"Unpopular Gaming Opinions"

[KimagureMachibuse]

List your "unpopular" gaming opinions here that can be retro and or modern stuff.


I believe the Nintendo 64 is a quite overrated system from it lacking a huge amount of generes of games with the console only having around 100+ games. I found the controller to being quite confusing to hold too despite there being 3rd party ones but some of them are pricey

Most games on the system generally look quite blurry and foggy on the system and some games on the system look pretty dull in colors compared to other games on consoles or ports of games. This console does not even have a proper sound chip to use and i really do not understand why they used cartrideges for the console as it hurt the systems potential as a whole every game on the system thus had to be compromized in many ways like with Gex 2

The PS1 and Sega Saturn both released 2 years older and were CD Based which could do a whole lot more impressive like CD audio and FMV's PS1 games especially the 2D ones look absolutley gorgeuos to this day Castlevania Symphony of The Night. Gradius Gaiden and Alundra to name a few and even a handful of ones that use polygons actually still look really good like Klonoa Door To Phantomile Spyro The Dragon and Tomba Pac-Man World and Einhander come to mind. I even say i prefer the looks of some Polygon based saturn games over the N64 by a long shot mainly NiGHTS Into Dreams. and the 2D Sprite ones are gorgeous

[copy-paster]

Fuck turn-based RPGs seriously, how the hell people have fun with it is beyond me. I saw the gameplay demo of Yakuza 7 the other day and it was nuts turn-based doesn't work with games like that. Glad this genre is mostly dead though, as it should.

[Air Master Burst]

Sunshine is by far the best Mario platformer.

Resident Evil 4 ruined the franchise.

Metal Gear Solid 3 ruined the franchise.

Invisible War is the best Deus Ex game by a country mile.

Vice City is the worst GTA.

Baldur's Gate 2 is a railroading pile of garbage.

Source was the best Counter-Strike.

I'm sure I'll remember more nuclear spicy hot takes later, but that should provide enough scorn to start us off!

[sunnshiner]

DLC can get in the fucking sea.

[it290]

Idk how controversial this is anymore, but I've always thought Bioshock was a crappy game.

[Mischief Maker]

System Shock 2 was an awful game and never deserved its classic status.

The concept was great: Thief the Dark Project in space! But it was a complete faceplant in terms of execution.

The plot wasn't all that great either, and the ending was bullshit.

[Air Master Burst]

Yeah I'm always a little surprised System Shock 2 gets so much love, it's a pale imitation of the original.

Then again my tastes when it comes to immersive sims skew more toward stuff like Invisible War and Consortium. If they made an entire game out of that masquerade ball level from Dishonored I'd buy the shit out of it.

[GaijinPunch]

Sega was right to not make a Phantasy Star V.

[XoPachi]

Botw sucks.

Fuck turn-based RPGs seriously, how the hell people have fun with it is beyond me. I saw the gameplay demo of Yakuza 7 the other day and it was nuts turn-based doesn't work with games like that. Glad this genre is mostly dead though, as it should.

I can agree with this for the most part on the basis of fun factor but theres a strategic element that should be employed when making turn based games. A lot of the time it only comes into play for a select few bosses.

[KimagureMachibuse]

DLC can get in the fucking sea.

I dont see a problem with your take. Early DLC was a cool novelty mainly with dreamcast games but now for the most part its pretty scummy with multiple editions for a game and other strange requirements that games implement with it

[KimagureMachibuse]

Here is another opinion of mine

Super Mario 64 is a heavily overrated game for its time it was fine but now i believe it really does not hold up the games visuals have not aged the best the controls like wall jumping are quite clunky and the game does not have much replay value the DS version by comparison is far superior in every way acting more of a reimagining with tons of newly added content in it.


NiGHTS Into Dreams for the Sega Saturn I think is a far better aged visually and cooler game The visuals are really beautiful and surreal. it has plenty of replay value a cool christmas expansion pack in the form of a demo disc and the gameplay is very unique and still holds up and nas not been replicated.

[Air Master Burst]

Mario 64 had major wow factor for people coming from SNES or whatever, but I had already played a bunch of Magic Carpet on PC so it really didn't do anything for me personally.

I've never tried the PS1 version but there's no way it ran or played as well as my Pentium 1 with M+KB. I'm guessing trying to wrangle your carpet around with a PS1 dogbone was a pretty wretched experience, so no surprise Mario 64 is the early 3D game everyone remembers.

