Games You Don't Like

[Mendon]

I've noticed a couple threads listing the Top 10 or Top 25 INTV games; I've noticed a thread listing the most rare INTV games; but I haven't really noticed a thread talking about INTV games that you avoid booting up.

 

So just out of curiosity, what are the INTV game/s that you really don't like? What games would you tell a non-collector to avoid buying if they are just looking for fun games?

 

One game I never liked was Donkey Kong Jr.... bad graphics, bad control, bad sound, just a bad game.

 

Mendon

Edited January 12, 2012 by Mendon

[AlvinKarpis]

Games I do not like

 

1. Vectron: I have givin it a chance, many chances, I have read the instructions over and over, I just dont get it, the game just kills me and sometimes I feel like im not even playing, like the game is just playing itself lol

 

2. Las Vegas Poker and Blackjack: I do not hate this game, in fact its easy to play and as far as a poker video game is concerned its the best ever in my opinion, however I just cant get excited about playing poker on my TV through a system. I have to play with real people. So it just never gets played

 

3. Horse Racing: Again I get what the game is going for, and for that its great. However it just does nothing for me, it takes to long to get to the race and you dont really have control over anything. I just cant have fun with it

 

I will look through my games to see if any others pop up

[BassGuitari]

Space Armada. I know this game has its fans, and they may crucify me for this (again), but this game STILL just doesn't do it for me. Regardless of the difficulty level, and despite whatever bells and whistles Space Armada brings to the table, this game, for me, is still a choppy, clunky, awkward knock-off of Space Invaders. (BUT, if I can learn to like Donkey Kong, then there is still hope for Space Armada!)

 

Carnival. Not a "bad" game, per se, just not really interesting to me.

 

Popeye. Never cared for it much on any platform.

 

Donkey Kong Jr. Everything about this game seems half-assed. It's like Coleco released a beta version of the game. At least the cartridge looks cool.

 

Space Hawk. It is to Asteroids what Space Armada is to Space Invaders. Both could have been really good, but the lack of fluidity ruins them for me.

 

Blockade Runner. I WANT to like this game, but every time I boot it up to see if it's better than I remember, it isn't.

 

Happy Trails and Loco-Motion. Good games...just not my kinds of games.

 

Lock 'N' Chase. I like this game, but I also have Pac-Man (both versions), so L'N'C rarely gets played.

 

[Ransom]

First, I don't bother with the stuff that was ported to the Intv from other consoles. Life's too short (and my closet is too small).

Second, I don't bother with any of the sports games. They hold no charm for me, since I didn't grow up with them.

Third, I don't bother with the educational programs.

 

I've liked (to one extent or another) just about everything else that I've tried, as far as I can recall.

[jaybird3rd]

The Intellivision library actually has a pretty good ratio of quality games to crap games, and there aren't very many that come to mind as outright "duds". The only ones that I really dislike are the Coleco titles, and to a lesser extent the Parker Brothers titles. In retrospect, it's clear that the programmers of those games really didn't know how to make the most of the Intellivision, whereas the other third-party publishers (such as Atarisoft and Activision) had ex-Mattel programmers on staff who knew the system better.

 

The early Activision titles like Pitfall and Stampede don't excite me, either. Playing those games is almost exactly like playing the 2600 originals, except without the benefit of the Atari CX-40 joystick that they were designed for. Later, after Activision learned the Intellivision and developed games (like Dreadnaught Factor) which played to its strengths, the results were much better. Imagic had the right idea with their 2600 conversions: keep the gameplay the same, but add new elements which were unique to the Intellivision. Intellivision Atlantis, which I like more than the 2600 original, is a perfect example.

[crade]

I don't like the sports games on intv at all.. Everyone raves about them but I always thought they were bad. baseball, basketball, hockey, whatever, they are all such similar games and everything is so slow moving... NES Ice hockey is still fun today. INTV ice hockey is still crap today.. hehe

[atari5200dude82]

I don't like the sports games on intv at all.. Everyone raves about them but I always thought they were bad. baseball, basketball, hockey, whatever, they are all such similar games and everything is so slow moving... NES Ice hockey is still fun today. INTV ice hockey is still crap today.. hehe

Nes sucks dude.

[1980gamer]

The 3rd party games are pretty weak. With a few exceptions of course,

 

NHL and Slap Shot are the only sports games that suck on intellivision.

