Posted by Welcome back to our 30 day video game challenge! If you’d like to catch up with the other days, click here.
Today we’re reaching back in our gaming memory…
Day 24: What is your favorite retro game?
My favorite retro game? It depends how retro we’re getting, and on what platform we’re talking about. Everyone loves a good round of Oregon Trail, and I was all about its sequel, Amazon Trail, which had you scouting the Amazon River (and yes, it was amazing).
I’m also a fan of Kirby’s Adventure on the NES, because it was the first game that was “mine” that wasn’t the terrifying Sesame Street ABC – 123 (two games in one!). I don’t know what was so horrifying about that game… but I was so happy when I got Kirby’s Adventure. I remember asking my parents if I “had” to play the Sesame Street game, and they unanimously said “no” after seeing me play it a few times.
In case you want to know the horror that 4-year-old me saw:
Courtesy of ZetaPlays
Anyway, I was talking about Kirby. He’s a contender for the top spot. I remember feeling so proud of myself when I beat Nightmare all by myself.
Kirby was another attempt at a “children’s game” that Santa brought me. I remember we were all sitting in the living room playing it (my siblings, my parents, and I), and we played through to the end. Now, for those of you who don’t know, Nightmare on the NES looked like Dracula with static for a body.
It looks silly now, but I was very little when I got this game. I remember my brother was playing when we got to the last level, and he was fighting Nightmare. My sister turned to my mom and said, “This is a game for children?”
My mom (watching my brother play): That’s what they said, but…
My sister: This guy’s horrifying.
Needless to say after that conversation, when I faced Nightmare alone a week later, my little five-year-old self felt very tough.
I also really liked Mega Man II, mostly because of the music, which is a terrible thing to say because it’s a great game and I sank so many hours into it. Of course Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and Winter Games are up there, and my brother and sister and I would all sit around and play “pass the controller” with those. Superspike V’ball is another one with fond memories (mostly because my brother would play it with me a lot). I think I was one of about two people who really liked Mario Paint on the SNES, and of course the Nintendo 64 had a fantastic line-up that I could talk about for a long time, with games like Star Fox 64 eating up a lot of my time, along with Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Star Wars Episode I Podracer (which I was amazing at, let me tell you), and so many others.
But honestly, the one that started me on games holds a special place in my heart.
My brother used to show me the way to to make the fighters do “the cool things” (their special moves), and even though he was older and far and away better at games than I was, he would at least make it seem like I had a shot at beating him (and I did once. He was very upset.).
I played as Blanka, in case you were wondering.
This paved the way for another cabinet game… One my mother forbid me from playing, but if my brother and I were set loose in the arcade when we were on vacation and she wasn’t right there, well…
I remember getting my butt handed to me many times on this one. Poor Raiden, Johnny Cage, and Liu Kang.
I remember watching my brother play against the computer one time. He was playing as Raiden, against Liu Kang (I think), and my mother, having found out we were secretly playing Mortal Kombat, told my brother that he needed to make sure that I didn’t see any of the “fatalities.”
Yeah. That was a major fail. He remembered to tell me to hide my eyes just as Liu Kang was being thrown into some spikes and exploding into 500 femurs and sets of ribs as pixelated blood splurted around like a firework. (It obviously made an impression on me.) Anyway…
So there you have it. Reading through this again, I think it’s interesting that my favorite retro gaming memories revolve around playing with other people.
What about you? Do you have a favorite retro-gaming memory? Did you use to play with other people, or mostly by yourself? If you have one, what’s your favorite retro game? Let me know in the comments!
Until next time, thanks for stopping by, and I’ll see you soon!
~ Athena
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AmbiGaming 
This is eerily close to my experience. Kirby? Done it (one of the only games with a save feature?). Street Fighter? Big brother did it.
Mortal Kombat? Was not allowed to see fatalities
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That’s right! It did have a save feature! haha I forgot about that and how cool it was that I didn’t have to remember a code or something.
And I guess that means we both have good taste in games and we’re both getting old 😉
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Ugh.. The codes. The d*mn codes…
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The first game I ever got/played was ‘Asterix’ on the SNES and I was obsessed with it.
I played by myself until I got my PS2 and used to sink hours into ‘Star Wars Battlefront II’ with one friend and ‘Time Splitters III’ with another. The former (playing through ‘Rise of the Empire’ mode) was probably the best experience I’ve ever had with a game until I first played ‘Mass Effect’.
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That’s a cool game, too! We didn’t have that, but my friend did. I don’t remember too many details, but I do remember enjoying playing 🙂
And some of those Star Wars games were pretty solid. I remember playing Jedi Power Battles on the PSOne with my dad, and it was a lot of fun, too! I can see how Battlefront II would be your number one until Mass Effect came out!
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Awesome post! I have a few retrongaming memories like having the kids in the neighborhood over to play duck hunt and super Mario brothers. Some of my favorite games were Dr Mario, sonic spinball (a classic that I needed my brother to help me pass each time) and snowboard kids 2. The first game that was mines only and not for me and my brother was snowboard kids 2. I received it for my birthday and it was for n64. Happy Monday!
LUNA 😊
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Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros are solid retro titles that I’m sure most of us sunk hours into haha. That’s so cool that you invited the kids from your neighborhood over to play.
And wasn’t it a great feeling to have a game “all your own”? haha It seems so silly now, since everyone played everything, but I know it mattered *a lot* then!
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Yes it was. I was so happy to have my own game. 🙂
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Kirby’s Adventure is awesome. I played it on my uncle’s NES. We liked the original Kirby on Gameboy, but Adventure was better thanks to the greater number of levels and ability to absorb powers.
