This is by far not my favorite game, but one that distinctly remember. I didn’t have any video game systems before I was 10, so my uncle let me borrow his. I played this sooo much before I had to give it back.
Probably all the Nintendo 2d and 2.5d racers. RC ProAm, another similar one with boats, and one with trophy trucks (that may have been arcade-only). I liked cars. Super Mario Bros 1 also.
I had the high score at the gas station nearest my house on the pacman machine until the place closed. Nobody could even get close in the local area. I would usually be in the top three at the arcade on both games, depending on whether or not I had access to time and money. None of my scores were high enough to be some kind of record, but I was the king of those two games in two counties. I’m not saying I could never get out-scored, I could. But I never had bad games, only less good, where the other players around would have way more bad than great games.
But I fucking loved pacman. The entire sensory assault of it was so damn satisfying. I was good at centipede (largely because of the trackball being very intuitive for me), but I liked it more because I was good at it than for the game itself.
Pacman though? Fuck, I’d spend hours playing it. I even had one of those old coleco mini versions that I got for Christmas one year. Which, I was not as good at, what with the difference in controls, but I still loved playing it until it died maybe ten years ago (seriously, that fucking thing lasted decades).
I was so fucking bummed when I couldn’t find any place to play the real version. Later console versions didn’t have the same joy for me. I’ve managed to luck into some time on restored machines here and there, though.
Past that, mario cart was big in our house when it came out. My sister was better at it on average, but we’d have some killer weekends playing it with our mom and friends. I never liked consoles much. The controls just didn’t work for me.
So it wasn’t until this century that I got back into harmony gaming at all. Mmorpgs are my thing, when I can do it (disability makes pc gaming sporadic). The first game I found that sucked me in was shaiya. It wasn’t that great of a game overall. Heavily pay to win. But the story was good, and I had a great guild.
Then it was on to war and battle of the immortals. Mid tier games, but I liked the world setting.
Then, I found neverwinter and that was my game. I haven’t been happy with anything else since. I don’t really play any more, but that was the perfect mmo for me. The d&d world, with an intuitive and fun control setup. The classes and races were fairly well balanced. The graphics were fucking bonkers for the era too. It just made me happy. It still kinda does, but I don’t have the time or stamina these days.
Battletoads (NES) I have a few but I want to call out this as it gets memed for it’s difficulty - and it was difficult - but not “can’t pass level 3 speeder bikes” difficult!
The game looked great, had extremely tight controls and had an insane amount of level variety! Each of the 12 levels was unique, from platforming, rappelling, biking, surfing, flying, racing, swimming, and even weird ass wall clingers! And they all played well - It also had the most banging pause music ever haha!
Chase HQ on the famicom is one of the first games I’ve ever played and I especially loved playing it on the arcade even though I wasn’t very good at it. Chrono Trigger is the other game that I still love.
This one is a bit out there, but I feel like Backpack Battles is a series of self-generated puzzles.
It’s an autobattler where you shop between each round to buy items and bags, and items affect other items in specific positions around them. So, you’re constantly trying to react to what the shop is offering you to build a combo (and get balanced defenses), then rearrange your bag to try to maximize your item synergies.
It’s completely free to play in early access until its full release in April. And the global leaderboards are very active. Good luck getting to Master Rank, let alone Grandmaster! (I’ve plateaued in Diamond… I need to work on my early game.)
If you'd be interested in a kind of spiritual successor, try CrossCode. Not exactly the same, the combat is very different, but the general exploration reminds me of Golden Sun a lot.
One that never really took off for the N64 almost surely because the controls were so fucked - Jetforce Gemini.
Those who took the time to tolerate and master the janky controls were rewarded with a shooter that was otherwise second to none. AND YES THAT INCLUDES 007!
Hearing the music cranks the nostalgia up to 10 immediately.
I’ve got a really fond spot in my heart for The Neverhood. It really opened my young eyes to the possibility that video games could be weird and artistic. They didn’t have to be an action packed generic mainstream capitalization of whatever is popular at the moment. As a kid, I could still tell it was a unique piece of work that required a lot of passion and creativity. I consider it the first indie game I ever played and it absolutely set the tone for what I chose to play to this day.
I still listen to the soundtrack nearly three decades later.
I was a beast at Jackal. Could play that game without dying easily, and made up my own lyrics to the music. (I remember one song was about Colgate Jr.)
I think I loved how in so many games getting hit by any enemy meant death. But here you could run over guys. Fun game.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne