RetroGaming

19213 readers

1 users here now

Vintage gaming community.

Rules:

Be kind.
No spam or soliciting for money.
No racism or other bigotry allowed.
Obviously nothing illegal.

If you see these please report them.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Any games you wish you grew up with? (pawb.social)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

49 comments fedilink hide all child comments

So I assume many of us have played some games for the first time long after their release date. Like, maybe you didn't have a specific console growing up so we didn't play the "classics" on it, or something.

I'm just wondering how many of you have played an older game and thought "wow, I wish I grew up with this game"?

For example, for me, many years ago I played Super Metroid for the first time and fell in love with the idea of just wandering aimlessly around the game world, occasionally stumbling into new areas. I would have loved to have played it as a kid with childlike wonder without worrying about finishing the game or making progress.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Ooh, great question! Super Metroid is one for me too. I love metroidvanias now, and really enjoyed the nonlinear / exploration elements of Super Mario World, but I didn't play a proper metroidvania until my teens. I think I'd take CV:SotN over Super Metroid, but I bet I'd have been more than happy with either.

I wish I grew up with some OG gameboy RPGs. Final Fantasy Legend, Dragon Warrior Monsters, Crystalis. They were just a bit too far before my time for me to get much exposure when I would have liked them best, so I don't have any real nostalgia, but in revisiting old games I've always been drawn to those.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think there's something to be said that there's a certain level of intellectual maturity that's needed to truly enjoy these games.

I grew up with NES Metroid, and despite having read the manual many times over, as a kid I never made sense of the game. I could play it, I could insert the Justin Bailey code, I could move around and do stuff, but I never truly understood what I was meant to do. I stumbled into Tourian one day and promptly got pwned by metroids, and then I never found my way back until I was an adult.

The second metroidvania game I played was Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance. Maybe it's an easier game -- it's certainly less confusingly open-ended than Metroid 1 -- but I absolutely loved the experience. I deeply appreciated the narrative journey of being trapped in this castle, full of weirdness and twisty passages that were slightly off from each other, having the mid-game bombshell dropped on me, and piecing together a mystery until I was able to find out what was going on. I played it all night, and in a story I like to tell people, the morning after I beat it (and finally got the best ending), as the sun came out, I put on the Aloha de Chocobo music from Final Fantasy IX and it was the most glorious feeling. But this depended on me understanding that I was immersed in a maze, and understanding what I needed to do to find my way out of the maze.

And I've been enjoying this genre since.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

That sounds like an amazing experience haha. I have some fond memories like that with these games too.

I think in my case, the narrative isn't the main thing I enjoy about metroidvanias - rewarding exploration is what I really love. Though I didn't play a true metroidvania until I was into my teens, some of my favorite games before that were exploration-focused platformers and (simple) RPGs.

I probably would have been frustrated and given up with my favorite metroidvanias if I had played any too young, but 8-12ish would have hit that nostalgia + enjoyment sweet spot. But hey, even without any early nostalgia I can still love them :)

load more comments (4 replies)