I'm gonna be the bold one here and say that all LJN games are steaming piles of crap. Even their best efforts, Punisher and Wolverine, are mediocre at absolute best.
Their only purpose in this age is to serve as collection fodder. Playing them is a total waste of time.
I'm starting to have the opinion that you have to play a game start to finish, before you can totally grade it.
Why? Because I have tons of games I absolutely hated, that in the last few years, have really buckled down and finished, and finally been able to appreciate them fully.
I've also had some games that I absolutely loved, that when I finally finished, felt like they were lacking.
I'm guessing you haven't finished any of the LJN games?
I haven't played them all, no. But having played a number of them did tell me that it probably wasn't worth my time trying them all. I can recognize patterns of suckiness.
My best friend owned X-Men while growing up and damn, if we didn't try our best to hack past that one. Countless times. But we ultimately decided that it was just too poorly designed to truly be beatable and gave up.
I rented Bill & Ted but grew quickly frustrated by the sheer randomness of it. You had to leap fences to find cans of pudding and junk like that. But it was a needle-in-a-haystack approach and felt so disconnected from the actual movie that I couldn't take it for more than a few hours. I haven't heard much praise for the game since, so I doubt I was the only one disappointed by it.
The T&C Surf Design games were actually alright. The controls were clunky at times but not so bad I threw the controller down. The surfing was far better than the skateboarding, in my opinion. What's cool is that if you visit the actual T&C surf shop in the Ala Moana Mall in Honolulu, and you mention having played either game, the employees light up like firecrackers. They gave me tons of free swag just because I knew about the NES games. Bumper stickers, a sun hat, air fresheners, a little T&C fingerboard and a bunch of coupons. I got myself a few pretty awesome t-shirts with those coupons. They're good folk in that store and pretty big NES nerds too. Worth a stop by, definitely, if you ever wind up in the Waikiki area.
I think Wolverine was the best game LJN produced. It felt reasonably authentic and Wolvie had a nice berserker rage meter. The hit range was pretty wonky at times but the action was acceptable. I didn't hate that one as much as most of the others.
Never played Gotcha!. The box never appealed to me, so i skipped by it. Maybe I should pick it up and give it a once over.
Friday the 13th is fantastic. Crissy and Mark rock the house. Just use them and I can beat the entire game no death and no kids lost. Easy as pie! My Favorite.
Punisher is of course my 2nd favorite. Pull it out and beat it a couple times a year. Can no death it all the way to Kingpin who I basically have so many saved up lives by then I just sit there and trade shots with him.
nightmare is cool because its a long game and you can hit it up with 4 players and the music is just great...i did a cover of one of the tracks from it in sorta a slowcore neurosis vein, really heavy. thats one game i regret not going through completely.
Nightmare on Elm is definitely the best and most of the music is awesome. Who framed Roger Rabbit is 2nd. I used to drive around for hours when I was a kid. I love to run over the snakes as many times as possible lol.
Friday the 13th is fantastic. Crissy and Mark rock the house. Just use them and I can beat the entire game no death and no kids lost. Easy as pie! My Favorite. Punisher is of course my 2nd favorite. Pull it out and beat it a couple times a year. Can no death it all the way to Kingpin who I basically have so many saved up lives by then I just sit there and trade shots with him.
This whole post kicks ass! I've never been able to get through that game with all of the kids intact. If the game had one fault with me, I would say that the final day cabin punchout style fights are borderline unfair in how quick Jason speeds around. I always chase after him on the trails with the torch but I can never beat the game pretty.
Friday the 13th is easily in the top five favorite games on the nes for me personally, I used to play it all the time when I was really young. I always felt like I was getting away with doing something wrong because it was based off of a R rated slasher movie.
Alien 3 is pretty good, but very unforgiving with the time limit. You damn well better know where every prisoner is and exactly how to get to them, or you will run out of time. Not much learning curve. Still, very fun.
