actually cannondale cup was supposed ot be hooked up to a peloton exercise bike type of thing that you actually rode reason no one heard of it was the bike setup cost 6-800 us dollars
12:35 -- Come on, John, let's be objective. The SNES version of a game is the clearly better version *at least* 75% of the time, and in cases where the Genesis version *is* better, it is typically for a pretty crummy game like Pitfighter, that you probably don't really want to play on either system...
I worked at Radical Entertainment back in the mid-90s which produced both Bébé's Kids and Mountain Bike Rally (aka Cannondale Cup). I didn't work on Bébé's Kids, but I did play around with getting MBR to work with the LifeFitness Exertainment bikes, but didn't work on the game directly. There was a lot of pressure to get stuff out the door since we were often doing contract work. That didn't really lead to great games.
"We had an opportunity to set precedents that would be admired for decades....but I just listened to my boss & 40 years later? Not a single person knows my name!" Way to "go get em" champ!
That still had to be pretty cool to work on SNES games of any kind. I tried to go to school for programming, and wanted to make games for a living. It would seem that with my total lack of artistic ability and the fact that I'm literally the slowest programmer in the true history of time, I got into cybersecurity instead.
@@SwizzleStickMcGee Yeah cause not listening to your boss and setting your own deadlines for when your work will be finished absolutely always works out. How to tell me you've never worked a day in your life without telling me you've never worked a day in your life. Also, i know basic math is difficult, but mid 90s was 27 years ago.
I never played Lester yet but I seen that once you progress in the game it becomes playable due to the nerd becoming more confident. I get the feeling it’s like calling circle of the moon slow if you despite getting the dash boots early on in the game .
Of course. The person that did that Lester review did not know what he was talking about. You have to play and progress in game to actuallu y realize what they were going for and if you take the time to go down the whole library of SNES games, you realize that Lester is a pretty unique cinematic adventure/action game.
The Flintstones definitely isn’t the best game, but holy damn is the soundtrack awesome. Dean Evans really knew how to get some of the most infectious music out of the SPC 700. No password screen should have music so chill 💙
I was a huge gamer back then too. Boot camp in 2600 and 8 bit NES. Fought and survived the bloody 16 bit wars. EGM, Diehard Gamefan, and many other gamer mags always packed into my back pack for daily review in school. Recorded Video Power and Gamepro just to see other games in action. But I never saw a Barbie game and thought "man I should play this..."
Hmm. Didn't know Capcom did a football game for the SNES. Lester the Unlikely is a guilty pleasure game for me. Yes, it's not an all time great by any means, but the story progression is super relatable for me & makes me want to play it every once in a while.
If I just bought games based on the publisher, MVP Football should’ve been a slam dunk (or touchdown?). But… then I played it for the book. The play controls are a mess- unintuitive at best. With a sports video game, as John accurately pointed out, there’s got to be a quick-and-easy control scheme for fans of any skill to jump into. That wasn’t the case here.
Lester The Unlikely amusingly enough gets progressively "better" as you pass stages. Not because the game itself becomes good, but Lester actually has a character arc from being a total coward who runs from enemies to even standing upright and battling with a sword! Guess The Nerd didn't made it too far to see that coming!
Honestly, the game tries to give Lester a character arc, and it tries to do so in a way that actually impacts the gameplay. Pretty high concept stuff - there's some thought put into the game's design, which is more than you can say for the overt shovelware and cheap licensed games.
Thank you John. I learned something new today. Didn't know Street Combat was a reframed Ranma ½. The animations looked so familiar and I'm shocked that it was this long for me to know.
@@jasonwilletts559 agreed i have all fighter onsnes arcades abd orginal those when chesper most of only goods ones got full price manily tnmt t fighting but also few imporr the Japanese version of street combat ranma 1/3 i have all games two being Japanese
I love both of these 1 Star videos that you have done. How about you do videos on every 5 star game in the book and whether or not you think it deserves the accolades.
I feel like this list is missing a few to be honest. I couldn't imagine giving Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball, D-Force, Batman Forever, Wizard of Oz, or Nickelodeon Guts 2 stars (since frankly none of them should deserve higher).
I’m one of the book’s contributors, who reviewed many of the sports games. I gave Bill Laimbeer 1.5 stars. It was a unique concept, and the play controls eventually make sense. (Not that I really enjoyed my time with it.)
I'm surprised Last Action Hero didn't make the list. Even with the code to refill you life meter you couldn't get past t the first stage or at least when me and my cousin tried to back in 1994 when we rented it and haven't played it since until I discovered emulators and played it again along with the Sega Genesis and NES versions for the first time. I should go back and try to beat it now since my gaming skills are more refined now than the were back in the 90s.
