Console with the most "Because we can"games?

[godslabrat]

Hi all,

 

Thought this might be a fun topic, I'm intentionally leaving it open-ended.  What system had the most games that featured design choices that just screamed "we did it this way just to show we could"?  I mean cases where tech tricks were used to no real gain, or the game was more complex than it needed to be.  Were some systems just more prone to experimentation gone wrong?

[NeonSpaceBeagle]

A lot of the racing games on the Wii were like this. Completely not needed motion controls. I was always grateful for the ones that gave u the option to play with a regular control. Some only allowed you to play with the Wiimote turned sideways was an utterly garbage play to way ( I'm looking at you Cruis'n Wii!)

[jerseystyle]

4 minutes ago, godslabrat said:

Hi all,

 

Thought this might be a fun topic, I'm intentionally leaving it open-ended.  What system had the most games that featured design choices that just screamed "we did it this way just to show we could"?  I mean cases where tech tricks were used to no real gain, or the game was more complex than it needed to be.  Were some systems just more prone to experimentation gone wrong?

Like 80% of the Wii library. Loved that system, and using motion controls to choke a prostitute with piano wire in Godfather never gets old.

[jerseystyle]

1 minute ago, NeonSpaceBeagle said:

A lot of the racing games on the Wii were like this. Completely not needed motion controls. I was always grateful for the ones that gave u the option to play with a regular control. Some only allowed you to play with the Wiimote turned sideways was an utterly garbage play to way ( I'm looking at you Cruis'n Wii!)

But man, when it worked… like Excitetruck. Good times.

[NeonSpaceBeagle]

It was good on that one definitely. I would have liked the option to play that game with a regular controller. Okay now I want to play that again. 

 

 I also don't like games that force you to have a human avatar.  

[Tanooki]

DS was prime for this and ruining good games with bad forced touch controls.

Super Mario 64 DS doesn't play or work correctly using the control pad and buttons, but if you use the touch pad as this very poorly implemented touch panel joystick using this rubber nub as a touch hat(it's attached to the system wrist strap) it works correctly as it will get, in another word, awful, and still crap.

 

Both Zelda games removed d-pad use entirely for touch only, but all the motion and enemies in game need good control, but you're stuck drawing where to go, and if you move your hand even a bit too quickly Link does this fast wobbly dodge roll, and while somewhat improved tweaked in the 2nd game (spirit tracks) the original is a rolling going to kill you nightmare of awfulness.

 

The list goes on trying to force games to use touch where the implementation was either a forced bad (or so called optimal) choice or just not coded well so it's just slop when having traditional controls could have given the game another 8-10/10 quality game that turns into a 3-7 range pile of feces.

 

The Wii did this too with pointer and waggle as people panned it for.  Don't want to use a button for a feature, waggle the controller or flick it.  It's dumb, especially in an action game like Mario where you hold it, but while running have to ungrip a hand to flick to use the popular spin/crash style move.  Or where like Skyward Sword even with so called 1:1 control (motion plus) doesn't work right making it a trial of frustation if not out right raging because the sword mechanics are crap and you need a precision swipe or poke, or the enemies will probably hit you but definitely dodge it perfectly...over and over.

 

Nintendo did wonders with DS and Wii, but some games, popular franchises included were just utterly degraded because of stupid choices of 'because we can' since the unique setup allowed for it, so we'll FORCE IT.

[Steven Pendleton]

Wii, Wii U (tablet controller, which may or may not be optional, depending on the game), DS, and to a lesser extent 3DS come to mind. There's a reason that some games stopped being in 3D on the 3DS near the end of its life.

 

lol forgot game.com. Sonic Jam on game.com alone is worthy of a mention.

Edited October 12, 2021 by Steven Pendleton

[Mikebloke]

Let's be honest the switch was a bubbling nearly 20 year design process starting with the gamecube gba connector, the wii and the wii u alongside DS and 3ds to create their little masterpiece. Despite my dislike for Nintendos legal practice and their hardware deficiency, I liked the idea of all these machines, but felt they were all really underwhelming and not taken advantage of correctly. On DS things like brain training took full advantage of the touch screen, but then things like the yoshi game was just a bit pathetic. 

 

Going back further, if un- advantaged features is the requirement, I would go as far as the intellivision and its controller. Realistically a lot of games don't take advantage of it, and this is highlighted by the lack of a traditional controller which would have worked better. Colecovision gets a pass because at least they had some alternatives, but they still lack a traditional controller. 

[+jgkspsx]

On 10/11/2021 at 9:04 PM, Tanooki said:

Super Mario 64 DS

 

Both Zelda games

I 100% completed SM64DS with the thumb pad. It’s the only way I’ve ever seriously played SM64 (no N64, mever got around to it on 3D All Stars) and I kinda loved it tbh.

