"It's going to be fun to play this game again!" [Azul Crescent's silly scribbles]

Counterpoint, there are also games you tried and HATED as a kid, that you might now like as an adult.

As I kid I had a lot less need for quality story telling, and roll play, probably a lot less interest in gardening simulators too. There's probably lots of stuff you thought you didn't like.

Roll play? Role playing as a roll?
- Katamari
- Marble Madness?
- Addicted to Craps, I gotta throw a couple each day, butt when I think about it - it's really money down the toilet.
My version of this is 4X games. I always was intrigued by them as a kid, but I wasn't nearly patient enough or willing to put in the time to understand them. As an adult I've finally been able to enjoy them.
- I'm the opposite. I played the hell out of 4x in college and early adulthood. Now, I just don't have the time or patience for them.
I tried to get my nephews into pokemon nintendo games when they were like 10. Failed bad because "too much reading" and went back to Roblox...
- Kids today something something attention spans what with the social media grumble grumble back when I was that age, dammit.
I remember hating Baroque on ps2 as a kid, but then I grew up, played Spelunky and finally got it what roguelites were doing, went back and liked it.

I've certainly noticed that my patience has dropped off a cliff.

When I was young, I spent hundreds of hours in RPGs. Then I got into roguelikes, which are like RPGs, but condensed down. Well, and now I'm microdosing this crack, because the condensed version of roguelikes is apparently puzzle games.

A good rogue like is a super complex puzzle with randomness thrown in! Completely see the similarity.

Only RL I went hard for was DCSS for some reason, and it's hard to estimate how much time I put into that over the years. At least as much as other heavily played AAA or MMO type games for me. What about you?
- Ehm, well, I may or may not be moderator of a DCSS community here on Lemmy. 😅
  
  Yeah, I decided to write "roguelikes" up there, but 99% of my roguelike time, I've also spent in DCSS. It being more puzzley than many of the more recent roguelikes has certainly played a role...
- I wonder if that statement applies to the original Rogue? I don't recall there being much puzzle to it.
I used to love RPGs when I was younger too, but now I find them too slow. I’ve always loved roguelikes, back when I still liked RPGs, and still to this day.
That game is pretty cool, thank you for sharing. Will go well when I want a break from crosswords.
- You should check out all the games on that site, they're very good. There's even a free mobile app with no ads

I think another part of it is that gaming as a kid and gaming as an adult are for entirely different purposes a lot of the time. I still game for entertainment, but also as a way to unwind. It's just relaxing to me and if I can get into a strongly written storyline, the stresses of my day fade away.

But as a kid, I gamed because gaming was flashy and fun and challenging, and then I wanted to talk to my friends about it after I beat yet another game.

Crash bandicoot was written in fucking LISP

Wait really? Man I knew those games were my favorites for a reason
And they are not using a rigged skeleton for animation

My needs changed. When I was a child I had an intense need to master new skills and show them off. Video games could meet that need in a way school never could. As an adult I can completely fill those needs with work so I have no interest in those sorts of games. Now I play games to be entertained and delighted. If I want challenge I'll put that energy towards earning a bigger bonus for Q4.

Oh would you look at that all your effort went to your bosses bonus, better play harder next time...in all seriousness that's a fun way to look at work.
- I might have helped a few bosses along the way. Collateral damage. ;)

Some games yeah.

The game pictured in this comic, the Crash series on PS1, aged like fine wine though.

Based on the title on the poster, its talking about Crash Bash which is really bad. Basically Mario Party but its just he mini games.
- Oh you're right, I forgot about this one. As a PS1 household, we liked it as kids without Mario games.
  
  I should play it again to see, and I would need to play it with other people to judge it appropriately, unlike the comic.
- To this day crash bash is a game I really enjoy with my cousin. Especially the levels where you have to coordinate and defeat the CPU players as a team and you accidentally send the red explosive ball their direction. No one’s fault really, but we lost - ensue heated argument.
I was going to say this, too. It definitely applies to some games, but not the original Crash trilogy. I replay those games every 5-10 years.
Yeah, weird to have Crash in the background given the quality of the games.
- C*ash Slap is on the poster, which is probably supposed to be a reference to Crash Bash.
  
  If you don't remember Crash Bash, that makes sense, it wasn't great.

