Big disappointments

[runinruder]

Let's talk about those depressing instances when a PCE/Turbo game let you down.  Here are some games that I was disappointed with:
 
Magical Chase - Easy, sloppy, and not even that nice to look at.
 
JJ & Jeff - Most of us know the truth about this one by now, but back in the day, it received lots of praise in gaming mags, so I fell victim to the misconception that it would actually be good.

Spriggan mark 2 - Ugly despite the "effects."  Blown away by geriatric SideArms, which has nicer music and better/tougher gameplay.
 
Andre Panza Kick Boxing - I've pretty much come to accept Panza for what it is and really don't mind it so much, but this is another one that I'd hoped would be awesome back when it was released, especially after it received high scores in VG&CE.
 
Emerald Dragon - It's a good game, mainly due to its music and graphics.  But the hype that preceded my purchase of it was misleading.  Its battle system has issues, and its plot lacks the sort of exciting moments that can be found in many other PCE RPGs.  It didn't help any that right before playing ED I'd beaten Kabuki and Manji Maru, two legendary games that actually did live up to their billing.
 
Gradius II - This one was harder to find and more expensive a few years ago, so I had to wait a while before buying it, and all the positive reviews had me anticipating a real winner.  Well, it's not bad, but by the time I played it, it felt so outdated and, for the most part, unexciting. 
 
Sol Moonarge - "Just above average" doesn't cut it for an RPG that often goes for $40 on a system that has many truly classic RPGs for chump change. 
 
Legend of Dekoboko - It looked so charming in screenshots, but the gameplay is awful.
 
Fang of Alnam - Looked promising from a distance, but it's just a so-so RPG that's actually pretty horrible aside from its cool battle system. 
 
Ordyne - I dug the look of this game back in the day.  Don't know what the hell I was thinking.  Terrible graphics, terrible music, slow "action," poor game. 
 
Iga Ninden Gaou - Trashy gameplay during the era that saw the likes of Shinobi III and Kaze Kiri. 
 
Detana!!  Twinbee - Not bad, but overrated.  Nothing particularly good about it aside from nice, colorful background graphics. 
 
Chiki Chiki Boys - Looked like good cartoony fun, but so stupidly easy that I beat it the first time I sat down with it, and unlike a Shubibinman 3, it ain't awesome enough to make up for the complete lack of challenge.
 
After Burner II - It's okay, and it has some really cool music, but there's hardly anything to it, and I expected a little more after reading some rave reviews.  Space Harrier is much better.
 
Last Armageddon - Oh lord, I think I've already written a book complaining about this one.  It was a huge success in Japan, and it was made by the same folks who produced Efera & Jiliora, a personal favorite of mine.  I thought I was in for a treat.  Oh, man...  Painful.

[Tatsujin]

this thread will produce purely concentrated hate

[Sinistron]

Legend of Dekoboko - It looked so charming in screenshots, but the gameplay is awful.

Eww I almost bought this last week- thank god I didn't.

[rolins]

Last Armageddon - Oh lord, I think I've already written a book complaining about this one.  It was a huge success in Japan, and it was made by the same folks who produced Efera & Jiliora, a personal favorite of mine.  I thought I was in for a treat.  Oh, man...  Painful.

What i disliked the most about this game was the lack of good music. The original PC-8801 & MSX2 port had an awesome soundtrack, but sadly most of it was taken out of the PCE port.

[runinruder]

Last Armageddon - Oh lord, I think I've already written a book complaining about this one.  It was a huge success in Japan, and it was made by the same folks who produced Efera & Jiliora, a personal favorite of mine.  I thought I was in for a treat.  Oh, man...  Painful.

What i disliked the most about this game was the lack of good music. The original PC-8801 & MSX2 port had an awesome soundtrack, but sadly most of it was taken out of the PCE port.

I actually thought the soundtrack was okay, but I should note that I don't have the other versions to compare it to.  The end credits music absolutely rocks.

[Sinistron]

Bullfight- My oh my does this game suck.

Burning Angels- that this game has its fans blows my fucking mind.  Don't expect to be taken seriously by preaching to others about what games are "fun" while at the same time championing this piece of shit.  Me- I'm perfectly sane and I see this game for what it is- a total fucking disaster- and no- I don't suck at shooters- it's this shooter that sucks.  The jiggly scenes are the game's only asset.

Cloud Master- looked fun in pictures  and I figured I couldn't miss with Taito.  I was wrong.  This game blows.  It looks really nice- but the fun factor is goose egg.  I have no desire to play more of this.

