Great Gaming Concepts

What games have you played that, regardless of how good the game was, had some concepts or features that you found to be absolutely class?

One game that comes to mind for me is The Mark of Kri. It was an okay game, nothing too special - aside from the battleplay. It's the first game that I feel effectively allows you to fight large groups with fluent attacks. It does this by letting you sweep out with one of the PS2's analogue buttons and selecting up to six characters - two for each of three of the main buttons. So then you can hit the buttons as you like, with Rau (your character) moving swiftly and fluently between the selected enemies, decapitating and impaling as you wish. Best fighting system I've seen in any game of it's kind. And a nice set of combos to go along with it, too. I just wish more of the mainstream games would take it on.

Anyone else know of any brilliant features/concepts/etc. in lesser known games?

Zone of the Enders 2: the Second Runner has one of the most effective 3D arial combat systems I've seen. The way you control your orbital frame and battle others is fluidly executed and really easy. The game itself is great too.

Most of the Nippon Ichi games do interesting things to the strategy RPG genre. One of the most interesting is Phantom Brave's lack of a grid, allowing for totally free movement. It can be annoying at times, but it's generally a really cool touch.

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DUMDUDUDUDUMDUDUDUDU

I thought the Rage meter in GGX2 was genius

I liked the combo combat system in Legend Of Legaia, it made battles long but at least they were fun. In Wild Arms, you have these items called Tools that you can use on the maps, it added an extra element of puzzle in the game, it was pretty good, sorta reminds me Zelda. I can't think of anything else for now...

I like that in Sim City 3000 you can make deals with other towns to say haul ALL of your trash away for x amount of $$$ per so many "unit". Great concept but it sucked to sell [img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img][img]/xxx.gif[/img] to other towns. You had to make deals to give them X amount of electricity every month for Y amount of $$$. X was usually every bit of whatever was not in use. Great concept and executed nicely for giving other towns jobs in your town but not the other way around.

In RPGs the 3 that stand out in my mind are Chrono Cross, Xenogears and Lunar for limiting your levels to make it challenging. In Cross you could not go beyond a certain level. In Gears your mechs were limited in ability to the items you could buy. In Lunar the enemy level was based off of your level so you couldn't over gain.

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Originally Posted by Hroth

I liked the combo combat system in Legend Of Legaia

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I remember Legaia's boss fights more than most any other RPG's for this reason. When I'm bored, I have two extra saves right before boss fights: one before Sim Seru Gaza; the other before the Delilas family fights. They're all great, though.

Ikaruga: the Black and White thing is really nifty.

Phantasy Star, it was the only RPG of it's kind. Most RPGs of it's time took place in medival times where you slayed dragons and explored caves and dungeons. This game was pretty much a combination of Sci-Fi and fantasy, almost like Star Wars, only with more plot twists. That's why PS is the best RPG series ever, DOWN WITH SE UP WITH SEGA.

In fact, everything Sega has ever made was innovative.

Metal Gear Solid

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Originally Posted by Darth Holmes

everything Sega has ever made was innovative.

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Not really

Super Metroid.

Not little parts, just the whole thing.

They aren't regarded very highly here in the states but I think basically every SaGa game ever made has been a conglomeration of many great, innovative, and original concepts.

Maybe the SNES Romancing SaGa 1~3, but SaGa Frontier and Unlimited SaGa are just...bleh, they don't deserve the plastic they're burnt onto, sure they TRIED to be innovative, but it was just a horrible failure, and I don't think even those few things could have saved them.

I liked SaGa Frontier, I never played Frontier 2, I hated Unltd.

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Originally Posted by Hroth

I liked the combo combat system in Legend Of Legaia, it made battles long but at least they were fun. In Wild Arms, you have these items called Tools that you can use on the maps, it added an extra element of puzzle in the game, it was pretty good, sorta reminds me Zelda. I can't think of anything else for now...

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YES!

Also, Prince of Persia. ICO was a poor man's PoP.

StarCraft introducing key groups. You could select a group of units and lock them to a key so that that when you press that key they all become selected. A great move for real-time stratagy.

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Originally Posted by edczxcvbnm

StarCraft introducing key groups. You could select a group of units and lock them to a key so that that when you press that key they all become selected. A great move for real-time stratagy.

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Didn't Warcraft 2 and/or Dune 2 have that?

I think WC1 had that first.

