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Someone refereed to the PS3 as a 'vintage system' so I need a distraction. What older game do you return from time to time?

It is an easy one for me to answer: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I aat one point played it through all the way at least once a year though nowadays it is about every two or three years. I own an original PS version as well as a physical copy that includes Rondo of Blood for the PS4. The 2D Casltevania games have gotten a lot of play over the years and with the recent Anniversary Collection(s) it has been a good time to go back again. The Ghosts'n'Goblins series is another older favorite, though far less completions of those (without save states). Still annoyed that Ghosts'n'Goblins Resurrection was only a digital release with no physical copy, even in Japan.

Don't laugh, but I still love my ridiculously overmodded Star Trek Legacy.

Probably Mega Man X and A Link to the Past.

A lot of the SNES era games are just very replayable in general. They're not particularly long and generally have really solid controls and level flow.

Some games are technically retro, but I never think of them like that because nothing ever made surpasses them in any way - Heroes of Might & Magic 3 is a perfect example.

DOOM. There's quite literally tens of thousands of WADs out there. You can play it infinitely with a different experience each time.

For some reason almost every year around new year I get the itch to play Morrowind again.

Does dawn of war 1 (2004) count?

Its that or Resident Evil 1 (2002) or Star Wars battlefront 2 (2005)

the-gentleman-ranker wrote:
Does dawn of war 1 (2004) count?

Its that or Resident Evil 1 (2002) or Star Wars battlefront 2 (2005)

It's over 20 years old. There is no good reason for it not to.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

the-gentleman-ranker wrote:
Does dawn of war 1 (2004) count?

Its that or Resident Evil 1 (2002) or Star Wars battlefront 2 (2005)

It's over 20 years old. There is no good reason for it not to.

I've found some 'retro-enthusiasts' to be quite gate-keepery towards a corresponding gaming console era. Like the Ps1-core or Ps2-core

I still build modules regularly for Neverwinter Nights. I occasionally play too.

Tie fighter!

Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds and Red Alert 2

The_Real_Chris wrote:
Tie fighter!

Excellent choice. I liked Star Wars before Tie Fighter- after it, I loved it.

Hλlf-Life is a game I still replay from time to time, as well as some of the classic point and click games by Lucas Arts (never those by Sierra, feth Sierra!) like Fate of Atlantis and Monkey Island. Plus Fallout, that game holds a special place in the cavity that should contain a heart.

Super Mario Brothers 3. Of course it wasn't a "retro" game when I first played it, but over the years I've played it more times than any other game I can think of:
- On the NES
- As part of Super Mario All-Stars
- During a Blood Bowl tournament (had it on an emulator on a USB stick)
- On a raspberry Pi in a NES-shaped case
- On the Wii Virtual Console
- Emulated on my Wii after I modded it

I think it's the perfect game. You can dump a few minutes into it and just do a level, or you can spend hours playing it. It has multiple routes you can take, so each playthrough can be different. You can speedrun it or take your time.

I love me some Super Mario World, too, but Bros 3 has perfect pacing imo

Pump XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Chaos Gate directly into my veins.

AOE2

Its the GOAT of retro games.

 Grey Templar wrote:
AOE2

Its the GOAT of retro games.

Shout out to Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds, which I belive is the same game just reskinned?

Yes, but kinda no.

It was far more than a reskin. More akin to a total conversion. It operated on the same engine and basic game mechanics, but it added a lot of additional features and new game mechanics. Some of which have actually showed up in the more recent DLC for AOE2 DE.

Examples: Aircraft were a new unit type, and AA units were also added to counter them. Each faction had a full roster of unique units and buildings. While many units were clearly equivalents to each other, they all had unique quirks. Like every faction had a basic infantry, AA infantry, cavalry, etc... but they all had unique sprites and mechanics. Droid units for example had to be repaired and you couldn't heal them with a medical droid(a unit every faction could build), leading to the Seperatist faction medical droid being the most useless unit in the game as there were zero units in their roster it could heal.

Relics in the game were replaced with Holocrons. Monks were replaced by Jedi/Sith, recruitable by every faction. Monks that could fight. Conversion was also removed.

