Playing Old Games For the First Time - Give a Short Review of Some 10+ Year Old Game You Played For the First Time

[Calandrino]

If it's the Genesis version, the best you could ever say about it is that it was a passable port of the arcade game, which was buttery smooth and had analog controls. It's about on the same tier as the SNES port of Wolfenstein 3-D. That said, the arcade version is still one of those games whose main appeal was that it was the mid-80s, and anything even approximating 3D looked like a miracle of technology.

The original Space Harrier is an all-time favorite for me, much better than Star Fox or the other arcade games Sega built on the same technology. Space Harrier 2 is clunky and jank even compared to similar NES games.

 

[Steinercard]

I tried playing Jade Empire on the PC, but the version on Steam was basically broken for me. I didn't have the crashes some other people had, but it was really choppy.

It took me five seconds to find the PC Gaming Wiki page on Jade Empire. And another second to find the correct patch to fix your issue.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is NOT good, bros. That game ran out of money like halfway through the dev cycle and it shows

If you're playing V:tM:B without the latest fan patch (comes bundled and pre-installed with the gog release btw). You aren't playing the best version of the game.

Playing Roller Coaster Tycoon: Deluxe for the first time. (Although I have played a bit of Classic on the phone before)

Probably one of the most satisfying games I've played in a while. Something about methodically turning an empty plot of land into a thriving theme park and watching everything unfold from above is magical. Also having to micromanage your staff, adjust prices, borrow and pay off loans and routinely set up advertisement campaigns makes the experience that much more engaging.

I've only played the easier scenarios so far, but I can definitely see why people love this game.

I'll have to get Open RC2 one of these days. The fast forward option alone is tempting me to want to switch over.

Planet Coaster made me retroactively hate a lot of theme park Tycoon games I've played in the past. It was so boring and dull. All you do is build coasters with no real feedback. But then I replayed RC3 and realised that Planet Coaster is just a shitty and soulless game just like all of Frontier's recent efforts. RC just has something soulful that Planet Coaster doesn't.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Not long ago I played through Ridge Racer Type 4 on the PSX and it holds up very well, never played it at the time. Plus it looks really good for a PS1 game.

 

[The Ugly One]

I'm basically hate-playing Final Fantasy XII at this point. This thing is barely even a game. Since real-time party combat is unplayable, your party members are all AI-controlled. In fact, you can make the party leader AI-controlled as well. Consequently, you mostly just buy your characters better gear and watch the game play itself, occasionally intervening to tell a party member to cast a different spell than usual. Of course, getting that gear isn't so easy. The game loves preventing you from farming up a little gold or finishing your shopping by suddenly triggering a cutscene that whisks you off on another thrilling voyage or throws you into another stinking dungeon, all access to the town shops once again cut off for a few hours as you press "up" on the joystick and watch your stunningly rendered party members thwack away at enemies on their own.

The plot is the usual retarded JRPG nonsense, an absolute mess of incomprehensible motivations, bad dialogue, and pointless bullshit. Terrible game.

 

[Circular Tyrant]

spent the last few days playing through Max Payne 1 for the first time since i love John Woo films. the first 2 chapters are pretty great (especially the mansion shootout), but i think chapter 3 doesn't quite live up to their quality since you're really given no choice other than to only use the Colt Commando and constantly save scum. didn't think the valkyr sequences were much fun to play either. can't wait to play the next 2 games though!

 

[Pissmaster]

I've been playing Qix Neo off and on in an emulator lately. It's Qix, a classic puzzle game, but now it's a late-in-life PS1 game with good 2D graphics and it holds up. Also it's a PS1 game from 2003, and like how many PS1 games do you ever hear about released that late in the console's life? Runs great in Duckstation, pirate that shit if you like puzzle games

spent the last few days playing through Max Payne 1 for the first time since i love John Woo films. the first 2 chapters are pretty great (especially the mansion shootout), but i think chapter 3 doesn't quite live up to their quality since you're really given no choice other than to only use the Colt Commando and constantly save scum. didn't think the valkyr sequences were much fun to play either. can't wait to play the next 2 games though!

Max Payne 2 is short. I cleared it in two sessions, and I take my time and play games fairly slowly. One of my high school buddies told me he got the game for Christmas and beat it before the rest of his family was done opening presents. It's very good and well worth your time, just don't be surprised if you felt like you blew through it.

