I’ve been playing some retro games recently (PS1 and prior) and I’ve been discovering a lot of games that I never thought I would enjoy. Particularly 90s arcade shmups and arcade style sports games.
What are some of your favorite retro games that you always find yourself coming back to?
I don’t ever really go back to retro games much anymore, but I recently did come back to Devil Dice/XI (in Japan) and I just really like the arcade like mode where dice keep spawning until the board fills up and you lose. Pretty much the only mode I play since the AI cheat, I swear.
The first Klonoa game on PS1. Always gave me nostalgia that one and Spyro 1 as well, truly nostalgic games of that era
I’m going through the N64 catalogue on the Switch and really enjoyed finally finishing the 3D Zeldas and, of course, Banjo Kazooie. The second part is on my list next, followed by the big Zelda title on the SNES. Looking forward to playing those :)
Can we consider the PS3 Retro at 17? If so i’d have to say Uncharted and Little Big Planet. I keep my Childhood Copies out just to play them.
If i need to go further back i’d have to side with Ocarina of Time. It’s such a basic Zelda story with it’s Arthurian lore and dungeons, but it’s like the cornerstone Zelda game for me. Mario 64 while im at it
Flashback
I played it on the SNES. It’s a sci-fi platformer that I felt shared themes with movies like Total Recall, They Live, Blade Runner, Running Man.
You start as Conrad, who has crash landed on Titan, being chased by mysterious bad guys, and with no memory of why. All you have is a gun, and a video recording of yourself telling you where to go for the next clue.
Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age.
In no particular order:
Sonic Spinball
Micro Machines 2 Turbo Tournament
Toejam and Earl
General Chaos
Recently I have had an urge to play Hogs of War on PS1 too.
I’ve had a Gameboy for most of my life so I’m a sucker for portables. Donkey Kong, Oracle of Seasons, Pokemon Crystal, and Super Mario Land 2 all get replayed with some regularity. For GBA the Golden Sun games are still in my top ten favorites to this day, and the SNES ports like Link to the Past and Super Mario World were great to have in my pocket.
I think that Tetris is probably the oldest game that I’ll play some implementation of occasionally. I don’t know if I’d call it my favorite, but it’s aged very gracefully over the decades.
I just started my nostalgia hunt lately, and firstly it’s Digimon World after watching some content about it. It’s still hold up quite well tbh, even though it does show its age with its system.
When I was a kid I didn’t have my own memory card so I just played the first 2 hours of Digimon World every few days or so LOL. Good game.
Definitely worth trying it now with emulator, savestate and speeding up helps with a lot of tedious stuff and risk-taking, i emulate it with my phone and it sure helps that i don’t have to stick to the front of my pc to play it. I love the mystery the world bring, and it encourage you to explore. Difficulty is wonky though.
I replay it every other year. It was one of my first games ever, started playing it when I was 5 or so and kept grinding on the same save file for more than 10 years.
For those interested, the Maeson patch fixes all the bugs that afflicted the game on release and adds a lot of QoL improvements, including persistent music across screens (in the original game, the music resets every time you change screen), diversified evolution lines, and rebalanced progression.
I replayed it last summer with the Maeson patch and it was very enjoyable while still keeping the “core” experience intact.Damn, I’ll have to give that a try. I’ve tried to get back into DW via emulation and man, the game is ruthless! The enemies you fight on the first screen (after beating Agumon) will wipe you if don’t bother training at least one entire day first.
It may be surprising, but most of the difficulty of the game comes from it being very cryptic. Once you understand the underlying mechanics, the game is not hard. You are thrown into a completely foreign world and are asked to just figure it out; and most people go in expecting Pokémon mechanics, which doesn’t help at all.
What it’s worth remembering when playing it, is that the game encourages you to fail and try again. Your Digimon dies of old age and reverts to an egg every few in-game days anyways, and while it’s technically possible to complete the game with your starter Digimon, new players will probably repeat the cycle a few times at minimum.