Don Doko Don- Really expected to love this- it's okay- just okay.  Small shitty graphics (only the bosses look nice) and gameplay that never really latches on.  That this is a Taito SSP blows my mind- it's so far from Parasol Stars it might as well be on another system.

Dragon Saber- This one must only be me- everyone else seems to love it.  Me- I was expecting much more with the added megs besides two player action- yet I find the graphics, animation and sound leagues shittier than Dragon Spirit's.

Fray in Magical Adventure- Aside from me not knowing Japanese- this game plays much stiffer than I expected it to.  I find Legend of Valkyrie is much better for this type of game.

Kiki Kaikai-  Blows.  See Cloud Master above.

New Zealand Story- Blows.  See Cloud Master above.

Night Creatures- whoa whoa- I knew I wan't in for a masterpiece but I didn't think it would be this bad.  Bless the members here who actually had the conviction to play this turd through.

Order of the Griffon- In truth I haven't played much of it- but when I turned it on I was far from impressed.  There were all these EMPTY rooms- and yet the text seemed to be telling me the rooms were full- "there's an old man in a chair"- empty room.  "this is a kitchen"- no it isn't.  It's an empty room with NOTHING in it.  Lame as hell.  Should've just made a PCE text Zork instead of doing this half-assed shit.

Shadow of the Beast- Graphics and music are incredible- gameplay is stiff-ass commodore-64 stuff.  There's a million different enemies and like 99% of them all have the same pattern.  This game stinks on ice.

Shockman- Huge letdown.  Graphics and music are right up my alley- gameplay stinks to high heaven.  I always mean to give it another shot- but it's low, low, low priority.

Steam Hearts- major letdown.  Both the shooter parts and the hentai parts are bottom tier.  What a goddamn waste of money.

Titan- This one really looked interesting to me.  It's definitely one of the worst games I own- and a big part of that is due to the never changing "music".

Travel Epuru- the very worst CD game I own.  Garbage.  Trash.  Shit.

Turrican- Now keep in mind I've never played this game before on the computer- but whatever the deal is- I honestly feel that this is THEE worst game in my possession.  Utter shit.  Ludicrous, unforgiving, horrendous, ugly shit.

Yo Bro- I've got a friend whose only turbografx experience was this game.  Naturally when he found out I was collecting turbografx games he kept yelling "yo bro is awesome" "yo bro is awesome" "did you get yo bro yet?" "I'm telling you that game is fresh" etc., etc...  Far from fresh, far from sweet, far from awesome.  and the amoeba board, okay, yeah, right.

[nat]

Ordyne and Twinbee - See runinruder's comments for my own feelings.

Ys I & II - Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike these games. On the contrary-- I like them very much. The problem here is that there is such a hype surrounding them you'd think they were God's gift to the people or something. Anyone who knows me knows that I've been into the Turbo for almost 20 years now but I didn't dig RPGs much as a kid. I'm a shooter man at heart, always have been. Matter of fact, the only one I owned back then was Dungeon Explorer. On that note, I never played any of the Ys games until within the past couple years. I was notably let down when I finally got around to playing parts 1 and 2. Let's face it: the story is only slightly above average, the graphics are glitchy (especially in part 2) and the gameplay feels severely dated. I'm sure back in 1989 this game was a technical marvel what with all the voice acting and redbook audio, but when I finally finished part 2 last year I walked away feeling just a little let down. These are fun games, with absolutely fantastic music, but not quite as good as people's nostalgia-clouded reminiscences make them out to be.

Talespin - After hearing how this game was so much better than Darkwing Duck (which, ironically, wasn't nearly as bad as people made it out to be) I was really excited when I received a brand new copy of Talespin shipped to me for $15. Man, I couldn't get this steamy pile of guano out of my Turbo fast enough. What an awful, awful game. This game belongs on the ColecoVision or something. What the fuck?

[Sinistron]

I too agree with runin's Ordyne assessment- and I at first agreed with what he said about Twinbee until I gave it a few more chances- it has grown on me- but definitely the weakest of the great Konami PCE shooters.

[NecroPhile]

Devil's Crush - I expected it to be leagues better than Alien Crush or Time Cruise, but it's not better - just different.

Order of the Griffon - See Sinistron's comments.  I still like it, seeing as it's D&D, but it ain't very pretty and was a bit of a let down in the graphics department.

