Most overrated and underrated Nintendo franchise

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

Most underrated:

Balloon Fight - seriously, show me moar complex mechanics wise arcade game of 1984 and NES game of 1985. This 40 kb title has absolutely revolutionary physics. You can precisely manage your speed, there are different collision rules depending on was fast hit the object, what was the object itself (enemy, enemy's balloon, solid rock, propeller), from what angle you hit it etc. It also has adventure mode (Balloon Trip) and awesome co-op.

What is legecy of such masterpiece? Eh... pretty shitty.
- Balloon Kid - shitty bunch of new Balloon Trip levels for Game Boy
- Tingle's Balloon Fight - direct rip off for DS with Zelda character and awful artsyle, plus it's Japanese exlusive
- 'till recently, there was even no good hack, yeah some crap like Mario or Joust mods but in 2015, two great hacks were released and both finally surpassed vanilla gaem:
- Cosmic Balloon Assault - new levels with different aesthetics and finally, some of them take place in daytime which is refreshening
- Board Fight - new levels with largers amount of enemies, better AI, best obstacle placing and great aesthetics changes. There are some shit here stolen from different games like Contra or (propably) Castlevania, I especially like the castle level with lava replacing water.
- unofficial games, spiritual sequels etc? Forget after 35 year it's still fucking nothing.

Damn, Nintendo could harvest tons money of modern revivial and it's beyond why we could get Super Ballon Fight or 3D experiment that would be Balloon Fight 64. Such rudimetary crap like original Bomberman had its chance to evolve into quality title like Saturn Bomberman, hell even screaming mediocrity like Kid Icarus was remake'd for DS but why not BF?

Most overrated:

Zelda - as any other Eastern European I was sentenced only for gaems that Russian/Korean/Chinese pirated decided to sell so obviously, they skipped everything with expensive battery save file sytem. Zelda was unknown here until at least N64 times and even then not many bough such overrated console thanks to ultra expensive carts and lack of piracy. On there other hand, we hand freash view on that franchise free from Nintendo's marketing tactics and guess what.., it never clicked and never gained decent popularity. Gamecube and later stuff improved situation but it never became as iconic big N brand and Mario. People in Poland were offered much greater open world adventure games called Fantastic Adventure of Dizzy bundled right with Pegasus famiclone (famous Golden Five cart!) so even if someone brought us Zelda, it would failed miserably. SNES was almost non existens (expensive toy!) and Ocarina of Time was just clunky mess. I agree BOTW looks interesting but it's like... 30 years after?

 

[Onionguy]

Most underrated:

Balloon Fight - seriously, show me moar complex mechanics wise arcade game of 1984 and NES game of 1985. This 40 kb title has absolutely revolutionary physics. You can precisely manage your speed, there are different collision rules depending on was fast hit the object, what was the object itself (enemy, enemy's balloon, solid rock, propeller), from what angle you hit it etc. It also has adventure mode (Balloon Trip) and awesome co-op.

What is legecy of such masterpiece? Eh... pretty shitty.
- Balloon Kid - shitty bunch of new Balloon Trip levels for Game Boy
- Tingle's Balloon Fight - direct rip off for DS with Zelda character and awful artsyle, plus it's Japanese exlusive
- 'till recently, there was even no good hack, yeah some crap like Mario or Joust mods but in 2015, two great hacks were released and both finally surpassed vanilla gaem:
- Cosmic Balloon Assault - new levels with different aesthetics and finally, some of them take place in daytime which is refreshening
- Board Fight - new levels with largers amount of enemies, better AI, best obstacle placing and great aesthetics changes. There are some shit here stolen from different games like Contra or (propably) Castlevania, I especially like the castle level with lava replacing water.
- unofficial games, spiritual sequels etc? Forget after 35 year it's still fucking nothing.

Damn, Nintendo could harvest tons money of modern revivial and it's beyond why we could get Super Ballon Fight or 3D experiment that would be Balloon Fight 64. Such rudimetary crap like original Bomberman had its chance to evolve into quality title like Saturn Bomberman, hell even screaming mediocrity like Kid Icarus was remake'd for DS but why not BF?

