It seems that everybody has forgotten the boon of 2D side-scrolling, and graphical adventure video games, in today’s 3D world.
When I think of great 2D games like this, I think of titles like Contra, Castlevania, Gradius, etc. And I remember that the Contra and Castlevania 3D entries…well, they certainly leave a lot to be desired.
Also, how long has it been since games like King’s Quest, The Secret of Monkey Island, and others have been around?
Have we effectively seen the end of the sidescroller, and the adventure game? Have MMORPGs, FPS’s, and tactical team-based play simply supplanted them?
Are they as dead as text-based adventures, or will they make a comeback?
Adventure games will definetly make a comeback, but probably not in 2D. I’d love to see someone make an adventure game using the Half-Life 2 engine. And I mean a real adventure game: no shooting, no jumping puzzles, just a story-and-character driven game in an immersive 3D enviroment.
2D side-scrollers, I’m less certain about. Seems like that ship has pretty much sailed, from what I can see.
Besides the GBA, there are games with 3D graphics that are basically just 2D sidescrollers. Viewtiful Joe and Alien Hominid, for instance. And there were a ton of “2.5-D” games for the PSX that were basically just 2D side-scrollers with Fancy Graphics - Pandemonium! and the Klonoa games come to mind.
Are they still making Metal Slug games? I know 4 came out a while ago.
There’s a heap of tactical rpg’s out for the ps2 that have fairly basic 2d graphics. Stuff like La Pucella Tactics. They seem to be doing very, very well. I don’t think they’ll disappear any time soon.
Best. Computer Game. Ever. was “Armor Alley”, a 2-D sidescroller for the mac. But it wasn’t an adventure game, it was a player versus player shooter!
You both piloted a helicopter on opposite side of a field of battle that was around 20 screens wide or more. You could shoot guns and missiles and carry troops with the chopper,
And you could also buy infantry, tanks, AA and radar trucks (the object of the game was to get your radar truck to the opponent’s base, which was the only drawback I could see to the game, sort of cheesy.)
This was one game in which the two dimensions helped rather than hurt, versus 3-d. You could buy your troops and they would march off to battle automatically, since there was only one direction in which to go.
So you could concentrate more on controlling your chopper while the ground battle raged below you, without having to micromanage them like in Warcraft-style games.
Well, for 2-D sidescrollers there’s Gish , the adventures of a 12 pound ball of tar.
Adventure games… yes, they’re on the decline. However, I recall hearing news that the rights to Sam & Max and a few other LucasArse titles have been bought by another company, and we may yet see new games. Also, there was a Monkey Island game released for PS2. I have it, but can’t recall the title at the moment.
Seriously, get a GBA. The following games for it are 2D, side-scrolling, and AWESOME:
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Metroid: Fusion
Metroid: Zero Mission
Super Mario Advance: 1-4 (I think they are up to 4)
The Mario ones are just 16 bit remakes of earlier Mario games (though I think some have added stuff. And one of them is just Super Mario World from the SNES.)
The Castlevania games are amazing. All the classic play of the classics, with cool new stuff. And each one is different enough from the others to make them cool. The first Metroid is a new one, while Zero Mission is technically a remake of the original Metroid, but really, it’s basically a new game. Both are like Super Metroid for the SNES in terms of graphics and gameplay.
You can even buy something called the Gameboy Player for the Gamecuve that plays GBA games through the Gamecube onto your TV. You don’t even need a GBA! So if you have no need to take the games with you, just don’t bother with a GBA (but you should get one, cause they are awesome for plane/train/long bus rides, doctor’s offices, etc…)
Of course, you can get the DS if you want, cause it does play GBA games, too, but it’s twice as big, and if you have no desire to ever play DS games, then it’s a waste of money.
Mario Vs Donkey Kong and any of the Sonic Advance games for GBA are good. I don’t have Aladdin, but I think it’s just ported over from the old SuperNES version, and that one was pretty fun.
I agree that it would be a shame to lose the 2-D platform genre. I’m particularly nostalgic about Prince of Persia 1&2, Flashback, and the Oddworld games.
I’m sure there will always be a smaller format (ever-shrinking cellular phones, etc.) that people will put existing 2-D games on, but I wonder if that’s the end of any new ones…
I want a new-age 2d console RPG. Something in the style of the great SNES RPGs - FF4-6, the Lufia games, something like that. Something that is ridiculously long and powerfully story driven, so that long doesn’t get boring. Skip the effort that’s put into the graphics and cinematics and make a great game.
I would give my soul for this! Okay, maybe not that, but at least as much as I’d pay for any of the less worthy games out there. Don’t make me go back to my emulator again!
Oh, I forgot to mention - I want it for one of the consoles. PS2 would be the best, I suppose, but any of them would do. I want something I can play at my TV, on my couch, without having to stare at that tiny screen. The GBA is awesome, and it has a great place as a travelling entertainer, but I want something for my neglected butt-imprint
List of awesome 2-D RPG’s for GBA:
Golden Sun 1
Golden Sun 2
Lunar Legends
Lufia: The Ruins of Lore
Breath of Fire I and II
Fire Emblam
Pokemon Ruby (if you like pokemon)
Pokemon Saphirre (see above)
Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls
that last one is a remake of FF1 for the NES and FF2 for the Famicom released just in Japan…but something like became FF4 in the US? Maybe? I dunno. But they both have nicer 16 bit graphics, added cut scenes, a new skills system (for at least the second one.) They even have added quests and stuff, too!
takes a deep breath
FF1 - FF1 in US
FF2 - Released for Playstation and GBA (on Dawn of Souls) in US
FF3 - Still unreleased in US (don’t know why, it was a good game. Hunt down the fan translation if you can)
FF4 - Unreleased in US
FF4 Easytype - Released in US as FF2
FF5 - Released in US on Playstation (with a lousy translation and a crapload of bugs; again, check out the fan translation)
FF6 - FF3 in US
FF7 and later - Square officially comes clean and brings us up to date on the numbering.
Now that I got that out of the way… I recommend Beyond Good And Evil for people who like adventure games. It’s available for just about every platform out there.
About FF III, looks like it’s going to be released on the DS (gamefaqs has the Japanese release listed as TBA, and no American release date yet). While I can’t guarantee it’ll be released in the US, I’m hoping they will (it’d be wasted money not to, right?)
Looks like there’s going to be at least a couple of 2D sidescrollers on the DS. One of 'em’s a Mario game. I’ve heard it’s not a port, but a brand new game. Guess we shall see, though. Also, there’s Viewtiful Joe, which I believe is also not a port.
Oh, and for classic adventure fun (though top down, not side-scrolling) The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is a completly original Zelda game for the GBA.
