Arcade machines in the 80's and 90's were always superior to home consoles as far as graphical prowess, memory, sound design, and overall power. Games from the arcade were often ported to home consoles so concessions had to be made in order to get the arcade game running on an underpowered piece of hardware. Some developers would change the gameplay to better suit a lesser machine, for better or worse. Examples of games that were improved were:
Rygar
Rygar arcade was a simple action platformer. Using your disk armor, you traversed the terrain from left to right, dispatching various mythologically-inspired enemies. The action was fast, and deaths were plenty. Various weapon upgrades could be collected, but vanished if you died. It was a fun, yet repetitive quarter muncher.
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| In the NES version, Rygar can expand his abilities and use items to open up new areas |
When ported to the NES, it took on RPG-like elements to extend the gameplay into an adventure game. Gone are the one-hit deaths, you now have a hit points. Your player's attack starts out fairly weak, but as you defeat more enemies and gain experience points you become more formidable. An overhead view acts as a hub between stages, and different items that you acquire open up more areas. Backtracking is necessary as the gameplay was not linear. This has now become somewhat of a cult classic among diehard NES enthusiasts.
1943
When it was ported to the NES, the main gameplay elements were still in place, but a few additions were thrown in. As you progress through stages, a little tipi (not sure if that's what it is) icon sometimes appears. When you fly onto it you are taken to an upgrade screen, where you allocate an upgrade point to the attribute of your choosing. This is the first shoot'em up game that I can remember that has RPG-like upgrade elements. This increases the enjoyment of the game immensely, and gives the game a psuedo adventure feel. There is also a passcode so that you can pick up where you left off. This is nice, as there are 24 stages, and they are not necessarily short. The home port also adds a charge shot, by holding down the fire button. This delivers a powerful single shot, but the down side is that you cannot fire while charging and thus are vulnerable during this time period. I find it not to be worth the risk, and just crank up the turbo fire on my NES Advantage controller. Having turbo fire is the only way to last while playing this game. I regard it as one of the best on the console.
Contra
Contra in the arcade was graphical eye candy, but the gameplay was slow and cramped. This was due to the vertically oriented screen, which worked for most arcade games up to that point, but for a horizontally scrolling run'n gun game it was unideal. Bullets would travel at slow speeds, since there was a shorter length of screen from left to right, and to give the player enough space and time to react to them this was necessary. If the bullets travelled slowly, you couldn't really have players and enemies outrunning them, so the pace was much more deliberate, and somewhat sluggish. The jump animation was a flip, and a somewhat realistically-animated one at that. The stereo music and sound effects were grand, but they weren't enough to motivate players to stay.
The NES port of Contra immediately had a wider aspect ratio, as home TVs utilized the standard 4:3 ratio. This opened up the game speed, which vastly improved the sense of action. More stages were added to extend the game. Due to the wider real estate, two-player co-op felt more natural, and it was easier to see what was going on. Up until this game, two player co-op games on the NES were uninspired. This is the game that really set the bar for what co-op gameplay could and should be on a home console. The variety of weapons, the precision platforming, the colorful graphics and catchy soundtrack all contribute to one of the best games on the NES. The rigor of the arcade was kept intact, but with enough practice and memorization, you could eventually beat the game. You could also use the Konami code (30 lives), if you just wanted to power through without practice. For some, even 30 lives aren't enough.
Ninja Gaiden
The arcade version of Ninja Gaiden is a beat'em up game with some fairly detailed graphics for the time. The joystick had a small red button at the top, used to grip and hold onto environmental structures so that you could swing and flip. It may also be notable for its gruesome continue screens, threatening to cut open your protagonist with a saw blade if you don't continue. The fighting animation was neat as your combination of kicks and punches were seamless and fluid. My favorite move was flipping over an enemy and simultaneously grabbing him by the neck and throwing him upon landing. This would become necessary to learn if you wanted to survive for any length of time. Otherwise, it was a fairly standard brawler.
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| The cut scenes for the NES version fo Ninja Gaiden were ground breaking |
The game was changed completely when ported to the NES. No longer is the game about beating up everyone you see, it now is an action platformer. You can scale walls by jumping back and forth between them, a skill that becomes refined as you progress. Your sprite has been reduced, and a sword is now your main attack. Weapons can be picked up, and rely on magic points for their use (like hearts in Castlevania). Enemies don't offer much of a challenge themselves, but their placement and movement is where the difficulty arises from. This game can get hard, as enemy respawn more frequently than in any other game that I've seen. The boss battles start out farily easy, but the difficult ramps up considerably in later levels. It is beatable, but memorization, precision platforming, and resource management are an absolute must. The game takes on a movie-like presentation with many cut scenes between stages to carry the plot. For the time of its release, it was an impressive feat. Despite its high level of difficulty, it is a fun game that is engaging, and more memorable than its arcade origin.
Bionic Commando
The Bionic Commando arcade game was a weird and half-baked platformer with ideas that didn't really come to fruition. Instead of a jump, your avatar is equipped with a bionic arm that reaches out like a grappling hook, and allows you to swing over objects and chasms. It was notable for being original, and against the norm. In the span of time that a quarter buys you, you'll likely still have not adjusted to the mechanics of the grappling arm. This does not motivate one to keep pressing on. More likely, you would have decided a different arcade game deserved your quarter. It was a neat idea, just not one suited for quick plays in an arcade game.
Capcom realized their mistake, and changed to tone of the game into an item-based adventure game. Weapon upgrades, increasing health bar, an overhead map, and cut scenes carrying the plot were all added to slow down the pace and make the game last. The demands of the grappling mechanic are gradually ramped up as you progress, giving you time to increase your skills. The slower pace and somewhat obtuse directives given by allies over wired communications require some thought and problem solving, contributing to its sense of adventure. Various items will be needed for progressions, upgraded weapons can be found, and your life bar can be increased by collecting "pills" that enemies drop. There is a map screen, on which you direct your transport helicopter. There are main stages under enemy control, and neutral zones where you can collect items and information. These neutral zones do not allow hostilities, so you cannot fire your weapon, even if it appears that an enemy is rushing towards you! Also on the map are enemy transports, and if your transport and an enemy transport cross paths, you will engage them in battle via overhead screen, a nod to the original commando. The benefit of battling through these is to pick up continues, as the game is long, and gets rather difficult near the end. The original Japanese version had the Nazis as the enemies, led by Hitler himself. When the game was localized, direct references to the Nazis were altered, except for the sprite of Hitler at the end. What an end it is.
So, those are five of the best examples of games that were improved upon porting to a home console that I have direct experience with. What are some other examples?
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