Of the games I know there, I can agree, except for American McGee's Alice! That game was worth it for the atmosphere alone and is one of the few I've replayed.
What I noticed about Alice is how the quality of level design and originality decreases a lot halfway the game, as if they got tired of it, or - more likely <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> - had to rush it. The beginning levels are very promising, but near the end it's all more of the same... there's less interaction with other characters as well in the later levels, less "sub quests", and even the design of the environment seems less inspired... But the atmosphere indeed does a lot, definitely not in spite of Chris Vrenna's creepy score <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
I was a little surprised to see the SNES Donkey Kong Country in that list... But it's an "overrated" list, and maybe in its days, DKC was indeed a little overhyped. The comments in that article about the groundbreaking graphics make sense (although IMO they still are among the nicest all time SNES graphics)... But I'm a fan of the DKC series, not because of any hype (never knew it was hyped until I read this article <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> ), but because of reasons of which none are mentioned in the article. I have to admit that the quality of the first DKC is a lot less than its two SNES sequels though, but they only mention DKC2 and 3 as if those we're mere copies from DKC <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> ... What make these games so great and different from most other platformers to me, are the very well balanced game design, the levels (designs, themes...) of which none are like another in the game (except in the orginal DKC), the controls, the characters (both goodies and baddies) (not so much in the first DKC though), the great music, the overall perfect timing... I used to be a fan of the (first) Super Mario games as well, but the quality of Donkey Kong exceeds those games by... eh gallons (not speaking of any Mario games higher tha the SNES platform, and definitely not of the Wario series, which is also grrreat!)
Oh well, I fell in love with these apes as a kid and I still like them, not out of pure nostalgy, and definitely not because they were hyped... How dare they, those poor monkeys <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/puppyeyes.gif" alt="" />
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