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Cool Features in Mediocre Games?

Not a mediocre game at all IMO, but having a huge mech at your disposal in Xenogears/Xenosaga wasn't all it could have been. The A.G.W.S., it would have been groovy if they had implemented some kind of summoning system with a whole bunch of attacks for added gravy.
 
Synthesizer Patel said:
I really enjoyed playing the Ocarina in Ocarina of Time!

Ocarina of Time's not mediocre... oh, I see what you did there.

Seriously? Am I seriously going to be the first one to mention Max Payne? Bullet time has been copied so many times now.
 
BocoDragon said:
Some elements of the Enter the Matrix fighting system were pretty cool.

I though Enter the Matrix was awful all around but suprisingly I'm actually now playing the second one Path of Neo. Imo that one made a mega-jump to actually just being an average game which is amazing considering the first one started at shit level. There are a number of neat features and design ideas in it. It's still clunky, and an average game over-all but there are undeniable moments that are actually cool which shocked me to be honest.
 
I remember SCAR (Squadra Corse Alfa Romeo) had some cool RPG-elements. Also the developer added what they called the Tiger Effect. The moment your car lost track you could rewind the time only once per race to undo your mistake. Sounds a bit lame, but if you drive some laps for about 20 minutes it just sucks when you make one mistake and can start all over again.
 
Jet Set Radio Future...the game mechanics pale in comparison to the Dreamcast original (no timer, taking out the cops as seperate from tagging) but the ability to do tricks to speed up (especially while grinding) is just so enjoyable.
 
It was already mentioned once, but deserves a second: I really loved the alchemy system in Secret of Evermore, which I thought was a really innovative, fun way to incorporate magic. The execution could've been a bit better, but on the whole, it was a well done system... pity the rest of the game was so terrible.

Even though they're not mediocre, I'd like to see Langrisser's unit-style approach to strategy RPGs incorporated into games that actually have a chance of coming out in America.

I would have said the town-building system from Dark Cloud, but then Dark Cloud 2 came along and took care of that.
 
The connectivity Tetris/racing game in Rayman 3. I didn't care for the main game much, but that extra, while not pacman vs, is still a great use of the GC/GBA connection.
 
Medal of Honor: European Assault was a very routine shooter, but the leaning/peaking mechanism when looking down your sights was simply superb and should be adopted by the industry. It's way, way better than Metal Gear Solid's.

Destruction Derby for the Dreamcast has a "Death from Above" that allowed you to take a ramp on the side of the road and try to land on a rival, and when you did it was an instant kill. Just awesome. I wish Burnout would incorporate that.
 
Just about every feature in the RE Outbreak games, such as the different characters, customizations and unlockables. Too bad the product as a whole needs work.
 
Galaron said:
Destruction Derby for the Dreamcast has a "Death from Above" that allowed you to take a ramp on the side of the road and try to land on a rival, and when you did it was an instant kill. Just awesome. I wish Burnout would incorporate that.

Burnout Revenge does have that though. *confused*
 
Bomberman 64 had a crappy "adventure" segment game, but the best 3D multplayer Bomberman mode yet seen in the series, the maps and the gameplay were really great, and I'm a little pissed they never revisted it.
Probably because the rest of Bomberman 64 was rather pants.

The Combatribes on the Super NES (beat-em-up ala Technos) had a vs. mode where you could pit ANY character in the game against another. Play as any minor scrub vs. any hardace boss, or any varieation you could think of, it was pretty awesome.

Endgame was a pretty ho-hum PS2 lightgun shooter(still kinda fun), but it had a bizzare, cutsey sci-fi "2nd quest" within the game. And that was pretty cool, at least at the time.

Batman: Dark Tomarrow was absolute shite. But had surprisingly good voice acting, a orchestral score, and well-rendered (although horribly compressed) CGI cutscenes.
 
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