Eye Candy games, but no playability - Page 2

Retro-Nerd · 13 July 2011, 01:04

Agony is the perfect game for narcoleptics. They wake up during the extro, missed nothing and..tadaaa... completed the game.

Graham Humphrey · 13 July 2011, 09:00

I don't think Agony is a bad game, just very very average. It's playable but lacks a lot of excitement.

I don't even think Xenon 2 looks that good - it's neat and tidy but a bit boring-looking. And as a game it's very poor indeed. Far too slow and tedious.

I find it a bit odd that even now, people can really be sucked in by how good a game looks, or if it's technically impressive on any other level, especially when you consider that ought to be the last concern of people who still play on older machines. But each to their own.

Gordon · 13 July 2011, 11:24

Lethal weapon
Banshee
Postman Pat

Bamiga2002 · 13 July 2011, 12:46

I think Banshee has great playability and a good game

alkis21 · 13 July 2011, 13:26

This thread is breaking my heart. I disagree with so many of the games mentioned.

Someone says "Eye Candy games, but no playability" and you think of Project X???

So instead of giving you my list, I'm going to comment on your choices:

Loved them / played them to death:
Shadow of the Beast
Unreal
Agony
Project X
Zool
Turbo Trax
Jurassic Park
Jaguar XJ220
Wrath of the Demon
Banshee

Not that bad, there are certainly worse pretty games out there:
Sword of Sodan
Awesome
Xenon 2
The Godfather
Assassin
Black Viper

Not pretty enough to be called Eye Candy:
Super Tennis Champs
Nathan Never
Postman Pat
Lethal weapon

Totally agree with:
Rise of the Robots
Dragon's Lair
Space Ace

Phantom · 13 July 2011, 13:27

Kick-Off series is totally crap too.

Jimbo · 13 July 2011, 13:47

I also love Jurassic Park. I only played the AGA version, unsure what was different. But anyway I thought it played great. Back in the day those 3D parts were great fun and the music was WOW when the T-Rex came after you, I thought it was like a movie

In fact I might whack it in the CD32 now, if I can find an AGA version on CD for it that is

Bamiga2002 · 13 July 2011, 13:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phantom

Kick-Off series is totally crap too.

But where is this eye-candy in Kick-off series?

Phantom · 13 July 2011, 15:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bamiga2002

But where is this eye-candy in Kick-off series?

You see? Not even eye-candy.

Heavy Stylus · 13 July 2011, 15:39

I know it's all down to personal opinion, but I just find Project X really dull. It has not aged well at all; the hitbox is too big and the naff physics make it feel really loose. Apidya was a much better example of a gradius style shooter on the Amiga, with superior wave/level design, tight controls - and more importantly - it was/is much more fun to play.

Interestingly, Amiga Power is the only mag that seems to agree with my sentiments (on Apidya being a superior game).

Retro-Nerd · 13 July 2011, 15:43

You know after 30 seconds ingame that Apidya is extremely superior to Agony.

Heavy Stylus · 13 July 2011, 15:46

You know as soon as that god-awful 'music' starts in Agony that Space Invaders is extremely superior to Agony. Maybe the name is actually a reference to how you are supposed to feel when listening to it?

Sensi · 18 July 2011, 13:26

I disagree with Project X, I like this one for its gameplay. Level 3 is real hell, agree, but the rest of the game is a great shmup with well-balanced difficulty in my opinion. Same for Banshee, its great!

SOTB is a good game too for me.

When I played Xenon 2 for the first time, I didnt like it, it was too slow and I expected much more. Years later I gave it another chance and I liked it.

Agony doesnt look so great I think. Some parts of the game are totally unplayable for me due to deuteranomalia. I cant see opponents and bullets on the background.

Never liked Unreal, looks really good but its an average game.

Noone has mentioned my "favourite", so its my turn

Superfrog. Damn, I hate this one. One of the most overrated Amiga game ever.

Predseda · 18 July 2011, 13:42

For me, Mr. Nutz. technically brilliant, but the playability was sloweed down and decreased by leveldesign. All those spikes and acid, that prevented you from enjoying the speed. Very dissapointing attempt to compete with Sega's famous hedgehog.

S0ulA55a551n · 18 July 2011, 14:27

Superfrog was aweseome game for the Amiga. Only thing it suffered from was the cures of all amiga platformers and that was having up as jump.

I was always amazed by how much people whould say this or that platfromer on the amiga was good though , when on the whole the were pretty bad.

I always thought the amiga must have been capabale of a sonic or a mario, but nothing even close was ever made

Adropac2 · 18 July 2011, 16:12

Project X and Jaguar for me. Project isn't a terrible game just not a great example of the genre. Jaguar is terrible though because it has zero depth in handling

Doesn't mean people wont enjoy any of these game though and that's surely the important thing. A lot of the time it comes down to how the game feels to them and that's why people see them differently. Project on the surface for example seems great and plays casually well, but in truth it's not an especially good shooter. Even my loving the atmosphere of Jaguar isn't enough for me to like it though

desiv · 18 July 2011, 17:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by S0ulA55a551n

I always thought the amiga must have been capable of a sonic or a mario, but nothing even close was ever made

Seems to me I remember that Nintendo thought Giana was kind of close to Mario..

desiv

Jimbo · 18 July 2011, 18:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by S0ulA55a551n

Superfrog was aweseome game for the Amiga. Only thing it suffered from was the cures of all amiga platformers and that was having up as jump.

