Simple fixes that might make crappy games good
So I've played my fair share of bad games, and it does not shame me.
But as I'm playing some, I can't help but notice some games might be good, or more playable at least, if one or two tweaks were implemented. Granted, some games are a lost cause (Action 52), but I wonder if others can be at least hacked a little or a few tweaks here and there. For instance:
Gyromite: hack the timer. It's so long because R.O.B. is so poky, but two human players it's way more than you need. Speed up the timer so you have to really rush and coordinate Prof. Hector with the player controlling the columns.
Home Alone: Unique concept, but I think the game gets monotonous. You lay traps, the Wet Bandits fall down, you gain a few seconds. Repeat. All the traps are the same. Solution? Make the different traps do different things. Like reverse the bandit's direction, fall through a floor, freeze for different times, slow them down considerably, that sort of thing. Add some variety. The joy of the movie was seeing Pesci and Stern get their asses kicked by household items in different ways.
Any others?
But as I'm playing some, I can't help but notice some games might be good, or more playable at least, if one or two tweaks were implemented. Granted, some games are a lost cause (Action 52), but I wonder if others can be at least hacked a little or a few tweaks here and there. For instance:
Gyromite: hack the timer. It's so long because R.O.B. is so poky, but two human players it's way more than you need. Speed up the timer so you have to really rush and coordinate Prof. Hector with the player controlling the columns.
Home Alone: Unique concept, but I think the game gets monotonous. You lay traps, the Wet Bandits fall down, you gain a few seconds. Repeat. All the traps are the same. Solution? Make the different traps do different things. Like reverse the bandit's direction, fall through a floor, freeze for different times, slow them down considerably, that sort of thing. Add some variety. The joy of the movie was seeing Pesci and Stern get their asses kicked by household items in different ways.
Any others?
Comments
Co-op in the first Double Dragon on NES.
Continues or more lives in Double Dragon III? I know that's a common one I hear. I'm trying to come up with stuff but I'm mainly drawing blanks.
Of course these were changed pretty quickly for obvious reasons.
Edit - I am not insinuating that the games that had these functions were crappy but it came to mind.
Being able to cycle weapons at will in Fester's Quest would've been great. Maybe speed up the walking a bit too
The simplest fix you can do for Fester's Quest is to take it out of the system, lift trash can lid, insert game. Fixes it right up.
Brandish - I love this game, but everyone seems to hate the camera. Change that to a traditional setup and you're set.
Legendary Wings - 3HP in ultimate form is too OP, knock it down to 1. And maybe mix the bosses up so you don't fight the same two over and over again...
3HP is fine for the first loop, but it could have been set to 1 on subsquent loops for more challenge.
To hell with the integer physics it uses.
Ikari Warriors on NES should have the default walking speed set twice as fast to match Super Speed. Then replace Super Speed pickups with anything else. The game is still very hard but at least dying without a heart wouldn't be a complete death sentence.
Oh, hell yes. The pace is completely lethargic without the SS upgrade. It drives one nuts, so slow that they move.
The SS improves that a bit, but not quite enough.
Being able to cycle weapons at will in Fester's Quest would've been great. Maybe speed up the walking a bit too
The simplest fix you can do for Fester's Quest is to take it out of the system, lift trash can lid, insert game. Fixes it right up.
Heh.
Not too long ago the Retronauts podcast did a short retrospective on Fester's Quest. The debug version of the game had a save state system for playtesting that wasn't included in the final build. Apparently the devs took the save state feature for granted that they forgot they needed make time to code a password system before the game was ready to ship.
Not a bad game at all, but NES Batman should have had reasonable time limits so you can't just sit there and endlessly farm health, ammo and points.
Well, it was risky anyway. Sometimes the game is generous with health, and sometimes it's stingy. However, the hit detection is just inconsistent enough that farming health can be very risky.
Being able to cycle weapons at will in Fester's Quest would've been great. Maybe speed up the walking a bit too
The simplest fix you can do for Fester's Quest is to take it out of the system, lift trash can lid, insert game. Fixes it right up.
Heh.
Not too long ago the Retronauts podcast did a short retrospective on Fester's Quest. The debug version of the game had a save state system for playtesting that wasn't included in the final build. Apparently the devs took the save state feature for granted that they forgot they needed make time to code a password system before the game was ready to ship.
What was the excuse for Blaster Master?
Ugh. Long ass games without passwords or battery backup were all too common back in the day.
South Park Chef's Luv Shack needed CPU opponents
Loved that spank the 4 assed monkey game.
Or did it have 5 asses in that one?
1). Even more important than the password feature, fix the gun mechanics and releive the game of the severe Gradius Syndrome that it suffers from...
2) password or save feature, to make the games more enjoyable overall, rather than a game you VERY rarely finish, but have played the beginning of a million times.
Get rid of all the hand - holding throughout both DS Zelda games
Get rid of the touch screen interaction and make them play like actual Zelda games...
Get rid of all the hand - holding throughout both DS Zelda games
I want this out of most games now-a-days.
Zelda 2. When Link dies have him respawn near the closest town or dungeon. The journey back from the castle just feels unfair.
Kind of lets you rebuild XP, though.
Also, FLOATING POINT PHYSICS for Mario Bros would make it playable.
To hell with the integer physics it uses.
I heard the FDS game really fixed the control/physics.