Darkwing Duck - Way back when, I thought "Woo-hoo, Disney on the Turbo!"  Then later, it was "Wait..... what the fuck's this shit?"  It's ugly in spots, the tunes are basic and get real old, real quick, and the controls blow.  I'll agree with nat that it's better than Talespin, but not by much.

Talespin - See preceding comments.

Deep Blue - The screen shots made it look so damn good, but the reality is that it only looks good; it plays like shit.  Nat will disagree.  He is wrong.

[Digi.k]

Let's talk about those depressing instances when a PCE/Turbo game let you down.  Here are some games that I was disappointed with:
 
Magical Chase - Easy, sloppy, and not even that nice to look at.
 
Detana!!  Twinbee - Not bad, but overrated.  Nothing particularly good about it aside from nice, colorful background graphics. 

I would agree with ya on Twinbee being dissappointed but the nice colourful backgrounds .. well my dissappointment with it,  is that the graphics on each level imo are inconsistent.

Magical Chase however I disagree and you must have played it on easy mode.  From the start the game asks you to choose between, Easy, Normal and Bumpy difficulty.  Easy only has the first 3 levels but normal/bumpy gets you through 6 of them including the real ending. and after the first 3 levels the graphics pick up a lot!

[nat]

I agree, I'm currently loving MC.

[runinruder]

Magical Chase however I disagree and you must have played it on easy mode.  From the start the game asks you to choose between, Easy, Normal and Bumpy difficulty.  Easy only has the first 3 levels but normal/bumpy gets you through 6 of them including the real ending. and after the first 3 levels the graphics pick up a lot!

I played through all of the difficulty settings, and they were all very easy for me. 

Order of the Griffon- In truth I haven't played much of it- but when I turned it on I was far from impressed.  There were all these EMPTY rooms- and yet the text seemed to be telling me the rooms were full- "there's an old man in a chair"- empty room.  "this is a kitchen"- no it isn't.  It's an empty room with NOTHING in it.  Lame as hell.  Should've just made a PCE text Zork instead of doing this half-assed shit.

Haha, that really does sound bad.  I always hear about how "great" Order is, and I must admit that I'm intrigued by it; but I haven't bothered to pick it up yet, and I guess I needn't be in any rush to do so. 

Fray in Magical Adventure- Aside from me not knowing Japanese- this game plays much stiffer than I expected it to.

I like Fray for the adorable main character and the nice graphics and the ways in which it blends a number of genres.  But I agree with you that the core gameplay doesn't feel all that great.

[Joe Redifer]

Ninja Spirit - This game is boring.  It gets old fast and I do not like the music.  I can see why they included it for free with the TurboDuo... because they had 25 warehouses full of unsold copies of Ninja Spirit!

Bonk 3 - I do not like how Bonk changes sizes.  I've never been a real Bonk fan as his games are only average (although I enjoy the first one), but this one is just not worth playing.  The main reason I am not a huge Bonk fan is because I dislike timed power ups, especially those that change the music.

Monster Lair - Great music, lousy game.  It is so simple and there really isn't anything that makes it special.

The Manhole - This feels like a shitty game... like something for the Mac!  Everyone knows that nothing good can ever come from a Mac.  Windows is perfect.

Final Lap Twin - There is no god damn way I am writing down and reentering those passwords.  Why does this game not save?  Because it was made by retards, that's why.  The non-RPG mode is like an Atari 2600 game, and the RPG mode is only slightly better.  The graphics and sound were bested by NES games.

Magical Dinosaur Tour - This game doesn't have ANY magic in it!  How misleading!  I have to go play a Final Fantasy game if I want to get my magic on.

[esteban]

Don Doko Don- Really expected to love this- it's okay- just okay.  Small shitty graphics (only the bosses look nice) and gameplay that never really latches on.  That this is a Taito SSP blows my mind- it's so far from Parasol Stars it might as well be on another system.

Dragon Saber- This one must only be me- everyone else seems to love it.  Me- I was expecting much more with the added megs besides two player action- yet I find the graphics, animation and sound leagues shittier than Dragon Spirit's.

Order of the Griffon- In truth I haven't played much of it- but when I turned it on I was far from impressed.  There were all these EMPTY rooms- and yet the text seemed to be telling me the rooms were full- "there's an old man in a chair"- empty room.  "this is a kitchen"- no it isn't.  It's an empty room with NOTHING in it.  Lame as hell.  Should've just made a PCE text Zork instead of doing this half-assed shit.