 

[DamnWolves!]

I've never played the original Souls series. If I were to dust off my PS3, which game is the best starting point for this genre/series?

If you're still taking advice, I'm going to say Dark Souls 3, if that came out for PS3. DS1 has some "old game eccentricities" that prevent the experience from being smooth for new players; I've never actually beat it despite playing through the others a couple times because DS1 throws a whole bunch of bullshit at you that you don't want to deal with unless you've been mapping out the game in your head for the past 15 years like Soulspergs tend to. DS2 is not the best introduction to the series. Play dark souls 3 as "knight with straight sword and shield" and you'll be playing the most polished version of formula (although arguably also the most difficult, especially in the DLCs). Then, when you're done that, you can play Bloodborne to see how the other playstyle feels.

You can skip Sekiro; that game was a fuckin' mistake--don't @ me, weebs.

I probably wouldn't sperg about the old DOS games that I do if I hadn't grown up on them, and wasn't used to them in general.

Any favorites? I'm a One Must Fall 2097 connoisseur myself--the poor man's Mortal Kombat. Also, Jazz Jackrabbit, Commander Keens, Epic Mega Pinball (Android table--only had the demo).

When I was really young, we had this game I had lost for years, but I looked it up a few years ago: Apogee's Crystal Caves. Don't know if it holds up, but it looks OK.

 

[Mister Mint]

tbh I have a lot of trouble going back to a lot of PS1 games I missed out on. I feel like we jumped to 3d about a generation too early there and sometimes the games are just too shitty for me to dive into.

 

[The Penultimate Warrior]

I've been playing the Contra collection, only one I grew up with was Contra 3/Super Probotector so muscle memory can carry me through that. But I will fully admit to using save states in the other games as it makes it a lot more manageable and they still play well. I can see why people like Contra Hard Corps so much, but boy does that game live up to its name, the only one where I found it's a job keeping track of what is going on.

 

[TurdFondler]

tbh I have a lot of trouble going back to a lot of PS1 games I missed out on. I feel like we jumped to 3d about a generation too early there and sometimes the games are just too shitty for me to dive into.

Even picking up some ps2 titles is a chore. Camera controls are wonky and a lot of the mechanics just feel outdated.

 

[Lemmingwise]

I tried playing Jade Empire on the PC, but the version on Steam was basically broken for me. I didn't have the crashes some other people had, but it was really choppy.

The pirated version worked fine. It's a decent game.

Maybe the only RPG with a good third act.

 

[Coffee Shits]

I played and beat Half-Life: Blue Shift and Half-Life: Opposing Force back-to-back recently. Blue Shift is a great title and stands tall alongside the original Half-Life, crummy platforming sections and all. Playing as Barney with smaller munitions was a fun way to reuse the Black Mesa complex as an environment without it feeling like a cash-in. It's shorter than the original HL but I think it's just as long as it needs to be, fleshing out the world without retreading old ground.

Opposing Force on the other hand I did not like. The problem is the game is too long with too few interesting sections. I dug through some of the old promotional materials and one of them hailed "more weapons" as a selling point. I think that sums up Gearbox's take on Half-Life, because the glut of weapons in OF is ridiculous even in the middle of an alien invasion. You're going to need them though because many enemies can take multiple rockets to the face even on normal. Overall it feels poorly balanced. I've never liked any Gearbox game, they're just not that good, and even when they're taking 90% of their assets and gameplay from Valve they still manage to make something low quality.

 

[BrunoMattei]

I've been playing the Contra collection, only one I grew up with was Contra 3/Super Probotector so muscle memory can carry me through that. But I will fully admit to using save states in the other games as it makes it a lot more manageable and they still play well. I can see why people like Contra Hard Corps so much, but boy does that game live up to its name, the only one where I found it's a job keeping track of what is going on.

Not sure if you've figured it out but doing the slide move in Hard Corps has invincibility. If I knew that as a kid it would have saved me a lot of grief. Alternatively, you can use the little robot guy who has a smaller hitbox and a double jump but his weapons are weaker.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

I'm basically hate-playing Final Fantasy XII at this point. This thing is barely even a game. Since real-time party combat is unplayable, your party members are all AI-controlled. In fact, you can make the party leader AI-controlled as well. Consequently, you mostly just buy your characters better gear and watch the game play itself, occasionally intervening to tell a party member to cast a different spell than usual. Of course, getting that gear isn't so easy. The game loves preventing you from farming up a little gold or finishing your shopping by suddenly triggering a cutscene that whisks you off on another thrilling voyage or throws you into another stinking dungeon, all access to the town shops once again cut off for a few hours as you press "up" on the joystick and watch your stunningly rendered party members thwack away at enemies on their own.

