Important mainstream games in history you missed

thelostsoul · 8 Sept 2018, 13:39

Let's talk about the games you missed when they came out and never had the opportunity to play them. Probably because they didn't appeal to you or they never came out in your country or you just didn't have enough money to buy everything. When I read about games and best lists, some games always pop up and I ask me, why I didn't play them. Many games, including role play games, didn't come out in the Europe, like Final Fantasy 6, but I did import them. But I was very careful, as importing was very expensive and we had no internet for better information about these games. Also the Arcades was very restricted 18+ only and we (in Germany) had almost 0 Arcades available. Here is a list of games I still want to play (longer than 10 minutes for testing purposes). Thanks god the emulation scene exist.

List the important games you missed, so others get buffled how this is possible. :D The more the game is mainstream and important and considered to be an essential, the better this list gets. I want read you never played Tetris or Super Mario World. If this kind of thread exist (and I think I saw it somewhere?), then a moderator feel free to combine them. :-)

Earthbound (SNES): This is one of the rpgs never came out officially in the EU. It always looked strange and I didn't know its a good game.

Final Fight (SNES, Arcade): As with with Turtles, I never was into this kind of game and never played any Final Fight on any system.

Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (SNES): I never was into this kind of game, but recently changed my mind a bit and opened it. Everyone is talking about this essential game.

Zombies Ate My Neighbors (SNES): I don't know why, but just didn't saw this game back then. But I played its "successor" Ghoul Patrol.

Clyde · 9 Sept 2018, 08:46

Chrono Trigger (SNES): I never had an SNES, but I always wanted to play this "best game of all time" I kept hearing about. I've finally started playing it two days ago. :D

edit: Oh, and I also played Super Mario Kart (SNES) for the first time in my life on the SNES Mini of a friend.

BobHarris · 9 Sept 2018, 13:27

When I was a preteen kid in the early 90s I wasn't allowed a console as I did not have a tv and my parents didn't want a console in the living room. So I played mostly Game gear, Lynx and Game boy. I was lucky enough to have a few friends who did have the Nes and later the Snes so I didn't miss out entirely.
But the game I feel bad about missing is Ocarina of time (only had a Playstation). It feels too dated for me now, but I might have loved it back when it came out.

VictimRLSH · 9 Sept 2018, 13:10

I never played the Pokemon games, but hear they are great RPG games with good stories. Going to start in on those soon.

mattrixk · 10 Sept 2018, 00:44

I've never played any of these series:

Legend of Zelda
Final Fantasy
Pokemon
Metal Gear
Resident Evil
Metroid*

I grew up with mostly Sega systems, so I missed a lot of the main Nintendo stuff, and just never bothered to go back to them. I've also never owned a Playstation (until I bought a cheap PS3 for use as a Bluray player), so I missed a lot of the big PS franchises too.

I never really got into the Mario games, so I don't know which ones I have or haven't played. They all meld into a single game for me, and I wouldn't be able to tell you the differences between them.

I tried Earthbound for about an hour. I didn't like it, but then I very strongly dislike turn-based combat, so it's not that surprising.

* I have played an emulator of the first Metroid game for about 10 minutes, so I don't know if that counts.

thelostsoul · 10 Sept 2018, 01:18

Today, I just feel to give everyone an own personal answer.

@mattrixk I think you are holding the record for this now. You tell me some exciting stuff. :D Metroid is ok on the list, as 10 mins isn't really much for this game. If you ever want play a Metroid game, then just start with the best one on the SNES Super Metroid. Its far superior to the NES version. I invite you to test some of the SNES stuff out there. If you need some recommendations, ask us whatever you want. :-) The Sega systems had also a lot of really good games, so I can understand why you never had sort of look over.

@VictimRLSH I personally think that PokeMon games are a little bit overrated, but that can be said almost about any successful. And I would say, don't make the mistake to play PokeMon for its story. I honestly can't talk about the newer iterations, as I only played the plain old Red and Blue editions. To me PokeMon is only about searching, catching, training and battling against others.

@BobHarris I even think there are better games for the N64, especially some of them aged much better than Zelda. Ocarina of Time wasn't that good, it got me because of its hype and I always was a Zelda fan. Imagine the hype around this game when it came out and give it a teeny. But from now, it is somewhat slow and boring. You can slap me for this, but its my opinion.
Btw, when I was a teeni, my parents also didn't allow me to have consoles. They was thinking its a bad thing and such, which was stupid. Like you, I grow up with a Game Boy first and I totally understand you on this point.

@Clyde Now to you Clyde. I just realized your name is from Pac-Man (or Puck-Man?).
Its nice to read that you started playing Chrono Trigger. Like a friend of me played Final Fantasy 6 and Super Metroid recently. These are the sort of games which ages well and are timeless, more or less. Super Mario Kart also does what it does near to perfection. Especially fun was the multiplayer baloon fight maps and playing for time attack.

