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Author Topic: Games you think are perfect  (Read 17797 times)

BP

  • Beside Pacific
« on: June 27, 2011, 12:53:00 PM »
Perfect as in, there is not a single thing in it that you ever find yourself complaining about. Not even a minor detail you would change, add or subtract.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately and for almost every game I really really love, there's still something about it that I hate. The only exception thus far has been Punch-Out!! (the Wii version from 2009, of course, it's not like I haven't treated it as the greatest thing on Earth in the past). There's nothing, nothing that I think is wrong with it.

I've also been mulling Portal over. I feel like I'm forgetting something in it that I don't like but I'm not sure.



Honorable mention: good games that are very close but still have things in them I hate

Banjo-Kazooie. What's the problem? The maze-like structure on the way to Mumbo's skull in Bubblegloop Swamp. I hate that. And unless you enter the level, get the boots, leave, smash the ice chunk blocking the way to Cheato, then do the level, plan perfectly so you finish as a crocodile, and leave, you must go through it twice at least... unless you don't want Cheato's first upgrade. What would I have changed? Instead of a tiny slot for only Croc Banjo to fit through, I would have put a door there opened by a switch in front of Mumbo's house.

Also I wish the entrance to Rusty Bucket Bay wouldn't be permanently flooded. You never actually get to walk up the steps to the open door.

Ocarina of Time. What are the problems? Time is too wonky. You can't be in Kakariko in the day, use the Sun's Song to make it night, then go to the Graveyard and see Dampé because he's already ended his tour? What. And of course there's Kaepora "That God[darn] Owl" Gaebora. And the way you can't necessarily get a quick warp to Zora's Domain, particularly in the future half of the game where you can't swim through the portal at the lake (not that anyone likes swimming across the lake in the past half). And the Iron Boots in the Water Temple. There are actually many things in OoT that make it far from perfect, in spite of how good it is. Perhaps the remake has fixed a few of these problems? I'll find out later on

BioShock. What's wrong with that one? Everything after you meet Andrew Ryan in person. A billion fetch quests and a boss who doesn't really fit the mood of the rest of the game. Especially the ending if you accidentally harvested ONE Little Sister. I was trying to reload! Honest! I don't deserve the bad ending where I become an irretrievably bad guy! The part with the bees and the splicers showing up every time you opened a hive was pretty ridiculous, too. And I don't like how you can't customize the controls (at least in the 360 version).

EarthBound 2/MOTHER 3... There's an explanation behind why they decided to make it so you can't run for a little while before Lucas or Kumatora learns a new PSI move but it's still annoying and I automatically use the workaround that makes it almost like it doesn't happen--walk around in circles until I get the move. There's also a problem most people miss that's really glaring when you notice it. Hinawa (Lucas's mother) barely has any character at all, but you're very much expected to be devastated when she dies. What went wrong here? They kill Hinawa entirely too early for it to be very striking. More interaction with Flint was really, really needed, especially since he is your player character when it happens. Claus on the other hand has a lot of screen time before being reconstructed, so his death hits a lot harder. Maybe they should've called it BROTHER instead.

A lot of people would probably say they hate Chapter 3 most because Salsa is so weak, but I disagree. Having your player character NEED to rely on a non-playable character that you hate is a pretty effective writing technique that wouldn't work in a movie. It's frustrating, but that's exactly what that part needs. You are Salsa, and you are frustrated. No problem here.

WarioWare: Smooth Moves. It's great fun, but what is WITH that one Tug-Of-War game with the vacuum!? Did they not test that one at all? There are a few microgames in there that you can never be sure you'll win by skill because the control isn't perfect, and that's baaaaad.
« Last Edit: June 27, 2011, 12:55:02 PM by BP »
All your dreeeeeeams begiiin to shatterrrrrr~
It's YOUR problem!

« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2011, 01:18:22 PM »
Excellent thread idea, BP. Bravo.

I think Guitar Hero 2 and 3 are perfect. I can't think of a single thing I would change about them.

