There is something to be said for a game that doesn't innovate in the sequels. Yet, sometimes, it is not necessary for any innovation to occur between sequels. Let me explain.
If Warcraft 2 had the same user interface as Warcraft 1, people would have rightfully shunned it for not improving over the prequel. Why is this? It's because Warcraft 1 had a bad interface. Sure, it was fine at the time, for being the first modern RTS, but it had some big flaws. Warcraft 2 improved a lot, and Starcraft improved a lot more.
Mega Man 1 had some flaws. Mega Man 2 really didn't have any. It's such a simple game that it doesn't take much to effectively perfect it. Asking to add more to Mega Man, besides maybe the slide, is asking too much.
Think about a milk shake. A vanilla milk shake is damn good. Drinking another one, even though you have had one before, is also good. You might be able to improve upon it by mixing in some cookie or such, but adding too much is just going to ruin it. If every time you go to the ice cream stand you ask for more and more things in your shake, eventually you won't be able to fit any actual shake in the cup. Meanwhile, having a plain vanilla shake every time will still be damn good.
If a game has problems, it's fair to expect a sequel to fix those problems. If a game has really figured out its formula, and it's tasty like a milk shake, expect the sequels to just be more of the same tasty shake. If you get tired of vanilla shakes, then maybe it's time for you to try a different game, like strawberry shake, or cookiewich. If you aren't bored of vanilla shake yet, it's still good, and it's always there waiting for you.
There is something to be said for a game that doesn't innovate in the sequels. Yet, sometimes, it is not necessary for any innovation to occur between sequels. Let me explain.
If Warcraft 2 had the same user interface as Warcraft 1, people would have rightfully shunned it for not improving over the prequel. Why is this? It's because Warcraft 1 had a bad interface. Sure, it was fine at the time, for being the first modern RTS, but it had some big flaws. Warcraft 2 improved a lot, and Starcraft improved a lot more.
Mega Man 1 had some flaws. Mega Man 2 really didn't have any. It's such a simple game that it doesn't take much to effectively perfect it. Asking to add more to Mega Man, besides maybe the slide, is asking too much.
Think about a milk shake. A vanilla milk shake is damn good. Drinking another one, even though you have had one before, is also good. You might be able to improve upon it by mixing in some cookie or such, but adding too much is just going to ruin it. If every time you go to the ice cream stand you ask for more and more things in your shake, eventually you won't be able to fit any actual shake in the cup. Meanwhile, having a plain vanilla shake every time will still be damn good.
If a game has problems, it's fair to expect a sequel to fix those problems. If a game has really figured out its formula, and it's tasty like a milk shake, expect the sequels to just be more of the same tasty shake. If you get tired of vanilla shakes, then maybe it's time for you to try a different game, like strawberry shake, or cookiewich. If you aren't bored of vanilla shake yet, it's still good, and it's always there waiting for you.
The Heroes of Might and Magic series of PC games does this exact thing. At this point, they've worked out all the flaws in the games, and now they just add a few more shiny bits and some polish.
Is it that much different than people who like to replay the same game over and over? I plan on playing everything in the Zelda series from LttP to today (I haven't played WW onwards due to lack of mullah). Megaman isn't the kind of gameplay I like, mostly due to the amount of variety available in platform games but people who like it will probably not get tired for a long time to come; No-one has got bored of Tetris yet.
We have such technology now, but we use it all to make super fancy 3d games. I wish someone would just use it to make a super humongous 2d game. Imagine Super Mario World, or Super Mario 3, with 50 wolds, instead of 8. Imagine the original Legend of Zelda with an overworld that is 10 times as large, and ten times the dungeons! Oh, and each dungeon will be twice as large! Imagine a Mega Man game with 32 robot masters.
Imagine Super Metroid where the game is 10 times as large.
We have such technology now, but we use it all to make super fancy 3d games. I wish someone would just use it to make a super humongous 2d game. Imagine Super Mario World, or Super Mario 3, with 50 wolds, instead of 8. Imagine the original Legend of Zelda with an overworld that is 10 times as large, and ten times the dungeons! Oh, and each dungeon will be twice as large! Imagine a Mega Man game with 32 robot masters.
Imagine Super Metroid where the game is 10 times as large.
Oh yeah, now we're talking the business!
I have been dreaming about this for years! Now if a homebrewer would only make it into a reality....
Also should be noted that the plug man joke John did in the video was priceless.
I got this art book for FLCL today at AX. It was overpriced but I had to get it because I'm too big of a fan of this show and I didn't think I'd ever see this book again if I passed it up. It's really fun to look through, mostly due to the fact that they blew 26 episodes of animation budget on just six. The amount of detail that goes into just robots falling apart is amazing.
Comments
from XKCD
If Warcraft 2 had the same user interface as Warcraft 1, people would have rightfully shunned it for not improving over the prequel. Why is this? It's because Warcraft 1 had a bad interface. Sure, it was fine at the time, for being the first modern RTS, but it had some big flaws. Warcraft 2 improved a lot, and Starcraft improved a lot more.
Mega Man 1 had some flaws. Mega Man 2 really didn't have any. It's such a simple game that it doesn't take much to effectively perfect it. Asking to add more to Mega Man, besides maybe the slide, is asking too much.
Think about a milk shake. A vanilla milk shake is damn good. Drinking another one, even though you have had one before, is also good. You might be able to improve upon it by mixing in some cookie or such, but adding too much is just going to ruin it. If every time you go to the ice cream stand you ask for more and more things in your shake, eventually you won't be able to fit any actual shake in the cup. Meanwhile, having a plain vanilla shake every time will still be damn good.
If a game has problems, it's fair to expect a sequel to fix those problems. If a game has really figured out its formula, and it's tasty like a milk shake, expect the sequels to just be more of the same tasty shake. If you get tired of vanilla shakes, then maybe it's time for you to try a different game, like strawberry shake, or cookiewich. If you aren't bored of vanilla shake yet, it's still good, and it's always there waiting for you.
Imagine Super Metroid where the game is 10 times as large.
Oh yeah, now we're talking the business!
Also should be noted that the plug man joke John did in the video was priceless.
Erase the memories of your failures
Your South Pork is now big long and uncut
http://www.frienddesire.com/
:P
@Sail: are any pages full color?