Games That Suck That Could Have Been So Much Better

That's sad to hear, that is the last board I need to get for the multi MK cab. I guess I won't be in a hurry to find/purchase it.

it's subjective. I personally think it's good. they probably shook up the roster too much and Shinnok just seems like an ordinary character (he is, actually) it lacked in going up against a huge boss. the lack of Goro in the arcade version is a major downer for me. the arcade release was effectively rushed. I think it was a case of too much development time going into the new 3D engine and not enough on the content. the characters between like version 1 and the final 3 were different too.

I think what happened was they planned on having Kano and Kitana and they got replaced with "new" characters in Jarek and Tanya.

what matters to me is, is the game fun to play? yeah, I liked the more manual combo system than the dial-a-combo of MK3.
 
Was recently discussing Gyruss with some gamers and how it's Tempest meets Galaga. I wondered what Gyruss gameplay would be like with a Tempest spinner versus the Monroe stick. IMO better.
 
I don't get the hate for Tron - what do people expect for 25 cents? Cool cabinet, several different games in one, cool controls. I loved Tron back in the day. The fact that it is kind of easy was a bonus, I could play it for a while on 1 quarter, and I suck at most games.

It got pretty hard in later levels, but with not too many gameplays, most people could reach the fourth set of screens without too much difficulty...that ensured reasonably long gameplay. I know each set was named after a programming language...I think the 4th one was FORTRAN? I know the 5th was SNOBOL...that was as far as I ever got (I played it a fair amount, but not nearly as much as some other cabs).
 
Empire Strikes Back, Escape From the Planet of the Robot Monsters, Vindicators... actually I could probably list more Atari games that needed tweaking than great ones. :/

I think Empire Strikes Back is pretty great, but I had to play it a few dozen times to figure out what the hell was going on. "Shoot the message transmissions" Hooookay

Major Havoc could have been better with more standard platform game mechanics. The bit where you play breakout between missions is super stupid.
 
Major Havoc could have been better with more standard platform game mechanics. The bit where you play breakout between missions is super stupid.

That's actually just for entering warp codes. Should be obvious that its not really meant to be a huge part of the gameplay, seeing as how it lasts about 10 seconds or less.
 
Empire Strikes Back, Escape From the Planet of the Robot Monsters, Vindicators... actually I could probably list more Atari games that needed tweaking than great ones. :/

Vindicators is actually pretty fun as a 2 player competitive game but not really that great as a 1 player game.
 
I'll go out on a limb here and say Sinistar. It's not a crappy game, it's a good game that could have been a lot better if they hadn't screwed up the difficulty level right before they shipped it.

What would this game have been like if they had set the difficulty level properly?
 
Most definitely The Pit, I like the game play, but it's just the same exactly level over and over and over...

I guess originally they did intend for it to have multiple levels and even a boss, but for whatever reason it got rushed to market.

Ditto on Kangaroo, a jump button, another level or two and fixing the issue with the flickering graphics would have been a big improvement.

I'll throw Popeye out there too, a lot of people like it personally I can't stand that it only has three measly levels.
 
I'll go out on a limb here and say Sinistar. It's not a crappy game, it's a good game that could have been a lot better if they hadn't screwed up the difficulty level right before they shipped it.

What would this game have been like if they had set the difficulty level properly?

Hey??!!??!?!?

Well ya good point but far from crappy
 
That's sad to hear, that is the last board I need to get for the multi MK cab. I guess I won't be in a hurry to find/purchase it.

I actually enjoy this game as well. Definitely not in the same league as the others but definitely a fun game. It's competing against the franchise because the others were so great.

As far as sucky games are concerned, the original Street Fighter really blows but at least they got it right eventually.
 
Kangaroo would have been way better with a Jump button.
So add one as it's not hard. Just add a button tied to the joystick up switch. 😃

I like Kangaroo and agree with you.

Scott C.
 
Was recently discussing Gyruss with some gamers and how it's Tempest meets Galaga. I wondered what Gyruss gameplay would be like with a Tempest spinner versus the Monroe stick. IMO better.
That would be testable in MAME with a spinner, but I agree it probably does play better. 😎

Scott C.
 
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My vote is for "Miss World 96"

I feel that if they had more of a selection of ladies and showed higher res photos it would make the game perfect.
 
Tron for sure. 4 dogshit mini-games in a nice cabinet. All show, no go. It reminds me of the "Triple Action" cartridge for Intellivision.

Kangaroo and Arabian both needed a jump button instead of the stupid push up to jump scheme.

Bagman could have been much better/more successful if they dialed back the difficulty about 25%.
 
That would be testable in MAME with a spinner, but I agree it probably does play better. 😎

Scott C.

I swear I've played Gyruss with a spinner somewhere. Think it's the only way I've played it. it looks wrong with a joystick now... I wonder if I'm just misremembering??
 
I think that game's only problem is that it's not that much fun in single player mode. It's awesome two player.. if anyone would ever play it with me :)

- James
You coming to CAX? Apparently there will be a Escape from the Planet of the Robot Monsters there... I've not played one yet.
 
Hey??!!??!?!?

Well ya good point but far from crappy

Yeah. I was responding to this:

> Name some games that didn't live up to their potential.

It's a good game but I don't think I could own one and enjoy it. Too frustrating.
 
The bit where you play breakout between missions is super stupid.

You do know why that's in the game don't you?

The had about 8k or something really small of ram left, and another programmer challenged him to do something cool with it. So he did.
 
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