So what are some games from bad companies that you feel are worth checking out? They can even be from companies mentioned in this episode. Except Batman the Movie from Ocean. I played that. I did not like that even a little. I'd rather play Batman Returns on Genesis and I don't wanna play that one, lol. But feel free to mention others!
Oddly Batman The Movie is quite popular in the UK from what I could tell, I dunno if for good or bad but I know somebody who loves it. The Amiga computer iirc was bundled for a time with the game and from what I can tell it was a very popular bundle.
Ocean's Pushover and Robocop 3 on Amiga were decent. Team 17 is mainly famous for their great games on Amiga like Project X, Superfrog, Full Contact, Alien Breed and others made before Worms existed.
I maintain that Automobili Lamborghini on the N64 is a fun racing game by Titus that isn't bad, but just doesn't do enough to stand out on a system stuffed with racing games.
Surprisingly, Ocean were a premium software house on 8-bit and 16-bit microcomputers and had quite a solid portfolio of titles including plenty of arcade conversions. Robocop, Batman, Combat School, Daley Thomson’s Decathalon and Rainbow Islands are titles I really enjoyed.
Afraid like alot of the home micro devs they didn't realise that if u wanted people to pay nearly 50 quid for a game u had to put alot more effort in and u couldnt just do a quick cash grab on a license
Fun fact about LJN and THQ: they're technically the same company (or spiritual successor, at least). After the founder of LJN sold the company to Acclaim in April 1990, he founded another company in the same month of the same year: THQ. They were both a toy company that produced mainly licensed video games, and they mostly sucked. So LJN/THQ went bankrupt twice... that's how bad these companies were.
After that, he, Jack Friedman founded Jakk's Pacific, a toy company that still running to these days. Unlike the other two companies he founded, Jakk's Pacific mostly focuses on toys.
“Did you just say tits?” never gets old. This video just packed in a massive variety of games and consoles to make the video subject possible. The amount of effort required is highly appreciated.
My favorite joke was when Joe destroys Dave's Game Boy and he prays to the Nintendo Gods and its fixed and then he prays for a full head of hair and gets nothing.
I still find it hilarious that LJN went mostly out of business not just because its video games were typically horrible, but another major factor in that they made a series of squirt guns that looked too much like actual guns, and couldn't handle the controversy. What a way to go out.
But you gotta admit, the ads for Entertech (that toy line you're talkin' about) are awesome. They really sold the whole "realistic experience" with their catchy taglines. "The look! The feel! The sound! So real! ENTERTECH!!!"
I know consoles are your focus, but over here in Europe Ocean were best known as a home computer games publisher spanning the 8 and 16 bit eras, and although they still released a huge amount of garbage they also released some *fantastic* games: Wizball, Batman: The Caped Crusader, Renegade, Rainbow Islands, Green Beret, Elf, EPIC, The New Zealand Story, the Daley Thompson franchise, The Great Escape, Parasol Stars, Frankie Goes to Hollywood...
Honestly I believe THQ's quality improved in the 2000s. Red Faction 2001 and Red Faction Guerilla and the two Darksiders games they published are really solid. I also have a lot of nostalgia for their SpongeBob games. There is also THQnordic, which published Wreckfest which is awesome.
I had an idea for an episode: Games that change difficulty by region. Example: Contra: Hard Corps. In Japan, you have three hits before you die. In the West, you die after one hit. Also: _Mad City_ is a fairly easy beat 'em up for the Famicom, but then it got ported to the NES where it became The Adventures of Bayou Billy where every aspect of it was altered to make it way harder. There are probably some examples of games that got easier going from Japan to the west, but I have found more games that got harder.
Resident Evil is another one. In the West we got less ink ribbons, no auto aim, and enemies take a little more damage. The directors cut restored the original difficulty, then the dualshock rerelease changed it back but left auto aim. It’s such a mess.
Dynamite Headdy is another one. In Japan, you have three continues, the big energy orbs in the first boss don't hurt you, you need 10 bonus points for extra tries, and the stair wars boss (Go Up in this version) only takes four. In the US, you don't get continues, the big energy orbs hurt you in the first boss, you need 13 bonus points for an extra try, and stair wars takes 12 hits. There's way more changes I didn't even think of.
I have to disagree. I remember when it first came out. We all found it extremely annoying and if it didn't have Jason in it we'd have skipped it. I know me and the people I knew back then would rather play A Nightmare On Elm Street for horror games based on movies.
@@chaospoetI agree, I played it when it was new and yeah, too ambitious for the tech I think. The premise was good but still needed some time in the oven. Granted if it came out now, there'd be loot boxes and a season pass in there.
It sounds hilarious if you had an NES Advantage controller with the slow-mo. I accidentally shot the guy a few times because some jerk ran right in front of him and the shots hit and then the very last bullet passed through the dead jerk and into sax man so his sax was going slower and slower in slow-mo 😂
This is random but i'd like to congratulate you on your channel. You are the only content creator of this niche type of content that has managed to not only stay sane, but also consistently good over so many years. It's quite impressive what you have going on here. Looking forward to many more years of your stuff
I know, right? I'm an hour late to the video's premier and it already has 620 likes. Is there a team of Sacker bots waiting on this release or is it really that popular?
Here in the UK Ocean were one of the top-tier developers of (predominantly) Arcade conversions & licensed games for the 8-bit micro computers. Their games were some of the best released for the Spectrum & C64 (Chase HQ, Rainbow Islands, Batman The Movie, Robocop, The Untouchables, New Zealand Story & so many more).
@@squidjam I love their old stuff. And what's offensive now probably wasn't offensive back then. Humor is always evolving. Go back to the 90s and check out some comedies there. And then go back to the 80s and see if your head doesn't explode.
