Favourite and/or most disappointing home arcade ports
Posted: July 29th, 2012, 4:57 pm
Back in t' day I remember the term 'arcade perfect' being overused by game reviewers and marketing departments alike, often being an optimistic exaggeration or entirely false. As home consoles have caught up with the arcade hardware over the years it's a term that I reckon's become pretty meaningless since the days of the Dreamcast/128 bit/6th(?) generation era.
Regardless of whether or not they were technically arcade perfect there's no doubt that there were a load of great arcade ports for home consoles that perfectly captured the spirit and gameplay and closely mimicked the visuals and sounds of the original albeit with some compromises. Inevitably there were also a bunch of right stinkers that had little more in common with their arcade counterpart than the name/franchise.
Whether it be looking back with rose tinted glasses or upon playing them nowadays, what arcade ports did folks enjoy or anticipate the most / have the fondest memories of / regard as the most technically impressive / consider as the most faithful port when compared to the arcade version? Similarly what were the worst and most disappointing?
Arcade ports which I've fond memories of that immediately spring to mind for me are:
Silkworm on the C64 - They had this in the local chippy and although the C64 port was pretty poor in comparison I used to love it. I've not played it since I was a kid but I'm guessing it's a lot worse than I remember it being.
Golden Axe and Forgotten Worlds on the Mega Drive - I remember getting Golden Axe and Forgotten worlds with my Mega Drive because the local sports centre had both. Owning them at home was beyond awesome at the time.
Street Fighter 2 :The World Warrior on the SNES - I played the SNES version of SF2 before the arcade one but wasn't disappointed when I went back to it after playing the arcade, although it was 50hz with massive borders SF2 was never out of my SNES for a long time and I couldn't have been more excited when I heard about Turbo.
Final Fight on the Mega CD - One of the games I played most in the arcade so I was very excited when a complete & 2P version was announced for the Mega CD - Cracking port IMO and the remixed music was ace. The speech over the intro was a bit of a novelty too. The SNES version which I owned before the Mega CD one was disappointing in hindsight but I loved it at the time - I always go Cody anyway
Sega Rally and Virtua Cop - Sega Rally was in the local bowling alley and I couldn't wait to get it at home. I still love playing the Saturn version and thought it was a solid port. Likewise with Virtua Cop - You couldn't beat playing this with 2 guns at home with your mates. I loved most of the Model 1 & 2 ports if I'm honest.
Ridge Racer on the PS -When I first saw Ridge Racer on the PS I couldn't believe my eyes. I was a big fan of RR up until RRV on the PS2. The series has never been as good as the ones that come before V IMO. I've been jaded by all the console release day versions
As I was a more discerning buyer when I had to really save for games or wait 'til Christmas the disappointing stinkers that I was unfortunate enough to own are less memorable but Space Harrier and Bad Dudes on the C64, Robocop on the Speccy, Operation Wolf & Chase HQ on the Master System, Alien vs Predator on the SNES (more an 'inspired by' release) and likely a Double Dragon of some description, would be among them.
Regardless of whether or not they were technically arcade perfect there's no doubt that there were a load of great arcade ports for home consoles that perfectly captured the spirit and gameplay and closely mimicked the visuals and sounds of the original albeit with some compromises. Inevitably there were also a bunch of right stinkers that had little more in common with their arcade counterpart than the name/franchise.
Whether it be looking back with rose tinted glasses or upon playing them nowadays, what arcade ports did folks enjoy or anticipate the most / have the fondest memories of / regard as the most technically impressive / consider as the most faithful port when compared to the arcade version? Similarly what were the worst and most disappointing?
Arcade ports which I've fond memories of that immediately spring to mind for me are:
Silkworm on the C64 - They had this in the local chippy and although the C64 port was pretty poor in comparison I used to love it. I've not played it since I was a kid but I'm guessing it's a lot worse than I remember it being.
Golden Axe and Forgotten Worlds on the Mega Drive - I remember getting Golden Axe and Forgotten worlds with my Mega Drive because the local sports centre had both. Owning them at home was beyond awesome at the time.
Street Fighter 2 :The World Warrior on the SNES - I played the SNES version of SF2 before the arcade one but wasn't disappointed when I went back to it after playing the arcade, although it was 50hz with massive borders SF2 was never out of my SNES for a long time and I couldn't have been more excited when I heard about Turbo.
Final Fight on the Mega CD - One of the games I played most in the arcade so I was very excited when a complete & 2P version was announced for the Mega CD - Cracking port IMO and the remixed music was ace. The speech over the intro was a bit of a novelty too. The SNES version which I owned before the Mega CD one was disappointing in hindsight but I loved it at the time - I always go Cody anyway
Sega Rally and Virtua Cop - Sega Rally was in the local bowling alley and I couldn't wait to get it at home. I still love playing the Saturn version and thought it was a solid port. Likewise with Virtua Cop - You couldn't beat playing this with 2 guns at home with your mates. I loved most of the Model 1 & 2 ports if I'm honest.
Ridge Racer on the PS -When I first saw Ridge Racer on the PS I couldn't believe my eyes. I was a big fan of RR up until RRV on the PS2. The series has never been as good as the ones that come before V IMO. I've been jaded by all the console release day versions
As I was a more discerning buyer when I had to really save for games or wait 'til Christmas the disappointing stinkers that I was unfortunate enough to own are less memorable but Space Harrier and Bad Dudes on the C64, Robocop on the Speccy, Operation Wolf & Chase HQ on the Master System, Alien vs Predator on the SNES (more an 'inspired by' release) and likely a Double Dragon of some description, would be among them.