You couldn't set them to a key though. You could select more than one unit but you could not set them to a key. I am not sure about Dune 2.

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Originally Posted by Lindy

Maybe the SNES Romancing SaGa 1~3, but SaGa Frontier and Unlimited SaGa are just...bleh, they don't deserve the plastic they're burnt onto, sure they TRIED to be innovative, but it was just a horrible failure, and I don't think even those few things could have saved them.

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Well I liked them all, but that's beside the point, the concepts were solid and great.

Romancing's concept of playing a multitude of characters, passing through the ages, where at each stage of the game, what you did set out events for your character's future descendants WAS genius.

Especially storing and saving good items and equipment so that your future characters could make use of them.

Siren. Seeing through the monster's eyes is fantastically cool. Hard game though. :-x

Also, Omikron. For having David Bowie in it.
Also the mix of Adventure, FPS, and Fighting games it.
Oh, and being able to take over other people's bodies when you die.

Phantasy Star, oh wow. Science fiction in an RPG, I'm sure no one would of thought of that without Sega. :eek:

If you're gonna talk about taking over people's bodies, then Messiah really has to be mentioned.

Nothing better than possessing a whore in order to get close to a Policeman in order to possess him, and then shooting said whore in the head repeatedly with your new found gun.

Oh right, I remember hearing of that game! :O
Looked pretty neat too, I should look it up!

I'm sure Sci fi/fantasy themed RPGs would have come much later if it weren't for PS.

In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time, the ability to assign three items to the C buttons was extremely useful and a great gameplay mechanic, and Z-Targeting was extremely useful for fighting in a 3D environment. I have no idea if any other game did this first, but it was still extremely well implemented.

Virtua Cop. It was the first 3D lightgun game (As far as I'm aware), and that aside, it provided me with a horrific amount of gameplay. I mean ok, you can't complete with the Seeburg Ray-O-Lite, but nonetheless it was pretty groundbreaking. A strong case for my getting a Saturn.

I can't wait for Omicron 2. The first one was awesome enough, if flawed. 2 has a chance to be one of the biggest games out there.

Jumping flash! First 3D platformer I ever played, and to this day one of the best.

Poy-poy. Like many party games it has a simple premise (In this case you throw heavy/sharp/explosive things at your opponents until only one is left standing.), and this is executed with something better than most other offerings have short of SSBM.

Joe's VFX powers in Viewtiful Joe were very cool, especially bullet time. And I do know that bullet time has been done before, but it has not been implemented as well as it has in this game. Slowing down time to punch bullets back at enemies is insane! Also the way his VFX powers were used to solve puzzles was cool as well.

In Ico, I felt the hand holding was a very important part of the game and a novel idea to boot.

In Disgaea, the ability to lift up a long line of your characters and then throw them to reach high or far places was a great gameplay mechanic.

Well, let's see.

Mega Man was pretty innovative for its time; there were no other games at the time where you could take the boss' weapons, at least not that I know of. This mechanic was well done and made the gameplay deep.

Street Fighter was the first game to use the standard fireball/dragon punch/spinning piledriver commands, and they worked well. They paved the way for other fighters to use the motions in their games.

Sweet Home was probably the first survival horror title that ever came out, but it never came out here, so Alone in the Dark was regarded as the first survival horror game. SH played sorta like the Resident Evils of today, what with the puzzles and all.

I'd also have to agree with whoever said that Sega's games are almost always innovative in some way.

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Originally Posted by I'm my own MILF

Poy-poy. Like many party games it has a simple premise (In this case you throw heavy/sharp/explosive things at your opponents until only one is left standing.), and this is executed with something better than most other offerings have short of SSBM.

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Oh man, Poy Poy was the greatest multiplayer game ever. I wish they'd bring one out for PS2.

"EVO: The Search for Eden" I think it was called...it was an SNES game and I've never played anything else like it...I can't even explain it...it's just too different.

That's that evolutionary game where you gain experience and use it to make your creature evolve, right? I love that game too, it's cool.

>>> Valkyrie Profile the whole game and battle system was innovative.

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Originally Posted by Kyono

That's that evolutionary game where you gain experience and use it to make your creature evolve, right? I love that game too, it's cool.

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EVO for the SNES? I think thats the one...

I would say that FF was pretty innovative with a huge world map and also the different ammount of classes it has compared to other games out at the time. Paved the way for less a D&D style.