@@nastybedazzlerI think there was a video or multiple where Dave referred to Japanese characters as"moon runes" or something similar. I don't see how that's offensive. It's a humorously hyperbolic observation about the complexity and difficulty in learning the language and especially the writing.
It's weird to think how LJN and THQ were originally toy manufactors and were founded by the same guy. And that same guy later founded Jakks Pacific afterwards.
on the topic of games with customizable soundtracks, Dynasty Warriors Gundam Reborn lets you replace any of the in-game tracks with any track your PS3 has access to, 1:1, so it does a pretty good job of making it feel like a proper in-game soundtrack
@redneckranger2144 That's cool. That also works in Vigilante 8 by the way. Even cooler, in the sequel, you can even put in the original game and then play it's soundtrack as well.
I was sitting on the toilet when you mention the enemies coming out of toilets in True Lies. Now I had to worry about terrorists coming out of my toilet! 😂
THQ is such an underrated publisher. Yeah, their early stuff was hit and miss. But there are some great franchises because of them and they cover quite a few genres. Please check out Destruction Derby 64. It's not only a great racing game for the N64, but IMO it's the best of the franchise. I would also recommend for your games that push consoles to its limits. There's a lot of stuff going on screen at all times, the tracks and environments are well detail WITH NO fog, and the framerate is pretty solid!
As a Commodore 64 owner in the 80s I loved Ocean stuff, for the most part. They put out a load of generally pretty great arcade conversions and occasionally original stuff too, and nearly always with absolutely killer music. The C64 lucked out in not sharing a CPU with the ZX Spectrum, else it would have likely got Spectrum ports as the Amstrad CPC did. Sadly, when the Amiga came along Ocean's lowest common denominator porting strategy kicked in and the Amiga ended up with mostly horrible Atari ST ports from Ocean.
I was a big fan of Ocean also as a fellow C64 owner. If the cover had Ocean on then it was almost always bought. Lol. Such happy times. Their loading music was always a highlight too
I think youre being a bit harsh on Ocean, they were very prolific in the eighties on a number of home computers. Fair to say their console output was mostly trash tho.
Ocean in the thumbnail is a declaration of war against the United Kingdom. Whenever I read an English retrogramer, I get the impression that Ocean was the best games company of all time.
They made some crap on the 8 bit microcomputers, but generally, they made pretty good games in the 8 bit days. I get he's coming at it from a different perspective, but there's no way they belong on this list. Honestly, THQ don't either. Way too many quality games there to be comparing them to LJN and Titus.
Ocean is a favourite target of Americans and a landmark company for the Brits. In fairness I don't believe they deserve all this negativity, they made a lot of decent games, on the Nintendo Game Boy too. And Titus the same , even though French , not American, British or Japanese..People judge too fast to be in fashion with cheap general bias and dismiss the games that were decent very easily..Very uniform and similar bias amongst all the pundits in the retro galaxy, it would be refreshing to see some non conformists among the You Tube stars with different opinions and ideas that deviate from the popular ones, they all seem to think alike
@@noaht2005 True, most British publishers brought their A-game to the homecomputers, which was where the money was, at least in the '80s in Europe. Consoles was more of a sidehustle. There were a few good console devs though, like Core and .... uhm maybe some other dev lol.
I don't think I've ever said this but thank you and I guess thank Dave (LOL!!) for all the great content over the years. I hope he's doing well and you both have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families.
Another good game by Titus is Automobili Lamborghini for the N64. It was really well made and it got decent reviews. Their Devs in later years were very amused by their "range" while making games on the N64 xD.
SEGA actually published their GBA Games in Japan. For some reason THQ handled the western releases THQ actually did a really good WarioWare clone for uDraw (Wii) & 3DS called "SpongeBob SquigglePants"
That's one of those "too easy" categories which can span into five or six different Gamesack episode series; maybe that's why Joe is avoiding it. 😂 I mean, just of the top of my head, without even trying to remember too much: Worms Blast, Pokemon Dash, Civilization: Revolution, Mario Teaches Typing, Sonic Shuffle, Bomberman Act Zero, Mortal Kombat: Mythologies/Mortal Kombat: Special Forces
@@PutlerHuyIo he dont have to cover ALL bad spinoffs, just the ones that are really, really bad! like think up a max number, maybe 15? then take the 15 worst ones u can find!
There were many similar manufacturers in Japan. Culture Brain, Toho, Toshiba EMI, JALECO, BAP... there were so many. BANDAI was one of them, but I still get fooled by them. However, there is one game manufacturer in Japan that has been steadily surviving for many years. KEMCO. Kotobuki System. I love this manufacturer.
Jaleco did develop some good games like Avenging Spirit, E.D.F., Cybattler and the Rushing Beat series, though. And if we're counting publishers as well, Toho published the excellent shooter game Super Aleste/Space Megaforce. If you want a really bad example of a Japanese video game company, there's Micronics and its awful NES ports of arcade games (Ghosts 'n Goblins, 1942, Ikari Warriors, Thundercade etc.). Its last game, Spriggan Powered is decent however.
I love Culture Brain. Their games (Flying Dragon and Ninja Boy series) were always super janky but for some reason fun and charming. I just replayed Super Ninja Boy a few days ago
Man you are doing this show since 13 years. And yet your topics and presentation never gets old. And you off course, you don't get old too. :D And me! Me too!
17:05 I actually worked for THQ as a member of their Quality Assurance team on Destroy All Humans 3. I'd heard the first one was pretty good, but had never played it. The third one was abysmal.
Ha! Thanks for everything you produce. That is the most I've laughed through one of your skits. My partner has been sick this weekend, and this hit home exactly where this weekend has been.
Hating on Ocean Software but not mentioning the great SNES Jurassic Park but I guess everyone knows about that game and that it's only bad part is that it has no battery to save!
