cheapskate

Me-Ow!

Two DVDTalk Legends going head to head... in their prime!

I loved Street Fighter 2 AND Mortal Kombat 2, and it can't have had anything to do with the fatalities/bablities/friend-a-la-talities(?!?!) for me at least, since I had absolutely no freakin' idea how to do them. When given the chance to FINISH HIM, my character would just stand there lamely as I fouled up combos left, right and center... how were you supposed to figure them out!? This was in a time before anyone could sarcastically suggest gamefaqs.com... oh well... they were fun even without the "gimmicky" stuff

GET OVER HERE!

Josh H

Buy a guide. The old fighting games didn't have the in game training modes, so you pretty much had to buy a guide or be infinitely patient, to figure out all the moves.

cheapskate

No kidding... I don't know how many 12 year old boys are "infinately patient".

I believe you had about 5 seconds to figure out a finishing move in the window between FINISH HIM and your character throwing his fists into the air and yelling... "I'm Bad!"

spainlinx0

I remember when MK2 first hit the arcades there used to be guys there offering to sell printed out move lists for 5 bucks. I always wondered if anyone actually bought that stuff.

sfsdfd

Absolutely and completely agreed.

- David Stein

tanman

gimmick: An innovative stratagem or scheme employed especially to promote a project: an advertising gimmick.

by the definition of the word the violence in GTA is a gimmick

spainlinx0

Etymology: origin unknown
Date: circa 1926
1 a : a mechanical device for secretly and dishonestly controlling gambling apparatus b : an ingenious or novel mechanical device : GADGET
2 a : an important feature that is not immediately apparent : CATCH b : an ingenious and usually new scheme or angle
- gim·micky /-mi-kE/ adjective

Hmm, I guess the violence could be an ingenious and unusually new scheme or angle, but I don't think that violence in videogames is anything new or ingenious.

Groucho

I don't consider the violence in GTA3 to be a "gimmick." If you remove the violence from GTA, you would have a significantly different game. For it to be a gimmick, it would have to be something that is put into the game for marketing purposes BUT it could be removed without changing the game significantly.

Examples of video game gimmicks would be the extreme graphic violence in Soldier of Fortune and the jiggle physics in Dead or Alive 3.

sfsdfd

I agree on the latter example. The former, though, is actually somewhat strategic. I'd say that it goes hand-in-hand with the location-based damage, which is really a nice development in the FPS genre. I'd grown bored of being able to snipe people to death by putting a bullet through their hand.

- David Stein

spainlinx0

Just to clarify I don't think it's a gimmick.

Galanthas

List has been updated 10/11/03

Bionic Commando was my favorite game on the Nes, I even entered a county wide tournament at a local Box Office Video playing this game and Super Mario Bros. when I was about 12 or so if I remember right. I lost unfortunately, I couldn't take the pressure while competing for time scores in SMB heh. I crack under pressure easily though in anything thing I do. Lost a few pool tournaments because of the pressure.

edytwinky

Man I really hope they add Super Smash Brothers (N64) on this list. The best multiplayer game for the Nintendo 64.

hahn

StarCon 2 is most deservedly on this list...

I can't believe none of the Quakes or Dooms are on here though. Those games singlehandedly built the FPS genre. Doom 2 STILL scares the shit out of me when I play it.

And where are any of the Ultimas? (Well, Ultimas 3-7 anyhow)

Static Cling

Where is Planescape: Torment, too?

Draven

I just asked the people who were playing the game in the arcade how to do the moves. Most of them were pretty nice. Some were *******s, but I could usually beat them anyway

WepaMan

Not an option, they rarely, if ever, made game guides for Arcade Games. It was only after Mortal Kombat reached the home consoles that the guides started coming out, but by that point all the moves were known.

AGuyNamedMike

What about Mastering Pac-Man, which I bought in 1983 or How to Win at Video Games around the same time? I remember dozens of these books on the shelves at the local WaldenBooks.

WepaMan

Pac Man yes, Mortal tear-heads-and-rip-hearts-out Kombat did not.

AGuyNamedMike

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...795825-4532068

1994

I'm not trying to bust your balls, just pointing out that the game guide industry has been going strong since the games showed up.

edstein

I would really like to see Diablo or Jedi Knight on that list. A couple of the best PC games ever.

msdmoney

I gotta agree about Twisted Metal 2 although just like spainlinx0 I dont think I would have even thought to put it on my list. Addicting mix of exploration and fighting and my favorite game for playstation. Good to see I'm not the only one who enjoyed this game.

A few other games I agree with are Bionic Commando (Used to rent this game all the time when I was younger), Tecmo Bowl (The only football game to have for the time), and Zelda OoT (great combat and exploration).

I always liked the Warcraft series better than Starcraft though (maybe thats just me).

I would add Goldeneye (N64) to the list next, even though I know many will say it doesn't/didn't compare to PC FPS's. In my opinion it defined FPS's for the console, and made multiplayer for consoles a must at a time before online play was available (for consoles). Its the one FPS that felt spot on as far as controls, movement and weapons. Every 007 game since tries to recapture this one and fails IMO.

Galanthas

Quake added to first post 10/20/03

RoQuEr

Neither were particularly innovational IMHO. Dark forces maybe, but when you think about it, its just another FPS with the Star wars brand on it.

Quake deserves it. Was my first exposure to fan made mods. Team fortress was probably the first cooperative online play I ever tried. Loved the soundtrack by trent reznor, but loved it even more when I found you could enter your own CD and listen to whatever music you wanted. It was also the first Truely 3D fps.


I have been a big HOMM fan since the original. New world computing was my favorite growing up, so I was part of the fan community early on. The cool thing is that they listened to the fans, and made a good game progressively better. I wrote to them to get rid of the purple dragon and make someone more fearsome, and not only did they respond, they also did it! I do think that HOMM 3 was better than the 2nd though. It just seemed more balanced. Armies had more HPs, so there was more attrition rather than massive blowouts, and direct damage spells were less powerful in the 3rd ed. I do admit that I loved going around the map with some phoenixes and armageddoning every army I encountered.

RoQuEr

http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/fea...games/mm2.html

mega man 2. Another worthy addition.