Satisfying moments in retro games

[GTMippey]

Evening fellow Escapists!

So recently, I've been feeling a little nostalgic. I decided to fire up the PS3 and browse the PSX classics on the Playstation Network to see if anything could tickle the itch for some good old-fashioned retro gaming. I came across the original Tomb Raider. Now, I barely remebered this game at all, my only memories being either watching my Dad play one of them as a kid (Either 1 or 2, I can't remember,), and playing the Tomb Raider 2 demo on one of the old demo discs back in the day. I remebered it being very atmospheric at the time, and I decided "why the hell not" and gave it a download. I've been playing for a little while now, and I'm up to "The Cistern."

I don't remember being this satisfied or challenged by a game in a long time.

Let me elaborate. The graphics haven't aged well, they're incredibly jagged and rough. I'm willing to look past this because I grew up on this age of gaming, so it doesn't bother me like could bother some. However, I've been having an absolute blast running through the levels, being completely absorbed in the world and figuring out the puzzles, some easy, some quite obtuse.

I think what I'm liking most is the real sense of adventure. Now days, platform and adventure games make it quite obvious what the solution to a particular puzzle is, what platforms you can climb on, the exit to a room is usually highlighted somehow. But with Tomb Raider, I really feel like I have to explore every inch of the level in order to work out where I need to go next. Now I admit the puzzles themselves usually regulate to "Find switch A, open door to switch B" etc, but finding the switches themselves can be quite difficult. It's not immediately obvious what you can shimmy or climb on to reach your goal, and half the time you don't even know if you're climbing to anything worthwhile. It could just be to a corner of the room with a small health pack or nothing at all.

One particular puzzle that really satisfied me was on the level "Palace Midas". I was exploring, and ended up coming across a gigantic, broken Midas statue with a giant hand laying on the ground amongst other rubble. After rummaging around the room I found nothing worthwhile, and let me tell you the room wasn't that obvious to find either. Thinking I had just found another dead end, I doubled back and on the way out jumped on the hand for fun. Immediately, Lara froze, and turned to solid gold, resulting in a death. It got a laugh out of me and I figured it was just a silly Easter egg since I couldn't find anything else there. I carried on, and came across another puzzle where I needed 3 objects to access a door. I scoured the level some more and after a long, arduous search I found 3 bars made of copper or bronze, I can't remember. Naturally, I tried using them and was incredibly confused when they didn't work on the keyholes. I racked my brain since I felt I'd explored everything, then got a brainwave. I headed back to the statue and sure enough, using the hand, I could turn the bars to gold. I tried them again, and they worked!

I felt so accomplished, like I was a real adventurer who stumbled upon a solution by a mix of sheer luck and brainpower. Not for a long time have I felt so satisfied after working out a puzzle in a game. This has made me really excited to continue, as I am really enjoying this game so far and hope for more experiences like this.

So the question I'm posing, have any of you had similar experiences going back in time to games of yesteryear? Something that really just made you feel happy, accomplished, satisfied, and maybe a little yearning for the good old days of gaming where things weren't just handed to you on a silver platter?

 

[CannibalCorpses]

Pretty much every classic game i've replayed in the last 10 years has made me feel good. I think it's because i know what i need to do on modern games long before i need to do them. You mention Tomb raider and i feel the same about the first 2...the ledges weren't as obvious as they are in the newer games. The puzzles were interesting and frustrating but with frustration comes satisfaction and challenge...2 things i don't get that often in the held hand mentality of the modern games industry. I replayed x-com and despite the running issues and oddities that crop up from time to time i find it a far more rewarding game to play than it's newer version (which i have just started replaying in the past few days). I gave cannon fodder another go and was suprised how challenging it is to do all the levels without losing any guys. I replayed dig dug and found it as hard as i ever remembered and so rewarding when i found a way to plow through lots of levels without dying. I replayed the early Fallout games and found the old system far more interesting than the piss easy new system that basically allows you to be a god without trying. I even found a copy of skooldaze from the c64 and still couldn't finish it 25 years on from first playing it.

People try to say it's nostalgia but it's not that at all. It's truly challenging games in a period when almost every game that comes out is a 100% certain finish with maybe 3-5 difficult checkpoints/sections in total. Every time i play a classic game i remember why i became a gamer in the first place...every time i play a modern game i wonder why i bother

 

[9thRequiem]

Interestingly enough, I've found the opposite.
For the most part, replaying old games has made me much more thankful of what we have now. While I did have a huge amount of fun going back to Grim Fandango, playing other P&C games like Sam and Max just leaves me feel annoyed, because I end up just doing the rub-everything-against-everything-else-till-it-does-a-thing.
Meanwhile, for other types of games, it's not the difficulty, but the feeling of futility - make a mistake, and instead of replaying the level, you can get sent back to the start of the whole game. Trying to replay things like the old Mario games just reminds me why I really don't want to.

