Hot takes

[BrawlMan]

Is the fighting similar to Uncharted?

Some parts somewhat. It clearly has its own intricate combo and melee system. I still don't fully know until I actually play the game or get more on hand footage.

Uncharted took cues from Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones which itself was inspired by James Bond.

Exactly. 007 is just taking back what was his in the first place. This is only revealing how some people are really that stupid, ignorant/forgerful, or not as big as the fans as they claim they are. And of course, you have your usual people who just want a bitch about anything to sound smart. Also, the Indiana Jones franchise itself was just taking from serial adventures Spielberg grew up watching as a kid. He has admitted this more than once.

Post automatically merged: Apr 24, 2026

Devil May Cry 4/SE is one of the best Jojo games ever made. Astral Chain still takes top spot. DMC4 is also the best Bleach game ever made. DMC4/SE (LDK mode was in vanilla PC version before SE consoles) & 5:SE are the best Dynasty Warriors games ever made.

Streets of Rage 4 is the beat'em up equivalent of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. In terms of graphical overall, deeply detailed arts style, animations, and advanced, high level play. Obviously, there is no parrying, but you can catch and return weapons thrown at you. Oh, and revolutionizing their respective genres further and to greater heights.

Way of the Passive Fist is too gimmicky of a brawler and has not much else going for the game. Other than, it's 3rd Strike as beat'em up. Problem is that all you can do is parry, there is only one character, and you can't use weapons. Makes things too boring and gets stale real fast. Glad I did not buy the game.

 

[Ikagura]

Maybe this one will be spicy but Sega is really mishandling their IPs it hurts.

Yes I know, they released Sega Universe but look at what Sega has done outside of Sonic, Persona and Yakuza. There has been a good new Shinobi game by LizardCube but it may be a "one and done" thing like the 3DS game... I'm not really feeling that 3D SoR game nor that open world multiplayer Crazy Taxi one either. Let's hope that "Jet Set Radio 3" will keep the good OST and have a smooth gameplay.


I think Nintendo has handled their legacy IPs much better overall (even in other ways than games) which is why people remember them more than Sega's outside of hardcore fans.

 

[ThatOneLum]

Maybe this one will be spicy but Sega is really mishandling their IPs it hurts.

Yes I know, they released Sega Universe but look at what Sega has done outside of Sonic, Persona and Yakuza. There has been a good new Shinobi game by LizardCube but it may be a "one and done" thing like the 3DS game... I'm not really feeling that 3D SoR game nor that open world multiplayer Crazy Taxi one either. Let's hope that "Jet Set Radio 3" will keep the good OST and have a smooth gameplay.


I think Nintendo has handled their legacy IPs much better overall (even in other ways than games) which is why people remember them more than Sega's outside of hardcore fans.

I 100% second this.

even as a relatively hardcore fan of Sega I don't see them doing much outside of the major 3 IPs that they seem to care about, and the variable quality of the stuff they have put out over the years does a lot to turn people away.

I'm only a fan now because of what they did in the 90s and 2000s. If I came across them today with no prior knowledge of who they were I doubt I'd give a shit about them as a company even if I enjoyed one or two of their games.

 

[BrawlMan]

at what Sega has done outside of Sonic, Persona and Yakuza. There has been a good new Shinobi game by LizardCube but it may be a "one and done" thing like the 3DS game... I'm not really feeling that 3D SoR game nor that open world multiplayer Crazy Taxi one either. Let's hope that "Jet Set Radio 3" will keep the good OST and have a smooth gameplay.

I 100% second this.

even as a relatively hardcore fan of Sega I don't see them doing much outside of the major 3 IPs that they seem to care about, and the variable quality of the stuff they have put out over the years does a lot to turn people away.

I'm only a fan now because of what they did in the 90s and 2000s. If I came across them today with no prior knowledge of who they were I doubt I'd give a shit about them as a company even if I enjoyed one or two of their games.

Agreed, but i'm still looking forward to what comes next. This is why you don't announce games too early. I admit the new Jet Set I am really not interested in because we already got Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, and it's having a sequel coming out this year.