ETA: also Jumping Flash was there but nobody really played it back then. Street Fighter, NBA Jam, Ridge Racer, and Mega Man X are what the few kids I knew who even had a PS1 before 97 played.

[Sima Tuna]

Modern games are pretty much all complete garbage.

That might not seem like an original or unpopular take, but I mean to apply it near-universally. Yes, even that modern game. It's shit as well. God of War 4 is shit compared to God of War 1 and 2 (and Chains, and Ghost.) I especially dislike the remakes or modern games that use the same name as the old game, because it dilutes the branding and makes it impossible to search info on the older game.

Uncharted is a shit franchise and everything Naughty Dog have made from the ps3 era onwards has been trash.

Devil May Cry was killed by the reboot and the fifth game hasn't done shit to salvage that series for me. Hell, I don't even particularly like DMC4. It's... I mean, at least it's a game, I guess. But it's a half-finished one that recycles its content. It has about half the "game" of DMC3 and then they throw in all these extra characters. Where am I supposed to use them? In the same content that is already being recycled over and over?

Platinum Games are a very overrated developer. I like Bayonetta a lot, but consider it a sort of second-runner to DMC3 and Ninja Gaiden Black. Even so, yeah it's a good game. The other platinum games are much less impressive, imo. Wonderful 101 never appealed to me. That Korra game is worthless. Hell, a lot of their licensed stuff is bad or mediocre. Star Fox Zero was a big nintendo meme. Another example of ninty's hatred for custom controls and allowing players to dictate the terms of their experience. Vanquish is hella overrated among people who play action games. I found it a pretty dull action shooter with some ass-sliding mechanics. Anarchy Reigns would have been a good game if there was any community for it, ever. Shit was dead on arrival. Revengeance is fantastic, but still. That's like, two games out of their entire library that I think are awesome. Bayo and Revengeance. The rest underwhelmed the hell out of me. Of the games they made as Clover, Viewtiful Joe and God Hand were excellent, but that was another lifetime ago and those titles fit firmly into the category and design of "old games."

Halo died with Halo 4 and hasn't come back. 343 don't know what the fuck they're doing. ODST and Reach has problems but they at least felt like Halo games. You could play them on Heroic or Legendary and they were balanced to be reasonably fair. The gameplay didn't turn into complete broken shit on higher difficulties like the 343 games do, demonstrating that nobody at that studio gives a fuck about more than casual play.

Third person shooters as a genre are pretty much ruined. They've been absorbed by walking sims, live services and action rpgs.

Most "throwback" shooters (first or third) fall far short of the design of games like DOOM and QUAKE. Many end up as arena shooters instead and miss the point entirely, imo. I know people like Serious Sam, but I really prefer the more level-based approach of the older Id and Build Engine stuff. And no, Nu-Doom is not "just like the old days." Seeing a canned animation over and over and over is not retro or old-school. Having no ammo is not retro or old-school. Neither is choosing perks upon level up.

[Air Master Burst]

Modern games are pretty much all complete garbage.

If we're talking big budget releases then absolutely! Overall though, well, there have been more quality belt-scrollers released in the last 2 years than at any point since like 1992, so I can't complain too much about the general state of things (apart from working conditions).

Most "throwback" shooters (first or third) fall far short of the design of games like DOOM and QUAKE. Many end up as arena shooters instead and miss the point entirely, imo. I know people like Serious Sam, but I really prefer the more level-based approach of the older Id and Build Engine stuff. And no, Nu-Doom is not "just like the old days." Seeing a canned animation over and over and over is not retro or old-school. Having no ammo is not retro or old-school. Neither is choosing perks upon level up.

I had such high hopes for Project Warlock, but honestly it's pretty boring. Sadly, the recent(ish) remaster of Strife is probably the best action FPS to come out since the 90s. Although the first half of Halo 1 was pretty cool I guess.

[XoPachi]

You guys must not be playing Amid Evil, Prodeus, Ion Fury, or Dusk.

I dont see a problem with your take. Early DLC was a cool novelty mainly with dreamcast games but now for the most part its pretty scummy with multiple editions for a game and other strange requirements that games implement with it

You mean you dont wanna pay $150 to play Super Smash Bros?

