Have you ever been dissapointed by the library of a console?

[marurun]

In terms of my own personal tastes in games, I think the Playstation 2 and the N64 have the most disappointing libraries. The PS2 has some gems, but they are drowned out by an ocean of meh. And the N64 is a platform that just is very challenging for me to try to engage with.

[Jagosaurus]

The PS2 is interesting.... when looking back at the PS1 the early 3D games have a bit of charm in their own way. While most done on the PS2 has been improved on greatly since regarding gameplay. This creates an odd "middle stage" where many genres were still being perfected:

Killswitch cover shooting .... vastly improved on by next gen Gears of War
Psi Ops third person shooting and gravity mechanics .... vastly improved on by next gen by many such as Dead Space and Bioshock
FPS ... vastly improved on by next gen nearly all. The dual stick controls are pretty stiff on those PS2 FPS titles. This is why oXbox Halo stands out so much.

You get the idea. Not so early that is has a unique charm.... but not yet developed enough. I personally love the PS2 (and the HDD mod scene) but I do agree much of the library feels flat today, even many of the hits.

This is before you take into account the environments and visuals .... lots of flat brown and grey. That main character death animation and body movement in Killzone is freaking hilarious.

Also, the PS2 list of 480p and widescreen titles is lacking. Most of these games were developed and tested on CRTs. That in-between TV market during this time also makes it an odd one. The games "feel" like they should be in 16:9 but often look better on a 4:3 CRT.

All these factors impact much of the library.

[Reprise]

The dual stick controls are pretty stiff on those PS2 FPS titles. This is why oXbox Halo stands out so much.

This is one thing that really annoys me. They had the tools, but for some reason they didn't know how to make it feel fluid and accurate until Halo. A lot of the PS2's FPSs don't even seem to have true analogue movement or aiming. Unreal Tournament, for example, feels like they mapped a digital input from a D-Pad or something to an analogue stick, instead of giving true 360 analogue control for aiming. It's literally like you have to aim in 8 directions.

[Jagosaurus]

The dual stick controls are pretty stiff on those PS2 FPS titles. This is why oXbox Halo stands out so much.

This is one thing that really annoys me. They had the tools, but for some reason they didn't know how to make it feel fluid and accurate until Halo. A lot of the PS2's FPSs don't even seem to have true analogue movement or aiming. Unreal Tournament, for example, feels like they mapped a digital input from a D-Pad or something to an analogue stick, instead of giving true 360 analogue control for aiming. It's literally like you have to aim in 8 directions.

Agreed... Killzone and Black both do a decent job, but it still isn't as good as Halo CE. Two that immediately come to mind are Area 51 and Darkwatch, released 4 years after Halo. I want to like those games. The environments and stories are so cool (see below for Area 51 production value)... but man, felt like I was battling the controls versus enemies at times. They feel passable at most times but only about 75% there. Becomes very apparent in later, tough levels that require precision shooting. Prime example of a genre that was close, but not quite there yet.

"Notable among the voice actors [for Area 51 2005 game] are David Duchovny as Ethan Cole, Marilyn Manson as Edgar the ancient and powerful Grey, Powers Boothe as Major Bridges, and Ian Abercrombie as Dr. Cray."

Add: I know DW, A51, & Black were multi-plats.

[samsonlonghair]

I feel similarly about the PS2. The environments in a lot of PS2 games feel very same~ish. Lots of drab colors and few details. The exception would be the God of War games. They had interesting envirments, and a boring protagonist instead.

Also, the N64 library doesn’t do much for me. With the obvious exception of Ocarina and Majora, there just aren’t any N64 games that I enjoy playing. Kirby64 is the low point of that series. Glover is boring. Pokémon snap is a snooze. Mario Tennis is pretty drull to me too. I was never a fan of the control scheme in Smash Brothers.

Despite all the critical acclaim, Mario64 still feels wonky for me to control. I know that it was very early in 3D platforming, and the controls were considered great at the time. The controls on Mario64 don’t hold up that great for me. I only land my jumps where I intend about half the time. The camera feels too close as well. Thankfully these problems were corrected in future games.

On the other hand, I was surprised at how good Episode One Pod Racer was, especially since I dislike the movie so much. I guess I just love an arcade racer - even one based on a bad movie.

Was there a Metroid game on N64? I feel like I missed that somewhere.

[Jagosaurus]

No N64 Metroid

Take my PS2 comments with a grain of salt... I have 95+ PS2 games on my modded system's HDDs . I love the system and play it often, but I also know what I'm getting into as well. I played the mess out of it in college so I have some nostalgia glasses.... maybe beer glasses during that timeframe . I can see how newcomers are surprised at the quality compared to say, standard PS3 gameplay mechanics.

[isiolia]

Can't say I find the PS2 library disappointing. Not only does it have a vast number of titles, but the system sold in such volume that it's fairly easy to collect for. So, sure, the PS2 version at the time wasn't always the best, and many high profile titles have since seen HD ports. However, it's still not hard to appreciate something in the library, and it's easier to get half-decent results out of stock than previous gen systems.

Where I think libraries tend to be disappointing is with I guess early 5th gen stuff - Jaguar, 3DO, 32X, etc. Lots of multiplatform games that fall short of more readily available versions, or me-too titles that just don't hold up all that well. They're still neat to fire up, but there's not much I feel like I'd really want to sit down and play through on them.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Was there a Metroid game on N64? I feel like I missed that somewhere.

No. Remember, Gunpei Yokoi died in 1997. That probably held things up for a bit.

Fire Emblem skipped the N64 as well.

[samsonlonghair]

No N64 Metroid

Was there a Metroid game on N64? I feel like I missed that somewhere.

No. Remember, Gunpei Yokoi died in 1997. That probably held things up for a bit.

Fire Emblem skipped the N64 as well.

Well no wonder I don’t dig the N64 library! There’s no Metroid. I’m starting to wonder if Metroid is secretly Nintendo’s best franchise.

[marurun]

It's not Nintendo's best-selling, that's for sure.