Alien 3 is the best of them in my opinion (but terribly flawed in the time thing). In a tie up for a distant 2nd place, Friday the 13th and Punisher (which I wouldn't call good by any other standards)
Punisher was one of my favorite games growing up, and I still think it's great. It always made me wish the NES blaster didn't suck so bad though (so you could use it for games like this one). edit spelling
I really don't see how LJN gets hated on as much as say THQ or Color Dreams as I really like a lot of the games they published, some of which are my favorites for the system. Alien 3, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Beetlejuice, Friday the 13th, The Incredible Crash Dummies, The Punisher , Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six , Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Town & Country Surf Designs II: Thrilla's Surfari, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Wolverine. all the games listed there I think are pretty damn good and worth owning, the rest of the games I personally do not like at all, but would rather play them over Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends or Menace Beach any day.
Ooh, I like this topic! I say "Jaws," with "Nightmare on Elm Street" a close second. "Friday the 13th" can be fun, if frustrating; the first "Back to the Future" can actually be kind of addictive. I haven't played "Alien 3" and some of the others yet.
I'm gonna be the bold one here and say that all LJN games are steaming piles of crap. Even their best efforts, Punisher and Wolverine, are mediocre at absolute best.
Their only purpose in this age is to serve as collection fodder. Playing them is a total waste of time.
You know the funny thing about this post? The fact that LJN was a publisher. They never once developed a game in-house, they just published games from smaller developers who wanted to use the licenses tha LJN owned.
Perhaps this is the reason they mostly sucked then. To me most of their games feel like unlicensed quality. A lot of the games, the jumping mechanics were god awful, which really makes the games stick out, since the NES is dominated by solid platformers. I love a few of the LJN games, like T&C, Nightmare, Friday, and Spidy. Looking back though it is 100% nostalgia. None of the games I like are really good. T&C loops over and over, Spidy has the same shitty mechanics as Wolverine, Friday just doesn't have much to it. Nightmare seems at least semi solid though. Roger Rabbit is a unique title with lengthy fun play. Mostly though the games seem like your sprite is clunking around the screen, breaking it's legs as it lands a jump, and mashing around as it exchanges blows with an enemy. Look how terrible Beetle Juice's engine is. It was as if LJN got tossed a license, and they used it to publish games for guys that coded on the Action 52 cart.
I've always enjoyed Wolverine, but the enemy sprites are painfully generic and without marvel character. And I also agree with all the common complaints-- taking continuous damage from occupying the same space as an enemy and getting hurt from using claws was seriously bullshit!
But the music in it is awesome.
Alien 3 is also kind of cool, but I first played it on the Amiga and never took interest in the NES version. They probably should've started the game with smaller and easier levels to make the game feel more inviting. That one has cool title screen music as well.
Pictionary- that's a game that isn't poorly made, but is majorly flawed conceptually. Imagine trying to draw on an 8-bit virtual etch-a-sketch with the dpad of an NES controller. It SUCKS. And then because the game has no way of knowing if your partner guessed right, it works on the honor system. It's a very awkward experience. But yet again, the music is epic.
I seem to recall finding Jaws playable, but I never got into it and just watched friends play.
Jaws is my favorite by a fair margin, followed by Punisher. AVGN aside, many of their game are cheaply, quickly produced license-based titles designed to turn a quick, tidy profit with minimal effort. Just sayin'.
LJN wasn't bad overall. Not great, but not awful. THQ was the worst licensed NES publisher by far.
Agreed.
Added in edit: I can't think of a poorer quality licensed game on the NES than "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle"
Yeah, but they had Killer Tomatoes and James Bond Jr.
You people are forgetting about Mindscape. Despite my love for Conan, not many others can see the fun in it. Then there's shit-tacular games like The Last Starfighter and Days of Thunder...games not even I could find joy in.
James Bond Jr. is actually one of my favorites for the NES. It has a ton of variety and challenge. Killer Tomatoes, well, it has its problems, but it could have been pretty cool if, one, it was longer, and two, they worked out the attacks. Jumping on tiny tomatoes is near impossible most of the time.
Alien 3 is pretty good, but very unforgiving with the time limit. You damn well better know where every prisoner is and exactly how to get to them, or you will run out of time. Not much learning curve. Still, very fun.
