Random Gaming Thoughts

[Ack]

It sounds like other puzzle/platformer games that use the FPS aesthetic, such as Portal, A Story About My Uncle, The Ball, Antichamber, and so forth. I generally consider most of these FPS since it's first person perspective and you generally have some kind of "gun" to "shoot" with, but that is a subjective approach to organizing these.

[pook99]

"Metroid Prime is a first person adventure game not a first person shooter" was pure advertising nonsense. Why can't it be both? Thinking otherwise relies on overly simplistic ideas of what a genre even is. Is Mario a run and gun because he shoots fireballs? There's platforming in Contra, so is it a run n gun or platformer? Are Super Mario Land levels 2-3 and 4-3 shmup or platformer?

Genres are by nature artificial and arguing over gray areas is pointless.

The purpose of classifying a game in a genre is to give people an idea of what to expect when they play it. Very few games are just one thing so there is always some gray area over how a game can be classified but I think if you play a lot of traditional FPS and then go into Metroid Prime expecting that kind of gameplay you will be disappointed. The gameplay loop in Metroid Prime follows what you would expect from a traditional metroid, you can call it a 3d metroidvania(but the term didnt exist when the game was released) so identifying as an adventure game seems far more fitting to the way the game is played.

[marurun]

It sounds like other puzzle/platformer games that use the FPS aesthetic, such as Portal, A Story About My Uncle, The Ball, Antichamber, and so forth. I generally consider most of these FPS since it's first person perspective and you generally have some kind of "gun" to "shoot" with, but that is a subjective approach to organizing these.

Portal is the only one of these I'm familiar with, but if the others are anything like it, I mostly agree. Portal's portal mechanic does make a huge difference, but the general moving and aiming mechanics do make it otherwise feel very traditional FPS-y, at least until you start doing the actual puzzling.

I guess what distinguished Metroid Prime for me is that the lock-on remove the need for a lot of the more precise aiming and worrying about your facing (except for platforming areas with jumps) and really changes up the relationship between movement and aiming and strafing. I mean, that mechanic was ripped wholesale out of post-Ocarina Zelda. So Metroid Prime is really this weird beast that hybridizes the first person perspective and shooting of an FPS with the targeting and movement mechanics of 3D Zelda. So yeah, Metroid Prime IS an FPS, but it's also a 3D Action Adventure game in a way I don't think any other FPS of the era was.

Hybrid game design really screws with more "traditional" genre definitions, and it's understandable that people have differing opinions on this stuff.

[retrosportsgamer]

I can't get over how many ACA Neo Geo releases have been made for current gen systems. Football Frenzy!? Soccer Brawl!? These are some deep cuts of very average games that had previously not been ported anywhere. Outside of the awful name and logo (sorry - M2's PS3 NeoGeo Station 4 Life), are these well made? Do they have multiplayer options?

[BoneSnapDeez]

I can't get over how many ACA Neo Geo releases have been made for current gen systems. Football Frenzy!? Soccer Brawl!? These are some deep cuts of very average games that had previously not been ported anywhere. Outside of the awful name and logo (sorry - M2's PS3 NeoGeo Station 4 Life), are these well made? Do they have multiplayer options?

Yes I would recommend those. Great emulation and plenty of options. These are also by Hamster, who did Arcade Archives, so it's the same interface and everything.

[RCBH928]

"Metroid Prime is a first person adventure game not a first person shooter" was pure advertising nonsense. Why can't it be both? Thinking otherwise relies on overly simplistic ideas of what a genre even is. Is Mario a run and gun because he shoots fireballs? There's platforming in Contra, so is it a run n gun or platformer? Are Super Mario Land levels 2-3 and 4-3 shmup or platformer?

Genres are by nature artificial and arguing over gray areas is pointless.

A videogame can have more than genre like a movie. I just tend to classify its genre by what you do mainly in the game. In Super Metroid, I believe you mainly move through platforms and make your way and it has a shooting element to it, on the opposite of run and gun like Metal Slug that you mainly shoot guns moving forward.

There is a puzzle element to Doom, but its mainly about shooting the enemies so I consider it mainly FPS. I haven't played Prime, but given the screenshots and the first person perspective + gun element I just assumed it was transformed into an FPS to match the general taste of the average player.

[MrPopo]

There is a puzzle element to Doom, but its mainly about shooting the enemies so I consider it mainly FPS. I haven't played Prime, but given the screenshots and the first person perspective + gun element I just assumed it was transformed into an FPS to match the general taste of the average player.

That was a big concern when it was first announced; people thought it was being turned into an FPS to chase some sort of market sensibility. But it was pretty unique for the time it came out, and only since then have we really seen other games go for a first person perspective but focus on platforming and traversal as the core skill.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Been looking at my GameFAQs stats. My most viewed review as of late: Xak III. I know that fan-translated JRPGs are "popular" (at least among retro gamers) but I have yet to meet anyone else who's played that game.

(Now that I look at it, if you Google "Xak III review" the top [and only relevant] result is my GameFAQs page. Weird. This game rules, it should have received way more hype.)

[Markies]

I was playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time, the arcade version when I saw this screen.



The game was made in 1991 and I was playing it in the year 2020.

[CFFJR]

The main question that brings to mind is where is my goddamn hoverboard?!

My youth was filled with lies.