Most overrated:

Zelda - as any other Eastern European I was sentenced only for gaems that Russian/Korean/Chinese pirated decided to sell so obviously, they skipped everything with expensive battery save file sytem. Zelda was unknown here until at least N64 times and even then not many bough such overrated console thanks to ultra expensive carts and lack of piracy. On there other hand, we hand freash view on that franchise free from Nintendo's marketing tactics and guess what.., it never clicked and never gained decent popularity. Gamecube and later stuff improved situation but it never became as iconic big N brand and Mario. People in Poland were offered much greater open world adventure games called Fantastic Adventure of Dizzy bundled right with Pegasus famiclone (famous Golden Five cart!) so even if someone brought us Zelda, it would failed miserably. SNES was almost non existens (expensive toy!) and Ocarina of Time was just clunky mess. I agree BOTW looks interesting but it's like... 30 years after?

Ok, but what lesser popularity of zelda franchise in Poland has to do with it being overrated? And it's definitely not overrated, since 2d games like link to the past, link's awakening and both oracle titles are indisputably great. Furthermore, first two 3d incarnations- Ocarina and Majora are really close in quality. Don't know what you mean by saying that ocarina was clunky mess. I replayed 3d games recently and they both hold up quite well; actually, much better then 90% of their contemporaries.

Fantastic Adventure of Dizzy you say... You see, I am also from Poland, I spent half of my childhood in 90s with false conviction that Pegasus was some kind of cutting edge, technological marvel. Little did I know how fucking delayed we were in relation to the west. But couple of years later, when I finally got my hands on consoles such as snes and n64, including zelda games, I was pretty impressed. So no, Dizzy and Ballon Fight were not enough.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

You see, I am also from Poland, I spent half of my childhood in 90s with false conviction that Pegasus was some kind of cutting edge, technological marvel. Little did I know how fucking delayed we were in relation to the west. But couple of years later, when I finally got my hands on consoles such as snes and n64, including zelda games, I was pretty impressed. So no, Dizzy and Ballon Fight were not enough.

I remember something else, there was a huge split among gamers. Famiclones were considered as weak hardware for poor people and home computers were for the rich ones. There was no place for anything between like 16 bit consoles. They were too expensive to justify buy just for mostly the same mechanics with better graphics, plus they were only a playthings. That few magazines that gave them few pages for 1-2 years (Top Secret, Secret Service) weren't even interested in presenting among biggest classics any of Zelda games. These guys had quality taste and weren't mindlessly parroting western media just like modern gaming journalist do nowadays.

 

[Ysaye]

Not sure it is the most underrated, but certainly a franchise I personally have underrated is Pokemon. Whilst I don't play it or like it, I realised the other day that my younger sister (and many of her broader generation y cohort) understands and appreciates many of the main concepts of things we general call turn based role playing games because of this and Suikoden 2 (she found this game entertaining for some bizarre reason).

As RPGs go, Golden Sun has been much lauded by a few people, but I have to admit I always felt like this was a bit mis-mashed and never much actual fun; that would be my vote for most overrated.

 

[Sigourn]

Overrated: everything.
Underrated: nothing.

Nintendo could slap its seal of quality on a turd and twenty years later you would have a YouTuber talking about this hidden gem.

EDIT: See, a Nintendie already feels attacked.
EDIT 2: It's an organized attack!

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

I was counting on interesting discussion about the legacy of one most influencial devs ever but ended with being rated as retard.

 

[Bruma Hobo]

The original Legend of Zelda was a polished Ultima-like for the masses and it's great because of it, it's still the best title of the series. Zelda 2, while not as polished as your average Nintendo game, is still a fantastic action-RPG and one of their most underrated titles... Unlike that boring watered-down game called A Link to the Past, now that's an overrated Nintendo game.

On the other hand Ocarina of Time aged better than any other non-FPS 3D game from the nineties, its controls still feel good and I can't think of a better transition from 2D to 3D. And calling it clunky while being a Potato must feel weird.

 

[Jason Liang]

I'm confused if this thread is just about Nintendo properties or if it includes 3rd party dev properties like Contra.

I'm gonna be edgy and say Metroid is most overrated, followed by F-Zero

Underrated Duck Hunt followed by Star Tropics

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

I'm confused if this thread is just about Nintendo properties or if it includes 3rd party dev properties like Contra.

Only with Ninny as dev, Contra is Konami title.

I'm gonna be edgy and say Metroid is most overrated

I'd say it's one of the most underrated, propably only Nintendo franchise that's moar grimdark and mature oriented.

 

[Jason Liang]

People go nuts about the Metroid games but there's almost no lore and almost no world-building.

And honestly the games aren't that fun. Doom and Halo do it better.

