Despite being a huge Pokemon fan, I haven't really played a lot of the spinoff games. Usually this has either been because I didn't have normal access to a console with them (N64/GCN), or because the aesthetics (Pokemon Rumble) or genre (Pokemon Shuffle, Trozei, etc.) the spinoff was in didn't really appeal to me. Too, I've been burned by a few of them. There are a few spinoffs that I've missed out on that I would love to play (Coliseum/XD, Conquest, Pokemon Stadium), but I don't see this happening until they hit the Virtual Console or the fabled N64 Mini or something. I do plan on picking up Pokemon Snap on the Wii U eshop soon though.
Oh, and I'm one of the ten people on the planet who has never played Pokemon Go since I still own a Windows Phone. XD
Inhales
Here we go. Ranked least favorite to favorite, as usual.
5. Pokemon Dash - Ah, to be young and naive. This was actually a Christmas gift that came with my brand new phat blue DS. I was starting to explore other genres at this time, and a Pokemon racing game looked great. Race on cool courses with my favorite Gen 3 Pokemon? That sounds awesome! Time to run around as Torchic!
How very wrong I was.
You were stuck racing as only Pikachu, the touch screen controls were horrible, and the game was a bland, cheap cash-in. The only minor redeeming quality was that you could import images of your favorite Pokemon from the Gen 3 games and have custom courses created out of them. No, you only imported them. The game did all of the work after that, unfortunately. So much for customization. Trust me, I had no misgivings selling this one to Gamestop.
4. Pokemon Dream Radar - A so-so AR game that I'm sure most people picked up just to nab the legendary Pokemon. I did have some fun with this one, but it felt so limited and could have potentially been so much more. At least Professor Burnet returned in Sun/Moon. She seemed like a pretty cool character to just be thrown by the wayside.
3. Pokemon Battle Revolution - While I've never properly played the Stadium games, I did play a demo for one of the two (I think it was Stadium 2) at a local Walmart whenever my mom was shopping. I LOVED that game, and I was expecting a similar experience with this one. Battle Revolution is a functional game, but I found it disappointing when compared to the Stadium games. Outside of importing Pokemon from the Gen 4 games (and that's only entertaining for so long when your Giratina wrecks everything), the experience was rather generic and lacked some substance. Rental Pokemon weren't that plentiful, and...Yeah. I just wasn't impressed with the game.
2. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team - The main story playthrough was a fun and unique experience. I had never played a game like this before that point and had always wanted to play as a Pokemon, and I ended up as a Charmander!
What really killed this one for me, however, was the pain-in-the-[expletive] post-game. A lot of these new dungeons that appeared were massive, with a legendary at the bottom. Even if, through some miracle, you were able to grind/suffer all the way to the end (provided you didn't die and lose one of your Friend Bows and the rest of your stuff first), there was no guarantee, even with a Friend Bow, that you would recruit that legendary Pokemon. It became one huge, frustrating grind that bore little fruit after many hours that felt wasted. Because of this, I haven't ever picked up another Mystery Dungeon spinoff.
1. Pokemon Ranger - This one is more at the top of the list since I can't think of any major negatives. The story is passable, and while I consider catching and training Pokemon to be better, I still liked a lot of the mechanics in this game. It could be challenging to capture some Pokemon with the capture line, determine when to use the right assists, and figure out which "friend" to use for this environmental puzzle if you were new to the area or wanted to keep them around for capture line enhancement.
Honestly though, past the first one, I haven't played any more of these either. I completely missed Shadows of Almia, and it's possible I would have picked up Guardian Signs if I hadn't disliked the demo that I tried of the game. I dunno, it just seemed sort of cheap to summon legendary Pokemon or something.
So...yeah, I need to get to playing some of the better spinoffs.
I don't even think of Colosseum and Stadium as spin-offs. Same gameplay, and full compatibility.
I think it's like 2D Zeldas. People really like them, but, with no new Pokemon, it's clear they're not the focus.
Since there are so many pokemon spinoffs I'll just rank the ones I've played or seen let's plays of.
1.) XD: Gale of Darkness: I really dug this game as a companion to gen 3. We've never seen such an almost western American-set Pokemon game, and the attack effects and SFX are all great. Shadow Pokemon were a great twist on the series.
2.) Pokemon Snap: I love environmental interaction in games, it's not hard to see why I'd love this one. We need more from this concept than the lame Sun/Moon minigame.
3.) Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team: I loved this how the focus was finally on the Pokemon themselves, and gen 3 is one of the only casts that can support a game like this. The pixel art is also excellent, and I think it has a better turn-based system than Pokemon proper. It certainly feels more satisfying than Pokemon anyway.
4) Mystery Dungeon: Explorers in Time: The second one I played, never finished it.
