Over rated / Under rated Games

I don't think so. TP was a great game despite its console. I bet that if Sunshine had been ported to the Wii (motion-controlled aiming of FLUDD?) it would have made a mark too.

The Wii had lots of great games, and there's no shame in a game on the best console of all time (according to Balladeer) being greaterer than many.

I do agree, as I feel the same with the Wii U & Wind Waker HD but what I was saying it's a shame Nintendo could make something better.

I don't blame them for experimenting in SS (an overrated game, to stay on-topic, if you believe the critics), but it didn't work and they need to try something else next time.

Apart from the motion controls. If nothing else, keeping them in will annoy Andyman.  

I couldn't agree more with masofdas, Binary Domain is almost certainly an underrated game, and one that was also misunderstood as being a 'me-too' game from a Japanese developer, in fact Nagoshi and his team crafted quite the unique third person shooter. I was really impressed, and wished I had played it sooner.

Cube wrote:

The_Jaster wrote:

Those bolded words should never happen to a Zelda game in my opinion, the train pretty much just made it about getting from point A to B.

It's still better than Skyward Sword's "no exploration, linear path"?

I'd like to think a literally on-rails train in a predominantly 2D Zelda where you can do no more than fire cannonballs and change direction can't be compared to the structure of an entire 3D Zelda game(!)

Despite a mainly linear path in its main story (though I remember the final stretch let you tackle each area in whatever order you wanted) Skyward Sword's main game world at least evoked the feeling of openness and exploration, since it wasn't literally on-rails, and what lay beneath the clouds was one, big interconnected puzzle.

I think Twilight Princess was almost certainly overrated. It's a great game by any standards, but it certainly wasn't superior to its Nintendo-developed peers, and it was a case of Nintendo not making the game they wanted to make (Wind Waker 2) and instead making a game for higher sales and for fans.

The best Nintendo, I find, is the Nintendo that does what they want to do and makes a game I didn't even know I wanted, Twilight Princess was great but there was evidence that points to it being a heavily convoluted adventure. So many elements were thrown into the mix without substance, such as the wolf songs. And the game world never felt more fragmented, or dead. It's just not a world I'd want to revisit, when put next to Hyrule (Ocarina of Time), or Termina, or Wind Waker's.

fronkhead wrote:

Skyward Sword's main game world at least evoked the feeling of openness and exploration, since it wasn't literally on-rails, and what lay beneath the clouds was one, big interconnected puzzle.

Actually, it should have literally been a big interconnected puzzle. How awesome would have been to keep exploring these areas and actually finding paths between the regions?

A bit like how some of the levels in Banjo-Tooie were actually connected.

On the subject of underrated games, I think Yoshi's Story gets more flack than it deserves. I loved it.

It wasn't the fact there were motion controls in SS that bothered me it was that ever enemy under the sun required such a precise chop to kill. Let me relax whilst I play my games Link. TP is my favourite, I really hope they go back to that visual style at least, especially now that they have an HD console.

Binary Domain is top notch! Really enjoyed playing that, quite interested in testing out the voice control on it some time.

Reading what you chaps have said, I feel like I should dislike TP more than I do.  In particular, I felt that the art style was a real step back, from WW and even from MM, which was at least more colourful.  But I loved it!

Cube wrote:

Actually, it should have literally been a big interconnected puzzle. How awesome would have been to keep exploring these areas and actually finding paths between the regions?

That would have made a huge amount of difference.  Even if there were brief loading pauses as you made the transfer, it would have helped hugely with the lack of interconnectedness that SS had.

Balladeer wrote:

Cube wrote:

Actually, it should have literally been a big interconnected puzzle. How awesome would have been to keep exploring these areas and actually finding paths between the regions?

That would have made a huge amount of difference.  Even if there were brief loading pauses as you made the transfer, it would have helped hugely with the lack of interconnectedness that SS had.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Dark Souls does this and it works so well and makes exploring a treat. It'd enhance any Zelda game.

You've gone waaaaaaay beyond a risk, Jay. You've conquered the Risk board and moved onto Monopoly.  

I'll stop soon, till Dark Souls II comes out on PC.   

I tried the first Souls game and really didn't like it, it just felt way too clunky.

Although as nobody mentions it these days, I'm not sure if it was overrated.

Are the second and third much different?

Nobody... mentions... Have you seen General Gaming in the last couple of weeks? Jay, Jaster, and to a lesser extent Buska have been on about it all the time. If this is "nobody mentioning it", save me from it becoming popular!

Balladeer wrote:

Nobody... mentions...  Have you seen General Gaming in the last couple of weeks?  Jay, Jaster, and to a lesser extent Buska have been on about it all the time.  If this is "nobody mentioning it", save me from it becoming popular!

