Games that were before their time.

buffdrew84

buffdrew84

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What game had a game mechanic, story or graphics, etc. that was way ahead of its time.


For me (and this may be too old for some of you) the first thing that comes to mind is

Jordan vs Bird for the NES.

It had an actual dunk contest in it where you can do all of MJ's famous dunks.


Anyway list them here if you can think of any.
 
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The Crash Bandicoot series back on the original PlayStation from Naughty Dog. The game's graphic engine I think was very advanced in its time getting a lot of detail on screen, while maintaining a good constant frame rate. The controls feel very good and reactive. The camera in the game was also not a pain because you only had three views and were not required to adjust it. Whenever I play older 3D platformers the controls, frame rate, or camera can be clunky at times. The Crash Bandicoot series, even after 10-15 years still feels like a great game that was just made yesterday.
 
Tribes was well ahead of other FPS in terms of scale and the amount of offered features. To this day, it still does things better than most. Unfortunately it has a learning curve, god forbid.

That and Return to Castle Wolfenstein was just too great in terms of multiplayer for its time as well.
 
Ultima 7 - It had well-written companions (each with pre-established personalities), a deep, mysterious plot, interactive environments, and a huge, open world. Only the combat failed to deliver.

I sometimes feel like other western RPG developers (even Bioware, who I generally enjoy) just don't have the commitment to match this level of quality.
 
The Spyro The Dragon and Crash Bandicoot series on the PS1. Both were excellent games and had very top-notch graphics for their time. Hell, Spyro 2 and 3 had voice acting in it (which was very uncommon for a PS1 game)
 
[quote name='Zamora']Tobal 2[/QUOTE]

That's the Square Enix Fighting game right?!!!! That game had an awesome fighting engine.
 
NFL 2k5 / All Pro Football 2k8. There's things being done in this football game that have yet to be implemented in Madden 11. For instance, when you challenge a play in Madden, you can' t choose what aspect of the play you can challenge (Madden will challenge spot of the ball, when you really need to challenge if the pass was a catch), however in these 2k games, you can challenge several aspects of any play. Also, the play of the linemen, is much more realistic than Madden... to this day.
 
[quote name='Mr Unoriginal']Dune 2. Basically laid the groundwork for RTS games, that honestly, have not changed very much in the decades since.[/QUOTE]

Agreed 100%.
 
Agree about Dune 2, but let's not forget about Herzog Zwei for Genesis. That was the 1st RTS game I've played and it was absolutely fantastic.

Also Wing Commander I was pretty revolutionary and WC IV was very ambitious.
 
[quote name='Cheddahz']The Spyro The Dragon and Crash Bandicoot series on the PS1. Both were excellent games and had very top-notch graphics for their time. Hell, Spyro 2 and 3 had voice acting in it (which was very uncommon for a PS1 game)[/QUOTE]

The original Spyro the Dragon had voice acting in it as well. And I agree both were very top notch for their time.
 
Space harrier for the arcade, in 1985 no other game came close. Also probably one of the first motion based arcade cabinets the public ever saw (I think Hang-On came before Space Harrier though and had a big bike you could sit on and there were a bunch of lesser known motion cabinets before this but again very unknown ones).

Then again you had to have been lucky enough to see one of these behemoth's at your local arcade, hopefully you lived near a big arcade that had one.

Also the Sega R360, definitely the first big motion simulator I ever ran into, made in 1991. I don't think there is any other arcade game that spun the player upside down, at least with an official release in the USA.

I realize I am probably talking about something that 75% of the people on this website are not old enough to remember....
 
[quote name='GaveUpTomorrow']The original Spyro the Dragon had voice acting in it as well. And I agree both were very top notch for their time.[/QUOTE]

Oh yeah, I forgot the first Spyro had voice acting in it. The controls for both of these game series are excellent and are still god to this day. Too bad both series went down the toilet.
 
[quote name='SaraAB']Also the Sega R360, definitely the first big motion simulator I ever ran into, made in 1991. I don't think there is any other arcade game that spun the player upside down, at least with an official release in the USA.

I realize I am probably talking about something that 75% of the people on this website are not old enough to remember....[/QUOTE]

That game was awesome.
 
[quote name='mission42']Anything Dreamcast related.[/QUOTE]

I agree. Not only gameplay but visually it was a huge leap from the crude 3D of the 32-bit era. That first Soul Calibur still looks and plays great. I was just playing it off my 360 the other day and I still prefer it over the other entries in the series.

And I might get a couple "WTFs" for saying this but I always thought Battle Arena Toshinden was ahead of it's time. Of course it didn't take long for others to improve the 3D fighter leaving poor ol' BAT in the dust. But when this game came out in 94'-95' it alone made me buy a PSX.
 
[quote name='skinkrawl']It's funny how the Dreamcast gets mentioned so much on here, but it was considered a bust in its time.[/QUOTE]

It eventually became a bust, but when it first launched it was sold out everywhere. Launch games like Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur , NFL 2K and Power Stone blew me away. I even loved PenPen Triliceolon, Blue Stinger and Ready 2 Rumble.
 
The Dreamcast was a failure, but not because of the system itself. Sega's track record and lackluster third-party support were two contributing factors.
 
Yeah, Sega screwed up by releasing all those add-ons and then the Saturn. I'm just commenting that you see tons of people with favorable things to say about Dreamcast, so it shows what a colossal failure Sega was at that time. They just kept making mistake after mistake, when they had a good product and could have capitalized on it.

I have the black Dreamcast, the special edition sports one. They should have made all of them look that way, as it's more in line with their previous systems.
 
Mega man Legends 1,no fan gave that game a chance since it was 3D and the graphics were average at best.It was a early 3D sandbox game,there was no other game like that at the time on the ps1.The game also had pretty decent voice acting and the characters had animated faces which no games on the ps1 had yet.
 
[quote name='Teh Nitwit']Agree about Dune 2, but let's not forget about Herzog Zwei for Genesis. That was the 1st RTS game I've played and it was absolutely fantastic.

Also Wing Commander I was pretty revolutionary and WC IV was very ambitious.[/QUOTE]


Why hasn't Herzog Zwei been ported or put on any of the 5835 Sega compilations yet? I absolutely loved that game.

Also, was Dune 2 the RTS for genesis? Was it battle for Arakis? (or something like that?) Checking ebay now for some copies. Need that game in my life.

EDIT: Dune: Battle for Arakkis seems pricey complete but a few game only copies are floating around for under $15. Same for Herzog Zwei, which I have owned at least 3 times in my life.

Stupid me for selling/trading in all my games at the end of a system's life.
 
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[quote name='skinkrawl']It's funny how the Dreamcast gets mentioned so much on here, but it was considered a bust in its time.[/QUOTE]

Many times, things that are ahead of their time are failures because of that. The true worth is only realized later on.

Another console ahead of its time is the Neo Geo. Course few could afford to buy it, but for those who could, it brought arcade-quality games home.
 
I always wanted a Neo Geo so badly back when, but for a kid it was impossible. You rarely even saw a store carrying it, and if they did, they had just a few games.
 
[quote name='TheLongshot'] The true worth is only realized later on.
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, that's what I thought it means for something to be ahead of its time.
 
Doom - Not even so much because of being a FPS but it having user created levels

Bases Loaded- Bringing cinematics to sports games.

Baseball Stars- Able to save your season and stats with no passwords. Got to be your own gm
 
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