It's Hard to Get Nostalgic About Games You Didn't Grow Up On

[Frankster]

The idea of gaming DNA site amuses me. Why not, I heard of worst concepts.

Any gamer grrls who went sega master system->Super nintendo->Master system->Ps1->Game boy->Ps2->Pc with low self esteem and daddy issues? Start the line here ladiez, guaranteed to get back at your parents or your money back!

 

[CaitSeith]

I grew up with a Gamecube, so I keep seeing people rave about the games they loved to play on the N64. I fail to see a lot of the appeal outside of nostalgia most of the time.
I actually used to have a lot of nostalgia for childhood games. It got completely destroyed when I found out most of those games were absolute trash and my young self had no sense for good purchases. The only game I can say I have some semblance of strong nostalgia for is Super Mario Sunshine, and that's only because it's still good.

What I get the most flak about is not being able to have any interest at all in Ocarina of Time. No matter how much people talk about it, I just fail to see how it any better than Majora's Mask. Again, I grew up on the Gamecube, so even seeing the graphical quality of the game is a bit of a turn-off. I could tolerate Majora's Mask or Mario 64 just fine, but I can't bear to watch trying to walk through the town that is just a giant, blurry, distorted photo warping my idea of perspective.
No, I don't care if the game was awesome when it was first released, give me a reason to play it today over another, more recently released game.

To learn what made old good games memorable; so you can see from where the arguments come when people call a new game worse than those old ones (even when they are wrong)

 

[RealRT]

Maybe people who played a lot of Sonic the Hedgehog now show an above average propensity to molest dogs

Ahahahahhaahahahaha, wooooow.

Fuck you, Yahtzee.

Yahtzee's a dog?

Clearly got a brain of one.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

The earliest games I can remember playing were on my best friend's Colecovision when I was 7 before my parents finally caved and bought us an NES. I also remember playing Oregon Trail and Number Munchers on the school's Apple ][e's.

 

[Xerosch]

I've been playing video games for about 30 years now. And I know I am absolutely blinded by nostalgia.
In the last years I've gotten more excited by the reworking of classics (like Monkey Island 1+2, Day of the Tentacle, Adventures of Mana) and the upcoming releases of 'Dragon Quest 7' and 'The Silver Case' than about 90% of what's been shown at E3.

I guess there are three factors in this:

- I'm not in the target group anymore. I don't care about military shooters, online play or MOBAS, so my interest in AAA games shrinks a bit each year.

- Pixel art/classic gameplay strikes a cord with me. I am fully aware that I'm biased in this, but I can't turn it off. For example: The latest 'Star Ocean' was panned because of being too rooted in the past, yet for me that's its biggest drawing point.
Games by Wadjet Eye? Godent!
Ouya? Weak console but amazing platform for retro games

- The SNES/PS1 eras were a time when I had to get through a lot of personal struggles, setbacks and illnesses with the consoles being a place of comfort.

While all of this may sound like I'm the sort of grumpy gamer who's lamenting days gone by, I enjoy plenty of current titles as well.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I remember when Pac-Man was new, and my first computer was a Color Computer 2, on which I played the best game ever [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_of_Daggorath]. You may bow in my presence.

 

[iller3]

If he can't get Nostalgic about Nintendo then why does he talk up Mother for the NES like it was a piece of Art?

Maybe people who played a lot of Sonic the Hedgehog now show an above average propensity to molest dogs

Ahahahahhaahahahaha, wooooow.

Fuck you, Yahtzee.

TBH, that's probably more applicable to Starfox fans. Though I can also think of one popular Amiga fan with a propensity to molest a Tiger, or a Skunk, or both. So those living in Amiga houses shouldn't throw their 3.25" stones

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

I'm not even nostalgic for the games I grew up with. The Atari 2600 was fun when I was a small child, but it seems so primitive now, and repetition (a result of a cartridge's limited data capacity) just bores me. Likewise, you can keep all of those frustrating "three lives and you're done" side-scrolling Nintendo games. As for the early 3-D era, mindlessly jumping from platform to platform got really old by 1998, and kart games - complete with their cheap-ass, rubber-banding NPC "AI" - are the reason I despise racing games to this day.

Though I enjoy adventure games like the ones I played as a teenager (Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, Quest For Glory, etc.) I shy away from them these days since they have no replay value. Figure out the puzzles once and that's it.

Despite playing video games since 1982, I never got hooked on a single one until Morrowind, and that's the type of game I love to this day. Add to that crazy stuff like Saints Row and Borderlands, and games with massive depth like Witcher 3. I have no interest in going back to the bare-bones crap days.

 

[Bobular]

Mine would be:

PC -> PC -> Game Boy -> N64 -> PC -> PC -> PC -> PS3 -> PC -> PS2 -> PC -> PC -> PS4

So my DNA is mostly Pure Breed Master Race, interbred occasionally with Console Peasant. Looking at my genealogy now I can't feel comfortable at the PC Master Race rallies.

Oh the shame. What will Duke Pompousworth XVII say!

