6th September 2005, 4:02 PM
(This post was last modified: 6th September 2005, 4:49 PM by A Black Falcon.)
Terranigma is the third game in the series that contains Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia...
As for the SNES, sure it's a great console, but I don't think I'd say that games were way better back then than ever before or after... some genres clearly advanced over time -- such as racing or sports games -- for instance... I don't know. I know I've said that the N64 has more good games than the Gamecube... SNES vs. N64? Well in some genres it's no contest because of third party abandonment, but looking strictly at the first party titles it's a lot closer... I'm not sure which is better just by that measure.
... I'll try to make a less confusing post (than this one could easily become) by laying out some points...
-NES to SNES vs. N64 to GC - both of these were evolutionary jumps, not revoluionary... but I'd say that the NES-SNES jump was bigger and more influential on gameplay than N64 to GC. (that is, it changed gameplay more than going from N64 to GC did)
-Nintendo has been pretty even with their first-party releases since the SNES... in volume and in overall quality.
-2d gaming was fun. 2d gaming died a young death when 3d came along. Sega learned this the hard way when no one cared about the designed-around-2d Saturn. This is sad. Consoles today push 3d hard, but barely care about 2d and don't make making 2d games any easier, much less actually advance 2d gaming... the GBA was something, but being a handheld it has a lower resolution than the major consoles, and is lacking stuff like easy multiplayer... (3d gaming is great too of course, but it's too bad that it came with the almost complete loss of 2d)
-SNES has by far the most great games that were Japan-only. Star Ocean, Tales of Phantasia and Seiken Densetsu 3 are the highlights, but there are plenty of others. N64 has very few (Sin & Punishment, Bangai-O, and ... um, that's it...). GC has a few too ( the KuruKuru Kururin game, for instance! Or Nintendo Puzzle Collection.), but SNES had more... this is one place where things have advanced -- the companies trust American gamers a bit more now. Not enough, but a bit more... (though on GBA it seems almost as bad as ever, looking at the lengthy list of Japan-exclusives...) Anyway, there is some progress here, but a lot more would be good.
-Nostalgia causes people to overrate things they remember fondly. This helps the SNES along in some ways... to forget the mountains of bad games, for instance? Or the fact that lots of games make you write down passwords to save (or have no saving at all)... or how that 3.5mhz processor was a bit slow and caused slowdown in faster-paced games... or how it was NOT the epitome of 2d graphics -- just look at arcade games of the time, or arcade ports of games from from any time in the '90s for current consoles to see how true that is --... I know, it's a great console, but saying "things will never be better? That's probably not true.
As for the SNES, sure it's a great console, but I don't think I'd say that games were way better back then than ever before or after... some genres clearly advanced over time -- such as racing or sports games -- for instance... I don't know. I know I've said that the N64 has more good games than the Gamecube... SNES vs. N64? Well in some genres it's no contest because of third party abandonment, but looking strictly at the first party titles it's a lot closer... I'm not sure which is better just by that measure.
... I'll try to make a less confusing post (than this one could easily become) by laying out some points...
-NES to SNES vs. N64 to GC - both of these were evolutionary jumps, not revoluionary... but I'd say that the NES-SNES jump was bigger and more influential on gameplay than N64 to GC. (that is, it changed gameplay more than going from N64 to GC did)
-Nintendo has been pretty even with their first-party releases since the SNES... in volume and in overall quality.
-2d gaming was fun. 2d gaming died a young death when 3d came along. Sega learned this the hard way when no one cared about the designed-around-2d Saturn. This is sad. Consoles today push 3d hard, but barely care about 2d and don't make making 2d games any easier, much less actually advance 2d gaming... the GBA was something, but being a handheld it has a lower resolution than the major consoles, and is lacking stuff like easy multiplayer... (3d gaming is great too of course, but it's too bad that it came with the almost complete loss of 2d)
-SNES has by far the most great games that were Japan-only. Star Ocean, Tales of Phantasia and Seiken Densetsu 3 are the highlights, but there are plenty of others. N64 has very few (Sin & Punishment, Bangai-O, and ... um, that's it...). GC has a few too ( the KuruKuru Kururin game, for instance! Or Nintendo Puzzle Collection.), but SNES had more... this is one place where things have advanced -- the companies trust American gamers a bit more now. Not enough, but a bit more... (though on GBA it seems almost as bad as ever, looking at the lengthy list of Japan-exclusives...) Anyway, there is some progress here, but a lot more would be good.
-Nostalgia causes people to overrate things they remember fondly. This helps the SNES along in some ways... to forget the mountains of bad games, for instance? Or the fact that lots of games make you write down passwords to save (or have no saving at all)... or how that 3.5mhz processor was a bit slow and caused slowdown in faster-paced games... or how it was NOT the epitome of 2d graphics -- just look at arcade games of the time, or arcade ports of games from from any time in the '90s for current consoles to see how true that is --... I know, it's a great console, but saying "things will never be better? That's probably not true.