Order of the Griffon is a decent game. I don't think anyone has ever hyped-it-up, so to speak (though I have recommended it in the past). It's part of a legacy of TSR's computer titles (OofG retains the key game formula, although it is simplified), so perhaps it won't appeal everyone. I like this game.

Dragon Saber does not have the charm or the amazing soundtrack of its predecessor. The sprites in Dragon Saber have a lot to be desired. All you Dragon Spirit haters can drop dead. I'm talking to you, Runin! I'm listening to Sabaku (Track 8 from Paranoid Dragon's thread) right now, getting pissed-off at all the Dragon Spirit haters. Oh wait, Runin didn't even mention Dragon Spirit in this thread, did he? Oh, crap. What the hell is happening? What's the matter with me? Why has Runin's distaste for Dragon Spirit's soundtrack, never mind the game itself, affected me so? It was probably a year ago that Runin talked trash about the Dragon Spirit soundtrack.

Yeah, I'm just goofin'. Except about the part where I said I was listening to Dragon Spirit's tunes. I'm on track 10 now (Hyouga). This track kicks the ass of wannabe-Dragon-Spirit-haters.

Don Doko Don is fun. I never expected much from it, though.

L
Iga Ninden Gaou - Trashy gameplay during the era that saw the likes of Shinobi III and Kaze Kiri. 
 
Detana!!  Twinbee - Not bad, but overrated.  Nothing particularly good about it aside from nice, colorful background graphics. 

Hmmmmm, I really liked "Stinger" on the NES back in the day. NO, it was far from perfect, but I really liked it. Lots of fun, nice challenge, fun, creative bosses. I'm wondering if there is a correlation between folks who like the Twinbee formula, in general, and their ability to appreciate Twinbee Detana? Seriously.

Iga Ninden Gaou was billed as a "Legendary Axe Killer" to me by some fool. Can you believe that? Clearly, this fellow was goofball, because Iga Ninden Gaou is really generic (but still not fun... there are many generic games that are fun, but Iga doesn't have anything that special something that even mediocre games can possess).

[Keranu]

Umm, what magazines gave praise to J.J. & Jeff? The only praise it gets is from a handful of members here .

[MurderDate]

I had a great time with Order of the Griffon the first couple of days.. Then the dungeons just got too ridiculous and I quit.  Actually I ended up having to erase my card and start again.. except I didn't bother starting again.  One of these days..

[Turbo D]

This thread is a big disappointment

[OldRover]

Golden Axe- I knew this was a steaming pile going into it, but figured it couldn't be THAT bad. I was grossly mistaken...this is one of the worst games on the PCE EVER. What a spit on the faces of both the PCE and the Golden Axe name.

Deep Blue- As with Golden Axe, I went into this knowing it was trash. But it was trash above and beyond my expectations...how this was ever released is beyond me. It's BORING, and the music SUCKS. The graphics are okay...if you don't mind what is essentially level-less play with absolutely no real background! The sprites themselves are pretty decent though, which is a very small saving grace for what is otherwise a complete stinker.

The Legendary Axe- I never got to play this in my youth, so naturally I was psyched to be able to play this "game of the year". What a serious disappointment it was...terrible control scheme, terrible collision detection, terribly unbalanced design, and very subpar music despite coming from a company with "Victor Musical" in their name. The "sequel" (which we all know isn't a true sequel) did just about everything right that this game got wrong...just about.

Shadow Of The Beast- My first exposure to this game was on the Lynx. The game absolutely rocks there, but here it's pretty damn pathetic. Yes, the music is phenomenal, but it takes more than a kickass soundtrack to convince me that a game is worth its salt. The movies didn't impress me whatsoever either. The gameplay is just too clunky to really enjoy. It could have been a contender.

Prince Of Persia- Never played this before I played it here. After all the hype for the game back in the day, I expected this to be the killer app. Wow, was I mistaken. The game controls like a crusty old man begging for Geritol and it looks like the last thing that came out of said old man's ass.

Crest Of Wolf/Riot Zone- I always loved Final Fight, and the thought of having a similar game on the PCE was just awesome. It's too bad the game falls way too short. I don't mind only having two playable characters, but the game is way too easy, there's not enough moves and items (no weapons? boring!), and only having three types of enemies in any given area is just lame (you can recolor them all you want, they all fight the same regardless of their color). Huge disappointment, but I still play it for a llama laugh every once in awhile. The music saves it from being a complete stinker.

