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[PATV] Wednesday, July 25, 2012 - Extra Credits Season 4, Ep. 23: Games You Might Not Have Tried: 16
Posts
My favorite game on that console, though, and one I still play, to this day, is Aerobiz: Supersonic. It's a little-known Koei title, that simply adore. Basically, you run an airline, during various eras of commercial aviation, ranging from the dawn of the jet age into the supersonic future that never materialized. The world is impacted by various historical (and hypothetical) events such as wars, disasters and where the Olympics are being held. It's a great strategy title, even by Koei standards, mostly because it's so accessible. It's not like Romance of the Three Kingdoms where you spend your first few months with the game totally overwhelmed before you figure out what you are doing.
It's also impressive in that it really did see the future of commercial aviation. During the 2000-2020 scenario, the new, hypothetical aircraft come in two varieties, the supersonic planes and the high-capacity superjumbos. I've played through that going with both types, and the supersonic planes are a sure-fire way to bankrupt your airline. Much like how we're seeing more and more today, bigger planes, not faster ones, are the way forward.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ClanOfTheGrayWolf?feature=g-user-bul
http://thebestgameneverplayed.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/mass-effect/
http://thebestgameneverplayed.wordpress.com/2011/07/14/28/
Young Merlin - an adventure/puzzle/action rpg that was developed by Westwood Studios. Top down view, but you gather relics to solve various puzzles around the map, similar to a Metroidvania. It's really one of a kind.
King Arthur's World - Another hard to describe classic. The object is to get the king to the treasure/exit at the end of the stage. You have a set amount of various types of units with different skills (Archer, Engineer, Knight, Wizard, etc) and have to deploy them from your tent and send them out into the world. Think lemmings, but with slightly more controllable units. If you ordered your knights to march, but didn't tell them to stop, they'd march right into traps, enemy hordes, catapult fire, etc. You could even use the SNES mouse with this game.
Metal Warriors (golden age LucasArts) and Cybernator - Better known side scrolling, mech action games. Metal Warriors had various mech types scattered around the level and you could hop out of your mech Blaster Master style to get a new one. The old one would hang around and enemy soldiers could hop in your mech that you left behind. In some cases, you had to get out of your mech to flip a switch and the enemy would steal your mech if you weren't careful. The two-player mode on Metal Warriors is absurdly fun
N64 was good times for sure, but the greats were all Mario & the gang, Star Wars, GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, Tony Hawk...
Going through the NA games list, it's tough to even find 5 games both good and non-mainstream. I'd say Wave Race, Jet Force Gemini, Blast Corps, Pilot Wings and... Conker's Bad Fur Day?
Even then I'm sure everyone has at least heard of those if they ever owned an N64.
EDIT:
Also Mischief Makers.
it's worth noting that talking about that stuff is against the rules on these forums.
Amazon wish list | My dumb deviantArt page | Steam Wishlist
doesn't matter. forum rules are forum rules
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Or leisure.
Amazon wish list | My dumb deviantArt page | Steam Wishlist
I'm not seeing the rule that mentioning that these can be emulated is forbidden. I saw the rule that said discussion of piracy is forbidden, but to the best of my knowledge, it is possible to create image files of the game cartridges for use with emulators by hand. This seems to suggest that emulation, in and of itself, is not forbidden.
You can type the word emulation in a sentence, but you can't say "We should all emulate these games, here's a link."
It's against the rules to advocate emulation, or it's against the rules to advocate piracy of roms?
If the forum rule target emulation and not piracy, then:
- it's a stupid rule for a gamer forum
- it's hypocritical, since I'm sure Extra Credits used emulation to make this video
Definitely to the latter, hazy but leaning towards "yes" on the former.
I mean let's be honest here, when people talk about emulation, 99.9999999% of the time, they're not talking about the practice of buying a flashcart, flashing their old cartridges, and preserving them for posterity. They're talking about pirating roms. So when they post emulation resources and go "Oh no, we're all on the honor system, this is strictly legit," it obviously smells a little lame, and puts Penny Arcade in an awkward position, legally speaking.
