Topic: The Universal Games Ranking Forum (Currently: Characters/Weapons/etc. You Hate Playing Against)

New poll tonight, thought I'd mention it now in case anyone had any suggestions.

I'd agree, if A. You ignore at least half the levels and B. well liked games today still can do less with the cliched level ideas than this platformer from 1994 (see: every Mario game released in 2012).

Also, the Casino is in Sonic 2. 3 was like a Carnival. It literally uses...the most obvious carnival music in the song?

I don't deserve an internet connection.

So appearantly I actually had a poll open, so whoopsies there. Here's the results anyways.

• 1st - Games You Liked After a Second Chance - 50% (7 Votes)
• 2nd/3rd - Pinball Games/Gaming-based Pinball Tables/Mainline Donkey Kong Games - 21% Each (3 Votes Each)
• 4th - Best Updates/DLC in Gaming - 7% (1 Vote)

This'll be a good one, Games You Liked After a Second Chance is our new topic! Hopefully this'll be interesting, I've a few things for this.

Also, next Poll is gonna be all new options, cause they're all nice and spooky for that obligatory Halloween vibe. I'll get that poll up whenever. That's as accurate as I can get at this point.

Oooh this is a fun one. But I'm cheating as I don't think I actively disliked games only to change my mind later? I actually can think of only one, otherwise even games I have been interested in giving another chance someday (Pikmin 1 comes to mind) I just haven't gotten to.

1. Final Fantasy 1 (GBA version): This is an interesting one. So one of the first games I ever played, believe it or not, was the original NES Final Fantasy. In a surprising twist, 5 year old me did not understand how to FF1 properly. But when I got the GBA FF 1 and 2 in 2004 I...pretty quickly decided to give up on both of them. But then 2 years later I...restarted 2 since it had an actual story. But then I finally got to play FF1, and in terms of super basic JRPGs, it was pretty fun. This version at least. It was an almost mindless yet fun little nothing adventure where I could just try to overpower the enemies in the same few ways until I beat the game. And in terms of that, it worked out quite well.
2. Advance Wars 1: Giving an 11 year old who is competent at absolute best at easier JRPGs, a strategy game, is not the best idea. Clearly. My first time playing this, right when it was new, I enjoyed it enough but I never got past the training levels, which is all you need to know. Shockingly playing it over a decade later was a much more reasonable and enjoyable experience!
3. Kirby Air Ride: I do vaguely remember dismissing this game a bit when I first rented it. I enjoyed it enough but after an hour long session I would want to do something else. But then when I rented it a third time, I realized it was the best racing game on the GCN. Yeah, don't care if it had F Zero GX and Double Dash, they do not compare to Kirby Air Ride. It is such a weird taking on racing games, but it was one I kept playing and kept trying to do all these crazy challenges that were fun and interesting and the mechanics were unique and the different vehicles were super unique. I probably put more time into it than both of those other racing games combined. **** the reviews.
4. Mario Party 2: I don't know why, but when I first played this back in the day, I didn't like it much. I remember liking 3 and even 1 way more, when in retrospect 2 is really solid. I literally have no further explanation. Weird.

Donkey Kong country 1. When I was a kid (I did not have a SNes) I was very fascinated by this game, it looked awesome and extremely cool. Then when I played it it seemed so extremely basic and boring to me that I felt as much surprised as I was disappointed. Collectibles with no meanings (no bonus contents in that game, bonuses only give you lives), no "mixed" walking AND swimming stages, underwater stages worked like they did in Super Mario 1(!!!), some stages looked poor and cheap (expecially the temple/ruins ones), the incredibly long batch of similar themed stages in the final part... It really looked like cheap garbage to me.
Then I tried it again on my 3DS because I wanted a Donkey Kong game on 3DS but since I already have DKCR for Wii I did not want to spend much money on a downgraded version of this game.
I love DKCR, but I began to appreciate DKC1 as well. Its simpler and more straightforward gameplay can be satisfying and fit better on an handheld, it also offer more replay value after you 100% complete it because of its simpler appeal. DKCR is immensely better, but DKC1 has its strong points and is a fun and enjoyable game on its own.
Some of the things that make it less good than DKCR at the same time makes it more enjoyable as an handheld game and more replayable.
And I love the Vulture Culture stage!
The long batch of underground/factory stages in the last part of the game is still ugly anyway...

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is the only one I can think of right now. I played the demo, but that didn't click with me. I gave MH3U a second chance and bought it mostly just because it was going cheap.

The only game that pops into my mind at the moment is Twilight Princess. At the time I had never played a game like it before, and believe it or not I got turned around in the first dungeon because I didn't know what to do (also, boomerang monkey is annoying). I just remember getting really frustrated and bored and moved onto Okami. In hindsight that might have been a smart move since it got me more accustomed to action/adventure games and dungeons. When I revisited TP, I enjoyed it much more (and had some clue of what to do).