Valis III- Another one hyped up in the past, so I was pretty psyched to try it. After dying three times in the first two minutes of playing due to forced cheap hits, I decided that this game was a huge pile of STINK. And it is. All the cutscenes in the world can't convince me otherwise. I'll keep my copy of the disk only for the boobs on the cover, but I'll never play it again.

Valis II- Played this one not long after Valis III. I figured maybe they just messed something up in the sequel...wow, was I mistaken...I think the company itself must be the one that is messed up. Valis II has got to be one of the most boring "action" games I've ever seen. Maybe it gets better if you get past the first area or something...but I just couldn't bring myself to play through this borefest long enough to find out. Snore, this one stinks.

Super Air Zonk- After the sheer brilliance that was Air Zonk, I expected the SCD sequel to be twice as good. Instead, it's a mediocre snorefest that I blazed through half-asleep. Easy as pie and totally uninspired.

Strip Fighter II- Semi-nude women beating each other up, using moves that expose themselves completely. What's not to love? Well, for starters, how about one of the worst controls schemes in history? This game plays like stink on a monkey's ass. Sure it looks good, especially the cutscenes (gotta love 16 color censored porno!), but I've played better fighting games on the Commodore 64.

[nat]

Jeez, Nod just shit on every one of my favorite games! Seriously though, I like everything on that list except maybe Prince of Persia.

I'm surprised you didn't mention Shape Shifter. Your hate for that one is legendary.

[OldRover]

Shape Shifter wasn't a disappointment. I went into it knowing it was absolute shit; there was no room for disappointment. It lived up to my expectations of being one of the biggest stinking piles in PCE history.

[rag-time4]

Jeez, Nod just shit on every one of my favorite games! Seriously though, I like everything on that list except maybe Prince of Persia.

I'm surprised you didn't mention Shape Shifter. Your hate for that one is legendary.

The one game that has really disappointed me was Fighting Street. I actually bought my Duo so I could try out Fighting Street, given that the original Street Fighter 1 was my favorite arcade game as a kid. I love the game so much I have an arcade machine of my own... one of the nice dedicated ones!

Anyway, they butchered the two button interface of Fighting Street. In the arcade, as far as I remember, the two button interface gave the player an instantaneous response because of the pressure sensitive buttons... but on the Turbo there is a major delay.

By itself, the original Street Fighter is a true classic, one of the great games of all time. But Fighting Street was a bad port, even in 1988 or whenever it was that it came out.

I can't tell you all though how bad I wanted a Turbo CD ever since I saw that display kiosk at toys r us as a kid with Fighting Street as one of the games for sale... I never forgot and 13 or so years later finally scratched the itch and got into the Turbo.

Even though Fighting Street was a disappointment, R-Type and Sidearms certainly were not.... eventually I got more into collecting games for it.

[guyjin]

Prince Of Persia- Never played this before I played it here. After all the hype for the game back in the day, I expected this to be the killer app. Wow, was I mistaken. The game controls like a crusty old man begging for Geritol and it looks like the last thing that came out of said old man's ass.

Prince of persia is a classic. The controls are... unique. If you go into this expecting a normal run/jump/slash game, you're going to be miserable. Treat it like a puzzle game instead.

[SignOfZeta]

This is a weird thread. Its basically filled with a lot of great games (some bad ones too) that people bought so heavily into before playing that the game could never actually live up to its expectations regardless of how good it might be.

...and on that note...

Macross 2036: I was interested in this from day one, but it was hard to find in the US for several years. Some dude on the Turbo list told me that it *destroyed* the SFC Macross game which I already regarded as incredible. He was *so* fucking wrong. This is a fine piece of software, but like many PCE games without the cinema (very nice!) and audio (mostly just cribbed from the film) this wouldn't be that well regarded. Totally worth owning, especially for a Macross fan, but cannot compare to Scrambled Valkyrie.

Sapphire: Hyped to supernatural levels, said to offer graphics only possible on a Cray super computer, and all the best Hudson, and Mika Akitaka could offer. This is just a "good" game and in fact does not add SGI render farm level graphics. Once again this is a great game, but not as good as; Star Parodia, LoT, GoT, Spriggen, or even, honestly, Macross 2036.

[Tatsujin]

or even, honestly, Macross 2036.

atomlol!! 

[SignOfZeta]

or even, honestly, Macross 2036.

atomlol!! 

QEF?