I purchased Road Riot 4WD and immediately took it back to store after playing it for about an hour. It was sooo bad. I told the store manager it was unplayable and I'd happily take any other game as an exchange. She was a cool about it.
Number Munchers, Gizmos & Gadgets, Where In the World is Carmen Sandiego?, The Oregon Trail, and The Secret Island of Dr. Quandary remain fun educational games.
We need a Number Munchers remake! That was my favorite in elementary school tied with The Oregon Trail and Alpiner! Not an educational game, but my school used Texas Instruments computers with Alpiner installed!
I remember playing the car portions of the Barbie game for my little sister. I would either be playing Pokémon Pinball or Pokémon Yellow on my Gameboy Color as she did the rest of the game. Then I'd just take a quick break to help her. Together we beat it, so there's that. haha
I may regret saying this, but it actually looks kinda fun? Like Courier Crisis on the PlayStation except in circles. The frame rate doesn’t look terrible in the video either.
actually cannondale cup was supposed ot be hooked up to a peloton exercise bike type of thing that you actually rode reason no one heard of it was the bike setup cost 6-800 us dollars
If I had to venture a hypothesis on why games like Barbie supermodel exist, it's because someone in the Mattel offices saw their kid playing videogames and assumed that if kids play with Barbie dolls and they play videogames combining the two would mean instant profit. This person at the same time likely never touched a video game in their life.
I had completely forgotten about Road Riot 4WD but hearing that music triggered my memory, I don't remember anything about the game other than the music though.
unpopular opinion perhaps, but i don't think lester the unlikely is a 1 star game. sure you start out as the scared nerd with bad posture, but those features go away as your character gains experience/courage. the sprites look pretty nice too. wish the controls were a bit more responsive but i enjoy it more than quite a few SNES games i own
My brother actually had James Bond Jr when we were growing up. I remember being confused by the opening shooter segment. I don’t even remember if we ever played long enough to get past it.
Oh man I love jammit too I was super into the gritty street ball stuff back in the day and rented jammit and absolutely loved it. It's no NBA jam but it's fun
Dream TV is definitely strange but I had good times playing it co-op with my brothers. The funny thing is that you don't see the main menu unless you press Select during the intro. That explains why I couldn't remember how to activate 2-player mode when I replayed it with a friend about a month ago, but we actually had a decent time with the game once we figured that out. It's hard though.
Omg Road Riot! That’s the only other game we had for years besides the pack in SMW and also Link to the Past and my brother, dad, and I have probably logged more time into RR than anyone else on the planet. I know it’s not great but I have never seen it in any articles or lists so I had no idea it was regarded as that bad. I know I at least have find memories with it
I think Lester the Unlikely is kind of an under-appreciated game that is still not very good. It’s ambitious, it looks visually solid and there’s a surprising amount of character and depth to it that sadly doesn’t translate into a fun game. I mean, a platformer game where you start as a massive nerd who runs away from turtles and crabs and end up as a brave and confident hero is a really neat idea and it kinda predates a lot of indie games now that have similar sort of setups, but a cool concept doesn’t make a good game. I think the one star is a bit harsh but I can see why it has such a rating. Still, as a game itself it’s utterly unique and one of the more creative releases on the system
My parents only ever got me 7 or so SNES games as a kid and Jammit and Lester the Unlikely were two of them. Jammit is definitely not a 1 star. That game was so fun when I was a kid. Lots of interesting game types, my brother and I played this together all the time. The single player mode is a blast too. The cheesy dialogue is a nice touch too. Lester the Unlikely is pretty horrible. Terrible controls and incredibly hard game. I never got past the village part.
Nope! Some of these are “so bad it’s good” and others are curiosities. Even the sports games that I rated poorly may have value to some. The only way to know for yourself the true value of a game is to play it yourself. :)
Yes, Street Combat was a shame; but I’m 99% sure the Ranma game IREM tweaked for SC was eventually released in the US as a proper, licensed Ranma game. In fact, I own a copy.
Surprised to see Jammit on here though I think the version I played as a kid was on Genesis maybe. My friends and I would play the heck out of that game, lots of fun.
I liked Rocky and Bullwinkle when I was a kid. Got it for Christmas one year. It took a while to get the hang of it but eventually I got pretty good at it.
Me and my friends would play Ballz all the time because we would die laughing at the sound effects and character noises and beating each other up was f’n hysterical.
Mary shelleys Frankenstein, I had this one, I played this decades before I saw the movie, I read the book also decades later, I love this character and this is the game that started it all, I've played all the way to the laboratory under the artic. I love this theme song too. I have such nostalgia for this one.
