Man, I remember a ton of people were crapping on Wind Waker before it came out because of the cel-shaded graphics (google "celda"), honestly I think it's aged better graphically than most of its contemporaries. Same with a lot of other cel-shaded sixth gen games. The sailing does get monotonous at times, but other than that it's a pretty great game. Oddly I consider 3D Blast the most disappointing game in the franchise. I always found it too slow and plodding for a Sonic game.
It helps that the animation work was absolutely golden. They nailed 3D cartoon animation better in a game than anyone else had up until that point, IMO. So my black sheep would be Final Fantasy XIII, I think it's the best of the main 3D games in the series. They all have dreadful storytelling and characters but at least FF XIII had a good game in there - the battle system was deep and satisfying. The rest have aged like vinegar, I can't imagine myself ever playing any of them again. (Honestly, my tolerance for JRPGs is at an all-time low. The clichéd plots and dialogue, and the monotonous gameplay, really put me off these days.)
I too like FF XIII. Even liked its two sequels. Hate FFVII-FFX and am indifferent to XI and XII though. I suspect this is because I had been playing FF since the original, and the downgrade from VI to VII was too much to stomach for me at the time. Edit: Actually, I'm indifferent to IX as well. I didn't hate it, I just found it painfully boring. But VII, VIII, and X? Worst damn characters ever in a video game IMO.
Very true, I am just of the opinion that the cel-shaded graphics have aged a lot better than when people tried to do realistic graphics on a sixth-gen console.
That might be the case, but it still ruined WW. I know that they were trying to go with a more light-hearted theme for it, but it's just not what some people wanted. It would be like doing a gritty, CoD style graphics version of Splatoon. Sure, you get a lot of sales, but it's just not the same as the original.
Do you also think that the darker tone of Majora's Mask "ruined" it, since it's just not the same as the original?
Good thing the fans complained about Wind Waker, since after a good game with cel-shaded graphics, we got Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword: two bad games with "realistic" graphics.
I never got around to playing it (and yes, I did actually try to play WW when it came out). I don't think that the tone was much darker than A Link to the Past or Zelda II.
Try playing it if you don't think it was a darker game than ALttP or Zelda II. Majora's Mask was weird, eerily dark, tense, and if you did the Kafei/Anju quest, kind of depressing.
I enjoyed Twilight Princess, but I only played it on Gamecube. Wii Twilight had to make a few degrading sacrifices (outside of mirroring the entire game for right-handed people) iirc, but.. hooray, the Wiimote lets Link cut grass while he's running. In terms of Final Fantasy: VI is the most polished, VII was pretty much the ambassador of JRPGs to the world, but VIII is still my favorite.
I meant to respond to this before. I actually really like Ridge Racer V. I think maybe some people don't like it because of the fact that it doesn't use deflicker, but I actually like that. It results in a much clearer, sharper image. Using RGB or component on a good CRT, this game looks really good. I played the arcade version of it once, and I really enjoyed that too.
I LOVE the first 2 Ridge Racer games. Still to this day have to break them out. Shit, I still listen to the soundtracks on a somewhat regular basis. But, after Revolution I just couldn't do it anymore. Once it stopped being just a straight up arcade racer and added in earning credits, buying upgrades and whatnot, I was done. I had V on PS2 and hated it and that was the last Ridge Racer I played.
