Sucking at Older Games

Reg

With the announcement of Mega Man 9 (and a huge Mega Man itch I needed to scratch), I decided to pop in Mega Man Anniversary Collection and play some MM3. Man, I'm taking all kinds of hits I normally wouldn't take. I can ace Proto Man in Magnet Man's stage without taking a hit, but I looked like a scrub. Then I ended up dying in the freaking pit of Top Man's stage where you jump across the spinning tops TWICE! Anyone else ever encounter these types of problems when playing older titles?

IceBurner

Reg wrote: »

With the announcement of Mega Man 9 (and a huge Mega Man itch I needed to scratch), I decided to pop in Mega Man Anniversary Collection and play some MM3. Man, I'm taking all kinds of hits I normally wouldn't take. I can ace Proto Man in Magnet Man's stage without taking a hit, but I looked like a scrub. Then I ended up dying in the freaking pit of Top Man's stage where you jump across the spinning tops TWICE! Anyone else ever encounter these types of problems when playing older titles?

If you're playing the gamecube version, I attribute your failure to the jerkwad developers who switched the shoot & jump buttons and removed button configuration from the game, all on purpose.

If not, here's a wakizashi and a long cloth; you know what to do.

Arrath

I never had an NES/SNES/SMS, etc. Going back to these and trying them out, all these old games rape the hell out of me. Its really sad.

yalborap

It's kind of expected, really. In our modern day, we have moved away from our quarter-munching roots. In the NES days, developers still programmed as if they needed a million allowance's worth of quarters much of the time.

DeathPrawn

Yeah. In most cases, sucking at old games is less a fault of yours as it is a design feature.

forty

yalborap wrote: »

It's kind of expected, really. In our modern day, we have moved away from our quarter-munching roots. In the NES days, developers still programmed as if they needed a million allowance's worth of quarters much of the time.

How else would they do their laundry?

JerikTelorian

forty wrote: »

yalborap wrote: »

It's kind of expected, really. In our modern day, we have moved away from our quarter-munching roots. In the NES days, developers still programmed as if they needed a million allowance's worth of quarters much of the time.

How else would they do their laundry?

Have you smelled Kong's loincloth lately?

ZackSchilling

JerikTelorian wrote: »

forty wrote: »

yalborap wrote: »

It's kind of expected, really. In our modern day, we have moved away from our quarter-munching roots. In the NES days, developers still programmed as if they needed a million allowance's worth of quarters much of the time.

How else would they do their laundry?

Have you smelled Kong's loincloth lately?

Yes.

Monsty

I find I'm generally less patient with games(at least old ones I never played the hell out of) than I was back in the day. I'll pop in some old soulcrusher like Ghosts 'n' Goblins and try to rush through the levels at top speed. I'm not going for any record, or anything, I just don't feel like sitting around and being as careful as I once was.

I seriously don't know why...especially when I'll put in Dragon Warrior and grind for hours on end without a second thought.

Cherrn

DeathPrawn wrote: »

Yeah. In most cases, sucking at old games is less a fault of yours as it is a design feature.

Yeah, but many people still underestimate how well-designed some old games can be. Megaman 3, for instance, has a perfectly reasonable difficulty level. As soon as you get used to the mechanics and design, you can go through the entire game without dying. It requires a few playthroughs, but the old Megaman games weren't very long anyway. Most of them still hold up extremely well; I've been playing them on and off for my entire life, and I'm not sick of them yet.

Chance

DeathPrawn wrote: »

Yeah. In most cases, sucking at old games is less a fault of yours as it is a design feature.

Yep. Back in the NES days - the all-or-nothin' days, you hadn't beaten a game until you could move through it perfectly - flawlessly, like some freakish 80s Keanu Reeves manchild.
"What're you tellin' me? That I can stop bullets?"
"No, Neo. What I'm telling you is when you're ready, you won't have to."

Reg

Well I did beat Mega Man 3 a few hours ago. Still died a few more times and took more hits and looked scrubish. I could probably go back to Tetris Attack or one of its many updated versions and not suck as much as I did at MM3.

The_Scarab

ZackSchilling wrote: »

JerikTelorian wrote: »

forty wrote: »

yalborap wrote: »

It's kind of expected, really. In our modern day, we have moved away from our quarter-munching roots. In the NES days, developers still programmed as if they needed a million allowance's worth of quarters much of the time.

How else would they do their laundry?

Have you smelled Kong's loincloth lately?

Yes.

I am high fiving you through the internet for this correctly answered reference. Assuming you are in fact referencing Futurama.