Well, THIS brings back some memories. Or nightmares. As the book’s resident “sports guy”, I definitely played some stinkers. Football games were plentiful in my workload, and there was definitely a wide gulf between the good ones and the bad ones. I have tried to respond to some related comments here to add a few details about why games did (or didn’t) get that infamous 1-star rating.
As someone who hated sports IRL as a kid, and avoided all games that had them, I can only admire those who actually liked them and then had to suffer through the bad ones. I'm sure some of them were like, fun if you legitimately like sports, but from my perspective they were all _dull_ so I can't even imagine sitting down to play the ones that are both dull and *bad*.
@@goranisacson2502I feel a good sports game should appeal to everyone and not just sports fans. The average consumer sees those stats as just a bunch of random numbers
Ballz probably would have been better as a Super-FX game, then you'd have other prisms like cubes and such to build fighters from, nothing wrong with 2D spheres though as N64 used lots of them. Likely still wouldn't play great but it would look more robust as a 3D fighter. The Flintstones game isn't deep in gameplay but it's at least pretty and the sprite looks similar to John Goodman. I too like that Frankenstein movie and the SNES game is not that bad and shows off the SNES hardware quite well, it's quite cut down on Genesis. 8:52 That's a factor of keyframes & hit boxes and not image creation, live action sprites do not destroy good game designs by virtue of using the method. ^_^ I really wish more good developers had used video digitization bitd because people seem to think it has a supernatural curse on it. Pit-Fighter also which btw was not good in the arcade version, if it were hand drawn it would still need more keyframes and better gameplay to be any better. Lol about the SNES factor, oh no if this video proves anything it's that hardware alone will not make a game good. Amazing how many racing and sports games where the frame rate is below satisfactory Ie. less than 15fps. 13:36 Uh no, polygons were used to make games truly three dimensional, smooth animation came later heh. ;) You'd think Race Drivin' would be a Super-FX title but it's not and it really shows in the frame rate, not sure why the publisher thought it would work because it doesn't. Certainly plenty here that deserve no stars but definitely a few that should get at least two.
I actually love Lester the unlikely. It's probably one of the worst games I've played (I say one of because I bought bubsy 3d when it came out) and I can't play for more than like 20 mins but it's so goofy and weird I love it lol I wish it was better
Just a disclaimer: I’m from the UK and I’ve never called it a “Snezzz”. I outright hate when peopled say it that way. Most of my friends never referred to it that way either.
Various UK UA-camrs claim that's how the NES was marketed over there. They definitely spelled it out in US commercials, which is why most gamers my age (40) spell it out.
Bebe's Kids is one of my favorite movies from childhood..the VHS even had a bonus Itsy Bitsy Spider cartoon that was really good. I never knew Robin Harris' work before Bebe's Kids and as a kid I didn't know it was based on his stand-up. Great movie though
LJN by default is always the favorite bad game publisher, but when I was a kid, when I saw that THQ logo for NES or SNES, I knew to stay away. THQ = That's Horrible Quality
4:27 - 4:37 Your right JohnRiggs I never knew of its existence and I love Road Rash. lol I wonder if this game would have been better on Sega Genesis. ( Would probably been cooler if it had the SFXs they used from Road Rash when your getting wiped out. ) As for Lester I wonder if anyone made a version of this game replacing Lester's character model and instead you playing Napoleon Dynamite. lol Thanks again as always. Looking forward to your future videos.
Wow. Lester the Unlikely modded to be a game about Napoleon Dynamite feels like an idea some enterprising hacker SHOULD have done by now, and I'm kinda mad that it doesn't exist now that I've heard about it.
I don't have the book, but I have a feeling that you did not cover them all. It's hard to believe games like Wizard Of Oz, Captain Novolin, Wayne's World, Nickelodeon Guts, Dennis the Menace, Beethoven 2nd, The Rocketeer, Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool, Home Alone games, Shaq Fu, and Rise Of The Robots receive more than just one star!
I knew about Cannondale Cup because I was obsessed with mountain biking in the early 90s. All the characters in the game are actual Team Cannondale members from the time (like Missy “The Missile” Giove who was later arrested for trafficking $12M worth of marijuana in 2009). I really wanted the game at the time, but never got it. I’m glad for that. The terrible gameplay seems to be due to the limitations of the SNES. It could have been a great game on the following generation of consoles. If you want to play a good mountain bike game, try Downhill Domination on the PS2. It’s a bit dated, but decent.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is, if not a hidden gem, better than people think. It’s really a Dizzy-style adventure game, not a combat platformer. The more you lean into the combat the worse the experience is.
