Are there games you wish you had nostalgia for?

[MegaHiro91]

I ask this because while I do have my own fair share of nostalgia games like Spyro the Dragon (my first ever console game) and Commander Keen (the first game I ever played), I sometimes play other retro games and can't help imagining if I lived in a parallel reality where I had grown up with this or that other game instead.

Like, I'm playing through the Tomb Raider IV remaster as I type this, and while I've been a big TR fan since Legend in the mid 00s, and also love and respect 1-5 for what they are, I never grew up with the classics and therefore don't feel I have the "ability" to appreciate these games to the same depth as someone who grew up with them and hold them dear.
I have a friend who did grow up with them, and as someone who had barely any friends growing up - counting myself lucky that I at least had siblings - I imagine if she had been my neighbour (or something like that) and we would have played these games together. Figuring out the puzzles and all that kind of stuff.

Are there any games like that, where you sometimes fantasize about an alternate reality where your childhood and the games you played and who you played them with were different?

 

[RanmyakuIchi's iconRanmyakuIchi]

I missed out on a lot of Rpgs like Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger because kid me didn't appreciate Rpgs. I've played many of them and been hit with that "Man, I missed out" kinda feeling.

 

[King Koopa's iconKing Koopa]

I wish I had more nostalgia for RPGs on Genesis/Super Nintendo and older. I was very little when the Super Nintendo was new so I only played whatever my parents had.

 

[ciro64]

First time I tried F-Zero X it felt so right I felt "invisible" nostalgia for it.

Surely, I was only 12 year old at the time, but I've been playing N64 since I was 4.

 

[PharosEigengrau]

Halo. I know so many people that are enamored with those games, especially when they talk about the 360 era and every time I try playing any Halo game I never get into it.

 

[otogirisou]

fortnite

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I wish I could have nostalgia for something like The Legend Of Kyrandia. It would have enamored me as a kid.

 

[ciro64]

fortnite

I feel like I missed a good chunk when it comes to PC gaming because I never kept up with the latest specs.

 

[dropsmegamega]

I believe I still manage to fully appreciate stuff I am playing for the first time, to the point there are games in my top 10 from all phases of my life, but I wished I hadn't missed so much great late 90s~mid 00s pc games, mostly because I didn't know about then or didn't had money, so I kept replaying the few games I had instead. Something like Diablo 1 would have been totally my kind of game, but I only got to play it much later.

 

[Nidoking's iconNidoking]

Several SNES games. I never owned one, so the amount of games for it I have nostalgia for are limited to the few I got to play at friends' houses.

Also, the Gen 3 Pokemon games. Totally skipped that generation and went from Silver to Platinum... and now I can't enjoy them. Since there's no nostalgia, there's nothing to get me through the dated elements that really hold older Pokemon back for me, like not having the Physical/Special split. It's especially problematic because there's just so many romhacks and randomization options it's perfect for, but I just cannot get into them.

 

[106x]

I ask this because while I do have my own fair share of nostalgia games like Spyro the Dragon (my first ever console game) and Commander Keen (the first game I ever played), I sometimes play other retro games and can't help imagining if I lived in a parallel reality where I had grown up with this or that other game instead.

Like, I'm playing through the Tomb Raider IV remaster as I type this, and while I've been a big TR fan since Legend in the mid 00s, and also love and respect 1-5 for what they are, I never grew up with the classics and therefore don't feel I have the "ability" to appreciate these games to the same depth as someone who grew up with them and hold them dear.
I have a friend who did grow up with them, and as someone who had barely any friends growing up - counting myself lucky that I at least had siblings - I imagine if she had been my neighbour (or something like that) and we would have played these games together. Figuring out the puzzles and all that kind of stuff.

Are there any games like that, where you sometimes fantasize about an alternate reality where your childhood and the games you played and who you played them with were different?

Growing up everybody I knew was a big time pokemon fan but I was never able really to get into it, I have some nostalgia from older cousins letting me play pokemon fire red but besides that I don't know anything about the series lol

 

[MegaHiro91]

I wish I could have nostalgia for something like The Legend Of Kyrandia. It would have enamored me as a kid.

Legend of Kyrandia huh? Don't hear people bring that game up an awful lot, but it definitely goes on my list too. I discovered it ages ago by happenstance but never got very far in it, so I can't really say it holds a lot of nostalgia for me because I didn't experience the whole adventure.