The plot is the usual retarded JRPG nonsense, an absolute mess of incomprehensible motivations, bad dialogue, and pointless bullshit. Terrible game.

Have you played FFXII before? I enjoyed it a bit originally, as a kid and even a teenager I was more forgiving of a game's flaws. Then I got stuck and never went back until the remaster. Then I actually hated it.

The very beginning isn't so bad, but it falls apart very quickly and it has some of the worst pacing of any RPG I've played.

Here's a few more games I recently played:

Tumble Pop is the first game ever that I couldn't even get past the title screen on, so I'm reluctant to even mention it, but maybe I did something wrong. I never played it before and tried to start a game but it seemed to insist on a password and random entries didn't work for me. Very strange.

I played through SNK Gal's Fighters as Athena. It actually plays really well, and looks and sounds good. It has unique endings for each character, but the one I got was very random and seemingly nonsensical, but kind of funny. The story is based around fighting for an item that can grant a wish, and she wishes for long hair, only to later land a gig she likes but which requires her to cut her hair. I might go through it again another time with different characters.

I don't know what I expected out of Wario Blast featuring Bomberman, but it was more than swapping his sprite out for Wario's and just fighting Bomberman. He killed me because I suck, and then I quit, never to play again. If there was some type of story mode or something I'd have probably cared enough to continue, but they didn't care enough to include one.

 

[The Ugly One]

Have you played FFXII before? I enjoyed it a bit originally, as a kid and even a teenager I was more forgiving of a game's flaws. Then I got stuck and never went back until the remaster. Then I actually hated it.

The very beginning isn't so bad, but it falls apart very quickly and it has some of the worst pacing of any RPG I've played.

This is my first time playing it. I play precious few traditional JRPGs, and beat even fewer of them, since the average JRPG is nothing more than a tedious farming game. I'm 10 hours in, and that's all FFXII is. When it actually lets you off the rail for a few minutes, you need to head to the killing fields and farm loot off random enemies so that you can equip your party with all the best shit at the local town so that you won't get your ass kicked by the wash-rinse-repeat enemies in the next battle area.

There just isn't much of an underlying game. Plus the story is absolutely insipid. At this point, the story consists of, "There's an Empire that defeated a kingdom, and their rule is...not particularly heavy-handed at all. In fact, they just don't seem all that bad. But anyway, the true princess is alive, isn't that great?" There's nothing interesting whatsoever about any of these characters.

 

[Action Orange]

I recently beat Castlevania 1 on the nes. Really I beat it three times: once with save states, and two more times without them. I used the video guide made by youtuber U Can Beat Video Games(excellent channel) to learn the strats for the more bullshitty parts.

The game has a great atmosphere to be so old, and the difficulty curve from levels 1-5 is actually quite smooth, with the 6th level being a victory lap of sorts. That being said the level 4 boss(frankenstein & igor), as well as the level 5 boss(death) are INCREDIBLY difficult without cheesing them with the holy water sub weapon. They attack quickly and from weird angles in a way that Simon Belmont's moveset cant really deal with their attacks, so the strat is to go into the fights with the right sub weapon, which trivializes the fights. Getting through the levels with the right sub weapon is a huge part of the games challenge, but it's extremely satisfying to do a near perfect run through a level, with the reward being the end boss's complete obliteration. 4 of the 6 bosses of the game can be dealt with without cheesing them out, and are completely fair. I would also say that the levels, while challenging, are also very fair and can be reliably beaten with practice.

Overall, a very fun game to learn and I will definitely be playing through it again this Halloween. Trying to decide on either Cv 3 or Rondo of Blood to learn next.

 

[Mega Black]

spent the last few days playing through Max Payne 1 for the first time since i love John Woo films. the first 2 chapters are pretty great (especially the mansion shootout), but i think chapter 3 doesn't quite live up to their quality since you're really given no choice other than to only use the Colt Commando and constantly save scum. didn't think the valkyr sequences were much fun to play either. can't wait to play the next 2 games though!

