Unpopular Opinions On Gaming

[Rynnec]

I love both games a lot, but if I had to pick one to replay, it'd have to be Sonic Adventure. It's a lot quicker and better paced, and it has the better soundtrack (which is saying a lot considering how great Mario 64's soundtrack is).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

And while we're at it, Open Your Heart is awesome, as are all of the early vocal Sonic tracks from Crush 40, including their anniversary renditions of them for Sonic Generations.

Yeah, yeah, bring on the hate, but I'm not taking that opinion back.

[Nel_Annette]

Well, you could tell by Generations' versions of the songs that their voices are starting to falter a bit. Sad but true. Ted Poley and the Crush 40 guy just can't sing quite as strongly as they could in the early 2000s.

I think as far as the Adventure games go (Sonic 06 included, because that was pretty much an Adventure game in all but name.), the first game got it the most right. The stories connect in fun ways, none of them drag out longer than they need to (I believe that excluding Sonic, no one visits more than five levels), the hub worlds are actually fun to explore, and really give you a sense of the world you're in. No one, including Sonic, visits every level the game has to offer, and because of the way each character plays differently, even levels you're revisiting with another character feel fresh in a new perspective.

Level design is great too. Compare, say, Speed Highway to Adventure 2's Radical Highway. Speed Highway's roads curve into little half-pipes, go up walls, past bell towers, down skyscrapers into the streets below as the sun rises. Radical highway is pretty much the same flat road all throughout, with a few loops here and there, but overall it's kind of bland to play.

In SA2, because of the way the plot works, you'll be doing three desert levels in a row, or four Space Colony ARK levels in a row. In Sonic 2006, you're visiting every level with every character, even when they have no reason to go there, and it's usually the same exact level layout. I felt the original Adventure found a good balance when it came to level pacing.

Though I find all three games's soundtracks orgasmic (most main Sonic games are), Adventure's is probably in my top five for the series.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Open Your Heart is the best Sonic vocal theme. Never been big on any of the others.

Seriously, if you even so much as mention 3D Sonic in a positive light, some people will go apeshit.

Certain games are like the bell to Pavlov's Dog to some gamers.

3D Sonic
Donkey Kong Country
GoldenEye
Perfect Dark
Mega Man X8
Mario Kart Double Dash
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
New Super Mario Bros. U

Even attempt a discussion on them and you're guaranteed to get raving haters within ten posts telling you how terrible you are for even reminding them that the game exists. Not like normal "I don't like this game" posts, either, more like "Are you mentally deficient? You must be to be speaking of this game as if it has any merits whatsoever."

[Foggle]

And while we're at it, Open Your Heart is awesome, as are all of the early vocal Sonic tracks from Crush 40, including their anniversary renditions of them for Sonic Generations.

Yeah, yeah, bring on the hate, but I'm not taking that opinion back.

Well, I love Knuckles' theme in Sonic Adventure and all the rap songs from SA2, so...

Donkey Kong Country

There are actually people who dislike the DKC games?

[Spark Of Spirit]

Donkey Kong Country

There are actually people who dislike the DKC games?

There was a thread on NeoGAF a few years ago on how Donkey Kong Country was an objectively bad game. Basically the thread was full of people with irrational hatred of the game and the series pre-Retro. Some people are dead set and categorizing these games as all style no substance which makes discussions on the series a chore to read.

EDIT: Not to mention one of the big sites/mags a few years ago (who gave DKC1 a high review when it came out, mind) came out with an article calling it overrated and how it's "okay that we categorize it as the mediocre game it is now" or something.

DKC discussion can really get that bad online.

[Avaitor]

Donkey Kong Country

There are actually people who dislike the DKC games?

EGM.

[Foggle]

What the fuck even is that shit? DKC is probably one of the best series in all of gaming, and Tropical Freeze is my personal favorite 2D platformer of all time. These people sound really bitter and dumb.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Donkey Kong Country

There are actually people who dislike the DKC games?

EGM.

This is true. I can't find their multiple articles trashing the game, but this is what they thought when it came out.



At some point I suppose the game magically spoiled like rotten milk for them. DKC is the same game it's always been.

[Nel_Annette]

...Sooooo yeeeeaaaah... I'm one of those people who doesn't like the series much.

different strokes ? 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Or it could just be that the staff at EGM back then were completely different from their modern staff.

A lot of people seem to forget that there are actual people who run these magazines and websites, and that many come and go over the years. Most of the older journalists at Gamespot, for example, have left long ago, and the site is run by almost completely different people than before, hence why it went to shit.

With EGM, it's probably a case of the people responsible for that GOTY article no longer being there after a while, and instead some obnoxious douche-bags who run it now decided to rub their uninformed opinions in everyones faces.

[Spark Of Spirit]

EGM's old opinion aside, there is a raging hatred for this series out there. Though some of that might be generic Rare hate.

Rare attracts a lot of ire, too.

[Avaitor]

I just remember that EGM once made a list of the 10 most overrated games of all time, and half of their titles were Rare.

[Foggle]

EGM has been absolute horseshit ever since it came back after being cancelled. It was easily my favorite gaming publication in its heyday, but the new version is as bad as games journalism gets. I think E-K is right that most of the old staff is probably completely absent from the new version - it's EGM in name only.

I just remember that EGM once made a list of the 10 most overrated games of all time, and half of their titles were Rare.

Though I do think Conker's Bad Fur Day doesn't hold up at all.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I just remember that EGM once made a list of the 10 most overrated games of all time, and half of their titles were Rare.

In related news, I found this article in searching for that list that tackles a good problem with modern game reviewers like said list.