Surprised to not see Maximum Carnage or Separation Anxiety in the LJN section. Those two Spiderman games were some of the few decent LJN games that I've played.
I really look forward to these episodes every other Saturday Joe. I love the diligence. You are getting to be like Monday Night Raw except even better because you are a one man army.
Another game you could have added for LJN was Spider-Man/Venom: Maximum Carnage, based off of the infamous storyline of the same name. Nintendo Hard-style beat-em-up side scroller, playable Spidey and Venom, a host of helper heroes and an amazing soundtrack by Green Jelly, especially with the iconic theme.
Core gaming memories unlocked :) Ardy Lightfoot is a game I rented, and was reminded of somehow a few years ago and played through, but I forgot all about it again until now haha. Definitely a difficult game, but a rewarding one. Prehistorik Man is one I am quite sure I played as a rental as well, as it looks super familiar in some of the videos, I'll have to track this one down and play it now!
You should look into the GB version of Prehistorik Man, which is a true technical marvel with all the demoscene techniques used on it, AND it has a banging soundtrack!
I disagree with THQ being a bad company, sure they definitely released more crappy games early on but during the ps2 era their games became noticeably higher quality.
NBA Live 96 is one of my favorite basketball games, and it’s my favorite sport! Enjoyed seeing SNES & Genesis versions side by side, and I read every wall of text on pause 😊
Beam Software used to be in my city so I would be on their side. I still remember their Aussie Rules Football game that seemingly had John Clarke say "out of bounds! on the full!" and Dermie saying "this Nintendo's brilliant!" on the ads. One of the lead programmers now does writing for RPG campaigns.
Ocean were responsible for some genuinely great original games on the 8 bit micro computers back in the day (like Wizball) and some good arcade conversion (like Arkanoid and most notably Chase HQ) as well as superb film tie ins like Batman. I think they made some less than stellar NES games in the US though, which is why they seem to get unjustly labelled as a bad company. Over here in the UK, they were quite highly regarded (unlike say US Gold, who had a reputation for making piss poor ports).
Oh, and how could I forget, Ocean also did the home computer ports of Rainbow Islands. The ZX Spectrum port was incredible, for the machine's limitations, and my mate had it on the Amiga and that version was really close to the arcade original.
Ocean published a lot of stuff, a lot of it was very good, but some of the best ones were done by third party developers; eg. Wizball by Sensible Software, the Great Escape and Frankie Goes to Hollywood by Denton Design, and the aforementioned ports of Rainbow Islands which were handled by Graftgold.
Eh, Friday the 13th was okay. I’d actually call that a good (if over ambitious) game for its time. But that was actually done by Atlus and just published by LJN
I beg to differ that THQ may have been a terrible publisher in the 90s, but in the 2000s they improved significantly as a company, publishing more good than bad titles such as Red Faction, Destroy All Humans 1 & 2, Saints Row 1 & 2, Metro 2033, Evil Dead Regeneration and A Fistful of Boomstick, most of the SpongeBob games many of the WWE games, etc. Not sure how THQ made the cut in this video, but either way it’s a great video man.
If one chooses to dismiss (deep breath)….. Head over Heels, Batman, Batman The Movie, Batman The Caped Crusader, Robocop, Wizball, Mr Nutz, The Great Escape, Wetrix, Cobra, Arkanoid, Green Beret, Rastan, Operation Wolf, Operation Thunderbolt, The New Zealand Story, Rainbow Islands, Parasol Stars, Chase H.Q., Renegade, Target Renegade, Toki, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Hunchback, etc, etc, etc…. …then it really is difficult to find good games released by Ocean Software (and/or subsidiaries).🙂
Batman The Movie was horrible. I played it while I was making this episode. It's worse than what passed as mediocre on consoles during that time. Since people kept singing its praises, it makes me feel that I probably shouldn't be taking game recommendations from those same people.
@@GameSack ….Daley Thompson’s Decathlon, Where Time Stood Still, Jelly Boy, Match Day, Super Turrican 2, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Army Moves, The Addams Family, Super Hunchback, Jurassic Park, Gift from the Gods, etc, etc, etc To paraphrase ‘Life of Brian: ‘but seriously, what has Ocean Software ever done for us?’ 🙂
I can't believe you were blessed enough to receive 3 fresh sacks in a row and still have room to complain. Just cause you like to tuck and tape doesn't mean we all have to.
Totally agree! It's a good game just poorly delivered. I wish a remake on the NES could happen, but I don't think anyone will go near the F13 franchise.
I also think it's an underrated, misunderstood game, but it's also true that it's definitely a Nintendo Power game: it's way too cryptic for its own good, and quite confusing to navigate at first, especially inside the woods, but once you know what you're doing and where you're going, it's actually a fun and rather easy game to beat 😊
I have to say, the fact that he shows console comparisons with a lot of text, tasteful borders and drop shadow makes me feel like this is a very legitimate channel and this guy seems to know a lot of things
As a c64 guy growing up in the 80s in Ireland, Ocean Software is god tier...Guess its a case of you had to be there.
Місяць тому
Ocean actually made some good to great games on the 8 bit computers..... but Joe is kinda' a console junkie and has a tendency to miss most of the truly great games that never came out on the console format.
For LSJ, they also made WWF Westlemania in '92 & Royal Rumble in '93. For Titus, there was Lamborghini American Challenge, which was enjoyable for a racing game. THQ were mostly known for their WWE Smackdown games. But more infamously was Conker's Bad Fur Day.
@@CatzM1928 The music on the SNES Jurassic Park is great, I always hated the game though. I remember renting that back in the day. My friend at the time owned the Genesis version and I felt like it sucked in comparison.
I don't get his hate about flashback. Its probably not his type of gameplay. I love flashback, it was and still is a good game from back of the day. Oceans terminator game isnt bad either.