 

[Falksi]

Underrated?
OK, so it's 3rd party but still SNES based - The Legend of The Mystical Ninja/Ganbare Goemon series. Seriously, what the absolute fuck? Some of the most bizare & brilliant ideas all crammed into several neat little packages. Finely-tunes platforming action makes up the core of the games, but there's the nice "RPG" element when exploring villages/etc, crazy robo-fights, and all kinds of fun weirdness jamo choco ramo'd into these games.

Overrated?
My favourite game EVA is Super Mario World. It's genuis, superb playability & perfect blend of simplicity & depth is simple untouchable. BUT, I don't think I've enjoyed any other Mario game even half as much. Super Mario Kart is a shit version of Street Racer, all the other platform based Mario games feel slow/sluggish in comparison to SMW, and overall I get very bored with most Mario games very quickly.

 

[Hobo Elf]

People go nuts about the Metroid games but there's almost no lore and almost no world-building.

And honestly the games aren't that fun. Doom and Halo do it better.

Did you actually play any Metroid games? There's a shitload of lore and world(universe) building. And I'm not talking about Prime. And even if there wasn't any lore or world building that's not the reason you play Metroid in the first place. Not every game needs to be about MUH LORE.

 

[Goi~Yaas~Dinn]

Overrated: everything.
Underrated: nothing.

Nintendo could slap its seal of quality on a turd and twenty years later you would have a YouTuber talking about this hidden gem.

EDIT: See, a Nintendie already feels attacked.
EDIT 2: It's an organized attack!

You deserved that DUMBFUCK! label...

 

[DJOGamer PT]

People go nuts about the Metroid games but there's almost no lore and almost no world-building.

And honestly the games aren't that fun. Doom and Halo do it better.

Do you realize Metroid isn't a shooter?

 

[Sigourn]

People go nuts about the Metroid games but there's almost no lore and almost no world-building.

And honestly the games aren't that fun. Doom and Halo do it better.

Do you realize Metroid isn't a shooter?

Maybe he was talking about the Prime series.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Even so, that doesn't make Metroid a pure shooter like Doom or Halo. By that logic Deus Ex and System Shock so to would be shooters.

 

[Goi~Yaas~Dinn]

I was counting on interesting discussion about the legacy of one most influencial devs ever but ended with being rated as retard.

I would not have rated you retarded. Maybe "...What?" Koala or "WTF am reading?!" Guy. Your posts seem confused or misinformed, not stupid.

 

[Jason Liang]

Even so, that doesn't make Metroid a pure shooter like Doom or Halo. By that logic Deus Ex and System Shock so to would be shooters.

Halo isn't a "pure" shooter either

Anyway Metroid Prime is worse than all these games

 

[Sranchammer]

All of it.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Even so, that doesn't make Metroid a pure shooter like Doom or Halo. By that logic Deus Ex and System Shock so to would be shooters.

Halo isn't a "pure" shooter either

Anyway Metroid Prime is worse than all these games

But Halo is a shooter while Metroid it's pretty much it's own genre. As such the criteria you can judge Prime are very different from the ones employed to judge those other games. Except for System Shock, since that one is pretty much the same type of game.

Also what's your problem Prime? It's a very good game.

 

[Steamboat Willie]

Maybe he was talking about the Prime series.

So does POV determine whether or not something is a shooter?

 

[Jason Liang]

Also what's your problem Prime? It's a very good game.

Sure, but overrated, as is the entire series beginning with NES Metroid

 

[deuxhero]

Under: Custom Robo
Overated: Wii ___. If I have to narrow it down further, Wii Sports.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Also what's your problem Prime? It's a very good game.

Sure, but overrated, as is the entire series beginning with NES Metroid

If anything I think it's actually underapreciated.

 

[DalekFlay]

Yeah Metroid should be right up there with Mario and Zelda in the public consciousness but it's not. Even my wife knows Mario and Zelda, despite never touching a video game her entire life, but she doesn't know much about Metroid at all. So if anything I'd put Metroid in the underrated column. Super Metroid and the Prime games are easily some of the best console exclusive titles and Nintendo releases ever.

My pick for underrated would probably be the Donkey Kong games though. Easily the best platformers since Mario World and among the best stuff Nintendo's put out on Wii and Switch, but they don't get anywhere near that kind of attention. They wipe the floor with New Super Mario and all the indie platformer stuff out there.

For overrated I'd say the 3D Mario games. I've never found any of them that compelling, and they are nowhere near as good as Mario 3 or Mario World, for my money. Mario 64 was of course a huge thing for the video game industry as a proof of concept, but its follow-ups have all been just okay.