Good game, bad reviews

[Frogacuda]

I wanted to make a thread to talk about game that might not even be underrated by the public, but got trashed when they came out for some reason.

Mischief Makers - This game got 6s when it came out, and later ended up on the top 100 lists of the very same publications that trashed it. Figure that one out. It may have just been a tough time for 2D platformers. In any event it's a great game with some really clever, really varied level design and some truly epic bosses.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic - Most critics liked this, but the really high profile American publications all trashed it. They all complained about how one approach was more powerful than the others... but none of them agreed on which. Because it was actually very well balanced. It's a really great game. Fast paced, with very deep combat and many effective ways to handle situations, allowing you to be very creative in your approach.

Burning Rangers - Got a 6.2 from Gamespot, a 7.5 from EGM. Wasn't badly trashed, but we all know it's a much better game than that.

[NeoZeedeater]

I really love Dark Messiah and Burning Rangers so I agree with those. Mischief Makers is a 6/10 to me, though. I was mostly reading Gamefan at the time and they gave it really high reviews.

Billy Hatcher comes to mind with this thread. I think it was the in thing to start hating Sonic Team at the time so it got ranked lower than it should have.

Finny the Fish got mostly bad reviews. It's not excellent but it deserved more attention. It's sort of like a kiddy Ecco game.

I suppose reviews weren't that bad but I loved Requiem: Avenging Angel. The mix of spells and guns was cool.

[Frogacuda]

Totally agreed about Billy Hatcher. That game was one of the best platformers of the time. Great level design, tons to do. A little on the glitchy side, but you can forgive that. I remember reviews of the Gamecube ports of the Sonic Adventure games saying stuff like "These games were never good" and other bullshit, so you might be on the mark with the "in to hate Sonic Team" thing.

Ironic, since if they just waited a bit longer they'd have some perfectly good reasons to trash them.

Also, Mischeif Makers you have to admit regardless of your personal opinion that it got a LOT more praise in hindsight than it did at the time, which is ironic.

[NeoZeedeater]

Yeah, the Mischief Makers situation is kind of odd.

Reviews aside, it seems to be a love or hate it type game among the hardcore crowd (as opposed to more universally praised Treasure stuff like Guardian Heroes). I can respect people being big fans of it. It just didn't click for me.

The Mischief Makers review situation kind of reminds me of what happened with Herzog Zwei. I remember EGM trashed it giving it 4s and 5s and it wasn't mentioned much in general. Later on with the rise of the RTS genre, it became more known and praised than it was initially.

[squall_vb]

Totally agreed about Billy Hatcher. That game was one of the best platformers of the time. Great level design, tons to do. A little on the glitchy side, but you can forgive that. I remember reviews of the Gamecube ports of the Sonic Adventure games saying stuff like "These games were never good" and other bullshit, so you might be on the mark with the "in to hate Sonic Team" thing.


Billy Hatcher is one of those games that I always meant to get around to, and never did. Sadly, it probably won't be happening anytime soon, as my queue is already overflowing. I certainly want to someday, though.

[Bruhaha69]

A pretty recent game that fell into this was Blood Will Tell.

I actually didn't expect too much with how badly most people and reviewers talked about. Ends up, the game is very good. It wasn't the best graphics I'd seen on a PS2 game, technically speaking, but it's got some very dark, moody environments. The soundtrack only adds to it. You won't be humming the tunes, but they're very effective in helping the story telling and keeping the dreary world alive. Gameplay was a bit of the old style action gaming with patterned bosses and enemies, but it was fun. Dororo's abilities were also great and finding the hidden fiends was a good time as well.

I thought it was very underrated and unfairly shat on by reviewers. Anyone who has a PS2 and likes a good hack n slash adventure will probably not be disappointed. I don't even like Osamu Tezuka. The art style in all his work annoys me and is low quality....unique, but low quality, in my opinion. Thankfully, this style wasn't used for the game,so the designs kick some ass. A few strange animations, but overall, very sweet.

[NeoZeedeater]

I liked Blood Will Tell when I rented it. I don't think it does anything exceptionally well (aside from the atmosphere) but it's worth playing if you're into modern beat 'em up/adventures.

[James]

A lot of my favorite games didn't so much generate bad reviews as nonexistent ones. I don't think anyone, anywhere cared about Road Trip, for example, or Graffiti Kingdom. Mutant Storm on the original Xbox happened before XBLA took off, and while Dark Cloud 2 was politely reviewed it disappeared with hardly a trace soon after. Then there's Space Giraffe, which has seen the widest range of reviews of any game I can recall recently.

