Worst arcade port to a home console

[aryoshi]

I am so with you. I LOVED Double Dragon on the arcade and I have many cherished memories of my older cousin, Brandon, and me riding our bikes to the local Circle K to play it during the summer. The NES version, however, failed to capture anything of the original. While not a horrible game in its own right, it is a poor, poor attempt at recapturing the magic that the arcade version possessed. You're also right about the second NES one being a marked improvement on the series' NES installments. Technos eventually gave us River City Ransom so I can forgive them for this blunder.

I think if it wasn't for being an arcade game and they simply made it on consoles, the NES version wouldn't be so blah, but compared to the arcade version it doesnt' even hold a candle, it's so bare-bones and feels.. wrong. I agree, River City Ransom is where they really took off. Nothing I didn't like about that game and everything about it I loved.

[Dangerboy]

Actually, now thinking about it...NES Ikari Warriors 2....what the fucking fuck...t
h
e

t
e
x
t

t
h
a
t

w
e
n
t

s
l
o
w
.
.
.

[InsaneDavid]

Actually, now thinking about it...NES Ikari Warriors 2....what the fucking fuck...

Yeah, Ikari Warriors 2 sucked on the NES but the arcade version of Victory Road wasn't that good either.

[heybtbm]

Pac Man for the 2600 was a massive dissapointment. Talked my grandmother into buying it for me and was super excited to play it. It sucked.

I thought that Double Dragon on the NES was pretty terrible too, with the whole collecting hearts thing.

These are the two that stick out in my mind.

Pac-man was a huge disappointment. At least to my 5th grade eyes at the time. Thank god it came free with the system.

Double Dragon was (is) my favorite arcade game in the late 80's and I couldn't wait to finally get a copy for the NES. During the Christmas of 1988 the game was impossible to find in stores. I managed to trade a copy of Legend of Kage to my cousin for DD. The NES version was (obviously) a shadow of it's arcade counterpart.

It was one of the main reasons I jumped on the Genesis bandwagon a few months later when it launched. "Enough of these half-assed arcade ports, I want the real thing." Looking back, the Genesis was still nowhere near arcade perfect...but at the time it felt like it.

[treismac]

"Enough of these half-assed arcade ports, I want the real thing." Looking back, the Genesis was still nowhere near arcade perfect...but at the time it felt like it.

I remember feeling the same way with the advent of the 16 bit systems. With Street Fighter II on the SNES, I clearly remember thinking, "Here we are. The arcade has arrived at home. Finally." Of course it hadn't, but like you wrote, "at the time it felt like it".

[Greg2600]

If you guys don't like Double Dragon on NES, which I still like, have you played the Sega Master System, Atari 7800, or Atari 2600 versions (each progressively worse)?

[ubersaurus]

No mention of Donkey Kong for Intellivision? That was an abomination.

I also have to complain about every home port of Space Wars I've ever played for getting the physics wrong.

[TurboGenesis]

sure NES Paperboy may not be up to your 'arcade' standards, but I find the game decent and quite playable… I do not attempt to measure it to the arcade game as NES is weaker hardware AND there not being a way to duplicate the control set up that the arcade game featured…

and here is a sure fire way for you to maybe appreciate the NES Paperboy…
try and play the Sega Master System version… you will then truly discover what a BAD Paperboy game really is! horrible collision detection, sloppy controls, and core gameplay elements essential to Paperboy omitted! sure, it looks good and the colors are pleasent… but that's not enough to save it... and I am a HUGE fan of SMS, but I'll play - and ENJOY NES Paperboy 7 days a week over the garbage SMS Paperboy

[thom_m]

The DOS version of The Simpsons arcade game was a huge disappointment for me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnz_k...eature=related

[TurboGenesis]

No mention of Donkey Kong for Intellivision? That was an abomination.

I also have to complain about every home port of Space Wars I've ever played for getting the physics wrong.

even the Vectrex version of Space Wars?

[Emperor Megas]

Yeah, Ikari Warriors 2 sucked on the NES but the arcade version of Victory Road wasn't that good either.

You think? Man, I freaking LOVE Victory Road (the arcade game). Most people can't fuck with it because of the difficulty though. I've only ended it a few times, myself.

If you guys don't like Double Dragon on NES, which I still like, have you played the Sega Master System, Atari 7800, or Atari 2600 versions (each progressively worse)?