[Tatsujin]

even sapphire isn't that great as a GoT, so it still playes in the absolute top league of PCE shooters (out of any questions). macross 2036 is, at the very best, settlet somewhere in the average level^^

[SignOfZeta]

Yes, but I'm rating Macross 2036 as a total package, taking into account the trimmings like cinemas and redbook audio, which make the game more enjoyable to me. Its true the gameplay is so-so at best.

[NecroPhile]

The one game that has really disappointed me was Fighting Street.

I forgot that stinky piece of cheese, likely due to a sub-consciously intentional memory block.  Since I didn't pick it up until after SFII was out, I was expecting it to suck in comparison but to still offer a decent experience.  Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed by it's unresponsive controls and horrible voices (especially the latter, considering it's a CD title); why the geniuses would've selected this travesty for the first U.S. CD title is beyond me.

[OldRover]

Fighting Street didn't disappoint me...I knew it sucked already, so when I actually got a copy, I wasn't disappointed.

[MurderDate]

The only TG16 game that ever disappointed me was Splash Lake.  I don't know- I just don't like it.  Dragon's Curse kind of disappoints me a little too.  Everything else I knew what I was getting into beforehand.   For the record I like nearly every single TG16 game, certainly some more than others, but I enjoy most of them.

[OldRover]

Splash Lake feels a little homebrewish...maybe that's what threw you off. Something about the game just doesn't feel right.

[NecroPhile]

Splash Lake feels a little homebrewish...maybe that's what threw you off. Something about the game just doesn't feel right.

[pokebearwithstick]

How can you say 'homebrewish'?  At least Splash Lake was actually completed and released. 

[/pokebearwithstick]

[OldRover]

It was also developed by people who were paid to work on video games full time as their career.

[Sinistron]

ewwwww! point/counterpoint!

I do see what Rove's saying here though- though I do for one love splash lake and it is a great game to play with the missus-  there is something off about it- almost feels like a demo or a game that should've been included on one of those ultrabox sets.  For a CD title there's not much to it.  Still- however- quite enjoyable.

[rag-time4]

I forgot that stinky piece of cheese, likely due to a sub-consciously intentional memory block.  Since I didn't pick it up until after SFII was out, I was expecting it to suck in comparison but to still offer a decent experience.  Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed by it's unresponsive controls and horrible voices (especially the latter, considering it's a CD title); why the geniuses would've selected this travesty for the first U.S. CD title is beyond me.

Hey I love the voices! They were ported right from the arcade! I absolutely loved them when I first played it and that has carried over.

I think back in those days Street Fighter was a pretty big deal... it really blew away games like Karate Champ and Yie Ar Kung Fu in terms of its graphics... and for me it was the perfect first CD title because I wanted a Turbo CD since the first time I saw that Street Fighter was on the system (not released for another console until Capcom Classics vol 2 for XBOX and PS2)

[NecroPhile]

It was also developed by people who were paid to work on video games full time as their career.

I completely understand what you're saying, though for me it feels just as complete as most any other puzzley type game.  The previously posted comment should only be taken as a light hearted jab at all homebrew projects that languish in a perpetual state of 'almost done' and wasn't aimed at any particular person or project¹.

Hey I love the voices! They were ported right from the arcade! I absolutely loved them when I first played it and that has carried over.

To each their own, but I think that 'arcade perfect' is a cop out for the voices.  The CD didn't suffer from the same limitations as the arcade board, so there's no excuse for it to sound like everyone is fresh from the dentist with a mouth full of cotton gauze and an ampule of Novocaine.  Had they released it on a HuCard, on the other hand, the voices wouldn't have been much of a disappointment at all.

I think back in those days Street Fighter was a pretty big deal... it really blew away games like Karate Champ and Yie Ar Kung Fu in terms of its graphics... and for me it was the perfect first CD title because I wanted a Turbo CD since the first time I saw that Street Fighter was on the system (not released for another console until Capcom Classics vol 2 for XBOX and PS2)

In theory, Fighting Street would've been a nice launch title had it been equal to the arcade (or even better in some areas).  In practice, the poor controls and laughable voices surely made more than a few people wonder why they'd waste $400 on a CD add-on that didn't seem to add-on much of anything in terms of game play.  In short, it wasn't the game that was a poor choice, but rather the selection of a shitty port of a good game.

¹ - I anyone is offended, then the comment was directed squarely at their stupid ass and they can blow me. 

[rag-time4]

Hey I love the voices! They were ported right from the arcade! I absolutely loved them when I first played it and that has carried over.