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KATAMARI DAMACY
DADA DADADADADADA DADADADA
DUMDUDUDUDUMDUDUDUDU

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Best innovation ever!

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Originally Posted by Kyono

That's that evolutionary game where you gain experience and use it to make your creature evolve, right? I love that game too, it's cool.

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Spore will be better!

Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy: Physic powers make this the most innovative 3rd person shooter of 2004. Though the story sucks.

Katamari Damacy- You're a dancing Prince who rolls a big ball of crap around killing people and making stars if that doesn't sound innovative them you're injecting something illegal into your system as we read this.

Dot Hack- Only for its MMO setting while not being MMO in any way sure the graphics are ho-hum, the enviorments are bland, unispired and repeated, I still like the rest of the game and the storyt and gameplay etc. is innovative in an actual MMO game setting.

Fable- though its a bit flawed the character freedom is stunning, it needs tweaking though.

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Originally Posted by lionx

I would say that FF was pretty innovative with a huge world map and also the different ammount of classes it has compared to other games out at the time. Paved the way for less a D&D style.

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FF really just expanded on Dragon Quest's "point and click" interface. Other than that it was still very much based on its predecessors. If you play the game for a few minutes you can tell what its main influences are. I don't feel that it was all that revolutionary.

World Class Track Meet, a racing game where you actually race with your feet. I can't tell you how awesome this was back in the day.

Tecmo Cup Soccer. Seriously. It's a soccer RPG. R0x0r.

Defender pre-empted the whole "you need at least 5 buttons" craze by at least 10 years. It can be hard as hell to play it, and it's insanely repetative, but you have to give Eugine Jarvis credit for making a game this complex.

I Robot was the first 3D game. Whether or not it's any good is debatable, but when you consider when it was made and how well the graphics held up (they were at least as good as if not better than what the SNES could do), it's almost a miracle.

Wario Ware is one of my favorite concept games. It's like they took about 5,000 Atari 2600 games and stuffed them into a GBA cart and gave you literally 5 seconds to learn how to play them and reach the goal. IT'S BANANAS!

Donkey Kong's Jungle Beat is definitely my favorite platformer right now. Not only does it have the awesome gimmick of being played with the bongo controller, but it actually plays fluidly and intuitively. The controls are so simple that it's hard to NOT pick up the play mechanics right away.

Earthworm Jim. Enough said.

The Nintendo DS, while not a game itself, is a really interesting console. You can't really say that any one feature is innovative (the stylus is taken from PDAs, the two screens are an obvious throwback to Game & Watch, the microphone has existed for over 100 years, and wireless play hasn't been new since they put it on the GBA). However, throwing all these features together has made some VERY interesting games. Wario Ware Touched, Kirby Canvas Curse, Feel The Magic XX/XY, Polarium, and probably several others I'm forgetting about are all very under-appreciated games that should be considered classics. You may or may not like the system, but at least Nintendo's trying new things.

Jet Set Radio. You skate around the city doing tricks while running from the police and tagging everything in sight. Including the police.

Plok was a weird little platformer where you attacked with your detachable limbs. The problem is that your limbs would requently stay detached, especially in later levels. Plus the music and graphics were insanely good for their time.

Yoshi's Island was an otherwise good platformer that involved 2 VERY cool ideas. Keep Mario on your back, and eggs. I guess this proves Yoshi's gender once and for all.

I also want to add Earthbound, it's take on RPGs was quite unique and it's a shame no other Earthbound games have been released, at least not here.

Have you played the ROM of Mother 1? You might see why Nintendo didn't think it was a good idea for release. It's not BAD, it's just not remotely something most mainstream gamers would like. It's basically a Dragon Quest clone that's extremely quirky.

Spore
oh good gravy

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Originally Posted by Chibi Chocobo

Sweet Home was probably the first survival horror title that ever came out, but it never came out here, so Alone in the Dark was regarded as the first survival horror game.

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Completely erroneous. Sweet Home was just an RPG in a horror setting.

The KO system in Super Smash is just awesome. :cool:

Well, sorry for saying something obvious but Final Fantasy 7 springs to mind.

That's not obvious at all. FFVII was just a traditional RPG.

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Originally Posted by Hsu

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What he said. Nothing else comes even close.

When I read this thread, Ape Escape sprung to mind. At the time it came out, I was in awe of the controls for that game.