Maybe it's because I've grown up and as such have become jaded against spending every available moment redoing the same thing so that I can maybe get a tiny bit further 3 hours on, or maybe it's because I don't have time anymore to devote to it. Yes, I'm using "I got old and sucky at games" as a criticism of the way things were.

 

[blackrave]

Battle City
Together with my brother we finished it
That was awesome

 

[Foolery]

While not technically retro, the platforming in Donkey Country Returns 3D is pretty damn satisfying. It has decent flow and pacing. That's what I like about DK. His movements always felt more fluid than Mario or Sonic.

 

[AldUK]

I've always played a pretty broad spectrum of games. I still play games from 25 years ago all the time, alongside new releases, indie titles, flash games. In other words, I play whatever the heck takes my fancy and I don't give a toss about when a game came out or how it looks, just how it feels to play. So I guess what I'm saying is that there isn't really a retro game for me, just games.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

I have rather recently gotten an updated version of the original Theme Hospital to play on my system.

This reminded me of the absurdity of some of the aspects of this game. The most obvious one being the diseases that people have and the causes & symptoms of them - such as people who had been rendered invisible because they had: been bitten by a radioactive (and invisible) ant. The thought of the number of people who had this coming into your hospital just always made me laugh or if there had been an epidemic of, for example, 'the squits', which you contract from 'eating pizza found under the cooker'.

The strangest thing, I found, in this game was that if you were unable to diagnose a patient, you were then given the option to send them to the autopsy room. There was a community at large aspect of the game which frowned upon this action to some extent, but I always felt it was so weird how minor an action it seemed to send someone off to the room and they just casually sat in this machine and never (obviously) reappeared from it (for those who don't know, you perform autopsies on dead people, to perform it on someone who is alive, kills them). So the fact that this practice was commonplace was kinda creepy.

I will never forget the joy that hearing the background music and that woman speaking on the intercom/loudspeaker brings though.

 

[FrozenLaughs]

I don't have as many satisfying moments in retro games as an adult, because the internet ruined them all for me. If it's not one of the 379425677 ones I've read about from others, its a spot I got stuck on and just Googled the solution.

As a child, one of my most satisfying moments was accidentally discovering the first Light capsule in Megaman X2. I had no idea he had upgrade parts. It lead to me scouring the levels for the rest, and eventually learning you could save Zero. It was where I discovered the idea of alternate endings and hidden stuff. It made me second guess EVERY game I had ever played.

 

[Nadia Castle]

Oddworld Abes Oddysee was completely and utterly frustrating as anything, with one of the worst checkpoint systems ever. But my god, when you finally dashed passed a Scrab four times, saving two Mudockens and teleporting yourself to safety you felt like an absolute gaming god!

Then you'd step a screen to the side and stand right on a landmine you didn't know would be there.....

Like I said, extremely satisfying when you did it right, but trail and error gameplay doesn't mix with bad checkpoints (hence why I can't wait for new n tasty which promises a quick save option)

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

The original Syndicate still holds up, that game is tons of fun. Thanks GOG. I use steam alot but wow am i happy when i checked on gog. Next game will be Soul Reaver.

Only other game on my mind is Vandal Hearts 1 and 2. Loved those 2 games, really hope they end up on PC one day.

 

[Coakle]

Megaman X: Using Shock shots against the armadillo guy. When his shell came off, the boos was never hard, but now he was going to get ruined. Not a difficult puzzle, but very satisfying.

 

[TakerFoxx]

When Sebastian LaCroix opens the Ankaran Sarcophagus.

Also, every Kingdom Hearts ending ever.

 

[kingthrall]

One of the most satisfying moments where I as Drunken, helped as a Sub on the blades to win their first match in the 2013 Myth world cup tournament. The team they are agaist are all veteran players (at least 9 years of gaming on myth as the game was made in 1998)

The objective type in this game is capture the flag, if you lose all flags and are not contesting any flag you automaticly lose.

Anyway skip through some bits as its just long trekking, in essence we did a flag exchange with my secret melle flank but they were forced to attack the fort or lose this game cause the flank would take their only flag. Due to the loss of many casualties then I sent my remaining forces to recapture our home flag.