"The soundtrack is energetic and pretty good for a game with the Ocean logo on the box..." Based on that sentence alone I'm assuming you haven't played many Ocean games
I get it. Your channel, your rules, blah blah blah but THQ publishing a game developed by Sega (for example) seems like cheating. It's not like THQ was giving Sega budgets, deadlines and design choices to work with. A company with a rep for making bad games making a good one instead is the kind of outlier worth mentioning. Not THQ publishing Sega made Sonic games. Seriously, what were you thinking with that example?
So what are some games from bad companies that you feel are worth checking out? They can even be from companies mentioned in this episode. Except Batman the Movie from Ocean. I played that. I did not like that even a little. I'd rather play Batman Returns on Genesis and I don't wanna play that one, lol. But feel free to mention others!
LOL yeah batman the movie WAS SO BAD JFC
I think Ocean’s Addams Family games on NES/SNES where pretty alright.
Oddly Batman The Movie is quite popular in the UK from what I could tell, I dunno if for good or bad but I know somebody who loves it. The Amiga computer iirc was bundled for a time with the game and from what I can tell it was a very popular bundle.
Ocean's Pushover and Robocop 3 on Amiga were decent.
Team 17 is mainly famous for their great games on Amiga like Project X, Superfrog, Full Contact, Alien Breed and others made before Worms existed.
I maintain that Automobili Lamborghini on the N64 is a fun racing game by Titus that isn't bad, but just doesn't do enough to stand out on a system stuffed with racing games.
Surprisingly, Ocean were a premium software house on 8-bit and 16-bit microcomputers and had quite a solid portfolio of titles including plenty of arcade conversions. Robocop, Batman, Combat School, Daley Thomson’s Decathalon and Rainbow Islands are titles I really enjoyed.
I just came to say this!
Indeed.
They released some of my favourite games on the C64.
Afraid like alot of the home micro devs they didn't realise that if u wanted people to pay nearly 50 quid for a game u had to put alot more effort in and u couldnt just do a quick cash grab on a license
@@willrobinson7599no 8 bit games were £50! A tenner for ULTIMATE games was the max.
Fun fact about LJN and THQ: they're technically the same company (or spiritual successor, at least). After the founder of LJN sold the company to Acclaim in April 1990, he founded another company in the same month of the same year: THQ. They were both a toy company that produced mainly licensed video games, and they mostly sucked. So LJN/THQ went bankrupt twice... that's how bad these companies were.
THQ published the best wrestling games ever
@@BIGGIEDEVIL it's a pity I don't care for wrestling games then 😅
After that, he, Jack Friedman founded Jakk's Pacific, a toy company that still running to these days. Unlike the other two companies he founded, Jakk's Pacific mostly focuses on toys.
THQ was huge at one point, you're so wrong.
@@andrewcocos I never said they were not huge. They were just bad. EA is huge... and it's one of the worst gaming companies.
“Did you just say tits?” never gets old. This video just packed in a massive variety of games and consoles to make the video subject possible. The amount of effort required is highly appreciated.
That made me think of the AVGN review of Superman on the N64. He remarked “TIT-us?”
My favorite joke was when Joe destroys Dave's Game Boy and he prays to the Nintendo Gods and its fixed and then he prays for a full head of hair and gets nothing.
I just said tits.....😂
I still find it hilarious that LJN went mostly out of business not just because its video games were typically horrible, but another major factor in that they made a series of squirt guns that looked too much like actual guns, and couldn't handle the controversy. What a way to go out.
But you gotta admit, the ads for Entertech (that toy line you're talkin' about) are awesome. They really sold the whole "realistic experience" with their catchy taglines.
"The look! The feel! The sound! So real! ENTERTECH!!!"
They could have found a niche in the film/theatre industry (props)
I guess you could say they went out with a bang
Unpopular opinion: I lump Friday the 13th in with the few good games LJN did. It plays like a prototypical survival horror title.
Yes, this game was pretty good despite its underwhelming ending
I know consoles are your focus, but over here in Europe Ocean were best known as a home computer games publisher spanning the 8 and 16 bit eras, and although they still released a huge amount of garbage they also released some *fantastic* games: Wizball, Batman: The Caped Crusader, Renegade, Rainbow Islands, Green Beret, Elf, EPIC, The New Zealand Story, the Daley Thompson franchise, The Great Escape, Parasol Stars, Frankie Goes to Hollywood...
This💯
even in Canada, if you had a C64, you had Ocean games.
I can hear GuruLarry talking about them now lol
Man I’d almost be willing to help crowdfund a c64 game sack episode
Honestly I believe THQ's quality improved in the 2000s. Red Faction 2001 and Red Faction Guerilla and the two Darksiders games they published are really solid.
I also have a lot of nostalgia for their SpongeBob games.
There is also THQnordic, which published Wreckfest which is awesome.
Also THQ with AKI made the greatest series of Wrestling games ever for the N64 2 WCW,2 WWF, and 2 Japan Only games all worth tracking down.
@@Jamesbetter-x8l agreed
@@Jamesbetter-x8ldefinitely the Smackdown games are some of the greatest wrestling games I've ever played
@@Jamesbetter-x8l kudos to Joe for staying clear from them, though.
No hate (Revenge and No Mercy FTW), but just because they're low hanging fruit.
Wreckfest is awesome I have it for the PS4
I had an idea for an episode: Games that change difficulty by region. Example: Contra: Hard Corps. In Japan, you have three hits before you die. In the West, you die after one hit. Also: _Mad City_ is a fairly easy beat 'em up for the Famicom, but then it got ported to the NES where it became The Adventures of Bayou Billy where every aspect of it was altered to make it way harder. There are probably some examples of games that got easier going from Japan to the west, but I have found more games that got harder.
