If people were using the default controller set-up for Goldeneye, then I agree with them thinking it was shit, because it was! If there were no other options, I’d have never played it.
That said, I use the yellow arrow buttons for movement and the joystick for looking/aiming also. That’s the only way to play. Unless you wanna be a bad ass and use two controllers. 
I do know, I’m just muscle-memoried onto a mouse/keyboard and had no desire to learn how to play on an N64 controller for one game. I can barely stand the XBox 360 and there are about 18 shooters for that I occasionally play.
Conversely, I’m a Goldeneye-on-N64 hater who would have LOVED Goldeneye-PC.
LOUNE - Believe it. Bought the SNES it in the summer of '94. By the winter of '94, I was at my wits end. The family friendliness was just one of the problems; it didn’t have the power for the arcade games of the time, the Neo Geo conversions, especially, were horrible (Art of Fighting was the only one that didn’t look like crap), and most of what remained was either clumsy, unsatisfying, tedious, or TOO DAMN HARD. Final Fight 2. Top Gear 2. Super Mario Kart. U.N. Squadron. Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. WWF Raw. Mortal Kombat. Bust-a-Move/Puzzle Bobble. Prince of Persia (about four times as long and 400 times as difficult). Double Dragon 4. Samurai Shodown. Rival Turf. F-Zero. Contra 3: The Alien Wars. Pilotwings. It just goes on and on. As for the Genesis, I don’t care what kind of processor it has (and I didn’t then); I could clearly see and hear that this wasn’t a very good system, and it didn’t have any titles that captured my eye that were much better in the arcade.
I had a paper route at the time. One Neo Geo cart set me back one month’s wages, easily. And there was hardly anyplace to get these carts. I never even understood why they cost so much. I never realized that the great graphics and sound were just plain 'ol 16-bittitude that had been cranked up to a ridiculous degree by overprogramming (that’s why they cost so much). I just took one sad glance at what else there was and shelled out without remorse.
P.S. I did get ripped off on a handful of overpriced, overrated PSX games, but that’s not in the same galaxy as the Neo Geo and Neo Geo CD. A distant fourth, if that.
Hands down, stone cold, lead pipe, 100% absolute unchallengable grand champion forever and ever and ever:
Neo. Geo.
The year was 1995. It was a particularly bad time for console gaming, as the NES had finally reached the end of its magnificent run, Sega had a bunch of systems of dubious worth, and the rest of the landscape was littered with blink-and-you-missed-it systems doomed to become museum pieces within a couple of years.
But by far the greatest disappointment was the Super NES. It was a truly something to behold: The good folks at Nintendo built what was at the time the most powerful, loaded, complete, fun system of the time dollar for dollar (an important distinction I’ll get to later), they got the backing of a gamut of third-party developers, and they proceeded to make about 50 million brain-dead decisions which just about guaranteed that it’d be dead and buried approximately 3 nanoseconds after the first Playstation hit the shelf. By far the most disastrous was the decision to brand it as a “family system” (an albatross so titanic that they’ve just now put it to rest, if they have at all). That meant ridiculous bowldlerized replacements for “kill”, no blood, nothing even remotely suggestive, ugly labels on the corners of boxes, etc. etc. It was a debacle.
Of course, it also didn’t help that in many cases the programmers bit of far more then they could chew, and the system was rife with games with tinny sound, choppy graphics, image breakup, clumsy controls, or even outright game-crashing bugs (The Tick was especially bad in the latter department). And more than a few games were simply way, waaaaaay too hard (I’m looking at you, Contra 3).
With no reasonably-priced alternatives, I turned to an obscure cartridge system called the Neo Geo. This was the most advanced system of the time, with lots of terrific games. It was so good, in fact, that it regularly competed with the arcade games of the time. It was also outrageously expensive. A used system could run $450 easily (and in 1995 dollars, don’t forget); new, better be ready to shell out $600 minimum. Let’s not forget the games, starting from $55 for a cheapo throwaway thirdhand cart that’d be fun for maybe a week to a top-of-the-line fighting game which could’ve easily set you back $250.
Oh, did I mention that my only income at the time came from a paper route?