Silvoculous

Reg wrote: »

Well I did beat Mega Man 3 a few hours ago. Still died a few more times and took more hits and looked scrubish.

Don't try to play any of the others then, I always found MM3 to be the easiest by far.

Darmak

Yeah, I did the same thing as the OP. Thought, "Hey, I guess I can brush up on my Megaman skills (even though I wasn't ever great at them anyways)" and holy shit. I suck more balls than I ever did before.

Sparrow

Chance wrote: »

"What're you tellin' me? That I can press A faster than a bullet?"
"No, Neo. What I'm telling you is when you're ready, you won't have to press A at all."

I couldn't resist.

Tiemler

Chance wrote: »

DeathPrawn wrote: »

Yeah. In most cases, sucking at old games is less a fault of yours as it is a design feature.

Yep. Back in the NES days - the all-or-nothin' days, you hadn't beaten a game until you could move through it perfectly - flawlessly, like some freakish 80s Keanu Reeves manchild.
"What're you tellin' me? That I can stop bullets?"
"No, Neo. What I'm telling you is when you're ready, you won't have to."

I always thought of old-school gaming as something done in penance for venal sins.

"Say three Hail Marys and play two Megaman games."

Toxic

When you break it down .. old NES games (mostly platformers) are almost all about rote memorization and muscle memory. It's like Algebra... anyone can you do it .. you just have to practice, practice, practice.

slash000

Reg wrote: »

With the announcement of Mega Man 9 (and a huge Mega Man itch I needed to scratch), I decided to pop in Mega Man Anniversary Collection and play some MM3. Man, I'm taking all kinds of hits I normally wouldn't take. I can ace Proto Man in Magnet Man's stage without taking a hit, but I looked like a scrub. Then I ended up dying in the freaking pit of Top Man's stage where you jump across the spinning tops TWICE! Anyone else ever encounter these types of problems when playing older titles?

This happened to me while playing Super Mario Bros on my NES.

Except, I had it hooked up to an HDTV.


Then I realized my deaths were mostly caused by upscale lag.

Zombiemambo

We all suck at old games now. We've been babied.

slash000

We've been babied.

But there is hope.

DeathPrawn

slash000 wrote: »

We've been babied.

But there is hope.

Oh god. One of these days I'll get past the second level on Normal mode. One of these days...

TurnpikeLad

IceBurner wrote: »

If you're playing the gamecube version, I attribute your failure to the jerkwad developers who switched the shoot & jump buttons and removed button configuration from the game, all on purpose.

If not, here's a wakizashi and a long cloth; you know what to do.

That... that was on purpose???

Why? WHY?

yalborap

TurnpikeLad wrote: »

IceBurner wrote: »

If you're playing the gamecube version, I attribute your failure to the jerkwad developers who switched the shoot & jump buttons and removed button configuration from the game, all on purpose.

If not, here's a wakizashi and a long cloth; you know what to do.

That... that was on purpose???

Why? WHY?

So that the xbox version would be the best.

Yet it is filled with glitches.

ZackSchilling

DeathPrawn wrote: »

slash000 wrote: »

We've been babied.

But there is hope.

Oh god. One of these days I'll get past the second level on Normal mode. One of these days...

But the goddamn zombies are so explodey and my man is made of plastic wrap and sugar-free pudding. It cannot be done.

Djiem

Back in the days, you had to figure out "the thing" to do at every corner. For example, that Protoman fight in Magnet Man's stage is actually extremely easy. If I recall, he'll shoot only if you do, and his pattern of walking/jumping is easy to figure out. You'll be able to jump over him and beat him without taking any damage in no time.

I think that in one of those fights, he walks back and forth, but he jumps for the second half of his walk to the edge of the screen. So you need to jump over him, shoot him as he jumps around for the second half of the screen, run to him when he turns around and repeat the pattern.

Reg

Ah, Contra 4. I played my friends copy for a bit a while back. Not even gonna go into how badly I got raped.

I still wonder will any amount of skill and memorization help someone on Battletoads. I'm convinced the developers of that game sat in a room and plotted on the many ways they could piss us off. How many racing levels are in that game? God help you if you're playing 2-players.

Back on Contra, I was told that playing those games will actually make your manhood grow in size.

UnbrokenEva

Ha, I mentioned Battletoads in the "Zen moments in gaming" thread. It felt so good when I finally got the pattern down for the first speedbike stage. Pure muscle memory there.

Steev

I always like to brag about how I beat Contra on the NES a few weeks before The Code hit my neighborhood. Nowdays? It's definitely not as easy to do that for me anymore.

