Brother None counts down his favourite games

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Good old Rick Dangerous. I played the first for a while with a friend and we had too the love/hate relationship you mention. I remember a part (I think it was at the very end of the first level?) where you fall down a hole and you have to blast a wall woth your dynamite. But if you had used them all you couldn't go forth nor kill yourself in any way, so the only you could do was to reset the game. Damn you, Rick!

I owned the second one (PC version). Sligtly easier, and you could select the first 4 levels at will. Still, to access the last level and see the ending you had to do them all in sequence starting from the first in one go. A challenge from hell.

Of course, I never completed them.
 
Finally started playing Wasteland about a month ago and it's freakin' awesome! :D I played it for two days straight almost (that is, if I didn't have to sleep). In fact... I should go play it right now... but I have things to get done, and if I start I won't stop. :lol: Wasteland is definitely on my top 10 list.

Never heard of Rick Dangerous, but the screens seem oddly familiar. I'll have to check it out some time. I like a good challenge.
 
I just couldn't get into Wasteland the few times I tried. It looks like there is definitely a great game behind the ugliness but I feel like it's something one should have played back in the day. If there were a remake, I'd be all over it.
 
alec said:
So is this a list of great games that are completely unenjoyable today?
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Actually I think Wasteland is still enjoyable but you have to be a fan of cRPGs and you have to take the time to adjust to the clunky-by-modern-standards interface.

Then again, I still like Zork. :wink:
 
Like I said, I think Wasteland's unique mix of graphical interface with text adventure is kind of a child of its time. There's indies that'll do it, and there's games like Fallout that tried to absorb text adventure of the cRPG ilk (through extensive item/location description) into graphic interfaces, but that concept has kind of been outpaced by technology, and it's more an exercise in creativity now than a real direct aim to maximize the potential of the genre.

In that sense, a "remake" cast adamantly in the same type would feel like an odd throwback, though I guess sometimes that works, as with Monkey Island.
 
Brother None said:
In that sense, a "remake" cast adamantly in the same type would feel like an odd throwback, though I guess sometimes that works, as with Monkey Island.
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I did mean a throwback type of remake. I'd be interested in a low budget refresh of the game, sort of like all those XBL Arcade "remakes" that don't change too much. That's all it needs to get my attention again.

I've actually been wondering why they don't release something like that for say iPhone. There is a bunch of text adventure games there already.
 
Brother None said:
The game holds up, but it holds up in the same way Citizen Kane does. I can watch Citizen Kane, and I can appreciate it, and recognize all it meant for the film industry. But I can't really enjoy it the same way I do later seminal pieces. The same is true for Wasteland, my love of the game almost lies more in abstract appreciation for its accomplishments than in outright enjoyment of the game itself.
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I played games on PC back then, but hadn't discovered Wasteland until 2 years ago or so. I couldn't really enjoy it on a new PC with a 19" monitor, and it felt pretty sad to witness the awesomeness i had missed in 1989 when i was playing... Rick Dangerous instead.

Also, there's a game called Wasteland for Symbian phones, it's also Post-Apocalyptic and you get to fight against robots. But it's Real Time Strategy. And it sucks.
 
BN: I can see where you're coming from when you list Rick Dangerous for its graphics, controls and "little touches", but in my opinion that doesn't help save the game from total obscurity where it rightly belongs. It's a gigantic memory test with no margin for error. That may have been par for the course in the late 80s, but as early as 5 years later RD had been completely forgotten by everyone, only briefly mentioned by reviewers in 1996 to say that the people that made Rick Dangerous had this new platformer out that starred a girl with huge tits.

Mind you, I actually got past the pyramid level, but not much further beyond. RD2, however, I played through all 5 levels. Propably because the sequel is somewhat easier.
 
Unkillable Cat said:
BN: I can see where you're coming from when you list Rick Dangerous for its graphics, controls and "little touches", but in my opinion that doesn't help save the game from total obscurity where it rightly belongs.
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Again, a valid argument if this were a greatest games ever list. Irrelevant to its status as in my favourites list.

I have a feeling I'm going to be doing this post a lot throughout this thread.
 
BN,

I'm really enjoying this. Well-examined and -articulated lists of personal favorites bring to light things that even well-examined and -articulated lists of "the best" don't.

Objective measuring of which games "do it better" can be useful, but I always think that real creative progress is the product of "what do I really like?"

misteryo
 
13. Earthworm Jim - Shiny Entertainment (Mega Drive, 1994)

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This spot is a bit of an odd one because I knew it was going to be another platform game, I just wasn't sure which one. It had to be my favourite one, and then there's a lot to choose from. Initially I listed The Lost Vikings, another all-time favourite that combines awesome gameplay, graphics and humour. There's a lot of games I love that dropped out for a variety of reasons. Sonic 2 or Sonic CD would have been good contesters. I loved Toejam & Earl 2 back in the day but when trying to play it again now I can't for the life of my figure out why I loved it so much.

