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[Neonivek]

The general idea of a parody is to play up all the bad parts of something so heavily that it becomes good (as well as using this to satirize the medium), therein invoking "so bad it's good."

There is however a large difference between the Parody and "So bad its good".

As otherwise I'd have to get hundreds of "bad" games that are actually good because they are comedies. (Also Satire and Parody are seperate things that are somewhat similar)

However the best way to put it is... Was Duke Nukem legitimately bad in any aspect? It had strippers and it had cheesy dialog... but otherwise it was a solid game.

So Bad Its Good are generally terrible things that don't hold up on its own except with how bad it actually is (or sometimes the combination of legitimately good elements with TERRIBLE ones).

Or rather: Comedy =/= Bad

Mind you Parodies CAN be "So bad its good".

[TheBronzePickle]

Duke Nukem honestly isn't what I'd call a parody. It took all the stuff that was supposedly "bad" and made a good game out of it. I guess you could call it a deconstruction.

[Dakk]

Well nobody played duke nukem for the plot, it was for the offensive jokes and the gameplay. Mind you, duke nukem's multiplayer was pretty fun at its time.

Anyway, Lets Plays of bad games can be pretty fun to watch.

[Siquo]

I chose the right example. Duke3D was so different in it's time.

It had so many different things that each of them now has a whole game dedicated to that single thing (jetpacks, shrink ray, pipebombs, hologram, laser trip mines, entirely different weapons). It was too good to be a parody, and still it was.

[mainiac]

I feel like the first post of this was great and he had some things to say in the next fewq but at this point he is just running down a checklist of cliche complaints about cliche.  At the meta level, he is rapidly turning into a reflection of that which he dislikes.

[Neonivek]

I feel like the first post of this was great and he had some things to say in the next fewq but at this point he is just running down a checklist of cliche complaints about cliche.  At the meta level, he is rapidly turning into a reflection of that which he dislikes.

The issue with cliches is that they become cliche by virtue of actually working. Cliches become bad when they start to become boring or predictible.

I once saw a tv show that once uttarly destroyed the cliche of the tragic ending simply by telling you it happened the episode before it actually managed to happen (and it worked too, the focus stopped being on the tragic death but more with how the characters handled it)

[TheBronzePickle]

This is basically my philosophy on cliches. (TVTropes warning)

[Sappho]

I think Mother 3 is the best example I can come up with for the "right way" to do video game writing. It wasn't perfect, of course, and the ending was rather abrupt and less satisfying than I expected, but the experience of playing the game really sucked me in. Rather than starting with "an evil wizard has awoken and you have been chosen to save the world," you start off in a peaceful, happy village. You get to know the characters, which are well-written, and become attached to them. Then something bad happens and you lose people you've already bonded with. And then everything starts to change, over time. The chapter system does a good job of showing how time passes and making the events feel more real, like they have actual consequences. There's no real "choices," but as an interactive storytelling exercise it's made of win. Add good, original gameplay, great music, and emotional scenes, and I think that might have been the best game I ever played, based on writing alone.

I don't want to spoil any more of it for those who haven't played it yet, but has anyone else enjoyed this one as much as me? I think it could serve as a good example of the "right" way to write a game, to contrast all the general criticisms of most game writing.

[a1s]

I think Mother 3 is the best example

Wait.. they finally released an English version? Or did you mean Mother 2?

[UltraValican]

I think Mother 3 is the best example

Wait.. they finally released an English version? Or did you mean Mother 2?

A fan made english translation was made and distributed.

[a1s]

I guess I'll go... uh... buy that then. Do I need to know what happened in the first 2 games, or should I just dive right in?

[Sappho]

Dive in. It stands alone.

[Darvi]

The only thing connecting the three games are the final bosses, nothing more.

[Virex]

Another example of games that were good in spite of, or maybe even because of these points would be Devil may cry 1 and 3. They wouldn't be the same without the cliché characters.

[Neonivek]

What the Earthbound series does best I think is that it is the only RPG that is truely a "Growing up" story.

It is about the characters essentially growing up.

Another example of games that were good in spite of, or maybe even because of these points would be Devil may cry 1 and 3. They wouldn't be the same without the cliché characters

Actually I sort of really liked the character of Dante in Devil May Cry and for the time he was FAR from Cliche.

He really was the calm before the storm and where other characters would be crying or going mad with anger, he was calmly and stylishly fighting through everyone.

The first game in the series REALLY sticks out as much different then all the other games.