OK, so the tournament is now half over. Everyone should have had a chance to play all of the games. Thus, I present you all with a question. Which game is the worst? Here's your chance to soundoff against the combat instructor from Combat School, Sark from Discs of Tron, or one of the three rejected muppets from Zzyzzyxx.

Try to evaluate the games according to the following criteria, before posting your decision:

1) Controls and Control Responsivenss

2) Stage difficulty, quality, and progression

3) Overall bad concept and design

4) Your state of mind when having to play the game

Thanks, and may the worst game win.

-- Q.T.Quazar (qan@home.com), August 17, 1999

Answers

OK... I'll score on a 100 point scale, with a 100 as the worst... because that's how I want to do it :)

12. Money Puzzle Exchanger - 4(the number of people who beat me)

11. Pang 3 - 7

10. Galaga - 10

9. Gyruss - 15

8. Wild Ride - 24

7. Lock N' Chase - 33

6. BombJack - 34

5. 2020 Super Baseball - 48 - The scoring system stinks... we tried it... and I think that wasn't the right way to play it.

4. ZZYZZYXX - 64 - :P - you're dead just like that

3. Discs of Tron - 72 - The controls stink!

2. Combat School - 89 - Horrible control in the later stages...

and the worst game of all time... in my opinion is...

Us Vs. Them - with all the lacking background images and all the broken games and all the imaginary ships and imaginary hits... I'm giving this one a perfect 100! or is it an imperfect 100?

Thanks for reading my opinions :)

-- Gameboy9 (goldengameboy@yahoo.com), August 17, 1999.

Aqua's most hated tournament picks (In order)

#1 Bombjack

The main reason I hate this game is I'm learning it under pressure. Doing a wave perfectly is worth 50k, doing in any which way you can is worth 5k. If I was learning the game in a vacuum (like during the NES days), this wouldn't matter so much. I'd play normally, build skills, and otherwise enjoy myself. Eventually the higher scores would come with practice. However, in these conditions I absolutely have to do each level perfectly because I get zilch for points otherwise. I've spent more time watching the intro to bombjack lately than playing it, because if I die or grab the wrong bomb on the first two waves I have to restart - which is 9 out of every 10 games.

#2 Us Vs. Them

The game sucks. It's the only game in the tournament that didn't ever deserve to be in one. This has nothing to do with emulation problems. The controls are bad, the scoring is bad, and it's boring as hell. Mylstar should have converted all these machines into M.A.C.H. 3's.

#3 Combat School

There are three classes of recordings: 1. Beat the game, 2. Beat the instructor, 3. Failed to beat instructor. Within each class, the difference between scores (and leaderboard points) is based almost entirely on shooting galleries I & III. The scoring opportunity and difficulty of these two waves varies widely from game to game, making the rank within your class mostly luck.

4,5&6. Galaga/Gyruss/Pang 3

Three variations of a theme I don't like. Pang 3 has some scoring and strategic differences which make it somewhat more interesting, but at heart Panic Mode has the same feel.

Borderline: Money Puzzle Exchanger

I quit playing puzzle games completely when I got sick of Tetris, and I don't have the speed it takes to do any better without focusing far harder on them than I'm willing to do anymore. However, this is one of the best puzzle games I've played, and if I was still into them it would probably be one of my favorites.

Other comments:

The control problem on DoT is not present in the arcade - the game used a grip joystick and a spinner control that could be pulled up or pushed down. Lock 'N Chase does not suck. Zzyzzyxx is probably underappreciated, but does have some annoying features. Baseball video games (including 2020) don't give pitching skills anywhere near enough credit - for all practical purposes they're home run derbies. Mr. Do's Wild Ride is practically perfect, but next time we should probably turn the diamonds off (it's in the dipswitches).

-- Aquatarkus (aquatarkus@digicron.com), August 18, 1999.

Well, my first post on the board, and for something as subjective as a "poll". Still, I figure I might as well contribute my "2 cents worth".

In order from worst/least favorite to "best"/least objectionable :)! :

1) UsVsThem. Ok, for me, in the first level, up is down & down is up. But it's only the 1st part, so I can't really adjust it. Then, if I can get thru the 3rd with only 3 "invisible" hits, I feel I've done well. And yet, partially since I HAVE passed the 3rd part, I've the 6th best current score. Arguably twice as bad as anything else.

2) Money Exchanger. For personal reasons, as it mainly suffers in the "state of mind" category, although I think I STILL haven't gotten used to the "unique" scoring system (I'm more used to "score is everything", even in puzzle games).

3) Combat School. It's sort of sad. The game isn't that bad thru 5 stages, so much that I think (almost) every score submitted beats them. But the last 3 stages (3rd firing range, fight vs. instructor, & mission) kill what could have been at worst an "average" game.

4) Zzyzzyxx. I actually can stand the music & intermissions, but sometimes I wonder if the control suffers, or it's just me. And I often wish the scenery would change from just bricks.

5) Mr. Do's Wild Ride. Possibly this "high" since I never really cared for the Mr. Do character, though that death scene rather annoys me, too.

6) Bombjack. Like Aqua, I feel I have to do well early, since about lv 5 or so, I start to lose any pattern, in response to the seemingly increased enemies' intelligence and decreased coins.

7) Galaga. The fast shoot option helps (at least in challenge stages), but I'm obviously used to an easier than "hardest" setting.

8) Lock N Chase. I swear sometimes the game doesn't put my "locks" where I want, but otherwise there's a lot of worse games in this genre.

9) Gyruss. More room to maneuver than Galaga, and more potential for bonus points, but otherwise vaguely similar.

10) 2020 Baseball. I've played a lot of baseball games (better and worse), enough to get used to this game's "quirks".

11) Discs of Tron. The game I had the most experience with before the tourney, both in arcades and MAME (though, considering the 12 games, that's not necessarily saying a lot).

12)Pang3. I think my main problem with this game is that the paintings keep distracting me :)!

-- Sandman (msander@journey.com), August 20, 1999.