That's really my only complaint with this game other than Ripley's god awful jumping and bumping off of objects when she falls. You pretty much have to memorize prisoner position to get through it. Pretty cool soundtrack too.
Terminator 2 wasn't too bad once you got the hang of it. I really liked Jaws too. Spiderman wasn't crappy either. Friday the 13th drives me nuts though.
LJN wasn't bad overall. Not great, but not awful. THQ was the worst licensed NES publisher by far.
Agreed.
Added in edit: I can't think of a poorer quality licensed game on the NES than "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle"
Yeah, but they had Killer Tomatoes and James Bond Jr.
You people are forgetting about Mindscape. Despite my love for Conan, not many others can see the fun in it. Then there's shit-tacular games like The Last Starfighter and Days of Thunder...games not even I could find joy in.
Good God, Mindscape had a ton of horrible games out there, the first Terminator game was complete garbage. Mad Max was awful, Dirty Harry wasn't so hot either. I think Infiltrator is the worst game I ever played. In comparison, Conan is kinda alright I guess.
I havent played enough LJN games on NES to make a judgement, but for SNES, LJN BLOWS!! Almost every game I have played by them has been terrible. The only exception is T2 The Arcade Game, which I know a lot of people hate, but I enjoy it.
Comments
I'm gonna be the bold one here and say that all LJN games are steaming piles of crap. Even their best efforts, Punisher and Wolverine, are mediocre at absolute best.
Their only purpose in this age is to serve as collection fodder. Playing them is a total waste of time.
I'm starting to have the opinion that you have to play a game start to finish, before you can totally grade it.
Why? Because I have tons of games I absolutely hated, that in the last few years, have really buckled down and finished, and finally been able to appreciate them fully.
I've also had some games that I absolutely loved, that when I finally finished, felt like they were lacking.
I'm guessing you haven't finished any of the LJN games?
I haven't played them all, no. But having played a number of them did tell me that it probably wasn't worth my time trying them all. I can recognize patterns of suckiness.
My best friend owned X-Men while growing up and damn, if we didn't try our best to hack past that one. Countless times. But we ultimately decided that it was just too poorly designed to truly be beatable and gave up.
I rented Bill & Ted but grew quickly frustrated by the sheer randomness of it. You had to leap fences to find cans of pudding and junk like that. But it was a needle-in-a-haystack approach and felt so disconnected from the actual movie that I couldn't take it for more than a few hours. I haven't heard much praise for the game since, so I doubt I was the only one disappointed by it.
The T&C Surf Design games were actually alright. The controls were clunky at times but not so bad I threw the controller down. The surfing was far better than the skateboarding, in my opinion. What's cool is that if you visit the actual T&C surf shop in the Ala Moana Mall in Honolulu, and you mention having played either game, the employees light up like firecrackers. They gave me tons of free swag just because I knew about the NES games. Bumper stickers, a sun hat, air fresheners, a little T&C fingerboard and a bunch of coupons. I got myself a few pretty awesome t-shirts with those coupons. They're good folk in that store and pretty big NES nerds too. Worth a stop by, definitely, if you ever wind up in the Waikiki area.
I think Wolverine was the best game LJN produced. It felt reasonably authentic and Wolvie had a nice berserker rage meter. The hit range was pretty wonky at times but the action was acceptable. I didn't hate that one as much as most of the others.
Never played Gotcha!. The box never appealed to me, so i skipped by it. Maybe I should pick it up and give it a once over.
Punisher is of course my 2nd favorite. Pull it out and beat it a couple times a year. Can no death it all the way to Kingpin who I basically have so many saved up lives by then I just sit there and trade shots with him.
Friday the 13th is fantastic. Crissy and Mark rock the house. Just use them and I can beat the entire game no death and no kids lost. Easy as pie! My Favorite.
Punisher is of course my 2nd favorite. Pull it out and beat it a couple times a year. Can no death it all the way to Kingpin who I basically have so many saved up lives by then I just sit there and trade shots with him.
This whole post kicks ass! I've never been able to get through that game with all of the kids intact. If the game had one fault with me, I would say that the final day cabin punchout style fights are borderline unfair in how quick Jason speeds around. I always chase after him on the trails with the torch but I can never beat the game pretty.
