Games that improved on the way from the arcade to console

[marurun]

I got to thinking today about Contra and Double Dragon. Both series are fun in the arcades, but classics on the NES. On the way to the NES from the arcades, not only were the graphics and audio scaled down, but the gameplay was changed significantly as well. The end result is that, IMO, the NES versions are decidedly better than the arcade versions. I'm going to talk about a few prime examples, but I'd like others to chip in with their own ideas.

Contra - Graphically and musically impressive in the arcade, but control sometimes felt a little delayed. The NES keeps the weapons and general stage layouts, but the player control was tightened up greatly, and I think the NES version is better than the arcade as a result.

Super Contra - Same situation, but with more level changes on the NES. Also, the arcade control is inexplicably even wonkier than the first.

Double Dragon - This is a borderline case. I'm not sure I consider the NES version better playing than the arcade, but it certainly doesn't suffer from the changes. The arcade version had better graphics and sound and supported two players, and it also gave players all their moves up front. But, as with Contra, the control input feels a little sluggish. The NES version changes the levels a lot and has you slowly earning your moves via an XP-style system. It also loses two-player mode. But the control feels a little more responsive.

Double Dragon II - I didn't play this much in the arcade. Again, control input felt just a hair laggy, but overall it was a much improved game from the first. The NES version made some changes but actually hewed pretty close in some ways to the arcade. And the control is pretty tight. A PC Engine Super CD version was also released that sticks to the NES level layouts and control scheme for the most part, but raises the bar quite a bit for graphics and sound. The characters are larger to boot. The CD soundtrack can be a little bizarre at times, however. The NES version may be a close call for arcade die-hards, but the PC Engine version puts such polish on it that it is a clear winner over the arcade.

Double Dragon III - This game was horrible in the arcade. The Sega Genesis had a port of the arcade version and it, too, was horrible. Kinda sank the entire franchise for a while. The NES version of this game retains some of the content, but completely retools the fighting engine and controls and comes out a far better game as a result. Would have loved to have seen a PC Engine version of this game.

Bionic Commando - This oddball arcade game from Capcom is completely different in almost every way (except the bionic arm itself) from the NES version that followed. While the arcade version looks and sounds good, it is fairly shallow in gameplay and simply doesn't age well. The NES version turns everything around with RPG elements that allow the player to earn experience for downed foes. You can expand your life bar, earn new weapons and items, and the play control is actually extremely tight (if a bit unforgiving). The NES version is the clear winner, here.

Any other worthy additions?

[Tanooki]

Entirely up to debate considering the fan base with it, but I know some people do prefer the NES Strider over the arcade one because it's not your simple generic(though cool and well executed) side scrolling hack and slash as they turned it into a chain of missions, collection and exploration.

[Hobie-wan]

Rygar - Like Bionic Commando, it was made more adventure like for NES with the aspect of finding the items to power yourself up.

Entirely up to debate considering the fan base with it, but I know some people do prefer the NES Strider over the arcade one because it's not your simple generic(though cool and well executed) side scrolling hack and slash as they turned it into a chain of missions, collection and exploration.

Strider was originally conceived as braod project with different parts. So the NES game was never meant to be a port of the arcade like the Genesis one was. It was supposed to just be a different piece of a puzzle. I think there was some manga and they wanted to do anime and such too. I'm pretty sure I read that the NES game was in development first actually.

[J T]

Section Z was way better on the NES than in the arcades. The graphics were surprisingly better, the soundtrack remains one of my favorites of the 8-bit Era, the gameplay was more satisfying and less linear with the forked routes at the end of each level.

Arcade


NES

[Jmustang1968]

Baseball Stars

Added all the team and player progression stuff.

[nightrnr]

I liked the NES versions of:
1943 (charge shot, password, and upgrade system)
and
Dragon Spirit (because it is actually survivable by, well, less than perfect players )

Also liked the Genesis port of Mercs for it's expanded single player mode (too bad the arcade mode lacked 2 and 3-player support).

I like how Saturn conversions of a lot of SNK fighters had shortcut moves assigned to buttons. I'm sure it cheapens the games for a lot of you, but I liked not having to learn all the super special moves and just play Samurai Spirits IV with basic SS1 knowledge. That sort of thing also really helps when you want a friend who is less familiar with it to play against you.

Otherwise, do actual Arcade collections count? I loved that Forgotten Worlds and Eco Fighters had dual analog control in the Capcom Classics Collections (PS2/Xbox).

[ExedExes]

Capcom sure changed up a lot of their NES ports did they?

Willow. Changed from a side-scroller to an action RPG for the NES, a really much better game than the arcade. Well, except for the forced level 13 grind but yeah

[dsheinem]

control sometimes felt a little delayed...arcade control is inexplicably even wonkier than the first... as with Contra, the control input feels a little sluggish... control input felt just a hair laggy

are you basing these critiques on emulated versions of these games or on your experience playing the original arcade hardware?

[Hobie-wan]

Otherwise, do actual Arcade collections count? I loved that Forgotten Worlds and Eco Fighters had dual analog control in the Capcom Classics Collections (PS2/Xbox).

I believe there were two versions, but the original arcade controls for Forgotten Worlds were superior. You had a joystick for movement and a paddle for rotation. Pushing the paddle down fired. Dual Sticks works well and is certainly better than the 16 bit ports, but the paddle setup was sublime.

[Tanooki]

I was thinking of writing Rygar in that first post of mine but my memory of it was too fuzzy.

I think a clear winner even if the graphics aren't on par to the arcade would be TMNT 2 the Arcade Game. Has all the standard stages, bosses and characters, yet adds more stages adding more depth/length to the game enough I prefer it.