I guess the programmers never skated! Everyone is faster on ice not slower, You don't need time to change directions, Your skating, not driving on the ice!

Wow they SUCK.

 

Donkey Kong is just plain awful. The the physics are better than the 2600.... Not saying a whole lot.

 

The control of Lock n chase makes it tough for me to ever play it.

Space Hawk is pretty poor too.

I guess I don't get tron Maze-a-Tron?

 

The D&D games do nothing for me... But I am not in to D&D, so I cannot judge them really.

[+thegoldenband]

Blockade Runner - BassGuitari said it well. I keep trying to give this game a chance, and it keeps letting me down.

Carnival - incredibly annoying music, and dramatically inferior to the very good Atari 2600 port.

Donkey Kong - what else needs to be said?

Las Vegas Roulette - a reasonable execution of a completely misguided concept for a game.

Star Strike - as I recently posted in a different thread, there's just no joy in the gameplay.

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - it's amazing how much this falls down compared to the VCS version.

 

And I have to admit I was pretty disappointed by a certain other game.

 

I'm also not the biggest fan of some of the sports games -- Boxing comes to mind -- and even some of the system's alleged flagship titles, like Astrosmash and Lock 'N' Chase, don't really do it for me.

 

OTOH, I still hold out hope that Vectron and the "other" Tron games will make sense to me someday. And maybe I'll even figure Blockade Runner out.

[crade]

I don't like the sports games on intv at all.. Everyone raves about them but I always thought they were bad. baseball, basketball, hockey, whatever, they are all such similar games and everything is so slow moving... NES Ice hockey is still fun today. INTV ice hockey is still crap today.. hehe

Nes sucks dude.

maybe so, but the ice hockey is still fun

[Mendon]

Very interesting reading and thanks to all for your input thus far.

 

A few more I'll add to my list of games I wouldn't recommend:

 

Sports games.... I can't really say whether the INTV versions are bad or good as I never really played them; not my favorite genre. Though I had Boxing, Hockey, Tennis, Mountain Madness, Skiing, Auto Racing, etc etc, it was for collecting purposes. But I did play (and still do) Slam Dunk Basketball, Super Pro Football, and World Championship Baseball and enjoy the hell out of them. One reason was they had single player options, and another reason was they had some nice features, such as seeing the announcers in Super Pro and drafting my Slam Dunk team.

 

Carnival... I don't know whether it is a good or bad port but I never enjoyed it as it's nothing I'm interested in.

 

Frog Bog... not much to the game other than mash the disk and hope to slip a tongue to a bug.

 

Triple Action... again, nothing I was really interested in so I owned it only for collecting purposes.

 

Motocross.... its Auto Racing only on 2 wheels. I found it boring.

 

Kool Aid Man... I found nothing fun about playing the game. He-Man was a blast, Kool Aid Man... yawn.

 

 

Mendon

[crade]

I have never tried the slam dunk and super pros and world championship games, so maybe those are better. I never knew the rules to football when I was young and have no second player today, I never liked baseball games for any platform (baseball is the only team sport I know of that makes you wait in line as part of the game) , so I guess it's mostly hockey and basketball that I feel I gave a fair chance and I'm mostly making that judgement on.

[+save2600]

I actually like most Intellivision games for one reason or another, but the ones I don't care for:

 

Backgammon - it's f*ckin' Backgammon!

Blockade Runner

Diner

Frog Bog (can't believe such a simple game with hardly any real control made it to market)

Safecracker

Sewer Sam

Thunder Castle (mindlessly random, slow, tedious - great graphics and music however!

Tropical Trouble

[AlvinKarpis]

Safe Cracker rally pisses me off!

 

I hate trying to control the car

[pimpmaul69]

I don't like the sports games on intv at all.. Everyone raves about them but I always thought they were bad. baseball, basketball, hockey, whatever, they are all such similar games and everything is so slow moving... NES Ice hockey is still fun today. INTV ice hockey is still crap today.. hehe

Nes sucks dude.

i think the nes was one of the greatest systems of all times. tons of great games with great graphics.

[+thegoldenband]

I'd forgotten about Kool-Aid Man. That one's pretty dreadful! Motocross is also pretty lame, IMHO, and that's coming from someone who sort of likes Auto Racing.

