Strangest Retro Videogame Plots Pondered 168
Thanks to TotalGames.net for its article discussing the oddest retro videogame plots of all-time. Among the highlighted titles are Sega's Genesis title, Greendog ("All you hafta do is find the six pieces of the Surfboard of the Ancients. They were hidden long ago by the Aztecs somewhere in the Caribbean"), along with Konami's N64 version of Mystical Ninja ("A giant UFO shaped like a peach has suddenly appeared in peaceful Oedo Town! The evil musical corps, The Peach Mountain Shoguns, have come to steal the Great Stage Plan.") What classic game made the least sense to you?
USA related plots (Score:5, Funny)
Re:USA related plots (Score:5, Insightful)
Speaking of the C64, have you come across the game called Cubby Gristle [exotica.fix.no]? It's just plain weird. You play a fat guy who's goal is to eat as much food as possible with the end coming when you reach a metric ton in weight. All whilst avoiding angry grandmas, annoying kids and shopping trolleys. So far as I could tell from my play time when I was 10 years old, and more recently with an additional 14 years of gaming under my belt, the game is impossible to complete.
Re:USA related plots (Score:4, Funny)
I quit playing the game about the time the spires on the Kremlin launched themselves into the air and started shooting fireballs at me. Reminded me all to well of a dream I had once. Just no goats.
Zero Wing! (Score:5, Funny)
Cats: All your base are belong to us.
Cats: You are on the way to destruction.
Captain: What you say !!
Cats: You have no chance to survive make yourtime.
It doesnt get any more confusing than zero wing.
Re:Zero Wing! (Score:5, Funny)
I find the absense of "Ninja Golf" for the Atari 2600 quite surprising too, since it's about a Ninja who must pass the final test to become a true ninja: complete a round of golf on a golf course filled with sharks, snakes and other ninjas out to kill you...
And of course there's the grand-daddy of them all: Pacman, the obesity simulator that rewards you for eating lots. Plus it glamorises drug taking by encouraging you to eat ghosts while high.
Re:Zero Wing! (Score:2)
The funniest (Score:2, Funny)
Bubsy (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Bubsy (Score:5, Interesting)
Now, the funny ones are serious, 3d action games with such amusing plots. Like Red Alert II, or Battlezone.
BattleZone's always been a fave of mine. Big complicated conspiracy to hide a secret interplanetary war between the USA and the Soviets occuring during the cold war, fighting over alien technology crashed on the moon, venus, mars, and Europa. The moon landing was faked: we already had a fully functioning military base there.
Or Recoil, another tank game. Its the old "machines have taken over the earth" except that the plot is that a team of human hackers have hotwired an experimental enemy Machine supertank - but if they control it remotely, they'll be discovered, so instead they open a time-portal so that they can send the control of the system back in time to you - the player. So the idea is taht you are actually, really controlling a tank hundreds of years in the future, saving the human race. The hackers occasionally hotwire you screen and talk to you directly. Its all the most hilarious camp I've ever seen in a game. Too bad the play wasn't so good.
Hell, the very concept of UT or Q3 - a tournament where somehow each player dies 50 times in a single match. wtf?
Re:Bubsy (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Bubsy (Score:2)
2 games come to mind. (Score:5, Interesting)
What's not to love about a game that asks "Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the President?" They couldn't use, say, the FBI, CIA or the NSA. Nope, they just pick 2 "bad" dudes off the street and send them to rescue the president.
Second, Master Blaster:
One of the best games ever for NES. But also, one where you wonder, how much does one risk for the love of a frog. We witness a boy lose his pet frog. It lands on this radioactive box IN HIS BACKYARD!!! Then it jumps down a very, very deep hole and he follows. Luckily, he finds a kickass ride and perfect sized suit to go with it. Then he begins his journey to destroy vast amounts of robots and mutated creatures to rescue his pet frog only to find, his frog has mutated too and he must destroy. Can you feel his pain? Yeah, I didn't think so either.
Re:2 games come to mind. (Score:1, Informative)
Re:2 games come to mind. (Score:3, Interesting)
But the weirdest thing about the whole story is that at the beginning of the game the frog becomes radioactive, grows to enormous proportion, and jumps down the hole in sham
They can have him. (Score:4, Funny)
-Bad Dudes
But not her (Score:2)
good ol' Vigilante
My Vote: (Score:5, Funny)
Jumping is important, because there are evil mushrooms trying to kill you. You can jump on them. And don't forget the walking turtles.
The sewer system is filled with these big plants that eat you, but don't worry, because some other plants give you the ability to shoot fireballs from your stomach. Fireballs rule. And if you manage to run into the pretty mushrooms, you grow really big. And the flashing stars make you invincible.