 

I am very much in the minority, but I much preferred Phantom Hourglass. I liked the single dungeon and didn’t think the backtracking was too bad. I loved (loved!!) the touch controls.

 

Spirit Tracks was okay but the train thing was a bad idea for the franchise, the characters were terrible compared to PH, and by the end (trying to get to the ocean city) it just becomes unbearable trying to avoid the friggin demon trains.

[roots.genoa]

When I saw the title of this topic, I didn't expect it would be about gimmicky features of the consoles but rather about the games themselves.

 

So I was thinking of systems that got really ambitious ports just for the sake of it, like:

• the ZX Spectrum: Street Fighter II and its huge sprites for instance
• the PC Engine: China Warrior which is more of a technical demo than a real game of course, and the Art of Fighting port which tries to recreate the zoom effect from the NeoGeo original game. It kinda works but it was clearly done "because they could".
• the Game.com (Duke Nukem!) and Tiger LCD games (the fighting games which are necessarily limited in terms of roster)

I'm quite fascinated by that kind of stuff, similar to some crazy homebrew ports we've seen recently (Doom or Shadow of the Colossus on Atari 2600, Dead Space on Spectrum, Prince of Persia on Intellivision, etc.).

[+jgkspsx]

Resident Evil 2 is the ultimate “because they could” of the game.com. High definition grayscale graphics, sampled sounds, and no music actually work for it. I tell you, people, it’s worth a try…

 

 

(Some/all emulators play the sound samples at half speed, so look for videos of real hardware where possible.)

[Pixelboy]

On 10/11/2021 at 9:04 PM, Tanooki said:

The list goes on trying to force games to use touch where the implementation was either a forced bad (or so called optimal) choice or just not coded well so it's just slop when having traditional controls could have given the game another 8-10/10 quality game that turns into a 3-7 range pile of feces.

While Castlevania - Dawn of Sorrow was definitely a good game, the inclusion of the magic seal mechanic was indeed a very bad idea.

[+jgkspsx]

Yeahhhh. I forgot about that. The penmanship tests of the DS era are not missed.

[DragonGrafx-16]

If you Play Super Mario 64 DS on a 3DS it is better.

[Tanooki]

On 10/17/2021 at 5:42 PM, DragonGrafx-16 said:

If you Play Super Mario 64 DS on a 3DS it is better.

How exactly?  Secret code to make it use the analog joystick?  If that's the case I'll not re-list it on ebay and try it again.

[roots.genoa]

Maybe he meant 3DS' resistive screen is better than DS' (which is absolutely true).

[Tanooki]

Yeah it's true, but the game still controls like shit, well depending how you are at doing touch controls, or if you dare try using the d-pad alone.  The way it ends up floating about, how your thumb tends to handle a smooth surface pretending a joystick is there will increase or decrease into hatred your experience of the game.  If you're someone who tends to drift because your thumb can't find a touchable d-pad/joystick, it's rubbish.  If you are someone who can robotically lock our thumb into place so the fake on screen stick is 100% accurate then can work out well.

[mbd39]

SNES developers liked to show off mode 7. There was scaling and rotation all over the place even when it didn't benefit the game at all.

 

Sega CD with its emphasis on FMV.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DragonGrafx-16]

17 hours ago, Tanooki said:

How exactly?  Secret code to make it use the analog joystick?  If that's the case I'll not re-list it on ebay and try it again.

You can use the analog joystick. It might not be as good as if the game supported analog control in this manner, but it is better than the DPAD. Also I played this game using the DPAD just fine back in the day.

[electricmastro]

SNES games that tried to be fast as if to try to prove it could be as fast as the Sega Genesis:

 

 

[roots.genoa]

Which reminds me of Radical Rex that looks like it tries to beat the record of the biggest amount of animations (idle or not) for a mascot.

[Lord Mushroom]

Playstation 1. All those crappy 3D games.

[DragonGrafx-16]

On 10/20/2021 at 1:27 AM, electricmastro said:

SNES games that tried to be fast as if to try to prove it could be as fast as the Sega Genesis:

 

 

Eeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwww... the rotation of the screen in that game...

[nester]

It makes me think of Road Rash on Sega CD having unrelated music videos attached to show off the system’s improved sound. They’re super grainy too

[electricmastro]

On 10/21/2021 at 12:59 AM, Lord Mushroom said:

Playstation 1. All those crappy 3D games.

Yeah, games like Barbie Explorer, which look like Tomb Raider clones on the surface, but play more like Crash Bandicoot.