I just hit 10 hours in Earthbound on my Anbernic RG280V. I'm looking forward to trying some more SNES games once I'm finished (Super Mario World, Street Fighter Turbo II, Zelda: Link to the Past, etc.).
Interested to hear what you all are playing? Or, what retro games are on your "to do" list?
I have the PS2 port which I have never completed. I think it comes with Blue Shift as well, so that will be my next game on the backlog once I finish Zelda II
I just started a playthrough of the SNES version of Super Mario RPG. I've gotten pretty far but have never actually completed it, so I aim to this time around.
Replaying Super Mario World for SNES with my five-year-old. First time for him, he loves Yoshi. I haven't really played it all the way through in about a decade; my wife and I did it together when we were engaged, was the last time.
Sometime's you go back to an old favorite and you can't figure out how you played it for so long back in the day. But Mario World, despite being the first game for it, is still one of, if not THE best SNES game.
I can't wait to do this with my kid, he's currently 12 months so I've still got a while to go. Super Mario world is a must, and the donkey Kong country games too 😁
Earthbound - never played this so I’m looking forward to it for my next retro play through after recently finishing a replay of both A Link to the Past and Golden Sun 1 & 2.
Afterward, it’s the Soul Blazer trilogy. I’ve only played Illusion of Gaia, and perhaps an hour of Terranigma. I loved Gaia, and remember really liking the bit I’ve played of Terranigma.
ooooo if you enjoyed Earthbound, may I recommend Undertale next? Not exactly retro, but similar vibes (and there's some fun fan theories about these two universes)
I just rage quit Abe's Oddysee because despite checking a walkthrough for possible missed Mudokons, I managed to miss 3 by the time I got back to Rupture Farms
If you haven't played it before and planning on a 100% run, at least find a walkthrough that tells you how many you need to save per level and then do your best to keep count as you progress.
I'm still playing Baulders Gate 3 a bit but I also started South Park the Fractured but Whole and I'm really enjoying the easy game play and basically watching an episode of the show.
Cool! Speaking of South Park I surprised to read recently that Earthbound was an inspiration for Trey Parker when creating South Park. Or, at least, one of the South Park games. I see the connection though, a bunch of cute kids in a quaint little town who wind up dealing with epic monsters, aliens, piles of puke, insane adults, etc :D
About half way through Mother/Earthbound Zero on my NES flashcart. I’ll have to pick Earthbound up after. I got about half way through years ago but never finished it.
As a kid I could never figure out how to get the river man to let me cross so I couldn’t even get to death mountain. At least I’ve gotten that far this time!
I did this - on the Zelda Collectors' Edition on GameCube, so save States weren't available. I did have to use an emulator to practice the final boss without the 10 min runback 🙄 , but after practicing I repeated the feat back on the official hardware.
I did the whole game without any guide. It was SO satisfying. On both the NES games, if you can read the context clues, every required secret is fairly clear. And the game is really fair! It is hard, it's true, but it's very fair! It felt very good to master the combat. This was a great gaming experience.
Later in life I felt that Dark Souls had very similar vibes except in 3D (and except for a bad feeling from having a heavy story that it's hostile to telling you what it is 🙄)
I recently beat the PC port of Chrono Trigger, which was my first time beating it. It held up better than I expected.
Currently I'm switching off between Megaman Battle Network 2, Half Life, and Lost Odyssey. It's my first time playing Lost Odyssey and I'm a little surprised how much I'm enjoying it. It helps that the localization has been really good so far.
I've started Earthbound maybe three times, and I've enjoyed it each time, but for whatever reason, I'd forget about it for a few years and start it over.
Right now I'm in the final stages of Final Fantasy V (Translated Super Famicom ROM). So far it's one of my favorite old RPGs. The pacing is perfect for me. When I get to a new area, I'm leveled enough to hold my own without grinding, but the bosses usually require a few attempts as I learn their weaknesses and tweak my strategy. The Jobs system is pretty neat because you can mix and match abilities.
I dusted off my childhood n64 and trying to do a 100% speed run of ocarina of time. It's been a while since I've played it, I think the last time I did a playthrough was when it was re-released for the 3ds.
I already had to start my save over after discovering there's a glitch, after you get the saw it is impossible to get one of the stick capacity upgrades.
I've been streaming it locally to some friends on discord, it's been a good time.
I really want to play the port but I do most of my retro gaming on the go using my retroid pocket 3. Instead I've been playing OOT using the redux patch, which does add quite a few QOL improvements, just no camera control unfortunately.