In retrospect, I should have realized that the whole industry was just going through an unfortunate lull, not the first or last time it would happen. Take a break from gaming, find a new hobby, pick up a sport, learn some job skills, whatever, and come back once a quality system at a reasonable price hits the market again (which happened when Sony unveiled the Playstation about a year or two later). But I was young and impetuous then, and so incredibly disgusted how Nintendo butchered the Super NES beyond recognition that SNK could name their price. I paid their price.
And I paid it again when the Neo CD system came out a little later. At least the games weren’t gougingly expensive (about $30-$50 on average), but the console still set me back well over $400.
Keep in mind that Blockbuster Video never had these games, and the one place that regularly had them for rental stopped almost a year before I got the system. That meant that for the most part, it was full price or nothing. Also, this wasn’t exactly a popular system, so it was very often full price new, and I had to travel far and wide to find even that much. (And of course, no online shopping at the time.)
And guess what? I encounted many of the same headaches that I did with the Super NES. Oh, sure SNK wasn’t squeamish about the word “kill”, and there weren’t rampant sound or graphics problems (they did censor the blood in the Samurai Shodown games for some inexplicable reason, but that’s the only really egregious thing I remember), but a lot of the games were still a total pain in the butt to play and good for a week, tops. Oh yeah, that “way too hard” thing I mentioned? Same 'ol, same 'ol: Fatal Fury 3, Samurai Shodown 3, Aggressors of Dark Kombat, World Heroes 2 (which had by far the most ridiculously overpowered final boss in any mainstream-release fighting game I’ve ever seen IN MY LIFE. Trust me, Seth is a baby compared to this horror.).
Aside from that…and it took me a while to notice this…hardware-wise, it really wasn’t a big improvement over the Super NES. What SNK did was take a 16 bit platform, the same the Super NES and Sega Genesis used, and code the everloving snot out of every game. That’s all it was, program, program, program until they had something that wouldn’t draw derisive snorts from arcadegoers. If you’ve seen the rom files, you’ll notice that some of them are FREAKIN’ HUGE, easily above 200 megabytes . Of course, this kind of work costs money, and it showed at the cash register. (The main reason the CD games were more reasonably priced was that, well, they were the same games as for the cart system, so the heavy labor was already done.)
Oh, did I mention the Neo CD’s loading times? Yeah, every new character, level, section, time to wait for that bar to fill. For a few games, this wasn’t a huge burden (Aero Fighters 3 was good, Metal Slug was all right), but for the most part, this was a huge source of frustration which absolutely ruined the flow of the game. Ever try to play King of Fighters '97 where you have to wait 45 seconds before every flippin’ round?
And then emulation came along, and it was OVER, man. Comfort of my own home, much better controls than anything SNK ever, produced, unlimited credits, and get this…cheat codes and save states. Which I definitely could’ve used when I was spraying shots all over the place in Top Players Golf, let me tell you.
In short, nearly three grand (1995 dollars!) blown, and thanks to emulation’s features, a total waste. (I was able to cut my losses a tiny bit by selling my remaining CD games on Ebay years later. Unfortunately, the system mysteriously broke down before I coudl sell it.)
Believe me, even the PS3 is a steal compared to this.
If you think Pilotwings, U.N. Squadron, Mario Kart, Mortal Kombat, F-Zero (!) and Contra III were bad games your opinion officially counts for fuck all, man.
The SNES was a huge hit, and continued to sell long after the first PlayStation hit the shelf. NoA released new games until 1997, and systems until 1999- nine years after it was first released.
Donkey Kong Country, which came out after the PS and Sega Saturn, was the fastest-selling game in history for a while.
Donkey Kong Country pre-dates the Playstation even in Japan. In the US it predated the system by over a year. It did go on sale pretty much the same day as the Saturn in Japan but we all know what a fiasco the Saturn turned out to be…
My mistake. It predated the Japanese launch of the PS1 by 7 days.
**Spore **ended up being the biggest gaming disappointment ever for me. I loved the creature creater but the actual game sucked monkey dick. It was just so damn boring.
