Do you like any non-SEGA Developers?

[SEGA RedWolf]

Non Sega companies are few and little but let me think...

Platinum Games - Bayonetta, Vanquish, MGR, Anarchy Reigns/Madworld
Treasure - Guardian Heroes, Dynamite Headdy, Ikaruga, Alien Soldier
Valve - Portal
Atlus - SMT Games including Persona
From Software - Dark Souls, Otogi series

[Nameless 24]

Atlus - SMT Games including Persona

Ugh, ATLUS treat Europeans like shit. I bought Trauma Centre once and I couldn't get past one part on the second chapter...turns out that it was a bug that wasn't fixed.

That put me off of Atlus, I have Persona 4 but not played it much.

[ungibbed]

Non Sega companies are few and little but let me think...

Platinum Games - Bayonetta, Vanquish, MGR, Anarchy Reigns/Madworld
Treasure - Guardian Heroes, Dynamite Headdy, Ikaruga, Alien Soldier
Valve - Portal
Atlus - SMT Games including Persona
From Software - Dark Souls, Otogi series

Props for remembering Otogi on the old Xbox. It was such a beautiful game that was quickly forgotten far too easily. I loved Japanese support on the old monster, as the Nvidia GPU (custom GeForce 3 design) had made that game into a visual candy land! I long for a HD remake but it never got the popularity or love that it should have gotten.

If I haven't mentioned a existing developer that really deserves credit for being plain awesome, it was Zyrinx. Head to head against Treasure, it would be hard to choose a winner for special effects coding on the Genesis/Mega Drive

[3raser]

Why are people mentioning EA? That company just takes over every other third party company that it can find, then they make terrible games with it.

[TimmiT]

Platinum Games - Possibly my favorite developer right now. Love the ridiculousness of their games.

Nintendo - I know they have multiple developers there, but most of them are great enough that they may as well be under the same lable. Mario Galaxy 2 is possibly my favorite platformer of all time.

Criterion Games - Developer of the Burnout series. Sadly because of EA being EA, they're now mostly working on new Need for Speed games. And while their NFS games are still really good and are actually a lot like their Burnout games (Most Wanted especially), it feels like they're also limited by the brand. Just compare Burnout Paradise and NFS: Most Wanted, you can see that they could go a lot more crazy with Paradise. Regardless, they're still a great developer and a bright spot in EA's list of developers, at least until EA fucks them over.

Double Fine Productions - Though the gameplay in their games can be lacking, they're some of the best when it comes to style, character and humor. I do kinda wish they'd make more big retail games, but their smaller games are still great. The only game by them that I found disappointing was The Cave, which was just tedious to get through and pretty hit or miss when it came to the humor.

Telltale Games - Yup, Walking Dead is great, but I honestly enjoyed some of the other episodic games before it more. Specifically Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse. Their Sam & Max games are pretty good in general, besides the first couple of episodes of the first season. Their Monkey Island, Strong Bad, Puzzle Agent and Wallace & Gromit games are great as well. The Back to the Future and Jurassic Park games were disappointing though, especially the latter.

Capcom - When they aren't being shitty. Put them here mostly because of Mega Man and Ace Attorney.

Naughty Dog - I love Crash Bandicoot, the first Jak & Daxter and the Uncharted games. The Last of Us also looks incredible. I consider Jak 2 to be one of the worst sequels ever though, and I haven't played Jak 3 nor Jak X.

Valve - They made Half-Life 2, Portal 1 & 2, Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead 1 & 2. Enough said.

Bizarre Creations - RIP. I consider Blur to be the best kart racer out there, along with Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Makes sense that Transformed that directed by the lead designer of Blur . Also PGR and Geometry Wars.

[crackdude]

Why are people mentioning EA? That company just takes over every other third party company that it can find, then they make terrible games with it.

I mentioned EA Sports. They are a group of studios inside EA that make high-profile AAA sports games. I don't care about anything else. Other EA games I enjoy are from bought devs (Bioware, Criterion, etc)

[CrazyT]

I respect nintendo a lot. They treat their IP's with a lot of care and not as cash ins. Also they don't let themselves be intimidated by the dumb mass media. Glad they never got on the shooter bandwagon. Even the shooter they have (MEtroid prime) doesnt play like a traditional shooter.

[Trippled]

Capcom Production House 4/Clover/Platinum

Nintendo

will always be my faves

[Nameless 24]

Nintendo - I know they have multiple developers there, but most of them are great enough that they may as well be under the same lable. Mario Galaxy 2 is possibly my favorite platformer of all time.

