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Metal Slug 2! A game so impressive it barely actually works! and other games that are amazing and broken!

VGEsoterica

VGEsoterica

Member
I love "impressive" games. I still remember my first 3D accelerator card and being blown away by actual 3D on my computer that wasn't software rendered. Sure it felt like I was watching a slide slow but I totally didn't mind because I was just that impressed by it all.

That's Metal Slug 2. An amazing game filled to the brim with incredible artwork, 2D sprites and other visuals that caused the Neo Geo to absolutely BUCKLE under the pressure of all the visuals that were being thrown around. At some points in time this game is nothing more than a SLIDESHOW. Goes from running 60 frames a second to what feels like 5-10

But...it's also a game I 100% forgive for its crappy performance. A game I love to play so much I can totally look past its flaws and enjoy it for what was INTENDED to be.

And I know others have suggestions of games that are broken/slow/barely functional...yet ultimately insanely fun even though technically they are flawed AF

And I want to hear them...because I do love a good fun broken game.

Here is my first pick: Deadly Premonition 2 on Switch. Amazing game...runs like dog shit!

 
Y

YCoCg

Member
Red Dead Redemption 1 on PS3/Xbox 360 is infamously known for being that badly slapped together it made a PC port impossible as the code was spaghetti and people didn't properly documents engine changes during development.
 
VGEsoterica

VGEsoterica

Member
YCoCg said:
Red Dead Redemption 1 on PS3/Xbox 360 is infamously known for being that badly slapped together it made a PC port impossible as the code was spaghetti and people didn't properly documents engine changes during development.
Click to expand...
sounds like Bayonetta on PS3...ran fine on 360....horrible on PS3
 
anthony2690

anthony2690

Banned
Oh man, I absolutely love metal slug 2 and X.

I remember being on holiday and playing a metal slug X machine and being blown away, I loved it!

My local chippy ended up getting a machine with metal slug as well, use to love playing it as a kid, and when I moved and in my teens a takeaway place had a cab.

Now I'm older, I think how strange it is that chippies/takeaways use to have snk arcade machines with a couple games to choose from.
 
VGEsoterica

VGEsoterica

Member
anthony2690 said:
Oh man, I absolutely love metal slug 2 and X.

I remember being on holiday and playing a metal slug X machine and being blown away, I loved it!

My local chippy ended up getting a machine with metal slug as well, use to love playing it as a kid, and when I moved and in my teens a takeaway place had a cab.

Now I'm older, I think how strange it is that chippies/takeaways use to have snk arcade machines with a couple games to choose from.
Click to expand...
“My local chippy” is a sentence I totally understand yet feels so foreign to me lol

I’m not surprised they had big red cabs. Every pizza joint growing up had arcade cabs too. That’s the US version of the local chippy
 
64bitmodels

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
crash twinsanity is a game that's bordering on being a masterpiece but that game's literally riddled with bugs and issues that makes it hard for me to recommend. it's honestly the best crash game (yes, you heard me right) for the fact it tries something more than the linear gameplay but DAMN dude, why did it have to be made by travellers tales?
Just like you though, i can easily look past the bugs though because under all that duct tape and glue is a real gem for 6th gen platformers
 
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64bitmodels

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
01011001 said:
the Metal Slug games are capped at 30fps btw. which is also a symptom of how it pushes the NeoGeo to its limits
Click to expand...
Metal slug is like the one 16 bit game i can think of (besides streets of rage 1) that runs at 30fps. a testament to how absolutely mental that game is visually
 
01011001

01011001

Banned
VGEsoterica said:
sounds like Bayonetta on PS3...ran fine on 360....horrible on PS3
Click to expand...

that was a different issue tho. RDR was basically a complete mess under the hood but still worked fine (although the PS3 version looked noticeably worse)

Bayonetta on PS3 had the issue that Platinum basically developed the game as an Xbox 360 exclusive, they didn't even plan a PS3 version at all, but Sega wanted one for the Japanese market, so they got a different team in-house to port it over.

and what happens when you port a game tailored for the 360 to the PS3 without the original team helping is what you got with Bayo on PS3... a basically unplayable mess

it was so hard-tailored to the 360 that I don't even know if a certain feature works on PS3 or not.
on 360, every time you see Bayonetta suck on a Lollipop in a cutscene, if you press the corresponding button color you will get that lollipop added to your inventory in the next level.
so if she has a red one, you press B... a yellow one press Y and so on.
not sure how you would do that on PS3 🤷‍♂️ since there is no yellow button... there's an orange one, so close enough to red I guess... and green at least exists
 
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64bitmodels

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
01011001 said:
that was a different issue tho. RDR was basically a complete mess under the hood but still worked fine (although the PS3 version looked noticeably worse)

Bayonetta on PS3 had the issue that Platinum basically developed the game as an Xbox 360 exclusive, they didn't even plan a PS3 version at all, but Sega wanted one for the Japanese market, so they got a different team in-house to port it over.

and what happens when you port a game tailored for the 360 to the PS3 without the original team helping is what you got with Bayo on PS3... a basically unplayable mess
Click to expand...
i remember when i first got my PS3 (not that old lol, i got it a few months ago actually) and i immediately popped in bayonetta since i loved that game on wii u. and what i was greeted by.... was fucking god awful. never again
 
Naked Lunch

Naked Lunch

Member
I prefer Metal Slug 2 over X as well, as some others have mentioned.
Better color palettes and better paced.

