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Siliconera Speaks Up: Guilty Gaming Pleasures

By Louise Yang . May 31, 2009 . 8:30am

What’s your guiltiest gaming pleasure? The one game you absolutely adored, but can’t believe you actually enjoyed?

Siliconera Speaks Up: Guilty Gaming Pleasures Jenni: My guiltiest game pleasure would have to be Crystal’s Pony Tale. I can’t even recall how many hours I spent playing that game on my Genesis and Nomad. When I even unearthed my Nomad a few years ago, I caught myself spending a week replaying it.

First, you customize Crystal’s appearance. Then, you go around different worlds, talking with other creatures in the environment, to collect horseshoes, gems and keys so all of the other ponies that were captured by the evil wizard can be freed. It’s most likely one of the girliest Genesis games ever made, and I absolutely adore it.

Siliconera Speaks Up: Guilty Gaming Pleasures Louise: The first thing that popped up in my mind was Peggle iPhone. Now before all the haters pile on, it’s not that I don’t like Peggle. I played the PC demo for a few hours when it came out and put it down. I just didn’t “get it”. While the rest of the internet was going on and on about the addictive qualities of Peggle, I just shrugged. The game seemed boring to me: you drop a ball, hope it hits the pegs you want, and repeat. No amount of flashy graphics and rainbow unicorns could make that fun for me.

Boy, was I wrong. I picked up Peggle on the iPhone to review, thinking I would be impartial to the game and immune to the hype. This latest iteration of Peggle was my gateway drug. I don’t know what did it, but I found myself playing far more Peggle than any other game when I first got it. If I didn’t already think the iPhone was a serious gaming platform, Peggle certainly pushed me in that direction. If you had asked me two months ago about Peggle, I would have said “meh”, but now, I’d say, ” Where??”

Siliconera Speaks Up: Guilty Gaming Pleasures Ishaan: Probably Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero. I was a huge Sub-Zero fanboy during my early teens, so I had an absolute blast playing through the game…over and over again. Now? Not so much.

Spencer: I own so many “B-rated” or even “D-rated” video games I don’t know where to begin. Maybe one of the Simple Series games like Vol. 91: The All Star Kakutou Matsuri which is a fighting game with obscure Simple Series characters like Aya from the Onechanbara and a soldier from Earth Defense Force. It’s honestly horrible as a fighting game, but that’s what makes it so ridiculous to play. Riho, a character from D3′s Love Mahjong series attacks by… posing.

I’m probably the only person who liked Bujingai too. It’s not the best action game ever, but its flair filled style over substance won me over for a good six hours. Cross Edge may be a future addition to this list…

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Hello Hello
Personally, I love Idea Factory games like Spectral Souls and Generation of Chaos. Both suffer from intense loading problems (which you can fix with custom firmware), but they’re really charming games if you can get past all of the disheartening loading.

LordGeo
Yeah, I like Idea Factory/Compile Heart games as well. Octomania’s a neat versus puzzle game, Spectral Force 3 is a great SRPG (greatly needed on the Xbox 360), Chaos Wars is a fun cross-over RPG (even with O~3′s lackluster localization), and what I played of Generation of Chaos [IV] certainly was interesting. The company gets too much of a bad rep just because they’re not aiming to be the best out there; the company makes the games they want to make, and they make really fun games in the end.
http://www.nakedsushi.net/ Louise
I liked playing most of the Idea Factory games I have, but I spent half the time loading. I’m really regretting not having a hard drive for my PS2 and now it seems like it’s too late for me.

http://denpanosekai.blogspot.com denpanosekai
It’s never too late! Just get the network adapter, stick an HD in there and install freeMCboot. Even though the laser lens is long dead, my PS2 will last forever now!

Justin Bailey
Thank you for that O_o Will definitely look into freeMCboot

http://www.liquid-crystal.biz/ kryptonics
Oh gosh, I just purchased Peggle for the iPhone too.
I think Pokemon holds the crown for embarrassing games, mainly due to its age-related stigma. I remember purchasing it when I was in 8th grade and already feeling way too old for it, but of course I secretly liked it. :P It was very hush-hush, with talk or trade of it only occurring after school was out and we were far away from campus.
I also purchased Yoshi’s Story, something I’ll never truly understand…

http://www.nakedsushi.net/ Louise
I played pokemon too, around highschool. I didn’t really feel embarrassed about it though. Maybe it’s different for girls to like pokemon haha.

Masengan
Yes for girls its different, but I have to say that Pokemon is my guilty pleasure, now I just have to find a way to buy it without showing my face haha =]

CleruTesh
I also have Peggle for my iPod touch.
I’m trying to remember the name of that FPS for Genesis? I played that game a LOT. I really don’t know why.
Tye The Czar
I liked Turok Evolution and rented it alot on the GameCube. I think I mostly liked the weapons. The same I liked for the Enter The Matrix.
Happy Gamer
Chip’s challenge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n15ge0GYoGk

http://www.liquid-crystal.biz/ kryptonics
Oh yes, that and Rodent’s Revenge!
http://www.nakedsushi.net/ Louise
No way! I love Chip’s Challenge. It’s a decent Windows game and definitely better than Minesweeper. Nothing at all to be ashamed of.

