Best Rivalries Between Games

[PainInTheAssInternet]

I mean games that are competing with each other and display it with something in-game.

My favourite is between the Driver franchise and GTA. You know that game Driver: San Francisco game that Yahtzee likes? That is the most recent game in the Driver series that was attempting to dethrone GTA. Given that you've likely never heard of the Driver franchise, guess who won. In a hilariously one-sided fist fight.

Both acknowledged this in their own way.

In GTA III, there is a mission called "Two-Faced Tanner" in reference to the protagonist of the Driver series. They call him a strangely animated undercover cop who is useless outside his car in reference to the fact you can't get out of your car and his awkward walking animations in the first two games. You end up killing the cop, who is actually named Tanner.

For an easter egg in DRIV3R, you go around the three cities shooting 10 guys in each place. These guys are named Timmy Vermicelli, who wears an offensive Hawaiian shirt and inflatable arm rings in reference to Tommy Vercetti's inability to swim. Incidentally, DRIV3R's swimming mechanic sucked.

In 2001, GTA 3 sold 17.5 million copies. In 2005, GTA Liberty City Stories sold 8 million copies. DRIV3R was nominated for worst game of 2005.

In DRIV3R's defence, they went for a realistic aesthetic that GTA would end up following. I will say that they couldn't' shut up about how awesome the game looked, even though the draw distance was shit. Parallel Lines then improved the whole idea which you would see in GTA 4 and 5.

By Driver: Parallel Lines (4th in the series), they had evidently given up and just went full-on GTA clone.

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2006/03/15/driver-parallel-lines

What's your favourite rivalry between games?

 

[havoc33]

The Tekken vs Virtua Fighter used to be a good one. And Mario vs Sonic. And then Metroid and Halo went head to head (sort of) for a while... Many people will probably point to Forza vs GT though.

 

[Evonisia]

Battlefield 4 was absolutely pathetic. I hate Call of Duty: Ghosts, but you know a game is sad and desperate for fan support when the very first action scene is a soldier punching a German Shephard in the face.

Oh well, as much as I hate Ghosts, at least it wasn't the buggy, broken, horrible mess that was Battlefield 4. At least Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3 were equally as awful. Oh and I guess Medal of Battlefield: Doorfighter was against Black Ops II but... no, let's not acknowledge that that game ever happened.

 

[Burchy22]

Well its not exactly a rivalry but I like what went on between DmC: Devil may cry and Metal gear rising, released in only a month apart.
Ninja theory got some well deserved backlash (Even if they did try their hardest to sweep it under the rug and lie about the reason) but still managed to release the pretty good game, DmC. But then a month later Platinum released MGR and showed Ninja theory how to really make a stylistic hack n' slash game and just laughed DmC out of memory.

 

[carnex]

Street Fighter and King of Fighters Series.
Not only there is entire character dedicated to mocking competition but also stealing of systems went between companies and it all resulted in set of great games (Capcom VS SNK, Capcom VS SNK2, SNK vs Capcom and two Card fighters clash games).
Hands down best game rivalry for me.

 

[Casual Shinji]

There used to be a pretty big rivalry between Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell... untill, you know, one of them stopped existing.

 

[Euryalus]

The Tekken vs Virtua Fighter used to be a good one. And Mario vs Sonic. And then Metroid and Halo went head to head (sort of) for a while... Many people will probably point to Forza vs GT though.

When did Metroid and Halo go head to head? When did they ever even make a small reference to each other? Apart from the power armor of the characters and the fact that they're space "shooters" in the sense that you shoot, they're not even very similar.

I mean I know there was Haloid, but an actual rivalry/competition?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I wonder how much of a rivalry there was between Resident Evil and Silent Hill...

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

The Tekken vs Virtua Fighter used to be a good one. And Mario vs Sonic. And then Metroid and Halo went head to head (sort of) for a while... Many people will probably point to Forza vs GT though.

When did Metroid and Halo go head to head? When did they ever even make a small reference to each other? Apart from the power armor of the characters and the fact that they're space "shooters" in the sense that you shoot, they're not even very similar.

I mean I know there was Haloid, but an actual rivalry/competition?

Besides fan fiction things like Haloid, I think he's referring to the stupid 2004 advertising campaigns that mirrored each other when Metroid Prime 2 and Halo 2 were about to come out. Halo had that viral ilovebees alternate reality game and Ninty responded with ilovebeams. Both were FPSes with people in powered armor (well MP was less about aiming your boomstick and more about "How should I fight this nasty creature drooling in front of me?"), but game play all around was very different. Surprisingly enough, Ninty learned their lesson(as far as I know) and didn't compete directly with Halo 3 in 2007 despite Metroid Prime 3's controls being similar to the typical FPS setup.

captcha: bait the line
Captcha, are you accusing me of flame bating the thread?

