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The issue is, as a kid, you had lots and lots of time, and also little access to Internet forums for general game info.
Back then, you got a game and that became your whole focus for a few days instead of a few weeks/months.
Games in general were less complex and less forgiving so you were more used to playing simple platformers in which you could die and lose 20 mins of progress.
So overall, the attitude was to put effort, invest and challenge yourself (not with online play) when it came to gaming.
So given all these factors, your attitude towards games and the type of games were difference, hence why a simple platformer without much story and repetitive gameplay was the shit back then.
Going back and playing games I never liked the gameplay of and only played for the story now, as an adult, I think the stories are poorly written and cringe as fuck. 😬
Though for some games, that doesn’t make them bad. It just makes them good in a different way. Like how you might enjoy a crappy B movie because it’s crappy.
Random stab in the dark, but I could easily take this statement to be about Final Fantasy 7… 🤣
Even if it isn’t, it’s safe to accept that a lot of modern game tropes can have their origins traced back to 8/16/32 bit origins.
Basically what I’m trying to get at is that a lot of the time, the narrative was able to be seen as less cringey, and more cutting. Time has dulled the more sharp edges, or even moves public perceptions well beyond what was presented.
Chrono Trigger, and Secret of Mana on my shelf like
Counterpoint, there are also games you tried and HATED as a kid, that you might now like as an adult.
As I kid I had a lot less need for quality story telling, and roll play, probably a lot less interest in gardening simulators too. There’s probably lots of stuff you thought you didn’t like.
I remember hating Baroque on ps2 as a kid, but then I grew up, played Spelunky and finally got it what roguelites were doing, went back and liked it.
Roll play? Role playing as a roll?
Katamari
I tried to get my nephews into pokemon nintendo games when they were like 10. Failed bad because “too much reading” and went back to Roblox…
Kids today something something attention spans what with the social media grumble grumble back when I was that age, dammit.
It is far more likely that their expectations have changed.
I think that’s a fair comment, and to extend it a bit further, people expect a standard quality of life in games now that either have emerged over the years a a positive gameplay trait (regenerating health, accessibility customisation, the yellow paint guide) or a technical innovation (auto save, autoaim, customisable graphics etc).
I find it really tough going back to play Perfect Dark (the original, not the excellent remaster) and really struggling to play through the brilliant game at sub-20fps; or playing Metal Gear on the NES without the ability to return to the same room on death, seeing as the password system was a bit clunky.
We’ve come a long way, largely for the better.
There’s a free PC remaster that is said to be excellent. I’m trying to learn how to get it to work. It’s been years since I fucked with emulators.
My needs changed. When I was a child I had an intense need to master new skills and show them off. Video games could meet that need in a way school never could. As an adult I can completely fill those needs with work so I have no interest in those sorts of games. Now I play games to be entertained and delighted. If I want challenge I’ll put that energy towards earning a bigger bonus for Q4.
Oh would you look at that all your effort went to your bosses bonus, better play harder next time…in all seriousness that’s a fun way to look at work.
This is me with books.
Most games I loved as a kid I still love as an adult. Some I even love more - especially those with stories I didn’t fully understand at the time. What do you mean Tactics Ogre was about genocide and ethnic conflict? I thought it was about turning everyone into the ninja or swordmaster class??
Fighting games I’ve lost my taste for, I suppose, though I played those more because they were on every damn demo disc. Though I still remain strangely good at them. A friend of mine picked up some esoteric modern indie fighting game two years ago or so and I fucking crushed them without even knowing the controls while they had several hours of practice under their belt, lmao.
I’d find it odd if I enjoyed the same things as much now as I did when I was say, 6-12 years old. Games and shows for kids are meant for a child-like mind. You can still appreciate them for what they are - I’ve watched Lazy Town with my nieces and enjoyed the quality of the music and Stefán Karl Stefánsson as Robbie Rotten. But I’m not sitting down to watch it on my own.
Plus game design and definitely graphics can improve over time. E.g. I loved Golden Eye on N64 as a kid, but if I replayed it I think nostalgia would be doing a lot of heavy lifting. I replayed FF7 Classic a year or two ago and did not find it nearly as compelling as I did when I was 16. It was still alright, but it didn’t amaze me the way it did in PS1 days.
I loved Golden Eye on N64 as a kid, but if I replayed it I think nostalgia would be doing a lot of heavy lifting
This one probably only needs a more intuitive control scheme, I have zero nostalgia for it since I only played FPS games on PC, but I loved the Agent 64 demo that is on steam, do give it a try!
