Sno

The end-of-the-generation retrospective megathread.

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Wow, yeah.. Had no idea Nuts & Bolts was highly regarded! I have a 360 and do not have this game. Sounds like I should.

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Hotel Dusk is really fondly regarded by a select few, and I'm pretty sure everyone else just thought it was alright. probably one of my all-time favourites though, I just loved everything about every artistic detail - it has my favourite soundtrack of any game I've played, not to mention the compelling (if cliched) characters and the cool art. I really need to play 999 at some point 

 

I put a whole bunch of hours into the Skate series, especially Skate 3. Skate 3 was a further step in the right direction towards that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater level of craziness and hilarity (still not that close though) but it was EMERGENT hilarity because of all the weird ragdoll stuff. truly the Far Cry 2 of skateboarding games. beyond that it just controlled really well and made pulling off even really simple tricks feel good

 

other games I wish other people appreciated a lot more: Stacking, Super Paper Mario, and to a lesser extent VVVVVV because I'm pretty sure everyone loves that game

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At least here in the US Banjo Kazooie was bundled with Viva Pinata in a console SKU, don't know if you have the same elsewhere but here you can find it cheap fairly easily. In either case, it's also one of those platinum hits titles so it should be MSRP cheap too.

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Hotel Dusk is really fondly regarded by a select few, and I'm pretty sure everyone else just thought it was alright. probably one of my all-time favourites though, I just loved everything about every artistic detail - it has my favourite soundtrack of any game I've played, not to mention the compelling (if cliched) characters and the cool art. I really need to play 999 at some point 

 

I put a whole bunch of hours into the Skate series, especially Skate 3. Skate 3 was a further step in the right direction towards that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater level of craziness and hilarity (still not that close though) but it was EMERGENT hilarity because of all the weird ragdoll stuff. truly the Far Cry 2 of skateboarding games. beyond that it just controlled really well and made pulling off even really simple tricks feel good

 

other games I wish other people appreciated a lot more: Stacking, Super Paper Mario, and to a lesser extent VVVVVV because I'm pretty sure everyone loves that game

Ahhh! I forgot all about Hotel Dusk!

What a fantastic game. I loved the style, and the music, and the story... it was amazing. I need to play it again. The only thing I didn't like about it were some of the puzzles... closing the DS to (if I remember correctly) close a book, then open the DS to open it to a different page? That was the insane type of puzzle I had to look up because I would never think to do something like that.

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At least here in the US Banjo Kazooie was bundled with Viva Pinata in a console SKU, don't know if you have the same elsewhere but here you can find it cheap fairly easily. In either case, it's also one of those platinum hits titles so it should be MSRP cheap too.

 

One of these days I have to sit down and actually beat Viva Pinata 2

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Ahhh! I forgot all about Hotel Dusk!

What a fantastic game. I loved the style, and the music, and the story... it was amazing. I need to play it again. The only thing I didn't like about it were some of the puzzles... closing the DS to (if I remember correctly) close a book, then open the DS to open it to a different page? That was the insane type of puzzle I had to look up because I would never think to do something like that.

 

yeah weirdly the puzzles were my least favourite part of that game. some of them were egregiously unintuitive, and even knowing what to do next in that game could be difficult. I'm still halfway through the EU only sequel and I'm enjoying it, I should jump back in soon

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Ahhh! I forgot all about Hotel Dusk!

What a fantastic game. I loved the style, and the music, and the story... it was amazing. I need to play it again. The only thing I didn't like about it were some of the puzzles... closing the DS to (if I remember correctly) close a book, then open the DS to open it to a different page? That was the insane type of puzzle I had to look up because I would never think to do something like that.

Cing's adventure games on the DS did a lot of weird stuff like that. Another Code/Trace Memory had one puzzle that required you to angle the hinge in a certain way so that you could see the bottom screen reflected off the top screen, creating a complete image where you would otherwise see only nonsense.

Hotel Dusk was their best game though... I assume. I mean, a lot of their games didn't get localized to North America, including Last Window, the sequel to Hotel Dusk. (Did Trace Memory/Another Code's Wii sequel get released in Europe?)

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Yes on both accounts. Last Window wasn't nearly as good as Hotel Dusk though. I loved Another Code, but the Wii sequel was also rather limited in appeal. They'll remain this weird footname in adventure gaming history, with two great titles, two lesser ones, and now they're gone.

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It's fantastic to see appreciation for Nuts & Bolts. The vehicle building mechanic captured the Lego spirit perfectly and it felt so satisfying to jump from the builder to testing your contraption in seconds. I spent ages playing about in it. I made an Enterprise. Gee, it was wizard! There were some good challenges, but overall the game failed to offer interesting tasks once you'd built your crazy vehicles. The time-limit trials became repetitive very quickly, whether racing or knocking things over or activating switches/whatever, with the arenas offering little else. I think they could have opened it up by incorporating environmental puzzles (eg. building a bridge to open up a new area, a platform to transport a rocket to a launchpad, a moveable blastshield or a circuitboard to power something or a tower to reach...).

