The first game that comes to mind for me is Civilizations 4. I’ve probably spent hundreds of hours playing but after getting used to 5 and 6 I have a really hard time going back. Going back and forth between 5 and 6 I need to rethink some strategies but with 4 I feel like I need to rethink everything. I don’t know if it’s because of the tech tree layout in combination with the civics system, things like unit stacking, or maybe just a bunch of little things but it takes me a while to readjust.
7th Saga. It’s a turn based top down RPG (similar to Final Fantasy 1 or Dragon Warrior 1). The games AI sometimes just kills you (and takes great delight in it). Easily the most frustrating RPG I’ve played.
Blaster Master for the Nintendo (NES) as well. Instead of evil AI you get evil level design that wants to kill you.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to have a sandwich and play some Leisure Suit Larry 3.
Toe Jam & Earl. As a kid, it seemed just endlessly creative, you could just explore & explore forever. And the shit humor - I was the exact right age where every joke was a banger. Although the game itself would be badly dated today, I bet the music holds up well, albeit in short bursts. I still get snippets stuck in my head.
Outer Wilds. Wish I could forget it, as the progression is based entirely on player knowledge it has 0 replayability(I mean this as an endorsement).
I’ve recently started using the archipelago randomizer mod to get another taste of replaying it, but unfortunately the satisfaction of completing a rando pales in comparison to that first experience.
I will never not recommend this game. It’s so good and I can’t wait to see what Mobius comes up with next.
Watch playthroughs on YouTube and you get to see someone else play it for the first time.
World of Warcraft
Love the world and history and characters. Gameplay is now pretty shit.
Minesweeper
I forgot what the numbers mean already
3
N64
Emulated maybe some games, but I just can’t with most games with the original controller. I grew up with it too, it’s just insane.
I played so much goldeneye that when someone fired it up almost 20 years later the controls were still in my muscle memory. I played fps on pc even back then so I knew the controller wasn’t ideal, but it worked well enough.
Haha, I played it quite a lot and I did not have the same experience! Respect to speed runners cause my goodness…
Warframe. I spent 2 years around 2020 farming up every frame, every item, every pet, every everything – without spending a dime. I was so grateful for the experience I spent nearly $300 in cosmetics when I finished the game.
They’re always adding more stuff, but I consider Warframe “beat”. It was a killer experience, I had a lot of fun with all the different builds and overpowered shit you could pull off if you were smart. Along with Path of Exile, Warframe stands a pinnacle of how to do Free to Play correctly.
I also did a “No Engram” run on ARK: Survival Ascended – You’re not allowed to learn any of the things you can build; you HAVE to find the items naturally in the world. That was a nightmare, but I managed it – and will NEVER do it again. It gave me new appreciation for specific aspects of the game.
I was considering playing Warframe a while back because I was a fan of Dark Sector but the reviews I saw online mentioned an incredible amount of grinding. Do you think it’s worth picking up for someone who isn’t into that kind of thing?
If you’re impatient, no. Most of the “grind” was starting a crafting job, and waiting 72 hours for it to complete.
Unfortunately everyone wants instant gratification and Warframe is not an instant-gratification game.
What I did was work on things bit by bit, and when I started crafting it - I moved onto farming something else.
Some of the worst items to get in the game, I had to wait a year before they ‘unvaulted’ the relics for. Other things, I had to log in daily for over a year before they would become available as login rewards.
So – I repeat – If all you care about is instant gratification, Warframe is not for you. Unless you have deep pockets. Their monetization scheme is “If you don’t want to wait on this thing, pay up”. For people who are patient, this is wonderful.
Wolfenstein, duke nukem, most early shooters
I still have a blast playing modern source ports of Duke 3D and Doom. Adding modern controls and modern rendering to classic games like that really shows how little modern gaming has progressed in that genre, imo
Yeah no real need to ‘remaster’ the classics
Pretty much any jrpg for Gameboy, DS, PSP and PS2 (haven’t tried many newer). I loved them a lot as a kid/teen but now when I try to play them do I get bored very quickly… I think the audience is supposed to be kids and teens so I am not surprised I don’t enjoy them anymore
I get you. I’ve been going through a lot of “best of” lists for various consoles and it’s tough going back and playing them because they were obviously made for a younger audience and and having never played them as a kid I don’t really feel the same pull.
The Kirby games are a big one. I’ve seen a lot of recommendations but can’t really get into them.
I recently replayed Legend of Dragoon, and I’d do it again.
I tried to play Golden Sun again though, and it just has WAY too much dialogue. And not in a good way. Just lots of filler dialogue that doesn’t add depth; it just restates the story and what’s currently going on.
VOLCANO!
That’s where an emulator comes in handy, there’s a ton of text to fast forward through in golden sun.
I’m playing a Steam release of an old PC JRPG (Trails in the Sky) and it has the best feature ever…
A turbo button that doesn’t affect the sound of the game. Dialogue plays, music plays at the normal rate, no pitch shifting… it’s glorious.
I’d pay for any emulator that could support something like that for every game.
Most games I played from the PS1/N64 era. It was a time period of figuring things out and that makes it rough to go back to, but some of those experiences were magic. There’s still the rare game that I can enjoy to this day (Metal Gear Solid 1, Mario 64), but games like Syphon Filter are best left to my memories.
For me it would probably be most old DOS era games like Dune 2, Ultima Underworld, Warcraft 1, Civilization 1, etc. All of them were great, but it’s really difficult to get used to those old control schemes nowadays. Pixelated graphics wouldn’t bother me, but those like 15 FPS at max is also hard to get over these days.
Other than that it would be some newer games that lacks a bit of convenience stuff. Like e.g. Diablo 1, where you can’t run yet. Or some of the first 3D accelerated shooters that can’t remap controls to WASD.
Having to rely on reading and retaining information in manuals is a big thing that keeps me away from a lot of DOS games
And don’t even get me started on that damn copy protection level “what is 7th word on 16th line on page 23 in manual”!
Diablo 2 - I’ve played all classes, some in higher difficulties, again and again and it didn’t get old for a very long time. Today I’m not enjoying these kind of games anymore but I’m not sure why. Are they so different or has my taste changed so much?
Witcher 3. I don’t enjoy “dark” “gritty” stuff the way that I used to. I’m way more effected by some of the more explicit themes than I used to be. When I played it it was my only solace in a rough period of my life. I’d rather protect my fond memories than play it again, as I doubt it will mean as much to me now as then.
Pikmin 2.
There are a couple of bosses in that game I absolutely hate to this day and do not like whatsoever. One returned from the original and one is a variant of it. Every game has had a variant of that shall which not be named. Any other arachnophobes probably know what I’m talking about without needing to mention the name.
LOTRO (Lord of the Rings Online) for me. Fantastic community back in the day, and the game itself was fun, too. Now, though, the gameplay is just too restrictive and oftentimes tedious by today’s standards. I really do miss the community, though. I made a lot of great memories there.
