The perfect game feeling - The Bear and Badger

Vela

This is a bit abstract since it's happening to me right now so please ~~bare~~ bear with me..

How often do you ever get the feeling that a game is just perfect upon loading up the very first level. Irrespective of whether or not the game ends up being great all the way through, but every now and then a game arrives which for some reason, immediately impresses with some insanely simple yet incredible mechanic and sense of how it is going to play out.

To give a couple of examples of what I'm getting at, my GOTY for 2013, Fire Emblem Awakening ... would not fall into this category. It is a game that took time to grow. WipEout wasn't a game like that either, neither was Skyward Sword or Halo, but they all were fantastic.

I'm talking about games such as:

Pac Man Championship Edition - the moment you realise that you get faster and chain combos (under a minute).
Space Invaders Extreme - same reason as PMCE, just no nonsense dive into it.
Contra 4 - instant death.
Wii Sports bowling or tennis - immediate tactile control.
Rez - the gradual layering on of track detail in step with your shooting.

The game giving me that right now is Velocity on PSminis.
"Oh look, its an Amiga era story. A red giant has exploded! It is becoming a black hole! Rescue the survivors!
OK, its a normal vertical scrolling shmup with visual quality on par with Gradius/RType on SNES. Bit faster movement though.

Wait, what does this square button do?

Holy. Fuck.

:0

What games have ever given you this moment? Any platform, era, genre...

Skerret

A boring cunt predictably wrote:

SotC, ICO

Skerret

Ah, and SM64. Dammit that's worse.

[Deleted User]

Velocity is excellent, totally agree with op.

I'd say for me the last moment we're I had that perfect game feeling were 'the last guy'.

I think it were all about how simple it were (but the difficulty adjusted nicely rather than steep or too easy) and the mechanics, everything just worked perfectly how you expect it to.

Really over looked little gem of a game.

Moot_Geeza

Wario Ware Inc.
Super Meat Boy.

Personally I thought Rez took ages to appreciate - I initially wanted a Panzer Dragoon or Starfox style 3D shooter, not something new that also happened to be a shooter.

n0face

Portal, just loved the way it opened.

beano

The demo for Wonderful 101. Srs.

mk64

SM64.. creeping and then running and then tripple jumping towards the castle. just wow

donkey kong country had me too

slightly different but certain arcade games just had me from the intro screen and music. Double Dragon, ChaseHQ, Final Fight and SF2 fit into that.

hylian_elf

Recently, Resogun. Can't think of anything else. I guess quite a few shmups would feature. Mushi Furari for example.

Brooks

A shit that calls for little or no wiping.

davyK

Mario 64 - pushing forward on the stick and feeling in control in 3D for the first time. You just knew you were in for something special.

Showing my age but pressing a button and seeing the shooter move with beautiful responsiveness, and with that background thump in Space Invaders in the arcade.....the feeling of that for the first time is hard to convey.

I found Rez not that appealing at first - but it soon hooked me.

Skerret

Brooks wrote:

A shit that calls for little or no wiping.

Adopt the squat, clean sheets every time.

Brooks

Haxx0r

AJ

Within a few seconds of starting PS2-era Spider-Man 2, I was grinning ear to ear. I'd always loved the idea of swinging about, but it pulled off the mechanics so effortlessly it blew me away.

Vela

See, Rez actually hooked me on the demo. Bought it instantly afterwards at $99.95 AUD for "the worst graphics on PS2" as I was told. Loved it before I knew it was a cult hit.

As for beat-em-ups, I agree but for me I'd list Streets of Rage 2. The combo system in that game is just flawless right from the get go.

Another than comes to mind but my memory is a bit hazy is Speedball 2. Something about the immediacy of the controls and how the same button = punching = sliding = tackling = shooting.

There really is something to be said for a game that communicates everything you need to know in under 30 seconds.

AJ

That reminds me, Ico got me on the demo. I was at a mate's and he let me try the disc that came with some mag or something. It felt so goddamn fresh, I'd never even heard of it before. Was years before I actually got to play it properly.

superflyninja

Portal. Monkey Island 2 - I knew at the title screen....

n0face

Monkey island 2 had me at the mix and Mojo

Just thought of Another World, that intro used to get so excited.

Escape

Don't blame me for a list...

