Game Sack

[M4R14NO94]

I agree with Joe. I prefer Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing to Mario Kart. The only Mario Karts I've ever liked were the SNES original and Super Circuit, since those were entertaining and had speed. His comment on Sonic R's music, though... for me it's the other way around: it rules with the vocals on.

I also agree with Dave's comment on Super Mario World being the best game in the series, but I disagree with Super Mario 64. I like my Marios in 2D, thank you very much.

[kool kitty89]

I agree with Joe. I prefer Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing to Mario Kart. The only Mario Karts I've ever liked were the SNES original and Super Circuit, since those were entertaining and had speed. His comment on Sonic R's music, though... for me it's the other way around: it rules with the vocals on.

I like 64 the best for racing and combat, but SMK is pretty good too on the racing end.

I also agree with Dave's comment on Super Mario World being the best game in the series, but I disagree with Super Mario 64. I like my Marios in 2D, thank you very much.

I'm a 3D platformer fan (so that's going to skew things), but I definitely disagree about Sunshine being weak. The controls and (especially) camera make Sunshine way more playable and it's a great game overall IMO, though I prefer the theme of SM64 in some areas. (I like Sonic Adventure 2 more than either in some respects . . . SA1 is OK, but the bugs really throw it off overall, that and there's a lot of redundant gameplay that seems to stretch things on needlessly -unless you're one of those people that gives up after playing only 1/6 the game -ie just Sonic then there's the terrible voice acing -same actors did MUCH better in SA2- and even worse cutscene animation -especially for Sonic; all the mouthing is out of sync in JP and English, and the expressions look stupid -Sonic is totally ridiculous)

Of the 2D Mario games out there, there's few that I really enjoy (even though I grew up all Nintendo -with some PC), and the main exception would be Yoshi's Island . . . and thinking about it, I like it for many of the reasons I prefer 2D Sonic to Mario games in general, especially Sonic 3/3&K. (baby mario is like rings, it makes the game forgiving unlike the single powerup in mario games -with a small reserve in SMW- and that's something also solved in the 3D games with the health meter -even more like Sonic since you pick up coins to replenish it )
It's not the speed that gets me ever, it's the exploration of the levels and the control/mechanics that make it fun for me. (that and a save system always makes it more fun)

Sonic 2 would probably would be up there for me if it had a save system . . . but as it is using a level select cheat is the closest thing to that.

I definitely agree about mario's controls being slippery in general. (Yoshi's Island didn't really feel like that -then again, you don't have the run controls like other 2D mario games either- plus it had the very forgiving hover jump to make things easier)



I like 3D platformers, but I don't like the Galaxy games at all. There's some points (more so in SMG2) that are OK, but not enough to really make me want to play through it. (my brother likes them a lot more)

Still, the "worst" of the Nintendo/official Mario games (not Mario is Missing, Time machine, Hotel, etc) might be Super Paper Mario. (I loved the previous 2 RPG paper games -and SMRPG- but neither my brother or I liked Super Paper Mario in general -he was the only one to bother to get very far into it) I haven't tried either of the NSMB games though, so I'm not sure how those would compare. (from what I've seen of the GBA/DS mario games -including the RPGs- those are better than SPM too)


I agree with Secret Rings being crap (the control/gameplay mechanics run it for me), and Black Knight has the same issues. I have yet to play STH 2006, but it at least seems to play like a more typical 3D platformer, with some control bug issues and a questionable story (more so in terms of specific plot elements). I had a lot of fun with Shadow the Hedgehog though, so that's definitely against the consensus. (most seem to complain about the 3rdPS controls and "too dark" plot, but I didn't have problems with either . . . it was more fun in some areas than Heroes or Sonic Adventure -Adventure's controls/camera have more problems, but Adventure 2 is definitely better -the best of the 3D Sonic games IMO)
Unleashed is OK, but it didn't keep my interest (I think I agree with my brother about the night levels being more fun ), and I haven't tried Colors yet. (I was a bit skeptical given the similarities to Unleashed's day levels, but it seems that they addressed many of the more annoying aspects of Unleashed -some of the annoyingly difficult areas in the level design and overuse of quicktime events)

[jerry coeurl]

These are brilliant Joe, keep up the good work!