To each their own, but I think that 'arcade perfect' is a cop out for the voices.  The CD didn't suffer from the same limitations as the arcade board, so there's no excuse for it to sound like everyone is fresh from the dentist with a mouth full of cotton gauze and an ampule of Novocaine.  Had they released it on a HuCard, on the other hand, the voices wouldn't have been much of a disappointment at all.

I think back in those days Street Fighter was a pretty big deal... it really blew away games like Karate Champ and Yie Ar Kung Fu in terms of its graphics... and for me it was the perfect first CD title because I wanted a Turbo CD since the first time I saw that Street Fighter was on the system (not released for another console until Capcom Classics vol 2 for XBOX and PS2)

In theory, Fighting Street would've been a nice launch title had it been equal to the arcade (or even better in some areas).  In practice, the poor controls and laughable voices surely made more than a few people wonder why they'd waste $400 on a CD add-on that didn't seem to add-on much of anything in terms of game play.  In short, it wasn't the game that was a poor choice, but rather the selection of a shitty port of a good game.

I have read some reviews on gamefaqs for the original street fighter arcade game, and lots of them say that the voices sound like the speaker has a mouthful of cotton....

I don't buy that... I think the person doing the voices just had a heavy accent. I always thought it gave the game a more exotic feel and I always enjoyed them, and still do Kiddo! Muahahahaha!

The control is really awkward though.. I don't like it at all. It seemed to make sense, since Street Fighter was originally a 2 button game, but the button timing is totally different. I bet that the button timing in Fighting Street is consistent  but it's so different than the arcade, from what I remember, that I've never taken the time to master it.

[esteban]

Hey I love the voices! They were ported right from the arcade! I absolutely loved them when I first played it and that has carried over.

To each their own, but I think that 'arcade perfect' is a cop out for the voices.  The CD didn't suffer from the same limitations as the arcade board, so there's no excuse for it to sound like everyone is fresh from the dentist with a mouth full of cotton gauze and an ampule of Novocaine.  Had they released it on a HuCard, on the other hand, the voices wouldn't have been much of a disappointment at all.

I think back in those days Street Fighter was a pretty big deal... it really blew away games like Karate Champ and Yie Ar Kung Fu in terms of its graphics... and for me it was the perfect first CD title because I wanted a Turbo CD since the first time I saw that Street Fighter was on the system (not released for another console until Capcom Classics vol 2 for XBOX and PS2)

In theory, Fighting Street would've been a nice launch title had it been equal to the arcade (or even better in some areas).  In practice, the poor controls and laughable voices surely made more than a few people wonder why they'd waste $400 on a CD add-on that didn't seem to add-on much of anything in terms of game play.  In short, it wasn't the game that was a poor choice, but rather the selection of a shitty port of a good game.

I have read some reviews on gamefaqs for the original street fighter arcade game, and lots of them say that the voices sound like the speaker has a mouthful of cotton....

I don't buy that... I think the person doing the voices just had a heavy accent. I always thought it gave the game a more exotic feel and I always enjoyed them, and still do Kiddo! Muahahahaha!

The control is really awkward though.. I don't like it at all. It seemed to make sense, since Street Fighter was originally a 2 button game, but the button timing is totally different. I bet that the button timing in Fighting Street is consistent  but it's so different than the arcade, from what I remember, that I've never taken the time to master it.

Aha! This is something that you folks might find interesting:
Michael! from DuoWorld #1 (July / August 1993).

[SignOfZeta]

To each their own, but I think that 'arcade perfect' is a cop out for the voices.  The CD didn't suffer from the same limitations as the arcade board, so there's no excuse for it to sound like everyone is fresh from the dentist with a mouth full of cotton gauze and an ampule of Novocaine.  Had they released it on a HuCard, on the other hand, the voices wouldn't have been much of a disappointment at all.

I disagree. An arcade board has random high speed access to every piece of the program. Something running on a CDROM2 has to fit everything on screen into a pathetically small amount of RAM.

I'm not sticking up for Fighting Street (it isn't very good, arcade, PCE, whatever) but your complaint seems a bit off to me. Are there even any other CDROM2 (not Super) one-on-one fighters to compare Fighting Street to? It would be unacceptable if, say, the music was bad, but I think that maybe Capcom's crappy PCE port of Fighting Street was crappy for the same reasons their crappy port of Marvel Super Heroes versus Street Fighter on Playstation was crappy; no damn memory.