I would love to get my hands on any Super Nintendo game that I would get one day. Even Bebe's Kids, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends, and The Great Waldo Search made the list.
funny enough I imported both the original Ranma 1/2 as well as the sequel (which did get an unedited US release, or at least more unedited than Street Combat was) the second one was definitely leaps and bounds better. there was a third game which was due to come out but I don't believe it ever did. definitely one I want to look for!
Remember as a little kid when Hard Drivin' came out in arcades and it was like 75 cents - $1.00 to play back in 1987? and you'd be like "screw it, I'll try it again with my last 75 cents" because it was this huge beast of a machine that you sat in, and you'd lose in like 30 seconds because you were 7 and didn't know how to drive stick shift?
a look at EVERY 1-star NES game - ua-cam.com/video/bJ94-tJqaTg/v-deo.html
Still think robocop 2 was at least a two star...
I didn't know that Pat the NES Punk made a SNES version of the Ultimate Nintendo guide.
actually cannondale cup was supposed ot be hooked up to a peloton exercise bike type of thing that you actually rode reason no one heard of it was the bike setup cost 6-800 us dollars
12:35 -- Come on, John, let's be objective. The SNES version of a game is the clearly better version *at least* 75% of the time, and in cases where the Genesis version *is* better, it is typically for a pretty crummy game like Pitfighter, that you probably don't really want to play on either system...
I worked at Radical Entertainment back in the mid-90s which produced both Bébé's Kids and Mountain Bike Rally (aka Cannondale Cup). I didn't work on Bébé's Kids, but I did play around with getting MBR to work with the LifeFitness Exertainment bikes, but didn't work on the game directly. There was a lot of pressure to get stuff out the door since we were often doing contract work. That didn't really lead to great games.
Ah, the classic story then- get a product out in time for whatever date the higher-ups think is important, and hang the quality control.
"We had an opportunity to set precedents that would be admired for decades....but I just listened to my boss & 40 years later?
Not a single person knows my name!"
Way to "go get em" champ!
@@SwizzleStickMcGee omg, this made my day.
That still had to be pretty cool to work on SNES games of any kind. I tried to go to school for programming, and wanted to make games for a living. It would seem that with my total lack of artistic ability and the fact that I'm literally the slowest programmer in the true history of time, I got into cybersecurity instead.
@@SwizzleStickMcGee Yeah cause not listening to your boss and setting your own deadlines for when your work will be finished absolutely always works out.
How to tell me you've never worked a day in your life without telling me you've never worked a day in your life. Also, i know basic math is difficult, but mid 90s was 27 years ago.
Dream TV is a bizarre game that doesn't really work well but it's at least an interesting idea
Hey dude!!!! Nice to see u here
SSSSNNNNNNNNNNNNésdrúnk!!!!
"In the history of video games, has there ever been a game that's actually educational and very good?"
Oregon Trail.
Also... Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego
There’s a Grover game thats pretty fun & has infectious music to it for the NES
Oregon Trail, JumpStart 4th Grade, Gizmos & Gadgets, Math Blaster, Carmen Sandiego, *_ClueFinders_*
Just to name a few
Sim City was actually marketed as an educational game as well, a lot of schools had it
*you lost 400 lbs of meat to spoilage*
I never played Lester yet but I seen that once you progress in the game it becomes playable due to the nerd becoming more confident. I get the feeling it’s like calling circle of the moon slow if you despite getting the dash boots early on in the game .
Yeah, Lester actually gets good later on, but not many of the YT influencers spend enough time with it to find out.
I dunno if the CotM analogy works. Outside of upgrading gear, the game itself plays well and is good.
If you didn’t feel the slowness of the game at the start and the relief of getting the dashboots at the very start than I don’t know lol
Of course. The person that did that Lester review did not know what he was talking about. You have to play and progress in game to actuallu y realize what they were going for and if you take the time to go down the whole library of SNES games, you realize that Lester is a pretty unique cinematic adventure/action game.
Lester is one of the more interesting games I've seen. It's definitely not something I'm into. I've met one person who loves Lester, and that's Moe.
I think people miss the point of Lester the Unlikely. It's very clever.
The Flintstones definitely isn’t the best game, but holy damn is the soundtrack awesome. Dean Evans really knew how to get some of the most infectious music out of the SPC 700. No password screen should have music so chill 💙
Kinda reminds me of joe and mac specially the attack and the villains but the looks are different
I remember pit fighter as being the only game left on the shelves at videoland one Friday night back in the 90s. Such a crappy weekend.
The actual comment I came to make 😂 👍👍
Surprised Beethoven got more than one star!
As I read this comment I realized that the lifespan of a saint Bernard is 8 to 10 years. 😥
But he didn’t show Beethoven in this video
@@powerstones7722exactly
Beethoven was a 5 star classic and you know it!