Amiga

Another World
International Karate +
Knights of the Sky
North & South
Pinball Dreams
Sensible Soccer
Stunt Car Racer
Worms

Commodore 16

DisasterBlaster
Ikari Warriors
Kikstart
Treasure Island

GameCube

Super Monkey Ball

Master System

Asterix

Mega Drive

Ecco the Dolphin
LandStalker: The Treasure of King Nole
OutRun
Road Rash
Streets of Rage
The Revenge of Shinobi

NES

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest
Mega Man 2
Nintendo World Cup
Punch-Out!!
Track & Field II
Wrath of the Black Manta

Nintendo 64

Blast Corps
GoldenEye
Super Mario 64

PC

Actua Soccer 2
Descent
Duke Nukem 3D
EF2000
Grand Prix 2
Grand Prix Legends
Grand Theft Auto
Grim Fandango
Interstate '76
Operation Flashpoint
Quake
SkyNET
Star Trek: TNG - A Final Unity
The Need for Speed
The Need for Speed: Porsche 2000
ToCA 2 Touring Cars
Ultima VIII: Pagan

PlayStation

Doom
ESPN Extreme Games
Gran Turismo
Gran Turismo 2
Tekken
Tekken 2
Tenchu: Stealth Assassins
Tomb Raider
Tony Hawk's Skateboarding
Twisted Metal 2: World Tour
WipEout 2097

PlayStation 2

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
ICO
TT SuperBikes
Way of the Samurai

PlayStation 3

Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection
Uncharted 2
Warhawk
WipEout HD

Saturn

Sega Rally Championship
Virtua Fighter

Sega 32X

Virtua Racing Deluxe

SNES

Donkey Kong Country
Secret of Mana
Street Fighter II
Super Castlevania IV
Super Mario Kart
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Wings II: Aces High

Xbox

Project Gotham Racing
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay

ZX Spectrum

Jason's Gem

Taken from my big list. You heard.

Vela

Some immediate standouts in that list there.

Escape

And Ground Zero Texas.

davyK

Monkey Ball and Bust-a-Move would be two others.

With Monkey Ball you know everything after 2 seconds. Bust-a-Move's immediacy outdoes all other puzzle games.

And Asteroids. Beautiful control and sense of intertia. Those vector graphics and the non linearity of it - every wave is as different as a frame of snooker. Gorgeous.

Actually an awful lot of Atari's pioneering titles are beautiful. Tempest, Lunar Lander, Centipede, Missile Command and Marble Madness for example. It is not a coincidence that many of their games pale when played via emulation. The control panel was embedded into the experience. It was a privilege to have been at the right age in the early 80's.

Vela

Monkey Target too. Dont forget that piece of genius.

Bollockoff

Vanquish Vanquish Vanquish. I'd contribute more Vanquish if I was on my comp and not mob.

Vela

Vanquish is great, but gee whizz it took me a while to get to grips with.

[Deleted User]

Crystal castles on the old atari 2600.

Completely forgot about ik+ but that too,
And to a lesser extent yie are king fu.

Bushing blade on ps1.

There were this other game on ps2 I forget the name of wich were a flying carrier thing and you had like a jet type thing and a jeep type thing inside that you occasionally control.....I rented it and immediately had to buy....we're definitely full of the perfect feeling.

[Deleted User]

Oh shadows of Rome on ps2 were full of that perfect feeling and an amazing game. (just forget the later sneaking sections).

Skondo

Kaboom! - Atari 2600
Match Day - Spectrum
Sensible Soccer - Amiga
Rodland - Amiga
Goldeneye - N64
F1 - Playstation

retroking1981

Metal Gear Solid - a story driven and deep game but to quote Vela:

'a game arrives which for some reason, immediately impresses with some insanely simple yet incredible mechanic and sense of how it is going to play out'

There was plenty of games before MGS with stealth elements but playing the opening of that game (well demo) I knew it was something special.

I agree with a lot of the games already listed especially Super Mario 64 and Wii Sports.

Also PacMan CE/Space Invaders Extreme and all the Atari games DavyK mentioned but then thats kind of in their nature and the point of old arcade games.

oh and TETRIS!

TheDJR

Half-Life
Final Fantasy VII
The Walking Dead

I'm a sucker for great introductions which also leads to be wrong about a few.

Vela

I was thinking of Tetris when I typed out my thread but the phone rang and I forgot to include it.

Another suggestion is Katamari Damacy. Pick up small stuff, get bigger, pick up bigger stuff, get lambasted by ~~David Bowie~~ King of All Cosmos who vicariously lives through the failures of his minions.

No... It was indeed not a dream

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