Why gaming was better in the 90's

[darkjak]

I actually found Sonic Adventure quite fun.

And I don't think that 3D made gaming worse. I personally don't like 2D-games anymore, but I still think that the games, as well as the actionmovies were better in the 90's.

[Grazza]

Sonic 1. The template for Sonics world will never be bested. (Although spindashing would have been nice from the off.) Sonic 1 was the template, the original, the idea in it's purest form. One good animal with attitude against a bad guy who had turned the good guys friend (and thus his world) into mechanical monstrosities. Set amongst a backdop so unique and lush then tipping it into a cold, industrialised arena juxtaposed everything nicely. It's definately of it's time with the emeralds only acting as "completionist" elements and a play it in one sitting element.

 

SEGA forgot about the charm. They forgot that Sonic was just a hedgehog saving his friends.

 

100% agree - a great description of all the games!

 

I still think that things could have been different if Sega had launched the Saturn with gorgeous, sprite-based versions of Sonic, Golden Axe and Shinobi, and called the console something like "Ultra Drive" or "Mega Drive 2" (and not called the remodel that).

 

There was some great sprite-scaling on Saturn. Two of my favourite games were Guardian Heroes and Story of Thor 2 (Beyond Oasis 2).

 

Unfortunately, Sega weren't too good at making sequels. The spirit of Sega was not about mascots or franchises, but about making lots of original games, which, to be fair, they did do with Panzer Dragoon, Virtua Fighter et al. But who am I kidding? The PlayStation brand was too strong.

 

Talking of Shinobi, I miss the days when ninja games (and games in general) weren't about gratuitous violence. They were about positioning yourself and attacking (a bit like Metroid, without the exploration). That's what was so good about Sega (and gaming) in the '90s - everything was fairly wholesome, whatever the theme.

[darksnowman]

Talking of Shinobi, I miss the days when ninja games (and games in general) weren't about gratuitous violence. They were about positioning yourself and attacking (a bit like Metroid, without the exploration). That's what was so good about Sega (and gaming) in the '90s - everything was fairly wholesome, whatever the theme.

 

Less about graphics, sound and that stuff and more about making the games fun to play, right? (That's not to say that graphics and music was bad in the 90's, but you know what I mean!)

[Patch]

There was some great sprite-scaling on Saturn. Two of my favourite games were Guardian Heroes and Story of Thor 2 (Beyond Oasis 2).

 

Yep, I remember someone telling me the Saturn was the ultimate machine for sprite handling. Guardian Heroes was great. Dragon Force was another good example.

[Hero-of-Time]

Guardian Heroes is simply an amazing game that everyone should play at least once. Sure you got abit of slowdown now and then when the amounts of enemies on screen got too much for the Saturn to handle but I didnt care when the game looked that good.

 

I Sega Saturn.

[Grazza]

Less about graphics, sound and that stuff and more about making the games fun to play, right? (That's not to say that graphics and music was bad in the 90's, but you know what I mean!)

 

To be honest, I've always loved graphics and horsepower! I'm more concerned about how image has taken over in other ways.

 

One of my early concerns was Mortal Kombat. I was appalled at the "Fatalities", but my friends all liked it because of the gore and digitised graphics. I'm no softie, as I liked Street Fighter and Virtua Fighter, but people stopped having an open mind about which gameplay was best.

[darksnowman]

Grazza, I think you have hit the nail on the head when you mention "image." Back in the 90's we played anything and everything- from Mortal Kombat to Peter Pan and didn't care about how "cool" games were. Nowadays it seems to be all about the next big thing which is unfailingly a new blockbuster of a game which sits firmly in the "cool" category.

 

We were boys in the 90's and we didn't care too much about image, now we are men in the 00's, its all about games that make us feel like the alpha male. Raar.

[tapedeck]

Yeah I agree on those ideals actually. I really think that's why we don't see many new cartoon mascots anymore. There were some brilliant 90's characters. And even Syro/Crash for the PS1. But as of late there is nothing fresh like that. Now we have the horsepower it would be great to see some more cartoon capers. Obviously cartoons can be bloody hillarious. Tom and Jerry is as violent as many titles - it's just there is no gore. Something like Who Framed Roger Rabbit would be phonomenal imo - mixing cartoon "90's style gaming mascot design" with modern humanistic elements.

 

Of course now most "mascot" designs come from either movie tie-ins (from mostly CGI movies) or random indie games. In a way, image has ruined everything. I guess it's the same with movies though. The amount of "serious" movies far outweigh the mascot-laden surreal ones. At least Nintendo are like the Disney of the movie world and thank God characters like Ratchet and Clank can survive. The truth is that the industry has enough creativity (look at Sackboy!) but it's becoming easier to turn to "edgy" titles.

 

The 90's is a lovely place to return to. Mobius, the Mushroom Kingdom, the Disney universes and the wonderful "ye olde" medieval styled RPG's (rather than the futuristic elements in most now).