 

I'm surprised by the dislike for Frog Bog, though. It's not much of anything in one-player mode, but my girlfriend and I play a two-player game almost every time we bust out the Intellivision together. Using the non-automatic control method helps, since you get more precise control over the arc of your jump. It's a total exemplar of casual gaming, but I still enjoy it very much.

 

I used to dismiss Sewer Sam, but once I sat down and figured it out I liked it a lot more. Be sure to play on the higher difficulty settings, which move at a faster speed -- the slower settings are miserable!

[Fushek]

Worst games ...

 

Space Hawk (Probably the worst!)

Fathom (What WERE they smoking when they designed this?)

Sharp Shot (Move along, nothing new here to see ...)

Triple Action (Have it for collection but NEVER play it)

 

On the other end, having been a huge fan of the regular baseball, I just recently acquired World Championship Baseball. WOW ... what a GREAT game. With the improvements of fly balls, sliding and the single player option, BEST GAME EVER for the Intellivision!

[AlvinKarpis]

.

 

I'm surprised by the dislike for Frog Bog, though. It's not much of anything in one-player mode, but my girlfriend and I play a two-player game almost every time we bust out the Intellivision together. Using the non-automatic control method helps, since you get more precise control over the arc of your jump. It's a total exemplar of casual gaming, but I still enjoy it very much.

 

 

 

Yes! I always tell people that the first thing you have to do on the INTV version of Frog Bog is turn off the Auto Jumping

 

My daughter and I love playing against each other

 

Frog Bog is a completly different game once you turn the auto jumping off, its the overlay button that says Dirc & Tongue I think, just hit the Enter button on the controller during gameplay

 

I have had people tell me they went from hating Frog Bog to loving it after learning about being able to control the jumps

[+save2600]

I have had people tell me they went from hating Frog Bog to loving it after learning about being able to control the jumps

Oh yeah, already taking the difference in gameplay into consideration... if I'm going to be doing the arc of a diver thing, it's gonna be a different type of game: Human Cannonball, Artillery Duel, Worms or something like that.

[+thegoldenband]

if I'm going to be doing the arc of a diver thing, it's gonna be a different type of game: Human Cannonball, Artillery Duel, Worms or something like that.

 

 

"Hey, I like those games too. Rock on."

[IntellivisionDude]

I actually like most Intellivision games for one reason or another, but the ones I don't care for:

 

Backgammon - it's f*ckin' Backgammon!

Blockade Runner

Diner

Frog Bog (can't believe such a simple game with hardly any real control made it to market)

Safecracker

Sewer Sam

Thunder Castle (mindlessly random, slow, tedious - great graphics and music however!

Tropical Trouble

 

What's funny is Diner and Thunder Castle are my second and third favorite Intellivision games. To each his own i guess.

[pimpmaul69]

I actually like most Intellivision games for one reason or another, but the ones I don't care for:

 

Backgammon - it's f*ckin' Backgammon!

Blockade Runner

Diner

Frog Bog (can't believe such a simple game with hardly any real control made it to market)

Safecracker

Sewer Sam

Thunder Castle (mindlessly random, slow, tedious - great graphics and music however!

Tropical Trouble

 

What's funny is Diner and Thunder Castle are my second and third favorite Intellivision games. To each his own i guess.

i too like diner and thunder castle

[+thegoldenband]

I used to dislike Thunder Castle, but I came to terms with it somewhat, though I still find it tends to drag.

 

Diner I've only tried in emulation, so I can't really judge. It's one of the ten remaining games I don't have (other than ECS, educational, and pre-2011 homebrew/repro titles).

[1980gamer]

To each his own...of course.

 

Triple Action: Bi-Plains on long shot is an amazingly fun two player game!

However, you need someone as skilled as yourself to fully enjoy the game.

I have great memories playing this game with my brother.

We were very equal in skill level on all the sports games: MLB could lead to fist fights!

1-0 games were typical. Basically, we were so good on defense, the first single

with less than 2 outs would win. Steal 2 bases and safety-squeeze to get the run in.

 

He had the edge in tennis, but I think NBA was all mine!

 

Forgot about Kool-aid man... OUCH! But at least the 2600 version was worse! LOL

[townparkradio]

 

Lock 'N' Chase. I like this game, but I also have Pac-Man (both versions), so L'N'C rarely gets played.

 

 

...there's two versions of Pac-Man?