I was a huge gamer back then too. Boot camp in 2600 and 8 bit NES. Fought and survived the bloody 16 bit wars. EGM, Diehard Gamefan, and many other gamer mags always packed into my back pack for daily review in school. Recorded Video Power and Gamepro just to see other games in action. But I never saw a Barbie game and thought "man I should play this..."
Hmm. Didn't know Capcom did a football game for the SNES.
Lester the Unlikely is a guilty pleasure game for me. Yes, it's not an all time great by any means, but the story progression is super relatable for me & makes me want to play it every once in a while.
If I just bought games based on the publisher, MVP Football should’ve been a slam dunk (or touchdown?). But… then I played it for the book. The play controls are a mess- unintuitive at best. With a sports video game, as John accurately pointed out, there’s got to be a quick-and-easy control scheme for fans of any skill to jump into. That wasn’t the case here.
Lester The Unlikely amusingly enough gets progressively "better" as you pass stages. Not because the game itself becomes good, but Lester actually has a character arc from being a total coward who runs from enemies to even standing upright and battling with a sword! Guess The Nerd didn't made it too far to see that coming!
Honestly, the game tries to give Lester a character arc, and it tries to do so in a way that actually impacts the gameplay. Pretty high concept stuff - there's some thought put into the game's design, which is more than you can say for the overt shovelware and cheap licensed games.
Thank you John. I learned something new today. Didn't know Street Combat was a reframed Ranma ½. The animations looked so familiar and I'm shocked that it was this long for me to know.
Why in the world is called Ranma 1/2?
@@davidbermudez7704 Ranma was the main character's name. The "½" may be in reference to the curse he was under.
There was a Ranma 1/2 fighting game that released in the US for SNES. I remember playing it back in the day, and it wasn't bad.
@@joebrisado love that one have but 1st decent enough not worse one
I had that game, and it was a decent beat-'em-up. The novelty characters were a tad naff but overall, it was a fun game to play.
Ranma 1/2 was a amazing anime & game!! Although if you haven’t seen the anime, you’d probably judge a lot of it too
Yeah, it was reskinned as Street Combat.
@@jasonwilletts559 agreed i have all fighter onsnes arcades abd orginal those when chesper most of only goods ones got full price manily tnmt t fighting but also few imporr the Japanese version of street combat ranma 1/3 i have all games two being Japanese
Fun Race Driving’ fact: it was the only game on the SNES that had polygons and DIDN’T use the Super FX chip. That’s why it’s so choppy
I love both of these 1 Star videos that you have done. How about you do videos on every 5 star game in the book and whether or not you think it deserves the accolades.
100% plan on it sooner than later.
@@JohnRiggs amazing! Can't wait to see it!! Keep up the great work and I'll keep supporting the channel.
Race driving was decent when i was a kid.....but we all wanted rock and roll racing because black sabbath tunes lol
Rock n Roll Racing was LEGIT!
I feel like this list is missing a few to be honest. I couldn't imagine giving Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball, D-Force, Batman Forever, Wizard of Oz, or Nickelodeon Guts 2 stars (since frankly none of them should deserve higher).
I’m one of the book’s contributors, who reviewed many of the sports games. I gave Bill Laimbeer 1.5 stars. It was a unique concept, and the play controls eventually make sense. (Not that I really enjoyed my time with it.)
Came here specifically looking for Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball. Good lord was that game absolute garbage.
Yes, Batman Forever belongs on any one-star list. I nearly forgot that was made.
Bill Combat basketball does make sense after awhile. I finished that game so it had "something"
Wizard of Oz getting 2 is just wrong. 2 stars means mediocre.
Wizard of Oz is unplayable
I'm surprised Last Action Hero didn't make the list. Even with the code to refill you life meter you couldn't get past t the first stage or at least when me and my cousin tried to back in 1994 when we rented it and haven't played it since until I discovered emulators and played it again along with the Sega Genesis and NES versions for the first time. I should go back and try to beat it now since my gaming skills are more refined now than the were back in the 90s.
I purchased Road Riot 4WD and immediately took it back to store after playing it for about an hour. It was sooo bad. I told the store manager it was unplayable and I'd happily take any other game as an exchange. She was a cool about it.
Pit Fighter for the snes was an inside job
Number Munchers, Gizmos & Gadgets, Where In the World is Carmen Sandiego?, The Oregon Trail, and The Secret Island of Dr. Quandary remain fun educational games.
We need a Number Munchers remake! That was my favorite in elementary school tied with The Oregon Trail and Alpiner! Not an educational game, but my school used Texas Instruments computers with Alpiner installed!
Only good part of Lester the unlikely is that my dad and I use to play that together when it came out. I didn't mind it.