There are a ton of games I can go back to and not even make it past the first level anymore. I don't know if it's because I'm older or if I'm just used to a more forgiving type of gameplay.

Darmak

Reg wrote: »

Ah, Contra 4. I played my friends copy for a bit a while back. Not even gonna go into how badly I got raped.

I still wonder will any amount of skill and memorization help someone on Battletoads. I'm convinced the developers of that game sat in a room and plotted on the many ways they could piss us off. How many racing levels are in that game? God help you if you're playing 2-players.

Back on Contra, I was told that playing those games will actually make your manhood grow in size.

DeathPrawn

Darmak wrote: »

Reg wrote: »

Ah, Contra 4. I played my friends copy for a bit a while back. Not even gonna go into how badly I got raped.

I still wonder will any amount of skill and memorization help someone on Battletoads. I'm convinced the developers of that game sat in a room and plotted on the many ways they could piss us off. How many racing levels are in that game? God help you if you're playing 2-players.

Back on Contra, I was told that playing those games will actually make your manhood grow in size.

Reg

^Great stuff!

I probably never would have seen the end of Contra if not for the Konami code. Same with LifeForce. Anyone remember the fire level in LifeForce? I didn't think it was possible to see my ship blow up so many times in 10 seconds.

slash000

Contra 4. A modern classic.

Grammaton Cleric

slash000 wrote: »

We've been babied.

But there is hope.

Whoah. Window minimized to keep listening to the retardedly awesome Contra remix.

slash000

Grammaton Cleric wrote: »

slash000 wrote: »

We've been babied.

But there is hope.

Whoah. Window minimized to keep listening to the retardedly awesome Contra remix.

I know. I did that too for a while :P

Know something cool? That remixed Contra music, that's the music that plays in the first level of Contra 4 but only on Hard Mode.


There's nothing about Contra 4 that isn't 100% sheer awesome.

Grammaton Cleric

slash000 wrote: »

Grammaton Cleric wrote: »

slash000 wrote: »

We've been babied.

But there is hope.

Whoah. Window minimized to keep listening to the retardedly awesome Contra remix.

I know. I did that too for a while :P

Know something cool? That remixed Contra music, that's the music that plays in the first level of Contra 4 but only on Hard Mode.


There's nothing about Contra 4 that isn't 100% sheer awesome.

That actually is awesome; though I've got to say that Shattered Soldier's soundtrack should probably blare in the background of every action game.

On topic...I still (STILL!) can't beat the end boss of Ninja Gaiden NES. I pop that fucker in a least once a year to give it a go. We're talking over a decade of attempts. I can breeze through the whole game, vicious eagles and all; but that fucking Jacquio (sp?) beats my brains in every time.

I actually decimated him once...but then he turned into a fucking dragon and ruined me.

Windfayir

Grammaton Cleric wrote: »

*snip*

I still (STILL!) can't beat the end boss of Mega Man X SNES. I pop that fucker in a least once a year to give it a go. We're talking over a decade of attempts. I can breeze through the whole game, vicious eagles and all; but that fucking Sigma (sp?) beats my brains in every time.

I actually decimated him once...but then he turned into a fucking robot face and ruined me.

Reapplied to to fit my own situation

Bartholamue

Windfayir wrote: »

Grammaton Cleric wrote: »

*snip*

I still (STILL!) can't beat the end boss of Mega Man X SNES. I pop that fucker in a least once a year to give it a go. We're talking over a decade of attempts. I can breeze through the whole game, vicious eagles and all; but that fucking Sigma (sp?) beats my brains in every time.

I actually decimated him once...but then he turned into a fucking robot face and ruined me.

Reapplied to to fit my own situation

Use Armored Armadillo's weapon against the third form. It takes twice and many hits off him.

Reg

If you're gonna play Contra 4, make sure you have plenty of lube. Just sayin' is all.

Just got to world 4 in Super Mario Bros. a few hours ago. Playing the All-Stars version. Died to a Goomba. A GOOMBA!! Strangely enough, I had no problem get 5000 points on the flagpole almost every time.

slash000

Contra 4 is hard, but completely do-able. Just play Easy for the first time, then play the Challenges. The Challenges are like.. training for the arcade mode. Then go and attack Normal.

I did it. You can do it.

meatflower

I remember the day I finally beat the first stage of Contra 4 on Normal mode. I felt so good, I was like "Bring it on stage 2!" and then I died. Over and over again. And again.

I've never been past stage 2.