Hi Dark, Oh, I definitely agree this is a feature lacking in current audio games. Part of it is game story of course, but I fully agree that it can make a big difference in game play just by modifying a few stats. One of the mainstream games like this that immediately comes to mind is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
I always liked the TMNT games because each turtle had advantages and disadvantages that made the game fairly different from turtle to tirtle. Leo had pretty good range with his katanas but Raf had to be pretty close in to be effective. Things like that forced you to adopt a different strategy and fighting style depending on the turtle you were playing. More recently games like Street Fighter and Marvel VS Capcom have vastly different characters that makes the game have good replay value because the only way to get good at the game is to find a character you like and work out the best strategy for that character. When you get tired of one you can play the game with a different character and have as much fun learning their own style and tactics. Although, I haven't truthfully thought about many games with multiple main characters it is definitely worth considering. Its something that could improve the replay value of a game, because just modifying a few stats and sounds could go aa long way to adding multiple ways of playing the same game. Cheers! On 1/13/12, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote: > Hi. > > Yesterday, as a break from testing Eamon deluxe, I fired up my Snes and had > a less than successful go at Super Mario brothers two, ---- and just to be > clear I don't mean the lost levels. > > As people may know, in that game you can choose to play mario, Luiji, > Princess or toad. > > It's a fairly simple game, no weapons, no major hp just exploration and a > litle tactical chucking of vedgitables that you find growing all over the > place (yes, it is weerd), yet the four characters are distinctly different. > > Toad for instance runs fast, but can't jump particularly high, yet of course > being low to the ground he can very quickly pick up objects and run with > them (very useful on bosses). > > Luiji is the highest jumper and is pretty fast, but he's very slow with > objects and also he floats around quite a lot making it very tricky to get > him to jump precisely. > > princess isn't great at object grabbing, and her speed is average, but she > has one awsome ability, the ability to hover in mid air and thus get over > some of the mopre dangerous areas. Mario of course is Mr. average (and > interestingly enough, probably imho the worst in the game for that reason). > > the reason I mention this is that mario 2 takes several characteristics, > jump hight, jump distance, running speed and object grabbing speed, and > alters their properties so as to create some rather different ways of > playing the game. For instance yesterday I was trying to run through bits > with mario that I usually do with princess, and found I had to be far more > precise with my jumps. > > In audio games though, it seems that either the characters are customizeable > every way from sunday as in entombed, or there are no characters at all. > > while I imagine two reasons for this are A, the difficulty of storing and > activating two sets of movement, damage, or whatever properties in the game, > and B, the extra sound files needed for a second character, I am stil a > litle surprised nobody has included it yet, sinse even when dealing with > very few properties it can make a major difference to the game. > > Say for instance in superliam, you could play as either Liam or Dr. Quark. > Quark being an old man is slower at running, jumping and shooting than liam, > but because he is using the latest experimental version of his super suit > his gun is much more powerful (though it fires more slowly), and because his > armour is stronger he has more health. > > this would create quite a different game, even with only the reaction based > gameplay, for instance you'd need to be more prcise at jumping cycle bot, > and try to get in your heavy hits now and again where they would count. > > The more properties a game has, and the more the gameplay is based on > judgement rather than reaction speed, the more can be played with with > different characters, but even in a comparatively simple game like Superliam > it could make a nice difference to gameplay, and indeed give replayability > through trying to finish the game on the other character. > > Beware the grue! > > Dark. > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
