I think nostalgia plays a pretty big factor in retro games. Like, yes, I agree that enshittification marches onwards and the state of the industry today is pretty lame.
Every time I’ve gone back to a retro game I find myself vaguely disappointed. Quality of life has come a long way, and development is iterative so it makes sense that games made twenty years ago are lacking some features that make life easier for the player. Things like fast travel in metroidvanias, or inventory and quest management, or just trying to remember what it was I was supposed to do next in an RPG are often quite lacking. Or at the least, they’re not up to today’s standards.
Survivorship bias plays a pretty big role here too. We remember the good games that stand out from the rest of them, and we forget about the crap. There was shovelware back then too, maybe not to the degree of the modern app stores with F2P games loaded with microtransactions and dark patterns, but they were there too.
Anyway, long story long, the trick in whatever generation you play seems to be to find games that respect your time as a player. I’d also recommend checking out indie games, they’re made with love, and you can find all kinds of retro-styled where you can tell the devs were passionate about games of the era.
Here’s a short list of games I’ve enjoyed that give me that retro SNES feeling:
The one time I've asked for a refund on steam was when I mistakenly bought the remastered instead of the original version of an old game I wanted, and found that it had been ruined by the addition of a (not easy to bypass and wouldn't run under wine) "launcher" that was there for the sole purpose of getting you to register an account and log in so they could collect whatever data they wanted.
As with most, depends on the game. 2D I generally prefer D-pad, even if the game has 8 directions. For 3D, there’s really no choice.
My cursed option: I like playing fighting games with the d-pad.
Also a stray opinion: I hate games that mix the two on moment to moment gameplay. Using D-pad for pause menus while moving with the Analog, fine. Using d-pad to use items during live gameplay, like in soulslikes? Terrible.
I would have thought Dpad was the obvious choice for fighting games due to combo button combinations. Is it more common for players to use the joystick?
A fightstick is the ideal for anyone wanting to invest in the genre, as it provides both precise control and a wide array of movements that neither d-pad or analog can reach.
It was a joke-y cursed option because d-pad are not only wildly uncomfortable but also quite inefficient when it comes to the high speed sequences
@AdellcomdoisL@overload there are plenty of top players using gamepads in the fighting game community these days. As it transitioned online and arcades sort of disappeared entirely there is less bias toward fightsticks emulating the arcade cabinet experience. Not to say they aren’t still the popular choice but gamepads aren’t considered garbage like they were.
Yeah I play fighting games on both an 8bitdo fight stick and a PS4 d-pad. I’m still not sure which I prefer. Fight stick feels more accurate but I can react much faster with a d-pad.
I’m still not very good at these games though, so I can’t speak for people at a high level!
Depends on taste. I love mechanical depth and systems on systems and depending on how retro you're talking most games older than, say early 2000s ish just don't often have that
Still playing Shining Force 2, almost at the end. I read somewhere that Peter is the real main character and kind of agree.
I also started playing Sonic Adventure 2 because it looked cool and was less than $2, and omg, it might be the worst game I’ve ever played. I looked it up and it apparently was rushed, had a small team, and was made during a turbulent time at Sega. But it’s just bad. The controls are garbage, camera is even worse and sometimes does not let you move it to see where you’re going. The dialogue is thrown together poorly so the characters are often talking over each other in cutscenes. It’s a shame too because I can see the wasted potential. At least the chill Knuckles levels are still fun to play, and the music is memorable. I really hope the “Dark” path is better than the “Hero” path.
Looks like a very charming and relaxing game indeed! Ill add it to my wish list :) In case anyone else wants to check it out --> store.steampowered.com/app/1118240/Lake/
The mobile market mostly targets kids and boomers and their resistance to microtransactions has been basically non-existent, making the market quickly become predatory and full of spam
Modern app stores have become abysmal, making it impossible for smaller games to see the light of day. 99% of google play is a dumpster fire, and the 1% that is decent isn’t published by a multi-billion dollar company so you’re unlikely to ever see it. There are good games out there, but the way the algorithms and ads work makes them constantly pushed down in the list. This isn’t “a problem” to a company like Google because they’re making bank off of all these ad spaces.
Anyways, most good games are paid, but here’s a list of stuff I’ve enjoyed playing on mobile:
Fancy Pants Adventures
Bloons TD 6
Dicey Dungeons
Dead Cells
Slay the Spire (but the mobile port is rough on small screens)
Don’t forget Plants vs Zombies 2. Which despite some micro transactions, definitely held up in its early days. Rather, I’d say it got do either dirty from balancing issues rather than greed.
A little bit of Crash N. Sane trilogy and starting a new run of Fallout New Vegas on hard difficulty hardcore mode, alongside more slogging through Baba Is You.
Never completed a single run on the games I’ve played in the Fallout series, yet for some reason I decided to start another playthrough and do hardcore mode for the first time because clearly I hate myself. Currently maybe 5-6 levels in and it ain’t easy compared to the really cool melee build save on my desktop.
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