 

Also, was the spectre of the inevitably crappy licensed tie-in finally put to rest this past generation? Of course, they still exist but they're no longer a foregone conclusion. Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, Wolverine, Toy Story 3 - they were all strong games. The Lego series is mostly solid, though skewed towards a young demographic. And at the real top end we've got The Walking Dead and the Arkham games.

 

Re. underappreciated games, I had a lot of fun with Excitetruck.

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Re. underappreciated games, I had a lot of fun with Excitetruck.

Ooh, yes. I'd argue that Excitetruck was the best Wii game, best here meaning the one that played most closely to the console's strengths. Everyone knows about waggle in swordfighting and flaky shooting and a whole lot of other things, which mostly seem like difficulties with absolute motion detection or one-to-one control. But the relative motion sensors in the wiimote are really precise, so tilting to steer and position your truck just right before landing was something that could only have been done on Wii.

I'm still really annoyed that Nintendo never released Excitebots in PAL regions. Like, really, with all the mountains of shovelware that's getting released for your massively popular console, you just can't be bothered translating this finished game that barely has any text into a couple more languages? I eventually played it through... means... and it's my second favourite game on the system. But that was the thing that stopped me buying Nintendo games for a few years.

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This was the first console generation I bought into (Wii & PS3) only to find out I will only use a console as a media player.

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Man, Excitetruck. For a launch game, that shit was incredible. I'll still bust it out every now and then. Thanks for the reminder. I think I may need to do that this weekend now.

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I really like Excite Truck, it was probably the best launch game for the system, but i really don't know that i'd argue it's one of the best Wii games overall.

At the very least, it does a better job using the tilt sensor for control than Mario Kart Wii did, that's for sure. You don't notice the motion control's latency in Excite Truck since it's purpose built for that input. Wide open stretches of track where turns are clearly visible far in advance, etc. It knows the limitations of the control scheme it's working with and is built with that in mind.

About Excite Bots not being released in Europe, I don't think Excite Bots was very good, for what it's worth. It's Excite Truck with, essentially, a ton of motion control QTE's embedded into the courses.

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Excitetruck was good! Besides the first Zelda that came out for the Wii, and Wii Sports, that was probably the only Wii game I played for more than a couple of hours. I'm probably forgetting a couple of games here, though.

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I too had a lot of fun playing Excitetruck.  I remember being very surprised I was able to drive so well just by tilting the controller.  I also realized that I looked exactly like the people I used to make fun of who would do things like move the controller up every time Mario jumped.

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DS

This one was hard, there's just been so, so many great DS games. A few that i might have mentioned, like Hotel Dusk, Trace Memory, and Lost Magic, have already come up in the thread, so i won't retread those mentions.

The World Ends With You - If i had to pick one game to call the DS's best game, i think this would probably be it. No other game on the DS makes such full use of the system's distinctive hardware features to create such a complete, coherent, original, and fully realized whole. That its enviroments make for one one of the most visually stylish games of the last generation of games just sweetens the pot. Unavoidably, it has some problems too. It's a game that is trying to do so many new things, something had to give. The issue here is that each ability you add to your character has its own touch input during battles, and certain inputs overlap in problematic ways, it can make the game seem particularly frustrating and broken. It's still something you can customize your character around and it's not a reason to skip the game. Tetsuya Nomura's character designs being all over this game will also probably scare some people off, but it really shouldn't, this one is something special.

 

Ghost Trick - I love the quirky characters and story-telling of the Phoenix Wright games, but i think Ghost Trick, from the same designer, has all of the same appeal and is built on a much more interesting puzzle/adventure framework. To break it down, you're a ghost haunting your way through a city at night, manipulating objects to influence the actions of the people around you, all in an effort to try and unravel the mystery of your death. It's also so genuinely funny and charming, it's a game so many more people should play. I'd love to make a more passioned argument for people to catch up on this game, but as a relatively brief and linear adventure with a very twisty narrative, it's much too easy to spoil. Still, if more people would play Ghost Trick, i would be very happy. (The iOS port is apparently quite nice, if that's an option.)

 

Castlevania - No one in particular, all three of the games the DS got were really great, and they might end up having been the last real Castlevania games with the way the series has been going. Dawn of Sorrow is probably my favorite of the three because of the way it builds on Aria of Sorrow's excellent game systems, but Dawn has a lot of awkwardly implemented control gimmicks owing to it being an earlier DS release with an obligation to use the hardware's unique traits. Portrait of Ruin is probably the most roundly solid of these DS releases, dropping the gimmicks of the previous game, but suffering from somewhat bland environment design. The last of the three, Order of Ecclesia, was a bit of an oddity in trying to find a balance between the old-school Castlevanias and the games that came after SotN. It's quite beautiful, with elaborate backgrounds and very detailed sprites, but can feel a little constraining if you expect broader freedom to explore.

