I’ve been playing some retro games recently (PS1 and prior) and I’ve been discovering a lot of games that I never thought I would enjoy. Particularly 90s arcade shmups and arcade style sports games.

What are some of your favorite retro games that you always find yourself coming back to?

  • Tekkip20@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    The first Klonoa game on PS1. Always gave me nostalgia that one and Spyro 1 as well, truly nostalgic games of that era

  • Sepix@feddit.org
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    2 days ago

    I’m going through the N64 catalogue on the Switch and really enjoyed finally finishing the 3D Zeldas and, of course, Banjo Kazooie. The second part is on my list next, followed by the big Zelda title on the SNES. Looking forward to playing those :)

  • Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Flashback

    I played it on the SNES. It’s a sci-fi platformer that I felt shared themes with movies like Total Recall, They Live, Blade Runner, Running Man.

    You start as Conrad, who has crash landed on Titan, being chased by mysterious bad guys, and with no memory of why. All you have is a gun, and a video recording of yourself telling you where to go for the next clue.

  • MyNameIsAtticus@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Can we consider the PS3 Retro at 17? If so i’d have to say Uncharted and Little Big Planet. I keep my Childhood Copies out just to play them.

    If i need to go further back i’d have to side with Ocarina of Time. It’s such a basic Zelda story with it’s Arthurian lore and dungeons, but it’s like the cornerstone Zelda game for me. Mario 64 while im at it

  • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Earthbound, gotta play that at least once in your life.

    Chrono trigger, still one of the greatest games of all time.

    Final Fantasy 6(US 3) there is debate, but widely regarded as the best one overall still. 7 is the other strongest contender, but if you are gonna play that one, don’t play the retro one, as one of the very first polygonal games, it’s hard to look at now.

    Zelda (3), a link to the past.

    There are certainly more, but those’ll last you a few months.

    Edit: Suppose I can’t really get by without saying Rock n’ Roll Racing.

      • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Hehe yeah, I figured with them having no context, that might make it easier to figure out which zelda it was quicker. There are a few kind of similarly named ones now if someone is coming in fresh.

      • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        Third for Chrono Trigger. I didn’t get to play that one when I was a kid so I played it for the first time in 2020. Holy shit what a game. The original definitely still holds up today.

        • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          I played it back in the 90s when it came out. What surprised me almost immediately was the ren fair scene. I forget exactly how they worded it, but the guards had kept track of everything I did at the fair. Which was mind blowing to me in a time when all games npcs would literally unload when off screen, and reload when onscreen. Completely forgetting anything you’d previously said/done.

          Then THIS game remembers what I did 30 minutes ago.

          Was that still startling in 2020, or did you not even realize how mind blowing that was since you’re in 2020 and not 1996?

          • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
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            2 days ago

            It definitely still caught me by surprise. Not like it might have in 1996 - I just played Baldur’s Gate 3 within the past year, after all - but the first time I played I definitely managed to get almost every single piece of bad evidence against me that I could rack up without even meaning to.

  • Refurbished Refurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org
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    3 days ago

    Chrono Trigger (Probably the best JRPG ever made, or even the best game ever made)

    Terranigma (Very philisophical action RPG that also happens to be a lot of fun)

    Silent Hill (The vibes alone make this one, but it also has a great story)

    DOOM (This one should be obvious)

    Majora’s Mask (An emotional powerhouse of a game)

    Tetris

    Also pick any mainline console Mario game that came out between 1985 and 1996 (not including The Lost Levels, but including US SMB 2)

    Super Mario Land 2

    Pokemon 2nd gen

    All GOAT, but all for different reasons.

  • simple@lemm.ee
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    3 days ago

    Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It inspired and perfected a genre of games. It holds up incredibly well.

    • EvilBit@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      It’s hilarious and incredible how we still haven’t made a Metroidvania game that solidly and undeniably bests the game that added the -vania in the first place.