5) Pokepark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure: It's not a bad game, it's just not a good one either. I'd love to see an earnest effort at a Pokemon adventure game with an action-based battle system, but this never felt quite finished.
1. Pokemon Snap: It's funny how my favorite Pokemon spinoff is one where you are literally stuck on rails, but here we are. It's such a simple, brilliant little game, and was also I think the first Pokemon game I owned.
2. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 1: Weird thing, I actually remember a lot of people didn't like this game when it came out. No idea why really, it's pretty solid. I know everyone loves the sequel, which I would like to play someday, but the one PMD game I have is this one so...yeah.
3. Pokemon Stadium 2: LOTS OF NOSTALGIA. I dunno how well it holds up but I remember putting quite a bit of time into this game, and I remember it having more or better features than the original.
4. Pokemon Puzzle League: It's a good puzzle game that you only know exists because of Nintendo franchises (despite itself technically being a Nintendo franchise). Basically the last N64 game I ended up rebuying, so I played it again only a couple of years ago. Fun and the fact that it's maybe the only game based off of the anime makes it memorable to me. ALSO GIOVANNI SHOWS UP AND IS UNINTENTIONALLY HILARIOUS.
5. Pokemon XD: This is a good Pokemon RPG, and I think improved upon the previous game with somewhat better pacing and leveling and some cool bonus games.
6. Pokemon Stadium 1: MORE NOSTALGIA. Not as good as the 2nd game but I still have fond memories way back in the day with it. Especially when I battled using my god-tier Zapdos to destroy EVERYTHING like I did in Yellow.
7. Pokemon Pinball: Counting both pinball games because wynaut. They're fun pinball games with some fun gimmicks, but I always feel like they still should've been better than they were. I don't know what but they were missing something. Largely because I think both games only had 2 main pinball boards.
8. Pokemon TCG game: I'll be honest, this game's fine but I went back to it and didn't enjoy it remotely as much as I did when I was a kid.
9. Pokemon Colosseum: A good game that I got annoyed by because I felt tricked into thinking the game was going to be way darker than it was. Some people are still convinced it is, but honestly outside of a few somewhat darker locations, this is just another criminal Pokemon organization story, except that's the focus. It's a wacky children's anime, that is far from being even the darkest wacky children's anime.
10. Hey You Pikachu!: HAHAHAHAHA OH GOD. This type of game probably would suck if it was made NOW, why did we think technology from like 2000 would work for this idea? Ridiculous. Like, I had some fun with it back in the day but even back then I knew the game wasn't good at what it was trying to do.
...And as it so happens, I forgot a couple of games. I'll just list them instead of ranking them.
Pokemon Pinball (R/S) - A fun little game for a pinball or Pokemon fan, one that's accessible yet has some challenge on the bonus tables. I've always preferred the Ruby table. The game's randomness is sometimes its undoing, however. Finding and catching those last few Pokemon that you need for you 'dex can be quite time-consuming.
Pokemon TCG - I had forgotten about this one. It was an interesting parallel to the normal games (except, y'know, with cards) that explained the rules quite well. Some matches could get very interesting (especially if you got RNG-screwed), and there were some...colorful characters. Definitely a fun little spinoff game.
Not sure where I would rank these two, to be honest. Probably mid-range to higher on my list.
Here we go, I'll finally give my two cents on this.
1. Pokken Tournament - Quite possibly my favourite Wii U game, I love fighting games, but sometimes it's tough to remember tech and combos across games cause of how complicated they can be. Hell, sometimes I end up dropping games as I learn new ones, I've completely dropped Smash Bros. for Rivals of Aether, and my once extensive Tekken knowledge has been pushed aside for Street Fighter V. Pokken has never left me though, cause the mechanics are genius and I'll never want to stop playing with them. I've never seen a fighting game with such simple mechanics have so much depth and be so accessible, it's a true marvel. Labbing in the Training Mode which in most fighting games is a chore, is actually really fun in Pokken cause of how much combos can be customized. If I had to nitpick, the grab range is a bit big and the damage falloff for combos is too heavy. Some people complain about a lack of singleplayer content, but I don't care for it. Fighting games need good mechanics and good online, not 5+ hours of AI fights. (And speaking of online, good lord is the matchmaking fast. glares at SFV)
2. Pokemon... Uhhh... - Right, I don't fiddle with a lot of the other stuff, XD is a great game, the first few Mystery Dungeon and Pokemon Snap games are good. Stadium 1 and 2 are okay. Everything else I either haven't played or is just plain mediocre.
3. Hey You Pikachu/Pokemon Channel/Pokemon Dash - Whoever's responsible for these needs to be force fed Rare Candy until they get Pokerus.
Yeah, that's all I can really offer on this topic. I'll have a new poll up today though, so stay tuned for that.
