Good original console (or computer) games challenge...

Had a long discussion about this over drinks with a few friends last night. Basically you had to choose original games that are fun games even today (as a lot of old games only have rose tinted gameplay).

By original you were not allowed to choose arcade conversions, nor games that first appeared on other consoles (including updated games unless they are very different i.e. SMB3 and Mario 64 is fine but SMW is not as it has origins in SMB3) and Sports games and RPGs were banned, however updated games on the console were fine.

The consoles we talked about and games we all agreed upon.

Atari 2600 - Pitfall, Yar's Revenge
Apple ][ - Prince of Persia, Choplifter, Lode Runner
C64 - Wizball
ZX Spectrum - Back to School, Lords Of Midnight, Death Chase
MSX - Puyo Puyo, Metal Gear
Famicom - Excitebike, SMB III
FDS - Metroid, Zelda
Mark III / Master System - Wonderboy III
PC Engine (Hu Card) - Gunhed, Motoroader II, Magical Chase
PC Engine (CD-ROM) - Lords of Thunder
Megadrive - Gunstar Heroes, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Megapanel
Gameboy - Pitman
Game Gear - Popils
Super Famicom - F-Zero, Super Mario Kart
Saturn - Tomb Raider, Panzer Dragoon Zwei
Playstation - Metal Gear Solid
Nintendo 64 - Mario 64, Zelda Ocarina of Time
3DO (for a laugh) - Need for Speed, D

Anyone want to ad to this? You know you want to.

 

The list would be too long >______o

 

3DO: Return Fire
C64: Paradroid
Game Gear: Sonic Triple Trouble, G-Loc (I'm counting this since the version is way different from any other)
Mega Drive: Streets of Rage 2
Saturn: Nights, Burning Rangers, Fighters Megamix, Digital Pinball: Gladiators and Necronomicon

 

3DO: Twisted the Gameshow.

 

PCE (CD-ROM): Gate of Thunder, Akumajou Dracula X - chi no rondo, Star Parodia, Nexzr, Seirei Senshi Spriggan..
Mega Drive: Sonic 1

 

The NES Megaman games. Never really played them when I was younger (so no rose-tinted nostalgia goggles here), picked them up over the last few years and enjoyed them.

Umihara Kawase for SFC. Can't recommend this game enough.

Master of Darkness on the SMS. It's a pretty simplistic take on the Castlevania formula but it's a great little game, and sadly under-appreciated.

Mischief Makers on the N64. Bangai-O and Sin and Punishment too, but Mischief Makers because it gets overlooked usually.

I'd remove Tomb Raider from the list, it was overrated at the time and has aged terribly.

 

You Don't Know Jack (PC/PSX). Best quiz game ever, period.

And an obvious one, Super Bomberman 2 (or any other part, 2 just happens to be my personal fav) for the SNES. No list of good games can be complete without Bomberman.
I'm counting this as original since the earlier ones didn't have a proper singleplayer mode, just one generic grid after another, while this one has "proper" levels.

Crusader: No Remorse (PC/PSX) is still a lot of fun, too, but last time I tried it was a b!tch to get working (is this a criterium, at least for PC titles?).

 

NES - Contra (or Gryzor - or whatever name is goes by overseas). Perfect blend of action, challenge and an absolute blast with 2 players. Unrivaled in many ways.

 

Most of you have missed the point, you can't have games that exist on other consoles regardless of how good the game is on the console. PC Games are being ignored for the moment (as there would be too many of them).

Return Fire plays like an enhanced version of Fire Power on the Amiga. Sonic Triple Trouble is just another Sonic Game, G-Loc is still a version of G-Loc, it hasn't changed in any significant way. SoR2 is a nice game, but like most side scrolling beat 'em ups the game gets rather dull after you get past the 2nd stage. Pinball is one of those games that most people would rather play as a proper pinball game so again we ignore those.

Tatsujin - Not a single HuCard game? :crying:Although I thought you might mention Akumajou Dracula X, but the gameplay is still akin to the original MSX / FDS game so you can't have it.

Super Bomberman 2 is a good game, but it is based on Bomberman, even if you went for multiplayer fun as a significant change then you would have the PC Engine version...

Contra - Er it was an arcade game...

Still quite a few good suggestions, Umihara Kawase was one we did think of but none of us could remember the name, we did write down "Short haired girl with red rucksack and fishing rod platform game".

 

The criteria you're using are kind of strange.

A game has to be very different from all other games that came before it to be considered "original"? I would say that there are very few truly unique games; most games (even good ones) draw heavily on the games that came before them. I don't know, maybe I misunderstood what you were trying to say.

 

Ah we were drinking so it was a bit muddled. However you are right lots of game do draw heavily on other games, however we were just trying to think of games that were uniquely original for the machine, rather then being a tarted up version of an older game on another machine or arcade as well as still being fun today.

Going through a lot of Top Ten game lists for games machines, a lot did seem to be arcade conversions or games that had appeared on other formats (the Commodore 64 and Mark III / Master System has this in spades). So we just wanted original games for that system, however we did allow tarted up games on the same machine to be used as the later games were generally better then the older games (for example SMB3 over SMB).

We didn't like RPGs so we skipped, plus too many of them have numbering going towards silly, the Back to the Future 2 joke of Rocky 27 does seem to want to apply to Final Fantasy... And certain games like Sports do tend to get better, only a masochist would play something like Match Day, Konami Soccer over later football games for example.

Hope that clears it up.

 

That was more like Jaws 19 rather than Rocky 27

Btw. will add more Hueys & CD-Rom games later on, since the PCE was quite an exclusive beast

 

Jumping Jack on the zx spectrum - one of the most addictive games ever

 

OOO and not forgetting Pocky and Rocky on the snes

 

Then I misunderstood, I thought you meant the game had to be original to that system, as in originated on it. Based on that, I'd remove Tomb Raider like has been said already, because it wasn't that great to begin with, and now it just sucks. I'd also remove Ocarina of Time, since besides being 3D, it doesn't really differ that much from the earlier Zelda games, while it could be argued that Mario 64 is very different from the originals.

There's a notable exception: only a masochist would play a newer basketball game over NBA Jam :lol:

 

Funny you mention it, but so true! no basketball game ever topped the fun of NBA Jam!

 

hint: maybe that's because the actual sport is not as good as NBA Jam would make an actual sport be

 

Seriously. I wish they'd come out with "Jam" versions of other sports - it might actually convince me to by a sports game.

On-topic: as far as good NES exclusives go, how about "Metalstorm" and "The Guardian Legend"? And on SNES, "Donkey Kong Country 2".

 

I think Nintendo still does that, mario soccer/tennis etc. allthough maybe a tad childish it's the same idea as jam.

 

I love Mario Golf and any Namco(t) Tennis game... brilliance on cart. Anyway, I don't get the criteria of the games I'm supposed to list

If I'd say

Sega Saturn: Panzer Dragoon
and
PC-Engine: Bomberman

Would that be right or wrong?