|
Post by spanky on Oct 21, 2022 19:09:32 GMT -5
I recently played through one of those massive AAA sandbox games. While I was amazed by the scope and detail of the game world and it was engaging enough to keep me playing...it just wasn't especially enjoyable. Boring most of the time really.
It got me thinking about what the most unrestrained fun I've ever had playing a game...Not necessarily the best game, but a game that made me think "I'll never get tired of this" in that moment. Perhaps not surprisingly, when I thought about this, a few multiplayer games came to mind.
-When Legend of Zelda: The Four Swords came out for the Gamecube, I talked a group of friends into buying the GBA-GC link cables. A couple of them just went out and bought GBAs (I can really sell a game when I want to). Anyway, when we got it all set up, it was incredible. Zelda works so well as a multiplayer title! Occasionally one of us would decide just not to be cooperative - attacking his allies or just refusing to go to the next screen, causing the rest of us to take time to corral them. Just pure chaos and an amazing experience.
-A couple years later when Rock Band came out, a friend of mine bought the game with all the instruments. We all loved Guitar Hero but this was really a completely different experience. We played the game for about 8 hours straight, until 5 in the morning. Just took turns switching around instruments. I don't think we knew how to unlock new songs so we kept playing the same group of the initial songs (Creep, Say It Ain't So, Celebrity Skin). It NEVER got old.
What say you all?
|
|
|
Post by vnisanian2001 on Oct 21, 2022 19:43:35 GMT -5
When I first played Snatcher (the Sega CD version was the first one I played) 15 years ago, it was an experience unlike anything before. One I will never forget.
|
|
|
Post by dr_st on Oct 22, 2022 3:12:51 GMT -5
It is known that the simple, casual games (if good, of course) tend to be super-addictive. The super-simple mechanics, coupled with pretty tough challenges make you want to come back again and again.
Probably the games I have played to death (at one point), and put more hours in than most other games are Zuma (and its sequel), and Plants vs Zombies. If I had discovered them back when I had more free time to play games, I would have probably done the same to the PC releases of Angry Birds. Even as it is, I spent a good part of a year being addicted to Angry Birds 2 on the phone, until it got too repetitive.
|
|
|
Post by JDarkside on Oct 22, 2022 6:56:16 GMT -5
Super Robot Wars 30 is the most recent thing to scratch that itch for me. Turns out what I needed to click with a strategy RPG again was just a really good story and script. Even with the inclusion of certain Tominoisms (oh hey Victory Gundam please leave and never come back), the game knows how to balance an engaging conflict with interesting ideas alongside a lot of really fun character comedy, even if your experience with a lot of the series included is limited. So many really funny moments (especially the Eldora team's introduction) that end up blending into gameplay through battle animations. The moments the game started to wear for me were mostly grindy side stuff and the post game, where the written bits are more few.
ULTRAKILL recaptured my love for character action games, where messing with the mechanics and see how just how much you can actually do with your load out and moves is the core of the fun. It is absolutely ridiculous just how well put together that game is, especially with the difficult rival bosses. People are still discovering new stuff.
I'll also throw out Ghostwire Tokyo. The key to its success as an open world game ended up being a mixture of an unorthodox and engaging battle system, based around weighty movements, and a lot of really fun traversal options. It doesn't do anything new, but it does everything just slightly different enough that it never felt too formulaic for me. I enjoyed the act of playing it so much I went out of my way to collect every single thing in the game, and had fun the entire fifty hours, outside when I had to grind out the parades for the last few souls (I had avoided those a lot).
|
|
|
Post by dsparil on Oct 22, 2022 9:47:39 GMT -5
Probably Skyward Sword. I loved the sword fighting in Wii Sports Resort, and I played SS a ridiculous amount the weekend I got it. Next to that, I'm going to throw out a curveball and say Car Quest. Such a weird 3D platform-driving game (the only one?) where a disembodied moai head cracks dad jokes at you for about eight hours. Part of it's appeal for me too is that it was made a company that also made a bunch of flash games I played in the late 90s. I started to wonder whatever happened to them, and then Car Quest comes out.
|
|
|
Post by Snake on Oct 22, 2022 10:54:05 GMT -5
Staying up all night, playing straight till the end, or until sunrise is a pretty good sign. And melancholic sadness once the game ends.
-Nearly any 2-D Castlevania game. I have lots of fond memories of Castlevania 1, 2, 3, 4, Rondo of Blood, Dracula XX, as well as all the Iga-made games. As a kid, I would forego food and water, just to make it to the end. Oh.... Harmony of Despair!!!! 4-player Castlevania! Even if that game was a misbalanced, rushed, cash-grab of a game, it still kicked ass! I had so much fun playing with my brother and my friends.
-Final Fantasy 4, 5, 6. Chrono Trigger. Again, played non-stop till the end. Chrono Trigger particularly, the day I bought it, I finished within 2 days. RPG's particularly are fun for me, if there is an interesting plot to follow along. It's like binge watching a long TV series.