Resident Evil is another one. In the West we got less ink ribbons, no auto aim, and enemies take a little more damage. The directors cut restored the original difficulty, then the dualshock rerelease changed it back but left auto aim. It’s such a mess.
Dynamite Headdy is another one. In Japan, you have three continues, the big energy orbs in the first boss don't hurt you, you need 10 bonus points for extra tries, and the stair wars boss (Go Up in this version) only takes four. In the US, you don't get continues, the big energy orbs hurt you in the first boss, you need 13 bonus points for an extra try, and stair wars takes 12 hits. There's way more changes I didn't even think of.
GameSack RULES!!!! Been subscribed for over a decade now. Happy to see you still upload!
I don't actually think that Friday the 13th is a bad game. I think it just gets a bad rep because it's a classic AVGN episode.
The only real problem with it was the map directions
I have to disagree. I remember when it first came out. We all found it extremely annoying and if it didn't have Jason in it we'd have skipped it. I know me and the people I knew back then would rather play A Nightmare On Elm Street for horror games based on movies.
@@chaospoetI agree, I played it when it was new and yeah, too ambitious for the tech I think. The premise was good but still needed some time in the oven. Granted if it came out now, there'd be loot boxes and a season pass in there.
Indeed. It's not perfect, but it's a lot more ambitious than most LJN slop and deserves better than being listed alongside Back To The Future.
It definitely isn't good but besides the difficulty I do agree it's not a horrible game. Graphics are ok, sounds is nice and controls are responsive.
The sax man was a nice touch... made me laugh pretty hard
It sounds hilarious if you had an NES Advantage controller with the slow-mo. I accidentally shot the guy a few times because some jerk ran right in front of him and the shots hit and then the very last bullet passed through the dead jerk and into sax man so his sax was going slower and slower in slow-mo 😂
This is random but i'd like to congratulate you on your channel. You are the only content creator of this niche type of content that has managed to not only stay sane, but also consistently good over so many years. It's quite impressive what you have going on here. Looking forward to many more years of your stuff
Just scrolling UA-cam at 2 AM and it’s all fun and games till all of a sudden, BAM… Sack to the face!
I know, right? I'm an hour late to the video's premier and it already has 620 likes. Is there a team of Sacker bots waiting on this release or is it really that popular?
I enjoy a late night surprise Sacking
Considering what he apperently stuffs in the bag..... that must have hit like a brick!
That's the US branch of Ocean. They did solid stuff on home computers.
Gotta love that late night Saturday Game Sack Episode....
Here in the UK Ocean were one of the top-tier developers of (predominantly) Arcade conversions & licensed games for the 8-bit micro computers. Their games were some of the best released for the Spectrum & C64 (Chase HQ, Rainbow Islands, Batman The Movie, Robocop, The Untouchables, New Zealand Story & so many more).
so happy to see someone mentioning new zealand story again
They did release some good ports, but most of their in-house and licensed stuff was all style and no substance.
I'm still waiting on a bad video from Game Sack
I'm a natural hater and I still couldn't give you one
Some of their old stuff is not good. Like the one where they refer to a foreign language using derisive terms, that was an all time low.
You must be new here 🤣
@@squidjam I love their old stuff. And what's offensive now probably wasn't offensive back then. Humor is always evolving. Go back to the 90s and check out some comedies there. And then go back to the 80s and see if your head doesn't explode.
@@nastybedazzlerI think there was a video or multiple where Dave referred to Japanese characters as"moon runes" or something similar. I don't see how that's offensive. It's a humorously hyperbolic observation about the complexity and difficulty in learning the language and especially the writing.
It's weird to think how LJN and THQ were originally toy manufactors and were founded by the same guy. And that same guy later founded Jakks Pacific afterwards.
It's even weirder when you consider WWE was associated with all three at some point
And Jakks Pacific also made some plug-and-play systems, so even that the guy left LJN and THQ because of video games, he keeps getting involved.
on the topic of games with customizable soundtracks, Dynasty Warriors Gundam Reborn lets you replace any of the in-game tracks with any track your PS3 has access to, 1:1, so it does a pretty good job of making it feel like a proper in-game soundtrack
Same is true with Tekken Tag Tournament 2 for the PS3.
@redneckranger2144 That's cool. That also works in Vigilante 8 by the way. Even cooler, in the sequel, you can even put in the original game and then play it's soundtrack as well.
I was sitting on the toilet when you mention the enemies coming out of toilets in True Lies. Now I had to worry about terrorists coming out of my toilet! 😂
It's an ongoing concern in some parts of the world.
Next time watch Ghoulies while on the can. It'll scare the shit outta ya!
THQ is such an underrated publisher. Yeah, their early stuff was hit and miss. But there are some great franchises because of them and they cover quite a few genres.
Please check out Destruction Derby 64. It's not only a great racing game for the N64, but IMO it's the best of the franchise. I would also recommend for your games that push consoles to its limits. There's a lot of stuff going on screen at all times, the tracks and environments are well detail WITH NO fog, and the framerate is pretty solid!
As a Commodore 64 owner in the 80s I loved Ocean stuff, for the most part. They put out a load of generally pretty great arcade conversions and occasionally original stuff too, and nearly always with absolutely killer music. The C64 lucked out in not sharing a CPU with the ZX Spectrum, else it would have likely got Spectrum ports as the Amstrad CPC did. Sadly, when the Amiga came along Ocean's lowest common denominator porting strategy kicked in and the Amiga ended up with mostly horrible Atari ST ports from Ocean.
I was a big fan of Ocean also as a fellow C64 owner. If the cover had Ocean on then it was almost always bought. Lol. Such happy times. Their loading music was always a highlight too
I think youre being a bit harsh on Ocean, they were very prolific in the eighties on a number of home computers.
Fair to say their console output was mostly trash tho.