Guys thank you, you baffled me. That was amazing. :D Just keep going and give me more of this stuff. I need it.

mattrixk · 10 Sept 2018, 01:56

Thanks @thelostsoul. I should probably add MegaMan to the list too. I think I played the first one on Gameboy, but my memory is fuzzy.

Clyde · 9 Oct 2018, 07:39

@thelostsoul Thanks from me, too. And yes, my nick is meant to be not that obvious, but recognizable for those learned in retrogaming. Besides, I like Clyde the most for his erratic behaviour. 😊

Since it was mentioned here, I can also add all Metroid games to my list. But as with Chrono Trigger, I plan to catch up with that soon. Thanks for your advice about Super Metroid.

thelostsoul · 9 Oct 2018, 11:37

@clyde Lol didn't know about this.

You just gave me the idea of an multiplayer Pac-Man game. It would need some adaptions so that the Ghosts are probably not that fast and can't see whole screen. But imagine this with teams. Why nobody did not programmed it?

VictimRLSH · 10 Sept 2018, 12:09

@thelostsoul The local barcade has Pac-Man Battle Royale, a 4 player version where you can eat each other with various levels of power pills. There are other assorted powerups as well.

thelostsoul · 10 Sept 2018, 12:13

@victimrlsh Wow that is awesome!

VictimRLSH · 10 Sept 2018, 12:19

@thelostsoul It's the go-to game once everyone gets blitzed off PBR.

thelostsoul · 28 Sept 2018, 21:13

@mattrixk @Clyde
You two said you want play Metroid once. Super Metroid on the SNES is the ultimate experience, period. If you still want try out the original Metroid on the NES, I suggest to play it with a romhack/mod. Unlike its superior SNES version, it misses a save function (instead it uses passwords and the health bar starts low each time) and don't have a map. I found this hack today: Metroid + Saving

Clyde · 29 Sept 2018, 06:58

@thelostsoul Is there an advantage of a hack over RetroArch's saving system other than immersion?

thelostsoul · 29 Sept 2018, 07:06

@clyde What do you mean by RetroArch's saving system? The game does not have a battery and there is no saving. Do you mean save states? If so, I think save states are still the way to go if you want have an original feel without typing passwords. The hack also gives you a map (while pause) and saves the lifes bar, which is not the original experience, but still the game will not really change. Normally the life bar will always start at low, every time you start the game, even when you use passwords.

mitu · 3 Oct 2018, 19:43

@clyde Not really. You might accidentally press the wrong shortcut and rewrite your save instead of loading, it happened to me in the heat of battle a few times :).
For a modern re-make of the original Metroid, I've seen people recommending Metroid Zero Mission, on the GBA. It has a map and save points, so you get that besides all the other goodies.

Clyde · 29 Sept 2018, 08:51

@thelostsoul Yes, I meant the save states, and with "immersion" I meant that what you called "original feel". :) The other features of the hack are nice, too. I may look into it, thanks!

@mitu Yes, though it didn't happen to me yet, I am very cautious when I use safe states for exactly that reason. Thanks for the tip about MZM, I may look into that too, although I don't have any GBA games as of now.

ruckage · 3 Oct 2018, 19:43

@mitu said in Important mainstream games in history you missed:

Metroid Zero Mission, on the GBA. It has a map and save points, so you get that besides all the other goodies.

Metroid zero mission is an amazing remake, admittedly I have no nostalgic connection to the original Metroid as I didn't own a NES but I can't see any reason to play the NES version over the GBA remake. Metroid fusion (also on the GBA) is another great entry in the series. There is also 'Metroid: Samus Returns' for the 3DS which is a remake of 'Metroid 2' for the gameboy.

@mattrixk I highly recommend giving some of the Metroid games a try (skip the nes/gameboy versions and go straight to the SNES/GBA games), they really are great games.

mattrixk · 4 Oct 2018, 02:43

Thanks for the Metroid information guys (and girls?). I'll add them to my (very long) to-do list

thelostsoul · 4 Oct 2018, 11:33

@ruckage said in Important mainstream games in history you missed:

Metroid zero mission is an amazing remake, admittedly I have no nostalgic connection to the original Metroid as I didn't own a NES but I can't see any reason to play the NES version over the GBA remake.

While the GBA remake really looks great on video and paper, there is still the charme of original old games. Like with Super Mario Bros., later versions/remakes are superior in most cases, plus save feature, there is still reason to play the original one. If nostalgia is not the reason, maybe the curiosity could be. This is at least the game it started at all. I think the original is harder and the new one also have some new mechanics and features.

After all this was said, I still recommend playing GBA remake version over the original NES. xD