I know, I know, git gud and all but I'm playing DKC 2 on the n3DS VC and god damn this is hard. Every level is kicking my ass and I'm constantly out of lives. I end up creating a restore point before the start of every stage and if I reach the checkpoint and die I'll create a restore point again so I start out at the checkpoint each time. Despite this though the game is still really fun for me and the level design is great.
I have to ask though, what was it like playing SNES games back in the day without savestates and the stuff? I know you can save at the Kong Kollege in DKC 2 but still, it cost coins each time you want to save and you might end up forgetting to save and dying. Do you think savestates/restore points make a game less fun? Or do you think that times have changed and you shouldn't be pulling your hair out playing a game when you have the option to use savestates and restore points?
We didn't know any better, so we became gods.
Game Genie.
Trial and error is what made us progressively get better, and that's something you clearly don't have the patience for. I'm disappointed in you.Originally Posted by Blood Diamonds
I know, I know, git gud and all but I'm playing DKC 2 on the n3DS VC and god damn this is hard. Every level is kicking my ass and I'm constantly out of lives. I end up creating a restore point before the start of every stage and if I reach the checkpoint and die I'll create a restore point again so I start out at the checkpoint each time. Despite this though the game is still really fun for me and the level design is great.
I have to ask though, what was it like playing SNES games back in the day without savestates and the stuff? I know you can save at the Kong Kollege in DKC 2 but still, it cost coins each time you want to save and you might end up forgetting to save and dying. Do you think savestates/restore points make a game less fun? Or do you think that times have changed and you shouldn't be pulling your hair out playing a game when you have the option to use savestates and restore points?
Stubbornness and lack of alternative games to play for the most part.
We're talking about practice
Game wasn't hard to me when played it back in the day. Slightly more difficult than super Mario world.
Actually enjoying the process.
By playing again and again. No choice but to git gud.
Or cheat to gain unlimited lives or something
Or cheat to gain unlimited lives or something
Persistence. Try-fail-win was part of the game.
We literally didn't know any better.
Dat first post
But ya - it's just something you get used to OP
But ya - it's just something you get used to OP
Having just a weekend to finish a game you rented with your hard earned cash gives you motivation.
Personally, the last old school game I played kicked my ass and I resorted to using save states. It was Streets of Rage 2...
Personally, the last old school game I played kicked my ass and I resorted to using save states. It was Streets of Rage 2...
Step 1. Get better
Step 2. Repeat step 1
Step 2. Repeat step 1
Hate to be "that guy" but as I kid I remember being in a very similar situation you are now.
It's just a thing where you just kind of "get it" after playing it for so long.
I grew up on Platformers and I never really got stuck on one (Super Ghouls and Ghosts doesn't count) but now as an adult of 22 if I get like 3 minutes with a platformers first couple levels, it's like this weird instinct where I just "get" the movement and controls and can speed through most nowadays.
Now, replace platformers with FPS for me, and I'd be in your same shoes. I can't play FPS games for turds, probably because I didn't grow up in a time where they were the #1 genre or something. I dunno!
I just kinda rambled. ;u; Sorry.
It's just a thing where you just kind of "get it" after playing it for so long.
I grew up on Platformers and I never really got stuck on one (Super Ghouls and Ghosts doesn't count) but now as an adult of 22 if I get like 3 minutes with a platformers first couple levels, it's like this weird instinct where I just "get" the movement and controls and can speed through most nowadays.
Now, replace platformers with FPS for me, and I'd be in your same shoes. I can't play FPS games for turds, probably because I didn't grow up in a time where they were the #1 genre or something. I dunno!
I just kinda rambled. ;u; Sorry.
By "gitting gud", as the kids say. I could beat Cybernator without using a continue when I was 12.
We honed our skills and got good.
I mean, Donkey Kong Country 2 has save points. They're usually buried pretty deep in each world, I guess, but it's not like it was some impossible feat or anything. I say this as somebody who can finish DKC1 in a single sitting and blew through DKC2 earlier this year, and I am pretty sure I never had to resort to savestates.
I just remember that you'd... do it. I have this picture in my head of games like DKC1 taking me more than a month to finish. Sometimes you'd just accept that you'd have to go through levels that you'd already played to get back to where you left off.
It's just like imagining games that don't have save systems at all, like Sonic 2. You'd play Sonic 2, get as far as you could, quit for the day, and then start all over from the beginning of the game tomorrow and try again.
I just remember that you'd... do it. I have this picture in my head of games like DKC1 taking me more than a month to finish. Sometimes you'd just accept that you'd have to go through levels that you'd already played to get back to where you left off.
It's just like imagining games that don't have save systems at all, like Sonic 2. You'd play Sonic 2, get as far as you could, quit for the day, and then start all over from the beginning of the game tomorrow and try again.
By gitting good on the NES, which was way harder.
DKC 2 has save points so even if you game over, that's okay because you can just resume from where you stopped and try again. The hard part was finishing games where there weren't any save points and you had limited continues.
Those weren't even hard games for the time. I think on average gamers were used to more challenge in games and were just better at playing them (you had to be if you wanted to get anywhere in most games).
Starting over from the beggining would make you better at the parts you replayed. So if you got run down towards the end, you could start over and be in better shape next time you got to the trouble section.
Yes we used to see the same part of a game more than once.
Yes we used to see the same part of a game more than once.
Last edited by Crayon; Today at 01:15 AM.
I never thought DKC2 was hard. Did you play DKC or jump into DKC2?
This is a good point. Stop using save states.Starting over from the beggining would make you better at the parts you replayed. So if you got run dow tiwards the end, you could start iver and be in better shape next time you got to the trouble section.
Yes we used to see the same part of a game more than once.