But one game does stand out above all others that fits this thread perfectly- Rengoku II on PSP. Briliant, fantastic, fast and fun fighting action that got universally shit on wherever it went. Seriously, what the hell was that all about?

James

[Melf]

The Mischief Makers review situation kind of reminds me of what happened with Herzog Zwei. I remember EGM trashed it giving it 4s and 5s and it wasn't mentioned much in general. Later on with the rise of the RTS genre, it became more known and praised than it was initially.

Seriously? LOL @ EGM. So they've been ignorant for almost two decades then.

[squall_vb]

Okay, I'm not sure if this counts (in relation to the topic, at least), but here goes...

Final Fantasy VIII

VII gets so much credit for being "groundbreaking," etc. All these virgin cocksucker cosplayers dress up as Cloud ad nauseum. It's enough to make me sick.

In my personal opinion, VIII was the best of the PSX entires. The story grabbed me and really moved me. It was very pretty. The opening sequence (and subsequent CGI scenes) were incredible. The soundtrack was spot-on.

Granted, the gameplay left something to be desired (who came up with that horrid "boosting" and the "draw" system, anyways?). But let's be honest... this series doesn't live and die by the quality of its gameplay. Story is key, and FFVIII delivered it in spades. Truly stunning, and horribly underrated as far as I'm concerned.

[jp]

Didn't NiGHTS get bad reviews?


I seem to recall as much.


While it didn't get "bad" reviews per se, Phantom Crash on the Xbox was fucking awesome. It just REALLY needed online play REALLY bad.

I also liked Azurik, but apparently there's like, two of us that like that game, so... :shrug:

I also liked Blood Wake though. :shrug: For some reason I was really into the early Xbox scene. The later scene does nothing for me though. Go fig.

[Frogacuda]

Okay, I'm not sure if this counts (in relation to the topic, at least), but here goes...

Final Fantasy VIII


FF8 got fantastic reviews, but a lot of backlash after the fact (a la MGS2 or Sonic Adventure 2).

[jp]

Sonic Adventure 2 was good though. :shrug:


At least, the Sonic and Shadow levels were really good. :nod:

Though I did MUCH prefer Sonic Adventure.

[Frogacuda]

Didn't NiGHTS get bad reviews?
It got 8s. Maybe less than it deserved, but by no means bad.

You know, I was talking to lordsnarf and I thought of another: Tork. It got smashed pretty hard for being too plain/simple/whatever, but it's straightforward simplicity was charming and it controlled tight, looked good, and was an all around very solid platformer. Maybe not a 9 or a 10, but a MUCH better game than the 5s or 6s it got.

[squall_vb]

FF8 got fantastic reviews, but a lot of backlash after the fact (a la MGS2 or Sonic Adventure 2).


Yeah, that was my angle on this one. So much of the backlash was uncalled for, especially since it was the superior of the two in almost every regard.

[Frogacuda]

Sonic Adventure 2 was good though. :shrug:


At least, the Sonic and Shadow levels were really good. :nod:

Though I did MUCH prefer Sonic Adventure.
I liked SA2 a lot and still do. But the esteem many hold it in eroded over the next few years.
_

[post updated]

_
Ok, time for a controversial one:

Fade to Black. Sequel to Flashback that got dogged for various reasons. It had some very big shoes to fill, and the transition to 3D resulted in some very complex controls, but it was a very good game with a lot of interesting combat scenarios, and it captured the essence of Flashback's gameplay in 3D much better than it gets credit for.

[Hunter]

I loved SA and SA2.


I'd like to add Advent Rising to this list.



And how could a you guys forget Chromehounds, shame on you all.

[Bruhaha69]

Ooooo, Fade to Black is one I always wanted to try. They did a pretty good article on it in Next Generation back in the day. So it was a good game?

[Ammadeau]

Blue Dragon is much better than reviews would have you believe. I haven't read them so I don't know what they complain about, but the game really has no issues other than not enough save points and some slowdown during battles. Every single aspect of the game is so polished they should have a commentary track with little yen signs over how much getting that little death animation right or setting the banquet table cost.

[Bruhaha69]

How about Daytona USA for Saturn? The original had some bad pop-up and pretty awful frame rates, but it controlled better than any version of Daytona on a home console. It might have the best racing controls of all time, in my opinion. Only game I can think of that comes close is Sega Rally for Saturn. Honestly, it was ripped into for graphical issues but it still deserved lots of praise for the gameplay. It received many, many, many hours of my time for a game with only 3 main courses.

