As I said again and again, and will say as many times as I have to, what matters is the games, my experience was different, but it's still valid, because I've played the games and have something to say about them, and so I will!
Yeah, so remember how I said it's clear you don't care about the machine, and care about the games, and you said:
and you can't tell me how much I can or cannot appreciate something, or how interested in it I am, because you can't see inside of my mind, and by trying to do that you make an arse of yourself...
lol.
I'm not playing these games to try and replicate a very specific experience, I'm playing them because I want to expand my horizons and play things that I hadn't before! This is a valid experience to be had, even if it's different from "what was intended" or "what you had"
Your horizons aren't truly expanded until you play these things the right way. It's just a cut/dry fact. No amount of enthusiasm will change this. Right now, you're having a valid invalid experience.
I can only emulate what's available for the original DS, and while there are emulators for more advanced stuff than the PCE on it, pretty much none of it is playable from my experience...
Don't you own a PSP?
I understand and respect your opinion, but until I get to experience an arcade stick that's "not garbage" enough to convince me that joysticks are better than D-pads, I'll gladly pick a D-pad over an arcade stick...
Joysticks aren't better than dpads always. Only sometimes. You have to use the right tool for the job.
You're saying that because you're expecting to have this specific experience with handhelds that you're familiar with, but since I'm not expecting that, I don't have the same problem as you...
I can't say whether or not playing these games on emulators is better than the real thing, but I can say that I've played the games, and I've enjoyed what I played... I didn't need my screen to look a certain way or the buttons to feel a certain way to play a good game and have fun, and that's ultimately what I want from video games, to have fun, not to "recreate a very specific experience that someone else is imposing on me"
You are missing out. There are atmospheric things about video games that you are completely hosing yourself from experiencing, all because you've convinced yourself all that matters is the games themselves. This is one of those times where having access to everything via emulation is a bad thing.
I can't make you go seek out an arcade experience, or spend some quality time with a now-retarded handheld. But, for someone whos all about broadening horizons, I'd expect that you would want to.
If porting a 6 button game to a 4 button or a 2 button doesn't work, that's when you redesign the game to fit a 4 button or a 2 button control scheme! It is going to be consistent if the controller motions do what you're expecting them to do, and on the GBA, Wonderswan, and even NGPC, they do!
Yes, and redesigning the game changes the game from the expected setup, and often sucks. So when you're dealing with a changed game AND a probably shitty dpad, it can suck doubly. Especially in HandheldLand(TM) where you can't change the controller.
What I don't understand is this double-standard you have about saying that handheld fighters suck because they have fewer buttons but excusing the NGPC because it had a mini arcade stick on it, even though it still has fewer buttons, even fewer still than the GBA...
Its not a double standard. You just don't understand.
It gets a pass because at the time, it was fantastic. It was redone properly to give a competent experience as a handheld. The control matters. Comparing the fighters on NGPC and Wonderswan in an emulator is dumb. You like the Wonderswan ones more because they look/sound more like what you want in an emulated environment. This again reiterates the point being made that playing them on the actual handhelds is something you should experience.
You are basically playing all this stuff in an unintended fashion. The only new life you breathe into it as a result, is a biased opinion on how you feel about games and their specs in a way they weren't even planned to be experienced in, lol.
The GBA came after the NGPC was discontinued. The GBA ones are at least sort of OK, but still not that great and arguably less enjoyable because they are trying too hard to be better than a handheld is actually allowing them to be. So you end up with this strange ass hybrid game that looks OK (except it's on a GBA so it's still washed out and you can't see a goddamn thing unless you're on an SP, or a Cube player).
The correct comparison would be to use Gameboy/GB Color games, and those Street Fighter/MKs/etc. games are all complete horseshit. The only reason you played those ever is because you didn't buy a NGPC, and didn't want to be seen with a f*ckin Tiger handheld in public.
In the case of the NGPC and Wonderswan fighters, they were both dialed down to handheld land fine. Where Wonderswan falls apart though, is it's controls suck by comparison to it's direct competition.
Again, this is why the NGPC was awesome. The best handheld fighting you're going to get is the NGPC/Wonderswan stuff. The best handheld experience you're actually going to get, is the NGPC one.
(Note: I say this WRT to fighting games. Outside of fighting games, neither machine is better than the other except for at the time, you had to import a Wonderswan, so you weren't playing that shit probably)
The best emulated/not intended experience is going to be whichever one has characteristics you like.
Also, """hardcore""" fighting gamers aren't gonna bother with handheld versions!!
lol, you say this with idiotic confidence, considering you just had to have the whole "hardcore fighting game" thing explained to you like 45 seconds ago.
Back in the day, hardcore fighting gamers were indeed playing NGPCs. Between rounds at the arcade/waiting for their turns, people were playing. At school, playing. Road trips, playing. When you want to keep playing fighting games but you're not at an arcade, or not around your home version.. you were playing these.
These versions aren't for them, they're for people like me, who enjoy playing fighting games and wanna play some while out and about... Arguing that handheld fighters are bad because hardcore fighting gamers don't wanna play them is basically pointless, there's nothing you can tell them to convince them to play anything that isn't gonna be on the next EVO, they're not gonna care...
Handheld fighters should be first and foremost fun to play, no need to pander to the hardcore demographic that isn't gonna bother with them... If these handheld fighters are good games on their own accord, I'm going to play them! Even if there are "better" versions that I could be playing instead...
Actually, ...they were for them. They were for everyone. You're now acting like they made these handheld versions specifically for people who want to play watered down shit. They also didn't make them for people like you, because people like you mostly just emulate handhelds and aren't even playing them as intended...
Nobody is saying fighting games on handhelds are bad because hardcore people don't want to play them. They're bad because they're often bad for various control reasons that you have the fortunate privilege of never having to actually deal with.
The GBA is sort of excused with it's MK / SF ports. The Gameboy/GBC is not. That stuff sucked. Killer Instinct on Gameboy is a great way to regret buying something.
Also, the controller only matters if you don't like it, if you do like what you're using, and I sure as hell like using the GBA SP for controlling my games, then no, it doesn't matter...
You don't know what you're missing.
1 button joysticks are definitely a pain to work with and design something around... But if you manage to make something that only uses 1 directional and 1 button, and it feels good and is fun to play, I'll be impressed! Which is why Shadow Fighter impresses me, I'm not gonna say that it's on-par with the other fighters of the time, but I don't think it's bad at all... You don't like it? Sure whatever, but I think it's pretty alright, I've certainly played worse fighters, and those did have more buttons...
So, Shadow Fighter won the special olympics. Cool. it's still retarded.