I'm playing Tomb Raider remastered right now and I'm scum saving like a little bitch.

I think young me just didn't value spare time because he had so much of it.

These Unfinished Business levels are rough as fuck though.

“If you are holding the jump button as you run off a ledge, Lara will always jump right at the edge.”

from the 100 biggest lies of gaming
- Yeah, you need at least to do a jump back from the edge. I think that's even in the Croft Manor tutorial tbh. It's very open about it being tile based.
  
  I didn't even try "modern controls". I know where I am with the tank controls.

I thought altered beast was the pinnacle of two player gaming at one point. I played it recently and decided to do laundry instead.

I remember Altered Beast's graphics being a lot better than they are.
- IIRC, the sprites were pretty large for the time.
I could never beat the first level when I was a kid. But I played that game over and over and enjoyed every minute of it.
- My tolerance for repetition has gone waayy down. It used to be so common to die and then start over in a game, trying to make it just a little further at each go. It never seemed boring to me, but I have very little tolerance for games that make me do this now.
RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE
- Was down-right haunting for me to hear a game console actually talking!
Lol I'm working on a MAME emulator system and saw the roms for Altered Beast yesterday, and I wondered if I should bother, because I remember playing it some in the arcade. Sounds like I should skip it!
It was cool to waste a few quarters on at the arcade, but the entire game is actually only 15 minutes long, has terribly unrewarding gameplay beyond going beast mode, and is super repetitive.

MKII is still sweet. So is killer instinct, Mike Tysons punchout, tecmo bowl, super dodge ball, most of the Mario games, ff 6 and 7, chrono trigger, the first Mario kart, some of the zelda's, and a ton more.

Going back and playing games I never liked the gameplay of and only played for the story now, as an adult, I think the stories are poorly written and cringe as fuck. 😬

Though for some games, that doesn't make them bad. It just makes them good in a different way. Like how you might enjoy a crappy B movie because it's crappy.

Random stab in the dark, but I could easily take this statement to be about Final Fantasy 7… 🤣

Even if it isn’t, it’s safe to accept that a lot of modern game tropes can have their origins traced back to 8/16/32 bit origins.

Basically what I’m trying to get at is that a lot of the time, the narrative was able to be seen as less cringey, and more cutting. Time has dulled the more sharp edges, or even moves public perceptions well beyond what was presented.
- Chrono Trigger, and Secret of Mana on my shelf like
- The unskippable animations in that game. They didn't bother me at the time, but once somebody pointed them out, I had to agree they were terrible. I don't think I could play the original again because of that. (Fortunately, I've heard that newer versions do allow you to skip.)

The issue is, as a kid, you had lots and lots of time, and also little access to Internet forums for general game info.

Back then, you got a game and that became your whole focus for a few days instead of a few weeks/months.

Games in general were less complex and less forgiving so you were more used to playing simple platformers in which you could die and lose 20 mins of progress.

So overall, the attitude was to put effort, invest and challenge yourself (not with online play) when it came to gaming.

So given all these factors, your attitude towards games and the type of games were difference, hence why a simple platformer without much story and repetitive gameplay was the shit back then.

This is how I felt when I played Kindgom Hearts 3. It was a true sign to me that I didn't have as many interests as I did as a kid

I think part of that is also that KH3 actually sucks compared to KH2, and even KH1 in some areas. Yeah, KH3 is flashy, but the story beats were just awful compared to the previous numerical games. I still haven’t played through the plethora of tie in games, simply because I think the director lost the fucking plot after KH2.

A little of column A, a little of column B.
Idk if it was because it was on an emulator, but when I played Smash for the N64 with friends, all I could think about was the controls felt very clunky and how much smoother Smash Ultimate felt by comparison.

Nope, that's just how it is. I would argue that smash ultimate is their best version by many regards. It is very fluid. My only complaint is there is no subspace emissary like plot in it. Instead prompting for a bunch of matches.
- I also feel like Ultimate is the pinnacle of the formula. Besides the mods that people are making for it, you just can’t get better than Ultimate in my opinion!

yeah we were kids

It is far more likely that their expectations have changed.