One of my favorite retro games is Dizzy. It stars a somersaulting egg that wears boxing gloves.
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It’s a great game!
And Dizzy sounds absolutely amazing. I would love to play as a somersaulting egg that could punch things. I know this isn’t what the game is about, but I picture a boxing-glove clad egg trying to save breakfast from the evil Morning Schedule or something haha.
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Street Fighter II’s definitely a contender for me too, but honestly, I don’t really think of it as retro because I think it’s help up quite well, and beat-em-ups are still pretty much the same mechanics etc. nowadays.
For true retro shiznizz, I had a game on the ZX Spectrum* called Disco Dan, and I sunk many, many hours into that. Disco Dan is a game that most certainly hasn’t held up well over the intervening years, so I’ma go with that bad boy.
* Yeah, I am that old!
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Yeah, I suppose that’s a hard sell as a retro game since it still exists, but… the arcade cabinet, man! Look at the arcade cabinet! haha
I think the ZX Spectrum was a UK-only release, but anything with “Disco” in the title is sure to be a lot of fun. Prior to NES, we had an Atari 2600 but I’d have to chat with my siblings for memories about that one 😉
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Oh man I can highly relate to your MK experience. I was turned to the series being exposed to MK2. Like you, my parents let me play, but as long as I didn’t do any fatalities. Funny enough, my dad played with me. His fav was Raiden, and he would constantly spam that move that has him shoot across the screen yelling “gudi gudi gaaaa”… So annoying. Eventually I said F it and look up fatality guides in secret, and that lead to them buying me MK3. Find memories.
I also loved Donkey Countries 1 and 2 because these were games my dad and I played together. He used to be pretty into it, but with 3D gaming he becomes quite confused. The SNES used to be in my room. And I swear on school nights were I was told to go to bed, he’d be up playing DKC2 in my room at low volume… How is a child supposed to sleep through that. It’s only now as a grown up do I see how hilarious this was
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What great memories! My dad and I used to play video games together a lot, too. He was the only one that played fairly when we played “pass the controller” on the NES haha. He was never into games where we had to fight each other, but I mentioned in another comment that we used to play Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on PSOne together *a lot.* Poor Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi… haha
Sounds like your dad was a secret (or not-so-secret) gamer, too! haha What a great memory to have, though 🙂
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I guess the first game I was obsessed with was Kirby’s Dream Course on the SNES. My mom is not a gamer, but she loved this game and I remember we played it together for like my whole summer vacation, haha. Good times!
Fun random fact: The voice actor for Cassie Cage in Mortal Kombat X is Aloy’s voice in HZD (Ashly Burch)
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There are soooo many good ones, but for me the perfect retro game is Contra on NES. It just has such great gameplay, visual design, and music and with the combination of the variety in locations/enemies, the short length, and perfect pacing, it’s easy to pick up and play over and over again without it ever getting old.
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Yes! Contra is a fantastic game! I think that one was another real cornerstone of gaming for its overall design. And it certainly still has a following today!
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I don’t know if this game would qualify, but your mention of arcade games got me thinking about it!
I used to play the Simpsons Arcade Game all the time at a local arcade. Wikipedia tells me it came out in 1991 – maybe a little Retro? Anyway, it was an absolute blast and was my first side-scroller fighter. Spent a lot of quarters on that one!
I still have a soft spot for arcadey games, just usually don’t play them as they’re far more fun with 3 other friends!
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That totally counts! haha I remembet that one. I tended toward the games my brother played so it didn’t get as much time from me, but it was a fun game!
I agree. While I do like playing by myself I also enjoy games that lend themselves to playing with friends, arcade or otherwise.
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My favorite retro arcade game is probably Ms. Pac-Man, I’ve put so many quarters into that over the years. Favorite retro game outside of that is probably the original Final Fantasy, I play that game on and off all the time.
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Any and all Pac-Mans (Pac-Men?) are definitely fantastic retro games! I just played the original Pac-Man not too long ago, and was still pretty decent, which was quite an accomplishment. Ms. Pac-Man is, of course, also a great deal of fun!
I unfortunately never got into Final Fantasy, but I think any game that can be the foundation for legacy like FF has must be a pretty awesome game!
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Super Mario 2! I was literally obsessed with that game, and it’ll always have a place as my first video game obsession. I remember the year I finally got it for Christmas; I was so happy. I wasn’t the best at playing it, and I never beat it myself; my brother did while I watched, and I think it’s this and other games that are the reason I love watching people play. Honestly, I just love the video game experience whether I’m playing or not, though if it’s something I CAN play, I definitely want to.
I always played Blanka, too! Or Chun Li. They had moves I could do more easily. For some reason, I just couldn’t get a handle on the movies that had “in between” D-pad controls so doing a hadoken was kind of beyond me hehe.
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I really love the social aspect of playing games, too. I love to play, but I think I love watching people play just as much. Like you, I think that stems from watching my brother and sister play growing up.
They had great moves!! I think I accidentally managed a haduken by accident once while frantically button-mashing. It was a shining moment in my Street Fighter career, let me tell you.
Unrelated (sort of), every time I hear Aeducan (from Dragon Age: Origins because of course it is), I always say the name with Ryu’s tone of voice… Such good memories haha
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If I’m going to be social, I think playing or watching a game is the best way to go! It gives those of us who don’t necessarily thrive on social energy something to concentrate on instead of trying to force small talk, though I’m oddly good at doing that where I hear others introverts both loathe and fear it. I guess for me uncomfortable silence is way heavier than rambling on, which as you can see, I’m quite adept at doing hehe.
Me too! I’d produce one every now and then, but my brother was way better at it.
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