Arcade Ports - Better or Worse?

Hey g1s. Today, I want to talk about arcade games, and their ports to the home consoles. Are the ports usually better, or worse? ScrewAttack mostly thinks that they’re worse, and I can’t really blame them for thinking that way. Since arcades are practically dead nowadays, this blog is usually going to be referring to the good old days when arcades were still popular, and not the arcades we see today.

First off, let’s ask this: Why must arcade games, and console ports differ? Why can’t they be the exact same? Well, for one thing, there is the issue of CD, and cartridge size. Back in the day, those arcade games with high quality graphics, and sound could never be ported to the old cartridge based systems the way they originally were. Obviously, things had to be downgraded a lot. That doesn’t mean all the games had to be bad though. Ninja Gaiden on the NES might not have looked as good as the arcade version, but it was still an excellent game, and the graphics were great for the NES as well. Street Fighter 2 on the Super Nintendo, and Genesis may not have looked, or sounded as good as the arcade version, but it still played great, and was a lot of fun. Same thing goes for other games such as Contra, and Killer Instinct. Other games however, were negatively affected by this issue such as Primal Rage. The port from the arcade to the Super Nintendo, and Genesis made the game a lot worse than the original arcade version. Since there wasn’t enough room on the cartridge, not only did they have to downgrade the graphics, and sound, but they also took away things that made the game fun such as special attacks, and fatalities.

So, now we are done with cartridges, and have entered the era of CD based gaming, so you would think that the problem would be solved now, and that the arcade ports can now be how they originally were on the arcades right? Well, not exactly. Now, there is a problem of how much data an arcade CD holds, and how much a console CD holds. They can usually hold the same amount, but it is common for a CD on a console to take up more space than an arcade does, because a lot of new extra options, and features must be added. For example, take the game Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike. The arcade version was just either you playing against the computers, or another human player. When it got ported to consoles, a lot of new options had to be added as well as new features such as training mode, and unlockables, or else there wouldn’t be much replay value. By doing this, the developers did have to change the music, and graphics a bit, so that everything would fit. With Street Fighter 4 already out in the arcades, I’m betting there will be a lot of extra features added in that game as well once it gets ported to the home consoles, so it might look a bit different than it does in the arcades, but since the game is being released on consoles with better hardware than we previously had, they might be able to handle it, and keep the graphics the same as they were.

CD, and cartridge size isn’t the only reason for arcade ports being different though. Developers think that they have to change things when they port arcade games to the consoles, and think they’re making things better when they’re actually making it worse. Let’s refer back to another Street Fighter game: Street Fighter EX 2 Plus. I really liked the music in the arcade version of this game. It was awesome, but when I heard the PlayStation version of the music, it was a lot worse than the arcade version. It still sounds decent, but not nearly as good as the arcade version did. I don’t really see any reason the developers would want to change the music anyways. They must have been out of their minds if they thought the new music sounded better than the original music did. Maybe they wanted to reduce the amount of size the music took up on the disc. That’s the only reason I can think of, but I would much rather they took out some of the useless features, and put that great music in instead.

Now, I’m not saying all games get worse when developers change things. There are some exceptions. U.N. Squadron on the Super Nintendo was actually superior to the original arcade version. They changed the graphics, and sound, and actually made it better. Another example would be SoulCalibur. The Dreamcast version of the game also had improved graphics, and sound, and a lot of new modes to play in, which made it better than its arcade counterpart.

Another thing that makes arcade ports different from the originals is the actual way you play them. By this, I mean the controls. If you play a racing game in an arcade, you actually get to use a steering wheel, and gas pedals. When racing games get ported to home consoles, you have to use the controller, or buy the necessary peripherals. Even Stuttering Craig said in his VGV of 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker that the game sucked, because it didn’t have the steering wheel. Not all racing games are this way, but not having the steering wheel does take away from the fun. The same thing goes for rail gun shooters. It’s much funner to play a game like The House of the Dead in the arcades with an actual gun in your hand than using a controller. Just like what HighSchool Ben said about Target: Terror in The Scoop!

As for the really old arcade games such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Space Invaders, there’s not much to say. Even the Atari 2600 was able to handle games like those. You don’t see many ports of those games nowadays. The ports you do see of those games are usually arcade collections, but with the Xbox Live Arcade, we have seen a lot of great arcade games make a comeback.

All in all, arcade games do get worse sometimes when developers try to change things, or they can get better. It all depends on the developers, and what the actual game is. I’m really looking forward to the release of Street Fighter 4 on the consoles, and I hope they don’t change many things to make the game worse than the arcade version. That’s all I have to say for now. Thanks for reading. See you next time g1s.