[General Discussion] Your Favorite Video Game Developer?

Originally Posted by Omi-Cron Kenobi

The latter.

I was merely having a conversation with myself. It's a difficult question to answer and which can go in many ways depending how you approach it. It's not easy to pick just one which is why I suspect most replies name no fewer than 15. The point I was hoping to reach was that just because a large part of my collection is made up of Square Enix games doesn't necessarily suggest that Square Enix is my favourite development team in the same manner that Blizzard isn't necessarily my favourite despite having played the original Diablo to hell and back.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Easy. SEGA and all the former divisions they had (Overworks, Smilebit, UGA, Rosso, etc.). Even though nowadays SEGA-developed console games haven't been that great, their games from the Genesis to the Dreamcast are mostly classics. The first Sonic trilogy, the Phantasy Star series, the Sakura Taisen series(w/ Red), Rez, JSR[F], Skies of Arcadia, Streets of Rage, and so on. Great stuff.

Also, SEGA is still kicking ass in the arcade scene, as a developer (Sangokushi Taisen, VF5, Quest of D, etc.,) as well as a publisher (KOF XI, Guilty Gear series). Not too mention, SEGA has brought young boys and girls to the arcades with their Mushi King and Oshare Love & Berry games.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I'm not going to say Falcom here, even though they do make great games (with even better music). I can't say Sega, since they release crap these days. For that reason, I'll say Blizzard. How can you go wrong with great games like Diablo, Starcraft, Warcraft, Rock 'n Roll Racing and the Lost Vikings?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

My favorite is definitely Capcom. They've brought out such great series like Mega Man, Street Fighter (which is probably the best fighting game series ever, even after 9 years of there not being a completely new SF entry), Darkstalkers, Rival Schools, Power Stone, Resident Evil, Breath of Fire (my favorite RPG series), Devil May Cry, Onimusha, a whole slew of great arcade titles, and the list goes on. Their independent development teams, like Flagship and Clover, have brought out some of the best titles for Capcom, as well.

Capcom also brought out the best licensed games as well, such as the ones based on JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Punisher, X-Men, Aliens vs. Predator, and more. They were the only ones to get licensed games right for the longest time.

Second favorite is Square-Enix. They have a shitload of great titles, both apart and together. Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior for example.

Third is probably Sega. They put out a million great titles like Capcom and S-E did. Like Streets of Rage, Golden Axe, Vectorman, and Sonic (up until Sonic became crap around the time SH came out).

I was speaking idiomatically.

Treasure, again. Radiant Silvergun, Guardian Heroes, Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy, and the rest.

Sonic Team up until about 1999. The original Sonics, NiGHTS, Burning Rangers.

And a shout out to these guys:



They performed wonders, not just bringing grade A ports of Exhumed (Power Slave), Duke 3D and Quake to the Saturn, when other developers were throwing their arms in the air and saying it couldn't be done; but going one better and making those ports superior to the versions on the other home consoles.

But I've really put them up here because in their spare time they coded - for their own amusement - the greatest multiplayer console game ever; Death Tank Zwei, and then squeezed it into Duke as a hidden extra.



There's a small article on this distilled old school 7 player action masterpiece here.

RIP Lobotomy.

How ya doing, buddy?

Nippon Ichi is very high on the list as their games are completely a blast to play when you get really strong seeing beams and explosions go everywhere. I've never put much time in their games after beating them but the sheer amount of extras they give blow me away. Of course, I'll always love the little overlord that could kick anybody's ass.

Square-Enix I kind of have mixed feelings about. I'll admit I was first introduced to them in FFVII but I've come to play far more of their worth wile titles. I adored Brave Fencer Musashi and FFT. On the Enix side I've always loved what I've played by them. Star Ocean 2 was great, Star Ocean 3 was fun, Robot Alchemic Drive is robot love.

You just can't forget Capcom with everyone's favorite blue bomber Megaman. I've always enjoyed Megaman even his more lackluster titles. Devil May Cry is always fun. Phoenix Wright is the best things since sliced cheese.

Sega has had a pretty high rating with Sonic the hedgehog and some of their other off hand titles like GunGrave.

FELIPE NO

Oddworld Inhabitants. I wish they'd continue working on games, but if they have to change, fair enough. I'd now just like to know what they're working on, if anything.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Bungie.
Call them overrated all you want, but they still made the games I had the most fun with in the last few years (Oni, Halo).