Bangai-O Spirits - This one's just for me, i love this game. It's incredibly janky, it's amazing that the DS doesn't burst into flames as hundreds of schizophrenically flickering projectiles are rendered onto its screen. I still just have so much fun with this game though, it's one i still pull out to mess around with when i'm bored. Treasure's done a few of these Bangai-O games now, and i think this is the one i still have the most fun with. (If anybody is actually interested in Bangai-O, don't be intimidated by the dense onscreen action. It's not like a bullet hell game where you need pixel perfect dodging skills, it's much more about the abilites you load up with and the ways they can be used to counter different enemies and situations.) There's also a really great level-editor and a crazy file-sharing scheme where you can output your level data as sound to record and share over the internet.

 

I could easily keep going, but i want to keep these relatively short. There are so many great games on the DS though. Some other things that i think deserve some championing: Megaman ZX/ZX Advent, Aliens: Infestation, Metroid Prime: Hunters, Contact, Infinite Space, Kirby: Canvas Curse, Kirby: Mass Attack, Nanostray 2, Lunar Knights, Scurge: The Hive, Sonic Rush, Glory Days 2, Lost in Blue, X-Scape, Metal Torrent. (Those last two are DSi-ware games!)

Nintendo DS, you were pretty alright.

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The DS was a madhouse of great games. It's pretty nuts. I mean «fuckin bonkers».

 

I can vouch for Ghost Trick, what an amazing experience. On a personal note, I loved a few games that may actually not be that great, but I just really took to them. Orcs and Elves stands out as a fun dungeon crawler. Another Code is a good adventure. Tingle's Rosy Rupee Land if you're a freak.

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Orcs and Elves was a neat one, I would still love to see more things like that out of Id.

Also, i have had multiple friends, independent of eachother, insist to me that Radiant Historia is the best game on the DS. So maybe that's a thing, i don't know, i didn't play that one.

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I would be remiss not to mention the best thing gaming has spawned over the last decade, in total, regardless of system, neutral of affiliation, and that is the Ace Attorney series. It had simply the largest impact on me. I have two separate, elaborate cosplays from that series, I took part in a Phoenix Wright play (as Mr. Godot), and since 2005 I've played six games in the series and written about as many articles on it for various print magazines (the latest of which, the review of Dual Destinies, will feature in AniWay, out in about a month in the Netherlands).

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Loco Roco & Loco Roco 2: Just go

, it really speaks for itself.

Metal Gear Ac!d & Metal Gear Ac!d 2: The Metal Gear Ac!d games are insane. They deliver the stealth-based tactical action you would expect from Metal Gear, but with two big differences: It's turn-based and your actions are powered by a customized deck of cards that you build over the course of the game. You might draw a card that lets you equip a rifle to an empty inventory slot, and then use another rifle card with a corresponding ammo type to let you fire that equipped rifle. That's really just where it starts, with many more specialized cards themed around things reaching deep into Hideo Kojima's history as a developer, and it really results in what i think are two of the coolest turn-based tactics games i've ever played.

 

I gave up after 100%ing Loco Roco 1. It's sad but it took me months of struggling to finish that bullshit game to realize how badly designed it was. Sure the mechanics and premise are great, cut, inventive, fun, etc. But in order to unlock everything and have the game register your 100% you have to run through the levels prefectly the whole way through. While obnoxious early on, it isn't so bad until the levels start taking 30 god damn minutes. One screw up on the 25 minute mark by missing some item you didn't have the right momentum for and you have to start the whole fucking thing over. Now times the amount of levels like this by 50 or so. Would it really have been that hard to just have the game save your item forever the second you collect it like most proper collectathon games? I feel like I wasted a bunch of my life on fucking Loco Roco that I could have dedicated to much better games. Fuck that series.

 

However, Metal Gear Acid and Metal Gear Acid 2 were fucking amazing. The first one was a little bit rough and the card collecting system there was a bit grindy in order to collect them all, but MGA2 was just solid and amazing. I really liked that they deviated from the usual Metal Gear art style and especially loved all of the little side missions and wide variety of weapons to try out. There's so much depth in both of those I that I didn't realize until near finish that I sank 180 hours between the two (although I think there's probably 20-30 hours racked up by just leaving it sitting in the menu). What a disappointment to play the garbage that is Portable Ops after the amazing Acid games.

 

Tingle's Rosy Rupee Land if you're a freak.

Americans aren't allowed to have that game (though I imported one). No one outside of Japan is allowed to have the second one apparently.

 

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I can't understand why you would feel so committed to trying to 100% Loco Roco. I have a slight itch for completionism too, but i usually stop when i realize it's making me hate a game.

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Oh are we adding the original DS to the mix? Then obviously the game of the generation is Elite Beat Agents. I loved this game so much. The gameplay is pretty straightforward in that it's a rhythm game where you tap/drag the stylus to the beat of various rock/pop songs. It's just extremely well executed and it's over these stories that are so stupid and fun (a washed up baseball player thwarting a giant stone golem attack, for example). The agents solve people's problems by showing up and dancing and it's amazing. I am still bummed a sequel never happened.

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I'll speak for Radiant Historia being excellent. It subverts a great amount of tired RPG tropes, most notably things like incompetence in characters.

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