That is true, but I think of Intelligent Systems is one of Nintendo's more niche catering developers. I think of them like SEGA's AM2 in some ways (although AM2 isn't my favourite SEGA Dev team, that honour goes to Overworks) as they always have games that aren't traditional Nintendo, but the franchises themselves are mature enough to know what to expect from them.

WarioWare on the GC, Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, Super Metroid (when they were co-operating with SPD?) as well as Paper Mario have convinced me that IS is a developer Nintendo needs to hang onto if they have any chance of appealing to the Hardcore Market.

I do like Nintendo's other developers (bar Brownie Brown, who either make sub-par games or games not released in the West (Europe) such as Earthbound), but I think IS is pretty much the only Nintendo team that makes games almost to SEGA's riskier qualities (not quite there of course since IS relies on FE/Paper Mario far too much).

Regarding EA, I really don't understand why they can't give their developers a break when it comes to their lesser known franchises. Dead Space 3 was changed drastically to make more money (but they were okay with DS1&2 sales?). They effectively annoyed the Mass Effect fanbase, killed off Dragon Age and any potential for Mirrors Edge 2 (I found it way too hard). I wish EA were put in their place because they have been diabolical lately.

[Aki-at]

I respect nintendo a lot. They treat their IP's with a lot of care and not as cash ins. Also they don't let themselves be intimidated by the dumb mass media. Glad they never got on the shooter bandwagon. Even the shooter they have (MEtroid prime) doesnt play like a traditional shooter.

I don't mean to say Nintendo is a bad developer, but their countless spinoffs amount to cashins. Sure they are usually good, but it is what it is, no?

[TimmiT]

I don't mean to say Nintendo is a bad developer, but their countless spinoffs amount to cashins. Sure they are usually good, but it is what it is, no?

I don't see a problem with cash-in spin-offs if they're made well. It's still better than what other companies do with their spin-off games. Specifically SEGA and Sonic spin-offs that are usually at best mediocre. (A couple of exceptions of course being the All-Stars Racing games and the gift from god that is Sonic R)

[Aki-at]

I don't see a problem with cash-in spin-offs if they're made well. It's still better than what other companies do with their spin-off games. Specifically SEGA and Sonic spin-offs that are usually at best mediocre. (A couple of exceptions of course being the All-Stars Racing games and the gift from god that is Sonic R)

I was not saying it is a bad thing, but Nintendo is as guilty of it as anyone else for spinoffs, they do have a higher standard of quality as you mentioned. I just do not believe this notion Nintendo is holier then thou, they do a lot of stuff other publishers are attacked for (Lack of new IPs, countless spinoffs, price fixing etc) only they're games are very well made so often it's overlooked.

[George]

I really used to like Capcom, but now they suck.

[Nameless 24]

I was not saying it is a bad thing, but Nintendo is as guilty of it as anyone else for spinoffs, they do have a higher standard of quality as you mentioned. I just do not believe this notion Nintendo is holier then thou, they do a lot of stuff other publishers are attacked for (Lack of new IPs, countless spinoffs, price fixing etc) only they're games are very well made so often it's overlooked.

Exactly, Nintendo get away with quite a bit because of the fanbase.

I had a scenario where I recommended a Fire Emblem nut Valkyria Chronicles but they held off of it...but when a fellow FE nut recommends another SRPG...oh yeah, they jump straight on it!

It irks me when you show them a game that is similar to a Nintendo franchise but they won't jump on it as it's either NOT on a Nintendo console OR it's another Nintendo game that plays similar...

In comparison to this, I tried FE out myself and I like it overall...but my god man...I still think VC and FE offer unique things in a SRPG...why don't people try both out instead of hesitating because it's SEGA or Konami (as an example), but it's okay if it's from Square or Nintendo?

[crackdude]

Nintendo sucks. The only still worthwhile franchise is Metroid (maybe Pikmin too), and they mishandled it (them) badly. Nobody takes Nintendo seriously anymore.

Go on and bash me for liking EA and not Nintendo. EA makes appealing games, Nintendo doesn't. They only reason people still like Nintendo is because (A) they never played games before and Nintendo games are first-timers friendly or (B) they played Nintendo as kids.

The later is the main reason all of us are Sega fans as well. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it also doesn't mean all Nintendo shits out is gold. It is the number 1 reason most Nintendo games are overrated on the gaming press as well.