411 Games Fact or Fiction 09.28.09: Manhunt 2, Pro Wrestling, N64 Controller, PSP, More

Posted by Ramon Aranda on 09.28.2009

Was the N64 controller the worst one ever made? Would you be stoked for a WiiWare version of Pro Wrestling? Was Bases Loaded a more enjoyable game than Baseball Stars? 411's Chris Lansdell and Rod Oracheski answer these questions and more on this week's edition of Fact or Fiction.



Looks like there was plenty of discussion last week over which controller was the best – the Xbox 360's or the PS3s. Good points on both sides and we're glad you voiced your opinions as they were certainly fun to read. Now it's on to this week's edition which includes another controller topic. Joining us this week is Rod Oracheski of Achievement Unlocked and Chris Lansdell our resident Games and Wrestling connoisseur in this all Canadian edition. I'll be your host as usual, so let's get to it!

Round 1: With price drops to all three consoles, the holidays should sprout solid sales numbers for all three makers.

Rod Oracheski: FACT - Despite all the economic woes, people still spend really stupidly during the holidays and we're going to see sales take off in the last few months, just like always. The one I'm wondering about the most is Nintendo's Wii. They didn't drop the Wii price point all that much, so will they get the same bump that Sony and Microsoft enjoyed with their more sizable cuts?

Chris Lansdell: FICTION - But only on a technicality. I believer Nintendo will do well as they always do at Christmas, with their family-friendly unit and price drop. Sony will win a lot of second-system fans, people who are tempted to buy one for their teens/themselves now that it's sub-$300. That's a big psychological drop, and is the price point where I traditionally buy in to a system. Microsoft will do OK, but I think their numbers will disappoint.

Score: 0 for 1

Round 2: Because the controller topic seemed to get people's attention, here's another one.  The N64 controller was the worst console controller ever made.

Rod Oracheski: FACT FICTION - Wait...you meant the Gamecube one, right? No? Then let me change that answer to Fiction because the N64 controller - while it made a whole lot of people go 'huh' when they first saw it - was a great controller. Analog stick, tons of buttons, weird shape, but comfortable to hold...that was one controller that had everything. Can you imagine playing Super Mario 64 back then without that controller? No chance.

Chris Lansdell: FICTION - Gotta go with the Rodster here. The N64 controller is the only one that enabled me to play a game one-handed and win. Sure it was the Mario Raceway on Mario Kart 64, but no other controller was laid out so well. It looked ridiculous, but it worked surprisingly well and some of the third-party offerings were amazing. Not that that should have any bearing. Plus, limited edition GOLD controller!

Score: 1 for 2 - The Gamecube controller, while comfortable as hell was pretty horrible in terms of buttons. C-stick FTL!

[Ed. note. The Jaguar controller WAS indeed atrocious as well...just obsecenly bad!!]

Round 3: If you could somehow get your hands on an uncensored and unaltered version of Manhunt 2 for the Wii, you'd give it a shot.

Rod Oracheski: FICTION - Manhunt is a series that I really don't care for. Reminds me of Hostel or Saw, in a way – gratuitously violent as a means to attract attention and get some sales. Tried the first game and just abandoned it. Gamers are constantly complaining that we want our hobby to be taken seriously, but we flock to garbage like that? C'mon guys, you can't honestly support a game with zero redeeming qualities like that, then complain when the media says this hobby glorifies violence.

Is there a double standard there, as the two things I compared it to are both movies - a medium that's widely accepted as 'okay' for the mass market? Sure - but that's life. Movies have been around longer, and they've gone through the 'you're destroying our youth!' movement (that seems to hit every single entertainment medium) and come out the other side. They dealt with this kind of thing during the 'blaxploitation' days, and now the medium's mature enough to avoid notice. It's the 'if they were going to destroy the youth, they'd have done it by now' complacency that saved D&D and rock and roll. Games don't have that history in their side yet, so maybe we should hold off on the snuff films until we're 'safe' enough for Joe and Jill America to not worry about anymore.

Chris Lansdell: FICTION - There was a time when this would have been a strong FACT. Long-time gamers will remember Thrill Kill, a Playstation 4-player fighter that featured characters like a cannibal, a mad scientist and a dominatrix. I am not kidding. It was gory, it was explicit, and it never got officially released. You only got a copy if you were lucky enough to know someone who worked with (I believe) EA. I had a copy, and I loved it at the time.

With an 8-year-old of my own now, I am very conscious of the tat being put out and called "entertainment". I have not played a GTA game since they stopped being cartoony, nor have I played any of the other games glorifying crime sprees. I don't get on my moral high horse and preach about it, I just choose not to play. Manhunt is orders of magnitude worse than GTA and you'd pretty much have to pay me to play it.

Score: 2 for 3

SWITCH

Round 4: You still think the PSP is lacking quality games.

Chris Lansdell: FACT - I do a fair bit of traveling, and I thought I'd check out the PSP for something to do while I was on long plane rides. Or short ones. I knew that I wanted MLB 09 The Show, but I wasn't sure if anything else on the system was worth having.Not really, as it turns out. Sony seems to have fallen into the trap that Sega fell into with the Game Gear: thinking "portable" has to be synonymous with "poor". There are some OK games on the system, but there's nothing on here that you just NEED to have like there is on the DS, and like there was on each iteration of the Gameboy.

Rod Oracheski: FACT - Outside of Chains of Olympus there really isn't another title that jumps into my head as a 'must have' title to recommend to someone, and even that one is pretty short. No doubt there are some others, depending on the genres the person likes, but the PSP's library continues to be populated with games that I just don't care about. Sony continues to drop the ball with the PSP, and third parties avoid the heavily-pirated machine - though the PSP Go, and some Sony "incentives" in the background, might well change that.

Score: 3 for 4

Round 5: Bases Loaded (NES) > Baseball Stars (NES) (Loaded is better)

Chris Lansdell: FACT - The fact that I played Bases Loaded and not Baseball Stars means I can only really answer this one way. Bases Loaded was the first baseball game I played that didn't drive me insane within 2 innings, so it has to be good for something...

Rod Oracheski: FICTION - Bases Loaded was fun (and the Jersey batters will always have a place in my heart) but Baseball Stars offered up so much more. It was the first game I remember with a create-a-player, and that was absolutely HUGE for me. Renaming teams, trading players, a 'sort of' salary cap system - what didn't the game have? You could even level your players - a lifetime before it became popular to put RPG elements into other genres.

Score: 3 for 5 - Jersey was the shit. My favorite team no doubt with Paste and his 60 Hrs and Bay's follow-up power and 30 + dingers. Good call on Baseball Stars' features though Rod.

Round 6: You'd buy a remodeled WiiWare version of Pro Wrestling

Chris Lansdell: FICTION - Tecmo World Wrestling? Absolutely. Pro Wrestling? Not so much. I mean, it had Hayabusa in it ( not THE Hayabusa, but still) and it was fun for its time...I guess it would depend how it was remade and by whom. But Tecmo? I'd by it unaltered!

Rod Oracheski: FICTION - Nostalgia's great and all, but unless that 'remodel' comes with Aki making it into an all-new 3D wrestling game, then I'm going to pass. The game was great for its time, but there wasn't much there if you really think about it. With the exception of of 'A WINNER IS YOU' this one didn't really have that much of an impact on me.


Final Score: 4 for 6 - A winner is always me. Don't forget that Games staff =)

Now we want to know what you think...Fact or Fiction? Let us know!