• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

One Hit Wonders, gaming style?

S

SnakeXs

about the same metal capacity as a cucumber
This is a toughie, but can you name any members of the game development community who are, well, one hit wonders? Or just had 1 amazing, incredible work surrounded by, not so amazing work? Could be any position.

The one that comes to my mind, which I'm sure will be controvertial (in a relative sense), is Yoko Shimomura.

Kingdom Hearts, right? Not a chance.

Parasite Eve, baby. One of the greatest OSTs ever. Quite possibly my favorite. So unique, so fresh, so powerful.

She's had "good" work before and since, but SMRPG wasn't exactly hers, and other stuff like (and here's another part many will disagree) Legend of Mana and Kingdom Hearts, while, again, "good" are far from amazing.

*prepares for KH fan flack*

Anyways, don't wanna make this a PE fest, and this is a tricky and hard topic, but if you know any "one hit wonders" of gaming, I'd love to hear 'em.
 
Mean but technically true for the moment: Keita Takahashi.

Less mean: id has really only ever produced one game.

Even less mean: David Jaffe.
 
FallenOne666 said:
Definitely, David Jaffe. Twisted Metal 2 was his best and last.
Click to expand...

apahpah.gif
 
But those TM installments + GOW, plus one of the best Mickey Mouse games ever created (Sega CD version), excludes him from this topic :)

God of War (2005)
Kinetica (2001)
Twisted Metal Black (2001)
Twisted Metal 2 (1996)
Twisted Metal (1995)
Mickey Mania (1994)
 
Eric Chahi - Another World/Out of this World. I hear Heart of Darkness is good/decent, but hell if I'm ever gonna find out. :P
 
Jim said:
But those TM installments + GOW, plus one of the best Mickey Mouse games ever created (Sega CD version), excludes him from this topic :)

God of War (2005)
Kinetica (2001)
Twisted Metal Black (2001)
Twisted Metal 2 (1996)
Twisted Metal (1995)
Mickey Mania (1994)
Click to expand...

Like V... Fallen said. :lol
 
Campster said:
Less mean: id has really only ever produced one game.
Click to expand...

Although they generally create games to showcase Carmack's engines, I disagree with you here. Wolfenstein helped to create the first person genere, Doom took it over the top, and even Doom 2 pushed the formula. Quake brought it to true 3D and online play, both of which were huge, and even Doom 3, which gets praise and hate, added some great new lighting schemes and scripted sequences that made it even more amazing than their earlier games.

Looking at the cars those guys drive leads me to believe they are not "one hit wonders".
 
This thread got off to a bad start with how it defines the term. Traditionally, one-hit wonder refers to something that was popular, not necessarily judged to be "amazing" by some arbitrary criteria. Based on the accepted definition, answers such as David Jaffe and Itagaki don't make any sense at all (and personally I think Jaffe has made well over one "amazing" game but that's a different topic).
 
human5892 said:
This thread got off to a bad start with how it defines the term. Traditionally, one-hit wonder refers to something that was popular, not necessarily judged to be "amazing" by some arbitrary criteria. Based on the accepted definition, answers such as David Jaffe and Itagaki don't make any sense at all (and personally I think Jaffe has made well over one "amazing" game but that's a different topic).
Click to expand...

Good games (or achievements) > Good sales
 
Jim said:
But those TM installments + GOW, plus one of the best Mickey Mouse games ever created (Sega CD version), excludes him from this topic :)

God of War (2005)
Kinetica (2001)
Twisted Metal Black (2001)
Twisted Metal 2 (1996)
Twisted Metal (1995)
Mickey Mania (1994)
Click to expand...


He was only a producer on TM1... But two (and I never bothered with Black) of the same series isn't good IMO.
 
Kung Fu Jedi said:
Although they generally create games to showcase Carmack's engines, I disagree with you here. Wolfenstein helped to create the first person genere, Doom took it over the top, and even Doom 2 pushed the formula. Quake brought it to true 3D and online play, both of which were huge, and even Doom 3, which gets praise and hate, added some great new lighting schemes and scripted sequences that made it even more amazing than their earlier games.

Looking at the cars those guys drive leads me to believe they are not "one hit wonders".
Click to expand...

Do realize you're talking to a man who will continue to argue that Halo 2 and Wolfenstein 3D are essentially the same game, which I know is an unpopular opinion around here, but hey - Battlechess is still just chess. I would say they've made the same game again and again - improved and refined with each iteration (save for Doom 3), but still the same game.

human5892 said:
his thread got off to a bad start with how it defines the term. Traditionally, one-hit wonder refers to something that was popular, not necessarily judged to be "amazing" by some arbitrary criteria. Based on the accepted definition, answers such as David Jaffe and Itagaki don't make any sense at all (and personally I think Jaffe has made well over one "amazing" game but that's a different topic).
Click to expand...

