The Most Over-Hyped Jaguar Games

[Rick Dangerous]

Which Jaguar games do you think get a ton of hype, but don't really live up to it for you personally?

 

For me AvP is the number one, for various reasons..

 

I would also say Skyhammer gets a lot of hype for its graphics but isn't overly interesting or fun to play.

 

What do you think?

[Lost Dragon]

For myself, simply has to be Defender 2000...

 

Yes, i know how Atari interefered during games development, it switching from CD to Cart, Jeff's Father sadly being unwell etc etc and the mythical status Jeff holds, but it simply was'nt anything special, Jeff was'nt the person to attempt a 2000 version of, after his earlier ST attempts at Defender 2 etc and lacked any of the flair Tempest 2000 had.

 

I say this as someone who paid damn good money for it on day it was released.

 

Skyhammer? sadly never played, looks technically impressive, but have heard mixed thoughts on game itself.

[Cobra Kai]

Super Burnout. It's so very bland. If it had the career mode of the Genesis version of Super Hang-On, then it would be a hell of alot better.

[high voltage]

Blue Lightning, I thought it would have been ace like the Lynx version. What a playing disaster on Jaguar.

[+SabertoothRetro]

This is an interesting question because the Atari marketing campaign for Jaguar first focused first on the hardware ("64 Bits!") and then switched to a value proposition ($149). They never truly focused on the games. Sure AVP, Tempest, Rayman and Doom got some ad play and decent press but by and large Atari spent their energy hyping the machine. When they did have the ear of the press, they would talk about Jaguar 2, Mortal Kombat 3, Jaguar VR and Black Ice White Noise, none of which came to fruition.

 

If you're talking about overhyped by users, AVP comes to mind. It was great in its time but I rarely have gone back to it over the years. Hell, I think I've played Attack of the Mutant Penguins more in the last 10 years.

Edited June 19, 2015 by atariLBC

[doctorclu]

To be honest, I was not around till the late nineties for the Jaguar so missed the initial hayday.

 

I can't think of any hype game for the Jaguar that I didn't enjoy. Tempest 2000, Alien's vs. Predator, Iron Solider, Doom, etc. When Battlesphere came out I bought the game and marveled at how much was there and the details put in. Loved the Songbird releases, and Telegames.

 

Are there games that you would think would be more fun than they are, like Defender 2000 and Breakout 2000, yes. But by the time I hit the scene these were not talked about much so when I played them they were "alright" and I had fun with them. Incidentally, classic Defender mode is a lot of fun.

[doctorclu]

This is an interesting question because the Atari marketing campaign for Jaguar first focused first on the hardware ("64 Bits!") and then switched to a value proposition ($149). They never truly focused on the games. Sure AVP, Tempest, Rayman and Doom got some ad play and decent press but by and large Atari spent their energy hyping the machine. When they did have the ear of the press, they would talk about Jaguar 2, Mortal Kombat 3, Jaguar VR and Black Ice White Noise, none of which came to fruition.

 

Ah yes, Rayman. Now there was a game that almost did not live up to the hype for me. Over time I have liked that more though.

[Lost Dragon]

Probably not 'fair' of me to comment on any of them, as i never bought any of the, but in terms of mag hype for them not matching final product, i has to be:

 

Chq.Flag 2:Proclaimed as Jags Virtua Racing and running so fast Rebelion had to slow game down etc etc.Likes of C+VG, hell even C.U Amiga were showcasing this as the flagship Jaguar game that showed off the Polygon pushing capabilites of the hardware.

 

 

Fight For Life-Nothing more i need to add.

 

AOTMP:Poor old Darryl Still, really felt sorry for him, this he assured us would be worth waiting for, 1st fruits from newly formed European Software Development arm for Jaguar, it'd basically do for Jaguar what Lemmings did for the Amiga etc...Ohhh dear.

 

And for hype actually getting me to buy the Jaguar, yet never finished and looks like screens used came off a PC running Argonauts BRender Software..i give you Imagitecs Freelancer 2120 Jag CD.

 

Hyped alright, as for even seeing a rolling demo of it, PC or not..Pfffff

 

 

So it's gotta be in there.

[+madman]

Blue Lightning, I thought it would have been ace like the Lynx version. What a playing disaster on Jaguar.

I agree on this. They made a game worse than the Lynx version. And it was a launch title.

[Willard]

in the present:

 

[1] Atari Karts. Usually gets positive mention whenever I see comments on it. I think it's garbage.

[2] Iron Soldier 2. I like IS1 but while IS2 looks better I couldn't get into it.

[3] Battlesphere. It's a decent game, but people have really blown it out of proportion.

[4] Towers II. Find it practically unplayable.

 

Not going to bother mentioning incomplete games like Songbird or B&C releases.

 

In regard to AVP, I never got into the marine mode, and given it was the first mode I played and got like 6 hrs into, I really couldn't see why it was so well liked for years. After I played the predator mode it changed my mind though... not amazing game but still alright.

