The 153/152-in-1 units are also full of unused games, including 'Deal or No Deal'
There's also a 'PacMan' but it isn't playable, it just loops saying 'Ready...' and 'P T' so I guess it is incomplete.
There's a version of 'Bravery Birds' hidden in there too, the 160 has this game, but the smoothly rotating Angry Bird style bird was replaced with a badly animated bear head.
Also hidden in the 152/153 are the OTM Pick Fruits, but with a different main character, and Three Rabbits without the sprite swaps. I guess these were deemed unsuitable, but had not yet been modified.
The Bird Home / Angry Pigs are also hidden in here in low-resolution form.
and there's a version of 2048 called China Dynasty, which I guess was deemed unsuitable for export markets.
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@reidrac games certainly have higher production values, are they better games? that's questionable. you can't really review relative to previous generations of games, or we'll be stuck at a point where every game gets a 10 because of better graphics.
@reidrac although I agree with your main point, you can't dock points for framework. If the 'maker' results in less interesting games due to maker limitations, or being too similar to existing games then that should be factored into the general review, not as an automatic penalty.
@reidrac In some cases engine weaknesses do ruin games for me, the Bethesda games for example, I'd struggle to give Skyrim a 3/10, at least on consoles. You're playing game but having to actively think about the engine, and planning your play as not to break (on top of all the other bugs)
this is also a thing that happened... (for those not in the know, neither of these was released, these are cancelled JAKKS GameKeys)
The 'Star Wars Classic Battles' aka 'Original Trilogy' was released, but previously the only dumped set was the later touchpad one, and the controls on it aren't emulated. There's now a version of the original release of this 4-in-1 playable.
@0x15e@Darren__O@yesterzine a fair amount of the Defender difficulty comes from the control scheme however, as you don't have left/right inputs, only 'thurst' and 'turn around' Adding l/r joystick inputs on an original cab that aren't used except in a hypothetical 'easy' would make it more confusing.
@0x15e@Darren__O@yesterzine (of course in console compilations containing the game there are code hacks / cheats to do exactly that)
@0x15e@Darren__O@yesterzine Control schemes and difficulty are another complex subject btw. some would say the Ikari 8-way joystick hack is easier (shoot in the direction you're moving, not rotary) The problem is it makes some sections impossible as enemies aren't always in front of you.
@yesterzine Then consider just giving the player more (but not infinite) health. The player will play the first half of the game not worrying much about enemy attacks, not learning the patterns. They'll then hit a brick wall later when that matters, but they didn't learn it early on.
@yesterzine It's actually a pretty in-depth subject anyway, one that I'm sure will make for some great research papers. Maybe a sign on the box that tells you the developer has implemented such things, so buyers can decide, vote with their wallets, but mandating them in a can of worms.
@yesterzine Arcade games are a bit like this if you use infinite credits btw. Take a beat 'em up, if you play it knowing you're limiting your credits, you use the first stages to learn how the enemies attack, group etc. As a result, you know how to deal with later stages and enjoy them.
@System11b Indeed, I'd consider it a platformer, because gravity plays a key role, but that brings us to The New Zealand Story, which Taito explicitly declare 'for Maze game fans' in the attract mode.
@System11b I wonder if a Maze needs defined walls. Electric Yo Yo is in there a a 'Maze' game though, and from what I can see, while the levels have patterns, there are no walls. I'd say that wasn't a maze game. Outside of that, where does 'Maze' end and 'Level' begin.
@System11b If we go to computers. Sultan's Maze on the CPC is clearly a maze. Are Doom and Wolf3d mazes? Most modern FPS games are not, because there's no element of having to explore to find the way forward, but some of those early FPS games do have that.
@SoftlistG I did play Wardner on a stream, but I think it's one I ended up not exporting because of Twitch / Streamlabs issues. I don't hate it, it just fits in a very specific genre of slow paced, slightly stiff platformers, and is maybe not what you expect from Toaplan
@SoftlistG But yeah, that's one issue with a 'worst' list. You could fill it with Kyle Hodgetts games or 'stealth' gambling frontend games and be done, but that's not too interesting to watch, as expectations were 0 to start with. The other is arcades had location testing as a filter.
@SoftlistG Not that location testing stopped all bad games, some got through on hype waves, unexplained phenomena, eg. Guardians of the Hood (and quite a few other Atari titles of that period)