Westwood.
For the original C&C series. The awesome map design, FMV scenes and music created an incredible one player experience. Fuck Electronic Arts who killed them.

I like Treasure too, as long as they stick to shmups. Their other games are too gimmicky hit-or-miss for me.

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.............................

How ya doing, buddy?

Atlus (the developer, not the localizer) seems to make most of the games I include in my list of "favorite" games, including Shin Megami Tensei, Majin Tensei II: Spiral Nemesis, and Persona 2: Innocent Sin. Can't say I like the direction the latest Megami Tensei (and spin-off) games have been going in, though. I abhorred the Digital Devil Saga games (cannibalism, dickchicks, annoying accents, and mediocre characters aren't really my thing), as well as Persona 3 (aka Tokimeki Memorial: Demons and Shit), and didn't enjoy Shin Megami Tensei 3: NOCTURNE nearly as much as I did the first Shin Megami Tensei game. Stella Deus was a cool game, too, and I don't even like Strategy-RPGs all that much (great art/character designs, and music, which is ironic, because Hitoshi Sakimoto is one of the most bland composers on the planet, but he did a great job on Stella Deus, with Masaharu Iwata.) So, Atlus is my favorite developer.

Level-5 would probably come in second. Dark Cloud is still one of the games I have the fondest memories of, as it's basically what I would imagine a Quintet game would be like if they still developed games. As with Atlus, I can't really say I like the direction they've taken their games in. I'm not really fan of the "cartoon-y" style they've become so obsessed with, and I find the battle system in Rogue Galaxy to be absolute shit. Regardless, I find their games good enough to declare to be one of the few competent developers around these days.

But, I digress.

Falcom gets an honorable mention. How can anyone not mention Falcom, anyways? I'm hoping Cozy Okada's [one of the founders of Atlus, and the guy who helmed the Megami Tensei series for a long goddamn time] new company, GAIA (the company that did Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner), will become a favorite developer, assuming they start releasing more games. Cozy Okada seems to always know what he's doing when it comes to making games, so I have high hopes for GAIA. Of course, that's off-topic.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Kolba

Treasure, again. Radiant Silvergun, Guardian Heroes, Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy, and the rest.

Sonic Team up until about 1999. The original Sonics, NiGHTS, Burning Rangers.

And a shout out to these guys:



They performed wonders, not just bringing grade A ports of Exhumed (Power Slave), Duke 3D and Quake to the Saturn, when other developers were throwing their arms in the air and saying it couldn't be done; but going one better and making those ports superior to the versions on the other home consoles.

But I've really put them up here because in their spare time they coded - for their own amusement - the greatest multiplayer console game ever; Death Tank Zwei, and then squeezed it into Duke as a hidden extra.



There's a small article on this distilled old school 7 player action masterpiece here.

RIP Lobotomy.

Quoted for truth, and someone should really make some sort of port for death tank so the awesomeness can be enjoyed by more people, how much more popular would deathtank online be compared to something like gunbound?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I know. Even Worms is garbage next to Deathtank. It's all about real-time baby.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Hmmm...well, I wonder...LOL

It's KONAMI in the number one spot for me, folks. The Suikoden Series is my favorite. And Konami also put out my other favorite: Shadow of Destiny. The stories in these games really bring you in.

Freelance Wolf mentioned MAXIS. I couldn't agree more. I have both The Sims 1 and The Sims 2, plus expansions, and there's something to be said for a game that lets you play God and see if you can screw up someone else's life for a change.

The other games I have are mostly from SQUARESOFT/SQUARE-ENIX. Of course, this may be because I enjoy RPGs, and Square was pumping those FF babies out.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Kolba

But I've really put them up here because in their spare time they coded - for their own amusement - the greatest multiplayer console game ever; Death Tank Zwei, and then squeezed it into Duke as a hidden extra.



There's a small article on this distilled old school 7 player action masterpiece here.

Finding out about this is wonderful. Now my goal in life is to hunt down Quake and Duke 3D for Saturn. I'll leave myself a note on the fridge so I don't forget. My favorite developers are either gone or throw around big bags of disaster now.

... Like Shiny Entertainment. Before they officially formed, they'd gone and done most of the work on Cool Spot and Aladdin (Mega Drive version). Then they went on to make Earthworm Jim and its slightly crappier sequel. LOVE SO MUCH. MDK was a pretty outstanding game at the time. Wild 9 is a bloody AWESOME platformer on PlayStation. And they snuck in an arranged EWJ song. <3 Messiah was cool, as well. Even if it was loaded with a million game destroying bugs. But then they went and made Enter the Matrix and fell to bits. So somehow they did ANOTHER Matrix game after that. Now what? They don't even exist anymore, Dave Perry's pissed off to make some new studio that's focusing on an online RPG. Why not make a virtual pet or brain training game while you're at it, I don't think we have enough of those.