I think that's a fair comment, and to extend it a bit further, people expect a standard quality of life in games now that either have emerged over the years a a positive gameplay trait (regenerating health, accessibility customisation, the yellow paint guide) or a technical innovation (auto save, autoaim, customisable graphics etc).

I find it really tough going back to play Perfect Dark (the original, not the excellent remaster) and really struggling to play through the brilliant game at sub-20fps; or playing Metal Gear on the NES without the ability to return to the same room on death, seeing as the password system was a bit clunky.

We've come a long way, largely for the better.
- There's a free PC remaster that is said to be excellent. I'm trying to learn how to get it to work. It's been years since I fucked with emulators.

Never had that, sorry. I come back to games I was obsessed with and begin obsessing over again. Games I found incredibly funny are still incredibly funny. I sometimes find games shorter than I expected them to be.

That hit a little too hard.

Most games I loved as a kid I still love as an adult. Some I even love more - especially those with stories I didn't fully understand at the time. What do you mean Tactics Ogre was about genocide and ethnic conflict? I thought it was about turning everyone into the ninja or swordmaster class??

Fighting games I've lost my taste for, I suppose, though I played those more because they were on every damn demo disc. Though I still remain strangely good at them. A friend of mine picked up some esoteric modern indie fighting game two years ago or so and I fucking crushed them without even knowing the controls while they had several hours of practice under their belt, lmao.

I don't think this ever happend to me. I started on the GBA and to this day every single RPG I played on there holds up - might be specific to the genre. I never played much else.

Your top RPG on the Game Boy Advance better be Golden Sun, or else I’ll riot.
- Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, I'm a sucker for SRPGs. But Golden Sun is up there for sure.
Yeah, I am not sure I can relate either. My favourite games on the NES and SNES when I was a kid are still games I sometimes replay and enjoy today.

Closest thing to the comic I could find would be Ecco the Dolphin, maybe. I had the PC version, and I finished it a few times back then, I was stubborn and a bit bored. Not that long ago I tried returning to it, and maybe try the second game... And wow, it feels like a chore to play.

But even back then, it was not a game I liked that much. I liked how it looked, the creatures you'd meet and the crazy plot, but gameplay already felt tedious and stupidly unforgiving.

Me with Bionicle: The Game.

Then there is the flip side. I have been playing Galaga for over forty years.

If I ever run across an arcade I will first search out for a Galaga to play. Usually is one, which says something. No, I'm not as good as I used to be, but it's okay. I can lose even a few levels in of brief play and still feel I had fun.

I'm having this problem with old RTS games. I remember having SO much fun and they're just boring as fuck now.

I felt that when I installed Command and Conquer a few years ago. Everything was much smaller than I remembered.
- Command and Conquer: Generals was and remains the shit.

I'd find it odd if I enjoyed the same things as much now as I did when I was say, 6-12 years old. Games and shows for kids are meant for a child-like mind. You can still appreciate them for what they are - I've watched Lazy Town with my nieces and enjoyed the quality of the music and Stefán Karl Stefánsson as Robbie Rotten. But I'm not sitting down to watch it on my own.

Plus game design and definitely graphics can improve over time. E.g. I loved Golden Eye on N64 as a kid, but if I replayed it I think nostalgia would be doing a lot of heavy lifting. I replayed FF7 Classic a year or two ago and did not find it nearly as compelling as I did when I was 16. It was still alright, but it didn't amaze me the way it did in PS1 days.

I loved Golden Eye on N64 as a kid, but if I replayed it I think nostalgia would be doing a lot of heavy lifting

This one probably only needs a more intuitive control scheme, I have zero nostalgia for it since I only played FPS games on PC, but I loved the Agent 64 demo that is on steam, do give it a try!
- I played Doom before Goldeneye but I was still able to get into it at the time. Going back to it again in recent years I found the controls were like muscle memory. They're still not great but it worked well enough back in the day.

I'll probably feel this when I start playing the new Croc remaster, since tank controls are hard to go back to, but I remember playing a ton of Croc 2 as a kid, getting lost in the hub all the time.

I had that happen to me when I tried playing MDK recently :D

This hurts so much as an adult 😪

You played shitty games as a kid, it's not exactly an uncommon or unrepeatable experience, I mean if it wasn't as common or relatable as it is, AVGN (and creators like them) wouldn't have been nearly as popular and successful as they are.