Dragon's Lair
Agreed. A laserdisc game is about as much of a "game" as a DVD menu. These were expensive to play and utterly un-fun. It is my understanding that you couldn't set these for 1 quarter even if you wanted to. So basically you'd put in 2 quarters and die 3 times within about 20 seconds, without really understanding why you died or how to prevent it. I never downloaded any emulators for these, so California Extreme gave me an opportunity to play for free and see if I could figure out how to not-die. I left as bewildered as ever. I always feel like I'm hitting the direction (or whatever) at the right time, but I guess not. I don't get it, all I know is that back in the day I never felt as robbed by a game as I did by these.
Popeye
ffft, nobody likes Popeye in the first place, so this doesn't fit!
Anything by Universal that isn't Lady Bug
That's fine, but if Mr. Do is bad, then Dig Dug is necessarily worse.
I honestly find every shmup to be the same game. Some have more bullets than others, some have more intricate scoring systems than others, but in the end they all resemble each other so closely they seem to be delivered from a cookie cutter. I have no respect for the genre.
Yeah, I don't get the appeal of these either. Collect power-ups to change the shape and color of the projectile coming out of you, memorize deterministic obstacles/enemies, die and watch power-ups float away unless you can grab them, kill boss, next level. Why did so many companies make the exact same game over and over?
As for me, I don't think it's "terrible", but I don't see what all the fuss is about with Mario Bros. I keep trying but it just seems like you have to stand around too much waiting for things, and when you move, every surface you walk on is as slippery as ice, until you get onto actual ice, when it becomes even worse. It's like they made Mario deliberately hard to control to compensate for the game being too easy if they didn't. That's the sign of design flaws, I think. I'll still work on it though.
Also:
Jr. Pac Man
Frogger
Keep in mind that my taste in games is shitty.
