Which Classic Video Game System Sucks the Most

[gorfcadet]

NES, like 20 good games rest is rubbish.

 

There were more than 20 good black box games and those were in the first year. Capcom, Tengen, and Konami all had more than 20 each. Of the 300+ carts in my collection, I'd say 100 are great, 50 are pretty good, and 150 are crap. Still, that isn't a bad average compared to other consoles. If you bother to read a review it is fairly easy to avoid the crap. How can you say the NES library is rubbish? What single system can beat it for pure size and quality of catalogue?

[RickR]

There were more than 20 good black box games and those were in the first year. Capcom, Tengen, and Konami all had more than 20 each. Of the 300+ carts in my collection, I'd say 100 are great, 50 are pretty good, and 150 are crap. Still, that isn't a bad average compared to other consoles. If you bother to read a review it is fairly easy to avoid the crap. How can you say the NES library is rubbish? What single system can beat it for pure size and quality of catalogue?

 

NES ruled, and this is from an Atari kid. Great system, great controller, and excellent games. Please don't dis the savior of the gaming industry.

[BassGuitari]

Okay I admit I never played RCA Studio II or Arcadia 2001. I don't want to own either anyway. Just almost everything I heard about both is ....yuck. I guess that's not fair though.

 

They both have a lot of things working against them, but they both have a few things working in their favor, as well. Just not many things.

 

Squash on the Studio II, on the hardest difficulty setting (small paddle, fast ball) is more fun than it has any right to be. One fun thing about this one is that when you reach the maximum score of 200 points, the game crashes; not only is this actually described in the manual, but RCA even played it off as a "feature."

 

Gunfighter and Bowling are pretty okay games as well. They don't really come close to their counterparts on the Atari, Bally, Odyssey 2, or even Fairchild systems, but if you were one of those unfortunate people who had a Studio II instead of those other systems, these were the games you were glad to have. Bowling, of course, is built-in, while Gunfighter is an unfortunately rare/expensive cartridge. The rest of the Studio II library really isn't so much "bad" as it is uninteresting. I do like Space War (Vertical Intercept) in very small doses, but stuff like Fun With Numbers? Patterns? Biorhythms? TV Schoolhouse? Nah. Nevertheless, there are at least two or three Studio II games that I'd argue are worth playing. (Baseball seems like it could be cool, but it's 2-player only, so I haven't played it properly yet.)

 

The Studio II could have benefited from joystick controls (which some Euro/Aussi clones were apparently equipped with), but most of its extant library works well with the keyboards (8-direction arcade games, not so much). Interestingly, a few games actually use both keyboards. Using the console itself and getting games to start isn't exactly intuitive, though, and if you didn't know what you were doing, you might think your system is broken. In fact, this was most people's reaction to my RCA when I displayed it at Midwest Gaming Classic back in March (even though there were printed instructions right in front of their faces...).

 

Another common complaint is the proprietary switchbox, which also runs the power, rather like the Atari 5200's automatic switchbox. I can see how it would be a problem if it got lost, since it's essentially impossible to replace without buying a whole new system, but it works well, and it's nice only having to run one cord to the television. The weird thing is that since the Studio II lacks a power switch, the switchbox's "TV-Game" slider also serves as the console's power switch. So having to reach behind your TV just to turn your console on ("Game") or off ("TV") can be annoying.

 

As for the Arcadia 2001, my only real gripe was sound. It ranges from generally poor to downright obnoxious. I can't tell if that's due to hardware limitations or poor/lazy programming, but I have my suspicions that it's the latter. Graphically, the games don't look too bad and fall somewhere between the 2600 and Intellivision (which, of course, is a problem for a console that was released around the same time as the Atari 5200 and Colecovision). They're probably comparable to something like the APF MP1000. I played some Space Invaders knockoff at MGC that was mildly entertaining. The Berzerk clone was alright, except for the sound. There are other games with titles like "Hobo" and "The End," which are usually at least interesting, if not actually very good. Most Arcadia 2001 games seem to take the Odyssey 2/Color Computer approach in that they're often knockoffs of popular games with their own twists.