 

[Ikagura]

I 100% second this.

Even as a relatively hardcore fan of Sega I don't see them doing much outside of the major 3 IPs that they seem to care about, and the variable quality of the stuff they have put out over the years does a lot to turn people away.

I'm only a fan now because of what they did in the 90s and 2000s. If I came across them today with no prior knowledge of who they were I doubt I'd give a shit about them as a company even if I enjoyed one or two of their games.

Another thing that annoys me is how when it comes to their retro game library they act as if the Genesis was their only relevant console when they could've made a Master System/Game Gear compilation and since Saturn emulation has become viable there should even be Saturn games getting a new release.

I don't know how hard porting a Dreamcast game to PC could be (although we got some games like House of the Dead 2 on PC back then) but with some efforts we could get a rebirth of their library from that console with modern online capabilities.

Their Panzer Dragoon and House of the Dead remake were cheap quality and some of their revivals in the 2010's weren't big ones so the IPs wouldn't come back.

Agreed, but i'm still looking forward to what comes next. This is why you don't announce games too early. I admit the new Jet Set I am really not interested in because we already got Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, and it's having a sequel coming out this year.

I need to do BRC someday.

Anyway, when people says that Sega are cooler with fan games than Nintendo it's just for Sonic (SoR Remake got shut down for a moment).

 

[BrawlMan]

SoR Remake got shut down for a moment).

What sucks even more is that they knew about the project for years, and didn't have a problem with it for a whole decade. Until they announced SOR4. It was a really dumb and pointless move as remake came back later, anyway and then there was another SOR fan game that came out not long afterward.

Hi-Fi Rush and Alan Wake 2 are the games that have the best cut-scene direction by far in this generation. Especially AW2. These two developers pull out all the stops for their respective games.

 

[Ikagura]

What sucks even more is that they knew about the project for years, and didn't have a problem with it for a whole decade. Until they announced SOR4. It was a really dumb and pointless move as remake came back later, anyway and then there was another SOR fan game that came out not long afterward.

And what's worse is that there were fan games called "Streets of Rage 4" as well.

Some people goes "Sega does what Nintendon't" when a Sonic fan game in project is shown yet they forget that it mostly applies to Sonic and that even if Sega are fine with the fangames they're still a company holding several IPs that could shut down anything if they wanted to (and they also know that Sonic is also living mostly thanks to fans).

 

[BrawlMan]

Golden Axe II I find a bit more enjoyable than Golden Axe (Genesis version). I still like the original game, but the Genesis' port's main problem is the final boss being a complete palette swap and a annoyance. Him and the final stage are credit wasters your first time through. I love the fact in II, that you can charge your magic level as low or high as you want, or put in the classic method if you want a challenge. GA III I find a complete bore and never had the motivation to go for multiple endings. Revenge of Death Adder is still the best of the entire franchise.

The No More Heroes franchise has the best light saber combat to date. Beating all of the Star Wars games that focus heavily on melee/light saber combat.

I concede to an extent and say an action game a la DMC style can work if the character only has 1 weapon or a 2 weapon load out only. But the combat has to be good, with great enemy encounters and decent variety. Most importantly, a large, or at the very least, a decent sized move set. Better yet, have more than 1 playable character can help even odds that plays completely different from each other. See Killer Is Dead: which you only have 1 weapon, 4 sub-weapons (you progressively unlock as you get through the game) but large upgrade system where you get plenty of new moves, and power ups. The Onechanbara series almost always gives you at least two characters with two weapons and sub-weapon.

Or do something unique if the character only has 1 weapon. Make their weapon a morphing weapon. No More Heroes 3 has Travis's Beam Katakana morph based on his tension gauge, or whether he's doing a light or heavy attack. His blade extends long when finishing off an opponent with a standing sword swipe. That can hit or kill multiple enemies depending how close they are when it happens. Marlow Briggs has a scythe that morphs as you upgrade him or gain new moves.

Also, more beat'em ups 2D or 3D need the Stance Change mechanic. DMC5 took it to a new level with all the crazy shit Dante could do. Now actions games have to really step up their game.

