Games Bought Thread 3

[Dark Jaguar]

I'm surprised you wanted it for Gamecube. Not knowing anything about differences in content, I'd get the one with the better controls, which to me would be the PS2 version because the layout is just like the SNES games (and the PS1 games would have no controller issues at all for obvious reasons).

So I got a few games myself recently.

I found a complete (box and all) version of Tetris & Dr. Mario for SNES on the cheap. It's a fun game with a unique vs mode that sets up the possibility for one player to be playing one game and the other player to be playing the other, with "sent" blocks converted to match the other game world (though it would be interesting to see the sent blocks NOT converted in some future version, having to play with both rule sets in mind).

I also picked up three new Virtual Boy games, of all things. The system had few games and fewer I'd actually be interested in, but these were ones I had wanted for a while (well two of them, I picked them up as a set). I picked up Teleroboxer, which is a Punch Out clone with robots. It's got very nice controls on the VB. I've mentioned before how much I love the layout of the VB's controller, with the L and R buttons placed in the most natural positions I've ever seen them in, and a second d-pad before a second analog stick became a thing (the controller's left and right are mirror images of each other, a rarity that really lends itself to a boxing game of this sort). Teleroboxer isn't as good or even as long as Punch Out, but it's enjoyable and has very nice controls. The 3D is decent, with the enemy punches having the most "pop".

Then there's Galactic Pinball. This one is pinball with a space theme, so boring so far, but it's got some fun board designs. Personally I'm still waiting for a pinball game with a powerful board designer built into it, but this one's nice. Again, the L and R buttons are just so naturally fit, but it also shows my inferiority at pinball because I'm still just not very good at the genre. Neither was the original owner. The game saves high scores (no erase option either), but I noted that whoever owned it last never broke onto any of the score boards. It's saved my pitiful "just barely" score beating out the last place pre-set entry on "UFO", so I know the battery is working. The 3D here is a lot better than Teleroboxer, which is surprising considering what I'd expect. The boards really pop out with the use of perspective.

The last is the best of the bunch, Mario Clash. It's Mario Bros (original Mario Bros, not even "Super Mario Bros") but in 3D. Much like Wario Land, the "3D" really consists of two different "planes" of 2D action, with the added ability to throw shells back and force between planes. While that's fairly dissappointing, the 3D effect still looks very solid and well done in this game and the added layer does add a lot of fun to the original game design. It's pretty addictive.

The 3D effect, when programmed right, works well enough that I wish the system was capable of true filled polygons instead of just wire frames and sprites. The VB has a unique "feel" to it, with the "goggle" design making you feel like you're sucked into your own private little universe whenever you play it. Granted, I'd never rank that higher than the pure usability of a superior design like the no-glasses 3D screen of the 3DS, but it's certainly a notable trait. My own VB may be showing it's age. Earlier when I was playing it I noticed that the left display was badly aligned, with parts of the image "bounced" up. Oddly, this has corrected itself now, but I should keep an eye on it. The two displays (I hesitate to say screen) in the VB are very strange to begin with. They aren't LCD or CRT but a sort of oddly designed LED system. Extremely fast on/off speeds in an LED were a rather expensive thing when this system came out, and even then that sort of speed was only available in "red" variety. The cost and size of a full fledged LED screen, even limited to red, was too much so instead they set up two "rows" of LEDs. In order to produce a 2D "field" for each eye using these essentially "1D" lines, two mirrors were set up that vibrated with exact timing to bounce the light from any one individual LED light into position just at the right time. With this creating the illusion of two 2D images, the split with the visor did the rest to create the illusion of one 3D image. However, since the mirrors had to be exactly alligned and exactly timed, any deviation would screw up the image. That seemed to have happened with mine earlier, but it seems fixed now.

Other than that, I picked up two NES games. Ironsword was a fun game I remembered playing as a kid, so I picked it up only to discover that it was actually a Rare game. No wonder it was fun.

I also picked up Super Glove Ball (box and all). I don't have a Power Glove, yet, but the game does work with a normal controller and it's good to have the one game actually designed for that add on should I ever find one for cheap. Even though the box, manual, cart, and even the title screen are plastered with a big space hogging "Mattel" logo, in small print on the title screen there's a message that this game was ALSO made by Rare. That actually really surprised me, until I paused the game and heard some pumping "pause" music to confirm it was indeed an NES era Rare game. Further, the game is actually pretty fun. I honestly wasn't expecting it to be as addictive as it was. The control of the glove to grab and toss the ball in a 3D room is actually pretty well done, even on the standard controller. I'm pretty interested as to how well it works with the Power Glove proper. If it actually works WELL with the one game actually programmed to work with it, then I'll say it's a shame they didn't re-release Punch Out with proper support for the thing instead of just depending on a badly implemented controller mapping code.