Then there's Sega, Taito and Midway. Of course, like Shiny, none of them count NOW, but once upon a time they made countless great games. Hurray for all three releasing retro collections on PS2 I guess. Even if Midway is such a garbage dump now that they somehow couldn't even manage to port their arcade games without breaking them.

I guess my current favorite developers would be Cing and Grasshopper (Michigan, Killer 7, Contact). I mean Cing's only made three games, one of them Glass Rose... but Another Code and Hotel Dusk are pure uncut love!

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Infernal Monkey

Finding out about this is wonderful. Now my goal in life is to hunt down Quake and Duke 3D for Saturn. I'll leave myself a note on the fridge so I don't forget.

That article doesn't mention it, but an Exhumed save file works too, which might help shorten your quest.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

That does indeed help! One down, one to go. =o

Jam it back in, in the dark.

valve <--- FPS CRAZY.

sierra used to make good games...they contributed to half life....but now they do some pretty low stuff.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Oh, and I give Neversoft props for making the first good Spider-Man (the 2000 PlayStation) game in nearly a decade.

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I think it all depends on how you rate the games of the developer.

If you go for the addictiveness, obviously Blizzard wins, and nobody who has played Starcraft, Diablo or/and World of Warcraft can say I am lying.

If you go for the stories and soundtracks of the games, I would definitely chose Square-Enix, although Warcraft and Starcraft stories is also pretty cool.

If you go for the fun I have had with friends, probably I would pick Capcom and/or SNK.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Kraderif

I think it all depends on how you rate the games of the developer.

If you go for the addictiveness, obviously Blizzard wins, and nobody who has played Starcraft, Diablo or/and World of Warcraft can say I am lying.

If you go for the stories and soundtracks of the games, I would definitely chose Square-Enix, although Warcraft and Starcraft stories is also pretty cool.

If you go for the fun I have had with friends, probably I would pick Capcom and/or SNK.

Yup, gotta go with what you said. Except addictiveness, i gotta put Nippon Ichi right up there too. Once had a friend put in over 100 hours on disgaea. I myself put in 50.... I refuse to play WoW cuz i know what'll happen to me.

How about game developers you hate? I REALLY hate Bandai for totally F*cking p the gundam game series. They USED to be good....

I was speaking idiomatically.

I absolutely hate Square Enix. But I'm love Squaresoft, and Enix. Get my point?

Konami is like blessed, ever since Snes I always found myself playing konami games. They do a really good job of making games for other medias, or something new out of the blue. I haven't played any ATLUS games that I didn't like also.

Capcom, Namco, sega, nintendo... eh. Although Sega is owning every single soul in the Japanese Arcades. (Me included) and nintendo is trying really hard lately. I thnk capcom needs a update, I really haven't seen anything ground breaking since they got into this capcom owns zombie craze.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

EA sports. I can't ever get enough of madden, ncaa football, or fifa.

FELIPE NO

Easily Namco. I'm always surprised as to how much content they release a year. Also adding the fact that I get to work with games and see how much work it is, it's always nice to see how much effort Namco America as well as NBGI puts into making their games as glitch free as they can.

The Tales franchise is my favorite group of games of all-time, coupled with all the quirky Taiko/Tekken and other stuff they make. I am a real namco nut.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

1. SEGA: Sonic, Phantasy Star, etc.
2. CAPCOM: Rockman...period.
3. KONAMI: Gradius, Sparkster, Bokura no Taiyou, etc.
4. Technosoft: Thunder Force, etc.
5. Treasure: Alien Soldier, Dynamite Headdy, Gunstar (Super) Heroes, Ikaruga, etc.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Rare... Definately Rare
Why?

The Classics: DK Series, BattleToads...

The best shooters: Perfect Dark franchise, Goldeneye 64

And the best fighting game ever made: Killer Instinct Gold


Another one of my favorites is EA
Best sports games by far, NBA LIVE, NHL, MADDEN, FIGHT NIGHT, even TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR... sweet games - however, when EA started making wrestling games, they really sucked - THQ and AKI make the best wrestling/WWE games...

There's nowhere I can't reach.