The term for Character Action is stupid. I don't know who started the terminology like that for Devil May Cry style games, but it's generic and does not make any sense. Almost any type of game has a character doing an action. I do know that more people started using it after the Former Two Best Friends used the term in many videos that involved or discussed DMC style games.

Just call these genre of games Stylish Action. That's what they were called back then, when more variety came out of the wood work back in the early 2000s. Even then, you still had people use the term DMC clone back in the day. Hell, Spectacle Fighter sounds more dignified by comparison. At least it makes a certain amount of sense. If not any of those, call them beat'em ups, hack n' slash, or brawlers. All of these genre have crossbred multiple times back in the 2D era, 3D era, and now.

Thankfully, this term is pretty much mostly died down at this point.

 

[ZEGA ZONICZEGA ZONIC's icon]

I got nothing.

 

[Princess Viola]

Minecraft is boring as Hell and I've got no idea why that game, of all games, is the best selling video game of all time.

 

[extermist]

Not sure if these count as 'Hot Takes' since they seem reasonable.

Ninja Gaiden and by extension Black is overrated but since there isn't anything else that can compete against it on the OG Xbox it's somewhat deserved.
Ninja Gaiden II on the other hand is great in comparison and cuts out the fat and plays into all the strengths of NG.

DMC1 has the best characterization of Dante and Alastor and Ifrit are the best weapons in the series period.
DMC2 has the best looking Dante and has the coolest dodge roll animations.
Lucia is so overlooked it's criminal.
DMC3 has the best Vergil gameplay.

Metal Slug 1 is the best designed game in the entire series and nothing else comes close to how well designed it is since every other game just tries to up the difficulty and specticle.

The gummi ship sections in Kingdom Hearts II are solid shmups and it should be mandated by law that they be given their own stand alone game.

Kingdom Hearts ends with 2 and if we're being generous we can still count Days and Re:Coded but not BBS or anything else after.

Dragon's Dogma is a mediocre game and is only saved by the grace of Bitter Black Isle.

The Yellow Devil is one of the best bosses in all of Mega Man and every other Devil boss can only hope to recapture that magic of fighting it for the first time.

Dead or Alive 5 is better than most of the DOA games even if it wasn't made by Itagaki but it should have had a street stage with passing cars and all.

Virtua Fighter 4 vanilla is the last true VF.

Soul Edge has the best atmosphere in the series and has never been topped.

Tekken 5 vanilla stages are better than the Dark Ressurection stages.

Bloody Roar 3 vanilla is better than Extreme or Primal Fury outside of graphics and the added characters were unessesary.

Super Mario Bros 1 is still the best in the entire and having the camera move vertically should have never been a thing.

The Onechanbara games have good mechanical ideas but bogged down by lack of budget.

 

[BrawlMan]

Minecraft is boring as Hell and I've got no idea why that game, of all games, is the best selling video game of all time.

The game is only limited depending on how big or small your imagination is. I remember when Minecraft was still in beta testing. What hooked people, and eventually kids not long afterward, was and is the simple 3D PS1 era/PC art style and graphics. I am not a fan, but it's not hard to see why. The guy who made it sold the IP to MS, and is a now a college professor.

Ninja Gaiden and by extension Black is overrated but since there isn't anything else that can compete against it on the OG Xbox it's somewhat deserved.
Ninja Gaiden II on the other hand is great in comparison and cuts out the fat and plays into all the strengths of NG.

That is a hot take. I prefer Ninja Gaiden II: Black. It fixed everything NG2 and Sigma 2 did wrong, and added or combined the best parts of them.

DMC1 has the best characterization of Dante and Alastor and Ifrit are the best weapons in the series period.
DMC2 has the best looking Dante and has the coolest dodge roll animations.
Lucia is so overlooked it's criminal.
DMC3 has the best Vergil gameplay.

Most of those aren't hot takes, aside from DMC3 Vergil having the best gameplay. He's fun, but still feels too limiting. I prefer DMC5 Vergil.

Metal Slug 1 is the best designed game in the entire series and nothing else comes close to how well designed it is since every other game just tries to up the difficulty and specticle.

