Video Game Mild Takes

[Malcolm]

Kinda like hot takes only a bit less... "biting".. I think that's the word. Less scornful. Less hateful?

I guess less, "I thought X is overrated or sucks" or "people only liked x because y"

As much as I liked Super Mario 64 at the time, the more I think about it the more I realized that Super Mario 3D Land/World and were the 3D Mario games I really wanted then on the Nintendo 64. As revolutionary and innovative as Super Mario 64 was, I'll take "fun" over "innovation" and "revolutionary" anyday. Super Mario 3D Land/World's(and Galaxy to an extent) more arcadey nature makes them more fun to me.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

I liked the treasure levels in Sonic Adventure 2.

F.A.N.G in SFV is actually great to play as if you spend time trying to learn his mixups. Also his voice makes me laugh.

James Arnold Taylor had a good performance as Tidus.

I've never gotten that flustered with Kingdom Hearts gameplay outside of the Demyx fight because he's a cheap asshole.

[The Ichi]

Yakuza 6 is one of the better games in the series.

[Lizuka #BLM]

Pokemon Gen 7 is far and away the worst of them. For all the criticism you can level at 6 being too easy, having a bland cast, and tending to never shut up and 8 being thin on content 7 has all of those issues at once (other than maybe the cast thing, its supporting cast is largely pretty solid but makes up for it in Hau being extremely goddamn annoying) while also seemingly being terrified of letting you travel on your own without constant railroading and bloating out the runtime with an absolute ton of 1% encounter rates for no particular reason.

[Mozenrath]

Honestly, Gen 7 is in many ways my favorite one.

Gen 3 and Gen 4 are sometimes way rougher than I remember them being, usually in terms of being slowwwwwwwwwwww. Emerald and Platinum/HGSS did improve a lot of things with both.

For non-Pokemon ones:

Final Fantasy 6 is a very good game, but it really shows the limits of the SNES being brushed-up against in some ways. The original is full of bugs and glitches and oversights, a lot of the characters have shockingly little to say if you go back to play it again (Not the same thing as being flat, exactly, but some characters get way more to do than others), and Doma feels really underbaked and could have dearly used an original tile set to not just look like Figaro and the Empire in different colors, but there's no way they'd have had the space for it on the cartridge. 7 is often held to be overrated by some these days, but you can definitely see Squaresoft stretching their legs and enjoying having more room to do things like Wutai, even if 7's got some of its own jank.

[Deleted]

For all it's flaws Stuntman was a fun game

[Lizuka #BLM]

I'd say Super Mario Odyssey only isn't the weakest 3D Mario game because Sunshine and 64 DS have much more readily apparent flaws. While it's a fun way to kill some time, between how much of it is bloated with busywork, its difficulty curve that's more wild difficulty scribbles, how little actual platforming there is in most of it due to most of the gameplay just seeing you run back and forth in big open fields with no present dangers, its overreliance on obtuse mechanics the game doesn't really properly tell you about, and just how many of the worlds in it have little to nothing interesting going on in them it's pretty bleh on the whole. Definitely a great ride the first time you play it but revisiting it quickly makes its flaws stand out.

[Limity (BLM)]

Arkham Origins is eternally underrated.

Of all the post-Team Silent Silent Hill games, Origins is the best.

[Zaq "That Guy" Buzzkill]

I think Arkham Asylum is the weakest in the series despite still be a pretty good game.

[Lizuka #BLM]

Mar 2, 2023 0:53:18 GMT -5 Zaq "That Guy" Buzzkill said:

I think Arkham Asylum is the weakest in the series despite still be a pretty good game.

I'm actually the inverse and think it's the strongest. It has a lot going for it in terms of atmosphere that the others don't, I think the map design for its stealth sections feels the least cluttered and most intuitive, it isn't nearly as slow to start as the others are, and actually getting around anywhere in the others can be a constant chore due to the continually spawning gun enemies and gigantic maps while Arkham Asylum comparatively is much easier to navigate.

That said at least the other games (other than Arkham Knight I guess but in general that game absolutely blows) can be assed to have boss fights that go beyond, "Throw a Batarang at it every few seconds," in complexity.

[tirtefaa]

Snake's Revenge is a great game and is better than MGS4.

[DiBiase is Good]

Metroid Prime 2 is better than Metroid Prime.

[FinalGwen]

I love Mass Effect 2 and think it's probably the strongest game in the series, but man do I wish they hadn't copped out on representation as a way to get around the bad Fox News press from the first game, cutting out the FemShep romances for Tali and Jack. Casey Hudson defending it by saying "We still view it as... if you're picturing a PG-13 action movie. That's how we're trying to design it. So that's why the love interest is relatively light." felt like a cop out when like, the whole Morinth arc exists.

[Mozenrath]

Mar 2, 2023 1:26:12 GMT -5 FinalGwen said:

I love Mass Effect 2 and think it's probably the strongest game in the series, but man do I wish they hadn't copped out on representation as a way to get around the bad Fox News press from the first game, cutting out the FemShep romances for Tali and Jack. Casey Hudson defending it by saying "We still view it as... if you're picturing a PG-13 action movie. That's how we're trying to design it. So that's why the love interest is relatively light." felt like a cop out when like, the whole Morinth arc exists.

Bioware did botch that. I also get really confused when they try to distance themselves from romance options, as if that's not a major reason people buy their games in the first place.

Like, that isn't the only reason Anthem struggled, not by a long shot, but it sure as hell didn't help. "Let's take what brought us to the table, throw it away for nebulous reasons, and then be confused when people aren't happy about that."

[tirtefaa]

LJN published multiple good to great games;

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Jaws
Gotcha!
T&C Surf Designs II: Thrilla's Surfari
The Karate Kid
WWF WrestleMania Challenge
WWF Royal Rumble
WWF Super WrestleMania
Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage
Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge

[Deleted]

The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse (snes) was one of my favorite games growing up, it is awesome, and it seemingly gets no love. It was also surprisingly cunning with it's difficulty.

[Chiral]

-I'd be happier if Sucker Punch was making a new Sly Cooper game than Ghost of 2shima

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

Mass Effect 3's ending gets too much hate. It's not particularly good, but it's serviceable. BioWare wrote themselves into a corner and over a decade later nobody has been able to put forward a satisfactory alternative that didn't involve changing the premise of the game entirely.

[Lizuka #BLM]

Mar 2, 2023 2:14:34 GMT -5 Chiral said:

-I'd be happier if Sucker Punch was making a new Sly Cooper game than Ghost of 2shima

Related note the only reason I wish they'd finally release Metroid Prime 4 is to get it the hell out of the way so Retro can make a new Donkey Kong Country.

[Deleted]

Mar 2, 2023 1:48:05 GMT -5 tirtefaa said:

LJN published multiple good to great games;

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Jaws
Gotcha!
T&C Surf Designs II: Thrilla's Surfari
The Karate Kid
WWF WrestleMania Challenge
WWF Royal Rumble
WWF Super WrestleMania
Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage
Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade's Revenge

Don't let James Rolfe read this