[Joe Redifer]

I was disappointed in Splash Lake as well.  I got it for super-cheap brand new from Toys R Us when they were clearing out their Turbo stuff.  I was hoping it would at least have some good music.  It didn't.

[OldRover]

Maybe that's it...the music. The music by itself is great, but it just doesn't really seem to fit the game very well. The soundtrack was done by the same folks who did Lords Of Thunder and Riot Zone.

[MurderDate]

Maybe that's it...the music. The music by itself is great, but it just doesn't really seem to fit the game very well. The soundtrack was done by the same folks who did Lords Of Thunder and Riot Zone.

damn dude, you know your stuff!   I am amazed the same people are behind the music for all three games!   I absolutely hated the music on Splash Lake, personally.  It does fit the ducks a little and I didn't mind it at first but it got irritating by the end of the day.

Not absolutely the worst game ever but flawed. I would take Tailspin, JJ & Jeff, Darkwing Duck etc over this one.  Maybe not Fighting Street.. 

[OldTurboBastard]

Keith Courage - When I bought my TG-16 i could'nt afford another game so this was my first impression of the 200 bucks I just spent..  It was way below expectations (although I would never admit it back then). Sure the under world looked good but the shameless repetition was a let down.

Once I saved up and got R-Type all was well again.....

[JoshTurboTrollX]

Super Air Zonk- The only game I was totally let down with.......

[rag-time4]

Aha! This is something that you folks might find interesting:
Michael! from DuoWorld #1 (July / August 1993).

Very interesting indeed! Do i get points for saying the same thing the knowledgeable editor said (japanese pronunciation = asian accent)

Although, I disagree with the inflammatory epithets used by the editor! The voices are hardly "garbled" ... and the post fight commentary is anything but "nonsensical" and "rambling"....

Such slander is pure hogwash!!!

I'll have to admit that the editor's response to the batman / operatin wolf letter made me giggle! The reader asked whether Batman and Operation Wolf would be released in the USA, the editor responded with a list of other popular lisences that would not be released in the USA, including Operation Wolf.... 

[SignOfZeta]

Operation Wolf was huge in arcades back then.

[TR0N]

Keith Courage - When I bought my TG-16 i could'nt afford another game so this was my first impression of the 200 bucks I just spent..  It was way below expectations (although I would never admit it back then). Sure the under world looked good but the shameless repetition was a let down.

Once I saved up and got R-Type all was well again.....

Hmm here i thought i was the only one that was disappointed in keith courages.

To,this day i still think the mech parts were the only good parts of the game.

I don't hate it but it could have been more.

[NecroPhile]

I disagree. An arcade board has random high speed access to every piece of the program. Something running on a CDROM2 has to fit everything on screen into a pathetically small amount of RAM.

I'm not sticking up for Fighting Street (it isn't very good, arcade, PCE, whatever) but your complaint seems a bit off to me. Are there even any other CDROM2 (not Super) one-on-one fighters to compare Fighting Street to? It would be unacceptable if, say, the music was bad, but I think that maybe Capcom's crappy PCE port of Fighting Street was crappy for the same reasons their crappy port of Marvel Super Heroes versus Street Fighter on Playstation was crappy; no damn memory.

I assumed that the crappy sounding voices were due to the arcade hardware, but I have no idea what the board could've managed in more capable hands (though ample ram doesn't help if the sound chip sucks hard).  I'll happily concede the point anyway, since it doesn't change the fact that the Turbo version could've had better voices.  There's many CD-ROM² titles with clearly voiced cut scenes, and nearly all of Fighting Street's voices are found between rounds, so I don't see why it'd be important to compare it specifically to other CD-ROM² fighting games.  The static cut scenes in Fighting Street are surely not memory pigs, and if I'm not mistaken, the voices use ADPCM which is separate from the system memory anyway.

[rag-time4]

Operation Wolf was huge in arcades back then.

Ahhh poor reading comprehension on my part. At first it seemed awkwardly written, given that the letter writer discussed Batman and Operation Wolf... then the editor said that Operation Wolf would not be released here, then in a list of famous licenses mentioned Operation Wolf a second time.

But you seemed to have picked up right away on the fact that the list of licenses was all arcade games.

I saw Operation Wolf on the list and not Batman so it seemed like an error at first but Batman wasn't an arcade game. As a writer I would have put Operation Wolf at the end of the list as it was already previously mentioned... but that's just my style i guess LOL