Japes aside, here's the options for the next topic. Mainline Kirby Games Mainline Resident Evil Games Mainline Castlevania Games Games Most Deserving of Remakes Reworks/Rebalances You'd Make in Games
Promise I'll close this one sooner, so vote while you can.
Ah, almost missed this one. Just gonna drop a list of best to worst, cause there are SO MANY this time around.
Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky (or Darkness or Time) Pokken Tournament Pokemon TCG Pokemon Snap Pokemon Pinball RS Pokemon Colosseum Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon Pokemon Stadium 2 Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs Pokemon Conquest Pokemon Ranger Pokemon Stadium Pokemon Go Pokemon Trozei Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity Pokemon Puzzle League Pokemon Shuffle Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Blue/Red Pokemon Pinball Pokemon Battle Revolution Pokemon Channel Hey You Pikachu Pokemon Dream Radar Pokemon Dash
Also would like to mention the Pokemon Mini games, even though they were way to simple to rank against the others. Mostly for Pokemon Pinball Mini, but the others were fun, if simple games. Never played the Pokepark or Pokemon Rumble games, so they're excluded, and Pokemon Art Academy isn't really a Pokemon spin off but I think I hit almost ever other one to be released lol.
Just finished up with the Nintendo Direct, not bad at all, the Bethesda support was a big surprise. Oddessy looking even more amazing, The new Square Enix game is shaping up very nicely, as is Xenoblade 2. Lack of Ultra Sun/Moon news was as shame though, looks like a bit of a cash grab to me so far. Minecraft on 3DS is actually a meme, like there's milking something and then there's physically tearing the udder off with your bare hands.
So overall, it did what it needed to, I'm happy, it had swole Dedede and the Smash fanbase should be kept away from any comments section within a 2 mile radius.
I'll close the poll tomorrow, just felt like talking about that for now.
@CreamyDream Ahhh there's no shame in wanting Smash, it's just these "SMASH OR RIOT" people who condemn any Direct without it that get on my nerves. Smash is pretty good, but it's one of the stinkers in the Nintendo fanbase for sure.
Poll has been shot down in the street and robbed of his results. Also new topic.
Here are the results:
1st - Reworks/Rebalances You'd Make in Games - 41% (9 Votes)
2nd - Mainline Kirby Games - 36% (8 Votes)
3rd - Games Most Deserving of Remakes - 14% (3 Votes)
4th - Mainline Resident Evil Games - 9% (2 Votes)
5th - Mainline Castlevania Games - 0% (Poll hacked by Konami)
So there you have it, Reworks/Rebalances You'd Make in Games is our new topic! So let out the game dev, competitive gamer, or angry kid who got headshot across the map in you out and make an imaginary difference!
1- TES 4 Oblivion: good third person view mode (it is already present but almost unplayable), full support for gamepad on PC too, better character graphics (all characters looked very bad, the environments looked much better), being available on Switch. Being available on Switch with all those improvements - best game ever
2- Donkey Kong Country Returns with the addition of some underwater locations and the ability to swim
3- Eternal darkness: some outdoor locations, a few more different things between the 3 playthroughs to make them more varied
4- Hand of fate: Character creation
5- Street fighter Alpha 2: World tour mode
6- Skyrim: (I would rewrite almost every quest from scratch but I feel it would be a change too big for the purposes of this thread so I'll mention other things) possibility to kill every single character, children included. Better mages guild (I really can't suffer Skyrim pathetic mages, they're all idiots). Possibility to kill Serana. I'm a f**** vampire Hunter, I'm supposed to kill f***** vampires at sight, not befriend them without even a reason!!!! Put something in Apocripha. Make something hapoen in it. Apocripha is beautiful, but it is just a big, long, empty tunnel where nothing happens except a few boring and predictable enemy encounters... :/
1. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door: Replace the backtracking with something of value
2. Super Smash Bros. 4: Replace their attempt at Classic Mode with literally anything else (also add Break the Targets, of course)
3. Bravely Default: Write characters without reminding us every 2 minutes of the same exact character quirk
4. Metroid: Other M: Set the writer/s on fire
5. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze: Make the levels 25% shorter, and add 25% more levels
6. Dark Souls: Give me a 2nd chance at a boss without going through minutes of an easy, enemy invested segment
7. Every old game that does this: Don't make me start from the beginning of the game
8. Most series that decide to go in a direction that gets rid of traditional level progression from previous highly praised games: Don't
I've a few things to say on this topic, but for now I'll devote one post to what I want the most. I think the Pokemon Type Chart could use some changes. It's no surprise some types are better than others, and sometimes that's okay, but right now I think it's a tad unhealthy. I've not the most credibitly on this topic, I'm only around 3000 in the Gen 7 Showdown ladder and 4000 for Gen 1, but here's how I'd rank the types currently.