Did I mention that the guy who stole your girlfriend is a lizard and has constructed some 100 levels of very repetitive runway for you to run?
Yeah, but it was a fun game, right?
Re:My Vote: (Score:1, Funny)
Re:My Vote: (Score:1)
Damn straight it was. You're making me want to dust off my old console now....thanks :)
The best proof.. (Score:3, Insightful)
The best proof that gameplay is more important than storyline.
Re:My Vote: (Score:4, Informative)
Also, Mario and Luigi wear different colored shirts and hats, not pants.
Finally, Mario could run in both directions. He just couldn't backtrack beyond the current screen.
Re:My Vote: (Score:2, Insightful)
Also, the thing that annoys me most: People keep remembering that Mario hit the bricks with his head. Nope, he raises his fist as he jumps, hitting the bricks with it.
Or that's the theory. The bricks will shatter whether Mario hits them with with his fist or the head, but the idea is what counts.
(And now I'm off to play this weird SMB ROM I found today. No idea if this is some weird hacked ROM or if it's a bug in
No Dizzy? (Score:4, Informative)
What about Dizzy [freeserve.co.uk]? You can't get much stranger than a wizard-fighting hard-boiled egg.
Re:No Dizzy? (Score:3, Interesting)
It must be time for a 3D sequel by now.
Re:No Dizzy? (Score:1, Informative)
All they do these days is churn out TOCA, Colin McRae and LMA Manager. The worst of which is LMA, which gets annual updates that do little more than update the strips, transfers and increment the year on the title screen. There's no at
Red Alert (Score:1)
wait a sec... (Score:2)
hmm... wouldn't he have to be kidnapped before someone invents a time machine?
Re:wait a sec... (Score:1)
PacMan (Score:5, Interesting)
Now our hero, PacMan, is chased around a maze trying to eat these "dots" by a bunch of ghosts who look oddly like the McDonalds Fry Guys. Why are they ghosts? Are they long dead PacMen out to seek revenge? Are they haunting the maze? Have millions of PacMen died in this maze trying to get the valuable dots? Sounds like someone needs to call a priest to me, not some yellow sphere?
Re:PacMan (Score:5, Funny)
Re:PacMan (Score:5, Informative)
It was a joke about ravers, it wasn't incidental prescience on the part of Nintendo in 1989.
Re:PacMan (Score:3, Informative)
I saw a good explanation of Pac Man's plot once (Score:2)
Re:I saw a good explanation of Pac Man's plot once (Score:2)
And for that matter, what about the power node things. What exactly is in those large dots that allow you to munch on the Fry Guys? I sure there are many
Re:I saw a good explanation of Pac Man's plot once (Score:2)
It Starts With B [penny-arcade.com]
Best. Game plot. Ever. (Score:3, Funny)
Your objective? To find and devour the seven crystal babies, or spend an eternity trapped in deep didgeridoo.
(BTW, anyone know the first pop culture reference to dingos eating babies? Seinfeld's Elaine once referenced it, but I want to know the source.)
Re:Best. Game plot. Ever. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Best. Game plot. Ever. (Score:2)
It's Googleriffic, it's based on a true story! [bbc.co.uk]
Not retro, but fun (Score:5, Interesting)
I came across a fantastic game the other day "Stair Dismount". You have to push a guy down some stairs to see how much damage you can inflict upon him.
It looks like a rag doll physics test bed that the author decided would make a great game. It uses the Open Dynamics Engine [sourceforge.net].
The plot:
The legendary superhero Spector has found, to his shock, that he cannot write off all the damage he has caused to the city out of his taxes unless he proves that he has sustained significant damage in the process himself! Now it's up to you to 'help' him with this little detail..Download at http://jet.ro/dismount/ [jet.ro] (Windows only, although it does mention that some people have had luck running it under Wine).
Ace fun.
Roger
Re:Not retro, but fun (Score:1)
Re:Not retro, but fun (Score:1)
Re:Not retro, but fun (Score:2)
Re:Not retro, but fun (Score:2)
Super Monkey Ball 2 (Score:5, Interesting)
If there are any other games with *more* bizarre cutscenes that run on the current generation of consoles, I'd like to hear it.
Re:Super Monkey Ball 2 (Score:2, Interesting)
Agree with you on both counts.
But in the cutscenes, the monkeys in their balls can fly...
Which, of course, neatly explains why they roll around narrow paths with massive drops either side to go where they need to go...