I'll defend Metal Slug 2 and X, but by 3, it's pretty much near impossible to 1CC these games.

Bloody Roar 3 vanilla is better than Extreme or Primal Fury outside of graphics and the added characters were unessesary.

I prefer Primal Fury, but BR3 is better than Extreme.

Super Mario Bros 1 is still the best in the entire and having the camera move vertically should have never been a thing.

That was never going to happen, and you can't expect everyone to hate on vertical movement. Especially when its done well, and the change up was going to happen at some point.

The Onechanbara games have good mechanical ideas but bogged down by lack of budget.

Granted, by Z2: Chaos and Origin, this really isn't an issue much anymore. There's still jank, but at least some budget goes into these games now. I just tell people to stick with these two games, and look up YouTube playthroughs for the previous games, aside maybe Bikini Zombie Slayers. If they have a Wii or Wii U on them.

 

[Xdqwerty Xdqwerty]

self-deprecation and self-flagellation are NOT the same thing

 

[extermist]

The game is only limited depending on how big or small your imagination is. I remember when Minecraft was still in beta testing. What hooked people, and eventually kids not long afterward, was and is the simple 3D PS1 era/PC art style and graphics. I am not a fan, but it's not hard to see why. The guy who made it sold the IP to MS, and is a now a college professor.


That is a hot take. I prefer Ninja Gaiden II: Black. It fixed everything NG2 and Sigma 2 did wrong, and added or combined the best parts of them.


Most of those aren't hot takes, aside from DMC3 Vergil having the best gameplay. He's fun, but still feels too limiting. I prefer DMC5 Vergil.


I'll defend Metal Slug 2 and X, but by 3, it's pretty much near impossible to 1CC these games.


I prefer Primal Fury, but BR3 is better than Extreme.


That was never going to happen, and you can't expect everyone to hate on vertical movement. Especially when its done well, and the change up was going to happen at some point.


Granted, by Z2: Chaos and Origin, this really isn't an issue much anymore. There's still jank, but at least some budget goes into these games now. I just tell people to stick with these two games, and look up YouTube playthroughs for the previous games, aside maybe Bikini Zombie Slayers. If they have a Wii or Wii U on them.

What's your opinion on Bikini Samurai Squad?
I'm genuinly curious because I like your takes.
I honestly found it fun and tech heavy, I just couldn't figure out how to do Saki's grabs like in 2, other than that the god awful loading gets in the way (but that might just be my emulator).

 

[BrawlMan]

What's your opinion on Bikini Samurai Squad?
I'm genuinly curious because I like your takes.
I honestly found it fun and tech heavy, I just couldn't figure out how to do Saki's grabs like in 2, other than that the god awful loading gets in the way (but that might just be my emulator).

I didn't like BSS much. I admit I only played it the one or two times at a friend's during college. Load times are a thing on the actual console too. If you have a 360 slim elite or a XONE, the loading is a bit faster from what I heard. BZS just felt like a better version of that, even though there are less cinematics. While janky,  BZS is much more polished than BSS.

 

[extermist]

I didn't like BSS much. I admit I only played it the one or two times at a friend's during college. Load times are a thing on the actual console too. If you have a 360 slim elite or a XONE, the loading is a bit faster from what I heard. BZS just felt like a better version of that, even though there are less cinematics. While janky,  BZS is much more polished than BSS.

First time I heard of the Wii game being better than the XB360 one, that's interesting

I've tried emulating the Wii game but couldn't get over the fact it was nunchuck only

 

[BrawlMan]

First time I heard of the Wii game being better than the XB360 one, that's interesting

Really? Not counting the critics who were mixed on both (most critics did at least agree Slayers is marginally better), a majority of fans I encountered on the online space, or action game fans in general who bothered to play BZS, found it better Samurai Squad.

I've tried emulating the Wii game but couldn't get over the fact it was nunchuck only

That is Slayers main flaw. The motion controls do work, and are almost as good as No More Heroes or MadWorld, but their is no option for Classic Controller nor GC Controller. The game could have benifited for the more traditional control scheme as an alternative option.