NFL Football 94, NHL 94, NBA Jam on Sega Genesis are my favorite sports games. Unless you count Tony Hawk and Skate
SNES Drunk showed that as one progresses through Lester he becomes less of a wimp and it gets much better. Edit: I now see that's been pointed out.
I remember playing the car portions of the Barbie game for my little sister. I would either be playing Pokémon Pinball or Pokémon Yellow on my Gameboy Color as she did the rest of the game. Then I'd just take a quick break to help her. Together we beat it, so there's that. haha
I have a similar memory of having to help my little brother out with the dungeon puzzles in Zelda on GameCube.
Oh god I completely forgot about Cannondale Cup. My mom got me that because I liked mountain biking. Suffice to say, it got traded in shortly after.
I may regret saying this, but it actually looks kinda fun? Like Courier Crisis on the PlayStation except in circles. The frame rate doesn’t look terrible in the video either.
Omg I played almost every single one of these. How did that happen.
actually cannondale cup was supposed ot be hooked up to a peloton exercise bike type of thing that you actually rode reason no one heard of it was the bike setup cost 6-800 us dollars
Lester the unlikely gets better allegedly. You develop Lester to be tough and brave. Pretty neat mechanic to he honest.
If I had to venture a hypothesis on why games like Barbie supermodel exist, it's because someone in the Mattel offices saw their kid playing videogames and assumed that if kids play with Barbie dolls and they play videogames combining the two would mean instant profit. This person at the same time likely never touched a video game in their life.
"Whats Next?" < SNES Pit Fighter > "Oh Dear God!"
ROFL
I had completely forgotten about Road Riot 4WD but hearing that music triggered my memory, I don't remember anything about the game other than the music though.
unpopular opinion perhaps, but i don't think lester the unlikely is a 1 star game. sure you start out as the scared nerd with bad posture, but those features go away as your character gains experience/courage. the sprites look pretty nice too. wish the controls were a bit more responsive but i enjoy it more than quite a few SNES games i own
My brother actually had James Bond Jr when we were growing up. I remember being confused by the opening shooter segment. I don’t even remember if we ever played long enough to get past it.
Why is the last bit at 17:30 _interlaced??_
I love your style quick speaking and genuine.
Oh man I love jammit too I was super into the gritty street ball stuff back in the day and rented jammit and absolutely loved it. It's no NBA jam but it's fun
The parallax effect in the Flintstones game is pretty breathtaking for the 16-bit era.
Dream TV is definitely strange but I had good times playing it co-op with my brothers. The funny thing is that you don't see the main menu unless you press Select during the intro. That explains why I couldn't remember how to activate 2-player mode when I replayed it with a friend about a month ago, but we actually had a decent time with the game once we figured that out. It's hard though.
Omg Road Riot! That’s the only other game we had for years besides the pack in SMW and also Link to the Past and my brother, dad, and I have probably logged more time into RR than anyone else on the planet. I know it’s not great but I have never seen it in any articles or lists so I had no idea it was regarded as that bad. I know I at least have find memories with it
The sound of hitting a cow gives me instant nostalgia and frustration. Mooo, Mooo...
I actually really liked Lester the unlikely back in the day. So some of us liked it.
I think Lester the Unlikely is kind of an under-appreciated game that is still not very good. It’s ambitious, it looks visually solid and there’s a surprising amount of character and depth to it that sadly doesn’t translate into a fun game. I mean, a platformer game where you start as a massive nerd who runs away from turtles and crabs and end up as a brave and confident hero is a really neat idea and it kinda predates a lot of indie games now that have similar sort of setups, but a cool concept doesn’t make a good game. I think the one star is a bit harsh but I can see why it has such a rating. Still, as a game itself it’s utterly unique and one of the more creative releases on the system
1:20 I love that line.
I also just bought Lester after seeing AVGN’s review. Just had to see for myself. 😅
4:38 you mean there's sound worse than GEMS on the Mega Drive?
Hahaha @1:20 FF3 reference Saban doing his suplex move. Another trick was the Pheonix down insta killing if lol.
My parents only ever got me 7 or so SNES games as a kid and Jammit and Lester the Unlikely were two of them.
Jammit is definitely not a 1 star. That game was so fun when I was a kid. Lots of interesting game types, my brother and I played this together all the time. The single player mode is a blast too. The cheesy dialogue is a nice touch too.
Lester the Unlikely is pretty horrible. Terrible controls and incredibly hard game. I never got past the village part.
Alot of ppl dont know this but Mcdonalds released the McRib around that Flintstones movie. So you can thank that movie if you like the sandwich.
17:05 That Tyrone Character looks like Ken from the NES game Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight
Is it weird I now want to add these to my collection?