Clash at Demon Head (Score:4, Interesting)
"In the year 199X, a secret command, Saber Tiger, is engaged in a savage war with the Demon's Batallion. The Saber Tiger's youngest leader, "Bang", played a very large role in the fight to the admiration of his fellow commanders. After the completion of one campaign, Bang and his girlfriend, Mary, are enjoying a longawaited vacation at the beach. Suddenly, they recieve an urgent communication from head quarters. It reads 'EMERGENCY CODE NO. 2568623. The inventor of the Doomsday Bomb, Professor Plum, is being held by the enemy, atop Demon's Head Mountain, and it appears the the world is doomed unless Earth surrenders. If the bomb explodes, the Earth will be a dead planet. A mass attack on Demon Head is impossible for the enemy vows to detonate the bomb on sight. Our colleague, Joe, has failed to return from a reconnaisance mission. Bang, only you can rescue Professor plum and save the planet. Now, you've got to get to Demon's Head Mountain at once!'
In the ruins of Demon Head, there dwells a fearsome demon that has terrified generations of people. Bang, and Bang alone, must set out on a daredevil mission to these unknown lands and seek to rescue Plum and deactivate the Doomsday Bomb.
As Bang sets off on his perilous journey to destroy the Demon's Batallion, Mary must remain behind deeply concerned for his life."
Despite what I just said, the point of the game must [slownerveaction.org] be to rescue your girlfriend, or else why would she be on the cover... with the flying guy on the motorcycle and the shard of electric glass? Wait... Isn't the point to rescue the professor? Collect the seven coins from the seven swirly bad guy thingies? Why do you need so much money? What happened to the bomb? It's so confusing!
I don't have a degree in Obscure Japanese Mythological Symbology systems! Why is the mushroom with black dancers protecting the talisman of the sun? What did I do to offend the teeth with blue hair? Who the heck are these guys [marvel.by.ru] anyway? What's that thing [aol.com] doing? NGYAAAAA! [slownerveaction.org]
Forgotten Worlds (Score:2)
The odd thing, was that two or three times a level, a "convenience store" would pop up where you could buy stuff with the "Zenny" you got for killing guys. I always thought that it was awfully shortsighted of the business owners to place their stores in a combat zone.
Frogger (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Frogger (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Frogger (Score:4, Funny)
why would a frog die from falling in the water? (unless that river was very polluted, but that's just a wild assumption)
Re:Frogger (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Frogger (Score:2)
Re:Frogger (Score:3, Funny)
Because he was nailed to a chicken?
A Boy and his Blob (Score:5, Interesting)
Makes perfect sense to me.
Re:A Boy and his Blob (Score:2)
Re:A Boy and his Blob (Score:5, Informative)
You just happen to have a blob
"Like many boys in the twenty-first century, the boy has a buddy from outer space. This one's from Blobolonia - a place where an evil emperor makes every-one eat only marshmallows and chocolate. In fact, for the emperor, healthy things like vitamins are poisonous."
, known only as "blob"
"Blob (his full name is Blobert) came to Earth looking for someone to help him defeat the evil emperor. That's how he met the boy."
It turns into things based on what flavor jellybean you feed it. Things like ladders and trampolines and such. No complex machines, per se. You use it in various forms to navigate the sewer in search of treasure, while it follows you around bouncing and begging for more jellybeans.
"You see, the boy miraculously discovered that not only does Blob love jelly-beans - but that different jellybeans turn Blob into different shapes. And that those shapes can be used to get through many otherwise impossible situations!"
There is no plot beyond the treasure hunt, and the fact that you have a blob.
"To defeat the evil emperor they boy and Blob will need a goodly supply of vitamins. And to get the vitamins, they'll need money. To get money, they'll search the underground caverns for hidden treasures and diamond stones."
Re:A Boy and his Blob (Score:2)
You are an anonymous boy. "Like many boys in the twenty-first century, [you have] a buddy from outer space. This one's from Blobolonia - a place where an evil emperor makes every-one eat only marshmallows and chocolate. In fact, for the emperor, healthy things like vitamins are poisonous." Your buddy is named Blobert, "blob" to his friends (i.e. you). He "c
Re:A Boy and his Blob (Score:2)
It was very colorful.
Super Mario RPG? Earthbound? (Score:2)
Super Mario RPG was a constant string of pop culture references that would have been hilarious had the game come out two years earlier. About the time the Axem Rangers showed up, I think we all gave up hope of a deep and compelling storyline.
And Earthbound? Three words for you: Alien Posessed Hippies. That and the psychadelic swirling color backgrounds, and who needs LSD?
Strangest retro game plot... (Score:5, Interesting)
Commodore 64 game "Army Moves", 1987 Imagine/Ocean. People probably remember this for the amazing music. It's just that back in late 1980s, it was not at all unusual to make a game where you control an army jeep that jumps. In big arcs. While shooting a lot of missiles. When I presented this game to the new gamer generation (that is, my sister), the laughter was nearly unstoppable. (The second level is boring. The helicopter you control just flies and doesn't, for example, turn into a kamikaze tomato in mid-flight and carpet-bomb the nameless enemy.)
