What So Many Games Need: MISSION SELECT (once game is won)

[+kisrael]

SLIGHT SPOILERS FOR WINDWAKER BELOW

 

 

 

 

Something that's been bugging me lately...you know what a lot of games really need these days? Mission selects. Like maybe as a prize for finishing the game.

 

Games that would benefit from this treatment are Metroid, Zelda: Wind Waker, and GTA3 and GTA:VC. Anything that has either big boss fights or other one time challenges/missions.

 

What I'm thinking is some kind of menu, that would either bring your character back to where he or she was upgrade wise (well, Metroid/Zelda--GTAs it doesn't matter so much) or where they were likely to be. (with both Metroid and Zelda, you likely have a certain set of weapons before entering each boss fight or dungeon, only things like hearts/energy tanks differ. It might take too much gamecard memory to remember all the details, that's why I'm willing to let it round off...)

 

SLIGHT SPOILERS

Interestingly, Wind Waker kind of has something like this, where you fight 4 or so of the biggest monsters again, though in a nightmarish monochrome version, with the equipment you had when you first fought them.

END SPOILERS

 

Of course it seems that w/ 8 game slots, GTAs offer something like this...the trouble is, they only show the name of the mission you just beat, not the names of the missions that are available to you. (I mean they can't, since there's usually more than one...sometimes I try to juggle the save slots, using 3 or 4 for saves that have the ripest set of interesting missions available) It seems like it would be pretty easy to have a menu that let you pick from the titles of all the missions you beat, and then put you at the game's starting save point, normal health, no weapons, and just that mission start available.

 

Same with Metroid, where it would show you the names of the boss fights, and maybe you'd start out at the save point near there, either with a typical loadout for that point in the game, or what you had when you saved there before the fight last time.

 

I guess the thing is I'm really mostly into the boss fights and specific missions for these games. The random running around doesn't do a lot for me. (Going back to the Wario World thread, I've since read somewhere that Banjo-Kazooie only has one bossfight, at the end. And DK64 has a lot of bosses, wih exactly the boss select menu I'm talking about. That might be why I like it so much better even though it's probably not as good as platformer game...)

 

Are you with me on this? Wouldn't it be nice to just sit down to one of these games, pull up a menu, and then just spend 10-20 minutes playing a favorite mission, and then go do something else? Or do you think it would "detract too much from the story" or something like that?

[+kisrael]

Aw, dang it, I thought this was a pretty good idea/topic...

[liquid_sky]

wait until tommarrow or tuesday, alot of people surf mainly via work

[Malix]

I would agree with this on GTA3. I was pretty pissed to put that much time into the game and get that ending!

 

It would have been nice to be able to select any mission I had completed and go back and play them when I chose to. Some of them were pretty cool.

[RCmodeler]

Some games do have this. Like Spy Hunter. Or most FPSes like Goldeneye/TimeSplitters. Usually I just create multiple saves. I have around 20 saves for FF10... each just prior to a favorite boss. Unfortunately you can't do that with the Cube's savecard design (Zelda only has 1 save slot per game).

[+kisrael]

Some games do have this.  Like Spy Hunter.  Or most FPSes like Goldeneye/TimeSplitters.  Usually I just create multiple saves.  I have around 20 saves for FF10... each just prior to a favorite boss.  Unfortunately you can't do that with the Cube's savecard design (Zelda only has 1 save slot per game).

Yeah, a lot of games get it right...like Attack of the Clones.

 

The trouble is, your first time through you don't know that this is the save right before the favorite boss....I guess you could always use something like a 'temp slot'...

[RCmodeler]

If you just spent a while slogging through a dungeon, and then suddenly a save spot appears... guess what... 90% of the time you're about to fight a boss.

 

I think I originally had ~40 saves for FF10, but then I trimmed it down to my favorite sections.

 

Another thing games should have is a theater so you can go back and watch the FMVs and cutscenes. FF10 has that, and I think it's a brilliant idea. It also lets you hear the nice, calming music instead of buying a soundtrack.

[Wntermute]

Simpsons: Hit & Run has a Mission Select feature, for missions you've passed (plus the "current" story mission). It's helpful to go to previous levels once you've unlocked stronger/faster cars in the quest for 100%.

[AtariDude]

I think the original Tomb Raider did this when you beat the game. I know that taking out the dinosaur using the Uzis was much easier than when I had to do it the first time (no I did not do it the cheapie way by shooting from the little cave).

[+kisrael]

If you just spent a while slogging through a dungeon, and then suddenly a save spot appears... guess what... 90% of the time you're about to fight a boss.

Yeah, but depending on the game, you don't know WHICH boss, or how likely you are to want to replay it...

 

A lot depends on the mechanics of the save function, if you can give your own title, or if it gives you a section name, or if you can transfer saves, etc.

Another thing games should have is a theater so you can go back and watch the FMVs and cutscenes.

I agree though I tend to find cutscenes a lot less interesting than good boss battles.

 

I think developers might resist mission select the same way Radiohead doesn't want to sell singles but whole albums only.

[bargora]

When I came back to console games in 1997, the first game I seriously played through all the way was Colony Wars by Psygnosis. CW lets you select any mission you've played through and view any cinema you'd seen once you reached one of the game's branching endpoints. And with a password, you could open up the entire thing.

 

When I saw that this was not the way things were for most games, I was really surprised. I don't want to have to dedicate two entire memory cards to Driver just to be able to play that one mission over again. And while there may be a mission select code out there that I could input for Driver (I forget), there are plenty of games that don't even have a mission unlock code.

 

SLOPPY. SHODDY. Low replay value. This is one thing that has always amazed me about console games versus computer games.

[Brad2600]

You are aware kisreal that the GTA games have non-linear gameplay. This means that a mission select would defeat the purpose of offering open ended gameplay. Well, maybe not but it could spoil the surprises for some that lie beyond completed missions.

[+kisrael]

You are aware kisreal that the GTA games have non-linear gameplay. This means that a mission select would defeat the purpose of offering open ended gameplay. Well, maybe not but it could spoil the surprises for some that lie beyond completed missions.

How could it spoil the surprise, if it only let you select from missions you've already one? (not that any of this matters, because the game designers will do whatever they want, but I'd have them make it so beating a mission that you selected from the mission select doesn't auto-start the next one.)

 

But one of the cool things about GTA is that there seem to be relatively few variables that change in the city over the course of the missions; some clothing stores are open or closed in VC, some properties are bought or not in VC, some gangs hate you more, but that's about it.

[Avid Fan]

This feature is cool but it bit me in the ass in Hulk. I was stuck on a level for a few weeks (one of those shitty Bruce Banner levels) so I used a level select code, and now, it doesnt save to what level I last beat, it makes me select the mission, but I often forget which one I was on