A Toys R Us Tale (totally true)...
Tim Meader
I hope not to receive a bunch of flames from this post (from the
Playstation devotees who patrol this group), but here goes anyway.
Once again, this is all totally true:
I went in to my local Toys R Us here in the DC area today, for the
purpose of picking up Sonic 3D Blast for the Saturn.
On an unrelated note, this is a fantastic platformer (not
exactly a title that pushes the Saturn's limits, but a great
platformer all the same), the type of game which Saturn was
severely lacking. My only complaint, and this is pretty glaring,
THERE IS NO SAVE OPTION!! On the Genesis version this is
understandable, but on the Saturn it is unacceptable! Sorry for
that side track, back to the story...
So I've just picked up the slip for the game, and since the Saturn
demo was broken, and the N64 was backed up, I went over to fool around
with the demo for Crash Bandicoot. I'm sitting there playing when this
guy comes up to me, he's looking at the wall of Playstation games.
"Hey buddy, can you recommend anything good?" "Nope." I said, "I don't
have a Playstation." "Damn buddy, you don't know what you're missing!"
"No," I said, "I've got a Saturn." What the man did when I said this
was mind boggling to me. He actually winced. Now, in the whole five
year battle between SNES and Genesis, if you told someone that you had
a Genesis, they said, "Oh." BUT THEY DIDN'T WINCE!!! What the hell is
with that crap! Do they really think the Saturn is that big a piece of
SHIT! Immediately, I told him, "It's not that bad." "Are you kidding
me," he said, "it's terrible." "Why?" I asked him. You know what, he
had NO ANSWER! He actually told me, "Well, the Playstation's better,
everyone will tell you that!" "I won't," I said. Again, he had no
answer. Then I asked him, "Have you ever seen Virtua Fighter 2?"
"Yeah," he said, "but that's just a copy of Tekken 2." HE WAS
SERIOUS!! "Sorry," I replied, "but Virtua Fighter 2 came out a year
BEFORE Tekken 2." Then I added, "By the way, for future reference, all
the games Namco makes are just copies of games Sega has already put
out." He thought about this as I rattled off the list of "the big
three": Daytona/Ridge Racer, Virtua Fighter/Tekken, Virtua Cop/Time
Crisis. He agreed with me. Finally, to end this fantastic experience,
the man approached the monitor to see what I was playing. "Oh Crash,
do you like it?" "It's alright," I replied. "Yeah, that's what I
thought too. It sure does look good though doesn't it?" I couldn't
believe I actually heard him say this. This verified for me, better
than any UseNet message I've ever read, that for some Playstation
owners, the only thing that matters is the flash, not the substance.
Notice I said SOME.
Thanks for your attention.
Tim Meader
http://www.erols.com/opus2/index.html
______________________________________________________________________
" I don't need drugs to make my life tragic. "
- Eddie Vedder
______________________________________________________________________
Free thinking entity
In article <3293c6ad...@news.erols.com>
Saturn ain't no joke either!" I was really happy until I heard them say, "Yeah
... just look at the back of the box and it'll show you what the game's all
about!" My heart sank... I felt ill... the two kids laughed at the Jaguar and
left. Sega really should work on the boxes, you wouldn't BELIEVE how many
people just go by this in buying games.
--- Dave 'Burgundy' Bock
Ty Rudder
I was in Electronics Boutique yesterday buying Tomb Raider (excellent
game, by the way), when I heard a sales rep. talking to a customer. I
must have come in on the middle of it because I heard, "...well, soon
the Saturn is going to be coming out with three games, but they're only
doing it because the PSX is better." He then turned around and said,
"Actually, the Saturn is better, but no one is making good games for
it." I could not believe what I was hearing! I guess he doesn't
realize that he is only making the situation worse. This issue is not
based on reality, but the _perception_ of reality. If the public
thinks the Saturn is no good (because of sales people, etc.), then the
majority will buy PlayStations instead. If fewer people buy the
Saturn, the third-party companies will be reluctant to make games for
it if they can get more money faster by programming on the PSX (the
Saturn is harder to program for), they will do so, reducing the number
of games available for the Saturn. The sales reps will then tell the
consumers that the PSX is better. It is like some form of temporal
paradox. The only way out of this is for SOA to actually show what the
system can do. Buy some exclusivities for hot games, if neccecary. If
they don't, it will only get worse.
Ty Rudder
Anthony Kanner
This sounds exactly like my conversations at my public high school :D
Anthony
-----------------------------------
Anthony Kanner
kan...@pacificnet.net
http://www.pacificnet.net/~kanner/
-----------------------------------
Zen Zenith
Anthony Kanner wrote:
> >the man approached the monitor to see what I was playing. "Oh Crash,
> >do you like it?" "It's alright," I replied. "Yeah, that's what I
> >thought too. It sure does look good though doesn't it?" I couldn't
> >believe I actually heard him say this. This verified for me, better
See it's be nice if SEGA were reading this. And right now their banging
their head against the wall going "Doh! It was so obvious! We just gotta
add some pizzaz to it and we're all set! Why didn't we think of it
before?" Then, we'd rule... :)
--
Zen
"My spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling but it Wobbles,
and the letters get in the wrong places." --- Winnie-the-Pooh
mecha...@aol.com
>Finally, to end this fantastic experience,
you like it?" "It's alright," I replied. "Yeah, that's what I thought too.
It sure does look good though doesn't it?"
Nice to hear this brought up about Crash. I was really looking forward to
this game, having read about it and seen screen shots for months. Then I
actually tried the thing out and couldn't believe how limited the gameplay
was. It didn't even measure up to a decent 2d platformer.
That game was going to be my justification for buying a Playstation.
Instead I got a Saturn, and one of the first games I got was Bug! for $20.
Know what? I doesn't have anywhere near the flash of Crash, but there's
lots of gameplay in there, and plenty of movement around a 3d world.
Gameplay, people! I don't have patience for a game where I basically run
a straight line and have nothing else to do but look at all the pretty
scenery around me.