Then some more. "Artura", 1988 Sentient Software/Gremlin. Crappy game. Mostly notable for its great music (surprise surprise!) and the fact that King Arthur marches around and flings about a million axes at the enemy with a single button press.
And that's just a random sample from the "A" section of C64 game selection =) The Nintendo Logic might have been odd at the time, but some C64 games were a few orders of magnitude weirder...
Blaster Master, hands down. (Score:1, Funny)
PS2: Cookie & Cream (Score:4, Interesting)
I got it for Christmas after reading about it in the 'what can I play with my sweetie' thread. The moon got upset and left so it won't be present for the Moon Festival. So a chicken bestows upon two bunnies their marks of courage - a flower pot and an umbrella, that they wear on their heads. So you have to go and convince the moon to come back. That's just messed up.
- RR
After reading this... (Score:2)
my fav weird game (Score:4, Funny)
His job is to walk on parts of hamburgers, buns, beef patties, lettuce leaves and sometimes tomato slices and cheese slices, in order to put them together, while trying his best to catch falling icecream cones, french fries and cups of coffee!
Re:my fav weird game (Score:2)
Re:my fav weird game (Score:1)
Re:my fav weird game (Score:1)
Mick and Mack: Global Gladiators (Score:4, Funny)
Arkanoid: (Score:1)
Super Mario (Score:1, Redundant)
And what the hell flowers can let you shoot fireballs. And what the hell mushroom makes you two times bigger.
And why is there coins hidden everywhere? I am confused.
Re:Super Mario (Score:2)
See, Mario and Luigi are drug dealers, mostly shrooms. Bowser represents teh cops. He busts in, and takes Mario's hippie girlfriend, the princess. Of course, mario is so strung out he sees the cops as a giant turtle thing, and everybody else as mushroom people etc...
Re:Super Mario (Score:3, Funny)
He couldn't try other ones. Remember, Mario lives in a 2D world. He can't go around the castles, and he can't jump high enough to go over them, so he has to go through them.
Uh! I got one! (Score:1)
Lode Runner (Score:2)
Yar's Revenge (Score:1)
Cavity Command (Score:1)
Re:Cavity Command (Score:2)
Try and dig it up if you can...it's worth $100+ now because not very many people wanted to save up toothpase upc's to get a video game about brushing your teeth.
Steven V.
StrangestVideogame Plot (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:StrangestVideogame Plot (Score:3, Funny)
Dracula for Intellivision (Score:2)
Is your goal to hunt down and put an end Dracula's reign of terror? Hell no!
YOU are Dracula walking down the street of a suburban neighborhood. If you see eyes peeking out of a window, go up and knock on the door. If the person is dumb enough to come out, chase them around and bite them. Bite x number of people and get back to your coffin before sunrise.
More Info on Dracula [buffalo.edu]
ET (Score:2)
Wizard is about to die! (Score:4, Funny)
Mystical Ninja (Score:2)
I wonder if this anime has the same plot as the game...
Moonwalker (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Moonwalker (Score:2)
Um... isn't that backwards?
Re:Moonwalker (Score:2)
Definately mega weird.
Custers Revenge? (Score:1)
sense? (Score:2)
Superhero League of Hoboken (Score:2)
MANIAC MANSION (Score:3, Informative)
Man I loved that game.
Re:MANIAC MANSION (Score:2, Interesting)
Monkey Island 2 (Score:2, Informative)
All this work.... (Score:1)
Earthworm Jim (Score:1)
Re:Earthworm Jim (Score:2)
The story was like this. Psy-crow, an evil intergalactic crow, either built, bought, or stole this suit of armor that would have made him indestructible. However, in transit, somehow it fell out of his ship and crashed to Earth, landing on a brave young earthworm named Jim. The suit interacted with Jim's molecules, turning him into the Earthworm Jim we know and love.
So basically, Earthworm Jim has this super-powerful suit, and has to go around defeating various bad
Alex Kidd in [insert_type] World! (Score:1)
Mort the Chicken (Score:2)
How about Mort the Chicken [andnow.net] :
Mort lives in an alternate universe, exactly like ours, except that chickens are the dominant species. On this chicken planet, Mort is the star of his own television series, an animated series of shorts called The Mort the Chicken Show. It takes place on a farm, and depicts the adventures of Mort as he saves his little chicken community from a wide variety of dangers.
What the chickens in this world have never known is that there is another species living in a dimension parall
Moonwalker (Score:2)
Re:The plumbers... (Score:1)
And Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper have some SERIOUS acting talent (and good agents too).
Re:The plumbers... (Score:3, Funny)
And boy did they know how to dress. One in red, one in green - and we never got a christmas special out of em...