I instantly thought of Bioshock, but after some thinking I realized I got really sick of the hacking minigame. The things you mentioned about Bioshock didn't bother me. The part where after you meet Andrew Ryan was a little tedious but I'm not counting that as a knock against the game. I wasn't bothered because my pants were still full of poop from meeting Andrew Ryan.. If they had eliminated the hacking minigame (not even necessarily right away, they could have given you a tonic to bypass it entirely) then I think Bioshock would be perfect.

I think Portal is perfect.

I thought Team Fortress 2 was perfect until they started doing the class updates. I'm not saying I didn't like the class updates; just, the game had too many variables to consider it perfect.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for GBA is very close to perfect, if only they would lighten up on the laws toward the end of the game. I can handle one (or even two) laws during a battle, but three is ridiculous, and they always seem to prohibit my most-used things (black magic, katanas, etc). It got to the point where I would wander around the overworld for dozens of in-game days until the laws would land on the one little section that I was OK with. This is why I was so excited when FFTA2 came out for the DS, I heard they pretty much did away with the law system. But when I actually played it, I found myself missing the structure and discipline of the laws. So, if they kept the laws to 2 in FFTA, it would be a perfect game.

BP

  • Beside Pacific
« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2011, 02:05:48 PM »
the hacking minigame.

AWW YEAH how did I forget that, I was planning to talk about that and everything, it's the worst thing about the game. Granted, you don't have to do it to survive if you would rather just kill cameras, pay full price for stuff, and never have support bots, but I'm such a pennypinching fool who wants to waste as little as possible in games that I always do it. It would've been okay if there were different mini games for each kind of machine.
All your dreeeeeeams begiiin to shatterrrrrr~
It's YOUR problem!

Turtlekid1

  • Tortuga
« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2011, 02:18:39 PM »
Sly 2: Band of Thieves is the one that comes readily to mind.  I love everything about that game.  The gameplay is fun, the visuals are good, even by today's standards, the characters and story are amazingly well-handled, the soundtrack is catchy, the difficulty is perfectly-balanced, and it's long enough to satisfy me without becoming tedious.

Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando did pretty much everything right - blended platforming, shooting, and RPG elements in just the right way.  Included lots of unlockable stuff, like a New Game Plus feature and a neato museum filled with dummied-out content and little gadgets to mess with.

As far as honorable mentions:

-Crash Bandicoot 2 was nearly perfect, but a couple of the endgame levels threw some very convoluted stuff at you.  You had to backtrack and abuse game mechanics and just generally do some weird stuff for a couple of the gems.  Still, great game.
-Tomba! was truly excellent, but there is precisely one nigh-impossible-to-win minigame that keeps it from fitting this thread's classification of "perfect."  Although from the required quests, I would say it actually does fit.  Just that one side quest...
-Metroid: Zero Mission was the perfect Metroid experience... until the "Metroid Gear Solid" segment that came completely out of nowhere and the subsequent padding you had to trudge through for 100% (seriously, you could've removed Power Bombs entirely and changed nothing significantly).
-Uncharted 2 could've been perfect in my book, as well, if not for the endgame getting very tedious.  I'm not sure how else to describe this one, but the last couple of chapters lost the fast pace that had characterized most of the game before that.  The gunfights turned from frantic action to puzzles, because there was really only one way to get through each of them, usually involving some iffy stealth sections.
-Jak 2 was awesome except for the vehicle missions, which handled pretty badly and gave you even less margin for error than the rest of the game, which is saying something.

That's what I can think of right now.  Might return later if I think of other stuff.
"It'll say life is sacred and so is death
but death is life and so we move on"

« Reply #4 on: June 27, 2011, 02:57:34 PM »
TK, you forgot Metroid: Other M.