Back then we were kids, we didn't need restore points because we had the free time to try again and again and again and again.
Back in the day, my gaming time was limited to 30 minutes per day. If I wanted to make any progress in any game, I had to get good enough to blow through the early parts without any effort. Then I'd get a few minutes to check out the new stuff and do it all over again the next day, inching forward to the end.
Fly back to Level 1 an grind lotsa easy lives? Thats what I did in the DKC's.
Without a gamerscore linked to achievements I cannot verify this.Originally Posted by Holy Order Sol
Actually enjoying the process.
srsly tho, games like Zombies Ate My Neighbors and many others implemented save "codes" that would allow you to start the game with some feeling of progress. Others, well, when you ran out of continues you had to start the game over from the beginning. That's it. Sure, there's cheats and cheat engines, PCs allowed for console commands but for the majority of that sweet, sweet era you simply had to beat the game by being better than it.
It's also why things like the Konami code in Contra and flute locations in Super Marios were valuable information on the playground.
We had no choice. Beating a game in one sitting back then meant almost mastering it.
We got used to playing NES platformers so the SNES ones weren't that bad. Being able to save was a god send.
There wasn't much money for videogames in my familly back then, so we had very few games to play. By doing things over and over again, at some point it just become a simple task.
No with how easy it is to play vg -either being free or sales-, I honestly can't see myself beating all these without savestates/cheats.
No with how easy it is to play vg -either being free or sales-, I honestly can't see myself beating all these without savestates/cheats.
DKC2 in particular is hard as fuck
other stuff like SMW and Super Metroid aren't as bad
hell, SNES has one of the easiest mainline Castlevanias
other stuff like SMW and Super Metroid aren't as bad
hell, SNES has one of the easiest mainline Castlevanias
Basically, and the disappointment of game over cannot be understated. I remember being absolutely crushed at game over in SMB 3 when I was at Bowser. Didn't touch the game for weeks. One of my more vivid memories of when I was a child. Didn't help that I had rented the game and had to return it soon after.We didn't know any better, so we became gods.
Last edited by .la1n; Today at 01:17 AM.
Cause as a kid I got like 3 games a year if I was lucky. So I just tried and tried and tried again.
As a kid I loved "Zero The Kamikaze Squirrel" but that game (as far as I know anyway) has a random bug in the last level that just wouldn't let you proceed if it decided "Nah, fuck you." It crushed my soul so many times. So many times....
As a kid I loved "Zero The Kamikaze Squirrel" but that game (as far as I know anyway) has a random bug in the last level that just wouldn't let you proceed if it decided "Nah, fuck you." It crushed my soul so many times. So many times....
Get good, or die.
Like the boss rush in Viewtiful Joe. Remember all those bosses you barely beat? Now you gotta fight them back to back plus a new one. That's why I've always had a soft spot for games like Viewtiful Joe, Devil May Cry, and Ninja Gaiden. Their difficulty always seemed like the evolution of those 2D platformers from the SNES days.
But honestly it was probably a combination of being a kid and having too much time on my hands, and not having any other games to play. I had other SNES games, but it wasn't like now with a bunch of digital games sitting on my HDD. It was play Donkey Kong, or Mario...or Zelda. In grade school I would have my friend over my house on Friday and we would literally just eat pizza and pass the controller back and forth trying to beat levels in Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country.
Like the boss rush in Viewtiful Joe. Remember all those bosses you barely beat? Now you gotta fight them back to back plus a new one. That's why I've always had a soft spot for games like Viewtiful Joe, Devil May Cry, and Ninja Gaiden. Their difficulty always seemed like the evolution of those 2D platformers from the SNES days.
But honestly it was probably a combination of being a kid and having too much time on my hands, and not having any other games to play. I had other SNES games, but it wasn't like now with a bunch of digital games sitting on my HDD. It was play Donkey Kong, or Mario...or Zelda. In grade school I would have my friend over my house on Friday and we would literally just eat pizza and pass the controller back and forth trying to beat levels in Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country.
Games were shorter back then.
Muscle memory was probably a huge part of it in games like Donkey Kong.
Muscle memory was probably a huge part of it in games like Donkey Kong.
I feel like it's also important to point out that most games back then were less than four hours long. I think when I replayed DKC1 late last year I finished it in, like, 3:58.
DKC2 is actually a much longer game than DKC1. Levels are more than twice as long, and there's way more of them, too. I think I clocked something like 9 hours when I finished DKC2.
DKC2 is actually a much longer game than DKC1. Levels are more than twice as long, and there's way more of them, too. I think I clocked something like 9 hours when I finished DKC2.
Being a kid with no responsibilities and one game to play helped.
There was no GAF to waste precious gaming time on.
People think Dark Souls 3 is hard. They would cry if they played some of the games on the SNES. This thread reminded that gaming has completely shifted from skill based to story based. The only company making games that still require skill is Nintendo and even they aren't the same. Gaming is losing its identity and becoming more of a form of entertainment that you passively play. We might as well be watching movies.
We didn't know any better, so we became gods.
By gitting good on the NES, which was way harder.
I also agree with all three of you.Back in my day, we were lucky to get one new game to play a year. So we just played the one game we had until we beat it. And then continued to play it, because our parents were not going to buy us a new one.
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts was the only game I truly struggled with as a kid. Only could get past the first level a couple of times.
Really? Come on now.People think Dark Souls 3 is hard. They would cry if they played some of the games on the SNES. This thread reminded that gaming has completely shifted from skill based to story based. The only company making games that still require skill is Nintendo and even they aren't the same. Gaming is losing its identity and becoming more of a form of entertainment that you passively play. We might as well be watching movies.
DKC2? That's not too hard other than the secret levels. Maybe a few levels in the last area too.