You can kind of tell by the pattern of games which console ties in with my love of platformers: the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis for some of you). I played a bit of 8-Bit, but mostly my youth was spent either with DOS-game, Atari games on the 520ST, or - when that day finally dawned - glorious 16-Bit graphics. I haven't really been a console gamer since, and can't really say I miss it, but I have fond memories of the Mega Drive, one of the fondest - amongst all the platformers and beat 'em ups I loved - was Shiny's Earthworm Jim.

To me, Earthworm Jim is the pinnacle of the run and gun platform genre. The controls feel natural and responsive, with a well-designed plethora of different moves available to the player. Specifically, it has a funny way of combining Earthworm Jim's suit and body (that of an earthworm), as the suit can use the earthworm as a whip to hit opponents, rather than use the gun and precious ammo to shoot them. The worm is also used for climbing and other athletic maneuvers. But the game also puts you in sequences where your moves are limited, for instance because you lose your suit and can only jump around, or because you're falling and can only shoot or direct your fall.

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The level design is amongst the best. The levels are varied not just in graphical design - and more on that later - but each one plays completely different to the last. Sure, not all were a hit, the long glass craft ride in the second part of Down the Tubes and the Use Your Head segment of the final level rate amongst the most annoying gaming segments I know, especially with no real safe-points available. Still, going from leaping piles of trash to bungy-jumping combat to losing your suit and moving just like a worm to having to escort Pete (another somewhat frustrating level), this game had it all, especially if you pile in the between-level Andy Asteroid racing segments.

But it was the graphic design that made Earthworm Jim so memorable. It used up every bit of power the Mega Drive had to offer to bring us pristinely designed levels with well-drawn incredibly animated characters. It really felt like you were playing a cartoon, and that was a big part of its draw.

Earthworm Jim just had franchise written all over it. Doug TenNapel's character design on Jim himself is flawless, as is the irreverent backstory; Jim is a normal earthworm, until a suit designed by professor Monkey-For-A-Head*, commissioned by Queen Slug-For-A-Butt drops on his head, transforming him itno a superworm, though he still needs the suit for real heroic deeds. The heroic deed of the game being to save Princess What's-Her-Name from Slug-For-A-Butt, fighting types like Evil the Cat, Bob the Killer Goldfish and Psy-Crow along the way.

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None of this is actually explained in the game, but honestly who cares? You get funny characters, humorous situations and some of the best run-and-gun platforming any console ever offered. That's Earthworm Jim in a nutshell.

* In case you're wondering, the monkey is called Professor-For-A-Head.
 
Now we are talking my language, I salute you for your choice of number 13 good sir. Earthworm Jim is a true classic.
 
Earthworm Jim was an excellent title indeed. What's your opinion on the second one?

I played EJ2 first so it's my favorite of the two but both of them are equally fantastic games, in my mind.

Also, I'd add that the two games had some of the most excellent soundtracks of any game, I know. I thought the music was definitely worth mentioning.
 
Brother None said:
This spot is a bit of an odd one because I knew it was going to be another platform game, I just wasn't sure which one.
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So if The Lost Vikings or something else you might have thought of (and perhaps will) had managed to beat Earthworm Jim, it wouldn't have knocked it down one position, but it would have knocked it below spots 14-15 as well? How does this list even work, affirmative genre action?
 
Per said:
So if The Lost Vikings or something else you might have thought of (and perhaps will) had managed to beat Earthworm Jim, it wouldn't have knocked it down one position, but it would have knocked it below spots 14-15 as well?
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Yes. Mostly because, as I mentioned at the start, the bottom half of this list is very mutable. There's like a dozen games that could all lay claim to 11 and upwards and no tears lost. So you gotta select on something, and "best platformer I ever played" is as good a criteria as anything.

maximaz said:
Earthworm Jim was an excellent title indeed. What's your opinion on the second one?
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Didn't play it as much but liked it. Haven't touched the third.
 
So far I've played everything you mentioned in your list (i.e. not the same as finishing them 'cause I never finished Wasteland or Rick Dangerous). I would never think about putting any of those games in my top ten list, that's for sure. EJ is a really nice classic, but still... I can think of twenty games or so that were much better than EJ.

Really curious as to what the rest of this list will look like.

I'm pretty sure Fallout and Sanitarium will be in there. Maybe Vampire The Masquerade? But please don't put that wiggly rubbery game in there which you thoughts is briiliant, something with oily constructions one must build to finish a level or something? Gawd, that game was awful when you actually tried to play it...
 
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