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A different type of videogame port?

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GendoIkari Since: Aug, 2010
#1: Apr 6th 2011 at 3:54:50 AM

We have the Porting Disaster and Polished Port pages, listing games that became worse when brought to another platform, or (more rarely) better, or at least overcoming the limitations of the porting platform well. However, I started to notice some games that are not real ports: they become very different, practically new games.

Examples? Powerslave, which I listed in the Polished Port page. PC and console versions are day and night - the most they share are the basic storyline, enemies and a few textures. Star Trader was a PC 88 shooter with many cutscenes and adventure portions - unofrtunately the shooting part was badly done. A later Sharp X68000 version is better, but it's just a straight shooter. Daikatana for the GBC is a fun little top-down action RPG, much better than the FPS we all love to hate. Spider-Man 2 on consoles was a great free-roaming game, but the PC version by another developer was a lousy, limited action game. Similarly, Web of Shadows becomes a 2.5D brawler on PS 2/PSP, and yet another brawler on the DS but with upgrades that allow to reach new areas until the end of the game. Each of these versions features its storyline and seem to feature more Marvel characters than the free-roaming one for the "bigger" systems. Rygar, Strider and Bionic Commando went from straight action games to much more complex and open games on the NES. Popful Mail has three very different versions. Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. While 360/PS 3/PC are the same game, the Wii version has a different storyline and different powers for the Prince. The PSP version is a 2.5D platformer with another storyline. Moonwalker is a standard side-scroller on the Genesis and Master System or an isometic three-player shoot-em-up on the arcade.

And so on. So, I was wondering if these were deserving of a new category (and page), although I cannot think up of a title right now except for "Same Different Game".

There's also a problem of estabilishing how much the "port" becomes a new game. Golvellius, which I listed in Polished Port too, has fundamentally the same gameplay in all three versions. However, the second version by Sega was remade from scratch, and the third version on the Msx2 not only has new maps and dungeons once again, but even changes the storyline.

Discuss...

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#2: Apr 6th 2011 at 6:25:58 AM

You should use YKTTW to evaluate potential new tropes, as it says in the stickied threads.

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