[high voltage]

Thankfully NES only ruled in US, Europe went 16 bit in 1986

Edited June 21, 2013 by high voltage

[high voltage]

The controllers for NES are the worst bit

[high voltage]

NES library is approx 2000, so 50 good games, oh well.....

 

Talked to a NES fan a while ago, he said he loved games like Mario, Zelda, metroid and some stuff from Capcom, Konami etc. he said his mom used to rent games from Blockbusters, the carts were checked out only to find they're crap, and they were put back on the kitchen table to be returned and back we went playing Mario, Zelda etc....

[pixelated]

Yes there are a lot of terrible games on the NES but that does not sink it. The NES looms large in many a gamer's heart and memory (like mine) as either the first or one of the first console they ever played. I remember back in the day renting NES games from a video store and often the ones we did rent turned out terrible, games like Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Platoon and we were disappointed. But we also rented great stuff like Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, Super Mario Bros. 2, Bubble Bobble, Contra and Castlevania. And at the time we owned some pretty good games too, like Super Mario Bros., Paperboy, Blades of Steel, and others.

 

I still have a great fondness for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the NES, despite the bile that's directed at it. A good, but sometimes tough game.

 

AND the NES is home to m #1 favorite video game of all-time: Super Mario Bros. 3.

 

No sir, sorry, that's not a bad console. Nowhere near.

 

(And what's wrong with the controllers? The only thing negative I can think of about them is that the shape wasn't rounded.)

Edited June 21, 2013 by pixelated

[CatPix]

As for the Arcadia 2001, my only real gripe was sound. It ranges from generally poor to downright obnoxious. I can't tell if that's due to hardware limitations or poor/lazy programming, but I have my suspicions that it's the latter.

If the sound chip hasn't been changed, it's probably ALSO hardware limitation, since the Arcadia 2001 is nothing but a Radofin 1292 AVPS with a better graphic chip.

From the videos I found, I think that the sound part wasn't updated, or only slightly. For 1976, that soundchip was quite impressive, slightly better than the standard Atari VCS/Odyssey2 (but far away from the Bally Arcade), but for 1980, that's too limited.

[high voltage]

(And what's wrong with the controllers? The only thing negative I can think of about them is that the shape wasn't rounded.)

 

I mentioned it many times here, they're the wrong way, a joystick, control = right hand, fire = left hand, joypad is wrong way, control = left hand fire = right hand, also the lettering is the wrong (Japanese) way.

And a joypad is never as precise as a stick, makes sense really.

 

Of course, I got a NES (had 6 already), have some excellent games on it, but it never felt right, something was like...cheap Japanese feeling to it (Like the NES itself, it looked cheap, like Made in Japan).

Dunno maybe when you used an Amiga during the 80s you're just spoiled with good stuff.

Edited June 21, 2013 by high voltage

[pixelated]

I'm left-handed, and I have no problem with the NES controller or any other that's similarly designed, like the SMS controller or SNES controller or Genesis controller. But then again I kinda grew up with those kind of controllers, not computer joysticks. So there you go. Our differences of opinion seem to largely stem from our experiences. I'm a console gamer, so...

[CatPix]

Well I grew with computer joysticks... And I can't tell how happy I got when Amstrad made a game PAD.

 

(sheesh, talk about bland design.. Almost as bland as the Atari 7800 pad, with even less class)

 

Except for some plane simulation games, computer joystick are horrible. How can you play any platform game, any adventure game...in fact, anything but a plane simulation game or a racing game with a joystick?

Especially those cheap crappy stuff we had as joystick in the 80's.

[high voltage]

I'm left-handed, and I have no problem with the NES controller or any other that's similarly designed, like the SMS controller or SNES controller or Genesis controller. But then again I kinda grew up with those kind of controllers, not computer joysticks. So there you go. Our differences of opinion seem to largely stem from our experiences. I'm a console gamer, so...