Very true they made some good stuff for 8/16 bits computers...Wizball,Batman, Midnight Resistance,Desert Strike,Jungle Strike,Jurassic Park....
I knew once he said it a few Brits would have something to say about it in the comments. Maybe you were engagement baited.
Their home computer output was mostly trash, too, except there was little competition to make it as obvious...
🤭
For console titles I did enjoy Jurassic Park and even Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt for the most part.
@@TechnoEstate there were a LOT of PC game devs even back then
Ocean wasn't all that bad back in the day
Ocean in the thumbnail is a declaration of war against the United Kingdom. Whenever I read an English retrogramer, I get the impression that Ocean was the best games company of all time.
*cough* *cough* Kim Justice. I think they were more solid on computers than consoles
They made some crap on the 8 bit microcomputers, but generally, they made pretty good games in the 8 bit days. I get he's coming at it from a different perspective, but there's no way they belong on this list. Honestly, THQ don't either. Way too many quality games there to be comparing them to LJN and Titus.
Where's Guru Larry when you need him?
Ocean is a favourite target of Americans and a landmark company for the Brits. In fairness I don't believe they deserve all this negativity, they made a lot of decent games, on the Nintendo Game Boy too. And Titus the same , even though French , not American, British or Japanese..People judge too fast to be in fashion with cheap general bias and dismiss the games that were decent very easily..Very uniform and similar bias amongst all the pundits in the retro galaxy, it would be refreshing to see some non conformists among the You Tube stars with different opinions and ideas that deviate from the popular ones, they all seem to think alike
@@noaht2005 True, most British publishers brought their A-game to the homecomputers, which was where the money was, at least in the '80s in Europe. Consoles was more of a sidehustle. There were a few good console devs though, like Core and .... uhm maybe some other dev lol.
"Great games from Bad Companies?" This would make for a great series of videos.
Tempest 2000 from mid-90s Atari.
Ocean did great games for Commodore 64, like Midnight Resistance, Rambo 2, Batman The Movie, Operation Wolf. That is some quality stuff.
I knew from the outset at least a nice chunk of this video would be “LJN games that aren’t complete dog” 😂
To be fair, Ocean had most of their better games on the old 8 and 16-bit microcomputers.
I don't think I've ever said this but thank you and I guess thank Dave (LOL!!) for all the great content over the years. I hope he's doing well and you both have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families.
Another good game by Titus is Automobili Lamborghini for the N64. It was really well made and it got decent reviews. Their Devs in later years were very amused by their "range" while making games on the N64 xD.
Can confirm, the text dumps changed my life for the better; thanks man
True Lies is the definition of an underrated video game. A true (no lies) classic!
SEGA actually published their GBA Games in Japan. For some reason THQ handled the western releases
THQ actually did a really good WarioWare clone for uDraw (Wii) & 3DS called "SpongeBob SquigglePants"
My son suggests you doing "Bad spinoffs from good Game series"
your son is very good at this, that sounds like the perfect recipe for a gamesack video! :)
That's one of those "too easy" categories which can span into five or six different Gamesack episode series; maybe that's why Joe is avoiding it. 😂 I mean, just of the top of my head, without even trying to remember too much: Worms Blast, Pokemon Dash, Civilization: Revolution, Mario Teaches Typing, Sonic Shuffle, Bomberman Act Zero, Mortal Kombat: Mythologies/Mortal Kombat: Special Forces
Megaman Soccer, Super Mario 64, Zelda Breath of the Wild, The Sims, Fallout New Vegas
@@PutlerHuyIo he dont have to cover ALL bad spinoffs, just the ones that are really, really bad! like think up a max number, maybe 15? then take the 15 worst ones u can find!
@@skidooshlayman12 Hey, what did Super Mario 64 do wrong?
There were many similar manufacturers in Japan.
Culture Brain, Toho, Toshiba EMI, JALECO, BAP... there were so many.
BANDAI was one of them, but I still get fooled by them.
However, there is one game manufacturer in Japan that has been steadily surviving for many years. KEMCO. Kotobuki System. I love this manufacturer.
Jaleco did develop some good games like Avenging Spirit, E.D.F., Cybattler and the Rushing Beat series, though. And if we're counting publishers as well, Toho published the excellent shooter game Super Aleste/Space Megaforce.
If you want a really bad example of a Japanese video game company, there's Micronics and its awful NES ports of arcade games (Ghosts 'n Goblins, 1942, Ikari Warriors, Thundercade etc.). Its last game, Spriggan Powered is decent however.
I love Culture Brain. Their games (Flying Dragon and Ninja Boy series) were always super janky but for some reason fun and charming. I just replayed Super Ninja Boy a few days ago
Toshiba EMI had super back to the future which i love dearly
Jaleco's Super Ninja Kun was good
Bandai was ubertrash back in the days
Man you are doing this show since 13 years. And yet your topics and presentation never gets old. And you off course, you don't get old too. :D And me! Me too!
I love this channel.
Huh, that “Ardy Lightfoot” really does look decent.
And yes, Joe: I paused every single comparison screen to read all your captions.
Hey Joe Glad you're keeping this show going, this episode was really interesting, Keep them coming!! 👍
Thank you Joe and game sack for making all things that suck in the United Kingdom on a Sunday so much better 👌🏾👍🏾
Ocean had a surprising amount of good games on the Amiga. Especially some of their arcade ports.
@AfterBurnett aaaaaaaaaaye! How you doing fella?!
@AfterBurnett hey. Better than not man.
"THQ is a bad company"
Spongebob fans: *how do we tell this guy?*
Overall the it's not terrible company it's okay company
Punisher on the NES! I haven't heard or thought of this game in over 30 years but that Sax sound was unmistakable.
