Topic: Games You Feel are Overrated

Xenoblade Chronicles, wanted to like it but just couldn't. I've played a lot of JRPG's so it's not that I dislike the genre but I found the writing a little weak and English voice acting really poor. Combat system wasn't great too imo, felt a little MMO-like at times.

@Maxz My flatmates, girlfriend and I managed to play through NSMB:Wii in its entirety in 4 player mode - probably one of the best multiplayer experiences of my life! It was crazy, chaotic fun from start to finish - we had an absolute blast playing it!

For someone who grew up with the fantastic original Super Mario Bros. games - where 'multiplayer' basically involved sitting around patiently waiting for your turn - to have a SMB game with everyone involved in the action at all times was an absolute dream come true...and totally delivered! ..can't fault 'em personally!

@Haru17 No, the multiplayer in NSMB was more of a 2-player brawl where you and another player had to compete to get a determined number of stars first.
And it was amazing. I spent so much time perfecting my skills in the multiplayer mode (it was called Mario vs. Luigi). I was pretty much boss at it until just recently because I'm super rusty. Only if Nintendo brought it back in more recent entries AND it had online...

Of course, NSMB also had the minigames that supported up to four players. Those were good fun, too.

And while we're at it, at this point I think I'd play Super Mario 3D World over Super Mario 64. Don't get me wrong, SM64 is a fantastic game but I've played too much of the game already. Besides, I think I prefer 3D World over SM64. 3D Land... well, 3D World squashes that one in every way possible.

Skyrim, gta.

The camera angle in 3D Land felt really restrictive. I was always falling out of frame or jumping to a ledge I couldn't see.

I loved the multiplayer aspects of New Super Mario Bros and 3D World. I only ever got to play 2 players, not 4 players, but even 2 players can get to be a lot of fun. I'm still hoping Nintendo will make a follow-up on the Switch for both games, but add online multiplayer.

Which reminds me of Four Swords on the Gamecube. Single player it's an alright Zelda game, but the real charm is in the multiplayer mode. Trying to balance keeping each other alive while at the same time trying to be greedy for rupees to come out on top is downright fun. I would love to see Nintendo revisit that game somehow on the Switch, but with online mode as well.

As for Mario 64, the one thing that I enjoyed the most is getting stars out of order. It kinda looks like Odyssey is trying to go that route again.

I played the minigames in NSMB a lot, they were a huge hit during middle/high school.

Even when we couldn't get more systems to play against each other, we competed to beat the scores. The bob omb sorting game was the overall favorite.

@Haru17

@Vee_Flames has nailed the explanation, but yeah, it's a completely different beast from the co-op of the home console versions.

I know the NSMB series gets a lot of stick for not innovating, but the first game's marriage of old-school 2D platforming with the 3D games' exuberant athleticism felt pretty awesome at the time, and nowhere was that better evidenced than the star grabbing multiplayer mode of the DS title.

You had a sort of arena where the two ends were joined up so that you'd run around in circles if you headed off in a straight line, and stars would randomly appear which you had to grab before your opponent. There were various hazards and power ups that meant you could attack your opponent and force them to lose stars, so it was kind of like an even more Mario-ey version of Smash Bros. And because the two players were basically independent, there was no weird bubble mechanic if one of you got dragged off screen; you were free to run, jump, and slide your way around the levels untethered.

If you ever find another person with a copy of the game, I'd urge you to dig out the game cart give it a look. An undiscovered multiplayer gem for sure.

@Vee_Flames @Maxz Okay, I may have lied. Your explanation of star stealing sounds veeeeery vaguely familiar. I think I may have played it like once or twice with a friend.

I was looking at it yesterday, and I think I've found a pretty telling way of looking at the NSMB series. The US box art for NSMB DS is a nicely composed image where Mega Mario's eyes direct the eye toward the 3D title, itself contrasting against an even red / blue / yellow / green color scheme. How Mario is cut off helps to illustrate the concept of the mega mushroom while also not creating an abrupt edge because of where the DS box label is:

And here is ever other NSMB game ever made, with two generic Toads just thrown in astride three Yoshis, crowding the image with their sightlines going every which way while the blue and pink pair are cut off randomly so the image can be large in frame. The title blends in with the field of red it is sat against — and which also scrunches the actual box art — so they can bluntly convey the bullet point of 4 player co-op both visually and in text:

I may be reading too much into this, but I really like the DS box art in the US, lol.

Zelda train wreck ds over hyped to the teeth enuff said

To go the opposite direction, Spirit Tracks and PH were some of the most enjoyable Zelda games I ever played. I was always so confused when I finally got into the internet and game forums to find out everyone hated them

Personally, having played it from start to finish, I like Spirit Tracks. The gameplay felt a little repetitive at times, but the music and story were great.

P.S. Even though I never owned the DS New Super Mario Bros, my friends did, and I absolutely destroyed them in the multiplayer mode when I had a chance 😆

Clearly you haven't played too many JRPGs, if you think Xenoblade's writing or voice acting is notably poor

Still makes it better than Ni No Kuni or Bravely Default, being brutally honest here (even if I didn't love Xenoblade, I would say this). Not even the few scenes I dislike in Xenoblade are in the same league of bad as woman obsessed idiot acting the exact same, unfunny way every 2 minutes in Bravely Default or the constant "take 10 minutes to explain what could be explained in 1" scenes in Ni No Kuni.

Bravely Default is a great throwback JRPG with almost the sole exception of I don't like the characters at all, which killed the game for me. It's legitimately a shame, but I found at least 3 of the 4 main characters to be completely dull (or obnoxious) and actually shockingly 2 dimensional. And they spent time with conversations (sometimes optional) that should've been characterization but instead was just the exact same characterization, repeated constantly. It's below the average of SNES JRPGs. I got more out of Earthbound's party members, and they almost never talk!

Never played BD, because I thought the artstyle was horrendous.

I tried the Bravely Default demo, and I really like the battle system, but I don't think the game is for me.

I thought Phantom Hourglass was perfect for what it was (a nifty pocket Zelda which sat somewhere between the 2D and 3D titles), and I really had a blast with it. Sadly, I didn't get on as well with Spirit Tracks, as it just felt comparatively bland and claustrophobic to me. It's odd, because you've got these wide empty spaces in both of them, but for some reason a sea of blue feels liberating and inspiring, but a sea of green feels kind of suffocating and restrictive. And then you've got the obvious difference that Phantom Hourglass's travel mechanic is very literally on rails, while Phantom Hourglass at least provides the illusion of open-sea freedom by allowing you to plot your own paths.

Speaking of RPGs, can anything think of any examples that do have genuinely standout writing? The Mario RPGs certainly tick that box, but I'm curious if there are many games with a more 'traditional' RPG aesthetic that are also renowned for their script and characters. There've been a few titles I've been interested in, but ultimately put off by the idea of investing a large amount of time into a bunch of party members who turns out to be irritating one-dimensional cringebags.

Pikmin 3. It was overhyped to me, and while I wouldn't call it a bad game by any means (overall I still enjoyed it), I'm also hesitant to pick up another Pikmin title. I liked the aspects of fruit collecting, but I didn't like the time limit imposed, and the Pikmin themselves were only slightly more intelligent than bricks grumbles more about AI. While cute, I also wasn't too fond of any of the playable characters.

@Snaplocket For those who only own Nintendo platforms, how does the list look? Presumably a fair bit smaller?

I feel like Xenoblade's characters are the most overrated thing in the game. People talk about how they really feel they know the characters, but in that case I question if they've ever played another well received JRPG.