[Sima Tuna]

All of those games you mentioned are indies. I'm not saying that invalidates their existence, just that indie games operate on different rules from most modern games. I love Huntdown, but Huntdown isn't a "modern" game to me. Its design sensibilities are firmly rooted in the past. Even if it's not a 100% arcade experience in all respects (story mode progression is world-based and linear rather than arcade run-based), it would still be more at home on a system like the Mega Drive (with Hard Corps) or ps1.

There are good indie games out there, but even among those, I've found many to be underwhelming. A majority of retro-inspired brawlers I've played were not very good. I Am The Hero sucked. Mother Russia Bleeds sucked. The Takeover sucked. I now filter most indie beat em ups as aggressively as I do mainstream games.

Some good games are being made nowadays, but modern games, with modern design? Nah. They're shit. Anything with AA or AAA budget has a kiss of death on it. Unless it's an actual, 100% legitimate old game being remade faithfully according to its old design principles, like that Live A Live remaster. That's not a new game. It's 100% an old snes game with some fancy visual effects and orchestration thrown over it. The content in the game is all available in the old snes version you can play via emulation and fan patches. Ninja Saviors and Pocky Reshrined are lightning-in-a-bottle remasters made by the same team who made those original old games. They represent such a tiny percentage of games made and thrown into this market that they prove the rule.

I still hold the opinion that 99.9% of new IPs made after around the beginning of the ps4 era are just shit. Gamers raised on modern games now get signpost handheld to a ridiculous degree and the slightest bit of challenge is treated as either a massive selling point (WOW DOOD THIS GAME IS IMPOSSIBLE!!11!!!) or an affront to "disabled gamers" (d0ngs souls needs a difficulty slider! This is oppression!) The whole popularity of From is predicated on how shit all modern games are. From offer an experience which isn't particularly difficult, but is rather punishing. They provide a full game with (fairly) linear progression and a sense of achievement when you clear challenges. This is basic shit, but it's so lacking in modern games that people lap it up.

[Marc]

Most "throwback" shooters (first or third) fall far short of the design of games like DOOM and QUAKE. Many end up as arena shooters instead and miss the point entirely, imo. I know people like Serious Sam, but I really prefer the more level-based approach of the older Id and Build Engine stuff. And no, Nu-Doom is not "just like the old days." Seeing a canned animation over and over and over is not retro or old-school. Having no ammo is not retro or old-school. Neither is choosing perks upon level up.

Have you played Ion Fury? It's fucking glorious.

[Mischief Maker]

I love Huntdown, but Huntdown isn't a "modern" game to me. Its design sensibilities are firmly rooted in the past.

I call it "The greatest Sega CD game never made."


I'll rattle off some positive unpopular opinions:

* Age of Wonders Planetfall is the greatest 4X game ever made.
* Anyone who rolls their eyes at the tower defense genre has never played X-Morph Defense.
* RPG-style games whose combat is mediated by card-draws instead of dice-rolls are objectively superior.

And one more negative:

* No, all the extra shit they added to No Man's Sky did not redeem it, because it was all so bafflingly wrongheaded. They promised a game about exploring an infinite universe and turned it into a game about sitting in the same spot and mining rocks to build Barbie's Malibu dream house IIIIIN SPAAAAAAAACE! Actually exploring the world still offers the same lifeless potemkin village experience of the original. If you want a space game with an ACTUAL living world, check out Drox Operative 2.

[BIL]

I still hold the opinion that 99.9% of new IPs made after around the beginning of the ps4 era are just shit. Gamers raised on modern games now get signpost handheld to a ridiculous degree and the slightest bit of challenge is treated as either a massive selling point (WOW DOOD THIS GAME IS IMPOSSIBLE!!11!!!) or an affront to "disabled gamers" (d0ngs souls needs a difficulty slider! This is oppression!) The whole popularity of From is predicated on how shit all modern games are. From offer an experience which isn't particularly difficult, but is rather punishing. They provide a full game with (fairly) linear progression and a sense of achievement when you clear challenges. This is basic shit, but it's so lacking in modern games that people lap it up.

Without a hint of irony, Dark Souls is Faxanadu transplanted from an IMPOSSIBRU Hard Scrolling Action format to a noob-palatable full 3D one, smartly hoovering up amenities from Hard 3D Action standard-setter Devil May Cry (2001) in the process. I only played DS1 earlier this year and, after a brief period of horror at its lack of Bloodborne's Shinobiesque quickstep-driven carnage, soon found its towering world of biblical dangers positively warm and fuzzy. It's an oldschool ARPG, nice, job done. "Prepare to die?" What, your pecker gone soft or something? See a doctor bro, doing this shit before I could bust. TBH I think you're just a WEENIE!

