Who here played TRON 2.0, and did enjoy it?

[Ghost]

Hello everyone,

Does any remember this older PC FPS game made by Monolith?
It was a sequel to the Eighties Disney movie TRON, and was to tie in to the movie of the same name.

Unfortunate for some reason Buena Vista/Disney decided to cancel the movie and only released the game, which I my opinion wasn't bad.
The little bastard could be very annoying from time to time but in general I did enjoy playing the game and I liked the art style of the world.

I actually picked up the game for only Ten Euro at a sales table of a big store, it probably had ended up there are the game failed to sell for full price, I don't think most gamers were much aware of its existence or felt that it could not compete with other games of the same genre.

Regarding the developer Monolith, I do feel that they belong on the list of great FPS developers such as Raven, ID software, and Valve.
They put some real work in the worlds they design and one thing I liked in Aliens VS Predator 2, TRON 2.0, and FEAR are the logs and messages a la Deus Ex you come across which give you more details about the location and the people who worked.


Why am I bringing up this game?
Well today while going through the games section of a local toy store I found its Gameboy Advance counterpart amongst the budget games for only 5 Euros.
It had a nice looking box which made it stand out for me and the price isn't that much that you have to worry that it is bad.

And it is not that bad either, okay it probably doesn't stand out much amongst other games for the GBA during the time it was released but it is enjoyable.

Unlike TRON 2.0 for the PC, in TRON 2.0 KILLER APP you don't play the role of Jet, but rather the original TRON program from the first movie who was put in stasis after the defeat of the MCP.

Now decades later a hacker has infiltrated the computer network of the company of the first movie and has unleashed a virus generating program called the Corrupter which is out to take control of the network for it's user.

The game is divided between 3D platforming, a First Person Shooter, and a couple of minigames that player has to complete.
All and all a nice combination.

[Harrison]

I played Tron 2.0 on the PC when if first came out and agree with you that is was a very good game. It got quite a lot of coverage in the UK and some good reviews. It managed to capture the style and atmosphere of the original film well and is definitely the best game based on the franchise to date.

I've not played or heard about the GBA Tron game. I might dig the rom out and give it a go at some point as I always enjoy any game based on Tron. :)

[Ghost]

Hello Harrison,

After checking the internet it seems both versions did rather well, of course the PC version is the most superior one but most reviews for the GBA version say that it is okay.

Reasons for sometimes not scoring higher is because of the difficult jumping sometimes and the fact that game in general doesn't stand out (3D platform).

One thing I do like is that both developers have made their own stories for the game rather than sticking to a general one.
For me that often justifies buying different versions of the same game, if you buy a console version of the PC game and you discover that it simply follows everything in that game you often don't feel like playing and completing it anymore.

[Harrison]

That is a very good point. Having completely different stories but set in the same universe can make it a very good reason to purchase a game across multiple platforms. Although it does also go the other way where owners of one platform may feel they are being treated unfairly for not receiving a port of the same game, but instead a similar game but with a different story. Personally as I own most platforms it wouldn't be an issue but many can only afford a single flatform.

[Ghost]

I know that pain.
When I was young I was a big Sonic fan, I had played all the Megadrive games and the first Master System game.
It annoyed me a lot that I could not play the other Master System games or the Game Gear games, and later the Mega CD game and the Arcade games (yes there was a Sonic Arcade game).

At the time I simply could not afford a Mega CD, let alone an arcade cabinet.
Years later of course I discovered emulation and through it played the games I wanted so much all those years ago.

To be honest I discovered I hadn't missed so much after all


Sometimes the problem with different versions of a game can be that you do not know which is the 'main' game as the stories can sometimes conflict with each other.

To me it always seems that the versions for the portable consoles are side stories while the games for the main consoles and the PC are the main stories.
These days sometimes the portable console versions serve either as a Prologue or to finish of a storyline that was started in the main game like for example the Final Fantasy games or Metal Gear Solid.

That makes these games even more worth playing, in some cases the portable version is superior to its 'parent' because designers really got the hang of it after developing that version.


As you might know Harrison, Nintendo had link up between its Gameboy Advance and the Game Cube with which new content could be opened in games for both machines.
It is a shame that nothing ever significant was done with it.

[Harrison]

It is true that the GBA link up wasn't utilised nearly as much as it should have been, although it was used well in Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, and to a lessor extent in Zelda.

The Dreamcast VMU was used to more effect though with the ability to download mini games you could play away from the main console, and then connect back up to unlock features within the main game. This was best used in Sonic Adventure, but was also utilised in many other games. Sadly a large proportion of the better uses of the VMU were only in Japanese only released.

Lets hope that Sony and the games developers manage to pull something off that is special for the PSP to PS3 wireless connection. At least they have had some prior experience in this area with the Japanese only PocketStation that was released for the original Playstation. If you haven't seen these, they are like a regular Playstation memory card, but with an LCD screen and controls similar to the Dreamcast VMU, and used for much the same purpose, to download little games to play away from the main system. It was never released outside of Japan but was quite popular there and had quite a few games supporting it.

[Demon Cleaner]

I liked the arcade version of Tron. I never played the FPS on PC, as I don't like FPS very much.