[+remowilliams]

I agree on this. They made a game worse than the Lynx version. And it was a launch title.

To this day I still can't believe they managed to do that. And it's not just a little worse, it's horrific.

 

[3] Battlesphere. It's a decent game, but people have really blown it out of proportion

This would have to be my number one if only for the sheer number of years of ridiculous (and still somehow ongoing) hype about its 'unseen capabilities'

[NeoGeoNinja]

My choices would be:

 

X) Raiden

Y) Doom

Z) Missile Command 3D

 

Okay, allow me to elaborate. I'll start with Doom, and so that things aren't misconstrued, I'm not saying that Doom is a bad game etc. However...

 

Although it was a good port of the game from PC to consoles at the time, the port still receives a lot of credit today, but effectively, it's a pretty low-res, music-less, vanilla version of the game - missing enemies etc. Gameplay is intact but there are loads of cutbacks and stripbacks. As I say, this was fine back then as it destroyed all other console versions, but now... I still feel that this version of Doom is getting too much credit vs it being a solid game for the system.

 

Raiden is an average port of an arcade classic. The fire rate is off and the game stutters along at 25fps or something. Colour palette and ship movement is way off too. Overall: Overrated.

 

Missile Command 3D is a game whereby I feel it's a really nice looking, technical achievement, for the Jaguar. GFX, Music etc are all very good but... I don't have a lot of fun actually playing the game itself. I find it a bit dull, but enjoy it in short spurts.

 

Ironically, all 3 probably fall into my personal top 10! It's not that I dislike the games per se. I just think they're overrated on the whole.

[Clint Thompson]

WTR - Everyone seems to really like it and I appreciate the graphics or stills but the game just plays so badly and for a game like this, I really rather play the two-player mode but it's even worse that way. The dipping into 5FPS terriotry just isn't enjoyable for me.

 

Battlesphere is a title that I can admire, respect and even sometimes lust over because of the sheer amount of hardwork and dedication that was put into it by the team to get it released -it's got such a fascinating and rich history behind it all- but then I feel like you're cut short without the actual option to play it networked and the insane prices it tends to go for just makes me scoff, especially since cart games are still being produced by Telegames, B&C and Songbird. I've only ever played it briefly at a few JagFests so maybe it's unfair for me to really say that but I never really did understand the extreme madness over it.

 

Give me Tempest 2000 all day, any day, and I'm set.

[Lost Dragon]

Jaguar Doom, best cart. version i've played, good as N64 Doom is, my personal choice is in it's original incarnation.

 

Did'nt bother me not having music, never keen on PC music, music did little to help 32X version etc.

 

 

But the audio in PS1 Doom, now that cranked the playing exp.right up and thus put it head and shoulders above the Jaguar version, for myself.

 

Interesting to see Missile Command 3D in here.

 

Something i'd love to try at a show with the VR Headset, but not something i ever felt i could see working as a stand-alone game, looks like my feelings might bear a degree of fruit?.

[LynxJagLunatic]

I seem to remember AVP, Cybermorph and Black Ice White Noise getting a lot of hype in EGM magazine. Cybermorph even won game of the month I believe. To this day my Nintendo Fan boy friend still rags on me about how bad Cybermorph was compared to Starfox. Oh how I endlessly tried to defend the 64-bitness of the Jag to his beloved 16-bit Snes. Despite that I still love the system though. As for Blue Lightning I enjoy playing it but was not as good as it could have or should have been.

[Lost Dragon]

As for Battlesphere...hmmnnn....

 

Been too much 'drama' surrounding it for me to do anything but check it out on YouTube after RetroGamer Magazine covered it in it's 1st ever look back at the Jaguar.Looks pretty and my sort of game, but impression i've got is it's more a modern Star Raiders, than something with depth of Darklight Conflict or even the 1st Colony Wars.

 

Plus, it was often thrown out (elsewhere) as an example of a coder miss-quote, impression being if engine was re-written you'd get like 2X the performance, when in fact all coder seemed to suggest was given more time/optimised code they'd of increased plain polygon count.More texture-mapping etc beyond capabilities of the system.

 

So never been sure why that was quoted out of context/engine hyped up beyond what even coding team suggested it was capable of....

[Lost Dragon]

@LynxJagLunatic:Think the Starfox thing has a lot of blame to lay firmly at the feet of the Press from that era.As far as UK Press was concerned..Bally'ell...Starfox/Starwing seemed to be the benchmark so much after was compared to...

Claims that Mega CD: Slipheed, Cobra Command and Thunderhawk were all Starwing beaters were plastered around, which was utterly absurd as they were so different in so many aspects it was unreal....