 

[LysanderNemoinis]

I wonder how much of a rivalry there was between Resident Evil and Silent Hill...

Not as much as you'd think. While I'm certainly much more of an RE fan (I have every game in the series except for one), I love Silent Hill too. They're both survival horror but I've always considered RE more realistic - in the sense that all the creatures were made by scientific means, while SH was surreal horror with more of a focus on supernatural elements. I've never encountered much hatred on one side or the other, though I must say Silent Hill fans are one of the elitist fandoms out there.

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

I wonder how much of a rivalry there was between Resident Evil and Silent Hill...

Not as much as you'd think. While I'm certainly much more of an RE fan (I have every game in the series except for one), I love Silent Hill too. They're both survival horror but I've always considered RE more realistic - in the sense that all the creatures were made by scientific means, while SH was surreal horror with more of a focus on supernatural elements. I've never encountered much hatred on one side or the other, though I must say Silent Hill fans are one of the elitist fandoms out there.

I just got Silent Hill 2 on PS2. Yet to play it. From what everyone was saying, I thought SH focused more on the psychological failings of the main character rather than supernatural phenomena. What am I in for?

 

[FrozenCones]

I just got Silent Hill 2 on PS2. Yet to play it. From what everyone was saying, I thought SH focused more on the psychological failings of the main character rather than supernatural phenomena. What am I in for?

The way I perceive the game is that the town is almost its own living entity. It creates a personal nightmare for the protagonist in which their negative emotions and psychological flaws are manifested as supernatural beings.

Im pretty sure i'm just paraphrasing Yatzee pretty hard right now.

 

[LysanderNemoinis]

I wonder how much of a rivalry there was between Resident Evil and Silent Hill...

Not as much as you'd think. While I'm certainly much more of an RE fan (I have every game in the series except for one), I love Silent Hill too. They're both survival horror but I've always considered RE more realistic - in the sense that all the creatures were made by scientific means, while SH was surreal horror with more of a focus on supernatural elements. I've never encountered much hatred on one side or the other, though I must say Silent Hill fans are one of the elitist fandoms out there.

I just got Silent Hill 2 on PS2. Yet to play it. From what everyone was saying, I thought SH focused more on the psychological failings of the main character rather than supernatural phenomena. What am I in for?

Honestly, the series seems to bounce back and forth on that. Silent Hill Origins, 1, 3, and Homecoming are centered around occult stuff one Cthulhu fhtagn away from a lawsuit. SH2, 4, and Shattered Memories are focused on the psychological horror side of things. But seriously, SH2 is absolutely bloody brilliant. Hope you have the Restless Dreams version as it has a very interesting prequel section and some additional endings (though those aren't that important). I'd definitely recommend Homecoming and Shattered Memories as well. Some people like 4, but personally I think it's a massive turd.

 

[Azure23]

Back in the PS2 days my friends and I would constantly argue about whether Jak and Daxter or Ratchet and Clank was better. I always liked the Jak narratives better but Ratchet had all those great guns. Luckily for my nostalgia we live in a day and age were every classic gets an hd rerelease, recently got both collections. (And Shadow of the Colossus, and FFX, and Kingdom Hearts, yay childhood memories!)

 

[joest01]

Well its not exactly a rivalry but I like what went on between DmC: Devil may cry and Metal gear rising, released in only a month apart.
Ninja theory got some well deserved backlash (Even if they did try their hardest to sweep it under the rug and lie about the reason) but still managed to release the pretty good game, DmC. But then a month later Platinum released MGR and showed Ninja theory how to really make a stylistic hack n' slash game and just laughed DmC out of memory.

I think both games are actually on the same side of another rivalry: technical hack'n'slash vs GoW style button mash/qte oriented hack'n'slash. If there was a rivalry on the technical side of things it would be between DmC/Bayonetta on one side and Ninja Gaiden on the other. MGR:R is the new kid on the block and basically showing the finger to all of them (although by the same dev as Bayonetta, right?).

Someone mentioned Resident Evil and Silent Hill and that is a good one although I feel this one was healthy competition and helped them define their genre together. And the difference is really quite subtle. SH just ever so slighty shifts odds against you to encourage running/avoiding vs fighting and ends up being scarier but probably a little less fun to play?