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Thread: SNES to GBA ports that aren't good/are crappy?

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    Default SNES to GBA ports that aren't good/are crappy?

    Were you satisfied with the ports of SNES games to the GBA?
    List the ones that weren't really a good port.

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    Strawberry (Level 2) ccovell's Avatar
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    Super Mario All-Stars. They added the most annoying voices ever.

    ;-D

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    Key (Level 9) Satoshi_Matrix's Avatar
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    Super Mario All-Stars wasn't ported to the GBA.

    Individual games of that collection were sort of ported, but the Mario Advance titles are all different versions that have enhanced features over the Super Mario All-Stars version.

    They do add voice samples, and while initially somewhat irritating, they don't affect the games enough to have them count as proper candidates for this thread. They just don't.

    So let me wipe the slate clean and start with an actual SNES conversion to the GBA that is not good:

    R-Type III: The Third Lightening.

    The port has issues with slowdown, as well as collision detection issues that don't occur in the original, and pretty badly sampled music.
    Last edited by Satoshi_Matrix; 12-10-2013 at 05:36 PM.
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    Contra Advance; port (conversion) of Contra III.

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    Yoshi's Island, for one reason: they replaced some of the sound effects especially the DAMN ANNOYING groaning sound effect Nintendo created for Yoshi's Story and thinks it's so brilliant they need to reuse it ever since. It's easily as annoying as Mario's whining.
    (oh, and I don't think the levels were designed to compensate for the lower resolution, I'm looking at you 1-Extra, you were out-of-place difficult on the SNES and even more on GBA. Did the SNES version also makes enemies active before they even appear on the screen, I can't remember? The one Red Coin Shy Guy in 3-Extra made me want to nearly chuck my 3DS across the room.)

    Of course Nintendo release this game again, it'll be this Special Edition because it requires less work than emulating the Super FX (and assuming the descendants of Argonaut don't have legal claims on the SFX).

    FF6A would be a good port if the sound quality wasn't poor and it didn't have slowdown (especially the Rising Phoenix blitz, I think it was called.)
    Last edited by SparTonberry; 12-10-2013 at 09:00 PM.

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    Pac-Man (Level 10) Rickstilwell1's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SparTonberry View Post
    Yoshi's Island, for one reason: they replaced some of the sound effects especially the DAMN ANNOYING groaning sound effect Nintendo created for Yoshi's Story and thinks it's so brilliant they need to reuse it ever since. It's easily as annoying as Mario's whining.
    (oh, and I don't think the levels were designed to compensate for the lower resolution, I'm looking at you 1-Extra, you were out-of-place difficult on the SNES and even more on GBA. Did the SNES version also makes enemies active before they even appear on the screen, I can't remember? The one Red Coin Shy Guy in 3-Extra made me want to nearly chuck my 3DS across the room.)
    I'm surprised at the fact you could even actually successfully unlock the Extra stages, let alone have a hard time at them. I think the only one I ever unlocked on the Super Nintendo was the first one.
    [quote name='Shidou Mariya' date='Nov 17 2010, 10:05 PM' post='4889940']
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    Strawberry (Level 2) ccovell's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by satoshi_matrix View Post
    super mario all-stars wasn't ported to the gba... ...they don't affect the games enough to have them count as proper candidates for this thread. They just don't.
    ;-D
    ;-D ;-D ;-D ;-D

    Can nobody read sideways these days?

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    Pac-Man (Level 10) Rickstilwell1's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ccovell View Post
    ;-D
    ;-D ;-D ;-D ;-D

    Can nobody read sideways these days?
    Well it also can't count as Super Mario All-Stars because they're missing the first two of four games entirely. They only ported half of Mario All-Stars and Super Mario World which is really a separate game. Most people will remember having the games on separate cartridges because most people already had a system and didn't need to buy that All-Stars/World bundle.
    [quote name='Shidou Mariya' date='Nov 17 2010, 10:05 PM' post='4889940']
    I'm a collector, but only to a certain extent.
    Not as extreme as Rickstilwell though.[/quote]


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    Key (Level 9) Satoshi_Matrix's Avatar
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    ...what is with you people? Didn't you read the title of the thread? This is "SNES to GBA ports that aren't good", not "SNES to GBA ports that contain slight annoyances".

    Yoshi's Island is not a proper candidate, nor is Final Fantasy VI Advance. In fact, those are two of the best SNES to GBA conversions.

    Contra III EX on the other hand is a good choice for this thread as the ability to wield two weapons at once was removed and the game suffers from all sorts of consistent slowdown.


    Maybe you guys had unrealistic expectations of the GBA?

    Here's some shocking reality checks for you guys:

    The Sound

    The 8-bit Sony SPC700 of the SNES has a much softer, muted sound and also more musical note range than the Dual 8-bit DAC of the GBA. The GBA can produce much cleaner, higher quality sound effects and voice samples, but when it comes to music, the GBA cannot go toe-to-toe with the SPC700.
    Playing to the system's strengths, many SNES ports add voice samples where there was originally none. This was done to enhance the games. Personal opinions as to the validity of that aside, doing that does not make any SNES port with voice samples 'bad'.