 

[Igor-Rowan]

Didn't we have this discussion before? And by before I mean every time Yahtzee reviews a Mario game where he feels the need to remind us of the plumber's whole history and think of the future of the franchise rather than talking about the game, I dare you to find one review where that's not true.

Nostalgia is something tricky, Yahtzee's reaction to Mighty No. 9 would have been the same he would have to the original MegaMan because everything is there: the lives system, the tight platforming, the graphics, it doesn't appeal to him because he has an already built vision of how gaming immersion should be. Yahtzee's lack of appeal of both Mario and Sonic show he wasn't there when the video games shifted from 2D to 3D, something that blew the minds of any people who had grown up with those games.

But I think nostalgia is kind of holding us back, Mighty no. 9, Yooka-Laylee and Bloodstained all of them were under the promise that they were a familiar experience "adapted for a new generation", not having grown up with neither MegaMan, Banjo or Castlevania, I can safely say these people want to go back to comfort zone, even though they insist it's not nostalgia, even thought games like Ratchet & Clank, Mario Galaxy and the Witcher series respectively showed where the future of these genres were, people decided they want to go with something familiar. I mean Undertale was only funded because of the creator's history with Earthbound, it's clear that people do not know what they want, so nostalgia is alive as long as people know they can make profit out of it.

 

[weirdee]

Didn't we have this discussion before? And by before I mean every time Yahtzee reviews a Mario game where he feels the need to remind us of the plumber's whole history and think of the future of the franchise rather than talking about the game, I dare you to find one review where that's not true.

Nostalgia is something tricky, Yahtzee's reaction to Mighty No. 9 would have been the same he would have to the original MegaMan because everything is there: the lives system, the tight platforming, the graphics, it doesn't appeal to him because he has an already built vision of how gaming immersion should be. Yahtzee's lack of appeal of both Mario and Sonic show he wasn't there when the video games shifted from 2D to 3D, something that blew the minds of any people who had grown up with those games.

But I think nostalgia is kind of holding us back, Mighty no. 9, Yooka-Laylee and Bloodstained all of them were under the promise that they were a familiar experience "adapted for a new generation", not having grown up with neither MegaMan, Banjo or Castlevania, I can safely say these people want to go back to comfort zone, even though they insist it's not nostalgia, even thought games like Ratchet & Clank, Mario Galaxy and the Witcher series respectively showed where the future of these genres were, people decided they want to go with something familiar. I mean Undertale was only funded because of the creator's history with Earthbound, it's clear that people do not know what they want, so nostalgia is alive as long as people know they can make profit out of it.

while the new games are a much better and consistent user experience overall (them old games have variable aging results), a hell of a lot of them could have saved themselves so much trouble if they had actually studied older game systems to find out how to avoid many common mistakes that i am sometimes embarrassed that they are still occurring in this day and age. sadly, most of the veterans who actually knew what they were doing retired a good while ago, and many of the ones that remained to attempt to recreate their legacy are sorely lacking, like inafune, and the guy they replaced the original starfox composer (pre 64) with. games have often lacked formal channels for apprenticeship and it shows as we continue to look to indies to pick up the slack where large studios have forgotten those lessons in the rush to modernize, although to them, it's probably more attractive to create new cash cows instead of spending money to refine or preserve older ones (unless they're remakes, but they then apply their new methodology to the old stuff and whoo boy mixed results).

bloodstained looks like it's coming along pretty good though, but perhaps another rare-ish collectathon in this day and age might be a bit dated.

 

[Thurston]

No consoles were allowed in my house growing up, so I never have much of a nostalgia kick for Nintendo, Mario, Zelda, etc.

 

[Transdude1996]

Didn't we have this discussion before? And by before I mean every time Yahtzee reviews a Mario game where he feels the need to remind us of the plumber's whole history and think of the future of the franchise rather than talking about the game, I dare you to find one review where that's not true.

Nostalgia is something tricky, Yahtzee's reaction to Mighty No. 9 would have been the same he would have to the original MegaMan because everything is there: the lives system, the tight platforming, the graphics, it doesn't appeal to him because he has an already built vision of how gaming immersion should be. Yahtzee's lack of appeal of both Mario and Sonic show he wasn't there when the video games shifted from 2D to 3D, something that blew the minds of any people who had grown up with those games.

But I think nostalgia is kind of holding us back, Mighty no. 9, Yooka-Laylee and Bloodstained all of them were under the promise that they were a familiar experience "adapted for a new generation", not having grown up with neither MegaMan, Banjo or Castlevania, I can safely say these people want to go back to comfort zone, even though they insist it's not nostalgia, even thought games like Ratchet & Clank, Mario Galaxy and the Witcher series respectively showed where the future of these genres were, people decided they want to go with something familiar. I mean Undertale was only funded because of the creator's history with Earthbound, it's clear that people do not know what they want, so nostalgia is alive as long as people know they can make profit out of it.

while the new games are a much better and consistent user experience overall (them old games have variable aging results), a hell of a lot of them could have saved themselves so much trouble if they had actually studied older game systems to find out how to avoid many common mistakes that i am sometimes embarrassed that they are still occurring in this day and age. sadly, most of the veterans who actually knew what they were doing retired a good while ago, and many of the ones that remained to attempt to recreate their legacy are sorely lacking, like inafune, and the guy they replaced the original starfox composer (pre 64) with. games have often lacked formal channels for apprenticeship and it shows as we continue to look to indies to pick up the slack where large studios have forgotten those lessons in the rush to modernize, although to them, it's probably more attractive to create new cash cows instead of spending money to refine or preserve older ones (unless they're remakes, but they then apply their new methodology to the old stuff and whoo boy mixed results).

bloodstained looks like it's coming along pretty good though, but perhaps another rare-ish collectathon in this day and age might be a bit dated.