Slowdown in 2D games like this never really bothered me because it gives you time to react and better dodge the bullets. Slowdown in 2D games like Metal Slug or SNES Gradius III is in no way the same as choppy un-playable framerates in 3D games like Perfect Dark or Turok 2.

The Xbox port of Radiant Silvergun removed the slowdown of the Saturn version - and it makes the 360 version less enjoyable and more difficult in my opinion. I NEED slowdown in many bullethell shmups like DoDonPachi or it would be flatout unfair and un-fun.
 
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VGEsoterica

VGEsoterica

Member
Naked Lunch said:
I prefer Metal Slug 2 over X as well, as some others have mentioned.
Better color palettes and better paced.

Slowdown in 2D games like this never really bothered me because it gives you time to react and better dodge the bullets. Slowdown in 2D games like Metal Slug or SNES Gradius III is in no way the same as choppy un-playable framerates in 3D games like Perfect Dark or Turok 2.

The Xbox port of Radiant Silvergun removed the slowdown of the Saturn version - and it makes the 360 version less enjoyable and more difficult in my opinion. I NEED slowdown in many bullethell shmups like DoDonPachi or it would be flatout unfair and un-fun.
Click to expand...
The color palette of 2 is more to my liking as well
 
InfiniteCombo

InfiniteCombo

Banned
53710--marvel-super-heroes.png


I love this game. It's one of my favorite games of all time. But the Saturn version runs like shit. The Japanese version has a "3M" extra memory capacity (a prototype before the full "4MB" used for those late-generation Capcom fighters on the Saturn, like X-Men vs Street Fighter, Street Fighter Zero 3, etc). When that "3M" option is enabled, the game runs... WORSE.

The game is playable, but the slowdowns are really awful. There are some factors that seem to make it worse:
  1. Character size -- Large characters can cause slowdown. For example, a Juggernaut vs Hulk battle is an absolute nightmare
  2. Stage type -- Seems that the more "effects" stages have, the more critical the slowdown becomes. The Blackheart stage (which has active fire animations) can, at times, become almost unplayable. But most stages in this game are pretty dynamic and have a lot of stuff going on, so this is a big problem.
I said the game is playable; but, this is a high-paced, big combo based fighting game. And the number of slowdowns is... at a minimum, unacceptable. One of the worst fighting game ports I've ever played in my life, and I've played a lot of them.

YET, I love this game, and I actually play this Saturn version all the time (I also absolutely love the artwork in the instruction manual). I hope that some day Capcom releases an official "Marvel collection" (X-Men and Marvel Super Heroes games), so that I can retire this game.
 
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Billbofet

Billbofet

Member
ProgenitorCastle said:
I heard TLOU on PS3s besides the super slim was a system pusher that could kill PS3s
Click to expand...
I was visiting a friend this past weekend and I had recommended he play TLOU a while back. He's not a huge gamer, but he really enjoyed it. He finished the game while I was there, so I watched the last 60-90 minutes of it running on his base PS3.
I cannot believe this was only 10 or so years ago, but I felt it was unplayable. The garbage framerate made any of the shooting nearly impossible to aim and it was just overall ROUGH. His PS3 also sounded like it was about to explode the whole time.
I beat it on my PS3 slim back in the day and don't recall it being this awful to play. I gave him Uncharted 2, so he started that game up and played a couple hours - it ran flawlessly.
 
64bitmodels

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
Naked Lunch said:
The Xbox port of Radiant Silvergun removed the slowdown of the Saturn version - and it makes the 360 version less enjoyable and more difficult in my opinion. I NEED slowdown in many bullethell shmups like DoDonPachi or it would be flatout unfair and un-fun.
Click to expand...
WOW. As a guy who loves games running at full speed, slowdown makes the game worse for me since it's dependent on hardware. you can optimize all your moves for slowdown, but then the game speeds up all of a sudden and you're dead.
 
Fbh

Fbh

Member
Loved bringing the framerate down to single digits on Bangai-O Spirits on the DS:

545giant.gif

(not the best example but I couldn't find another gif)

Esppiral said:
This thread screams Shadow of the colossus
Click to expand...

Shadow of the Colossus is the game that reminds me how little I cared about framerate back then.
Absolutely loved the game when it originally came out, but these days I couldn't imagine playing something at 14-20fps.
 