    Therefore, when *gasp* SNES games ported to the GBA don't sound as good, it's simply because the GBA cannot produce the same audio as the SNES. It has nothing to do with the quality of the port itself.

    Colors

    The original model of the GameBoy Advance was not backlit, using the same reflective TFT screen technology of the GameBoy Color. Without it's own light source, GBA games used oversaturated colors deliberately and some changed backgrounds entirely to make things easier to actually see when using a GBA. In 2003, the frontlit GBA redesign, the GBA SP came out, allowing games to be far easier to play without a constant external light source. It wasn't until 2005 with the GBA SP 2.0 and the GameBoy Micro that the GBA was actually properly backlit.

    As a result, anyone who complains about SNES games to the GBA's colors is not considering the challenges developers had when they made the games to begin with. Sure, Castlevania Circle of the Moon for example might look great on a GBA SP 2.0, or the GameBoy Player, but try playing that on the original non backlit model and you'll see why developers learned from that.


    Screen size


    The GBA's resolution was 240×160 pixels. The SNES had several resolutions, but typically, games were 256×224 pixels. Converting SNES games to this new resolution, concessions had to be made and sometimes HUD's completely redrawn. Complaining about stage layouts of SNES games on the GBA screen is completely unfair, and again, speaks nothing to the quality of the port itself. It's simply using the screen it has.


    All I'm saying is that criticisms brought up so far are mostly about the hardware, not the games themselves.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rickstilwell1 View Post
    I'm surprised at the fact you could even actually successfully unlock the Extra stages, let alone have a hard time at them. I think the only one I ever unlocked on the Super Nintendo was the first one.
    Try Hard mode,i dare you.

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    Bell (Level 8)
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    Quote Originally Posted by Satoshi_Matrix View Post

    Screen size


    The GBA's resolution was 240×160 pixels. The SNES had several resolutions, but typically, games were 256×224 pixels. Converting SNES games to this new resolution, concessions had to be made and sometimes HUD's completely redrawn. Complaining about stage layouts of SNES games on the GBA screen is completely unfair, and again, speaks nothing to the quality of the port itself. It's simply using the screen it has.
    Stage layout is a fair complaint. Conecessions could have been made.

    Would it honestly hurt the game's quality to move that parachute (partly hidden by the score in the SNES shot) so I can almost see the floor at the same time?
    Is all that empty space on the right side really needed (so I can't see the same proportionate amount of space)?
    (especially as Aero seems to move faster and is thus less controllable on the GBA)

    In fact, here's a Nintendo comparison for you.

    If they can be bothered to make such insignificant changes in one spot, why couldn't they in another?
    Last edited by SparTonberry; 12-12-2013 at 11:49 AM.

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    Key (Level 9) Satoshi_Matrix's Avatar
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    Super Mario Bros. 3 was slightly changed in every one of its releases. The NES version has some slight block placement differences from the original Famicom build. The version in Super Mario All-Stars again has some slight block placement adjustments. The GBA version likely makes slight changes to make the game's early or more challenging parts more friendly for children.

    You're also comparing Aero to the Acrobat to friggin Mario 3.
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    Satoshi is being dead on the nose with this whining about some opinion based annoying voices in those Mario games, even heard some whiners hate on Links yells in the Link to the Past port...whatever.

    I've owned a good many of those SNES ports and I can think of a few that ticked me off because of not re-sizing to fit the new screen proportions, messed up audio, crapped out controls, or some other form of jacked up gameplay mechanics or flow(chop.) You can read what some others have said here on some, but I'll note stuff on others.

    Contra 3(Advance)
    R Type 3
    Donkey Kong Country 1,2 and 3 (Not aspect ratio corrected well, had many unnecessary deaths I didn't on the SNES)
    Mega Man & Bass (proportions make bosses a living nightmare, they now fill like a 1/6 of the screen, little area to avoid, otherwise it's good)
    Street Fighter II Turbo (it has save data breaking bugs if you trigger Akuma, avoid him it's fine)
    Earthworm Jim 1 and 2 (never played, but heard they have framerate and control problems, hosed up audio too and dropped/cropped animations)

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    Bell (Level 8)
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    Quote Originally Posted by Satoshi_Matrix View Post
    You're also comparing Aero to the Acrobat to friggin Mario 3.
    Not to each other. :P

    It's been quite some time since I played Mega Man & Bass, but I do vaguely recall control being a reason I stopped.
    Double-tapping to dash as Bass was annoying (I can recall finding the game a bit sensitive about the timing of the double-taps, and repeatedly dying to Tunnel Man or WTF it was). Why not use Down+A (like Mega Man's slide, since Bass can't slide anyways. Sure, Bass can't go under small ledges but doesn't his dash serve much of the same purpose as sliding: to quickly dodge crap)?

    I didn't know EWJ2 even was ported.

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