The Master System version of Double Dragon is far better, IMO. Well, as long as you play single player. The flicker is off the meter if you play two player.

[treismac]

If you guys don't like Double Dragon on NES, which I still like, have you played the Sega Master System, Atari 7800, or Atari 2600 versions (each progressively worse)?

The hit collision on the Sega Master System version is a joke. I first played this game in the last 2 to 3 years so this version wasn't able to let me down like the NES version, which I has such high hopes for back in the day.

[NE146]

I am so with you. I LOVED Double Dragon on the arcade and I have many cherished memories of my older cousin, Brandon, and me riding our bikes to the local Circle K to play it during the summer. The NES version, however, failed to capture anything of the original. While not a horrible game in its own right, it is a poor, poor attempt at recapturing the magic that the arcade version possessed. You're also right about the second NES one being a marked improvement on the series' NES installments. Technos eventually gave us River City Ransom so I can forgive them for this blunder.

It's a funny thing.. as I was initially very disappointed in NES Ninja Gaiden because it ended up being nothing like the arcade. Of course however it turned out to be a great game that I grew to like for it's own merits. The same thing couldn't be said about NES Strider however. I wanted the arcade game, didn't get it, and despite giving it a fair shake the NES title just ended up being pretty much average.

Now Double Dragon on the other hand.. I loved the arcade game but didn't expect it on the NES since I had read reviews about it in EGM etc. So I loved it right from the start. I still think it's a great NES game.

[FrankSerpico]

The worst one I own is definitely Primal Rage for the Genesis. The fact that this game even got Genesis and SNES (and Game Gear...and Game Boy) ports was ludicrous in the first place, and was obviously nothing more than an attempted money grab on Time Warner Interactive's part. Even though in retrospect it was an all-around pretty awful game with one of the worst control schemes in fighter history, it was a graphical showcase in the arcade and 16-bit systems of the day had no shot at making it look decent. As for ports I don't own but played and hated, the PSone ports of Marvel vs Capcom and Hydro Thunder certainly deserve mention. Like the aforementioned Primal Rage ports, they really shouldn't have even tried

[treismac]

It's a funny thing.. as I was initially very disappointed in NES Ninja Gaiden because it ended up being nothing like the arcade. Of course however it turned out to be a great game that I grew to like for it's own merits.

I too remember being put off by the complete overhaul of Ninja Gaiden on the NES from the arcade, and, yet, the NES version of Ninja Gaiden is one of those touchstone games from my childhood that I cherish.

[VG_Maniac]

The only port that might actually be half-decent of a Mortal Kombat game is MKII for the 32x, and even that's not as good as it could be.

Stick with the arcade, don't waste your time on any of the shitty home ports really.

I disagree. The SNES had a very good port of MKII.

[Emuaust]

I prefer the home ports of MK over the stupid AI of the Arcade and to mention the 32X version of MKII without mentioning the snes is another classic Baloo quote...

[Ze_ro]

Oh, I forgot to mention Total Carnage on the CD32 (And I assume the regular Amiga versions as well, though I haven't tried them). Absolutely terrible port... the graphics look fine, but they totally botched the gameplay. It's slow and boring, without any of the fun of the arcade version. There's also no background music or sound, so you just get to listen to repetitive gunfire sounds most of the time. The controls were screwed up to work with a one-button Amiga joystick, and then no one bothered to tell the developers that the CD32 has enough buttons to handle double-stick shooters. It's very frustrating for me, because the system should be more than capable of pulling off a good port. Check out icbrkr's video of it, and compare that with the SNES version (which is a watered down port in it's own right, but still far more fun).

--Zero

[Zebbe]

Double Dragon on Amiga. What a lazy effort. The music is the theme recorded in one 5 second or so sample that loops, and there are around four sound effects, where the explosion shares the same with the punch sound. Also, the gameplay and gfx suck.

[General Catastrophe]

Funny that this topic should appear so soon after I tried playing Metal Slug Anthology on my PSP- and I say tried because all the games on it hit seem to frequently (and randomly) hit a stop sign and have to load the next part of whatever level I'm on. It's so jarring, and totally killjoys the fun out of playing them. And this is the only platform I've ever seen this degree of slowdown on for ANY of the Metal Slug games. At the least, this is the most recent bad arcade port I've experienced...