Also, I'm having trouble finding the Sega CD video you did with your friend Dave, the one that's filmed in black & white and has the old school educational film narration. I thought I had favorited it but it's not on my list. Any chance you could post that here?

e: actually, it was a 32X video, now that I think about it.

[TmEE]

[jerry coeurl]

Thanks Tiido! Love it.

[Joe Redifer]

Here is the latest episode:

[jerry coeurl]

Good episode! I also have to agree that the only controller better than the six button Genesis pad is the Saturn pad. Love 'em both, though!

[Olls]

This is great!

[sheath]

I used joysticks almost exclusively up until the Saturn pad won me over. Even that was just by means of the Street Fighter Alpha games and Virtual On, I played VF2 with my Hori Arcade stick exclusively. I blew through about three of the Genesis 3-button Joysticks and two of he 6-button ones in the years before that and only ever used the SMS control stick. I thought the TG16 and NES pads are way too small, and the SNES d-pad is the only one to ever give me a gaming blister, and my hands have always been too big to comfortably reach those triggers.

[Barone]

Joe,

The Japanese versions of Arcade Power Stick are far superior. No more dumb-big-ball stick, instead you get a awesome micro-switched stick... You should review them someday...

Anyway, I think Game Sack videos are damn good! The best thing to happen to the 16-bit scene after Sega-16.com IMO. Thank you! Great job!

[TmEE]

My only gripe with Nintendo controllers is the d-pad, its so tiny and uncomfortable. If it had circular NEC like d-pad (like one of the 3rd party controllers) it would be far nicer... some day I'll mod a Saturn pad into a SNES pad, that way I get to have all the awesomness.... except awesomness of Sega games :P

[Joe Redifer]

I don't mind the size of the ball on the Arcade Power Stick at all. It fits in my big, powerful man-hands. I wouldn't consider a microswitch stick far superior (though I must admit I've never tried it and I'd certainly like to). But I don't think it would be any more responsive. Case in point is the Neo Geo CD pad. It is microswitched but that doesn't make it any snappier than a Sega pad. It just makes for cool clicks as you move it around. I have had to repair my Neo Geo CD control pad. DOWN stopped working.

As for modding a Saturn d-pad onto a SNES controller, yes that would be cool, but I don't mind the SNES d-pad. It's the diamond button configuration that chaps my ass. I want two rows of three! Anyway when the Gamecube came out, the d-pad shrunk to its teensy-tiny barely-there current size. But that's a topic for a later episode.

[Barone]

I don't mind the size of the ball on the Arcade Power Stick at all. It fits in my big, powerful man-hands. I wouldn't consider a microswitch stick far superior (though I must admit I've never tried it and I'd certainly like to). But I don't think it would be any more responsive. Case in point is the Neo Geo CD pad. It is microswitched but that doesn't make it any snappier than a Sega pad. It just makes for cool clicks as you move it around. I have had to repair my Neo Geo CD control pad. DOWN stopped working.

I don't think that microswitch is a good thing to a common pad (never understood why SNK choose that way)... But it's a lot better when you have an Arcade Stick. It's much more smooth and easy, Joe. However, your Hulk Hogan-standard hands could fit better using the rough one.

Anyway, I said about the Japanese version just to "destroy" the arguments used by Dave.

[Joe Redifer]

Oh it is easy to destroy Dave with any argument.

[M4R14NO94]

I just rewatched the Naxat pinball games ep, and Crüe Ball and Sonic Spinball are way better than Dragon's Revenge. I can't comment on Dino Land since I haven't played that.