        • EvilBit@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Hollow Knight never did it for me for some reason. I’m sure it’s great, but I just can’t get into it. Like, at all.

  • JRaccoon@discuss.tchncs.de
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    4 days ago

    The original Super Mario Bros. and SMB 3. The first console I got to play as a child was the NES at my grandparents’ house. Every couple of years I get a nostalgic craving and it’s usually those two games I return to. Also, there are many great rom hacks available if getting bored of the originals.

    • Annoyed_🦀 @lemmy.zip
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      4 days ago

      Smb3 is definitely my favorite classic mario, it’s simple and fun, smw seems much more complicated tbh.

      Still haven’t beat it though.

    • umean2me@lemmy.todayOP
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      4 days ago

      That’s awesome! I was born after the NES era, so I’m just now going back and checking out more 8-bit and 16-bit era games. I did of course play Super Mario Bros. and SMB 3 on my 3ds though, the platforming on SMB3 is still solid today.

  • Annoyed_🦀 @lemmy.zip
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    4 days ago

    I just started my nostalgia hunt lately, and firstly it’s Digimon World after watching some content about it. It’s still hold up quite well tbh, even though it does show its age with its system.

    • Aielman15@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      I replay it every other year. It was one of my first games ever, started playing it when I was 5 or so and kept grinding on the same save file for more than 10 years.

      For those interested, the Maeson patch fixes all the bugs that afflicted the game on release and adds a lot of QoL improvements, including persistent music across screens (in the original game, the music resets every time you change screen), diversified evolution lines, and rebalanced progression.
      I replayed it last summer with the Maeson patch and it was very enjoyable while still keeping the “core” experience intact.

      • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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        3 days ago

        Damn, I’ll have to give that a try. I’ve tried to get back into DW via emulation and man, the game is ruthless! The enemies you fight on the first screen (after beating Agumon) will wipe you if don’t bother training at least one entire day first.

        • Annoyed_🦀 @lemmy.zip
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          3 days ago

          My Leomon lose to a caterpillar haha

          I think the dev intended you to avoid most fight, but it’s kinda lame since a lot of time enemy will just place right beside you when you enter the area and then rush toward you, and since fighting is not rewarding it’s kinda pointless.

          • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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            2 days ago

            Yeah, there were also some areas where you’d pretty much get fucked because you’d hear the digimon footsteps and, as soon as the screen faded back in, SURPRISE BATTLE. Your mon having to fight up to 3 enemies made things even harder

        • Aielman15@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          It may be surprising, but most of the difficulty of the game comes from it being very cryptic. Once you understand the underlying mechanics, the game is not hard. You are thrown into a completely foreign world and are asked to just figure it out; and most people go in expecting Pokémon mechanics, which doesn’t help at all.

          What it’s worth remembering when playing it, is that the game encourages you to fail and try again. Your Digimon dies of old age and reverts to an egg every few in-game days anyways, and while it’s technically possible to complete the game with your starter Digimon, new players will probably repeat the cycle a few times at minimum.
          It can be off putting at first, but it does provide the advantage that it doesn’t matter how many mistakes you make, you can just retry next time, and you actually have it easier each time, because you keep all your items and progression, some of the Digimon’s stats, and of course the knowledge you’ve gathered up to that point.

          The Maeson patch doesn’t fundamentally change any of that, but it does remove some of the bloat. Just a few of my favourite changes:

          • Battling against wild Digimon is a waste of time in the original game, but with the patch is a perfectly viable way to farm money and learn new techs.
          • Exploring in the original has you filling your bag with mushrooms, but the patch allows you to find actual useful items that will help you raise your current or next Digimon.
          • Made a few mistakes on the way, and now you’re stuck with a Numemon, Sukamon, or another Digimon you don’t like? Just buy a Reset Radish to revert to an egg and try again (younger me would’ve loved that item).
          • Removed “trap” options, such as providing a fix to the “bonus try” in the gym and making evolution items useful, thus encouraging the player to try out things instead of punishing them for doing so.
          • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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            3 days ago

            Battling against wild Digimon is a waste of time in the original game

            And required for certain evolutions. Not fun times heh

            Made a few mistakes on the way, and now you’re stuck with a Numemon, Sukamon, or another Digimon you don’t like? Just buy a Reset Radish to revert to an egg and try again (younger me would’ve loved that item).

