Download Services Have Missiles, Dolphins 44
This week both Nintendo and Microsoft's downloadable game services have some great titles to offer. The Wii will soon be playing host to Super Mario Bros. 2, Ecco: Tides of Time, and Dragon Spirit . Xbox Live Arcade, meanwhile, has up an update of Missile Command . This latest follows on the heels of Pac-Man: CE , a worthy and well-received updating of the arcade classic. Ars' comment about Ecco is dead on: "I used to love this game, just swimming around and doing those flips out of the water as Ecco was pretty calming. Then you tried to actually play the game and found out just how excruciatingly difficult it could be. While the Dreamcast update lost some of the magic, the original Ecco is still a neat twist on 2D games. Who knew that taking a platformer and setting it underwater would be so much fun?"
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Missile Command is supposed to compete with Super Mario Bros. 2 and Ecco the Dolphin?! Sucks to be Xbox Arcade.
I know which one I still play from time to time 15 years after my first encounter with it. And the one I'll probably still be playing 15 years on. Hint: It isn't Mario or Ecco.
I'm sure Mario and Ecco will probably perform better than Missile Command at least at first, but provided it's a decent Missile Command conversion that's the one which has the more timeless gameplay. It's definitely the one you're more likely to go to for a 20 minute gaming burst, which is the kind of situation these games should be
20 minutes? (Score:1)
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Wait...we're not talking about that Super Mario 2, are we?
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As for Ecco, I'm actually surprised it is as popular as it is. I owned it back in the day when I had a Genesis, and it was okay, but I didn't think the gameplay was that good. I remember being impressed by the graphics at the time, though.
Missile Co
Old-school (Score:2)
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Okay I think I fixed it.
Disappointed (Score:5, Funny)
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You're not the only one. (Score:2)
Ecco... (Score:4, Funny)
Grr. I'm all angry now, reminded of that.
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BTW, THAT headline and no one's mentioned sharks with frickin laser beams on the heads?
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The first new Pac-Man mazes in more than 26 years? (Score:2)
Re:The first new Pac-Man mazes in more than 26 yea (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The first new Pac-Man mazes in more than 26 yea (Score:2)
Missing a few games... (Score:3, Informative)
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If you're happy with what you've got, then good for you, enjoy it and stop complaining that - heaven forbid - you have some choice in the world.
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And why is the new Nintendo and Microsoft downloadable content getting free ad-space when Sony has new games available this week too?
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Is this the part where I say "you must be new here?"
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huh? (Score:1)
WTH? The Dreamcast version was incredible. The graphics were amazing, the controls were fantastic, and the only thing that keeps it off my top 10 list is the fact that it was so damn hard
Difficult (Score:2)
Some of the later levels have names like "Nightmare of Human" and "Nightmare of Dolphin".
All these rewrites suck (Score:2)
Replaying old games. (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm a bit underwhelmed by Pac Man CE, particularly graphics wise. So they put the effort into making the states rendered in nice high resolution and they couldn't be bothered to have done the same with Pac Man and the ghosts? I don't see the nostalgia in keeping them pixelated like that. And there have been numerous inventive Pac Man clones through the years, especially on the PC.
The interesting thing about many of these old games is how awkward their control schemes feel. Most anyway, Super Mario Bros and a handful of others still feel very fluid and natural to this day. But most take some getting used to. Some games I had fond memories of I found myself disappointed by because of the controls to the point where I couldn't be bothered to play them very long. One particularly aggravating example is Bionic Commando.
Interestingly, I've never had a problem graphics-wise. I maintain that 2D sprites age better than 3D graphics, especially those aiming for realism. However, given my experience with emulation, I have a hard time spending money buying Virtual Console games. To be honest, I prefer the approach seen on Xbox Live where developers take an old game and update the graphics and gameplay. It would be interesting to see this done with some of those old Nintendo games.
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To this day Super Mario Bros 2 is my favorite of the entire series. I don't know what it is. The game just seemed even more surreal than any of the others. The enemies seems more inventive too. The others are all great, but there's something I just like about that particular version.
You probably already know that, but the reason for this is that SMB2 was not actually a Mario game. It was a Japanese game based on a TV show (I think). It's called Doki Doki Panic and got a sprite swap for the US and Euro versions.
Also, what's wrong with the VC emulation? I've never noticed anything amiss, other than the lack of rumble. In fact, most games look quite a bit better on the Wii than they used to. The VC isn't the place for remakes, it's the place to buy old games... Eventually, we'll get ne
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