A Rank:
Fairy
Water
Steel (Borderline)
B Rank:
Ground
Flying
Ghost
Dark
Poison
Electric
Fighting
C Rank:
Bug
Rock (Borderline)
D Rank:
Grass
Normal
Psychic
E Rank:
Ice
Very Meta Dependent:
Fire (Usually bad but great right now)
Dragon (Not as spammable as before)
Note: The types are not in any real order within the ranks, other than the borderline ones. For example I think Normal is worse than Psychic.
Here's what I'd change:
Ice
Ice is a type that is great to have as a move on a non-Ice type, but being Ice type is very difficult. I'm not a fan of the way the whole 'good offensively but bad defensively' went, as there are better offensive types that have some defensive value or a defensive niche, like Rock having a few key resistances and decent synergy with other types or Dark having an immunity. So here's how I'd fix that:
Make Ice Super Effective against Water.
Make Ice Resist Water.
Make Ice Immune to Fairy.
Make Ice do Neutral Damage to Grass.
This trades being strong against Grass to counter Water types, which has always been a top-tier type, and acts as a small buff to Grass types, who are a bit below average. The Fairy immunity gives Ice a defensive niche, although I think making it Super Effective against Fairy may be too much.
Psychic
Psychic is a very mediocre type that has little offensive use and very poor defensive synergy, if you pair another type up with Psychic things are proly gonna go down the drain. Still, I understand why Game Freak has kept it this way, we don't want a repeat of Gen 1 Psychic. Nonetheless, I think a small change is in order.
Make Psychic Super Effective against Fairy.
I think this is enough to give Psychic some sort of offensive niche, as right now the only reason I see Psychic moves on Non-Psychic types is either because of a lack of other options or to counter Toxapex.
Bug
Bug is an interesting type. It's not amazing defensively, and is resisted by a lot. However, Bug type moves and Pokemon can be amazing. (e.g. U-Turn, Leech Life, Scizor, Volcarona)
Make Bug do Neutral Damage against Fairy/Ghost type.
Don't know which I want here, or if I want either at all, I might have bashed Fairy too much today, but Ghost isn't exactly problematic right now.
Rock/Normal
Rock might be fine, I really can't make my mind up. Normal sucks, but I think that's actually okay given the nature of the type. Not sure about these two.
So that's that, my opinions could change, so take this with a grain of salt. If you've any opinion I'd love to hear it.
LOL I would put Vanessa Lewis back to her VF5 levels after her slight nerfing and animation changes in Final Showdown. Technically the tweaks weren't that bad but I had to rework a large number of my combos.
For general gaming I would turn off the weather/wind in stage 3-2 for ninja gaiden NES. That was just cruel.
Taiko is good for the soul, Hoisa!
Japanese NNID:RyuNiiyamajp
Team Cupcake! 11/15/14
Team Spree! 4/17/19
I'm a Dream Fighter. Perfume is Love, Perfume is Life.
7. Every old game that does this: Don't make me start from the beginning of the game
Do you mean when old games don't have proper save files? Because I 100% agree with that
Well that and games where if you lose your continues, they send you to the beginning of the game rather than the beginning of the level (Blaster Master did this IIRC)
It's way too much work to create an entire list of game reworks you want. In terms of games that the developers have changed themselves, Fallout 4's survival mode dramatically changed the way you play that game. It made the game autosave only and only autosaved when you slept on a bed / mattress in addition to damage rebalancing and the addition of fatigue/hunger and dehydration/water bottling. It's honestly shocking just how well that game converts, the world is so well constructed that mattress' are spread in many odd places throughout the world as if the raiders and other factions actually lived and slept there. Even Super Mutants have beds made of tires bound together with plastic mesh (you can't sleep on those ).
I'll probably add to this post later on when I manage to think of more things I'd like to see changed.
1. Allow me to change weapon and gear while in queue for a match in Splatoon. If ARMS allows you to change your fighter while in queue, it shouldn't be too much of a hassle to do the same in Splatoon 2.
2. Make more things unlockable, unlockable stuff harder to unlock and stop showing off unlockable stuff in your marketing. Sure, the Internet may have taken a lot of the fun out of unlocking hidden characters, stages and so on, when you can just look up information about anything you want. Sadly, hidden characters have become a joke anyways with them being unlocked way too easily or there not being unlockable characters whatsoever. It was so fun as a kid playing Melee for the first time. You were playing a simple match and boom, Marth shows up! You just don't get this kinda stuff nowadays.
Join the NL Inklings Discord Server: https://discord.gg/5gf7xg3
Nintendo Switch Friend Code: SW-8427-0621-0325, Username: Montillo
PSN: Montillo88
Forums
Topic: The Universal Games Ranking Forum (Currently: Characters/Weapons/etc. You Hate Playing Against)
Posts 281 to 300 of 494
This topic has been archived, no further posts can be added.