I have seen it, it looks good and I plan on playing it eventually, but there's something about that nostalia of playing with the n64 controller... Plus the lag spikes when there's too many elements on screen, classic.
Ultima Runes of Virtue 1 & 2 for the Game Boy. Great action-adventure-puzzle games. But very unforgiving, every dungeon is filled with fatal errors. I couldn't get to the end when I was young!
I'm playing Zelda Link's Awakening DX. There's a fan made patch that fixes annoying things like those text boxes popping up every time you pick up an acorn, or when you touch a rock without wearing the strength bracelet. And I was able to continue playing the same save file.
I really didn't think the game would be all that good but it's great. The whole island feels very alive and every screen has something special about it. I wouldn't mind the next generation of Zelda being a little bit like this.
On the remote chance you don't already know - definitely check out Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages. They have the same engine but have much cleverer gameplay and dungeons and much deeper stories.
Pokemon Ruby, I'm planning on buying a 3ds to mod but for now I'm just playing on my computer. I missed this generation of games and the speed up option on the emulator makes it better although some of the dialogue gets repetitive.
I'm not sure the difference, but I'm doing the standard mod to allow emulated games and changing the language because the Japanese ones are so much cheaper
Finished playing Summon Night Swordcraft Story GBA, playing Ghost Trick Phantom Detective NDS, and started yet again Final Fantasy IV this time on the GBA, all emulated in my Android phone thanks to Lemuroid.
Also started playing Resident Evil 3 PSX on my Android tablet (also Lemuroid).
Would X3TC count as retro? It's from like 2005. I tried playing X4 because fans said it was like X3 but better... But it's not. It's so much more convoluted in all the wrong ways. The menus are trash. The RNG sucks. The AI economy is even worse. X3 is still a way better game.
I've been playing through a few castlevania games. I've currently completed super castlevania, rondo of blood and am almost finished with SOTN. All amazing games. Rondo's soundtrack is so good!
Are there any others I should try? I was thinking of trying to play through the NES trilogy but not sure.
The Gameboy Advance ones are fun. Especially Aria of Sorrow, which got a sequel on Nintendo DS called Dawn of Sorrow. Dawn of Sorrow is one of my favorite games of any series!
Those two games are unique in that the main character, Soma Cruz, can absorb souls from enemies and use them as magic spells. Mostly for attacking, but also for defense or utility. It adds so much variety. Some souls are like progression items and you're guaranteed to get them at the right time, but most are random drops. Getting more of the same soul (up to 9 of them) makes the effect more powerful, so it leads to farming the same monsters over and over if you like a certain spell and want to level it up.
This mechanic is so fun that when Castlevania creator Koji Igarashi left Konami, he produced Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (not retro) with the exact same mechanic. His own favorite games in the series are SotN, and Aria of Sorrow. Once you're done having fun with retro Castlevania games, you must try Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night! It's so good!
Bloodstained: RotN even has a built-in randomizer. I'm not sure if you're familiar with "rando" games, but lots of old-school games have rando versions: Zelda games, Final Fantasy games, SotN, etc. They use logic to randomize the order you get key items, but still allows the game to be completed. In games like SotN, they even randomize which items each enemy drops, so you might get something really powerful from an early enemy.
There are Twitch channels where competitors race against each other in real-time using copies of the ROM created with the same randomizer seed, so they're all playing the same exact game, but no one knows where anything is. It's fun and amazing to watch very skilled players play these games where no one knows exactly how to finish it, but they are speed-running it.
SotN is my all-time favorite game, and I've played it as rando many times, and the built-in randomizer in RotN is also tons of fun.
The other Nintendo DS games are also great: Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia. All three DS games have such beautiful pixel art.
Nice thanks I've just completed sotn so will move onto the gba games!
Yeah I'm somewhat familiar with randomizers. However I've only attempted an OOT randomizer myself. Definitely tests your knowledge of the game and keeps it fresh after multiple play throughs. I can see how it'd be fun for a metroidvania style game so might give it a try once I've experienced more of the series.
I started Phantasy Star on my Odroid GO Ultra. Was looking for the game on my Master System but the pricing is a little over the top. Purely priced for "collectors" and not gamers.
I was playing Donkey Kong for Gameboy, but save got corrupted when I was near the final level. Then I was playing Pokemon Pinball for Gameboy Color, and Pokemon: Fire Red and Warioware Inc. for Gameboy Advance.