            Back in my PSX days, I would “save up” the poop so that my 'mon would evolve straight from a baby into Sukamon on the first missed potty. Since that evolution halved all stats, and a baby’s stats were super low, it was easily a net positive as training a champion had much larger gains than a baby.

            providing a fix to the “bonus try” in the gym

            So now it’s possible to actually hit all marks? Because I couldn’t get it with fucking save states.

            • Aielman15@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              it was easily a net positive as training a champion had much larger gains than a baby.

              As long as you don’t do it for the first few generations! All training stations get silently upgraded if you train a Baby I or Baby II digimon there a few times each.

              So now it’s possible to actually hit all marks? Because I couldn’t get it with fucking save states.

              Yeah. In the original game, the slots are rigged so that you have a set chance to either hit three symbols in a row (40%) or three jackpots (10%), and if the guaranteed chance doesn’t trigger, you automatically fail.

              With the Maeson patch, you still have the rigged chances to win, but you can also attempt to win the minigame manually if the rigged chance doesn’t trigger. Imo it’s a bit too good (I liked it better the way the Randomizer handled it, by removing the rigged chances altogether and only allowing the player to win the minigame manually), but it’s still an improvement on the original.

      • Annoyed_🦀 @lemmy.zip
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        3 days ago

        Nice, that’s an interesting patch. Can it be done with existing save file?

        Also does it patch the monochromon notorious item shop minigame 🙈

    • umean2me@lemmy.todayOP
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      4 days ago

      When I was a kid I didn’t have my own memory card so I just played the first 2 hours of Digimon World every few days or so LOL. Good game.

      • Annoyed_🦀 @lemmy.zip
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        4 days ago

        Definitely worth trying it now with emulator, savestate and speeding up helps with a lot of tedious stuff and risk-taking, i emulate it with my phone and it sure helps that i don’t have to stick to the front of my pc to play it. I love the mystery the world bring, and it encourage you to explore. Difficulty is wonky though.

  • Coelacanth@feddit.nu
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    3 days ago

    It’s not strictly a 90s schmup but I got the original XIII (2003) on sale on GOG last month and played through it. I never played it back then and always thought it looked cool. It’s a shame it wasn’t a big success, the art direction and concept of playing in the panels of a comic strip was really cool and still holds up. I love the typed out sound effects like TAP TAP TAP on footsteps and BOOOM on explosions. So I guess that’s my retro recommendation.

    Next for me will be No One Lives Forever, which I also missed back in the day but heard was amazing. It’s been unavailable to purchase for decades but I just recently found out the game is made available to download for free by some fans.

    I guess I’m on a bit of an old school spy game kick lately.

    • theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 days ago

      XIII was (and still is) a fucking awesome game. Such a breath of fresh air back then trying something entirely new in terms of art direction on an FPS and nailing it!

  • jroid8@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Super Mario War and Pocket Tanks

    In Iran we always pirate games (except PlayStation games) because US sanctions has banned trades with Iran. Back when I was a kid instead of buying CDs with one game I bought packages which had 100 smaller games and I didn’t buy often because I couldn’t buy games on my own. There are some famous ones among these 600 games (I bought 6 CDs over the years) like peggle, plants vs zombies, chicken invaders, and some others. Despite having fun with many more games, these are the ones I remember the most. Despite not getting a lot of chances to play computer games with others these games where the most fun to play with others

    • umean2me@lemmy.todayOP
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      3 days ago

      That’s an awesome story (not the trade ban part but that you made the most of the situation)! Those games are always the best, the memories always matter most.