Worst looking, best playing game?

jow

Well-known member

Donor 2011
Joined
Feb 1, 2007
Messages
28,378
Reaction score
1,473
Location
California
Someone mentioned in another thread that Zookeeper "looked like an Atari 2600 game" and didnt know why people loved it so much. The answer is simple, and there really is no argument.... game play.

The pace is fast (especially once the Lions are there), the challenge is awesome, and the big jumps are very, very rewarding. The game may look like ass, but it is fun as hell.

Since Zookeeper was mentioned, I will put my vote in for Death Race. The b/w graphics, and everything on screen are bo-ring, but the gameplay is awe-some! I had a blast with it at CAX.

So I ask, what are the worst looking (graphic wise), best playing games in your opinion?
 
Robotron...are you really going to tell me that game looks even as good as MOST 2600 games? GTFO

Seriously...there is no art to the game whatsoever. It's a flat, black background.
 
Someone mentioned in another thread that Zookeeper "looked like an Atari 2600 game" and didnt know why people loved it so much. The answer is simple, and there really is no argument.... game play.

That was me. I've played it more since then and like it a little better, but I think the big thing is that there is no nostalgic value in it for me.

When I play it I enjoy it and get better over time, but I think every other game I have is something I dropped a lot of quarters in as a kid and remember the places and people that were around at that moment of time. So there's an emotional attachment to the other games.

But to get back to the subject of the thread, I like a lot of the simple games. Night Driver being number 1 on simple-to-fun ratio. There are just two rows of winding white rectangles to keep the car sticker in-between, but it's fun - and for a few minutes it's 1979 again and I'm at the skating rink with my friends from middle-school.

-JM
 
Last edited:
Sprint 1 or 2. 'course every game looked crappy back in '78. But I will still play Sprint if I get the chance, and I regularly pass on Grand Turismo 5.
 
Robotron...are you really going to tell me that game looks even as good as MOST 2600 games? GTFO

Seriously...there is no art to the game whatsoever. It's a flat, black background.

Since I saw it new, I probably see it with different eyes. Robotron has hundreds of objects moving at the same time. No console until the original Playstation even came close to moving sprites like that.

If the first time you played it was in MAME or some emu-pack for the XBox, it probably looks pretty ugly.
 
Pong. End of thread.

I dont know if I consider Pong fun.

Funny, Robotron and Zookeeper are very similar. Black screen, a box you are in and multiple fast moving objects.

robotron2084.bmp

0.jpg
 
Last edited:
Not an arcade game, but I think the first Grand Theft Auto is a good example.
 
But to get back to the subject of the thread, I like a lot of the simple games. Night Driver being number 1 on simple-to-fun ratio. -JM

Slightly off topic here but I have always wondered why a more authentic 2600 port of Night Driver has never been made, even recently as a homebrew. No disrespect to Rob Fullop's version, but it certainly doesn't play like the original coin-op. Can't the 2600 display those two lanes of white posts a smoothly as the original hardware? It's not exactly pushing any graphical power.
And yes, Night Driver was an amazingly fun game for what amounts to "stay within these two lines of white posts". I loved it!
 
Back
Top Bottom