 

I am a console gamer and this is the right stick to use:

Edited June 21, 2013 by high voltage

[high voltage]

Actually Nintendo did get it right once, put people didn't get it:

[pixelated]

I loves me that 2600 joystick too. A whole bunch. I am not one of those that uses a Sega Genesis controller with my 2600, hell no, joystick all the way. But for the NES, the stock controller for me covers most of bases. I guess if you dislike the NES pad that much you could get the NES Advantage, one of my favorite controllers of all time. And that Family King joystick looks good. Was it ever released in the US?

Edited June 21, 2013 by pixelated

[madmax2069]

I have to say 5200, tried to play it. But the controller broke. I think the 5200 was the only system I played where the controllers constantly killed themselves just by looking at them.

[Falconhood]

it was tuff to vote, because out of the systems i had, i loved them all for whatever reasons. I could pick Virtual boy due to rumors, but I didn't have it so that wouldn't be honest. I decided on Atari 5200 PURELY on the controllers...otherwise I played that system to it's death!

[+Charlie Cat]

Hi guys,

 

None. I think they all are great!

 

Anthony...

[high voltage]

Best answer so far

[AtariLeaf]

I chose the TI/99 because of the systems I've actually played it was the least enjoyable to me and I have no attachment to it whatsoever. I could have chosen the Arcadia or Virtual Boy among others, but that would be disingenuous because I don't want to base my answer on just what I've read or heard about them but not actually played them. I also dismissed naming the 5200 because, although I agree the controller ruins the experience, the games themselves are still great as I play many of them on the 8-bit atari computers.

 

BTW, I'm sure there are some great TI/99 games, like arcade ports, but of the handful I've played, I was underwhelmed.

 

Also, should have been an option for the N64, I would have actually chosen that.

Edited June 22, 2013 by AtariLeaf

[+save2600]

Thankfully NES only ruled in US, Europe went 16 bit in 1986

 

Except for that whole C64 and SMS thing that seemed to last forever.

[+save2600]

Out of this list, had to pick the Virtual Boy. C'mon Nintendo... you should have known better by then. Pathetically flawed product with an even weaker library. Might have been "okay" for the fanboys and girls *if* Nintendo would have continued to release something for people to waste their money on, but no such luck. They knew they shit out a giant turd and just let the genital pubic wallow in all of its shortsighted funk.

[high voltage]

 

 

Except for that whole C64 and SMS thing that seemed to last forever.

 

Don't forget the ZX Spectrum

[+nanochess]

My vote was for the Sega Master System, for some reason all the games I've seen look pretty bad developed, graphics with bad contrast in colors, the sound is specially ugly, even Colecovision games have better sound (and them use same chip!)

 

So at this date I have only the integrated game (Hang On, I don't find it fun) and one cartridge Spiderman (boooring,) and I don't have plans to buy another game.

[gorfcadet]

My vote was for the Sega Master System, for some reason all the games I've seen look pretty bad developed, graphics with bad contrast in colors, the sound is specially ugly, even Colecovision games have better sound (and them use same chip!)

 

So at this date I have only the integrated game (Hang On, I don't find it fun) and one cartridge Spiderman (boooring,) and I don't have plans to buy another game.

You can't judge a system on two titles. WonderBoy, Sonic, Golden Axe Warrior, OutRun, Shinobi, Castle of Illusion, Rambo, Donald Duck, Penguin Land, and Bubble Bobble were all great and there were a lot more as well. That would be like saying the Turbografx was bad because of Keith Courage. Even some of the catologue fillers were good on the SMS.

[Reaperman]

See I think that to be the worst, it can't be some weak or stillborn system. It has to be something that really put itself out there--something that nobody could avoid hearing about--Something that proclaimed from the hilltops that it was better than freaking sliced beer...and something that was just beyond godawful. Do the math!

 

Edited June 23, 2013 by Reaperman