Just as with books, movies, plays etc the past holds a treasure trove of amazing experiences. Unless you have a lot more free time than I do it’s unlikely you’ve played anywhere near the majority of the classics. Let’s get out those pink sunnies and compare notes on some of our favourite releases.

I’ve recently been going back in time a little on the retro pi and looking at console games I never had.

  • I have to say Chrono Trigger blew me away with it’s stunning art, puzzles with surprisingly little moon logic, and beautiful music.

  • Mario golf on the SNES is very simple but for tired evenings cuddling on the couch it’s been a winner in our household.

  • The n64 Zelda games are surprisingly great too although that awkward period of 3d had some unusual controls. Even the gameboy ones are a blast although the water temple in oracle of ages it a bit frustrating.

  • Heroes of might and magic 2 and 3 hold a special place in my heart and I can still dump hours into skirmishing with those (32167 for when hom2 gets too frustrating amiright?)

  • I loved neverwinter knights as a kid but recently tried to check it out again and just… idk the magic wasn’t there. I think now I’d rather just play some actual ttrpgs instead of sprawling CRPGs

PS1 is a mystery box to me so I’d love to hear some recommendations from that old thing. All I ever played on it was time crisis at my mates house (which was and is soooo coool, RIP lightguns).

What about you folks? What games hold a special place in your heart? or what have you checked out for the first time recently and found it’s actually pretty good?

  • GeneralRetreat@beehaw.org
    1·
    1 year ago

    One of my all-time favourites is Freelancer, 2003. Just a really fun arcade space sandbox with an engaging campaign and great multiplayer and modding scene.

  • sludge@beehaw.org
    1·
    1 year ago

    Mischief Makers for n64! its a puzzle platformer by treasure, its controls are a little unintiutive at first, but the games grappling/boost mechanics are so much fun once you get it down.

    also, SHAKE SHAKE!

  • Boozilla@beehaw.org
    1·
    1 year ago

    Beyond Good & Evil, 2003. It’s been so long since I played it, I don’t remember much other than it was a sandbox and it had some neat mechanics and cute characters and I loved it. The closing credits musical sequence is magical, too.

    • omgarm@feddit.nl
      1·
      1 year ago

      One of the first games I played that was translated in Dutch with good voiceovers! Loved it and made me more open to localized games.

    • InsurgentRat@beehaw.orgOP
      0·
      1 year ago

      I think I rented it for the gamecube but never played much. Apparently it’s famously good! I’ll have to check it out.

  • fritata_fritato@lemmy.nz
    0·
    1 year ago

    I still play Doom 1 & 2 most days. Nothing matches it for speed of play. Doom is fast.

    Doom 2016 is a good game too, but I’m it lacks speed.

    • Rolivers@discuss.tchncs.de
      1·
      1 year ago

      Same. Project Brutality makes the old Doom games quite enjoyable as well. It’s a bit edgy but it’s kind of a mix of modern Doom with the old ones. It’s the perfect kind of game to just turn your brain off and shoot some demons without having it be too difficult.

      Doom Eternal is too much of a dance to play, you have to swap weapons all the time and carefully juggle ammo, chainsaw, dashes and a bunch of other buttons to play optimally.

  • prole@beehaw.org
    0·
    1 year ago

    I just picked up Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition (the original, not the Remaster) again. Installed it on my Steam Deck along with DSFix after a year or so of scrolling past it and seeing the “unsupported” icon. Looked it up on ProtonDB and apparently it works just fine.

    What a game. The level design is still unmatched imo

    • mayooooo@beehaw.org
      0·
      1 year ago

      I have that edition and can’t for the life of me get my xbox controller to work with it. I swear I’ve tried ALL of the solutions people give and just gave up in the end.

      • Horza@feddit.uk
        1·
        1 year ago

        I had the same problem with elden ring… turns out if I unplugged my Nintendo Wii IR sensor from my pc it allowed the Xbox controller to work.

        Guessing it’s something to do with detecting a certain peripheral as player one but I honestly have no idea!

      • prole@beehaw.org
        0·
        1 year ago

        Have you tried something like xpadder where it just maps the keyboard keys used in the game to your controller buttons? I’ve had to use that from time to time way back with older games before controller support got better. Not ideal, but seems to work usually when all else fails.

        I’m not sure if/how it works exactly since I mostly do my “PC” gaming on Steam Deck these days, but if it’s possible to use Steam Input on Windows, you may be able to do something similar right in Steam.

        • mayooooo@beehaw.org
          0·
          1 year ago

          I’ll try that, never heard about it! Steam input is an option in steam on windows, I guess it’s the same deal? Thanks for the xpadder thing, it will come in handy for sure.

          • prole@beehaw.org
            1·
            1 year ago

            Nice, I’m glad I could be of some help. Let me know if you get it to work.

            Steam Input is amazing, it’s one of my favorite features of the Steam Deck that nobody really talks about. The amount of customization you can do for controller layouts for individual games is incredible. You can even create radial menus if you want.