Suppose it turns out Capcom or some other large modern publisher currently holds the rights to one of the games mentioned above (extremely likely), and they come after Penny Arcade for facilitating a thread in which people shared links on how to emulate that game. Unlikely and not very solid, sure. But the possibility exists, and PA is just trying to inoculate itself against that risk, by dropping a blanket one-size-fits-all "don't talk about emulation" rule.
So the tacit understanding is, "I like to talk with people about things on Penny Arcade, and Penny Arcade has said such and such subject is off-limits for legal reasons. So in posting here, I agree to abide by their rules. If I don't agree with those rules, that's okay, this is America after all -- but I'm at least aware that if I post content in opposition to those rules, I will probably be banned."
@n4w4k
How do you know they didn't just grab screens from Youtube videos? (Which, granted, were probably emulated originally, but still.)
Amazon wish list | My dumb deviantArt page | Steam Wishlist
They credit a bunch of, what seem to be, YouTube users for the game footage. Whether those people were emulating or not is of no consequence here
As to the bit about being a stupid rule, see teknoarcanist's post above.
Amazon wish list | My dumb deviantArt page | Steam Wishlist
Another good game you might not have played: Robot Alchemic Drive, on the PS2. It's a giant robot game, with the neat twist that you don't directly control the robot -- you control they guy CONTROLLING the robot.
This entails jet-booting around between rooftops and trying to maintain a good view of the action, while also trying to keep your robot from getting pounded by evil alien death-rays and such, all the while struggling against the meticulously 1:1 controls (shoulder buttons for moving the left and right legs forward and back, analog sticks for each arm, etc). It's a fantastically underrated little gem that is still one of my favorite games on PS2.
As for my own suggestion, I'll toss out another Koei work - Gemfire. Basically a turn-based strategy game with wizards. I still play that game, like 15 years later.
You should really really pay Master of Monster a look, it's a hardcore strategy game, unforgiving, weakness/strength, you can't stick to one unit.
The Story of Thor - Beyond Oasis is another great game, overhead action adventure RPG with puzzles and more.
My 16-bit under-the-radar favorites are:
SkyBlazer -- Nice little action/platformer, kind of like if Mega Man X had a melee focus and a cool fantasy aesthetic.
Pocky & Rocky -- Unique blend of Zelda-style overhead adventure and scrolling shooter, set in a Saturday Morning version of ancient Japan.
King of Dragons -- Cool fantasy beat-em-up with some RPG elements.
Vegas Stakes -- Sure it's a casino game, but it's full of offbeat personality, like when other gamblers try to hustle you out of your winnings.
As far as 16-Bit games go I cannot recomend enough The Illusion of Gaia and Actraiser. Both have great, memorable soundtracks. Illusion of Gaia is an Action RPG and part of what's known as the Soul Blazer trilogy. Actraiser is a platformer/city building game in which you play as God trying to bring back humanity after the demon Tanzra, who is more or less Satan, ruined the world. I'd also recomend Flashback: The Quest for Identity but that's multiplatform.
S.O.S. (aka Septentrion) (SNES) -- An interesting & difficult "escape / survival" game. The really tight time limit of 1 hour makes it a challenge.
Aerobiz / Aerobiz Supersonic (SNES) -- Interesting simulation game by Koei as you play as an Airline executive striving to dominate the airline markets. Can be a little dry, but the competition elements help. The Supersonic version has increased multiplayer support.
Illusion of Gaia (SNES) -- Interesting adventure RPG.
Lagoon (SNES) -- Another adventure RPG that took some good moves & the right combination of items to get through. Not thrilled with the killer falls (when you fail a jump).
Rock & Roll Racing (SNES)
Stunt Race FX (SNES) -- One of early-gen 3D titles (before the N64 started standardizing 3D games for Nintendo) as a racer.
Uniracers (SNES) -- Unicycle Stunt Racing... more fun that it sounds!
That's all I have for additional 16-bit gems... Pardon for the SNES-heavy list, but I'm pushing what I know here.