Games that are not quite awesome, but almost there

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

I'm playing A Boy and His Blob right now, and this is the thought that keeps running thru my head. I really like the game, the concept is fantastic, but its just a little rough around the edges, I think, if they had been ironed out, it coulda made this one of the best NES games. Idk if it was a pc game also, tho.

The few issues I've noticed is, number one, the graphics are a bit of a let-down, I know it's NES and graphics are not everything to me, but the background is just plain black, and a lot of the areas feel drab and coulda really been done better, imo. The level design is good tho, and the gameplay is really fun, altho without a guide of some kind, if u don't know the game, u'll end up falling to ur death a lot, so theres some trial and error required of the player. Plus, theres a few little glitches where you'll wind up trying to feed the blob a jellybean only to have it not work right, or he won't eat it. The other glitch being that u can walk out into space sometimes on a nonexistent platform.

It is a great game tho, it's fun, and I know it's a well-known and praised game, but there are definately better NES games that are not talked about as much. To me, this game was begging for a few sequels, if only to improve a few things and work out some of the kinks. It has so much potential to really be an amazing game, it could be on the same level as Metroid even, but its just not quite there.

[Scissors]

To me, this game was begging for a few sequels, if only to improve a few things and work out some of the kinks.

It did get a Game Boy sequel called The Rescue of Princess Blobette. There's also a Wii remake which I've heard is pretty good.

[Natty Bumppo]

Vandal Hearts II (PS1) would have been a stellar game except for that wretched combat system.

Addams Family Values (SNES) was pretty damn good but flawed by the fact it wasn't apparently quite finished - there are things mentioned (like a ladder/bridge to get some items) in the manual that were not put into the game. It also has a really clumsy (and unreliable) password save system that used a script where the letters were hard to distinguish so your saves would often be unretrievable.

[Tanooki]

I always felt that way about Goonies 2 on NES. The mechanics worked fine, music was great, control was solid too. The problem was the game was in desperate need of some sort of sense of direction, even a little in game map would have helped a lot. I felt the same exactly way about Metroid too, just a little less so because Goonies would flip flop between zones by hitting certain doors so you really ended up running around in circles for hours with no clue at all and Nintendo Power was little to no help, only the original Official Players Guide finally laid out the full map with arrows on where the door goes to make it manageable. Metroid at least you'd hit a progression wall where you would need an item, Goonies you just were free to go anywhere really and just be lost.

[wizardofwor1975]

Alien Syndrome for the NES. I loved playing Alien Syndrome back in the day in the arcade. I really like the menacing music and the game's creepy atmosphere. The NES version played very well and its gameplay was better than the SMS. But the SMS music and SFX are better IMHO. I always thought that if you merged the two you'd really have something. Another feature on the NES's version I liked was the 2-player simultaneous gameplay as opposed to alternating turns on the SMS. I just wished they had merged the game's best features from two of my favorite 8 bit consoles into one awesome arcade port.

[celerystalker]

It did get a Game Boy sequel called The Rescue of Princess Blobette. There's also a Wii remake which I've heard is pretty good.

The Wii re-imagining is absolutely adorable, and a fun game loaded with atmosphere. Way easier, though.

I think Golvellius on Master System fits the bill for this topic. It draws inevitable Zelda comparisons, but has elements that recall the Wonder Boy games to me and a structure that feels like a Falcom game. Slightly better music and graphics would help, but fleshing out the side-scrolling dungeons a bit would have made it pretty incredible. If anyone likes that game, check out the Legend of Xanadu games on PC Engine. Similar, but a little different overall design with colorful 16 bit graphics.

[wizardofwor1975]

The Wii re-imagining is absolutely adorable, and a fun game loaded with atmosphere. Way easier, though.

I think Glovellius on Master System fits the bill for this topic. It draws inevitable Zelda comparisons, but has elements that recall the Wonder Boy games to me and a structure that feels like a Falcom game. Slightly better music and graphics would help, but fleshing out the side-scrolling dungeons a bit would have made it pretty incredible. If anyone likes that game, check out the Legend of Xanadu games on PC Engine. Similar, but a little different overall design with colorful 16 bit graphics.

I like the Wonder Boy comparison to Golvellius. Golvellius is such a great game. The graphics are great and the music really showed off what the SMS was capable of. I play it on my genny with the power base converter. Since Golvellius is on the iPhone now maybe I'll take the plunge and get one.

[Tanooki]

It WAS on iphone. I can't find a reason for it, but it is removed as of I think around June. I used to have it on my ipad and it didn't show back up when I got an iphone a few weeks ago which sucks.

[Steven]

SkyBlazer SNES. Many talk about it being great, but I feel it falls just short of great. More of an 8.0-8.5 than a 9.0-9.5 game IMHO.

I recall GameFan back in 2000 doing an article on SkyBlazer calling it one of the greatest SNES games ever. Hyperbole, much? :p

[wizardofwor1975]

It WAS on iphone. I can't find a reason for it, but it is removed as of I think around June. I used to have it on my ipad and it didn't show back up when I got an iphone a few weeks ago which sucks.

That stinks. I love playing Glovellius on my power base converter. Lately I've been playing Kenseiden for the SMS. I picked up an NTSC version and I am completely hooked. IMHO it's not as good as Shinobi but it is incredibly addicting. Kenseiden is one of those games that really makes the SMS graphics card sing. My only disclaimer would be that the game is very challenging but well worth the initial frustration as you gather the power ups.

[Tanooki]

I had Kenseiden along with Golvellious on the SMS up until I sold it around a year ago as I just never had the time or care to use the thing after burning through the games I had as the others were overly priced Brazilian and EU releases unfortunately. I was not happy with that game dropping off of the iphone store as I paid for the damn thing I feel I'm entitled to it. That's exactly why I refuse to ever call download games anything but long term digital rentals and why I won't pay anything near disc(card-3DS/Vita) price at all on it. For any bullshit reason that matters nothing to the buyer they can just screw you pal and erase it. Stuff like this seems to be increasing on IOS I found when reading up trying to find out why that game was pulled and people are getting mad at Apple over it and it's driving people to Android where it's a non-issue due to the openness of the OS with sideloading and google's different terms on apps too being less rotten.

[Daria]

You shouldn't lose games you've paid for even if the app store drops the game. It should still be in your purchased history and therefore downloadable from itunes. I had a similar issue with the Sword and Poker series.

Although in general I agree about digital downloads. The license agrerments flat out state you're purchasig the "right" to play a title, not thr game its self. So for a buck or two I'll shell out for the occassional virtual game, but not any more than that.

[Tanooki]

Well it seems that's the difference between Nintendo and Apple. When they lost (konami) the TMNT license to Ubisoft, they had to pull the game from the Wii Virtual Console, but if you paid for it you could download it again all you like as you bought that license yourself. Apple though appears to feel if they lose a license, everyone loses which is garbage. I'm surprised no one busts them for it, but it's such a non-entity tiny game, it's not like when Amazon got their ass sued off for pulling Orwell's 1984 when they lost the license and remote deleted it off everyones Kindle over wifi and removed it from their store and web accounts.