Gimmick is a very precision oriented game, basically you have a star that you can form above your head (you're limited to only one star on screen at a time) and depending on how you're moving, the direction or how fast you're falling changes how the star moves when you throw it. You can ride it as well if you jump on it. The star is your weapon, and it bounces around a fair bit, getting an idea of how it'll bounce and exactly how it will move can be fairly difficult sometimes, not to mention that executing the throw can be a bit of a task in of itself.
Enemies in this game aren't like in any I've seen before, some of the bosses for example will move in a way that's reactionary to how you move, it's probably simple fundamentally, but the feeling it gives when you're fighting them is very different from the bosses in other games that just have some set patterns they randomly go through. It's not just bosses that are reactionary like this, many enemies in the game are like this as well.
aesthetically it doesn't even look like a nes game. I find the art style very appealing as well, very colorful, clean and simple.
Intro and a little bit of the first level (it doesn't really spoil anything, although unfortunately you don't get to see any of the unique enemy behaviour I was talking about either)
-Zelda 2 The Adventure of Link (for nes)
I was surprised to find out that many Zelda fans disliked this game and consider it one of the worst Zelda games around. I suppose to some extent I can see why they might say this, it's a hard game in the beginning (the difficulty curve is a bit weird) and it's also completely different from any other zelda game. Gameplay isn't in a top down perspective (except on the overworld-view map) it's a side scroller. It's a little bit difficult to explain how combat works but basically you have a sword and shield, and depending on if you hold down or not changes where your sword will strike from and where your shield will block from. Managing this can be surprisingly difficult, especially initially in the game, and the game doesn't give you a long time to really get this down before you have to fight enemies where managing this is crucial. Although the actual fighting itself is fairly simple, and how attacking and blocking works is simple it actually has a lot of depth. A surprising amount of depth, you have to really play it to get what I mean here though and based on the explanation it may not sound like this is the case.
The main thing I don't like about this game is the leveling system (also unique to this zelda game compared to the rest of the series) my impression is that this is the main reason the difficulty curve is so uneven. It also seems unecesarry, I don't see what it really adds to the game other than you can take more hits and you'll do a little more damage. I'd rather you just start somewhere imbetween the higher and lower levels throughout the whole game and just rely on your execution skills increasing to carry you through (it's really lame that way later on you don't even have to even care at all if you get hit or not).
This video is a little bit of a spoiler and shows a bit too much so watch at your own discretion.
-F-Zero GX (for gamecube) This game is fast, really fast. The courses are really cool as well, almost all of them are different in some regard. This is also another game that gets considered rather difficult but the rush it can give, it's intense. There's a story mode which is really just a bunch of challenge missions (probably some of the hardest parts of the game) and then there's the grand prix's where you race a few tracks against ai players trying to get first place.
I don't really know how to explain how this game is better other than the controls are tight, it just plain has more and it's intense to play.
Example of someone playing through a grand prix.
-Flywrench (free indie pc game)
I'm not sure exactly where and how you get it anymore (google is your friend) but I played this a few years ago. It just seems like a unique concept and a unique game overall. It's very simple, you just use only the arrow keys to control it (and change color) to flap up and move side to side or holding down to be able to bounce around. Executing what you need to do can be pretty hard. The aesthetic is pretty simple but I like it. The music is awful, but maybe some people out there would like it, I recommend if you watch the video that you mute the sound for it.
collage of gameplay clips (with the game's music in the background...)
-Antichamber (indie pc game) This one is a lot less about being challenging to play more than just an overall very unique game and experience. You may still get stuck occasionally because it is a bit puzzly but generally speaking if you don't know what to do in one area you can just go somewhere else instead and come back to it later. Again, a very simple aesthetic but it's really nice looking.
Many of the spaces in the game wouldn't make sense in the real world, places that loop even when you're going primarily straight and going in a circle and not ending up back where you started. This makes it very hard to keep track of where you are and it also can lead to the puzzles or secrets being unconventional in how you're supposed to find or complete them. You do have a "gun" that shoots blocks that you collect onto surfaces, they have unusual properties and part of the game is figuring out what those are as you go along. The game is very atmospheric and unusual.
official trailer
Games I haven't tried but I'm interested in:
-Homeworld(it looks beautiful and unique)
-Castlevania(I've heard a lot of good things about)
I wouldn't mind expanding this list, so if anyone has any recommendations for games feel free to suggest. I haven't actually tried that many games overall, I did leave some out (like blizz games or games pretty much everyone already knows about).
I feel like zelda 2 got a bad rap by NES players who loved the first zelda and disliked something different, and that has grown into a much larger cultural judgement than there's basis for. People say it sucks who've never played it. But I love that game! imo the gameplay itself is way better than zelda 1, some of the funnest combat on NES. Lots of cool parts in the castles too. ^^
I enjoy the rpg parts too, I think you need that extra health for later boss fights. The spellcasting is great too.
