Games on the Lynx that really stynx

[Jess Ragan]

So yeah, I've got a really good Lynx emulator for all my Vita systems. There are lots of fine games to play on the system, but instead of any of those, I decided to try Viking Child. Hey, it's a platformer with adventure elements! There aren't too many of those on the Lynx, so it's got to be at least a little entertaining, right?

 

Uh, nope. You play as a big-eyed dwarf with Donald Trump hair, crawling through the Swedish countryside at intolerable speeds. Occasionally, you meet badly drawn enemies which sap your strength if you don't dispatch them quickly with your (butter) knife. Unfortunately, your Viking child doesn't do *anything* quickly, and his blade would be better suited to spreading jam on toast than slaying monsters, no matter how badly they're drawn.

 

After a painful half hour, I reached what looked like a giant chihuahua. I managed to slay it, but my injuries (and boredom) were severe enough that I didn't last very long after that. When my last Viking child died, the game unceremoniously ended, and I had to enter my name in a high score list (because that totally makes sense in an adventure game like this). On the plus side, all the designers were listed there too, so at least I know who to blame for this mess.

 

The game is hugely disappointing, and often for the most bewildering reasons. If your character had moved twice as fast (and how hard would that have been?) it would have been a lot more tolerable. Hiring an artist who could make goblins look like goblins and not square-headed monstrosities would have helped, too.

[Atari_afternoon]

As a gamer, who, right after the Atari VCS, came of age and grew up with DOS shareware collections, I think Viking Child fits its time, no more, no less; I wouldn´t call it hugely disappointing but it is average and mediocre and could have been much more like Sega´s Wonderboy...gameplay-wise, I find it much like "Switchblade II" which is is really enjoyable, just quiet throughout.

Try something like Rygar, or Battlewheels - either is far from lame and you feel you are actually making progress and getting somewhere

Edited August 26, 2016 by Atari_afternoon

[+davidcalgary29]

Viking Child wouldn't be anywhere near the bottom of my 'worst of' list.

 

Not Fun:

 

Tournament Cyberball

Pit Fighter

 

My Eyes! My Ears! (and Not Fun):

 

Hyperdrome

 

The Award for Most Depressing Concept:

 

Gordo 106

 

...and the Worst of All Time:

 

Hard Drivin'

[Flojomojo]

Batman Returns on Lynx looks good, sounds OK, but plays awful.

 

Even if Hard Drivin' didn't have wretched controls and a low framerate, people would hate it because it looks so simple. But yeah, it's pretty poor, and I say that as someone who liked a fair amount because of the fun arcade version.

 

Even a bad Lynx game is still pretty fun, IMHO.

[racerx]

Let me toss Basketbrawl in this mess. Ugh.

[Jess Ragan]

Cyberball seems like it wouldn't be much fun to play on any game system, let alone the Lynx. Same goes with Hard Drivin', which was so far ahead of its time thematically that it didn't even run well on its own arcade hardware. Trying to port it to a Genesis or a Super NES or a Lynx is an exercise in futility.

 

You quickly understand why there were so few platformers on the Lynx. The system's games were designed by Westerners, and I don't think they had really gotten a grasp of what makes a platform game good. Toki was an exception, but a Japanese game was its template, so...

[pixelperfect]

Is there a list of all the games ranked in order by the community? I think there's only 72 games so might not be too hard of a task. I haven't played every Lynx game, but maybe around half or so.

[Flojomojo]

If you can find the Robert Jung reviews of Lynx games, they're all graded, so a ranking wouldn't be too hard to make from that

[Flojomojo]

There's this

 

http://www.thejagzone.com/jaguar/lynx/reviews.html

[pixelperfect]

Sweet! OK so I removed the duplicates and went with Jung's score in that case for simplicity. I probably should have averaged them together. Ah well, anyway, here's worst to best:

 

Game Title Score

Basketbrawl 4

NFL_Football 4.5

Double Dragon 5

Gordo 106 5

Pit-Fighter 5

Super Off-Road 5

Switch Blade II 5

World Class Soccer 5

Dirty Larry Renegade Cop 5.5

Gauntlet III 5.5

California Games 6

Hard Drivin' 6

Tournament Cyberball 6

Kung Food 6.5

Fidelity Ultimate Chess 7

Hockey 7

Lynx Casino 7

Malibu Bikini Volleyball 7

Ninja Gaiden 7

Pac-Land 7

Paperboy 7

Qix 7

RoboSquash 7

Todd's Adv. In Slime World 7

Toki 7

Viking Child 7

Xenophobe 7

Bubble Trouble 7.5

Crystal Mines II 7.5

Dinolymics 7.5

Dracula The Undead 7.5

Electro-Cop 7.5

Gates of Zendocon 7.5

Rygar 7.5

Shadow Of The Beast 7.5

Turbo Sub 7.5

Ninja Gaiden III 7.7

Baseball Heros 8

Batman Returns 8

Bill & Ted's Ex. Adv. 8

Blockout 8

Desert Strike 8

European Soccer Challenge 8

Hydra 8

Ishido 8

Jimmy Conners' Tennis 8

Ms. Pac-Man 8

Pinball Jam 8

Xybots 8

A.P.B. 8.5

Chip's Challenge 8.5

Rampart 8.5

Robotron:2084 8.5

Scrapyard Dog 8.5

Awesome Golf 9

Blue Lightning 9

Lemmings 9

Rampage 9

Road Blasters 9

Slime World 9

S.T.U.N. Runner 9

Warbirds 9

Zarlor Mercenary 9

Battlewheels 9.5

Klax 9.5

Steel Talons 9.5

Checkered Flag 10

Joust 10

Shanghai 10

Edited August 27, 2016 by pixelperfect

[Jazzoff2000]

Be good to start some kind of poll... to each there own, I guess. It's interesting to hear everyone's opinion, though. California Games was quite low on that list, but I love it, for example...