-Gran Turismo series - because it's cars. And I love cars and driving, and it's as close as I'll get to seeing real-life tracks around the world right now, short of actually traveling. Fun to customize, fun to drive. I would easily be up late at all hours of the night.
-Playing with friends - Any game co-op. So Ikari Warriors, Contra. Arcade games like Golden Axe and Double Dragon. Oh! Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts!!! We never beat it as a group, but at least finished the first playthrough and got the bracelet! But even just trying to figure out how to advance in King's Quest VI and Full Throttle was a lot of fun. Street Fighter Alpha, staying up all night to play. Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu 3 as well - multiplayer RPGs were just so great, so pure.
Recent games - Monster Hunter World and Persona 5. Those were the last 2 games to keep me up way past bedtime. Monster Hunter World, when FF Behemoth was a slayable monster, we'd be up doing the fight 30 times in a row. Persona 5, just had so much style, and, it's an RPG, so it kept me pushing to get to the ending. Nier Automata, another game that I ended binge-playing and enjoyed more than I expected. Breath of the Wild, that game kept me up more hours with a bit of sleep deprivation.
|
|
|
Post by excelsior on Oct 22, 2022 14:06:45 GMT -5
Posting online complaining about games globviously. As much as I'm a person that appreciates the solitude that comes with video games much of the time many of my highlights come from shared experiences. Going to a friend's house down the street and playing Worms on the PC. He was a terrible loser and would hit the space bar on your turn when you had him beat, ruining your move and any annoyance quickly passing when you saw how much glee he found in his own mischief. In the N64 days we'd have gaming nights swapping the controller around for all those four player greats. What I remember most fondly was rocking the cruiserweight division in four-way elimination matches on WCW/NWO Revenge. My annual games weeks get together with my brother in more recent years. Last year we had a great time with the cooperative adventure It Takes Two. What's great about playing with my brother is we have a sort of gaming rapport. We know what each other is going to do and slot into our own roles naturally, which isn't something I've ever experienced with anybody else. We've played through games like Snipperclips and Overcooked with very little need to verbally communicate. Last year playing New Pokémon Snap at the same time as my partner, swapping notes on secrets, and sharing snaps was pure joy.
|
|
|
Post by personman on Oct 23, 2022 4:17:14 GMT -5
I feel a touch guilty about mine because it seems to be one of the more reviled games on the system, its series, and the period. But honestly I can't deny one of the most pure fun filled times I ever had with a game was with Donkey Kong 64. I know! I know the thing is awful but being the time in my life where a games didn't come often having that wealth of crap to collect just meant I would be kept busy for a long time and I think I loved about every second of digging in every nook and cranny. Even once I actually got everything I still put a crap ton of time just dinking around in the world and I can scarcely think of any time I got bored with it. I really loved the mood of many of the levels like the tonal whiplash you would get with the forest level's fairytale whimsy suddenly changing to creepiness. The foreboding yet mischievousness of the factory level and the completely out of place darkness of the haunted castle level lol.
It just struck some kind of chord and honestly I plan to go back to it and mess around with it again to see how much I can stand it these days lol. I kind of want to fire it up now.
|
|
|
Post by ommadawnyawn2 on Oct 23, 2022 6:20:55 GMT -5
Generally local multiplayer with games like Micro Machines, Bomberman, Gran Turismo, Soul Blade, General Chaos, Tekken 2 and others. Most recently SMB1 2-player with my nephew. Just laugh out loud fun.
Online MP would come second, probably some Starcraft 1 match but it was a long time ago now.
For SP I would say games that surprised me in some way and where I didn't know their boundaries so to speak. Mostly earlier experiences like Wonder Boy 3, Zillion, Golvellius, Super Metroid and Zelda 3-4. Also trying out new genres with games like RE2, Dune 2, Secret of Evermore, FF6-7, Fallout, Baldur's Gate, Toejam & Earl, Parappa the Rapper, IK+, SMB/Alex Kidd, Diablo and various others.
|
|
|
Post by Mr. Saturn on Oct 23, 2022 6:37:37 GMT -5
Trying to break the game in Binding of Isaac: Vanilla/Rebirth/Afterbirth/Afterbirth + (and touched the new one yet) - it's such a journey to start off as this weedy avatar that gets sliced on the 2nd level to ending up rocking the colossal build that heaps on the absurd to such a degree that the actual game itself collapses underneath it. Such an endlessly replayable game.
|
|
|
Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Oct 26, 2022 13:46:19 GMT -5
Good question. I could just list a bunch of favorites but that doesn't really do the question justice. There's definitely a difference between a game being fun and Fun. Like, I love Etrian Odyssey, but beating a fight in that game doesn't make me feel giddy or ecstatic. Even though I have fun trying to figure out a good strategy. Doesn't make it less of a favorite of mine, but it's less extreme, emotionally speaking. I think there's a few possible categories for extra fun:
1. Couch multiplayer. Others have already commented on this, but it's like how watching a movie with friends makes it funnier or something. It just enhances the fun. Favorites include the usual suspects (Smash, Mario Kart, Mario Party, Bomberman), but Game & Wario was a go-to when the Wii U was still the main thing hooked up to the TV as well. We also spent many hours during LAN parties playing an FPS called Warsow. It'd just be a simple time-limit deathmatch, but we'd only use a weapon that instakills, and the movement was just really fun. We'd just play that same mode for hours and hours without it ever getting an less fun.