Nope! Some of these are “so bad it’s good” and others are curiosities. Even the sports games that I rated poorly may have value to some. The only way to know for yourself the true value of a game is to play it yourself. :)
I am in the UK, so I appreciate that SNES call-out.
would emulation help framerate issues?
Great video, *JR!*
I guess a few 1 star games occasionally deserve at least a point upgrade.
Yes, Street Combat was a shame; but I’m 99% sure the Ranma game IREM tweaked for SC was eventually released in the US as a proper, licensed Ranma game. In fact, I own a copy.
Surprised to see Jammit on here though I think the version I played as a kid was on Genesis maybe. My friends and I would play the heck out of that game, lots of fun.
Your Pit Fighter commentary about Sega vs. SNES had me thinking about Console Wars channel!
I liked Rocky and Bullwinkle when I was a kid. Got it for Christmas one year. It took a while to get the hang of it but eventually I got pretty good at it.
Hurrah, a SNEZZZ video. I must put on my bowler hat and have a cup of tea and a slice of cake. Thank you John.
Me and my friends would play Ballz all the time because we would die laughing at the sound effects and character noises and beating each other up was f’n hysterical.
John you are a man of taste and distinction, liking Ranma 1/2. It's also one of my favourites.
Mary shelleys Frankenstein, I had this one, I played this decades before I saw the movie, I read the book also decades later, I love this character and this is the game that started it all, I've played all the way to the laboratory under the artic. I love this theme song too. I have such nostalgia for this one.
Well, THIS brings back some memories. Or nightmares.
As the book’s resident “sports guy”, I definitely played some stinkers. Football games were plentiful in my workload, and there was definitely a wide gulf between the good ones and the bad ones.
I have tried to respond to some related comments here to add a few details about why games did (or didn’t) get that infamous 1-star rating.
As someone who hated sports IRL as a kid, and avoided all games that had them, I can only admire those who actually liked them and then had to suffer through the bad ones. I'm sure some of them were like, fun if you legitimately like sports, but from my perspective they were all _dull_ so I can't even imagine sitting down to play the ones that are both dull and *bad*.
Okay boomer
@@goranisacson2502I feel a good sports game should appeal to everyone and not just sports fans. The average consumer sees those stats as just a bunch of random numbers
I saw a few youtuber reviewing Lester the Unlikely, IMO it's a pretty decent game, not a 5 star, but definitely not a 1 star game
Ballz probably would have been better as a Super-FX game, then you'd have other prisms like cubes and such to build fighters from, nothing wrong with 2D spheres though as N64 used lots of them. Likely still wouldn't play great but it would look more robust as a 3D fighter.
The Flintstones game isn't deep in gameplay but it's at least pretty and the sprite looks similar to John Goodman. I too like that Frankenstein movie and the SNES game is not that bad and shows off the SNES hardware quite well, it's quite cut down on Genesis.
8:52 That's a factor of keyframes & hit boxes and not image creation, live action sprites do not destroy good game designs by virtue of using the method. ^_^ I really wish more good developers had used video digitization bitd because people seem to think it has a supernatural curse on it.
Pit-Fighter also which btw was not good in the arcade version, if it were hand drawn it would still need more keyframes and better gameplay to be any better.
Lol about the SNES factor, oh no if this video proves anything it's that hardware alone will not make a game good. Amazing how many racing and sports games where the frame rate is below satisfactory Ie. less than 15fps.
13:36 Uh no, polygons were used to make games truly three dimensional, smooth animation came later heh. ;) You'd think Race Drivin' would be a Super-FX title but it's not and it really shows in the frame rate, not sure why the publisher thought it would work because it doesn't.
Certainly plenty here that deserve no stars but definitely a few that should get at least two.
I didn't know that Pat the NES Punk made a SNES version of the Ultimate Nintendo guide.
Great video John, really enjoyed this thanks. Have a great weekend
Im in the UK and appreciated the SNES shout out 🤣👍
Always loved this channel thumbs up😊
Fun educational games... Oregon Trail, Number Munchers, The Learning Company games, and of course Carmen Sandiego.
I remember one of those Friday nights as a kid, I rented Pit Fighter. Entire weekend ruined within an hour of getting home
I actually love Lester the unlikely. It's probably one of the worst games I've played (I say one of because I bought bubsy 3d when it came out) and I can't play for more than like 20 mins but it's so goofy and weird I love it lol I wish it was better
I remember renting out James Bond Jr for the SNES when I had chickenpox as a kid. Can't even remember the side shooter elements
Just a disclaimer: I’m from the UK and I’ve never called it a “Snezzz”. I outright hate when peopled say it that way.
Most of my friends never referred to it that way either.
