than overrated.

[Atariboy]

I never thought I'd see River Raid brought up in this thread. I thought everyone loved that game.

[+Random Terrain]

I never thought I'd see River Raid brought up in this thread. I thought everyone loved that game.

 

I like the randomized version better:

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/123709-thomas-jentzsch-and-a-random-river-raid-who-can-do-it/page__p__1494439#entry1494439

[Torr]

That's exactly what Yars Revenge is though. It was originally going to be a port of Star Castle, but the coder decided it couldn't be done on the VCS. So he drew what inspiration he could from Star Castle to make a game that would work on the VCS.

 

I'll be damned, never knew that!

Then again I never heard of Star Castle until the "What' the deal..." thread.

[karokoenig]

Almost forgot one that makes it to pretty much every top ten list, but never had any appeal to me for longer than 3 minutes: Centipede. I'm sorry, but I don't get the fascination with this game at all.

[5200FoxFlash]

Almost forgot one that makes it to pretty much every top ten list, but never had any appeal to me for longer than 3 minutes: Centipede. I'm sorry, but I don't get the fascination with this game at all.

 

I never liked it, mostly because I was never any good at it. I have it on the 5200 and the trak-ball makes it more interesting, but it's still not a favorite of mine.

 

As for River Raid, now that I think about it, I was never a big fan of that either. Though I can understand why many people like it.

[sqoon]

I always hated Pitfall II. I just didn't like having to wait forever while the player backtracked to the starting point when he got hit. The music started grating on my nerves too.

 

I agree on the music. They should have had an options screen where you could disable it. I beat this game more than once with the TV muted.

[BassGuitari]

River Raid - Again, I get the feeling a lot of Activision games became 'classics' just because it's Activision. Same as Koronis Rift is a minor classic on the 8-bit because it was made by Lucasfilm. Nobody understands the game but, hey, it was made by George Lucas so it's great.

 

River Raid is actually one of the few Activision titles I legitimately enjoy. For all the pomp and praise Activision games receive, most of them really just aren't very interesting. They look pretty, but there's not a lot going on. I don't mean to say they're terrible, or that they can't be enjoyed once in a while, just that I don't understand the hype. River Raid, Spider Fighter, Chopper Command, Pitfall, and Rampage(!?) are games I'll play anytime; pretty much all the rest, I need to be in the mood for.

 

Ditto for Imagic. Apart from Subterranea, Laser Gates, and Moonsweeper, there's just a lot of really good-looking "meh." Even Demon Attack and Atlantis never really grabbed me. Imagic's Intellivision library is great, though!

 

Superman is one I'll have to revisit. I've never been a fan of the Superman character (or superheros in general), so I never really bothered with it. I've played my copies a little just to make sure they worked, but I didn't "get" the game. I couldn't figure out where I was going or what I was supposed to be doing. I'll have to come back with a map!

[AtariLeaf]

 

Ditto for Imagic. Apart from Subterranea, Laser Gates, and Moonsweeper, there's just a lot of really good-looking "meh." Even Demon Attack and Atlantis never really grabbed me. Imagic's Intellivision library is great, though!

 

 

I'm the same way, I never really cared for Demon Attack which just comes across as a Phoenix wannabe or Atlantis on the 2600 (Intellivision of Atlantis is far superior IMO) but the others you mentioned are far superior games but don't get nearly the praise as Demon Attack or Atlantis. Same with Cosmic Ark. I don't see the appeal of that one at all.

[108 Stars]

Missile Command. I could never get into that game, no matter the system.

[Philflound]

I think I would go for ADVENTURE. It's rated superclassic everywhere I look, but I sincerely can't find it appealing, no matter how hard I try. But that's just my personal feeling about the gameplay. I am very much aware about its importance in the history of video games.

 

I love Adventure and every time I test a copy, I always spend a good 30 minutes playing it.

 

As for finding out how game play is for any game, just use one of the emulators and see what you think before you buy.

 

Phil

[Video]

For me, it would have to be...

 

Pitfall. Run around for 20 minutes and pick up all the gold nuggets and try not to die. I just never saw the appeal. Yeah, technically, it was cool. But I always preferred pitfall 2 I don't know what it is, but the second game just seemed so much more polished. Honestly, if the 2600 could have scrolled horizontally as well as vertically, this game would have been up with some early mario or somethiing IMO. Like I said, I don't really know what it was, maybe being able to actually die, where the first game, you couldn't really (though I guess you "died" when you got run over by enough logs LOL )

 

And this isn't hindsight or anything. I mean, back in the day when the game was fresh off the line, I still didn't care for it....interestingly, my dislike for pitfall was so great, it wasn't until the mid 90's that I played pitfall 2 for the first time.

 

Freeway would be another one. It's so bland. I know someone will say ti was first to the market over frogger, but it really felt like a "rushed to market" game, kind of like how the offbrand games or movies now always do. Thing is, wasn't it literally released only a month or two before the 2600 version of frogger? I mean, it may have been first, but it wasn't so far ahead that you could adequately say it wasn't just a cash in. Even if you just concentrated on just the road, frogger had more variety of cars, even if you locked it so you could only go up and down, it would have still been a superior game.

 

Adventure. another game I just didn't like. Oh, I could beat it, even on the randomized setting, but the "world" just felt so empty. I mean, who lives in all these castles anyways? There was literally 2 enemies, the duc....er....dragon, and the bat. I'd hazard a guess that if they had to follow the walls like you do, you'd play quiet a few games without ever running into them. While I didn't like it, raiders felt like so much more of a game to me.

 

Anyhow, my top 3, bash away

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Thing is, wasn't it literally released only a month or two before the 2600 version of frogger?

IIRC Freeway way released even before the arcade version of Frogger. And probably it because if was so early, it was just a 2k game (Frogger has 4k). So a lot of compromises had to be made.