[sarah♥]

Sonic 2? ha.

 

It's cool but has some of the worst levels of the series and some boring music; Sonic 3&K was just perfect, got a good mix of everything and added some new changes (like how act 1 and act 2 now link on from one another, Act 1 now has bosses, act 2 music is a remix of the first music...oh and the storylines and alternate bosses... ).

 

That said, Sonic 2 is probably the best sequel ever.

 

Sonic 2 had the best bonus level ever...the amount of times i cursed when i hit the bombs and lost all my rings...well you have an idea.

Where they introduced water in sonic 2, where you could like die if you don't get a huge air bubble or get to the surface in time was awesome...although i shat myself everytime that creepy countdown music came on in the final 5 seconds.

 

Also, in Sonic 3&K, did anyone find that Tails was a much better character to play with? Purely coz he could FLYYYY

The emerald stages in this were awesome too

[Chris the great]

i replayed sonic 2 with a flat mate a couple of years ago. we had to stop as my language got worse and worse in the stages with water. i was literaly offending every single person in the world

[Nami]

i replayed sonic 2 with a flat mate a couple of years ago. we had to stop as my language got worse and worse in the stages with water. i was literaly offending every single person in the world

 

 

The water levels always frustrated me too, even when I was a tot!

[Patch]

Sonic 2 had the best bonus level ever...the amount of times i cursed when i hit the bombs and lost all my rings...well you have an idea.

Where they introduced water in sonic 2' date=' where you could like die if you don't get a huge air bubble or get to the surface in time was awesome...although i shat myself everytime that creepy countdown music came on in the final 5 seconds.[/quote']

 

I agree about the bonus levels - they were great fun, especially with a second player, and weren't as buttock-clenching as Sonic 1's rotate-a-thon nightmare.

 

There was water in Sonic 1's Labyrinth Zone. Even then it was terrifying because in places, the water would suddenly rise way above you.

 

I lost count of the number of times I stood by a bubble spot waiting for a big bubble, literally shouting at the screen as the time counted down. Brilliant!

[Pookiablo]

To be honest, I've always loved graphics and horsepower! I'm more concerned about how image has taken over in other ways.

 

One of my early concerns was Mortal Kombat. I was appalled at the "Fatalities", but my friends all liked it because of the gore and digitised graphics. I'm no softie, as I liked Street Fighter and Virtua Fighter, but people stopped having an open mind about which gameplay was best.

 

You sir make an excellent point. This is exactly what's wrong with gaming today and what was wrong with it back then! One of the major things which contributed to the success of the first Playstation was this adult "cool" image of the console that made all the 10 year olds think "Wow, it's for adults and all my friends want it, I'm a little douchebag who now needs one for no other real reason".

 

Okay, so that's not entirely accurate, plus things like price and library of games were more important. Either way people are attracted to things for certain reasons. I remember FMVs were used to death as a selling point, so much so that people actually started to believe that Playstation had amazing, superior graphics to anything else on the market.

 

The same thing is true of 360 and PS3 today - everyone who's stupid enough to argue about them online just rabbits on about the amazing graphics they have - it's very rare I see a discussion in which someone argues one has better gameplay or someone argues along a more similar line of better audio. Surely, audio is very important too? Graphics play too important a role in gaming today but then it's easy to see why - graphics are what are increased the most between each gaming generation. I blame the last generation in particular for that perception - as all the consoles just offered what the N64/PS2 did but with better graphics. No innovation whatsoever.

 

When it comes to graphics I'm a bit weird - I adore the blocky imperfection that many N64 games had back in the day - the idea of a super realistic 1080p HDR Mario is cringeworthy. Games don't need good graphics to be good games, but graphics obviously do help. Thankfully, many Wii games are helping to break down the perception that graphics are the sole driving force of any game.

 

A good example would be, Half Life 2 - A game very big on substance but which also provides a great visual experience and Unreal Tournament 3 - awesome graphics but not very much else. Epic, you are forgiven though as Gears of War was godly.

[Grazza]

Thank you, Pookiablo. Personally, I do like good visuals, but I'm more interested in how the console's horsepower can improve the game. A good example is N64 vs PlayStation. To the casual observer, PlayStation games might well have looked better, with better textures, FMV etc, but nothing about the PlayStation could have improved Ocarina of Time for me. I was totally in favour of Nintendo sticking to cartridges.

 

Last generation, I much appreciated the improved draw distance in Wind Waker and Mario Sunshine. It really was a practical improvement to be able to see things in the distance.

 

Another incredible game was Shadow of the Colossus. The PS2 struggled to run it, but it was great! It didn't have the best framerate, but the technical achievements were amazing. From the central location, you could travel anywhere in the huge game world without any loading times. OK, there weren't any shops or villages to load up, but the geography was in no way barren.

 

It's these types of technical improvements that I think are important to games.