Then you had things like Cybermorph on Jaguar and Guardian on CD32:

http://www.google.co.uk/url?q=http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DZewdGtAdRo4&sa=U&ei=KJCEVeHbEoqX7Qbk6oLYBQ&ved=0CBUQtwIwAA&usg=AFQjCNHbaX5Sr7WGURtiemtlFrBoz38wdw

Suddenly systems had to have something very similar at least in looks, let alone fact with likes of Cybermorph you were'nt on-rails.

Press did'nt give a damn, it was easy, headline grabbing material.

[doctorclu]

Willard, on 19 Jun 2015 - 2:22 PM, said:

[3] Battlesphere. It's a decent game, but people have really blown it out of proportion

To this day I still can't believe they managed to do that. And it's not just a little worse, it's horrific.


This would have to be my number one if only for the sheer number of years of ridiculous (and still somehow ongoing) hype about its 'unseen capabilities'

 

 

See the problem with Battlesphere is all the B.S. around it. The price, the years of trolling both by a particular developer and those trolling back.

 

I think if it had been a game released a lot more commonly, like if you could just pick it up like a copy of iWar or something everyone would be like "Hey, fun game". I hear people say "It is not that good" like it is not $700 good, or the kind of thing people say like in the Aesop's fables when the grapes were unobtainable in a high tree and the fox at the ground looked up and said "Probably soup grapes..."

 

As a Star Raiders fan I found "Alone Against the Empires" in Battlesphere to be a lot of fun. (And they had the Atari 800 sound effects for some portions of it.)

[doctorclu]

Suddenly systems had to have something very similar at least in looks, let alone fact with likes of Cybermorph you were'nt on-rails.

Press did'nt give a damn, it was easy, headline grabbing material.

 

 

I completely agree on the off the rails aspect of Cybermorph. Was a lot of fun. But as I think about it, wasn't everyone at that time about cut-scenes and pretty graphics? What I am I saying? Aren't we still?

 

And can we really blame magazines for looking at the depth of Cybermorph verses Starfox's graphics when Atari itself was boasting all about "64 bits"? Kinda a double edged sword that Atari tried to use which apparently also cut them in cases like Cybermorph.

[Atlantis]

Overrated:

AvP: I advanced and saved. The next time i wanted to continue I had 10 shots and aliens running at me from all directions, wtf!?

Rayman: it's to darn hard after 30 minutes. ruined my self-esteem as a hard-core player: "#%&¤ you Rayman!

Tempest 2000: that yellow shit-thing ruins it all; I can't enjoy it. It's a good game, but not the Jesus of gaming.

(Doom I actually underrated myself, but in the end got it and love it, so I find it to be rated as should.)

 

[SoulBlazer]

Is there a history of Battlesphere written up on someone's blog or website somewhere? I don't look into the Jag forums that often and I hear a lot about the troubled development and ongoing issues with this game and the disputes with the dev team, and would love to read a indepth history of the game.

[AtariORdead]

Battlesphere. all this complete and utter nonsense about the AI and the people who regurgitate that nonsense.

 

Cybermorph. overhyped at the time, as it is now and was back then a pretty bland boring game.

 

Hyperforce. Anyone who tells me its like Contra, or if you like contra you will like is a moron, plain and simple.

 

TBH, you could name just about any jag game, idiots who have caught the Jag disease seem to overhype any old shit. it has a few nice games but the apologists are utter retards who do more damage to the system than help it.

 

Honestly things like " its still worth picking up White men can't jump and Club drive because they are great fun in multiplayer "

 

Sorry, but no, saying things like this to new people interested in the jag is likely to scar them for life and chase them away. these are people who have played on MD, Snes, DC, PS1, saturn etc. they are branching out and you want to recommend shit like that to them. no wonder people go away thinking the jag is crap.

[+save2600]

Is there a history of Battlesphere written up on someone's blog or website somewhere? I don't look into the Jag forums that often and I hear a lot about the troubled development and ongoing issues with this game and the disputes with the dev team, and would love to read a indepth history of the game.

It was all over DejaNews (newsgroups like rec.games.video.atari) BITD, so you'll have to read about it in GoogleGroups now.

[+madman]

Hyperforce. Anyone who tells me its like Contra, or if you like contra you will like is a moron, plain and simple.

 

TBH, you could name just about any jag game, idiots who have caught the Jag disease seem to overhype any old shit. it has a few nice games but the apologists are utter retards who do more damage to the system than help it.

I thought Hyperforce was decent when I first played it, then I realized it was the same stuff over and over and over. There are like 3 types of enemies in the entire game. Hero sprite is too large. Has that "coded by 3 guys in a dorm room" feel.

 

100% agreed on the latter, despite people who will call it "unlogic" and say we are trolls since we don't love everything about the Jaguar and praise it as the best system of all time.

[doctorclu]

So the two of you think the Jaguar is basically overhyped. Cool nuff, that is your view.

 

To be fair I like to get the pros and cons. I also realize that miles from opinions may vary.

 

In the end I like to try the game myself so I can form opinions that I can write on forums and also have ignored.