In retrospect it's a bad idea for a thread just because unlike music it takes millions of dollars and thousands of manhours to make a game. A song can be written and recorded in as short as a day and recorded professionally with a few grand. MILLIONS of songs are written every year. Only a few hundred games are released every year. It's like looking for a one hit wonder in film - sure, there might be an example or two, but it's not like music where everyone can list of bands like Chumbawumba right off the top of their heads.
 
Kung Fu Jedi said:
Although they generally create games to showcase Carmack's engines, I disagree with you here. Wolfenstein helped to create the first person genere, Doom took it over the top, and even Doom 2 pushed the formula. Quake brought it to true 3D and online play, both of which were huge, and even Doom 3, which gets praise and hate, added some great new lighting schemes and scripted sequences that made it even more amazing than their earlier games.

Looking at the cars those guys drive leads me to believe they are not "one hit wonders".
Click to expand...

Quake 3 also pushed the multi-player only concept. UT was actually released before but completely ripped off id's concept which had been shown way before UT ever emerged.
 
SnakeXs said:
The one that comes to my mind, which I'm sure will be controvertial (in a relative sense), is Yoko Shimomura.

She's had "good" work before and since, but SMRPG wasn't exactly hers, and other stuff like (and here's another part many will disagree) Legend of Mana and Kingdom Hearts, while, again, "good" are far from amazing.

*prepares for KH fan flack*
Click to expand...

I'm not going to give you KH flack (although I like the OST) but I think Legend of Mana is one of the best OST's ever, so Yoko Shimomura is no one hit wonder. Say what you want about the game, but Legend of Mana is nothing short of a fantastic soundtrack IMO.
 
GitarooMan said:
I'm not going to give you KH flack (although I like the OST) but I think Legend of Mana is one of the best OST's ever, so Yoko Shimomura is no one hit wonder. Say what you want about the game, but Legend of Mana is nothing short of a fantastic soundtrack IMO.
Click to expand...

I'll give it the advantage of, due to the game itself, not forming a bond with it, if you will, but like I said, it was solid, but never amazing.

I should go back to it, but I can't say it'll change...
 
Assuming we're talking about developers who have made one great game alongside a bunch of not-so-great games... From a purely personal perspective, I'm thinking Team Ninja. I think the DoA games are cool and all, but they definitely aren't my thing. At the same time, Ninja Gaiden Black is one of the greatest games ever.

Less mean: id has really only ever produced one game.
Click to expand...

This is like saying that Cave has only ever produced one game. Come on.

Quake 3 also pushed the multi-player only concept. UT was actually released before but completely ripped off id's concept which had been shown way before UT ever emerged.
Click to expand...

Quake 3 is the definition of perfect refinement. It's, like, the Third Strike of FPSes.
 
Campster said:
Do realize you're talking to a man who will continue to argue that Halo 2 and Wolfenstein 3D are essentially the same game, which I know is an unpopular opinion around here, but hey - Battlechess is still just chess. I would say they've made the same game again and again - improved and refined with each iteration (save for Doom 3), but still the same game.
Click to expand...

Oh! Well, no. I didn't realize that I was talking to a myopic game player. By that logic, you can pretty much break any game down to it's simplistic levels and there has been very little innovation in the industry for years. Hell, a lot of games balance things with the "rock, paper, scissors" model.
 
Kung Fu Jedi said:
Oh! Well, no. I didn't realize that I was talking to a myopic game player. By that logic, you can pretty much break any game down to it's simplistic levels and there has been very little innovation in the industry for years. Hell, a lot of games balance things with the "rock, paper, scissors" model.
Click to expand...

Which is why I'm so bitter and jaded.

I'm sick of playing the same six games over and over. :(
 
AMOK - Saturn

Best blow-crap-up game I've ever played. The mood, music and sheer carange level (it was hard as hell) made the limited visibility tolorable. Such a great game, and no mech game I've played since has instilled the sense of sheer glee that blowing up the weapons depot on Mission 2.2 has brought me.
 
Somethingblah Cock said:
Itagaki - Ninja Gaiden
Click to expand...


ITAGAKI -IS NOT- the lead game designer / director of Ninja Gaiden, or any of his games. He's PR / producer of his titles, with a big mouth (but that's why we love him so)
 
Monolith Soft. They made Chrono trigger (Awesome,) Xenogears (Mediocre,) and Chrono Cross (All graphics and music) then branched out on their own and made the 3 Xenosagas (Awful,) and Baten Kaitos 1&2 (OK, at least the first one.)
 
Keita Takahashi - Katamari Damacy

He didn't even want there to be sequels to Katamari and both are more like expansion packs. A one hit wonder if there ever was one ;)

P.S. I love Katamari Damacy; this is not a crack on it.
 
drumlord said:
Keita Takahashi - Katamari Damacy

He didn't even want there to be sequels to Katamari and both are more like expansion packs. A one hit wonder if there ever was one ;)

P.S. I love Katamari Damacy; this is not a crack on it.
Click to expand...