Dark Souls, yes. But Dark Souls is the second game. Nobody mentions Demon's Souls.

Balladeer wrote:

Nobody... mentions...  Have you seen General Gaming in the last couple of weeks?  Jay, Jaster, and to a lesser extent Buska have been on about it all the time.  If this is "nobody mentioning it", save me from it becoming popular!

Hardly all the time Balla! A couple of posts outside of the Souls thread really.

Cube - I haven't played Demon Souls so I don't know if the combat differs, but in Dark Souls there's definitely a steep learning curve with the combat controls. Initially it does feel a bit clunky, but after a few hours it feels pretty fluid - I guess learning how to ride a bike would be a good analogy.

I enjoyed my time with Demon's Souls more than Dark Souls (though I've not played much of Dark Souls because I found it tough to get in to).

Cube wrote:

Balladeer wrote:

Nobody... mentions...  Have you seen General Gaming in the last couple of weeks?  Jay, Jaster, and to a lesser extent Buska have been on about it all the time.  If this is "nobody mentioning it", save me from it becoming popular!

Dark Souls, yes. But Dark Souls is the second game. Nobody mentions Demon's Souls.

I guess my post was a case in point, then.

All Zelda games are brilliant in my book (except Spirit Tracks of course).

JayMoyles wrote:

Balladeer wrote:

Cube wrote:

Actually, it should have literally been a big interconnected puzzle. How awesome would have been to keep exploring these areas and actually finding paths between the regions?

That would have made a huge amount of difference.  Even if there were brief loading pauses as you made the transfer, it would have helped hugely with the lack of interconnectedness that SS had.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Dark Souls does this and it works so well and makes exploring a treat. It'd enhance any Zelda game.

THIS.

I'd even take it a step further & steal the combat system entirely, imagine being able to parry/riposte Zelda Enemies? *drools*

Jas: Only watch for 30 seconds or so, the rest of the video isn't really worth watching, but this 30 second chunk could be from a grittier Zelda game. Not that that should ever be a thing really - I like my Zelda games vibrant.

That's pretty damn cool, love that he was using the bow & bombs as well.

Anyone not love Excite Truck? Reviewers aside, natch.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Anyone not love Excite Truck? Reviewers aside, natch.

Quite simply the most fun game on the Wii.

Another potentially controversial view of mine: Final Fantasy xiii-2 is pretty underrated. By the time this game came out everyone was in such an anti-xiii mood that I can't help but feel it clouded their view of the game before even trying it, and while I can certainly understand the various criticisms aimed to the first xiii game (even though they didn't stop me from enjoying my playthrough of it) I think xiii-2 did a good job sorting out those issues.

Gone was the one linear path issue, while I can't help but think that square took that problem a little too much to heart to the point it damaged the plot the game itself was far less restrictive from a exploration standpoint. The battle system was the same from the first with some minor balancing fixes which was a win for me. The graphics while taking a dip in quality compared to the first were still amazing eye candy. The music is also an area I think gets unfairly blasted usually, specifically because of the rap in the bresha ruins and the boss theme limit break! as well as the gran pulse theme. The rest of the ost is actually a favourite of mine, it has some great diversity, has some themes you'd typically expect in a final fantasy, and has some experimentation themes that in my opinion worked more often than they didn't.

The plot is also an area that gets blasted, which again I can understand but to be perfectly honest I've seen far worse and more nonsensical time travel stories that get raved about instead (*cough*DoctorWho*cough*), and the two leads were actually pretty likable so that helped me ignore the more questionable parts of the plot. Plus there was Caius, who despite having the most hilarious fashion sense and wielding a knockoff Soul Edge was a cool and menacing villain, most likely due to Liam O'Brien's great performance. It also covered some of the almost-plot holes in the first, which while being a knock against the first xiii for even having them helped me put aside my grievances with those parts of it by sorting them out.


I'm not going to say the game is some sort of fantastic masterpiece of the genre, but I think it's a really enjoyable romp that gets more criticism than it honestly deserves because of both the franchise it belongs to and the part of the franchise it's associated with. Well, that and the ending which pretty much necessitates the player plays the next game.

Cube wrote:

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Anyone not love Excite Truck? Reviewers aside, natch.

Quite simply the most fun game on the Wii.

While I wouldn't agree with that myself, I'm glad there are folk out there that appreciate that it was a really good game at the time. It's still pretty fun to pick-up and play, even after all this time. I'd quite like to see Nintendo/Monster Games do more with the Excite series, as I think the four I've played (NES, N64, first on Wii and WiiWare) are all quite good. Very underrated series, in my opinion.