Far Cry 2 for XBox 360 was also terrible. It was very pretty graphically (if you like brown) but it mostly felt like driving around for hours just to kill some random dudes. There seemed to be barely any point or storyline to the missions.
Well, just goes to show you how drastically the Neo Geos and 16-bit systems in general changed my worldview that I inadvertently resurrected this thread just to talk about them again. (I just followed a link from the “best uses of gaming dollars” thread, I didn’t realize how old this was, honest.)
I don’t really have anything new to add, but before I go…
RNATB - First off, don’t flame on this board. This isn’t GameFAQs.
I owned a Super NES for several years. I played the games. Hell, I still play the games because I have pretty much the entire library on my computer right now (cheat codes + save states and all!), including numerous titles I played for at most a few minutes before, including the aforementioned U.N. Squadron.
You want to know my problems? Fine.
Pilotwings: Incredily awkward physics, major challenge simply going where you want (especially with the jetpack), have to retry some tests over and over.
U.N. Squadron: The fast pace and the limited amount of hits you can take (and two quick hits in a row anytime is instant death) make it waaaaay too easy to get killed. Have to clear the entire level without dying or you get thrown back to the building (which wasn’t true for the arcade version). Final level flat-out crazy, with tons of enemies and death traps before the armed-to-the-teeth super tough final boss.
Mortal Kombat: Lessee. Wholesale censorship, check. Awkward controls, check (even Samurai Shodown was better). Total lack of a non-crushing AI level, check. I didn’t return it to Blockbuster Video a day early because I was feeling generous.
F-Zero: Vehicles thrown on the track whose sole purpose is to smash you around. Which, of course, makes the absolutely crippling rank requirements all the harder to achieve. Seriously, my machine gets treated like a pinball tied to a tennis ball on some levels. Then there’s that one aggravating jump on, I think it was Queen 4, that I’ve never, EVER been able to make unboosted with anything other than the fragile Golden Fox. (There’s also the repetitive music, but that’s minor.)
Contra III: Too. Damn. Hard. No joke. Here, an experiment. Beat the game on Normal difficulty…not Hard, just plain 'ol Normal, using any and all assistance required. Then play the NES Contra. Straight up, no 30-lives code, no Gameshark, no fancy-pantsy controller. See how it’s practically Sesame Street compared to the beast you just conquered.
I do find Mario Kart on emulator a blast. (I didn’t like it a lot on my console, but I didn’t hate it either, certainly not to the level of Mortal Kombat.)
What about sales figures? Personal experience trumps everything. And if there’s some other game that you think is going to prove me wrong…well, I can put that to the test anytime.
P.S.: I absolutely loved Final Fight 2 and 3 (the first was a disappointment, but that was rookie mistakes more than anything). I had a huge blast with Top Gear and Top Gear 2, and the third one (don’t remember the title) was pretty cool. I played Royal Rumble to death and still haven’t grown completely tired of it, and I even enjoy an occasional nostalgic Super Wrestlemania bout every so often. I’ve spent upwards of 100 hours on The Tick, bugs and all, and even have a FAQ in progress over it. Nearly all of Capcom’s ports have been at the very least enjoyable. Super Punch Out was absolutely awesome (ramps up at the end, didn’t beat Hoy Quarlow unassisted until recently, but still one of the best SNES purchases ever). And there are no doubt others, but that’s really a subject best suited to that other thread. My point, I have no biases for or against this system, I just expected a lot more, and I already stated my reasons.
We’ll just have to agree to disagree. I found the physics to be extremely realistic, at least relative to other contemporary games.
The controls were the same as in the arcade version… and does the censorship really affect the game experience? When you’re 14 and everyone around you is screaming, “Finish him!”, maybe.
I never cared for the explodey cars either, but their movements are easy to predict.
I do find it really strange that you think the game’s really hard. My brother and I finished it in the first week, even on Expert. I think your problem is hovercraft selection- take the Fire Stingray and don’t look back. Trust me.
Yeah, it was tough. Really tough. But that’s what the Konami cheat is for.