In his defense, he's only been around for a very short time, and hasn't released anything else, then again anything else that's bad.

And, it's simply a battle of creatiev artistic freedom vs. commerce.
 
Himuro said:
Well the guy is like,"Man I hate games these days! They're nothing but sequels!" And then you look at Katamari and you're like,"wat.."
Click to expand...

Like was said, he didn't want to, Namco was going to do it with or without him, they pushed him that far, and he caved to save his baby.

Like I said, commerce vs. art.
 
SnakeXs said:
This is a toughie, but can you name any members of the game development community who are, well, one hit wonders? Or just had 1 amazing, incredible work surrounded by, not so amazing work? Could be any position.

The one that comes to my mind, which I'm sure will be controvertial (in a relative sense), is Yoko Shimomura.

Kingdom Hearts, right? Not a chance.

Parasite Eve, baby. One of the greatest OSTs ever. Quite possibly my favorite. So unique, so fresh, so powerful.

She's had "good" work before and since, but SMRPG wasn't exactly hers, and other stuff like (and here's another part many will disagree) Legend of Mana and Kingdom Hearts, while, again, "good" are far from amazing.

*prepares for KH fan flack*

Anyways, don't wanna make this a PE fest, and this is a tricky and hard topic, but if you know any "one hit wonders" of gaming, I'd love to hear 'em.
Click to expand...

I can see arguments for Legend of Mana vs. Parasite Eve vs. Kingdom Hearts vs. SMRPG, but are you kidding me? One hit wonder? Am I absolutely bat-shit insane or isn't Shimomura responsible for the music in the original Street Fighter II? That game has some of the most memorable character themes of all time in there, and out of everything Shimomura's worked on, I'd say that OST is the one that has most stood the test of time.

Interesting topic, but a bad first example.
 
SnakeXs said:
The one that comes to my mind, which I'm sure will be controvertial (in a relative sense), is Yoko Shimomura.

Kingdom Hearts, right? Not a chance.

Parasite Eve, baby. One of the greatest OSTs ever. Quite possibly my favorite. So unique, so fresh, so powerful.

She's had "good" work before and since, but SMRPG wasn't exactly hers, and other stuff like (and here's another part many will disagree) Legend of Mana and Kingdom Hearts, while, again, "good" are far from amazing.

*prepares for KH fan flack*

Anyways, don't wanna make this a PE fest, and this is a tricky and hard topic, but if you know any "one hit wonders" of gaming, I'd love to hear 'em.
Click to expand...

Well, SMRPG is pretty much Shimomura (49 tracks) with a few hints of Kondo (9) and three Uematsu tracks. But enough of that. <3 Shimomura
Oh, and KH2 is not her fault, blame it on Ishimoto, the synth operator. Thank him for ruining everything.

Back to the topic: I want to say Akitoshi Kawazu (for Minstrel Song), but I don't know any of the old Romancing SaGa stuff. I'm basing myself on the PS1/2 SaGa games.
 
Totz said:
Back to the topic: I want to say Akitoshi Kawazu (for Minstrel Song), but I don't know any of the old Romancing SaGa stuff. I'm basing myself on the PS1/2 SaGa games.
Click to expand...

Off the top of my head, Final Fantasy Legend II (SaGa 2) and Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles (haters be damned) come to mind as quality Kawazu titles.
 
Nicodimas said:
Armada-Metro3d
Click to expand...

AtomicShroom said:
H2O Entertainment - Tetrisphere.
Click to expand...

So far these two are the only ones that seem to qualify. After the criminally underappreciated Armada, Metro3D has been relegated to average ports of excellent games (Aero the Acrobat for GBA) and the rest is junk like Dinosaur Hunter for Xbox.

H2O did some brilliant work with Tetrisphere, and I haven't heard a single thing about them since. I'd love to be wrong about them though considering how much I loved Tetrisphere.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Should Japanese devs focus on a Japanese style? Nioh 3 leads say it's "one of our strengths," but blindly "sticking with that style isn't good"
Opinion Game Dev 
1
176
Hadoukens replied
MercurySteam hit by layoffs
Business Game Dev 
2
100
SantaC replied
GDDR6 Under Pressure: Tesla’s Hunger for Memory Could Hit the PS5, PS5 Pro, and Older Gaming GPUs Hard
Opinion Hardware Platform 
8
202
winjer replied
Nintendo Shares Soar 10% as Surprise Hit Pokémon Game Lifts Mood
20
228
Zannegan replied
Skate Style announcement trailer. “next gen skateboarding game.” Demo out now.
1
172
Myths replied
Top Bottom