Honestly, if I hadn't decided to go back and replay TP, it's very possible that I wouldn't be such a huge Zelda fan today.

The only thing that immediately springs to mind is Red Dead Redemption.

I had first rented it from GameFly near when it first released, and while I ran around a bit, I never really got into it (probably didn't help that one of my friends played through a bunch of the early missions while I was asleep...).

A few years later I was gifted a copy for Christmas by my grandfather (first time I ever got a video game from him, so it was totally suprising), and absolutely fell in love with it.

One day I'll stop dying like this I swear.

Seriously though I'm gonna try my best to stick around this time, I mean it. It all started when Mario Oddessy came out and was just the best thing I ever laid my hands on, and then just when I beat it and took a break school decided to go ahead and get messy again. Not that hard really, just a series of tests and aurls lumbered together cause apparently checking with other teachers to see if your students have 3 other tests the same day you want to give yours is slightly beyond them.

Apart from that though, I got caught up in something else too, and boy did it turn out to be a nightmare. I decided to get into trading on Steam, namely for Team Fortress 2. It was all fun at first, but unless you're fine with losing a lot of either time, money, patience or all of the above, I can't recommend it as a way of making serious money. I lucked out big time with a few really nice people and the odd really thick one I made a good 200% profit off but even the little bit of hanging about in trade servers, fighting for prices and faffing about with every trade site imaginable was pretty draining. I came out really well with a good hundred in items I can sell off when need be but I had a few close calls and it can be seriously risky if you're new to the system.

But despite all that I have crafted the ideal man, so I'd say it was worth it overall.

And it wouldn't be a good comeback without a new poll, so here it is!
http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=5a1df20ee4b04d6fbe2d7b32

Also not sure how we got 2,000 views on this with no activity, but that's actually pretty cool. Thanks a bunch.

@BigYellow: Welcome back! I was starting to wonder where you got off to, lol. Not to worry, we all run into busy periods IRL.

I think a pretty fun and relevant ranking would be ranking the Mario Odyssey kingdoms. It would include spoilers, obviously, but I think enough time has passed since the game's launch where it's fine to talk about them.

@CreamyDream That's a very good point actually, luckily it doesn't have too many votes so I think I'll change it to what @Xaldin came up with so it'll be a ranking of the Kingdoms. I've never switched a topic during voting before but I think it's for the better.

I've given plenty of second chances and replays, but really only one of them I changed my opinion on.

I got stuck in Ocarina of Time because I couldn't find the Kokiri Sword. I gave the Collector's Edition disc to my friend (we were 8), he told me how to find it, and I traded him my extra memory card back for the game. That's why, to this day, my Zelda Collector's Edition manual to this day has vomit stains on it, and how 3D Zelda became my favorite series.

The only good second chance I can remember at the moment is Metroid Prime Hunters.

I got the game randomly because the demo that came bundled with my original DS was the coolest thing ever back then. It had been years since I last played the demo, but I figured the full game would be fun.

My first Metroid game. Around the middle point of the game, after I ran out of new planets to explore, I got lost, bored, and tired of the game.

Move forward some years later, I had a 3DS now, and played Metroid Fusion and Metroid II on it. And loved both games... So I decided to give my first game a chace again, now with my newly found love for the series, and overall better comprehension of how the game worked.

And it was great.

Aight, turns out I can't edit an option on the poll while the poll is up, so for now just pretend that the Mario Odyssey option is a Ranking of The Kingdoms. I know it's already got a few votes, so if you voted for that cause you fancy a general talk about it, don't worry, we'll have some of that too.

I voted for games that disappointed me. I can't wait to talk s#!t about Fragile Dreams

Just popping in to say I'll close this poll in a few hours. I'll leave the link here if you've any last minute votes.

http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=5a1df20ee4b04d6fbe2d7b32

Right, poll is now closed! I'll tally up soon, but not right away. Finishing off something right now.

Before the topic changes for good, I'll just throw up a game that grew on me after giving it another chance: Final Fantasy Tactics. Like countless others, I hit a brick wall fairly early on the first time I tackled it, and wasn't sure if I was supposed to be grinding or if I'd just missed the point. But it went on the backburner anyway.

Then it was a case of restarting, taking time to read some FAQs and plunging through the first five battles and then it really started to open up. Now I'd probably rank FFT as one of Square Enix's all-time best games, after The World Ends With You. They really need to revisit this series for the Switch.

Jesus, talk about a week.
Anyways, here are the results from the poll.
1st - Games That Disappointed You (42% - 5 Votes)
2nd - The Mario Thing I Tried To Fiddle With (25% - 3 Votes)
3rd/4th - Weak Characters/Items You Love To Use / 3D Sonic Games (17% Each - 2 Votes Each)
5th - Games/Tropes/Practices That Annoy You - Nope.

So that's the end of that, Games That Disappointed You is our new topic! I'll sort something up in a sec, so fire away!