17:05 I actually worked for THQ as a member of their Quality Assurance team on Destroy All Humans 3. I'd heard the first one was pretty good, but had never played it. The third one was abysmal.
If you were quality assurance. Where were you at for the entirety of the companies existence?
never played the game, classic
“You need to finish first in this game or else you can go to hell”- don’t ever change, Joe 😆
03:14 "But THQ didn't do this one, it was published by Acclaim"
Did you mean to say LJN rather than THQ?
I'm sure that's what he meant
Yeah. Just came to see if anyone else noticed.
[2:10] The guys are entering the stalls Goldeneye-style.
I'm not very familiar with Goldeneye, but I think True Lies came first??? So GoldenEye is doing it True Lies style! :)
I'm doing okay, thanks for asking
Ha! Thanks for everything you produce. That is the most I've laughed through one of your skits. My partner has been sick this weekend, and this hit home exactly where this weekend has been.
Well, Titus made Lamborghini American Challenge. The SNES version is one of my favorite for sure!
I gotta say I love the subtlety of so much of your humor
Robocop on Game Boy by Ocean is great, and it has one of the best soundtracks on the system.
Still got to give a shoutout to Brimaxian. As much as I like GameSack, the outro theme really makes my Sunday morning.
Good thing I wasn't planning on going to bed
Sigh same, 1 am here
Here too
7am in England, can't beat some morning Joe!
I second this^
Central! @@Noughtta LoLz
I was really impressed withhow much text was on the screen this episode! Wow!
Ocean was an amazing software house for the 8 bit generation, atleast in the UK, think they were published by other people in the US
Always feel more gooder after watching GameSack!
THQ is considered bad? I could list a ton of great games they published.
Published not developed
I always thought THQ stood for They Hate Quality?
I guess you learn something new every day.
Hating on Ocean Software but not mentioning the great SNES Jurassic Park but I guess everyone knows about that game and that it's only bad part is that it has no battery to save!
I always forget if it was the SNES or the Genesis JP that people liked. I only really played the NES version, and I really liked it.
Surprised to not see Maximum Carnage or Separation Anxiety in the LJN section. Those two Spiderman games were some of the few decent LJN games that I've played.
That Toy Story racer is crazy advanced for GBC.
Excellent video! The 3D effects on the Toy Story racing game blew my mind that they accomplished on the Gameboy Color of all things.
Addams Family for SNES is a pretty good game from Ocean
I agree.
yep. Quality platformer on a console that had a pile of good ones.
I really look forward to these episodes every other Saturday Joe.
I love the diligence. You are getting to be like Monday Night Raw except even better because you are a one man army.
11:23 Anyone playing Prehistorik Man, pay attention to some of our main guy's vocal effects. They sound familiar.
Another game you could have added for LJN was Spider-Man/Venom: Maximum Carnage, based off of the infamous storyline of the same name. Nintendo Hard-style beat-em-up side scroller, playable Spidey and Venom, a host of helper heroes and an amazing soundtrack by Green Jelly, especially with the iconic theme.
32:30
"OK we're don with these comparison screens"😅
Prehistorik Man was one of my favorite childhood games. I remember waking up at 5AM to play it for a bit before getting ready for school!
Good games by bad company , it's a really good idea. I really enjoyed the vid.
Core gaming memories unlocked :)
Ardy Lightfoot is a game I rented, and was reminded of somehow a few years ago and played through, but I forgot all about it again until now haha. Definitely a difficult game, but a rewarding one.
Prehistorik Man is one I am quite sure I played as a rental as well, as it looks super familiar in some of the videos, I'll have to track this one down and play it now!
You should look into the GB version of Prehistorik Man, which is a true technical marvel with all the demoscene techniques used on it, AND it has a banging soundtrack!
I covered it in a "Pushing Hardware Limits" episode. Pretty cool, but not as fun as the ones in this episode.
The Addams Family on SNES by Ocean is still one of my all time favorite platformers. 🙃
Me too. It kinda reminded me of Super Mario 2. Much easier than Pugsly's scavenger hunt which was way too hard.
I disagree with THQ being a bad company, sure they definitely released more crappy games early on but during the ps2 era their games became noticeably higher quality.
I'd agree, they were the publishers of Battle for Bikini Bottom and that's a decent platformer.
@@PaperBanjo64 They also did the DarkSiders series, which the three mainline games were amazing.
@davidholman94 yeah I've heard of it but never played them, THQ published some games for Rare on GBA too.
Picking the not so trashy between the trash must be the most difficult task, great job Joe👍
Don't ever stop the "Did you just say tits?" gag.
Let it rest sometimes, but don't ever stop
..it's so bad, yet so good 😂
NBA Live 96 is one of my favorite basketball games, and it’s my favorite sport!
Enjoyed seeing SNES & Genesis versions side by side, and I read every wall of text on pause 😊
Why does the Titus logo look like a friendly cartoon furry version of the satanic inverted pentagram from old Doom games?
I never saw this resemblance before now, but now I can't _un_ see it.
The Icon of Sin?
Because if you tilt the star a bit, it makes a surprisingly decent fox head. The problem is they uh...put another fox head in front of it
Were all waiting on the day dave returns randomly for a episode
The best game that THQ published is probably G Darius on the PS1. It's an excellent scrolling shooter developed by Taito.
can't disagree tbh, also glad to see you're still around
The line "...more boring than they normally are..." killed me xD
Hey Game Sack, Happy 420th dude!!!!!!!!!!
"THQ made more bad than good..."
Spongebob Battle for Bikini Bottom: Am I a joke to you?
they also made the amazing saints row games and wcw vs nwo and Destroy all humans
It's another exception that's an actual good game.
Always loved destroy all humans@@jsmith3946
TITAN QUEST!!