Ereek
Oh, I definitely second Cross Edge. I was pleasantly surprised to find the game has a disgusting large amount of substance that makes up for its lack of show. I had very low expectations when I bought it, but it turned out to be quite fun.
Also, I enjoyed Summoner, the PS2 launch title, a good amount. It has very good music and an interesting story.
M’iau M’iaut
Cross Edge will truly end up a ‘love it or leave it’ title based on how one is willing to work with the combat system. I think I’m gonna keep giving it a try.
My guilty pleasures (considering I’m an adult male) are the otohime games from cave that have come over. Princess Debut got the most press here, but others came over buried in the crap that is Imagine:….. Both the ice skating games and the ballet dancer one are the offenders here. And Makeup Artist is an otohime game from Global A.
Guess I could also claim the hours spent on PSO playing a bratty, annoying magical girl FOnewearl fall under that label too….but naw I don’t feel guilt about that at all.
Volcynika
I loved the first Magna Carta game.

ShadowYuri
You get my support there.
And I know why I enjoyed it. :P

Happy Gamer
i liked the VERY first magna carta game too. i have that on the PC still. i believe it was called off due to a bad bug or something. i never tried the “remake” on ps2. i was very tempted to i forgot why i didn’t play it. probably because i had to chose between another game at the time.

http://denpanosekai.blogspot.com denpanosekai
Wrong, S-man. You’re not the only one who loved Bujingai.
I’ll take it one step further: I mostly liked it because I was bit of a Gackt fanboy!!
Also, I think I beat FF: Mystic Quest over a dozen times. Just because.
http://twitter.com/matty_125 matty
I sometimes play games outside my realm of gaming like Princess Debut, which I adored.
Also, as someone who is not a sports fan, I love golf and fishing games. I find them infinitely more interesting and intense than Blitz Ball or Madden.

http://denpanosekai.blogspot.com denpanosekai
I hate watching Golf on TV but the games can be quite relaxing, especially the ones that let you build a player from scratch and “level up”. I actually have two on the Wii alone, 3 if you count Wii Sports.
On the other hand I am a hardcore Hockey fan, played for 15 years and watch it every night that I can, regardless of which teams are on. But Hockey video games? Screw those. I just can’t handle them, I guess.
AllenSmithee
**woops, accidentally double clicked**
AllenSmithee
I was wondering about Princess Debut, mostly that as much as I like rhythm games, it REALLY is girly, and childish. The biggest thing for me is difficulty. I imagine it would be much too easy.
How far off was I on the difficulty? That is the make or break for me.

http://twitter.com/matty_125 matty
It’s pretty easy. Have you played Elite Beat Agents? It’s played the same way except you keep the stylus on the pad and fallow the ball on the line. It has two dance styles; waltz and tango, the latter supposedly being more difficult – personally, I never found the gamplay boring after the dozens of times I went through it, but it did get REALLY tedious when I was trying to focus on the story and advance on it. Like, late in the game you’d wish you had a remote to get the interesting part of the story instead of going through the ropes. So, yeah, it’s a piece of cake.
I’d say if you like a simple game where you get to enjoy the cute, short stories with fun characters, give it a shot! The price must have dropped recently, too, so now is pretty good time to check it out.

Aoshi00
I still own a lot of dating sims for the Saturn and Dreamcast, those were good for a teenager.. the ironic thing is they’re all yellow or green labels, which means you don’t get to see anything, lol.. the red labels were reserved for mahjong games mostly (and I can’t play mahjong).
My upcoming guilty pleasure… maybe, just maybe “Dream Club”. Dunno, will need to see how fun the game actually is, other than the hypnotizing bouncy physics (not in a DOAX bad way). At least in Yakuza it’s only a minigame.. To make matters worse, they even put out this tongue-in-cheek creepy interview on Jpn’s Xbox live..
Guilty pleasure 2, watching the girls demo games on Jpn Insider Xbox, they are extremely cute and a couple of them are rather good at real games, these videos started in 2009, I watch them weekly. Sony’s Christina Lee on Pulse, though a babe, is no contest :)
Serge73
I loved the three Bubsy games when I was little…haha. Now I’d probably still enjoy them due to nostalgic reasons…
Chow
I can’t remember what the name was, but I believe it was called EGA Trek. It was a completely ANSI-graphic’d [unofficial] Star Trek game played in DOS… which I found at Wal*Mart of all places. At first glance, it seemed very boring, but I found myself hooked on it for some reason. I don’t remember how the game played, but it involved warping to sectors and taking out Klingon ships… with nothing but ANSI graphics.
Speaking of that, this reminded me of some other BBS-based game, similar to EGA Trek, but was about space trading, again in nothing but ANSI graphics. It got really addictive because of the amount of space money you could earn by travelling to the right places. Unfortunately, I think I was the only person on that particular BBS that actually played it.
Aoshi00
Forgot to mention..
DOA Xtreme Volleyball! One of the very few original Xbox games I own, bought it for the DOA gals w/ all intents and purposes, but it was actually a very addictive volleyball game, no kidding. Getting points for buying bikini, lol.. DOA X2 was not as good…

http://twitter.com/matty_125 matty
Let your freak flag fly!!!
I play a few games like that these days (ex. Rumble Roses, but I was also recapturing my wrestling interest), but I wouldn’t call them guilty pleasures.
Unless I happen to fall into the KY category.

