Ethan Loch wrote on 01/16/20 at 01:05:45:
The moves work.
Down there, as far as I can see anyway.
hoohohoh its on now, B, I might be back to take that record some day.
I have recently played TM3 and TM4 again, and have come to the conclusion that TM2 sucks, objectively, in every possible way except story. I dunno about how it hangs against HO or 2012, but as far as ps1 TM games go TM2 is probably the worst, if not TM1.
The moves in 3&4 do work, all of the time, as opposed to tm2's combo moves which often refuse to work, regardless of the speed I input them in. It gets worse in splitscreen. I believe it has something to do with the framerate, as I've noticed the handling of my car got weird too when the performance dropped. I've also had grasshopper and slam's special miss for no reason, even if the opponent is perfectly in range. I've even seen the AI waste grasshopper's special and just jump in front of me but never home in.
The AI in tm2 is both mindless and completely broken, using infinite freeze missiles and other weapons whenever they want half of the time, and the other half dropping ricochets and hitting themselves with them. Axel and outlaw using their special 300 times is most noticable bc they dont shut up when they use them.
I'm convinced the AI do almost no damage, if any at all, to eachother, taking away any sense of a FFA atmosphere.
There's no reason everyone in holland should be alive after 2 minutes or so of running around, or an AI who you let run off with a tiny sliver of health but they never die. Especially after playing tm3 and wondering where certain AI went.
The physics make no sense, I can do a 180 mid air and as soon as I hit the ground I'll shoot off into the direction I'm facing when I land, unless i tap handbrake mid-air. Love getting stuck on invisible walls too, especially ones that the game lets me ride through right after they stop me.
The game looks like dogshit, and the framerate is atrocious, especially compared to the 989 TM games and Jet Moto 3, they could have done so much better, even on ps1, but they didn't.
Compare it to tm3&4, where the AI do all sorts of insane but fair and strategic moves, the combos you do
w o r k as intended, I can knock people over/be knocked over in TM3, and do crazy air-turbo shortcuts in tm4. How I hit bumps can make my car barrel roll for real, and I can predict and control it. Its a bit weird at first but once I got the hang of it, I really appreciated the actual physics engine, and it was never ever painful to play, unlike tm2 which I wanted so hard to like, but it was painful to try and play through. Nothing in tm3 or tm4 ever broke the flow of gameplay, if I got up against a wall I could jump off it, and if I got knocked off early on I could hyperspace. There's nothing like racing thumper for the health in tm3 and just barely grabbing it before he does. Or the AI knocking you over and then turboing off for the health.
The endings I've seen so far were kind of lame in tm3, and awful in tm4, save for a gem or two, but I liked the calypso track intros, and the track design itself was much nicer in tm3, even the "eh" tracks like hangar 18 or egypt really are interesting and fun to play, and are much better than a literal flat plane or a bowl. The tracks in tm4 are nice and varied too, and I love the unlockable ones. TM4 is a bit more quantity over quality but the quality isnt horrible either, and the create-a-car system is great fun. The remappable controls in tm4 should be a must for every game imo.
I wish I could say tm2 was fun despite its flaws, but when it comes down to life or death and the shield
decides not to work or the AI
decide to shoot 300 freeze missiles for free, or I get stuck on an invisible wall bc the collision decides to crap out for no reason, it ruins the game. It's a shame bc I grew up with it and used to love it as a kid, and part of me still does, because when it works it can be really fun, but the flaws make it so painful, its just not worth it. A good game is fun even when you lose. If only I knew when I was a kid how shit it really was. It might be better online, but I highly doubt it.
Objectively speaking, TM3 and TM4 are much much better, at least gameplay-wise, than TM2.
3 and 4 are very similar, yet play different enough to where they feel like different games, and I like playing both, and they're both good in their own way.