I was always amazed by how much people whould say this or that platfromer on the amiga was good though , when on the whole the were pretty bad.

I always thought the amiga must have been capabale of a sonic or a mario, but nothing even close was ever made

I think the CD32 version has the ability to use up or a button to jump. I thought the A1200 version did to. EDIT It does

Photon · 26 July 2011, 00:42

Agree Jaguar was a let-down. Comparing it to Buggy Boy (which TBH looks like crap with crap on it) gives a strange lesson that a game can be simplistic, and have an even simpler control method and still be playable and fun for a while, at least a little longer than it takes saying "what the #$%^ is this #$%^" and pushing the floppy eject button

Xenon 2 and Project-X had lousy playability/appeal because they failed to implement the two basics of a good shooter, framerate and collision detection. Without it it's just noskill random waves porridge.

I enjoyed Unreal, it felt fresh when it came.

And can someone point me to the eyecandy in Sword of Sodan?

I'll put Gods on the table. For all its audiovisual brilliance (it really does sound and look so very good), I couldn't bring myself to playing it. There would only be more switches, treasures, traps and monsters. I really have a hard time with this trap- and sequence-memorizing style of game, made harder with too large characters that all but fill the empty space between walls, clunky sort of 3-step turn and shoot and "...wait for iiit!"-timing taxing the patience.

Challenge and playability are kind of at either end of a spectrum, but the challenge doesn't have to come from overcoming the control methods or other game design misses. Every game that's not multiplayer or openended or has infinite 'level' (or no levels at all) needs a challenge, but the motivation to overcome it must also be there, and the thrill of seeing a new set of graphics is weighed against how enjoyable it was to get to it.

Galahad/FLT · 26 July 2011, 00:49

I agree over Xenon 2. I've recently played it on Android, and you can literally see your bullets passing through enemies, shockingly bad collision detection.

I can't however agree on Shadow of the Beast.

Sure it was a difficult game, but once you mastered it, there was a game underneath all the flashly visuals and audio.

At least with Beast you had a chance to avoid stuff, with Rick Dangerous, aw man, that game pissed me off something rotten. Fucking random spikes!

13 July 2011, 15:39	#30
Heavy Stylus CD32 Fanboi Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Exeter, UK Age: 45 Posts: 528	I know it's all down to personal opinion, but I just find Project X really dull. It has not aged well at all; the hitbox is too big and the naff physics make it feel really loose. Apidya was a much better example of a gradius style shooter on the Amiga, with superior wave/level design, tight controls - and more importantly - it was/is much more fun to play. Interestingly, Amiga Power is the only mag that seems to agree with my sentiments (on Apidya being a superior game). Last edited by TCD; 13 July 2011 at 15:55.

18 July 2011, 13:26	#33
Sensi Unregistered User Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: N/A Posts: 1,643	I disagree with Project X, I like this one for its gameplay. Level 3 is real hell, agree, but the rest of the game is a great shmup with well-balanced difficulty in my opinion. Same for Banshee, its great! SOTB is a good game too for me. When I played Xenon 2 for the first time, I didnt like it, it was too slow and I expected much more. Years later I gave it another chance and I liked it. Agony doesnt look so great I think. Some parts of the game are totally unplayable for me due to deuteranomalia. I cant see opponents and bullets on the background. Never liked Unreal, looks really good but its an average game. Noone has mentioned my "favourite", so its my turn Superfrog. Damn, I hate this one. One of the most overrated Amiga game ever. Last edited by Sensi; 18 July 2011 at 13:35.

26 July 2011, 00:42	#39
Photon Moderator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Eksjö / Sweden Posts: 5,602	Agree Jaguar was a let-down. Comparing it to Buggy Boy (which TBH looks like crap with crap on it) gives a strange lesson that a game can be simplistic, and have an even simpler control method and still be playable and fun for a while, at least a little longer than it takes saying "what the #$%^ is this #$%^" and pushing the floppy eject button Xenon 2 and Project-X had lousy playability/appeal because they failed to implement the two basics of a good shooter, framerate and collision detection. Without it it's just noskill random waves porridge. I enjoyed Unreal, it felt fresh when it came. And can someone point me to the eyecandy in Sword of Sodan? I'll put Gods on the table. For all its audiovisual brilliance (it really does sound and look so very good), I couldn't bring myself to playing it. There would only be more switches, treasures, traps and monsters. I really have a hard time with this trap- and sequence-memorizing style of game, made harder with too large characters that all but fill the empty space between walls, clunky sort of 3-step turn and shoot and "...wait for iiit!"-timing taxing the patience. Challenge and playability are kind of at either end of a spectrum, but the challenge doesn't have to come from overcoming the control methods or other game design misses. Every game that's not multiplayer or openended or has infinite 'level' (or no levels at all) needs a challenge, but the motivation to overcome it must also be there, and the thrill of seeing a new set of graphics is weighed against how enjoyable it was to get to it. Last edited by Photon; 26 July 2011 at 01:37.