It's bleakly amusing to me that we'd go from Zelda II's "here's an ARPG, you explore a deeply hostile world while collecting rad gear for the taming of, oh also, if you think grinding alone will save your ass, prepare to Writhe In Pain on the end of this rod" (the hallowed/hated "L2P," a gift from the cabs) to DS1's "BRUH, THIS GAME X-TREEEEEEM" "YE LMAO, THAT BIT WHERE GOATDUDE BLOW HE OWN DICK AND HE DOGS SAY "RAWR" BE SIIICK BRAH" in a short lifetime - but OTOH, if it means more Faxanadu Neo Classiques (read: agreeably substantial, non-childproofed ARPGs with the old thrill of death while exploring Ruined Town A and Godawful Crypt B, with a tacit imperative you develop your skills along with your avatar's stats), then sure, yeah, fuck it, why not. The veteran's "Damn, Goatman #3 caught me napping there, better not go for a full frontal combo next time" is the casual's "BRUH THEY POUND MUH LIL BOIPUCCI LIKE WE WERE IN GOATMAN PRISON, THAS SOME BULLSHIIEEET NE1 GOT OBLIVION HERBZ 2 SHARE LMAO" I'm sure these games are doing their bit to wake up a few dormant Hard Gaymer Souls in the process too.

So I love From even more than I did when they were the oddly well-catered Armored Core guys (<333 AGETEC), and I don't care that their fanbase is 95% retarded and game-illiterate as long as they keep them in business, and preferably solvent enough for the occasional BB/Sekiro experiment in harder-edged slaying.

[Konsolkongen]

Nintendo is massively overrated.

[Sima Tuna]

Most "throwback" shooters (first or third) fall far short of the design of games like DOOM and QUAKE. Many end up as arena shooters instead and miss the point entirely, imo. I know people like Serious Sam, but I really prefer the more level-based approach of the older Id and Build Engine stuff. And no, Nu-Doom is not "just like the old days." Seeing a canned animation over and over and over is not retro or old-school. Having no ammo is not retro or old-school. Neither is choosing perks upon level up.

Have you played Ion Fury? It's fucking glorious.

It's on my list. Even with most modern games being garbage, there's still a massive backlog of shit I have to play. Just today I picked up the ninja gaiden master collection, so now I'm obligated to (eventually) try out Razor's Edge. Once I finish replaying NG1 and 2.

[Blinge]

...

so what you're saying is... i should try faxanadu

also turn based jrpgs don't suck whoever said that fuck ur dog

[BIL]

Faxanadu is the Dark Souls II of FC ARPGS A massive but fairly linear game, and the handling can be punishing to adjust to (Castlevania-strict, but not Castlevania-precise), and the flipscreen format occassionally scrolls you straight into waiting enemies (it's not all that punishing of single hits, but it's still pretty unprofessional-feeling, especially from a studio of Hudson's standard). These caveats aside, it's memorably fiendish and atmospheric, with dungeon ordeals great and small dotting the course - and those same slightly elusive mechanics pack some grittily satisfying impacts, most notably the pointblank damage boost. Running enemies clean through will cause them to take per-frame damage as they're shunted back along its length - the effect building with bigger, stronger swords - and if you pin 'em to a wall while doing so, you can butcher the fucker in a quick skewer-flurry. Not all that unlike the cutthroat punishments that await enemies (or players) who venture too near walls and corners in DS1 for extended comboing.

The soaring walls and sheer impossible scale of its Yggdrasil-modeled world is so closely reflected in DS1's own unfathomable archtrees and citadel walls ("Who TF could've built this?" "The Gods" "Oh yeah, checks out") I spent a lot of early DS1 just taking snapshots with the Share button

(A small, spoiler-free, but vital bug avoidance tip - applies to NTSCU and NTSCJ versions alike - seriously do read it if you give the game a go, you don't want to activate Euroshump Mode )

Zelda II (Japan ver recommended for streamlined levelling) and Battle of Olympus are good times too, and while it's more of an ADC than ARPG, Falcom's Legacy of the Wizard aka Dragon Slayer IV (beautifully ported from MSX by Compile) has a similarly winning combo of tight, characterful action and a staggeringly enormous map. Not an ice-cold knightly dueller / zako-stabber like the aforementioned - plays more like a Taito single-screener minus the player 1HKOs than anything, right down to slain enemies tumbling offscreen all "O_O" - lovably done, and quite formidably challenging from navigational standpoint despite the easier-going action.