Here's a video by a guy called Austin. He has a whole retrospective of the franchise.

 

[Ikagura]

Metal Slug 1 is the best designed game in the entire series and nothing else comes close to how well designed it is since every other game just tries to up the difficulty and spectacle.

I agree, since it's the only pure Nazca made entry in the franchise it also had many stuff going on

And it being the darkest entry in the series (5 being a close second and maybe 3 being almost ex-æquo) because it's also the most down to Earth one (only soldiers, no aliens nor supernatural elements like zombies nor Sasquatch) made me love it the best.

Noise Factory's Metal Slug games aren't that bad but I can understand people preferring 1-2-X-3 over 4-5-6-7-XX.

 

[BrawlMan]

Noise Factory's Metal Slug games aren't that bad but I can understand people preferring 1-2-X-3 over 4-5-6-7-XX.

The only game from Noise Factory I purely enjoyed is still Gaia Crusaders.

 

[Ikagura]

The Yellow Devil is one of the best bosses in all of Mega Man and every other Devil boss can only hope to recapture that magic of fighting it for the first time.

I agree but I still like his variants because they're refreshing (but the original without the pause glitch is still the most challenging I've seen).

Super Mario Bros 1 is still the best in the entire and having the camera move vertically should have never been a thing.

However this is the weirdest take I've ever seen about Mario.

Sure, SMB1 has changed how platformers were made and is one of the most popular speedran game next to 64 but I cannot seriously put it above SMB3.

Vertical scrolling is fine if done well. I think that Kid Icarus starting by a vertical level with instant death pits, many enemies spawning and not explaining that Hearts are a currency (while Castlevania kinda shows through its game design that it's an ammunition for the sub weapons like they're using magic) was not the best idea imo.

 

[Bakuma1997]

Of all the "Tragic romance" anime i've seen, Your Lie in April is the worst of them all

For the unaware, the series is about a piano prodigy that drops the piano after his mom dies, while in school a girl insist he should retake it, inevibably both of them crushes on each other

Spoiler: What is wrong with the series then? you may ask

THE ENTIRE PLOT AMMOUNTS TO "LET'S BULLY A TRAUMATIZED TEEN INTO RELIVING HIS TRAUMA INSTEAD OF EXPLANING MY REASONING ON WHY I WANT HIM TO PLAY AGAIN"
Basically Kaori is dying of a terminal disease, and as a child she saw Kousei play piano, making her last will to hear him play before passing on, okey, reasonable and tragic... EXCEPT THE KAORI INSTEAD OF SIMPLY CONFESSING MAKES KOUSEI'S LIFE HECK, if you hate the "Manic Pixie girl friend" trope, you will feel validated by Kaori's tratment of Kousei, to make it worse, she knew why Kousei dropped the piano, because the B he had as a mom made him play, even beating him if he failed, Kaori knew this, but instead of trying to help him with his trauma in a healthy way, she practically says "Oh no...anyway", even before the twist she comes as a controlling bully to Kousei, to top the mud pie, the anime ends with Kousei, hacving lost Kaori, seemingly WORSE than at the beginning

A tragedy can be a good plot, but when your tragedy consist of putting a character in the grinder like that, is not tragic, is sadistic, they are better written anime with the same plot out there

 

[Ikagura]

A tragedy can be a good plot, but when your tragedy consist of putting a character in the grinder like that, is not tragic, is sadistic, they are better written anime with the same plot out there.

I've read that it's called "misery porn"...

I don't get the appeal of having a character being mistreated like that without a resolution at the end.

 

[ZEGA ZONICZEGA ZONIC's icon]

[REDACTED] sucks & you know it.

 

[BrawlMan]

Anybody calling a character a fraud before they even appear or do anything or not what the person expected/wanted, really shows how immediate illiterate and impatient people are. It's called gitscher, but off a social media and stop all this wild mass guessing and thinking you're ahead of the curve of anybody. You are just another idiot with way too much time on their hands and nothing better to do in life.

 

[G.L.a.D.O.S.]

Racoons are just dogs with cat software installed