I don't think I grew beyond thinking I just like video games and actually recognized the difference with retro games in particular until I was in college--I had the original PlayStation and the Nintendo 64 with me, but I left the NES at home. (And I completely can't remember whether I had the SNES or not.) I found myself missing the NES games, and then I realized "hey, wait a second...."
The last game to completely blow me away with how amazing and groundbreaking it was was Mario 64. It was Mario's first foray into 3D gaming, of course, and the worlds felt positively gigantic and immersive. Each individual stage was massive, and I frequently stalled on actually finding all the stars just so I could explore everywhere as much as I could...and that's not even getting into the between-stages hub world which consisted of the castle, the entire front yard/castle exterior area, the second floor, the basement...! The 3D Mario games since then have been a major disappointment, though. (Mario Sunshine was just Mario 64 with a water gimmick and IWBTG's difficulty, and Mario Galaxy was just Mario 64 IN SPACE with millions of The Little Prince-sized microplanets instead of coherent big levels, which is the exact opposite of why I liked Mario 64....)
Interestingly, I sort of live in both worlds at the same time now...I definitely still get excited about upcoming releases, even if they're obscure ones (not caring about Bioshock because I was counting down the days until Etrian Odyssey II was out comes to mind, and of course Guilty Gear XX Accent Core + is almost out...!) but I am obviously also a huge retro gamer.
The thing that surprised me about Retro Game Challenge is that it manages to somehow capture both mindsets in one game. If the presentation was just a menu and all the games all at once, there would have been literally no reason to include the original Haggle Man, for example--Haggle Man 2 is literally the same game with better non-essential graphics (the sprites are the same, but there are backgrounds now and the stages look nicer) and expanded gameplay (much larger stages that can scroll vertically as well as horizontally, the ability to save your scroll attacks instead of them activating as soon as you collect them, etc.) and much higher difficulty. However, thanks to the presentation feeding you games individually as they're "released," I actually like the original Haggle Man because of nostalgia now. Nostalgia. For a game that's in the exact same collection as all the others. At the same time, I'm still impressed with the "advancements" in the later games (Haggle Man 3 is incredible,) but the classics are still...classics! I don't know how it's possible to achieve that with entirely original games that are all part of the same collection, but there you have it. At this point, I can fully appreciate each game in the overall collection in its own way.
At any rate, if you remember the NES and are the kind of person who makes posts on videogame_tales, then you are definitely the target demographic for this game, and I highly recommend it! (Though you'll have to tell me how Hotel Dusk turns out, since I was considering that but still haven't actually played it.)
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The last game to completely blow me away with how amazing and groundbreaking it was was Mario 64. It was Mario's first foray into 3D gaming, of course, and the worlds felt positively gigantic and immersive. Each individual stage was massive, and I frequently stalled on actually finding all the stars just so I could explore everywhere as much as I could...and that's not even getting into the between-stages hub world which consisted of the castle, the entire front yard/castle exterior area, the second floor, the basement...! The 3D Mario games since then have been a major disappointment, though. (Mario Sunshine was just Mario 64 with a water gimmick and IWBTG's difficulty, and Mario Galaxy was just Mario 64 IN SPACE with millions of The Little Prince-sized microplanets instead of coherent big levels, which is the exact opposite of why I liked Mario 64....)
Interestingly, I sort of live in both worlds at the same time now...I definitely still get excited about upcoming releases, even if they're obscure ones (not caring about Bioshock because I was counting down the days until Etrian Odyssey II was out comes to mind, and of course Guilty Gear XX Accent Core + is almost out...!) but I am obviously also a huge retro gamer.
The thing that surprised me about Retro Game Challenge is that it manages to somehow capture both mindsets in one game. If the presentation was just a menu and all the games all at once, there would have been literally no reason to include the original Haggle Man, for example--Haggle Man 2 is literally the same game with better non-essential graphics (the sprites are the same, but there are backgrounds now and the stages look nicer) and expanded gameplay (much larger stages that can scroll vertically as well as horizontally, the ability to save your scroll attacks instead of them activating as soon as you collect them, etc.) and much higher difficulty. However, thanks to the presentation feeding you games individually as they're "released," I actually like the original Haggle Man because of nostalgia now. Nostalgia. For a game that's in the exact same collection as all the others. At the same time, I'm still impressed with the "advancements" in the later games (Haggle Man 3 is incredible,) but the classics are still...classics! I don't know how it's possible to achieve that with entirely original games that are all part of the same collection, but there you have it. At this point, I can fully appreciate each game in the overall collection in its own way.
At any rate, if you remember the NES and are the kind of person who makes posts on