Suffice to say I was marvelously entertained by DS1's resemblances to all three, and somewhat ruefully heartened by the noobs and journos acting like it was some brave new world as opposed to a bullseye return to oldschool ARPG principles. Just glad to have it back by hook or crook, naw mean.

[SuperDeadite]

90% of the SNES library is fucking terrible. System is best used as a host for SuperGameboy.

[WelshMegalodon]

Upscaled PlayStation and N64 games still look terrible.

The original Metroid is a legitimately good game.

Fighting games play better with a good D-pad than they do with a stick.

Most of the good JRPGs don't require grinding.

[Air Master Burst]

Otogi is the best game From ever made, and King's Field IV is the best Souls game. I haven't played Elden Ring, but if it's anything like Eternal Ring it's probably pretty dope. Been meaning to try Evergrace at some point.

It's a shame they didn't have the time and money to properly finish DS1. Everything up through Anor Londo is an absolute masterpiece, but after that it's pretty clear they just sort of threw some stuff together and called it a day. Demon's Souls had the same problem, but handled it a lot better due to the level-based structure, and I think it's a superior game for it. I also love the weird obtuse dual tendency system, it reminds me of Battle Garrega's rank system and the A-Life system from NiGHTS.

[o.pwuaioc]

I always love these threads. Hopefully people are willing to defend their opinions!

The Dreamcast is overrated by classic game enthusiasts. Most of its "unique" games weren't all that great, and the system doesn't really hold up today. Oh, wow, the system seller is...a tennis game? Yawn. Not saying it's trash, just that the love for it is overboard. Also, its controller is garbage.

Excessively noisy childish games like Yoshi's Island and Paper Mario series are nauseating.

Harvest Moon is boring and tedious; Farmville for "gamers".

The Saturn had the best controller of the 90s.

The NES was the single greatest console of all time.

The only good turn-based RPGs are ones I have nostalgia for. The genre should be embarrassing to play for those who are post-adolescence.

On that note, Ogre Battle 64 is better than any JRPG.

Super Castlevania IV is a legitimately good game, and the Super Nintendo is underrated among classic game enthusiasts.

FMV games and cutscenes were just "ooh shiny" and add nothing to the game experience.

There's nothing wrong with the silent protagonists, and bad voice acting in a game completely ruins it. (The exceptions, like Symphony in the Night, are spared due to how infrequent the voice acting is compared to the wandering and exploring, but even then it still brings down the rating.)

Ico is a trash game. Shadow of the Colossus is mediocre, as is Panzer Dragoon Saga.

The obsession with terribly bad but obscenely expensive games is not something that should be applauded, but actively despised.

With the wealth of classic games, the PS2 is the last system worth getting. The dominance of 3D FPS/TPS, platformers, and open world ARPGs has made gaming boring. (But this topic has been discussed to death in that other thread.)

In fact, making all games 3D ruined how fun gaming used to be. Going from Mortal Kombat III and Super Street Fighter II to Tekken was a serious step down in quality. It was also the reason I stopped going to arcades.

[WelshMegalodon]

The only good turn-based RPGs are ones I have nostalgia for. The genre should be embarrassing to play for those who are post-adolescence.

Even Wasteland and Pool of Radiance?

[BrianC]

Jr. Pac-Man is one of the best Pac-Man games and the Atari 2600 version is an excellent port that plays better than the c64 version and even the finished, but cancelled Atari 800 port.
Basic Fun's old style Frogger, Qbert, Centipede, and Ms. Pac-Man LCD games are actually pretty good.
Atari 800/5200 Ms. Pac-Man is still one of the better ports of the game.
G&W Greenhouse is a better game than Donkey Kong 3.
G&W Donkey Kong is more fun than early home ports of the arcade version, including the ColecoVision version.
Atari 2600 Millipede is better than the NES version.

[Blinge]

Otogi is the best game From ever made, and King's Field IV is the best Souls game. I haven't played Elden Ring, but if it's anything like Eternal Ring it's probably pretty dope.

Hahah these are some hot takes

boy do I have some videos coming up for you.
but for now, KF4: https://youtu.be/Z7VykG2X1rs

I would assume that Elden ring is absolutely nothing like Eternal