Sucky Games

I will admit for the last few days I have been uninspired as to what to write about. I've been reading a lot on the gaming industry, as I always do, trying to decide what looks good, what doesn't. I hate buying a game that turns out to be a disappointment the minute I drop it into the system.

I hate a really bad game that just eats the life right out of my system. It's not often I fall for a really bad game (I read a lot of reviews before making a purchase), but when I buy a stinker, nothing is able to lift that taint for weeks.

Back years ago, I picked up Chrono Trigger. It was all because of one review from Nintendo Power. They raved about it, and rightly-so. Chrono Trigger is not a game for RPG purists. The challenge builds along a curve the whole way through, and as long as you don't run away all that often, you'll never be too weak to face the upcoming enemies. I know a lot of RPG players that like the game, but feel there are much better RPGs out there.

Back on track, I loved Chrono Trigger (so much so that I picked up the later PSO release, which kinda sucked, and Chrono Cross, which was only decent but had great music). I played the hell out of that game, beating it twice even before thinking of playing something else.

So, the next issue of NP I get, they are raving about Secret of Evermore. It was an American developed game based on the Secret of Mana engine. And boy, it stank.

For starters, the whole fighting system was weakened from over development. Part of the fun of Mana was that a sword you got carried through the entire game. Evermore, you had to upgrade your sword each time you got a new one. No carrying powers over, even though the swords were similar in design. To me, if a sword looks the same and functions the same way, then what you can do with one, you can do with the next. So, that was time spent powering up in game so that I could just move on to the next area.

Evermore also had a lame alchemy system. Don't get me wrong, I like trying new things in games, but this was awful. Not only did you have to buy all your ingredients for your spells (so you were spending money just to keep afloat), but your spells were so weak, you had to take time to power them up, just so you could use them, which cost more money for ingredients. And, of course, new spells aren't based on previous ones, so you have to power up everything fresh. Mana required you to power up, but your spells were in groups that powered together, and most of your spells only needed a little powering to be up to speed.

But, even beyond that, the game was really easy. The system was easy to exploit, powering up only a couple of spells that were strong (once you played through and knew what to do), and walking through the game in less than 10 hours. Bosses, while appropriately themed graphics wise, were weak and simplistic.

I bought the game, but I was duped. Mario Sunshine was another of those games that duped me, but I've already griped about that.

I think the part that really irritates me is that you buy a game for 50 bucks, and it sucks, and yet, you're stuck with it. If a movie sucks, you're only out 8 bucks and an hour and a half of your life. Video Games are the next big entertainment industry, and yet it costs 5 times as much.

I just want to see a day when companies quit releasing such awful games sometimes. Admittedly, Sunshine and Evermore are at least playable. I have played much worse games, which makes me wonder if game companies ever employ play testers and market researchers anymore.

But, oh well. I doubt there will be a day when a stinky video game isn't in danger of being released.

As an addendum: I did read an article on how games are made. Often a bad game is released simply due to the fact that with so much money spent on developing even a crappy game (cause no one wanted to make it crappy originally) it's more cost effective just to release it and recoup any money, than to not release it at all. I just wish the stupid thing had been better before it was released. Ah, for a perfect world.