DieHARD GamePOLL - Console Poll, vol. 3 - 5th Generation RESULTS

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66 - Virtua Fighter 2 - 126 points / 2 Votes

Ok I voted for Colony Wars, despite it being a nearly impossible game that I never came close to finishing. I loved the Wing Commander games (although I probably never finished any of those either) and I was kinda into how uncompromising this one was, and the laser fx looked cool.

It's definitely one of the most memorable games of the era for me, even if it was eventually unplayable. Still waiting for a current gen update of this genre that's actually fun (maybe developers decided that 360' space combat is just too much of a UI challenge?).

many xp

metal slug is one of the many saturn games that were never localised but still made my ballot due to hype nostalgia (also one of the many that required a RAM cart expansion)

i played the sequel in the arcade and it was as good as i'd imagined the original was when all i had to go for were magazine articles

i still think VF2 looks good to this day, back then it was mind blowing for a saturn game, especially coming after the letterboxed 15fps daytona port

Also the (worst) thing about Colony Wars is that you'd often have to do escort missions, and then you'd get distracted by actually engaging with enemy fighters, or just get disoriented and lost in space, and the ship you were escorting would get blown up.

I remember Virtua Fighter being a go-to arcade game for me, don't remember playing the home versions though.

Tenchu seems sick, wish I would have played it at the time.

that Prince of Persia school of platforming where having a smooth, rotoscopey animation meant your sprite just felt sluggish and unresponsive. but no way to tell without playing it.

I think/hope that there's a game coming up that gets the plusses without the minuses!

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66 - NiGHTS into Dreams - 126 points / 2 Votes

Now Tenchu looks uncannily like lo-fi Sekiro

xp

the VF2 port was probably the major reason the saturn was a success in japan and until the release of mario & sonic at the 2008 olympics was the only sega published title to break the million sales mark

nights is the best sonic team game by far

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66 - No One Can Stop Mr. Domino - 126 points / 2 Votes

the heck is that ?!

ste already exhibiting signs of the first stage of mr. domino addiction

whatever it is, someone seems to like it about as much as i do NiD

That is some primo late-90s aesthetic in the cover art

i have never heard of this game, but good copy!

xp lol yes it looks like a backstreet-boys-branded alternative soda.

lol I didn't see that blurb on the box

i never played mr domino and i don't think i ever even saw it in the wild but the weird name and ads definitely had me interested for a while.

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65 - F-Zero X - 130 points / 2 Votes

whatever it is, someone seems to like it about as much as i do NiD

hi!

Heck yeahhhhh. Until F-Zero X, I had no idea games could be THAT FAST

lol yes it looks like a backstreet-boys-branded alternative soda.

perfect

the "highway star" meets jean-luc ponty "mute city" song from f-zero x is one of the all-time video game bangers

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64 - Tomb Raider 2 - 131 points / 4 Votes

Sounds like Getaway on PS2

Yes! A quick look and the first mission seems to pretty accurately take me from near my first office in London to near my second! And ends next to the protagonists' flat in Lock Stock, which is a nice touch.

Ah, Venice

LOL @ "Starring Lara Croft." I kinda love that conceit

Imagine "God of War: Starring Kratos"

Enemy Zero: Starring Laura

She was the brand!

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63 - Die Hard Arcade - 132 points / 2 Votes

YESSSS

another saturn arcade port, a co-op brawler rebranded as a Die Hard game in the west for some reason (reason being money)

you can pick up pepper shakers from the ground and make the enemies sneeze

you can kick them in the bollocks for a free stun

they can also kick yours, usually right after begging for mercy while knocked down, then laugh at your character for being a sucker

also, thanks to the other voter who helped this make the cut, i only gave it 60 points as it's second tier, wasn't expecting it to place at all

(rubs eyes) Can't tell if that's a photo of Bruce Willis on the box or just an incredibly faithful illustration.

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62 - Einhander - 132 points / 3 Votes

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61 - Dragon Force - 138 points / 2 Votes

a strategy (?) jrpg with field battles with hundreds of sprites on screen. could use some modern QoL stuff but, like NiD, still a very unique game afaik

again, the sequel is jp-exclusive but a translation patch was recently completed

Hi guys I just got here!

Front Mission 3: played the demo disc, it looked great! I hear that the story is decent too.

Daytona USA: I played it once in the arcade and then the PS3 port. Really fun, and a great soundtrack.

Heart of Darkness: one of my votes. People interested in it should really try it. It isn't as sluggish as earlier cinematic platformers. It's pretty short too. It's probably most famous today for its detailed death animations.

Mr. Domino: I am the other voter for this. It's a quirky experiment with auto-running.

Einhander: solid shmup. Too bad the English version took out the level select so you have to start from the beginning every time.

oh man, Driver! Somehow I had forgotten all about this one, seeing the name in the noms list didn't ring any bell but now that I see the cover I remember playing the shit out of it, I should have voted for it

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60 - Alundra - 143 points / 3 Votes

I gave up on Driver after reaching the night city part. It was great up until that point. Also that muvaf**king initial carpark training section.

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59 - Tekken 2 - 143 points / 4 Votes

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58 - Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee - 144 points / 3 Votes

I voted for Alundra - it's a very grim Zelda knockoff, sort of Link Awakening style open worlds and dungeons - so on the one hand it was my first exposure to you can go to a lot of places and you can see places you can't get to yet, but it's only plot-distributed items that are stopping you. On the other hand, the plot was extremely dark - you wash up on the island and have to enter the dreams of the villagers every night to get rid of their nightmares - but you can never do enough and every morning there's more dead villagers.

I am the other voter for this.

Sounds like three people voted for it then

Hah, I voted for the two next as well!

Tekken 2 was an improvement over the dog-rough visuals of the first one, and also included more characters and more fighting styles, including a thinly disguised Supercop-era Jackie Chan. It also built a little on the story from the first game.

that Prince of Persia school of platforming where having a smooth, rotoscopey animation meant your sprite just felt sluggish and unresponsive. but no way to tell without playing it.

I think/hope that there's a game coming up that gets the plusses without the minuses!

This was Abe's Oddysee - a good call on the part of the ads to foreground the characters, who were all vivid and well-animated.

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57 - Turok: Dinosaur Hunter - 145 points / 3 Votes

^^^ best use of draw distance limitations in a video game, also some absolutely fantastic, gruesomely prolonged death animations from enemies both human and dinosaur. the criterion of a sociopath, to be sure, but it has to be said.

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter: Starring Turok