I went back and replayed some of the OG Metroid games (Metroid, Super Metroid, Fusion, and Zero Mission), and I’m happy to report that they are still rad a/f.
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.
I might have helped a few bosses along the way. Collateral damage. ;)
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.
Roll play? Role playing as a roll?
Katamari
Addicted to Craps, I gotta throw a couple each day, butt when I think about it - it’s really money down the toilet.
My version of this is 4X games. I always was intrigued by them as a kid, but I wasn’t nearly patient enough or willing to put in the time to understand them. As an adult I’ve finally been able to enjoy them.
I’m the opposite. I played the hell out of 4x in college and early adulthood. Now, I just don’t have the time or patience for them.
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.
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.
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.
Crash bandicoot was written in fucking LISP
Wait really? Man I knew those games were my favorites for a reason
And they are not using a rigged skeleton for animation
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
The unskippable animations in that game. They didn’t bother me at the time, but once somebody pointed them out, I had to agree they were terrible. I don’t think I could play the original again because of that. (Fortunately, I’ve heard that newer versions do allow you to skip.)
W-Summon Knights of the Round; perfect time to go take a toilet break - except against maybe Ruby and Emerald weapons… 😅
Some games yeah.
The game pictured in this comic, the Crash series on PS1, aged like fine wine though.
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 was going to say this, too. It definitely applies to some games, but not the original Crash trilogy. I replay those games every 5-10 years.
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.
This hurts so much as an adult 😪
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.
I think another part of it is that gaming as a kid and gaming as an adult are for entirely different purposes a lot of the time. I still game for entertainment, but also as a way to unwind. It’s just relaxing to me and if I can get into a strongly written storyline, the stresses of my day fade away.
But as a kid, I gamed because gaming was flashy and fun and challenging, and then I wanted to talk to my friends about it after I beat yet another game.
I thought altered beast was the pinnacle of two player gaming at one point. I played it recently and decided to do laundry instead.
I remember Altered Beast’s graphics being a lot better than they are.
IIRC, the sprites were pretty large for the time.
I was impressed by them, but I was also a child. I remember them being comparable to SNES graphics and…they aren’t.
I could never beat the first level when I was a kid. But I played that game over and over and enjoyed every minute of it.
My tolerance for repetition has gone waayy down. It used to be so common to die and then start over in a game, trying to make it just a little further at each go. It never seemed boring to me, but I have very little tolerance for games that make me do this now.
RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE
Was down-right haunting for me to hear a game console actually talking!
SEEEEEEEGGGGAAAAAAA
Lol I’m working on a MAME emulator system and saw the roms for Altered Beast yesterday, and I wondered if I should bother, because I remember playing it some in the arcade. Sounds like I should skip it!
It was cool to waste a few quarters on at the arcade, but the entire game is actually only 15 minutes long, has terribly unrewarding gameplay beyond going beast mode, and is super repetitive.
MKII is still sweet. So is killer instinct, Mike Tysons punchout, tecmo bowl, super dodge ball, most of the Mario games, ff 6 and 7, chrono trigger, the first Mario kart, some of the zelda’s, and a ton more.
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.
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.
If you had very low standards, and your standards are different now…then your tastes have changed.
This is me with books.
!["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}