Hi Tom.
this unfortunately sounds true. the only reason the Mega man series survived
is that they effectively split the franchize in two. the Batlenetwork games
and their sequal series are very much aimed at kids. They aren't even set in
the same universe as Mega man, ---- in fact at the end of the first game the
villain, Lord Wily, states that the reason he went into evil was that his
robotic's program was rejected in favour of net research.
The games are very much themed around kid romance, standardized, almost
simplified plots, features such as trading and online competition like the
Pokemon series, and a battle/rpg system employing real time rather than turn
based elements.
Then, at the same time, Capcom continued to release platformers for the hard
core fans set in the same universe as Mega man and Mega man x, with dark and
interesting plots which tie in to the previous games (including the return
of dr. wily in Mega man zero 4), and are currently bridging the gap betwene
the Mega man and mmx series with mega man 9 and 10 which actually introduce
the maveric virus.
Sadly though, this is a rarity, and circumstances such as those you mention
with tomb rader sound all too common.
Fortunately, there will always be systems like the virtual console, and
indeed freeware developers, but as is known on this list, what can be done
by one, ---- or at most 10 or 12 people working together on a game project
isn't like the millions which a game company could spend developing
something.
This is why even in the retro games scene, there are comparatively few walk
along beat em ups like double dragon or streets of rage, ---- not because
such games aren't popular (the fourty quid I had to shell out for a copy of
streets of rage 3 for my mega drive a few months ago from Ebay shows that),
but because in terms of grafics programming, defining all the factors for
such a game, moving collision boxes, speed of attacks, many large scale
animations is a hugely tricky process for one person alone.
This is however one advantage with audio games. because developers and
players are very close, and because (to be blunt), not many games are
released, people are encouraged to try many sorts of games at varying
difficulties. Pluss, generally good sfx and music are held to be a bonus,
not a necessity, sinse everyone is aware how tricky such things are to
obtain, ---- and besides, sinse audio games have to last the player a long
time before the next release, ---- they must be built to last and not work
just on audio appeal.
While I can think of a couple of audio games who's audio out stripped there
gameplay, most fall the other way around, ---- and someone who refuses a
game because they don't like the audio is just doing themselves out of some
fun.
Beware the grue!
Dark.
Beware the Grue!
Dark.
---
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