Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

Potentially unpopular opinion: Commander Keen was the Mario/king of 2D platformers on PC/DOS in the early 90s. Fight me.

It's a complete travesty that iD Software shafted him in favour of FPSes. Yes, the classic DOOM games were especially great, but they could have had Tom Hall continue working on more Keen games (as that was his passion project).

@Sisilly_G honestly for me it’s not really a criticism, it’s just kinda what is going to be when you make this kind of game, because you have to fill it with a lot of content, fill it with too little and the it looks empty. I just say this because for me there’s so so much to do which like I said before is actually fine, it can just be pretty overwhelming for me and it kinda overload my brain a bit.

Now I say this for botw one, I haven’t played tears so for all I know there actually really is just too much in that game, I just know for me in one it already feels like a lot.

Ok I agree sekiro is underrated like out of all the soulsborns I feel like no one really talks about it! And it’s such an amazing game and is so different from other soulsborns, so much so it just caught be off guard with what it did. And the final boss is just amazing!

@Snatcher I am yet to play Sekiro (I have to find it first) but it does not look good to me. The Japanese/Asian setting is just boring for me. I prefer the fantasy one in the other souls games even a bit generic.

It is the ONLY Fromsoft game that I have not played Still nothing can beat Bloodborne!

@Snatcher : I get not wanting to invest in excessively long games, and I've shied away from most RPGs for that reason, as I tend to hoard them but never make any progress. So while I've heard great things about, say, Persona, Shin Megami Tensei, Final Fantasy etc., I've ultimately decided to skip on these franchises, and I suppose I'd say that I find them "overwhelming" too, especially if the projected run time is in excess of 100, 200 hours. Noooo, thank you.

I'd rather enjoy a shorter game that I can actually complete than hoard a bunch of tedious, repetitive, convoluted longer ones.

But I think what makes BOTW/TOTK work so well is that it doesn't matter if you've taken a long break between sessions as the game is open ended and the story isn't necessarily integral to the gameplay, so I never feel lost when I get back into it (and the final boss is always just a stone's throw away for those who just want to get it over and done with). But when I've taken a break from any other Zelda game, I always end up restarting as I have no freaking idea where I'm at, the more advanced mechanics etc. I've found BOTW/TOTK to be completely burdenless in that respect, and it's perhaps its greatest strength.

I played a bit of Skyward Sword HD upon its release, but I know I'd have to restart that too as it's so story/mechanic heavy. Ugh.

I'm also not into games that are punishingly difficult, so I ended up skipping Dark Souls (though I still bought the amiibo for the collection).

@Snatcher @Zuljaras
If you guys enjoy Bloodborne, and are itching for a Souls-fix, let me recommend 'Lies of P'...

I actually can't get over how good it is, and plays like it was actually developed by FromSoft (!) It openly borrows many of From's tropes from a lot of their catalogue, but also introduces new mechanics/elements that work really well. The boss battles are challenging, and the atmosphere is very reminiscent of Bloodborne.

It is free on Gamepass, and also on PS/Steam (I actually played this on Deck, got a stable-ish 45FPS and enjoyed my time with the game massively)

@CJD87 Pretty much everyone likes Elden Ring. Even I did, and I refused to play Soulsborne games for seven years after Bloodborne. They did a great job combining 'open air' design elements with Soulsian design principles.

I just think the online gaming community ignores the issues with their games a little too readily.

So, about Sekiro... I sort of want to play it, but I SUCK at parrying in Souls games. Like, I've tried, and I can't get the timing down. And I'm aware that it's pretty much a requirement in Sekiro. Should I just avoid that game, or is it easier to pull off in that game, or what?

@CJD87 It was the first game I've beaten on the PS5. Amazing game!

I have a problem with Lords of the Fallen though. After the first boss I have trouble holding my attention to it

I will try it again in time.

@Zuljaras That is interesting because I was far more excited for LotF vs Lies of P.... but then they both released, and LotF didn't seem to land particularly well with critics or fans of the genre. Kind of glad I've held back from purchasing for the meantime. Lies of P is so good though right! The last boss though... nightmare

@Ralizah Honestly I'd say that the parry mechanic in Sekiro is probably the most generous window I've known, and thankfully works well... which you'd hope it would, considering the entire game is built around it! It is definitely a challenge, but maybe worth picking up on Deck (it runs v well) and then refunding if you dont like it? (if you play less than 2 hours on Deck games think this is OK)

Unpopular opinion: Super Mario World is one of Nintendo's worst 2D Mario games to date. Total downgrade from SMB3, and even compares poorly to more modern entries like NSMBU and Wonder.

@CJD87 Good to hear. I'll definitely try it sooner than later, then.

If it was between that and Dark Souls 3, which would you recommend going for first?

I thought about DS2, but it seems like the games drowns the player in mobs, which could get frustrating.

@Ralizah : I never cared for the NES/SNES Mario games, but I thoroughly enjoyed the GB games.

I would give them a second look one of these years via my Wii All Stars disc if I can get a place of my own and set it all up again, but for now, I'm stuck with whatever I've got on Switch/3DS.