Max Payne 2 is my personal favorite and I have a soft spot for 3 though I freely admit it has a lot of problems. They're great games, all.

 

[Psyduck]

This is my first time playing it. I play precious few traditional JRPGs, and beat even fewer of them, since the average JRPG is nothing more than a tedious farming game. I'm 10 hours in, and that's all FFXII is. When it actually lets you off the rail for a few minutes, you need to head to the killing fields and farm loot off random enemies so that you can equip your party with all the best shit at the local town so that you won't get your ass kicked by the wash-rinse-repeat enemies in the next battle area.

There just isn't much of an underlying game. Plus the story is absolutely insipid. At this point, the story consists of, "There's an Empire that defeated a kingdom, and their rule is...not particularly heavy-handed at all. In fact, they just don't seem all that bad. But anyway, the true princess is alive, isn't that great?" There's nothing interesting whatsoever about any of these characters.

Thats so funny man, i have a friend who *adores* the shit out of that game, keeps recommending it to me citing the battle system and the story as it's strong points. Might try it someday cause, well... I'm the kinda guy who enjoyed FFXIII and loved FFXV (then again, my first experience with it was the Royal Edition with all the dlcs and patches in there, dont know how the bare game is like)

Anyways, decided to emulate Diddy Kong Racing a few days back, found myself enjoying it a lot, but it was tougher than i remember... The first Wizpig boss race i have no idea how i cleared back then, used every single character, took every single zipper the right way, and it wasnt until i looked it up that i found out you go faster if you tap A repeatedly instead of holding it down... What the hell

A nice surprise was realizing there's a secret character you can unlock, with stats that blow the water out of every other racer... But by the time you're able to get him, Adventure Mode is almost over, and for how good this character is on the track, he sucks for the final boss race

Really wish there was a cheat or something that allowed you to drive out of boundaries, a lot of the tracks in this game are really colorful and nice looking, and the game has an underrated soundtrack, too. Wish there was a way to play multiplayer again

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Thats so funny man, i have a friend who *adores* the shit out of that game, keeps recommending it to me citing the battle system and the story as it's strong points. Might try it someday cause, well... I'm the kinda guy who enjoyed FFXIII and loved FFXV (then again, my first experience with it was the Royal Edition with all the dlcs and patches in there, dont know how the bare game is like)

I really liked FF12 when I played it at night and smoked weed. Aside from some battles it was very pleasant playing as a backseat passenger to the overall story, which made sense playing a teenage boy. I wish it would have been ATB turnbased with visible overworld enemies. Could have worked similar to Chrono Trigger.

Never finished it. Generally adored the voice acting and I can't say that about many games.

 

[Livecorpse]

I played and beat Half-Life: Blue Shift and Half-Life: Opposing Force back-to-back recently. Blue Shift is a great title and stands tall alongside the original Half-Life, crummy platforming sections and all. Playing as Barney with smaller munitions was a fun way to reuse the Black Mesa complex as an environment without it feeling like a cash-in. It's shorter than the original HL but I think it's just as long as it needs to be, fleshing out the world without retreading old ground.

Opposing Force on the other hand I did not like. The problem is the game is too long with too few interesting sections. I dug through some of the old promotional materials and one of them hailed "more weapons" as a selling point. I think that sums up Gearbox's take on Half-Life, because the glut of weapons in OF is ridiculous even in the middle of an alien invasion. You're going to need them though because many enemies can take multiple rockets to the face even on normal. Overall it feels poorly balanced. I've never liked any Gearbox game, they're just not that good, and even when they're taking 90% of their assets and gameplay from Valve they still manage to make something low quality.

You hit the nail on the head. Blue Shift is a nice side story, but Opposing Force, while it has some cool ideas, feels really bloated and padded, especially towards the end (fuck that munitions dump level).

Speaking of Half-Life, while Half-Life 2 was groundbreaking when it was first released, it hasn't aged terribly well in some respects. The vehicle sections go on for a little bit too long, especially that stupid dune buggy thing. Also, the enemy variety is basically nonexistent. For way too much of the game, you're just fighting the same Combine soldiers over and over, with the occasional diversion into headcrab land. My biggest issue, though, is that the weapons are terrible. The pistol and SMG are basically useless once you get the magnum and the pulse rifle, and there's no great long-range weapon except the crossbow, which is way too slow when you're in a firefight. I really wish the pulse rifle didn't have such insane spread.