If you want to try something I highly recommend Myth: The Fallen Lords by Bungie circa 1998. Great atmosphere and story and really fun tactical squad "micro" gameplay. If you can play some multiplayer on a custom server it's so worth it.
I agree with EatThePath about Zelda 2. It's a fine game, people were just unhappy that it wasn't like the first Zelda. If it had come out under a different name it would be remembered more fondly.
And F-Zero GX is soooo good. I was never a big racing game fan, not even big on Mario Kart (though Diddy Kong Racing was legit), but I loved, LOVED F-Zero GX. One of my fondest achievements was beating the story mode on Very Hard. I don't think I'll ever forget when I beat that big 30 (or so) car race by using the mines at the end to boost through, NARROWLY avoiding death.
On December 21 2014 11:59 EatThePath wrote: I feel like zelda 2 got a bad rap by NES players who loved the first zelda and disliked something different, and that has grown into a much larger cultural judgement than there's basis for. People say it sucks who've never played it. But I love that game! imo the gameplay itself is way better than zelda 1, some of the funnest combat on NES. Lots of cool parts in the castles too. ^^
I enjoy the rpg parts too, I think you need that extra health for later boss fights. The spellcasting is great too.
If you want to try something I highly recommend Myth: The Fallen Lords by Bungie circa 1998. Great atmosphere and story and really fun tactical squad "micro" gameplay. If you can play some multiplayer on a custom server it's so worth it.
Yeah, it's really sad that zelda 2 has that reputation now, it's actually my favourite zelda. It's not an uncommon thing for people to get an idea of what something should be and be very quick to dismissing something new because of that. I don't think that's the only reason but it seems to be what a lot of the complaints about zelda 2 boil down to, it's not what a zelda game should be. Maybe part of the reason people had a hard time giving it a real chance is that it is a hard game, and I suppose the controls are a bit unusual and that can be frustrating as well (if you're not used to them).
I enjoy the spells as well, and I think you're right about the later bosses, you need the extra health for those later bosses.
On December 21 2014 21:52 Fighter wrote: I agree with EatThePath about Zelda 2. It's a fine game, people were just unhappy that it wasn't like the first Zelda. If it had come out under a different name it would be remembered more fondly.
And F-Zero GX is soooo good. I was never a big racing game fan, not even big on Mario Kart (though Diddy Kong Racing was legit), but I loved, LOVED F-Zero GX. One of my fondest achievements was beating the story mode on Very Hard. I don't think I'll ever forget when I beat that big 30 (or so) car race by using the mines at the end to boost through, NARROWLY avoiding death.
Yay! More zelda 2 love.
Oh god, I remember that mission in F-Zero GX. Some of those missions on very hard it just felt more like luck that I beat them. The mission where you have to escape some place on a timer and there were those doors that kept closing on you that you had to narrowly squeeze by... I would get right to the very end and then screw it up cause there was that narrow ramp and probably also cause I'd get nervous for just getting to the very end of it.
Yeah, diddy kong racing is a pretty good game but F-Zero GX will always be my favourite racing game.
On December 21 2014 21:52 Fighter wrote: I agree with EatThePath about Zelda 2. It's a fine game, people were just unhappy that it wasn't like the first Zelda. If it had come out under a different name it would be remembered more fondly.
And F-Zero GX is soooo good. I was never a big racing game fan, not even big on Mario Kart (though Diddy Kong Racing was legit), but I loved, LOVED F-Zero GX. One of my fondest achievements was beating the story mode on Very Hard. I don't think I'll ever forget when I beat that big 30 (or so) car race by using the mines at the end to boost through, NARROWLY avoiding death.
Yay! More zelda 2 love.
Oh god, I remember that mission in F-Zero GX. Some of those missions on very hard it just felt more like luck that I beat them. The mission where you have to escape some place on a timer and there were those doors that kept closing on you that you had to narrowly squeeze by... I would get right to the very end and then screw it up cause there was that narrow ramp and probably also cause I'd get nervous for just getting to the very end of it.
Yeah, diddy kong racing is a pretty good game but F-Zero GX will always be my favourite racing game.
Yeah, F-Zero is just so much better and so different from practically anything else out there. It's actually somewhat comparable to SC2 in that it scales so well in terms of difficulty. You might think you're good, but then you look online at the crazy stuff some people are pulling off and it just blows your mind. There's no other arcade game with quite the same lack of skillcap.
I remember when I first bought it I was stuck on the Gorah mission right at the start for so long (the one with the falling rocks). Always nice to play a game which doesn't force you to play through easy worthless missions to get to the fun stuff. Even the very first story mission is a challenge on very hard.
And I'll never forget the first time loading into the final story mission ... and falling off 2 seconds in. And again. And again. And again a billion times until I finally beat it. Also runs pretty well on Dolphin if you have a decent PC
EPT
