I don't seem to enjoy games as much as I used to. I even made a thread about it a couple of months back.

I think it is too much internet, all this game info, pictures, videos, etc... at peoples disposal are killing it I think. You are just not surprised anymore.

I did experience old school level fun though with LittleBigPlanet. Probably the only game I have been this way with this entire generation.

I'm having way more fun with my Wii and DS than I used to have with my 8- and 16-bit machines. I'm playing genres that didn't even exist back then. And playing with friends has never been easier.

That being said, there are a couple genres I enjoyed back in those days which really haven't seen a quality release on these platforms.

I've been on board since Pong (Generation 0 ?). By the time I bought a PS2 in 2002, I was starting to lose interest and only got a few games for it. I switched to PC games and for a while ithat helped. But even with all their polish and fantastic graphics, they had lost the fun that I remembered having on the SNES and other older consoles.

I stopped gaming completely and would have never gamed again except for the Wii. Now I'm having as much fun as I ever did. When I play games like MK Wii, using that little plastic wheel, I have more fun than I can ever remember having on any system. When Motion Plus arrives, that will even make it better. The Wii brought back the magic and the fun for me.

Nostalgia has a horrible habit of erasing the truth. That being that in some way those days were better then these days. Rest assured that is not the truth. In fact modern games have a higher level of quality, and we as gamers would not tolerate the crap that was pulled on us back then. We would not tolerate bad controls, or the old trial and error gauntlet we were forced to endure. The games were not engaging as much as they were mind numbingly repetitive. Do not confuse being induced into a zen like state as the same as having fun. Yes they are both relaxing, but one is about sincere joy. The other is about having a sense of nothingness.

Game design was all about the cheap. How can they make a player run through a level a dozen or more times. Not necessarily, because it was fun to do so, but because they set it up so the player had to die a dozen times to get through. Also let us not forget the glories of the pitfall. Another classic technique to have you wasting valuable time, and growing more frustrated by the minute. Remember this fun. You had to sit on the edge of a platform exactly right to make that jump. Just a little off, and you plummet to your death. How about blindsiding. Forcing you to play from the end of a screen only let things come from that side, and smack you with no notice. Oh well now you know where that will come from next game.

Think about that when your playing a modern game. Would you not be irate. You probably couldn't conceive that it was intentional. You would toss your controller down in disgust. Foam at the mouth. Curse at that cheating game, and the bullshit it is pulling on you. You might rip the game out, and snap it in two, or toss it to the side, and be upset. Probably pissed at yourself for being stuck with a game that is the spawn of Satan.

Yes I bet you guys forgot all about that. The broken controllers, the hit console, that cart you smashed into a million pieces. I bet you all forgot about the frustrations, and how obscenely pissed you were at the time. I also would wager that it doesn't seem like that anymore either. Here is a hint as to why. Your family was wrong yes you were actually being cheated on. The developers really were screwing with you, because they knew if you beat their game in four hours you would realize it wasn't worth fifty dollars.

Today they do not get away with that shit. That is why your not seven flavors of frustrated. They pull that kind of shit, and they will be crucified. No your not allowed to blindside players anymore. Your not allowed to tweak evil jumps. No your not allowed to have a eight hour game with no save points. No to all the shitty tricks that made you blow fifty hours of time on a game that is five hours long.

That is what is missing from your nostalgia. Your just remembering the feeling of accomplishment, or the awe you felt. You have completely forgotten that the damned game play was cheap, and you spent half your time frustrated rerunning the same shit all over again, because a coder ambushed you with something you could do nothing about. It is easy not to be pissed when it is your fault. God what I did was pretty stupid. However if it isn't your fault then yeah you have a right to feel violated. It was not hard you just got hit by a cheap.

So... I guess you didn't beat BattleToads? :P

My personal golden age of gaming was the psone/early pstwo era. I was pretty young when I had my nes and super nes so I couldn't play a lot and well, it was plateformers most of the time.

@Dodece: Yes, i can remember that. You made me hunger for more Virtual Console downloads, i currently have 700 unused Wii Points.

I don't know did nostalgia make you forget the issues with 3D games. Bad camera angels that cause you not to see the enemies so that they can fire you at will, inability to see a number of objects for the same reason. Pitfalls as you can't see where you jump or the excact spot where you're supposed to jump. Expensive games that aren't worth your money, you spend five hours on a game that's finished in five hours. And developement is just as cheaply made.

So yes, i see your point. The problems are the same as they were, the difference is, that now they are in 3D.

Yes. especially when i go back to play old games. I can just play Super Mario Bros 3 forever. Good old times

@bdbdbd

I do not think you understand what I was saying. I am referring to intentional, and your referring to inadvertent. The problems I alluded to were not problems. They were entirely intentional. To ensure that you died, and had to go back to the beginning. Over and over again there was no issue of skill. You were set up to fail, and there was nothing to be done other then repeat the level until you remembered all of the cheap tricks, and memorized character placement.

The things you are referring to are accidental. In other words a bad camera angle was not specifically designed to get you killed. It was just poorly designed. That doesn't take the developer off the hook for bad coding. Though they were not trying to cheat you. It is the difference between trying to kill someone with a gun, and accidentally shooting someone while out hunting. One is a murderer, and the other is a Vice President. Though you probably do not want to spend your time with either. Though current games have done a reasonable job of getting better with their camera angles compared to the early forays.

Gaming based on real skill to me far outweighs repetition and muscle memory. Which is all most old school games were. Speaking to five hours of gaming. I think I just spent sixty hours on Fallout 3, fifty hours on Fable 2, forty hours on Infinite Undiscovery, eighty on Oblivion, forty on Grand Theft Auto IV, sixty on Lost Odyssey, and hundreds on Halo 3. Are the games getting shorter? The only difference is in my gaming I am always doing something new. In your gaming your always redoing the same thing over and over. Hell I have a lot of different ways to attack a problem. You not so much.

Give me freedom, real skill, and variety any day.

I find myself caring more about the actual story and fun factor then the hot new thing in gaming. I still get sport games religiously (yes children, I still love Madden and think its still the best franchise, no matter what you as you young kids put it QQ about) Also violence in games use to be "hot' but now that i am older I realize it can be used to make a shallow game seem cool.

Most of all, I enjoy a game with various difficulties and respect that developers that have started making games fun and accessible to the general audience. Gaming is not for the hardcore l337 that wants to brag about a meaningless score or highest difficulty conquest. In the real world where you have to make a living, pay bills, and worry about the welfare of your loved ones, gaming should be a relaxing recreation, not a frustrating hardcore adolescent affair.