Friday the 13th is easily in the top five favorite games on the nes for me personally, I used to play it all the time when I was really young. I always felt like I was getting away with doing something wrong because it was based off of a R rated slasher movie.
edit spelling
Friday the 13th
X-Men
Nightmare on Elm Street
Wolverine
I have to give it to Nightmare on Elm Street. Good controls and gameplay. Plus, Freddy is bad ass!!
We should do favorite THQ game next.
I'm gonna be the bold one here and say that all LJN games are steaming piles of crap. Even their best efforts, Punisher and Wolverine, are mediocre at absolute best.
Their only purpose in this age is to serve as collection fodder. Playing them is a total waste of time.
You know the funny thing about this post? The fact that LJN was a publisher. They never once developed a game in-house, they just published games from smaller developers who wanted to use the licenses tha LJN owned.
Perhaps this is the reason they mostly sucked then. To me most of their games feel like unlicensed quality. A lot of the games, the jumping mechanics were god awful, which really makes the games stick out, since the NES is dominated by solid platformers. I love a few of the LJN games, like T&C, Nightmare, Friday, and Spidy. Looking back though it is 100% nostalgia. None of the games I like are really good. T&C loops over and over, Spidy has the same shitty mechanics as Wolverine, Friday just doesn't have much to it. Nightmare seems at least semi solid though. Roger Rabbit is a unique title with lengthy fun play. Mostly though the games seem like your sprite is clunking around the screen, breaking it's legs as it lands a jump, and mashing around as it exchanges blows with an enemy. Look how terrible Beetle Juice's engine is. It was as if LJN got tossed a license, and they used it to publish games for guys that coded on the Action 52 cart.
But the music in it is awesome.
Alien 3 is also kind of cool, but I first played it on the Amiga and never took interest in the NES version. They probably should've started the game with smaller and easier levels to make the game feel more inviting. That one has cool title screen music as well.
Pictionary- that's a game that isn't poorly made, but is majorly flawed conceptually. Imagine trying to draw on an 8-bit virtual etch-a-sketch with the dpad of an NES controller. It SUCKS. And then because the game has no way of knowing if your partner guessed right, it works on the honor system. It's a very awkward experience. But yet again, the music is epic.
I seem to recall finding Jaws playable, but I never got into it and just watched friends play.
LJN wasn't bad overall. Not great, but not awful. THQ was the worst licensed NES publisher by far.
Agreed.
Added in edit: I can't think of a poorer quality licensed game on the NES than "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle"
LJN wasn't bad overall. Not great, but not awful. THQ was the worst licensed NES publisher by far.
Agreed.
Added in edit: I can't think of a poorer quality licensed game on the NES than "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle"
Yeah, but they had Killer Tomatoes and James Bond Jr.
You people are forgetting about Mindscape. Despite my love for Conan, not many others can see the fun in it. Then there's shit-tacular games like The Last Starfighter and Days of Thunder...games not even I could find joy in.
Alien 3 is pretty good, but very unforgiving with the time limit. You damn well better know where every prisoner is and exactly how to get to them, or you will run out of time. Not much learning curve. Still, very fun.
That's really my only complaint with this game other than Ripley's god awful jumping and bumping off of objects when she falls. You pretty much have to memorize prisoner position to get through it. Pretty cool soundtrack too.
LJN wasn't bad overall. Not great, but not awful. THQ was the worst licensed NES publisher by far.
Agreed.
Added in edit: I can't think of a poorer quality licensed game on the NES than "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle"
Yeah, but they had Killer Tomatoes and James Bond Jr.
You people are forgetting about Mindscape. Despite my love for Conan, not many others can see the fun in it. Then there's shit-tacular games like The Last Starfighter and Days of Thunder...games not even I could find joy in.
Good God, Mindscape had a ton of horrible games out there, the first Terminator game was complete garbage. Mad Max was awful, Dirty Harry wasn't so hot either. I think Infiltrator is the worst game I ever played. In comparison, Conan is kinda alright I guess.