Ridin' on cars!


i gotta say, that was 20min well spent.....why have i never found the hadouken upgrade in MMX?
 
Not easy... Look it up. You need to complete a level 5 times and commit suecite 4 times before it appears.
 
True words. Needlessly long and verbose, but very accurate.


Mario is also a good example of a game which teaches the player through natural flow and very carefully designed stages. VVVVVV and Portal are more more recent titles which also do this fairly well.


On the flip-side of the coin, some modern games have a much higher complexity compared to the older titles which makes it harder to design levels around it. The sad thing is that most developers don't even try it anymore and that 30 minute long tutorial missions and/or regular gameplay with hints thrown at the player every so often have become acceptable.


On a related note. What also bothers me these days is how developers feel the need to force the player to observe in-game cut-scenes, background animations and/or other graphical effects. If they are interesting then I will notice them and watch, there is no need to take over camera controls.
 
"Prometheus, Prometheus! To write your post, you need to press the keys on the keyboard!! That's that board in front of you with keys on it!!"

Watch this. Now. It's a hilarious deconstruction of what makes MegaMan (specifically MegaMan X) so great and what is very wrong with modern gaming, something that has bothered me a lot recently but I've been unable to figure out why.
Stan, that video is truly fantastic. I watched it a few weeks ago, and it's still great now. :p


It really does run down what was right then and what's wrong now, and it's quite scary to look at how, over time, so many people have lost their ability to work on their craft. And making a good game IS a craft. Cutting chunks out, or worse, having them on the disc and keeping them locked, and expecting people to pay extra for it, is not.


Many people don't realise it, but a game made with care shows - it's the difference between Batman: Arkham Asylum (which I've been told by those it appeals to is quite good), and

https://www.youtube.com/embed/7tIBIny4L6E?feature=oembed
The Mega Man series, for the most part, tends to blend those (where they're present) into the games pretty well. There's nothing excessive (obviously, they're usually text!), they're always skippable in some way, and they're usually part of the fun anyway. It's a rich universe they've got there, after all. :p


The exception is the MegaMan Legends series (excluding The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, which is a brilliant arcade-style game), which is seriously an acquired taste, and which is too full of cutscene fluff (and, in the second game, forced tutorials here and there) for my liking. It's a shame, as the game parts are mostly quite good. It looked like Legends 3 was going to fix those problems, too (and this is why we keep campaigning for it)...
 
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I loved the video and of coarse MegaMan X, It's sad 25 years of gaming and I never really understood how important learn by doing with out having to have the information cramed down my throat made a such a difference in enjoyment.


MegaMan X was just such a great game, I have played it so many times and never used the boomerang on the mammoth before, I have to try that.
 
This video is pretty insightful. Modern games with their tutorials drive me NUTS. I usually just press X (or whatever is needed) to get through them as quickly as possible, because I'm not an idiot and I can figure it out as I go. If anything, the tutorials should be separate and optional from the actual game. I remember Assassins Creed 1 doing this, where the tutorial was totally separate from the real game. I can't remember if it was optional though...


Anyway, great video, thanks for sharing. :)
 
I've not played Portal, but I'm certainly appreciating that in VVVVVV. :D

play portal, assuming your able to manage the controls of a FPS you'll love that...
I can manage them fine. (I'm not quite sure why you'd think otherwise. :blink: Or am I just misreading your wording?) I don't like FPSes, though, and they often make me feel a bit disorientated, to boot. :lol:
 
hehe, you just seems more fond of 2d side scrollers... I told myself...
 
Ah, I see what you mean. :lol: You'd be correct, there - I'm VERY fond of 2D platformers indeed. (You wouldn't believe how excited I am about the Castle of Illusion sequel by DreamRift - now there's a developer who gets the learn-through-the-natural-flow thing. Their other games to date are superb, and so too will Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion be, I suspect.)
 
Damn, just making a return to games after a busy period, and my 'to play' list is already growing exponentially because of videos like this.
 
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