Dawn of War? Im sorry but for me THQ is legendary for that
Beam Software used to be in my city so I would be on their side. I still remember their Aussie Rules Football game that seemingly had John Clarke say "out of bounds! on the full!" and Dermie saying "this Nintendo's brilliant!" on the ads. One of the lead programmers now does writing for RPG campaigns.
Ocean were responsible for some genuinely great original games on the 8 bit micro computers back in the day (like Wizball) and some good arcade conversion (like Arkanoid and most notably Chase HQ) as well as superb film tie ins like Batman. I think they made some less than stellar NES games in the US though, which is why they seem to get unjustly labelled as a bad company. Over here in the UK, they were quite highly regarded (unlike say US Gold, who had a reputation for making piss poor ports).
Oh, and how could I forget, Ocean also did the home computer ports of Rainbow Islands. The ZX Spectrum port was incredible, for the machine's limitations, and my mate had it on the Amiga and that version was really close to the arcade original.
Ocean published a lot of stuff, a lot of it was very good, but some of the best ones were done by third party developers; eg. Wizball by Sensible Software, the Great Escape and Frankie Goes to Hollywood by Denton Design, and the aforementioned ports of Rainbow Islands which were handled by Graftgold.
Fun video. The filters you use for the handheld consoles make each frame look like it was crocheted!
Eh, Friday the 13th was okay. I’d actually call that a good (if over ambitious) game for its time. But that was actually done by Atlus and just published by LJN
I beg to differ that THQ may have been a terrible publisher in the 90s, but in the 2000s they improved significantly as a company, publishing more good than bad titles such as Red Faction, Destroy All Humans 1 & 2, Saints Row 1 & 2, Metro 2033, Evil Dead Regeneration and A Fistful of Boomstick, most of the SpongeBob games many of the WWE games, etc. Not sure how THQ made the cut in this video, but either way it’s a great video man.
they have also published S.T.AL.K.E.R. : Shadow of Chernobyl and this is also a good game
If one chooses to dismiss (deep breath)….. Head over Heels, Batman, Batman The Movie, Batman The Caped Crusader, Robocop, Wizball, Mr Nutz, The Great Escape, Wetrix, Cobra, Arkanoid, Green Beret, Rastan, Operation Wolf, Operation Thunderbolt, The New Zealand Story, Rainbow Islands, Parasol Stars, Chase H.Q., Renegade, Target Renegade, Toki, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Hunchback, etc, etc, etc….
…then it really is difficult to find good games released by Ocean Software (and/or subsidiaries).🙂
Batman The Movie was horrible. I played it while I was making this episode. It's worse than what passed as mediocre on consoles during that time. Since people kept singing its praises, it makes me feel that I probably shouldn't be taking game recommendations from those same people.
Mr nutz is great
@@GameSack ….Daley Thompson’s Decathlon, Where Time Stood Still, Jelly Boy, Match Day, Super Turrican 2, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Army Moves, The Addams Family, Super Hunchback, Jurassic Park, Gift from the Gods, etc, etc, etc
To paraphrase ‘Life of Brian: ‘but seriously, what has Ocean Software ever done for us?’ 🙂
I can't believe you were blessed enough to receive 3 fresh sacks in a row and still have room to complain. Just cause you like to tuck and tape doesn't mean we all have to.
@GameSack The silver lining is that the Amiga version's driving level clearly inspired the Mega CD Batman Returns driving levels.
Had no idea The Punisher hated singlets that much.
might be some form of PTSD, but the Friday 13 NES game is kinda good
Totally agree! It's a good game just poorly delivered. I wish a remake on the NES could happen, but I don't think anyone will go near the F13 franchise.
A very early AVGN video which is likelu where much of the hate stems. #12 to be specific which is sad because James could have waited to make it #13.
I also think it's an underrated, misunderstood game, but it's also true that it's definitely a Nintendo Power game: it's way too cryptic for its own good, and quite confusing to navigate at first, especially inside the woods, but once you know what you're doing and where you're going, it's actually a fun and rather easy game to beat 😊
I have to say, the fact that he shows console comparisons with a lot of text, tasteful borders and drop shadow makes me feel like this is a very legitimate channel and this guy seems to know a lot of things
0:41 AVGN Moment
Your foggot the more iconic weapon of "Prehistoric Man": ¡HIS SCREAM! .
As a c64 guy growing up in the 80s in Ireland, Ocean Software is god tier...Guess its a case of you had to be there.
Ocean actually made some good to great games on the 8 bit computers..... but Joe is kinda' a console junkie and has a tendency to miss most of the truly great games that never came out on the console format.
For LSJ, they also made WWF Westlemania in '92 & Royal Rumble in '93.
For Titus, there was Lamborghini American Challenge, which was enjoyable for a racing game.
THQ were mostly known for their WWE Smackdown games. But more infamously was Conker's Bad Fur Day.
Okay the final skit had me dying, great episode Joe!
I enjoy Jurassic Park SNES from Ocean. Also I am one of the weirdos who really enjoys the atmosphere of Flashback.
@@CatzM1928 The music on the SNES Jurassic Park is great, I always hated the game though. I remember renting that back in the day. My friend at the time owned the Genesis version and I felt like it sucked in comparison.
I don't get his hate about flashback. Its probably not his type of gameplay.
I love flashback, it was and still is a good game from back of the day.
Oceans terminator game isnt bad either.
"The soundtrack is energetic and pretty good for a game with the Ocean logo on the box..."
Based on that sentence alone I'm assuming you haven't played many Ocean games
I get it. Your channel, your rules, blah blah blah but THQ publishing a game developed by Sega (for example) seems like cheating. It's not like THQ was giving Sega budgets, deadlines and design choices to work with. A company with a rep for making bad games making a good one instead is the kind of outlier worth mentioning. Not THQ publishing Sega made Sonic games.
Seriously, what were you thinking with that example?