Edited August 27, 2016 by Jazzoff2000

[+davidcalgary29]

Can't quibble much with that list...with the exception of a few titles. California Games was a great initial pack-in and deserves better. And seriously...Zarlor Mercenary a 9? Paperboy, Xenophobe, and Toki are also among the top 10 games. And Klax should've got an 11.

[pixelperfect]

Yea and Steel Talons one of the best games? Hmm.. I mean I liked it a lot as a kid, but I don't think its top 5 material.

 

I wish I could still edit the post, I realized Slime World is on there twice, and I think 3 or so games might be missing. I will have to double check them.

Edited August 27, 2016 by pixelperfect

[Atari_afternoon]

I find the list pretty much fitting my own taste. But Double Dragon is actually quite fun, in multiplayer you can play it for ages and even have a proper conversation besides because unlike Rampage, it doesn´t get harder.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Cyberball seems like it wouldn't be much fun to play on any game system, let alone the Lynx. Same goes with Hard Drivin', which was so far ahead of its time thematically that it didn't even run well on its own arcade hardware. Trying to port it to a Genesis or a Super NES or a Lynx is an exercise in futility.

 

You quickly understand why there were so few platformers on the Lynx. The system's games were designed by Westerners, and I don't think they had really gotten a grasp of what makes a platform game good. Toki was an exception, but a Japanese game was its template, so...

Two of my bitd games were Pacland and Toki. Both great platformers and well done arcade ports IMO. Ditto for Ninja Gaiden.

 

Oh wait, this is a thread for "bad" Lynx games...

[Jess Ragan]

Well, it started that way. I stand by my opinion of Viking Child, by the way... I watched a longplay of the PC version and it runs much faster (but doesn't look particularly fetching either).

[BadPricey]

Hard Drivin'gets a lot of criticism. For what it is it's really a technical achievement to have the game on the Lynx. It's not brilliant but it's not as bad as everyone makes out. Tournament Cyberball takes the crown of worst Lynx game.

 

With regards to Viking Child, you downloaded a Rom for free and it didn't live up to your expectation. Nothing really lost there then ?

[Emehr]

Hard Drivin' was ambitious but it's not bad. If it controlled as well as Steel Talons it would be just as good and I love Steel Talons. The arcade game is awesome and it's difficult to replicate that in any home variant.

 

When I think of bad Lynx games I immediately think of Dirty Larry (nice artwork but boring), Kung Food (good concept and artwork but also boring), and Gordo 106 (terrible artwork and bad gameplay). Viking Child feels uninspired to me but I don't think it's a bad game from what I've played.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Never played them but I've heard Kung Food and Basket Brawl were pretty bad. As in "so bad, it's good" territory...

[+davidcalgary29]

Kung Food doesn't qualify. It's got a mediocre game concept that's let down by poor controls; not terrible, and sort of fun in five-minute segments. Basketbrawl, though...

[Level42]

Let me toss Basketbrawl in this mess. Ugh.

Boooo ! I like it ! Strategy is simple.....use the nerdy default player, and on the higher levels slash and hack all opponents until you can keep scoring points one after the other while they lay knocked out....

 

Actually the average quality is rather high on the Lynx IMHO....

 

Hard Drivin' is often misunderstood as a concept. It was the world first decent emulation of real driving and racing. I had two sit down cabs at one point in time.....but got depressed by the amount of work they needed.....and sold them. Emulating such a game without (force-feedback) steering wheel, adjustable seat, pedals and shifter is pretty pointless.....not good on any platform.....

Edited August 28, 2016 by Level42

[MathUser]

Bill & Ted dissapointed me. Why couldn't someone make a straight action game instead of this rpg/exploration stuff.

[leech]

I used to love Basketbrawl.. In fact it seems the beat 'em up sports genre has completely disappeared and now we just have normal sports games, which are pretty boring to me. I think Basketbrawl needs a remake.

 

Speaking of Hard Drivin', I should see if I can get my Logitech G27 working with MAME.

[Trew]

Bill & Ted dissapointed me. Why couldn't someone make a straight action game instead of this rpg/exploration stuff.

I actually like that Bill & Ted was something totally different. It's the nearest thing to a Zelda-ish RPG on the Lynx.

 

Agree, it's probably not what most people were expecting, but glad it's there.

[Andromeda Stardust]

I used to love Basketbrawl.. In fact it seems the beat 'em up sports genre has completely disappeared and now we just have normal sports games, which are pretty boring to me. I think Basketbrawl needs a remake.

 

Speaking of Hard Drivin', I should see if I can get my Logitech G27 working with MAME.

Not sure if it qualifies as a beat-em-up but NFL Blitz (N64) was the best football sim ever. Hard hits and no penalties! Later entries in the series eventually got neutered because the NFL made them tone down the unnecessary roughness factor. NBA Jam was another awesome game with no basis for realism.

 

I think pro sports licenses make modern sports sims less fun because the governing bodies issuing the licenses expect realistic rulesets and gameplay mechanics. BITD hyperrealistic sports games were not achievable due to hardware restraints so devs had much more creative license when it came to mechanics and number of players, etc. The standouts of sports games were the ones that took an over-the-top approach to the genre.

 

However without a pro license, modern sports games don't stand a chance with the cool croud because players wanna duke it out with their favorite teams. I'm not suggesting Basketbrawl is a great title by any means, but realism =/= fun. It's why kart racers are popular as hell. Mario Kart is infinitely more fun from a gameplay perspective compared to say NASCAR. 250 laps of drafting around on a donut track in a video game is excruciatingly boring.