So, to best summarize the whole nostalgia problem, there are two major factors causing it.

On the one end, you have companies continuously creating games, but nothing evolves beyond a certain point because (1) the original people involved with the project all left for various reasons and/or (2) the company decided that money could be better spent elsewhere since the general public is caring less about the actually gameplay part of a video game.

And, then, on the other end, you have smaller teams making games so people can relive their glory-days/childhood, and never plan on changing anything because of a twisted take on "Everything old is good, everything new is bad".

So, now that that is addressed, what can we do?

 

[weirdee]

most of the teams making the "revival" games are old people already, so basically they're gonna make a modern record of their knowledge and then leave the picture when they retire, but many of these teams weren't the greats to begin with, so results vary

the innovation front now relies on new indies that grew up on old games, but know enough about games to avoid the mistakes of both of these worlds while still pulling from that background in a meaningful matter

this is opposed to people who simply wish to imitate success or create a barebones tribute, or people who want to capitalize on nostalgia or passing trends

 

[Makabriel]

Yeah, come talk to me when you remember playing games on cassette tapes. Having to rewind or fast forward to certain parts of the tape to access your information was an exercise in patience.

 

[Jburton9]

Yeah, come talk to me when you remember playing games on cassette tapes. Having to rewind or fast forward to certain parts of the tape to access your information was an exercise in patience.

That and remember the brilliant idea of us buying those new 90min tapes thinking oh joy how much storage we can get out of those! Next we learn about tape stretching and why consistent baud rate matters as our newly saved programs will not load. Ouch! Now I have to retype the whole thing again.. at least I printed out the program before saving it...whew!

C64 and Apple were cool as you could use the catalog command to get a program list where Atari it was a counter on the device... bleh.

Saving up to get my first 5.25 floppy drive and then learning about using scissors to cut a notch to use the other side heh.

Modems were still pretty rare, I remember having to drive 30+ miles to get to the nearest Sears that sold games in one corner of their store. Seeing people crowded around the TV to play Pitfall, wait you can stand on their eye to avoid the chomper? Hmm. I remember playing with a friend and seeing Link get his boomerang and I was like woah, that is cool!

I have nostalgia for many computer type things, consoles, computers, arcades etc. It was a great time, things felt exciting and new with even more new things just around the corner. Also the pace that things came out felt about right where you could still keep your footing with change without feeling like the carpet was pulled out from under you.

I remember this arcade I think was called the Crystal Palace, the din of arcade sounds all combined together to make this weird harmony of music. Each instrument - an arcade cabinet could easily be picked out for its distinctive tunes, beeps and blorts it would emit.

At that time it was on TV about how kids would spend their lunch money at the arcades and it was the new menace our youth that must be stopped! lol

Really, so many memories. I should stop here while I am ahead heh.

I am glad that many of the devs are doing remakes while still forging ahead making new games. There have been some really neat and wonderful games that have come out and I am definitely looking forward what is coming next : )

 

[Tanis]

I'm still waiting on my Captain Claw remaster.

Damn game is horrible to try and run on anything but XP.
:/

 

[VinLAURiA]

Yeah, I find it no surprise that Mr. British Stuffysmug over here was raised on Commodore systems. He bashes on Nintendo and its fans all the time and isn't big on other classic companies like SEGA either; maybe it's jealousy because of how friggin' dry his own childhood must've been.

I mean... Commodore stuff? Really? Christ, I guess I am fortunate to have been born late enough to grow up with an NES and SNES side-by-side. Earlier than that and I would've been stuck with a damn superkeyboard like him, playing games off of cassette tapes and having to fiddle around in a command prompt just to get the game (more than likely some dreary text adventure) to start up. Yeah, no. I played Wolfenstein 3D and Scorched Earth on Win3.1 back in the day; that's about as arcane as I wanted to get.

NES/SNES -> Game Gear -> PS1 -> GBC -> N64 -> Dreamcast -> PS2 -> GameCube -> GBA -> DS -> Wii -> 3DS -> Wii U, by the way. With PC interspersed throughout.

 

[Rangaman]

It's hard for me to get nostalgic generally, as my first console was a second-hand Xbox I got in 2004-ish. I had LEGO Star Wars, so I guess I'm a bit kinder to Lego games because of this, but I didn't really have anything long-lasting. It wasn't until I got my DS as well Pokemon Platinum and the Sonic Classic Collection (No, I don't molest animals. Fuck you for asking) that I got into game franchises that were both long lasting and had at least halfway decent gameplay.