FrozenFlame

FrozenFlame

Member
I guess Broforce for the PS4. When it worked (and for PC), it was really fun... but then the game got to many things happening at the same time and the framerate went to pure shit (to single digits).
 
MrTroubleMaker

MrTroubleMaker

Member
So many games on the SNES did this, the list is to long.

Once you play the MS series on new hardware and see what the devs really intended, its hard to go back and play a slideshow version.
 
VGEsoterica

VGEsoterica

Member
Fbh said:
Loved bringing the framerate down to single digits on Bangai-O Spirits on the DS:

545giant.gif

(not the best example but I couldn't find another gif)



Shadow of the Colossus is the game that reminds me how little I cared about framerate back then.
Absolutely loved the game when it originally came out, but these days I couldn't imagine playing something at 14-20fps.
Click to expand...
haha I remember Bangai-O. Def would be a slideshow at points
 
L

Lumpyoatmeal

Member
VGEsoterica said:
I love "impressive" games. I still remember my first 3D accelerator card and being blown away by actual 3D on my computer that wasn't software rendered. Sure it felt like I was watching a slide slow but I totally didn't mind because I was just that impressed by it all.

That's Metal Slug 2. An amazing game filled to the brim with incredible artwork, 2D sprites and other visuals that caused the Neo Geo to absolutely BUCKLE under the pressure of all the visuals that were being thrown around. At some points in time this game is nothing more than a SLIDESHOW. Goes from running 60 frames a second to what feels like 5-10

But...it's also a game I 100% forgive for its crappy performance. A game I love to play so much I can totally look past its flaws and enjoy it for what was INTENDED to be.

And I know others have suggestions of games that are broken/slow/barely functional...yet ultimately insanely fun even though technically they are flawed AF

And I want to hear them...because I do love a good fun broken game.

Here is my first pick: Deadly Premonition 2 on Switch. Amazing game...runs like dog shit!

Click to expand...

It would be playing World of Warcraft back in the day with 256mb’s of ram. Outdoor questing was decently smooth until having to fly back and travel into the major cities like Stormwind and Ironforge; The game would literally freeze in a city for moments, god forbid if you alt tabbed out otherwise I had to restart my computer. I was so happy when I eventually upgraded to 1gb of ram👍
 
nkarafo

nkarafo

Member
64bitmodels said:
Metal slug is like the one 16 bit game i can think of (besides streets of rage 1) that runs at 30fps. a testament to how absolutely mental that game is visually
Click to expand...
I normally dislike 30fps 2D scrolling games but Metal Slug isn't that fast paced, the scrolling is slow enough to not bother me.

But there were plenty of 30fps 16 bit games. The one that did bother me a lot was Sonic Spinball.


Billbofet said:
Also, pretty much everything on this......

video games n64 GIF
Click to expand...
That's a meme. You don't seem to have much experience on the console's library.
 
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VGEsoterica

VGEsoterica

Member
Lumpyoatmeal said:
It would be playing World of Warcraft back in the day with 256mb’s of ram. Outdoor questing was decently smooth until having to fly back and travel into the major cities like Stormwind and Ironforge; The game would literally freeze in a city for moments, god forbid if you alt tabbed out otherwise I had to restart my computer. I was so happy when I eventually upgraded to 1gb of ram👍
Click to expand...
the classic days of running games below minimum spec because you HAD to lol
 
B

Battlesmurf

Member
VGEsoterica said:
I love "impressive" games. I still remember my first 3D accelerator card and being blown away by actual 3D on my computer that wasn't software rendered. Sure it felt like I was watching a slide slow but I totally didn't mind because I was just that impressed by it all.

That's Metal Slug 2. An amazing game filled to the brim with incredible artwork, 2D sprites and other visuals that caused the Neo Geo to absolutely BUCKLE under the pressure of all the visuals that were being thrown around. At some points in time this game is nothing more than a SLIDESHOW. Goes from running 60 frames a second to what feels like 5-10

But...it's also a game I 100% forgive for its crappy performance. A game I love to play so much I can totally look past its flaws and enjoy it for what was INTENDED to be.

And I know others have suggestions of games that are broken/slow/barely functional...yet ultimately insanely fun even though technically they are flawed AF

And I want to hear them...because I do love a good fun broken game.

Here is my first pick: Deadly Premonition 2 on Switch. Amazing game...runs like dog shit!

Click to expand...

blog.system11.org

Metal Slug 2 - reducing the slowdown

UPDATE 15/05 - DO NOT BUY FROM PEOPLE PRODUCING MODIFIED CARTS, the readme file specifically bans making money from this patch. Since this work is given away entirely for free, a modified cart is worth the same as an unmodified one. If you buy from someone making carts to sell, then you're support
blog.system11.org blog.system11.org

So- the short version is Metal Slug 2 just had really unoptimized code. It works a ton better with the above patch. Great game, just slightly rushed to release
 
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