2. Games that just feel good to play. Something with snappy controls, or something that's just inherently fun to play will always just feel good on like a monkey brain level. This is something a lot of Mario games nail. Or just the simple joy of rapidly dropping Tetris blocks.
3. Magical/new experiences. This mostly comes down to childhood experience I think. As a kid, the scope of something like Rayman was just so vast, and discovering what each new world (or even stage) had to offer was incredible. More recently, exploring the world of BotW was just fun in and of itself. Dark Souls too. But as an adult, you kind of know game design a bit more, so you know what to expect a bit better, and where the boundaries lie. You kind of know what the designers would and wouldn't do. We're also not seeing any major leaps in power/graphics these days. Back in 2005 the idea of playing a Mario Kart with actual 3D models and environment on the go was already mindblowing enough. Those first moments with a new console or game (if the game starts out strong, at least) are also really fun, especially if it's in a series you're familiar with and you were looking forward to the game. The kind of games where you wake up in the morning and immediately think about playing them. Just the giddiness of actually controlling the game in the first minutes after you've seen it in trailers for months is something that won't last long, but can get a very strong reaction out of me.
4. Reward of overcoming something. This is something that doesn't entirely fit, because the road to overcoming something is often stressful. But clearing something really difficult gives satisfaction like nothing else. Beating a really good team in Splatoon or finally doing a saveless playthrough of an hour long DOOM map just gives a very visceral, physical reaction. Something like clearing a stage in Mario doesn't do this, despite those games being fun too.
I'd say if I had to narrow it down to just a short answer, playing various multiplayer titles on the GCN back in the day, staying up all night to play the last Splatoon 2 splatfest (and see all the shifty station stages for the last time), playing through Rayman over the course of several months back when I was 5 years old, and the summer I beat OoT3D 3 times in a row (remember how slow the 3DS got started?) are probably the highest highs.
|
|
|
Post by dsparil on Oct 26, 2022 14:35:42 GMT -5
3. Magical/new experiences. That was why I fell in love with the 3DS so much. That might be the only time I've ever truly been impressed by something. The 3D felt like a portal into a different world.
|
|
|
Post by 🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀 on Oct 26, 2022 17:20:08 GMT -5
Yes, the 3DS for me was also just so magical when I first saw it. Just the text popping up from the background was already so cool. I also kept seeing the 3D effect whenever I looked at text on paper. I don't know if there will ever be another system that was this cool when it was new. Or one that I'd be this hyped for. I still always play with the 3D on. It's just easy on the eyes.
It is kind of a shame that it launched with such a meh lineup. By the time the real good stuff came out, the 3D effect wasn't quite as new anymore (it was still used to great effect in 3D Land though). Imagine if this launched with 3D Land and OoT3D. At least Pilotwings had a crazy deep 3D effect.
|
|
|
Post by dsparil on Oct 27, 2022 9:28:08 GMT -5
It's really weird that OoT 3D wasn't a launch title and came out three months later. I ended up getting Pilotwings Resort and Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars, and this is the first time I've even thought about Shadow Wars in years.
|
|
|
Post by spanky on Nov 2, 2022 9:14:27 GMT -5
Reading windfisch 's post about Street Fighter II in the SNES thread jogged another memory. I used to go with my mom while she ran errands and did grocery shopping. The local Wal-Mart had a small game room at the front of the store. It had maybe 5-6 games but they were well kept and frequently rotated in and out. At least for the first half of the 90s. It was the closest thing we had to a real arcade in town. Mom would always give me a handful of quarters while she was in the checkout lane. Anyway, one time I remember playing Street Fighter II: Champion Edition there. I had already played the SNES version of World Warrior to death. I wasn't particularly good at the game but I found out I could cheese people pretty easily with Blanka. 8 year old me walks up, and puts a quarter in and smokes the older kid who was playing by doing the classic jumping roundhouse>sweep combo then using the electricity every time they got up from a knockdown. I ended up dominating the machine this way and before long, a line of high schoolers had formed at the machine hoping to take me on. My win streak kept going and I felt wildly powerful. It was a rush I had never felt from a video game before. My high was extinguished however when my mom got tired of waiting and dragged me away from the machine. I was proud to say I was undefeated at least...
|
|