Yet to get cracking with it, but I have recently invested in an N64 controller for my Switch.

So I’m now properly equipped to go plundering the online archive. Will let you know what gets me hooked.

It’ll almost certainly be Zelda!

I have plugged in a mini retro-console I got from my wife and I have already finished Contra, just like when I was 10 (basic life count, no code, "this stuff is for kittens who don't know how to fight" ) The plan is to finish Island Adventure 2, a feat I never managed as a kid.

Every now and again a friend and I break out the Mega Drive (or Genesis for anyone in the States) and play through Streets of Rage 2 again. It is still just such a well designed game, the music etc is still awesome.

Shadox wrote:For some reason almost every year around new year I get the itch to play Morrowind again.

I really hoped the studio would revisit Morrowind instead of Oblivion as it was always my favourite Elder Scrolls game. Perhaps they will revisit it.

Skinflint Games wrote:Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds and Red Alert 2

I tried to play Red Alert 1 on the PS1 recently and it had not aged well (the ability to play something like that on console at the time I think outweighed the games limitations). But, I downloaded the PC remaster and that was excellent - still the same game, with those incredible FMV sequences, but now just with modern graphics.

I haven't had the older console's plugged in recently, but not too many years ago I was still playing the heck out of Final Fantasy 12 on PS2 (Might pickup the new version too) and Mario Kart on N64. My wife was playing alot of Banjo and Kazooie.

Gotta plug those in again.

Also, I refuse to believe that the PS3 is a vintage system.

I feel like making people feel old, the ps3 was released in 2006 which was 19 years ago, that’s longer than it would have felt if you were around for the ps3 and looked back at the snes, which was released in 1991 which at the time was 15 years old. In only two years, the ps3 will be equally close to the nes as it is to today. The ps3 is a retro console now, and Pokémon games from 10 years ago are the 3d games, not firered.

(This is not at all motivated by the fact a kid called my 3ds xl and playing Pokémon ultra moon retro cause it came out before they were born)

It's hard for the PS3 to feel retro because the games haven't changed all that much since the PS3 and a lot of the best games of today are remasters of games of that era. When you play them they only really feel old because of menu design and navigation more than anything to do with graphics or gameplay.

Definitely enjoying playing the old Zelda games.

It’s really cool to see how they became ever more accomplished and involved, right up to Tears of the Kingdom, where you can pretty much go wherever you want from the outset, and no puzzles have a single set solution.

But I’ve the same soft spot for all the emulated games on Switch and Switch 2.

 LunarSol wrote:
It's hard for the PS3 to feel retro because the games haven't changed all that much since the PS3 and a lot of the best games of today are remasters of games of that era. When you play them they only really feel old because of menu design and navigation more than anything to do with graphics or gameplay.

I agree. "Retro" is such a vague term. "Vintage" is reasonably well defined as 20-100 years old, but Retro, who knows?

 Pacific wrote:


I tried to play Red Alert 1 on the PS1 recently and it had not aged well (the ability to play something like that on console at the time I think outweighed the games limitations). But, I downloaded the PC remaster and that was excellent - still the same game, with those incredible FMV sequences, but now just with modern graphics.

Not sure any of the RA games ever worked on console, but yeah the remasters are exceptional - really hope they do RA2. Generals has aged pretty well though, I feel

Retro games I find myself going back to from time to time? The first ones that come to mind are Descent and Descent 2. The graphics are very dated by today's standards, but a full 6DOF shooter was mind-blowing back in 1995, and there really aren't a lot of games like that today. There's a game called Overload that is kind of a spiritual successor to the Descent games (and some of the same devs worked on it), and it has far more modern graphics.

the-gentleman-ranker wrote:
Does dawn of war 1 (2004) count?

Just going to say that game is such a classic and it's getting a remaster for the whole dow 1 series soon enough. When it's out i'm totally going to try out multiplayer again but i may skip out on soulstorm multiplayer. Flyers were kinda lame even if dark eldar were cool. I was a pretty good guard player back in the day during the end of winter assault.