130°

Some of the Best First Levels in Gaming

Is World 1-1 the greatest first level ever?

A great weight rests on the shoulders of the opening area of a game. Be it a level, a mission, or the first quest in a role-playing adventure, this zone, barring any opening cutscenes, marks the first time players will get to experience the world developers spent tireless months and years creating. In our current era of widely available and disposable games, that first sequence is so important because if it’s poor, the player has a million options it can substitute it for.

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destructoid.com
90°

The 7 Best Sonic the Hedgehog Games: Racing through Time

Sonic the Hedgehog has a long and turbulent history in videogames, but which are the best games featuring the blue bur?

Rebel_Scum88d ago

Generations over Mania? Please… Generations doesnt have any new ideas in the levels/bosses.

Also a top 7 of Sonic games shouldn’t have any 3D crap and contain at least one of the 8-bit titles.

Sonic CD getting snubbed is weird. Number 1 is definitely interchangable between Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

Snookies1288d ago

Nothing wrong with putting Generations over Mania. Generations had a lot more to it. Mania was just a bit too short, despite how amazing it was. They're both top-tier Sonic games though.

Profchaos88d ago (Edited 88d ago )

I don't think mania was to short given 1,2,3, knuckles were between 1 and 3 hours long.

Mania was 5 hours roughly

However i say the originals feel more repayable because they are so short

Profchaos88d ago (Edited 88d ago )

The 8 bit games were pretty bad overall do you mean the 16 bit ones

Rebel_Scum88d ago

Nope. Sonic 1 & 2 on the master system were great. Dont confuse these with the game gear versions either.

Profchaos88d ago

Top 7 for me
7 cd
6 mania
5 Frontiers
4 sonic 3
3 sonic 1
2 sonic and knuckles
1 sonic 2

persona4chie88d ago

Sometimes I feel like the Sonic Advanced games just didn’t exist with how much it’s always forgotten 😭

Chocoburger86d ago

Even as a Sonic fan, I didn't really care for those games, and getting the Chaos Emeralds were freakin' horrible. Even with an emulator and save states, I didn't have the desire to try. I also didn't like most of the levels or bosses either. Unfortunately, DiMPs aren't good at making Sonic games.

120°

Kingdom Hearts Is Too Hard To Get Into

Trying to break into Kingdom Hearts is a nightmare.

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thegamer.com
wwinterj122d ago

Play the first game. That is a simple enough story to get into the series.

Crows90122d ago

Was going to say the same. It's really not hard to get into.

Hofstaderman122d ago

My advice; play the games in release order. Alot of people say story chronological order but that can be really confusing. Trust me.

Inverno122d ago

Read the manga, story makes more sense there.

-Gespenst-122d ago (Edited 122d ago )

I think a problem that SE is going to run into (or already has run into) with this series is that a lot of the people still following it were kids / teens when they played the first one, and are now much older. I know I'm finding it increasingly hard to tolerate the childishness of some of the stuff in these games, and I'm sure there are plenty of original players who have since just stopped following the series for this reason. I can't count the number of times I was playing KH3 and just feeling like, "What the f*** am I doing?"

SE can keep the series PG-13, and try to get a new audience of kids, but how do they intend to get kids into a series with a story that has been expanding since 2002, and over the course of like a dozen games? Especially when there are already loads of newer franchises out there that have already pretty much cornered the kids / teens market.

Honestly, I think they should either end the series once and for all, or take it in a more mature direction, and ditch the Disney stuff (I know, unpopular opinion, probably). It is a series that hasn't really grown with its audience, I feel. Alternatively, they could try to steer it in a more all-ages Studio Ghibli direction, sort of like Final Fantasy.

banger88122d ago

I felt this way with KH3 as well, ended up dropping it around half way through. I won't even bother with KH4.

CS7121d ago

Same here. Kingdom Hearts 3’s dialog was way to childish for me and I only played just to finish the story and wrap up the near 15 year wait.

I doubt I would be buying any other games unless they go in a more mature (all-ages) direction as OP said.

jambola121d ago

It doesn't help with Sora's loud stretched out constant yelling either

smashman98122d ago

you gotta remember Disney has to sign off on everything they do with KH. Disney is super protective of their IP,

Either way I don't disagree with you on a lot of this stuff becoming more and more of an issue. But it's okay that fans grow out of things like this. But if they do decide to keep it more for the young audience then they will have to solve the problem that the article mentions.

-Gespenst-121d ago

Yeah, I just don't know what they could do to get all the kids invested in it at this stage. The only thing I can think of is a total reboot, but that would be an enormous project, and they clearly have no intention of doing it. I mean, the series has just embarked upon another "saga", which, if it's anything like the last "saga", will take another 2 decades to complete, will consist of 6+ games, and will convolute the overall narrative even further (if that's even possible). It seems to me that, if this is SE's plan, and if they want people to still care about the series in 5-6 years time, then their only real option is to try to appeal more to a non-adolescent audience. Otherwise, the kids won't care because they won't have a clue what's going on, and the adults won't care because the series is too childish.

Having said all that, the Yozora stuff, and the footage we've seen from KH4, does seem to MAYBE indicate that the series is going in the direction I'm talking about, but it's too early to say for sure. KH4 might look completely different the next time we see it, knowing SE.

Crows90122d ago

Kingdom hearts 3 is horrible ..that's why you felt that way. It's the worst in the series by far.

FinalFantasyFanatic122d ago

My issue is with the decline of the writing which has been an issue for Square-Enix games across the board. KH3 should have gone out with a bang and felt very satisfying, but instead it was like a wet tissue and left feeling like I missed a lot of content. Having said that, KH3 was probably the last KH game I'll purchase.

Rainbowcookie121d ago

Im playing 3 as my first one and I got that same feeling. Enjoying the variety and combat but im not into the story...too confusing.

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GoodGuy09122d ago

Indeed. If you wanna give it a try, just go with 1-3. The other games are unfortunately needed to know but you can just youtube all the cutscenes by order of release of each game.

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240°

Ranking Every God of War Game From Worst to Best

Cultured Vultures: Let’s delve into Kratos’ long and rampageous history and find out which games are worth the hype and which are better left buried under the weight of Kratos’s might.

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culturedvultures.com
JL2930178d ago

Both requels over 2 and 3? Clowns. Those are two of the most boring games I've ever played.

Snookies12178d ago

GoW 3 was amazing, but I personally hated just one thing. (This is on me alone, because I was dumb, lol.) I hated that you couldn't skip cutscenes on repeat playthroughs. I had to go back through the game a third time because I missed one trophy accidentally on my way to the platinum... The cutscenes were great the first go round, even the second... But the third was pretty agonizing.

Haven't played Ragnarok, but I still think GoW 4 is a wonderful game in its own right. Not sure how I would stack them up against each other honestly.

Monstieur178d ago (Edited 178d ago )

I don't consider the reboot part of the original series. The original series were high-skill games with combos and rewards for mixing things up.

solideagle177d ago

lol square, square and triangle is the only combo you needed. I have played all of them on the hardest difficulties...

Golfcoachh178d ago

Maybe I’m just old school but I just couldn’t get into the last two. Maybe it’s the slower action and more story telling but the original trilogy was by far my favorite.

Crows90178d ago

It's not that youre old school. They're different genres

JL2930177d ago (Edited 177d ago )

Me either, at all. It's just yap yap yap. They try to be a RPG's instead of being action games like they used to be.

Fluke_Skywalker177d ago

I'd put the two psp games over 3 in terms of story any day. But not over 2.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 177d ago
TheEnigma313178d ago (Edited 178d ago )

My favorite was part 2 and I think Ragnarok is better that 2018.

Shane Kim178d ago

The newer games are better imo.

ravens52178d ago

There is no worst. Except for Ascension, only cause I didn't play it lol. They are all masterpieces. 1,2,3, 2018 and Ragnarok. 1 of, if not the greatest video game franchise...besides MetalGear.

Snookies12178d ago

Oh wow, I actually forgot that Ascension even existed... I never played it either.

Crows90178d ago

I like ascension. It was different and some interesting combat additions.

darthv72178d ago

If you didnt play it, how could you call it the worst? Its not as bad as the media portrayed it. Honestly the worst are those flash games. they arent even considered true GoW games but in name only. At least Ascension is a real GoW game.

ravens52177d ago

Not saying it's a terrible game. Just mean it's at the bottom of my list. I played a little bit of it. Jus to me, compared to the other main games, it's last.

Fluke_Skywalker177d ago

Ascension is the only GOW game I never finished. Hated it.

Inverno178d ago

Can't agree, older games do so much more than the last two. More weapons, magic abilities, enemies are more varied, level design is also more aesthetically pleasing, and agree with those who say that they shouldn't have removed jumping. Was a time I'd agree, but those old games are so so much better, that they really should've looked into bringing into the reboot/sequels.

Crows90178d ago (Edited 178d ago )

If a game is good then a game is good. Doesn't matter what came before or what comes after.

Inverno178d ago

Of course it matters. If not for what what came before there wouldn't be an after. And if something is great before then you strive to make it just as good if not better, after. I personally don't think there's a fair way to judge the new with the old because the newer games are still essentially a reboot, and went a way different direction. But I still believe the old games did it better. I'm probably bias though since I've been going back to old games and have been finding that they lack all the annoying aspects that devs have shoehorned into new games to fluff out game time.

Crows90177d ago

@Inverno

Im not talking about the passage of time here. Im talking about individual pieces of software. If a game is good then it is good. Thats not a controversial statement. You can compare good with good...sure. But you still end up with good. Now if there is a bad game in the mix and you compare you do end up with some differentials between them...makes sense to compare and see where it went wrong.

But theyre different genres and styles which were individually executed very well.

And no. The new games are not a reboot. Theyre a new direction but simply a continuation.
Tomb raider was a reboot.

Inverno177d ago

The new games are definitely a reboot, and a continuation, it can be both which it is. And a good game might be good, but my point is that if there are things done better before it then there's plenty of room for critiquing and trying to make whatever comes after better rather than just good.

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