http://www.nisamerica.com NickyD
Cross Edge isn’t a guilty pleasure for me. It’s a pleasure. I rarely feel this way, but the sour reviews its gotten (particularly IGN) just seem like the guy didn’t “get” it. Which is fine; it’s 100% a love/hate game. Either you love toggling a bunch of menus, mechanics, and customization options, or you love having your hand held in a game.
But as far as GUILTY pleasure goes… Unlimited Saga. Note how the title isn’t actually SaGa. That game was radical. In so many good and bad ways. Mostly bad.

M’iau M’iaut
One could argue IGN hasn’t ‘gotten’ it since the original DC guys left aeons ago. Played a bit with those dudes in PSO, they definitely knew the breadth of gaming.
Reviewers like IGNs, the guy at GI who knocked Bionic Commando for being too tough and similar such things we all could link too, show just how different today’s “AAA” game gamer have become. The only way companies make money on these monstrosities is if they are finished in a weekend, so they can sell the next ‘must own’ title the following week. As such, the games must be fully understood from the start by players who don’t have the time to read the 3-4 page booklet that passes as a manual…..but who of course have every cheat printed out before they begin.

Freezair
I owned (well, own) a depressingly large number of games based on the Rugrats, for reasons I’m not even sure of. One of them was (is) a cheesy Nintendo 64 board game, like Mario Party but without minigames, so it’s just… a board game. And you know what? I like it. One mode has you trying to collect statue pieces cooperatively while avoiding the bad guy and keeping her from collecting her statue and it’s actually pretty fun.
Zefiro Torna
For me it would be all games developed by Brownie Brown, enough said. As flawed as their games usually are I still manage to have fun when getting past said flaws. I usually keep my “Brownie Brown’s No. 1 (and only) Fan” title to myself, though I still keep trying to convince people that Magical Starsign is actually a pretty solid game reminiscent of the 16-bit era of RPGs.
Overall, I don’t think they’re really a bad development studio, it’s just that so much is usually expected of them considering the franchises they work on and they seem to have a habit of making very questionable design choices in most of their games. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the issues regarding their games are the result of the clients (such as the overly experimental Koichi Ishii). After all… I’ve yet to hear people in mass say that Brownie Brown messed up Mother 3, meaning they can do something completely right when under the proper direction.
Justin Bailey
Ehrgeiz… but not really Ehrgeiz so much as the dungeon mini game that was included in the Playstation version. It had just enough RPG and fighting to keep me coming back for more. Unfortunately nobody else seemed to share my sentiment ^_^;

mimi
Actually, I loved the dungeon game! Problem was that you went along on your merry way fighting things until you reach an area where there’s an impossibly strong enemy and you die. Then, just to rub it in your face, when you collapse all the items that you spent ages on getting, spread across the ground so you know how much you’ve lost and the enemy continues to attack your lifeless body for another good 10 seconds. That’s dungeon love….
Anyways, some of my top guilty pleasures
1. Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner (Look I know the voice acting was dreadful but it’s a freakin’ brilliant Atlus game!)
2. Crimson Tears, (post-apocalyptic, fighter style, dungeon crawler)
3. SNK Vs Capcom Card Fighters DS (Miles Edgeworth in a Goddamn card game people!)
4. Very few people realised that Realm of the Dead, with possibly the worst box art known to man….see:
http://www.midasinteractive.com/images/gallery/195/pack/big/195_pack_big.jpg
Is actually an anime dungeon crawler with the lead female Hiro/Hillo from the ‘Spectral’ series in it.

deude
Action 52 on the NES. Now, that’s a guilty pleasure. Don’t ask me how I’ve had the game since I was a kid, though. Somehow it’s always been a part of my library of NES games that hasn’t grown past 9 games since I was a kid, until I bought Faxanadu off ebay 3 years ago. It’s probably the most broken and horrible collection of games ever, but I go back to it every now and then for shits, giggles, and just nostalgia. Take this one game where you play as a big hair covered nose thing with a tiny head and no limbs, you loose hair when you take damage, all you can do is spin and jump, and there doesn’t seem to be an end to the first stage (and you seem to go past the same objects and areas every few seconds). Some of the music grew on me too… I was bobbing my head to the Cheetah Men song years before most people found it on Youtube.
Yeah, I’ve never unhooked my NES from my TV :) probably never will either, unless I’m just rehooking it up to another TV.

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