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Thread: Why do we put up with crap?

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    Wizrobe rock_nog's Avatar
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    Why do we put up with crap?

    So, since I recently acquired an NES and have started collecting games for it, a question raised by one of my purchases has been seared into my mind, and I can't let it go. Why, oh why, do we put up with crappy games? I mean, I know why they get made in the first place, but what is it that compels us, especially when we're younger, to trudge on through the crap, to never give up on those games no matter how much it's clear the designers themselves had given up? What is it that prevented us from seeing the flaws that are so blindingly obvious?

    TMNT was one of the first games I owned for the system - I think I got it one year for Christmas, along with Batman (so thankful for that, by the way - Batman on the NES kicks so much ass, and I didn't even know it existed - would've been such a shame if I had missed out on that). If I recall, it was a "friend of the family" gift, kinda obvious in the titles themselves (the combo so screams "Well, kids like Ninja Turtles and kids like Batman, so those must be great games). And don't get me wrong, I appreciate the gift, perhaps telling in that I still keep trying to play TMNT to this day. However, what puzzles me is, despite how utterly crappy the TMNT game was, I couldn't ever put it down, couldn't bring myself to say, "Yeah, this game is crap." It was always, "I must be crap because I can't beat this game." The enemies don't make any sense? Clearly I must not have seen enough episodes of the show, or I'd recognize them. Or maybe the recognizable enemies come later in the game - they're too badass to be mere fodder. Yeah, yeah, that's it. The dam level is damn near impossible? No no, it's just my reflexes aren't that good. Or maybe there's a hint somewhere that I'm missing. The second city level is an impossible maze? No no, I'm just not paying attention. There's clearly a secret exit somewhere I'm missing. Or there's a jump I have to make that I'm just not good enough to pass - after all, that was the case in Super Mario Bros. (World 8-1, I'm looking at you). Or there's a secret item I need to find. So many explanations for my failures, so many excuses, but not once did I ever turn it around and say, "Hey, you know what? Maybe it's the game that's the problem, maybe the designers were the crappy ones who didn't know what they were doing."

    I had a similar experience with Enter the Matrix back in college. That game was terribad, buggy beyond all reason, yet I slogged through it. In that case, however, I actually beat the game. However, all throughout, I was blind to the glaring flaws in the game. I did not want to see the technical problems, and so I didn't. Years later, coming back to it, I don't know how I got past the first level without chucking the damn thing out the window (aside from the dorm windows having screens over them, so that would've been a problem). Why is it, though, that so often, we're able to ignore these flaws and keep playing games that don't deserve our attention, that kick our asses without remorse? What gives us the power to see beyond the glitches, beyond the bad design decisions and outright bafflingly terrible gameplay? What causes us to push on?

    I know I know, part of it is, when you're young, you don't have many choices when it comes to what games you can get, so good or bad, the games you do have, you have to convince yourself your allowance was well-spent, or darn it, I won't let that birthday present go to waste, or whatever. However, I'm now an adult and still find myself drawn back to certain games that I know are crap - like TMNT. I have a choice now, so why do I still choose so terribly?
    The artist formally known as macweirdo42, formally known as weirdguy (it's a long, uninteresting story).

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    Wizrobe erm2003's Avatar
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    To me the TMNT game was really really challenging and I think as a little kid I probably thought it was crap in a way, yet I would always come back to it every time. IF I made it past the water stage on my play through, I wouldn't get past the 3rd area so I never completed this game... ever.

    As for the enemies, I am not sure where the other ones come from. I just assumed maybe it was something from the comics that I wasn't aware of because I only really knew TMNT from the cartoons and movies, never the comic series which I know can be quite different.

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    Username Kaiser SUCCESSOR's Avatar
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    You keep saying TMNT is crap, but it isn't. It is hard as all hell and sometimes the level design isn't the best. If you are talking about ports of it, I think the PC version had game breaking bugs, I understand. The NES game was good and I enjoyed it as a kid and now. I picked it up with a thrift store NES and played quite extensively before selling the system. There are crap games on the NES that made it big. TMNT is not one of them.

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    I still haven't beaten TMNT, but I agree with SUCCESSOR, it's not a crap game. It's not a great game, but it's not crap. It's just really freaking hard. According to one of my Nintendo Powers, TMNT was in development before the cartoon came out, so I'm fairly certain that's why it wasn't filled with recognizable enemies.

    I know what you guys are talking about, though. I would push through some bad games just because a) I rented the game, so I was stuck with it, and b) I really loved the source material. I rented Ghostbusters and Back To The Future II and III on the NES all the time because I loved the movies. They were terrible, but I rented them over and over anyway.
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    Ore...Sanjou! mrz84's Avatar
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    I never played a game on the NES I didn't like. Except the BttF games and Ghostbusters 2. They were the only games I could never finish, not because they were hard. But because I couldn't stomach them. I'm not saying they are crap, but they were just meh-ish to me. On the other hand, I love several games that others regard as the worst/dark-horse of their respective series (ie: Zelda 2, Mario 2, the list goes on) because I feel they gave an experience the first game did not even if it felt different in a drastic way somehow (this trend contineus to this day with other systems and games, like Romancing Saga on the PS2 which is a Super Famicom port).

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    Armageddon Task Manager

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    TMNT is awesome.

    I bet you're a rage quitter.


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    Patra Dechipher's Avatar
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    The Bill And Ted game was pretty as I remember.

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    Wizrobe rock_nog's Avatar
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    I am NOT a rage quitter. I've been playing that damn game for something like 20 years. I haven't given up on it. I've mastered the dam. I just can't get past the third level. Okay, okay, after all this time, someone tell me - where the hell do I go? I got the Turtle Van, I got the missiles, I even get that weird rope thingy... I just can't seem to figure out where to go after that. Every building, every sewer hole, seems like a dead end. Either they don't go anywhere, or there's an impossible jump preventing me from going any further. Just... Argh... *starts eating NES controller*
    The artist formally known as macweirdo42, formally known as weirdguy (it's a long, uninteresting story).

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    The Artist Once Known As Old-Skool QDB Manager
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    I think it boils down to that at a certain age, we want to be a part of our favorite franchises, and videogames even back then were the best way to do it. It worked out pretty damn well for TMNT 2-4; "Yes this is what I'd be doing if I were a Ninja Turtle!" But less so for Ghostbusters (I can understand that job not being as glamorous as it looks, but seriously? Spending most of the time getting gas? Really?)

    The funny thing of it is, we don't really catch on to the concept of a "superior knock-off" until we are older. It's like going to the grocery store and wanting a box of Post Fruity Pebbles cereal part of this complete breakfast. You can get a bag of Malt-O-Meal brand cereal that is the exact same and maybe better, for less money. BUT NOOOO YOU WANT WHAT YOU SAW ON TV. So, maybe you just saw Predator or Rambo in theaters and decided "I want a videogame of that!!" Here is the very definition of ludicrous: You as a kid, going to the game store and tossing aside Contra in favor of Rambo, or Metroid in favor of Alien.

    That's what it is; The kids-er parents will buy it up. That's all it is. Even Nintendo knows this. Hell they practically feed off it.

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