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13 July 2011, 01:04	#21
Retro-Nerd Missile Command Champion Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Germany Age: 52 Posts: 12,436	Agony is the perfect game for narcoleptics. They wake up during the extro, missed nothing and..tadaaa... completed the game.

13 July 2011, 09:00	#22
Graham Humphrey Moderator Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Norwich, Norfolk, UK Age: 37 Posts: 11,167	I don't think Agony is a bad game, just very very average. It's playable but lacks a lot of excitement. I don't even think Xenon 2 looks that good - it's neat and tidy but a bit boring-looking. And as a game it's very poor indeed. Far too slow and tedious. I find it a bit odd that even now, people can really be sucked in by how good a game looks, or if it's technically impressive on any other level, especially when you consider that ought to be the last concern of people who still play on older machines. But each to their own.

13 July 2011, 11:24	#23
Gordon Settler Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Serf City Posts: 1,760	Lethal weapon Banshee Postman Pat

13 July 2011, 12:46	#24
Bamiga2002 BlizzardPPC'less Join Date: May 2004 Location: Finland Age: 46 Posts: 3,210	I think Banshee has great playability and a good game

13 July 2011, 13:26	#25
alkis21 Zone Friend Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Athens, Greece Age: 49 Posts: 1,408	This thread is breaking my heart. I disagree with so many of the games mentioned. Someone says "Eye Candy games, but no playability" and you think of Project X??? So instead of giving you my list, I'm going to comment on your choices: Loved them / played them to death: Shadow of the Beast Unreal Agony Project X Zool Turbo Trax Jurassic Park Jaguar XJ220 Wrath of the Demon Banshee Not that bad, there are certainly worse pretty games out there: Sword of Sodan Awesome Xenon 2 The Godfather Assassin Black Viper Not pretty enough to be called Eye Candy: Super Tennis Champs Nathan Never Postman Pat Lethal weapon Totally agree with: Rise of the Robots Dragon's Lair Space Ace

13 July 2011, 13:27	#26
Phantom Adventurer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Colossal Cave, Valaii Posts: 364	Kick-Off series is totally crap too.

13 July 2011, 13:47	#27
Jimbo Registered User Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Colchester Essex Age: 44 Posts: 822	I also love Jurassic Park. I only played the AGA version, unsure what was different. But anyway I thought it played great. Back in the day those 3D parts were great fun and the music was WOW when the T-Rex came after you, I thought it was like a movie In fact I might whack it in the CD32 now, if I can find an AGA version on CD for it that is

13 July 2011, 15:43	#31
Retro-Nerd Missile Command Champion Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Germany Age: 52 Posts: 12,436	You know after 30 seconds ingame that Apidya is extremely superior to Agony.

13 July 2011, 15:46	#32
Heavy Stylus CD32 Fanboi Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Exeter, UK Age: 45 Posts: 528	You know as soon as that god-awful 'music' starts in Agony that Space Invaders is extremely superior to Agony. Maybe the name is actually a reference to how you are supposed to feel when listening to it?

18 July 2011, 13:42	#34
Predseda Puttymoon inhabitant Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Tromaville Age: 46 Posts: 7,539	For me, Mr. Nutz. technically brilliant, but the playability was sloweed down and decreased by leveldesign. All those spikes and acid, that prevented you from enjoying the speed. Very dissapointing attempt to compete with Sega's famous hedgehog.

18 July 2011, 14:27	#35
S0ulA55a551n Registered User Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: South Wales Age: 46 Posts: 934	Superfrog was aweseome game for the Amiga. Only thing it suffered from was the cures of all amiga platformers and that was having up as jump. I was always amazed by how much people whould say this or that platfromer on the amiga was good though , when on the whole the were pretty bad. I always thought the amiga must have been capabale of a sonic or a mario, but nothing even close was ever made

18 July 2011, 16:12	#36
Adropac2 Zone Friend Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Kent Age: 51 Posts: 1,056	Project X and Jaguar for me. Project isn't a terrible game just not a great example of the genre. Jaguar is terrible though because it has zero depth in handling Doesn't mean people wont enjoy any of these game though and that's surely the important thing. A lot of the time it comes down to how the game feels to them and that's why people see them differently. Project on the surface for example seems great and plays casually well, but in truth it's not an especially good shooter. Even my loving the atmosphere of Jaguar isn't enough for me to like it though

26 July 2011, 00:49	#40
Galahad/FLT Going nowhere Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: United Kingdom Age: 50 Posts: 8,986	I agree over Xenon 2. I've recently played it on Android, and you can literally see your bullets passing through enemies, shockingly bad collision detection. I can't however agree on Shadow of the Beast. Sure it was a difficult game, but once you mastered it, there was a game underneath all the flashly visuals and audio. At least with Beast you had a chance to avoid stuff, with Rick Dangerous, aw man, that game pissed me off something rotten. Fucking random spikes!

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