I played Doom before Goldeneye but I was still able to get into it at the time. Going back to it again in recent years I found the controls were like muscle memory. They’re still not great but it worked well enough back in the day.
Some games yeah.
The game pictured in this comic, the Crash series on PS1, aged like fine wine though.
Yeah, weird to have Crash in the background given the quality of the games.
C*ash Slap is on the poster, which is probably supposed to be a reference to Crash Bash.
If you don’t remember Crash Bash, that makes sense, it wasn’t great.
Based on the title on the poster, its talking about Crash Bash which is really bad. Basically Mario Party but its just he mini games.
To this day crash bash is a game I really enjoy with my cousin. Especially the levels where you have to coordinate and defeat the CPU players as a team and you accidentally send the red explosive ball their direction. No one’s fault really, but we lost - ensue heated argument.
Oh you’re right, I forgot about this one. As a PS1 household, we liked it as kids without Mario games.
I should play it again to see, and I would need to play it with other people to judge it appropriately, unlike the comic.
I’m playing Tomb Raider remastered right now and I’m scum saving like a little bitch.
I think young me just didn’t value spare time because he had so much of it.
These Unfinished Business levels are rough as fuck though.
“If you are holding the jump button as you run off a ledge, Lara will always jump right at the edge.”
- from the 100 biggest lies of gaming
Yeah, you need at least to do a jump back from the edge. I think that’s even in the Croft Manor tutorial tbh. It’s very open about it being tile based.
I didn’t even try “modern controls”. I know where I am with the tank controls.
I highly doubt the intent was to always approach ledges, then walk to the edge, then step back, then run forward, EVERY single time you need to make a jump. It breaks the flow of exploration.
Theoretically, you just need enough space. But the game’s coding is incredibly murky about how much space that is. I’ve failed jumps after running forward from the back edge of a block, just because I had landed from somewhere else, and did not then perfectly measure out one full jump-back. Ultimately, it causes plenty of annoyance and makes the controls inconsistent. If you want to read it as “You didn’t correctly backstep at every single jump” then it just means the game is boring.
I mean, it’s from 1996. 3D games were in their infancy.
It’s a very methodical and laborious game about checking every last corner and crevice for a way forward, and it’s really not a game that concerns itself with flowing gameplay. Everything is awkward. It all feels very deliberate, from the block based layout to the walk button that takes you right the edge of them.
There’s a few bits where you need to keep running and jumping (the timed flame puzzle for example) and those can be iffy, but there’s not many. It’s a game of its time, and they’ve preserved it all. I’m surprised how well it still holds up if anything, considering the gameplay is left as intact as I remember it.
A little of column A, a little of column B.
Idk if it was because it was on an emulator, but when I played Smash for the N64 with friends, all I could think about was the controls felt very clunky and how much smoother Smash Ultimate felt by comparison.Nope, that’s just how it is. I would argue that smash ultimate is their best version by many regards. It is very fluid. My only complaint is there is no subspace emissary like plot in it. Instead prompting for a bunch of matches.
I also feel like Ultimate is the pinnacle of the formula. Besides the mods that people are making for it, you just can’t get better than Ultimate in my opinion!
You played shitty games as a kid, it’s not exactly an uncommon or unrepeatable experience, I mean if it wasn’t as common or relatable as it is, AVGN (and creators like them) wouldn’t have been nearly as popular and successful as they are.
This hurts so much as an adult 😪
I love seeing this happen in real time!
“We want Conker back!”
“You know Conker wasn’t a good game, right?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about! Conker was GREAT!”
https://www.metacritic.com/game/conker-live-and-reloaded/
See also:
Perfect Dark:
https://www.metacritic.com/game/perfect-dark-zero/
Banjo Kazooie in 3-2-1…
I’ve certainly noticed that my patience has dropped off a cliff.
When I was young, I spent hundreds of hours in RPGs. Then I got into roguelikes, which are like RPGs, but condensed down. Well, and now I’m microdosing this crack, because the condensed version of roguelikes is apparently puzzle games.
A good rogue like is a super complex puzzle with randomness thrown in! Completely see the similarity.
Only RL I went hard for was DCSS for some reason, and it’s hard to estimate how much time I put into that over the years. At least as much as other heavily played AAA or MMO type games for me. What about you?
I used to love RPGs when I was younger too, but now I find them too slow. I’ve always loved roguelikes, back when I still liked RPGs, and still to this day.
!["It's going to be fun to play this game again!" [Azul Crescent's silly scribbles]](https://lemmus.org/pictrs/image/3755ef6a-f9c2-4359-865f-646e5e5b8b3e.webp){kind=link}