So I assume many of us have played some games for the first time long after their release date. Like, maybe you didn’t have a specific console growing up so we didn’t play the “classics” on it, or something.
I’m just wondering how many of you have played an older game and thought “wow, I wish I grew up with this game”?
For example, for me, many years ago I played Super Metroid for the first time and fell in love with the idea of just wandering aimlessly around the game world, occasionally stumbling into new areas. I would have loved to have played it as a kid with childlike wonder without worrying about finishing the game or making progress.
Ooh, great question! Super Metroid is one for me too. I love metroidvanias now, and really enjoyed the nonlinear / exploration elements of Super Mario World, but I didn’t play a proper metroidvania until my teens. I think I’d take CV:SotN over Super Metroid, but I bet I’d have been more than happy with either.
I wish I grew up with some OG gameboy RPGs. Final Fantasy Legend, Dragon Warrior Monsters, Crystalis. They were just a bit too far before my time for me to get much exposure when I would have liked them best, so I don’t have any real nostalgia, but in revisiting old games I’ve always been drawn to those.
I went back and played (and beat) Super Metroid finally a few years ago. It was an amazing experience that I’m sorry I missed out on as a kid, but I don’t think I would have had the patience to beat it then. I ended up on a Metroid binge after that. Played the Samus Returns remake and Dread, and am currently playing the Prime remake. I think Metroid has been stuck in niche consoles for so long a lot of folks haven’t been exposed so I appreciate the remakes.
The first time played Super Metroid, it was after I played Fusion and Zero Mission, and I was actually rather unimpressed by it, despite it being basically a platinum standard for 2D metroidvanias.
It was only later, after playing various romhacks including randomizers and getting much more accustomed to the game engine and the sheer number of possibilities afforded by various speed tricks and sequence-breaking techniques, that I gradually realized why it’s held in such high regard. The game is…neat, if you simply play through it once. But the more you learn about it the more you can do with it and the more fascinating it becomes. There is a seemingly infinite depth to it, which is not at all obvious on a first playthrough. In fact, some of it appears to be accidental, possibly game design bugs on the programmers’ part, yet somehow such imperfects have made it even more of a masterpiece.