As far as RPGs go, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is pretty much faultless.
YYur  waYur n beYur you Yur plusYur instYur an Yur Yur whaYur

Turtlekid1

  • Tortuga
« Reply #5 on: June 27, 2011, 03:00:19 PM »
Oh, yeah, TTYD.  Forgot that one.  Yeah, that would go on my list.
"It'll say life is sacred and so is death
but death is life and so we move on"

« Reply #6 on: June 27, 2011, 08:07:21 PM »
X-Men Legends II - great level design, good secrets, multiple viable builds for each character, and solid mechanics. I can still go back and play it with no issues.

Chu-Chu Rocket - great puzzles in single player, computer AI is good, multiplayer is great. Plus it's easy to learn and a great way to hate the person sitting next to you.

Honorable mentions:
Monday Night Combat: grenADE iii arena isn't the grestest level design, lack of updates and balancing, but overall very solid gameplay.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance: lack of control over stats, repetitive quick time boss battle parts. Difficulty not high enough at Medium, have to unlock Hard.

(this ones gonna sound odd) Mirror's Edge: very linear in some places, rather short. Otherwise I loved it, and thought it was very solid.
"We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special." Stephen Hawking

BriGuy92

  • Luck of the Irish
« Reply #7 on: June 27, 2011, 08:46:55 PM »
I don't know if there are any games I'd consider to be perfect, but there are some that come darn close.

Kirby and the Amazing Mirror: I remember having a few minor gripes about it while I was playing it, particularly one boss battle that involved hard-to-dodge attacks and electrified walls, but as a whole it's really really good.

Super Metroid
: I always manage to get lost in Norfair, and the grapple beam is tricky to get the hang of. After having played Zero Mission, I've found myself wishing that Samus could grab ledges, but that doesn't really take away from how awesome the game is.

Half-Life 2: "Let me get out of your way, Dr. Freeman." (If you haven't played HL2: the AI squadmates have a strange, obsessive habit of always standing right where you want to go. Always.)

Sonic 3 & Knuckles
: I think my only complaint about this one is that I still can't beat the last boss. And I also can't get the Chaos Emeralds, but that's just because I really suck at special stages.

CoconutMikeNIke: I have to agree with you on Mirror's Edge. Although I tend to feel a little ripped off (I foolishly bought it shortly after it came out, only to see its price drop by 75% at a later time), I really did like it. No matter how many times I accidentally fell off of a building or got shot a million times or ran headlong into a guard with his pistol ready for whipping, I still found it fun.
Know the most important contribution of the organ Fund science girls type. It's true!

« Reply #8 on: June 27, 2011, 08:57:17 PM »
I keep wanting to post here but realizing that I'd feel deeply uncomfortable calling any game perfect, except maybe Chess and Go.

ShadowBrain

  • Ridiculously relevant
« Reply #9 on: June 27, 2011, 11:29:12 PM »
Ah, a compelling thread! Let me see... well, yeah, it's fairly difficult for me to consider any game--or any thing--"perfect", but I'll give you some top contenders:

"Perfect"
Shadow of the Colossus: Great aesthetic, combined with an arguably unparalleled synthesis of gameplay and symbolism-laden storytelling. I mean, if you've played this, there's not much else I've got to say.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: Proof that you can make an awesome (Zelda) game in about a year. Has all the elements of a great modern adventure game, with an emphasis on people like I've never seen.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: Haters gonna hate--this is still the most bang for my buck I think I've ever gotten in years of gaming. Did it do anything groundbreaking? No, but it didn't need to.

God of War III: Well, it's epic, the graphics are great, there's plenty of variety, it ties the trilogy together pretty well... nothing to complain about here!

Near-"Perfect"

Metroid Prime: Everything, from the atmosphere to the interface, to the very fact that this game managed to be as great as it was in the first place, is top-notch. It's just... well, that Omega Pirate really had me snarled for a while. But I was young... dunno, maybe I should bump this up to "Perfect".

Uncharted 2: As far as "cinematic" games go, I've never seen its equal. Would I want all the games I play to be like this? Of course not, because it's also derivative as sin and mildly repetitive... but what a show!

Ico: I'd put it right up there with SotC, but Yorda is not always the easiest to deal with. I suppose that's partly intentional, though--and everything else about the game is so stunning.

Braid: The art, music, and gameplay are wonderful... now, if it wasn't deliberately confusing, it could be slightly better.


I'm sure there are entries for both of these lists that I'm forgetting at the moment, and so I apologize. Part of it is because I'm realizing that there is a difference between "favorite" and "perfect" games--for example, Chibi-Robo and Mario & Luigi are two of my favorite games, but describing them as "perfect" seems... off.
"Mario is your oyster." ~The Chef

CrossEyed7

  • i can make this whatever i want; you're not my dad
« Reply #10 on: June 28, 2011, 12:08:29 AM »
Donkey Kong Country could use some slightly tighter controls.

Theoretically, Super Metroid redesigned fully to work with the GBA Metroid controls would probably be close (Control Freak isn't quite there, though it's good enough for me).

Metroid Prime has a few flaws -- the biggest one I can think of now is the Chozo Ghosts respawning every time you enter one of their rooms. The whole point of fighting them is supposed to be that you loose the bonds tying them to the planet or whatever, and you never get to actually do that because they always come back. However, it's much less annoying gameplay-wise than the Pirate Commandos in Echoes, because they don't lock the doors.

I know Luigi's Mansion has some flaws, but I can't think of them now. It's pretty close to perfect, for what it is.

Wind Waker feels basically perfect to me. It was kind of my first Zelda, but I don't think I'm too biased on this -- I actually played OoT first, thought it was the best game ever, and then changed my mind in retrospect. Whenever I look back at Wind Waker, it's still just as good.

Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles are close. I would change the way that you come back from special stages with 0 rings in 2 and that one part of Carnival Night Zone in 3K for starters. Actually, I might just cut out CNZ entirely; it drags on quite a bit.

Mario 3 with two players might be perfect. It'd be nice to have Yoshi, though.

Tetris is at least worthy of being put alongside checkers, if not chess.
"Oh man, I wish being a part of a Mario fan community was the most embarrassing thing about my life." - Super-Jesse

« Reply #11 on: June 28, 2011, 12:24:55 AM »
I might have been compelled to nominate Wind Waker if the water:land ratio were switched.

And of course, SM64 deserves mention of some sort. Most of its misgivings are understandable given its place as the first game of its kind.
YYur  waYur n beYur you Yur plusYur instYur an Yur Yur whaYur

« Reply #12 on: June 28, 2011, 03:52:55 AM »
Thanks to Brian's list I realized perhaps the only videogame I would ever call perfect: Braid. It is perfect.

Everything else you guys are listing just makes me laugh.

« Reply #13 on: June 28, 2011, 04:40:07 AM »
You guys remound me of some stuff.

Mirror's Edge - I would call this game very close to perfect. I think the only thing wrong with it is lack of replay value, once I beat it I didn't feel the need to go back. Everything else is great.

Shadow of the Colossus - I thought that game was very repetitive, and there's no way a game like that can be called perfect when you've got all that tedious horse riding to do between all the colossi. Far from perfect.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is not a perfect game, but its combat system is the most perfect I have seen in any game of its kind.

Of course, nothing in this world is truly perfect, so really none of these games are perfect. I guess I'm using the term to mean "games I am perfectly content with", which is also sort of what BP outlined in his OP. Having said that, Braid is the one game I've played that is as close to true perfection as any video game can possibly get. Thanks to ShadowBrian for reminding me.

Kimimaru

  • Max Stats
« Reply #14 on: June 28, 2011, 09:50:18 AM »
And the way you can't necessarily get a quick warp to Zora's Domain, particularly in the future half of the game where you can't swim through the portal at the lake (not that anyone likes swimming across the lake in the past half).

You can get to Zora's Domain in the very beginning of the game with just a sword :).

Putting that aside, if you want a quick way to Zora's Domain warp to the Graveyard and backwalk/sidehop there.
The Mario series is the best! It has every genre in video games but RTS'! It also has a plumber who does different roles, a princess, and a lot of odd creatures who don't seem to poop!

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