I rather liked the Call To Power games- there were some nifty innovations in there, including the ability to launch units into orbit and execute orbital strikes, raid trade routes, and generally nobble your enemies without having to get all Genghis Khan on them.
Games like Imperialism and Victoria: An Empire Under The Sun should, in theory, be My Perfect Game. But they’re not- they’re complicated, unintuitive, and the AI does daft things.
A quick shoutout to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon!
I (apparently) loved buying crappy fighting games. Clay Fighter, Primal rage and Dragonball Z games spring to mind. Quest 64, I remember being UNBEARABLY awful, but decided to stick it out so it wouldn’t be a waste of money. Some hours in, my little brother overwrote my save data (was there only one save slot?)
My Goldeneye bit: I loved the game, even though I wasn’t terribly good at it. I completed the single-player bit, and beat my friends and family at multiplayer, UNTIL I started playing with my Magic-playing friends. Whoops! Proximity mines, basement, license to kill. Best game ever. (Anecdote - the very first time I played it, it took me DAYS to figure out how to get through the first door in the first stage. I tried shooting it, karate chopping it, and mashing every possible button. Sometimes, it would open a little, and then close right back. I was hitting the button twice in quick succession. Oops. )
Boooo. Why the hate for Samurai Shodown? That’s the title that got me into 2D fighters (Street Fighter 2 just never clicked with me.). I bought a Neo Geo CD almost exclusively for SS2 (and subsequently SS3) and we played it like -crazy- my junior year in college. It was awesome. Not a bad use of -my- gaming dollars at all. Maybe a bad use of my TIME junior year, but hey, what’s college for? 
>Equip>Mod Hat Y/N? Y.
Not cool, dude. While I agree with the esteem you hold those games in, this is not the forum to express that tone of opinion in. While I see the two of you have settled this later in the thread, I just want to remind you that that was not acceptable behaviour in this forum.
>Equip>Mod Hat (off) Y/N? Y.
Also, the Gamecube sucked. Man, I hate that thing.
I got a PSP, and I bought exactly one game (Echochrome) for it. These days, I use it to read CNN.com when I’m on the john - seriously, that’s all I use it for.
Games that were huge wastes of time and money:
[ul]
[li]Battlefield: Bad Company - I know folks that liked it, but I really hated the whole experience. The humor fell flat, the vehicle controls weren’t great - just unfun.[/li][li]The Orange Box - I got it for Portal, which was fun, and Team Fortress 2, which sucked.[/li][li]ET for Atari 2600 - yes I bought this, and yes, it sucked as bad as everyone says.[/li][/ul]
I’d never defend it as a good game but there’s an awful lot of people who deride it based entirely on Atari’s massive overprinting of it or a few minutes of play on an emulator where they walked into it thinking it was going to be terrible.
E.T. was an okay entry in Atari’s attempts to do adventure games on their limited console. And it did that job reasonably well but like most other games of this style that Atari did (Raiders of the Lost Ark is another notable example) if you didn’t have the manual and read it you were out of luck. It would be completely incomprehensible without it. With instructions… well it doesn’t suck but I’d be hard pressed to go further than that; the collision detection with the sprites and the holes is just a bit too much.
ETA: Holy sh- er… crap! We’ve got a mod! Who knew The Game Room had a mod?! We’ll have to set up some kind of game baiting him out of hiding…
While I agree that without the manual, Raiders would have been unplayable, the difference is that in my opinion Raiders was a successfully executed adventure game. (I know that I’ve probably played more hours on Raiders than in all other adventure games put together.)
I don’t even remember what ET was like although I played it once or twice back in the day. But from the description of the aims of the game it doesn’t seem like it could hold a candle to Raiders even if it was flawless execution and art-wise.
DKW, I was out of line, and I’m sorry.
Hug?
Well, I bought Superman 64 at full price…
Ok, so I also found that I don’t like Civ games. But I wound up buying Alpha Centauri because the box art made it look like something else.
That’s all I can think of for now. I don’t buy games much any more, as I mostly prefer older games. (Platformer is my favorite genre…)
You thought Sid Meyer’s Alpha Centauri was something else? 
That’s like thinking something called “Terminator Destruction” is about something other than robots fighting.