@Sisilly_G Super Mario Land kinda sucks, but I played it to death as a kid, so it gives me the warm fuzzies when I play it.

The sequel is actually a pretty decent Mario platformer, though.

@Ralizah : I love the original Super Mario Land in all of its simplicity (and its memorable music). A bite-sized game I'm happy to revisit anytime. It certainly beat the crappy LCD games I grew up with as a kid. The sequel rocked though. That could perhaps do with a remake.

Anyway, back to unpopular opinions...

@Ralizah DS3 is a great game, but it will likely feel quite antiquated in a lot of ways - now that you've played Elden Ring. ER builds upon a lot of assets, mechanics, elements from D3 - - -> essentially Elden Ring is 'Open World Dark Souls 4'. Also, the linear nature of DS3 leans back into the 'git gud' mentality, with no open world areas to explore and level up easily.
Sekiro would be my pick, as it is also somewhat linear (opens up a bit in second half) but once the combat clicks it is one of the most rewarding games ever. An early skill-check boss, Lady Butterfly, will have you punching air when you manage to beat her! And if you can beat her, you have all the tools needed in your locker to beat the game

@CJD87 Gotcha.

I doubt the less involved mechanics would matter to me (my next game after ER was Dark Souls 1 lol), but hearing Sekiro is more linear actually appeals to me. Also, I dramatically prefer the feudal Japanese setting to the dark fantasy of the Souls games.

OH THANK GOD I'M NOT ALONE IN THINKING THIS

Mario World is a game I want to love so badly myself: it's got great spritework, an iconic OST and was the introduction of a ton of Mario mainstays like Galoombas, Spin Jumps and, of course, Yoshi. However I just cannot STAND the movement of it; feels like you're constantly wrestling with the controls in order to do anything (an issue heavily compounded by how infuriating the Cape Feather is to use) and in a game that's supposed to be as chill and de-stressing as Mario? Yeah that's a massive no-go in my eyes. I actually just started up Mario Advance 2 yesterday to see whether my thoughts on it would change on another playthrough and....nope, still don't like it XD

I couldn't disagree more tbh. In fact, I personally find Super Mario World to be one of the few (if not only) games from pre-1995 or so that still holds up as one of the best in its genre.

In particular:

• I find the controls to be some of the best in the series (far better than the sluggish SMB3 and the good-for-a-first-attempt SMB1).
• It has a great selection of powerups (feather, while taking some getting used to, controls better than the racoon in SMB3; Yoshi was an absolute gamechanger; and keeping the powerup list short works well for it - most Mario games have loads of dud powerups anyway).
• Levels have a lot more depth to them than SMB3 (that latter's levels are often centered around a single gimmick and are done before you know it).
• And finally, I think it stands out more than other 2D Mario games because of it's theming. I like how the worlds are continuous with each other and sorta make sense as different parts of a larger island. It makes it feel like a bit more of an adventure (as opposed to the typical Mario structure of Plains --> Desert --> etc.). I really appreciate Sunshine for this reason as well.

In fairness, I think Wonder does a good job of implementing these positives in a modern age (except for the last and, to some extent, point 2 - I'm not completely sold on the new powerups outside of drill). I'm tempted to say Wonder is the better game at this point.

/defending a popular opinion in the unpopular opinions thread xD

@Fizza I've actually never cared for the game's spritework (especially Mario, who looks weird), but what really does me in is the weird controls, the unimaginative courses/worlds, the lack of power-ups and minigames, and it's also the game that introduced ghost houses, my least favorite element of the series.

But so it goes with games on one of the most overrated consoles.

Genesis > SNES 4ever

TotK is a game filled with filler content. It feels like there’s a lot to do, but not much is actually meaningful. Nintendo pretty much filled the world with excessive content to make it feel as if players had a ton to actually experience.

The two new areas, skies and depths, feel incredibly underbaked. The depths feel the same through-out and feel like they weren’t as interesting as they could have been. The skies were the same few islands practically copied and pasted, with only a few unique ones actually existing through the game.

The lore is incredibly shallow in TotK and it feels like the Zelda team wanted to abandon the consistent series lore whilst also referencing it. Have their cake and eat it too. I get that lore doesn’t always come first in Zelda, but the games had a logical universe with the same consistent pieces of lore; like the triforce or like the master sword being made to slay evil. Ganondorf is somehow more powerful without the triforce than he is with it, despite the triforce being a god-like relic. Its treated like nothing more than a toddler’s toy in comparison to the secret stones.

Another issue is how it feels like Nintendo as a whole wants to make more sequels of games that ignore the game(s) that came before it. TotK ignores a lot of stuff from BotW, and Pikmin 4 ignores pikmin 1-3 in terms of events that happen (outside of references). Its aggravating that we can’t have proper sequels anymore, since its bad for business. Nintendo wants to expand series demographics, so they have to ignore any cohesion or proper linking of games in order to minimize the chances of people feeling as if they’re missing out. Even when they port the previous games, they still do this for some reason. It amazes me, and concerns me for the future Nintendo sequels.

Currently my hype on PS5 machine is started to build so my impression between PS5 , PS4 & Switch so far =
PS5 > PS4 > Switch