Various UK UA-camrs claim that's how the NES was marketed over there. They definitely spelled it out in US commercials, which is why most gamers my age (40) spell it out.
@@almightycinder I've heard the same, that they'd literally say 'ness' or 'sness' in tv commercials and stuff.
I’m not denying it’s not used, it’s just not everyone liked that pronunciation. 😁
The Flinstones movie game?! A one-star?! That's a superb game why is it a one-star?!
"What's next?" (Pit Fighter) "oh dear god." Yep, I felt that.
1:58 "have a faceful of head" 😂🤣😂 still funny
Anyone else always think of Continue? when they see Rex Ronan? One of my all time favorite episodes
Bebe's Kids is one of my favorite movies from childhood..the VHS even had a bonus Itsy Bitsy Spider cartoon that was really good. I never knew Robin Harris' work before Bebe's Kids and as a kid I didn't know it was based on his stand-up. Great movie though
LJN by default is always the favorite bad game publisher, but when I was a kid, when I saw that THQ logo for NES or SNES, I knew to stay away. THQ = That's Horrible Quality
4:27 - 4:37 Your right JohnRiggs I never knew of its existence and I love Road Rash. lol
I wonder if this game would have been better on Sega Genesis. ( Would probably been cooler if it had the SFXs they used from Road Rash when your getting wiped out. )
As for Lester I wonder if anyone made a version of this game replacing Lester's character model and instead you playing Napoleon Dynamite. lol
Thanks again as always. Looking forward to your future videos.
Wow. Lester the Unlikely modded to be a game about Napoleon Dynamite feels like an idea some enterprising hacker SHOULD have done by now, and I'm kinda mad that it doesn't exist now that I've heard about it.
Love your videos and content. Really had no idea you are as tall as Howard Stern! Keep up the great work!
You have to see Pit Fighter on the ZX Spectrum. Now there's a horror story 😉
I don't have the book, but I have a feeling that you did not cover them all. It's hard to believe games like Wizard Of Oz, Captain Novolin, Wayne's World, Nickelodeon Guts, Dennis the Menace, Beethoven 2nd, The Rocketeer, Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool, Home Alone games, Shaq Fu, and Rise Of The Robots receive more than just one star!
The Rocketeer deserves *_zero_* stars
0:34 this game looks awesome lol (despite the weird controls). I'm not even kidding.
Not too many people know about Ranma 1/2,subscribed!
I knew about Cannondale Cup because I was obsessed with mountain biking in the early 90s. All the characters in the game are actual Team Cannondale members from the time (like Missy “The Missile” Giove who was later arrested for trafficking $12M worth of marijuana in 2009). I really wanted the game at the time, but never got it. I’m glad for that. The terrible gameplay seems to be due to the limitations of the SNES. It could have been a great game on the following generation of consoles.
If you want to play a good mountain bike game, try Downhill Domination on the PS2. It’s a bit dated, but decent.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is, if not a hidden gem, better than people think. It’s really a Dizzy-style adventure game, not a combat platformer. The more you lean into the combat the worse the experience is.
I would love to get my hands on any Super Nintendo game that I would get one day. Even Bebe's Kids, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends, and The Great Waldo Search made the list.
I can tell this man has kids by the way he talks to his viewers lol. Love ya J Riggs
4:07 This game could benefit a lot from some rom hacking fix and FastROM improvements. Where's Vitor Vilela when we need him?
This is why it's cool to own an entire library of a system because you can do like so much unique content
funny enough I imported both the original Ranma 1/2 as well as the sequel (which did get an unedited US release, or at least more unedited than Street Combat was) the second one was definitely leaps and bounds better. there was a third game which was due to come out but I don't believe it ever did. definitely one I want to look for!
The second and especially the third are really good, as for Street Combat... not one of the worst but it is not good
Thumbs up for 'snessz' pronounciation for the UK. Much appreciated!
The Mega Powers is taking over hahahaha
Edit: imagine you have Riggs, Contri, Norm and Parrish do a video? Epic.
Remember as a little kid when Hard Drivin' came out in arcades and it was like 75 cents - $1.00 to play back in 1987? and you'd be like "screw it, I'll try it again with my last 75 cents" because it was this huge beast of a machine that you sat in, and you'd lose in like 30 seconds because you were 7 and didn't know how to drive stick shift?
I was thinking Street Combat looked like Randma 1/2: Hard Battle, then boom. Good stuff
Captain novolin is ranked where in the book?
"If it's not user friendly, why would you want to play it?" *Looks nervously at Dwarf Fortress*
I played Pro Quarterback SOOO Much. I actually loved that game back then.
14:12 The Oregon Trail 2 (1995) for Windows PC