[Frogacuda]

Ooooo, Fade to Black is one I always wanted to try. They did a pretty good article on it in Next Generation back in the day. So it was a good game?

Yeah. It had step-based control like the original (and like Tomb Raider), which drives a lot of people nuts, but I never had a problem with it. Didn't really have much platforming, but the combat was very much in the spirit of Flashback, and it's a very likable game if you give it a chance.

The two things it had working against it were the impossibly high expectation of the first game, and the fact that it was, in fact, an early 3D game and a lot of people have issues with them because they don't follow the conventions of later 3D games.

[NeoZeedeater]

I'm looking forward to giving Fade to Black another chance once I'm done with a bunch of other games I'm currently playing. I really miss that classic Delphine style. Early 3d graphics and control don't usually bother me like they do for many people.

Also, another game that deserved much better review scores was Way of the Samurai. I loved the "choose your own adventure" aspect.

[Super-Eggroll]

I'm pretty sure I've posted this before ad naseum in similar threads, but I really dug BROKEN HELIX when it came out. The innovative time-based gameplay with enemy AI that would hunt you down by doing room sweeps was very fun to mess with.

Unfortunately, the first mission of the game was a big hurdle to overcome to get to the actual fun part of the game. Many of the magazines at the time reviewed the game based solely on the initial defuse-the-bomb sequence, and gave it very low scores.

I tried playing it again about a year ago just to see how it held up. The graphics are definitely dated, but the b-movie voiceacting by Bruce Campbell and branching storypaths still make it worth playing through. Changing your expression from sarcastic to pissed-off and checking peoples reactions never gets old.

[Bruhaha69]

Guardian Heroes actually received less than mediocre reviews, if I remember correctly (at least I remember Gamepro and EGM rating it pretty poorly). Saturn and Treasure fans always loved it, but I think reviewers hated it for its pixelated graphics and slowdown.

I don't remember what Gamefan thought of it, but I'm sure they loved it. Overall, though, I don't think it was very highly rated but was definitely one of the greatest (I believe) games on the Saturn.

[Frogacuda]

I remember EGM gave it an 8 or something not bad.

[Luminous]

I loved SA and SA2.


I'd like to add Advent Rising to this list.



And how could a you guys forget Chromehounds, shame on you all.


Great point about Chromehounds. I really liked that game and put a lot of hours into it.

[Bruhaha69]

I remember EGM gave it an 8 or something not bad.

You might be right. I thought they gave it 6's and 7's. Gamepro definitely gave it puke green ratings. Fact is, the game was and is one of the most fun Saturn games and it deserved to be rated that way.

[jp]

Anyone who gave Guardian Heroes a bad review should be beat to death by a giant undead warrior.

[Specineff]

Xenogears was crapped on by Gamepro. So it wasn't FF7, fine. I have yet to see a game which uses hand-painted oils/watercolors as textures the way XG did. Big robots. A huge computer/alien hybrid with God complex. False religions. A millennial conspiracy, Yasunori Mitsuda behind the music. I think that's way too far from their review of "Sucky", given by that abominable reviewer called Bobba Fatt.

[Hunter]

Big robots. A huge computer/alien hybrid with God complex. False religions. A millennial conspiracy,



That sound familiar to anyone else?

[shinjirod]

yup. its national lampoons space vacation right?

[Frogacuda]

:lol:@shinji and Hunter

[Frogacuda]

I just remembered another one:

Sin Episodes: Emergence. It got mediocre scores, but I loved the feel of the weapons and it was action packed, throwing ridiculous amounts of enemies at you and everything felt great. It's a shame there will never be a second episode.

[Advocate]

Breakdown was poorly recieved ... but I liked it.

Area 51 was recieved terribly, but I liked that game too.

[NeoZeedeater]

I just remembered another one:

Sin Episodes: Emergence. It got mediocre scores, but I loved the feel of the weapons and it was action packed, throwing ridiculous amounts of enemies at you and everything felt great. It's a shame there will never be a second episode.
This was great but it's a perfect example of why companies shouldn't attempt episodic games unless they're 100% sure they can follow through.

Another game for this thread I remembered is Fist II: The Legend Continues for the C64. I loved this game. Back in '86, there had never been a martial arts themed action-adventure quite like it before. It was non-linear and had some the creepiest music which still sticks in my head.


Breakdown was poorly recieved ... but I liked it.

Area 51 was recieved terribly, but I liked that game too.

Breakdown's got style but it could have been so much better with traditional FPS controls.

Which Area 51 do you mean, last gen's FPS or the older gun game?