Sunday, January 22, 2006

Kit's Rant #1

As you might have noticed by now, our site is called Game Ranters. Also you might have noticed that as of yet, we've only really hated one game. Most of the stuff we've done have been good reviews. Don't think that means they all will. The fact is that for the most part the games we've just reviewed have been things we played before we decided to start this site. Thus, we had already done some research on them before subjecting ourselves. Soon we shall have an influx of games we would normally never touch, so expect some more varied reviews. In any case, that is not what this post is about. This post is Kit's Rant #1. I figured if I couldn't rant about games, I'll rant about somethings I've read in the gaming magazines recently.

So, here we go. In the past few months Nintendo Power, Official Playstation Magazine, and Electronics Gaming Monthly have released lists of the top 200 games (I only read the top 40), the 100 games you must play before you die, and the 100 greatest games of their time. There are two points to be made before I start, both OPM and NP are limited to thier respective concoles in their choices, and people are entitled to their own opinions and not limited to my RPG heavy preferences. However, there are some strange choices I feel. For example, OPM has ATV Offroad Fury, NP has Goldeneye 007, and EGM has NHLPA Hockey '93. I am not saying these are bad games. I can't, I've never played them, but are these really must plays? Anyway, this also is not what I want to rant about. My goal in this long, drawn out rant is...the overall choices.

NP places Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time at number one. Excellent game. Great choice. Of course the top ten are Marios, Metroids, Zeldas...and oddly enough Resident Evil 4, which is a good game, and i'm getting a review on soon. In their top 40 is also Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IV (2 to most people), and Final Fantasy VI (3). That pleases me. NP did a great job of mixing Nintendo games with the other greats that came out onto their systems. Good job NP!

EGM did the 200 greatest games fo thier time. Some I question, and there is some placements that I would do differently, but overall it's not bad. Can you guess what is #1? That's right...or wrong depending on your guess. It's Super Mario Bros. Certainly that is one of the greatest games ever. Not because it's particularly good, but because for many this was the first console game you ever played. Also in their countdown...Pac-man (come on, you know you still play it), Pong, Super Mario Kart, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy VI, Mortal Kombat, Pokemon Red/Blue, Halo 2..and so on. See, I tried to add some games that didn't appeal to me but would probably appeal to you. Not bad overall. *clap clap*

Then there is OPM. OK..some choices here I go WTF. Others I go, yeah I can see that, but then I read their reasons for said choices, and I bang my head against the wall. You wanna know why Dark Cloud 2 made the list? No, it's not because it's a great game. The reason they mentioned was that is was done by Level-5, the graphic designers of Dragon Quest VIII. Yes, they picked a game because it was made by people who made another game look pretty. Sadly, that wasn't what upset me most. The inclusion of Chrono Cross did...but let's not even touch that one. First, they did not add any games that had not been originally for the PS. Goodbye FFIV, FFVI, and CT. I can sort of understand, but still...come on. Then there was Final Fantasy VII. Ok, don't get me wrong. It's a great game. It has a good plot, good characters, not a bad magic/battle system. So what did they say that upset me. They said it was the greatest FF ever. They said that it had great graphics...it did. They implied that it was the first of the games where someone died. Ok...so most of you gamers who do play RPGs started with FFVII. Good, that's fine. But do not think that this is the be all and end all of FFs or RPGs in general. Meh...anyway, OPM had some good picks, but really, put some more thought into your reasons. Yeah...so I'm gonna go now. Don't hate me because I had to rant.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is a very late comment but after reading this over and over again I found this:

'They implied that it was the first of the games where someone died...'

This is 100% bogus on their part. Lufia II was originally amoung the first batch of games to have a main character (actually TWO...yes two) die. I'm not including FFIV because we know what happens in there. FFV...hmm..that might beat Lufia II but I don't know when it was released. I can name a few others but FFVII was not the first I'm sorry. What about Breath of Fire? -.-

I'm not sure who it was but I remember a magazine had Super Metroid as the greatest game of all time. This is very and I emphasize the word 'very', close to being true. It was freaking incredible for it's time and it was the first game to utilize a 24mbit cartridge. Most notable change was the gameplay. I LOVED the wall-jump technique once I figured out how to do it. This allowed me to do the oh so super cool 'sequence breaking' and do pratically whatever I pleased. The speed booster was an awesome addition as well. It allowed you to run really fast and if you held down, you preformed a kickass shoulder dash (now known as the 'Shinespark') through mostly anything. This game allowed you to complete it with as little as 14% of everything or even 100% of everything in as little as one hour, providing you have a masterful knowledge of the game down to where the enemies will be in the next room. The current metroids do not allow this (fucking Metroid Fusion) and I HATE that. The story was deep, The level designs were very ingenious and perplexing, the music was sublime, and the sheer entirety of the series' replay value was increased dramatically. They added so many new elements compared to the original that, to this day, hasn't been beaten.

Yes, this comment is late but what the hell. I commented.

4/04/2006 6:43 AM  

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