It can be off putting at first, but it does provide the advantage that it doesn’t matter how many mistakes you make, you can just retry next time, and you actually have it easier each time, because you keep all your items and progression, some of the Digimon’s stats, and of course the knowledge you’ve gathered up to that point.The Maeson patch doesn’t fundamentally change any of that, but it does remove some of the bloat. Just a few of my favourite changes:
- Battling against wild Digimon is a waste of time in the original game, but with the patch is a perfectly viable way to farm money and learn new techs.
- Exploring in the original has you filling your bag with mushrooms, but the patch allows you to find actual useful items that will help you raise your current or next Digimon.
- Made a few mistakes on the way, and now you’re stuck with a Numemon, Sukamon, or another Digimon you don’t like? Just buy a Reset Radish to revert to an egg and try again (younger me would’ve loved that item).
- Removed “trap” options, such as providing a fix to the “bonus try” in the gym and making evolution items useful, thus encouraging the player to try out things instead of punishing them for doing so.
Battling against wild Digimon is a waste of time in the original game
And required for certain evolutions. Not fun times heh
Made a few mistakes on the way, and now you’re stuck with a Numemon, Sukamon, or another Digimon you don’t like? Just buy a Reset Radish to revert to an egg and try again (younger me would’ve loved that item).
Back in my PSX days, I would “save up” the poop so that my 'mon would evolve straight from a baby into Sukamon on the first missed potty. Since that evolution halved all stats, and a baby’s stats were super low, it was easily a net positive as training a champion had much larger gains than a baby.
providing a fix to the “bonus try” in the gym
So now it’s possible to actually hit all marks? Because I couldn’t get it with fucking save states.
it was easily a net positive as training a champion had much larger gains than a baby.
As long as you don’t do it for the first few generations! All training stations get silently upgraded if you train a Baby I or Baby II digimon there a few times each.
So now it’s possible to actually hit all marks? Because I couldn’t get it with fucking save states.
Yeah. In the original game, the slots are rigged so that you have a set chance to either hit three symbols in a row (40%) or three jackpots (10%), and if the guaranteed chance doesn’t trigger, you automatically fail.
With the Maeson patch, you still have the rigged chances to win, but you can also attempt to win the minigame manually if the rigged chance doesn’t trigger. Imo it’s a bit too good (I liked it better the way the Randomizer handled it, by removing the rigged chances altogether and only allowing the player to win the minigame manually), but it’s still an improvement on the original.
My Leomon lose to a caterpillar haha
I think the dev intended you to avoid most fight, but it’s kinda lame since a lot of time enemy will just place right beside you when you enter the area and then rush toward you, and since fighting is not rewarding it’s kinda pointless.
Yeah, there were also some areas where you’d pretty much get fucked because you’d hear the digimon footsteps and, as soon as the screen faded back in, SURPRISE BATTLE. Your mon having to fight up to 3 enemies made things even harder
Nice, that’s an interesting patch. Can it be done with existing save file?
Also does it patch the monochromon notorious item shop minigame 🙈
I don’t know about the existing save file. It should be compatible, though. It’s worth a try.
As for Monochromon, yes! It’s a lot less frustrating now.
Great! Gotta try it after work
Grandia 2 is a magnificent game IMO.
Arkanoid
The original Super Mario Bros. and SMB 3. The first console I got to play as a child was the NES at my grandparents’ house. Every couple of years I get a nostalgic craving and it’s usually those two games I return to. Also, there are many great rom hacks available if getting bored of the originals.
Smb3 is definitely my favorite classic mario, it’s simple and fun, smw seems much more complicated tbh.
Still haven’t beat it though.
…can’t help but notice you didn’t mention everyones favorite turnip throwing mario game!
That’s awesome! I was born after the NES era, so I’m just now going back and checking out more 8-bit and 16-bit era games. I did of course play Super Mario Bros. and SMB 3 on my 3ds though, the platforming on SMB3 is still solid today.
Metroid zero mission
Played it on my gameboy micro, what an experience
I don’t go back to it (Win 3.1 games are a PITA to get running), but I really wish someone would remake Millennium Auction. It was a very clever version of the old board game Masterpiece.
