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Comment by chungy | Hacker News Reader

It helps to make a decision about whether it's worth buying. Of course opinions can vary wildly, which is why looking up multiple reviews and/or videos might be a wise idea.

As an example, I've struggled to get people to fully play one of my favorite platformers of all time, VVVVVV. And then the much vaunted Ocarina of Time bores me to tears and I can't push myself to get through it.

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It makes sense to make a purchase decision based on others opinions yes, but what I don't understand is why sillysaurusx seems to have already decided based on one response, and without knowing how (dis)similar Drybones's taste in games.

Alan Wake is a great game but I consider Alan Wake 2 to be much better, but I also enjoyed Control more than Alan Wake and enjoyed all aspects of Quantum Break. Where you fall on those games will probably most affect how much you enjoy Remedy's latest.

How much you enjoy unorthodox multimedia narrative story telling, psychological and cosmic horror meta-narrative weirdness, how much you accept being confused from design jankiness in certain spots as part of the experience, stuff like that will decide how much you enjoy this game. Personally, its only real flaw is mystery solving can be a little too handholdy and bruteforce-able.

No, it makes zero sense to predetermine one's artistic interpretation based on outside influence. Absolutely none.

The idea that anyone needs another person to tell them what is likable is just sad.

> As an example, I've struggled to get people to fully play one of my favorite platformers of all time, VVVVVV. And then the much vaunted Ocarina of Time bores me to tears and I can't push myself to get through it.

VVVVV appears to be a fairly low budget indie game with graphics that haven't aged very well compared to modern indie games. I'm sure it was fun and it seems it was very well received when it came out.

Ocarina of Time was a AAA game that came out during the first real mainstream transition toward 3D graphics. It effectively kickstarted the RPG and free-roam genres while still presenting a typically polished Zelda experience. It was fun when I played it (when it came out) but it has not aged very well compared to modern games. If you didn't play it when it came out you're probably not going to enjoy it - but at least you can respect its impact on gaming.

Anyway the point is that games don't age well and similar to music, people don't tend to like other people's favorite games unless they're highly aligned in the first place.

Reviews are pretty pointless as well but in general you can tell in the first 2 hours of a game if you're going to like it or not, at which point you can choose to return it or not return it.

VVVVV was released during the initial wave of indie game popularity. It may not be the most influential of that group- but it's more relevant than it probably seems from a present day standpoint

Okay I’ll take your word for it. Like I said it appears to have been well received. Gameplay looks interesting.

VVVVVV has extremely simple and polished gameplay, what makes it interesting is how the same gameplay mechanic is constantly challenged and reinvented through very clever level design. It looks like metroidvania as far as exploration is concerned but is the complete opposite in general progress, as in the only thing that locks you out from an area is pure player skill, reinvesting what you learned to go further: "oh, you can do this" instead of "oh, I unlocked this and so can now access that".

It was an instant classic for me.

VVVVVV holds up perfectly. Good level design, good physics, good gimmick at the core of its game play. The graphics were designed to be evocative of the Commodore 64 era. It's hard for that to really age when that was the intent in the first place.

Ocarina of Time bored me in 1998. It still does. It hasn't "aged poorly" in my view; it was never good in the first place. (Yes, it's my opinion. :P)

> Ocarina of Time bored me in 1998. It still does

Oh my so I am not alone. I always felt like it was terrible, especially compared to the GB and SNES ones, and whatever games were out on PC/PS/DC around that time (not so much about the graphics but the game's pacing, controls, and mechanics). I feel the same about Golden Eye.

I feel like these games got a lot of success not because of what they are but because it exposed a chunk of players (Nintendo die-hards) to a type of game that wasn't previously available to them on their favourite platform.

You defeat your own point. OOT is nearly universally adored, and you don't like it. So other's opinions are worthless when it comes to determining your own taste.

Experience the art and make up your own mind. You either like it or you don't. The end.

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