There are a lot of games and series that the gamers, the industry, and sometimes even the general public just go ape for. Fortunately for me (and unfortunately for you), there always has to be a dissenting opinion, and sometimes that opinion belongs to me. So these are five games that everyone else just loves to death, but I don’t really care for. Let’s start with...
#5: THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME (N64/3DS)
Yes, I already did a less-than-enthusiastic review of this game (you can read it here: http://bit.ly/o7XLPH), but TL;DR: I just didn’t find it as good as the plethora of other amazing Zelda titles (“Wind Waker”, for one). The plot and characters have become the standard for future Zelda games, but this unfortunately means that those elements were far more simplistic and average compared to future, and sometimes even past, Zelda games. The game itself, like many other N64 games (but not “Paper Mario”), hasn’t aged well. The graphics, even in the 3DS remake, look outdated. Overall, I didn’t find it that great. It was okay, but not as godlike as gamers make it out to be.
#4: DRAGON’S LAIR (ARCADE)
Here’s another game that only relies on nostalgia to keep it alive. Don’t get me wrong: Don Bluth is a great artist, and director (sometimes), and I, like countless others, find Princess Daphne quite attractive, but... that’s really all the game has going for it. The game was designed to keep kids plunking in quarters, and that resulted in an antiquated trial-and-error gameplay style that just will not fly in this day and age. It doesn’t have any replay value either; once you’ve beaten the game, you can beat it again really, really easily, and it becomes pointless after a while. Also, the animation looks a bit cheap. Regardless of whether or not you’ve played this dinosaur before, I wouldn’t recommend playing it again.
#3: CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 (360/PS3/PC)
Before I begin, no, it wasn’t the lack of dedicated servers that landed this game on the list. I usually don’t mind that kind of thing. Instead, I decided to focus on a few other things. For one, the gameplay of the “Call of Duty” franchise hasn’t budged an inch since the original “Modern Warfare”. Most would think of that as a good thing; after all, CoD is one of the best multiplayer games for a reason. And I like the gameplay of the “Call of Duty” games. What I don’t like is that we have to pay $60 for a new one every single year. CoD is following the path of the “Madden NFL” series; release a new game every year, with different weapons and maps, and everything will be right as rain, right? Wrong. This is the gaming industry, and an artistic medium, and we shouldn’t be following the Apple mentality of releasing the same product every year. I can only pray that “Modern Warfare 3” will be the last game in the series for at least a few years. If not, Activision, then I’m moving over to EA. “Battlefield 3” looks really attractive right now.
#2: Wii SPORTS (Wii)
It’s November of 2006, and I’m waiting in line at the local Toys ‘R’ Us to pick up that Wii preorder I made a few months ago. It’s very cold, but there’s only, what, 10 minutes to go until midnight? Finally, they start handing out Wiis to the public, and I am one of the first in Anchorage to own a Wii. I gleefully head back home, and my brother and I are eager to try this newfangled “Wiimote”. So we pop in the packaged game, “Wii Sports”, and we have a blast!
...At least until we wake up in the morning to find out that our arms hurt like hell.
Unfortunately, that’s not the only problem that “Wii Sports” finds itself with. There are only so many times that you can play all the games until you get really good at them, and playing them is pointless, until you bring your Wii to a party. But even then, you’re so good, that your expertise overshadows everyone else, and all the sudden, no one wants you to play anymore. But even if you do get really good, you’re still going to struggle with the sometimes infuriating controls, especially in games like Golf. I still haven’t sold the game yet, because of family and friends wanting to play, but I rarely find myself ever playing it.
#1: FINAL FANTASY IV (DS)
First, a disclaimer: this entry belongs to the DS version, and the DS version alone. The SNES release (sold in America as “Final Fantasy II”), I thought, was very fun and enjoyable. It’s no “Final Fantasy VI”, but it has the excuse not to be. It was older, the SNES was brand new when it came out, and the translation was so bad it was hilarious. “You spoony bard!” remains one of the most (unintentionally) classic phrases in the gaming medium.
Unfortunately, the plot was a total mess, but with the original translation, that was forgiven somewhat. But when you get to the remastered DS version though, the story has less of an excuse to be this corny and stupid. The translation for the DS version makes more sense, it has less, if any, typos, and many of the vaguer moments from the original translation are made a bit clearer. Normally, I would find this to be a good thing, but now the plot loses it’s one excuse for being as ridiculous as it is.
Also, Square Enix really ramped up the difficulty in the remastered DS release, making the game unnecessarily hard. I only barely scraped by the Dark Elf boss, and after that, I was thrown into a dungeon with even more difficult monsters than the last. Grinding (the process by which you fight weaker enemies for experience and levels) was pretty much useless, since weaker monsters paid very little experience upon defeat, making the game seem more like a chore.
The SNES version, even with all it’s typos and plot holes, is still the superior version.
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