That could be a whole discussion in itself: how much of a game you must've experienced for the nostalgia to set in? Like, I WILL say that I hold nostalgia for Lion King, but we never got past the infamous 2nd level, haha.

Post automatically merged: Feb 18, 2025

Growing up everybody I knew was a big time pokemon fan but I was never able really to get into it, I have some nostalgia from older cousins letting me play pokemon fire red but besides that I don't know anything about the series lol

Something you regret in hindsight or?

 

[Spike's iconSpike]

The PS2.
It came out in time I was too big to ask my parents for it and too poor to buy one.
So i missed out. Also emulating PS2 wasn't what it is now. Only Disgaea worked and at like 5 FPS....
I later played a bunch of PS2 but no nostalgia.

 

[DunkeyKong]

The Legend of Zelda games, the SNES and NES one. So far I've liked the GBA one the most, but no nostalgia

 

[miguk]

Arcade games were so hard to keep up with because if they didn't have a game at your local arcade, you had to physically search around for it elsewhere. I only played Martial Champion because a neighborhood convenience store had a machine. Only played Magician Lord because one particular Pizza Hut had it in its 4-game MVS. And there were tons of others out there that I just didn't get to play because they simply weren't in any location within reasonable travel distance.

So I wish I hadn't missed out on most of Capcom's beat-em-up games. I played Final Fight, but I never got to play a proper cabinet of Alien vs Predator, D&D, or Battle Circuit. (Local arcades were Konami beat-em-up loyalists.) I did get around to playing them later, but couldn't back then.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

I missed out on a lot of Rpgs like Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger because kid me didn't appreciate Rpgs. I've played many of them and been hit with that "Man, I missed out" kinda feeling.

Well, some would say that those games hold up really well nowadays and have nothing to envy from the soulless mass of generic action games made nowadays. Some of the people who would say that might be in this thread commenting right now.

There's no reason to feel like you missed out because the graphics now have retro charm, the stories of those games are just as applicable today as they were in the 90s and the gameplay is still fun.

 

[Ctsea23]

I missed out on a lot of Rpgs like Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger because kid me didn't appreciate Rpgs. I've played many of them and been hit with that "Man, I missed out" kinda feeling.

You're literally playing it at that moment I'm about to be 28 and I have nostalgia from when I was 20 lol like the passage of time doesn't stop therefore nostalgia seeds are sown constantly

 

[Skeetos]

My little dumbass was sleeping on Gears of War. I had the first one as a kid but didn't understand the movement. When they went backwards compatible on Xbox One, my homie sat me down and played through the trilogy with me. One of the greats. And I have a bit of nostalgia for the moment but not the game. Can't wait for E-Day.

 

[bjork]

I've had this with a lot of Commodore 64 games. More of a "I would've played this a lot if I'd had it back then" kind of thing.

 

[RanmyakuIchi's iconRanmyakuIchi]

Well, some would say that those games hold up really well nowadays and have nothing to envy from the soulless mass of generic action games made nowadays. Some of the people who would say that might be in this thread commenting right now.

There's no reason to feel like you missed out because the graphics now have retro charm, the stories of those games are just as applicable today as they were in the 90s and the gameplay is still fun.

You're literally playing it at that moment I'm about to be 28 and I have nostalgia from when I was 20 lol like the passage of time doesn't stop therefore nostalgia seeds are sown constantly

You're right, I still end up having a great and memorable time. I guess it's just the feeling of missing out on being at the "Ground Zero" of something new.

 

[Cu-Neo]

In my case it would be The Elder Scrolls franchise. I love those games, but I have zero nostalgia for them because I played them like 8 years later of the initial release of Skyrim.

 

[Stookymalarkey]

I would have to say Final Fantasy 7. I loved the ones on the SNES but since I never had the PSX growing up, I never played through it. People say it's the best FF made, so I feel like I missed out on playing it before it was spoiled to death.

 

[KiwiiiJuicy]

Pokemon or pretty much most Nintendo games, and FF. I've been playing these games a lot the past years but i wish i felt nostalgia too besides that cozy feeling these games have. The only Nintendo game i actually have a lot of nostalgia with is Super Mario World. I grew up as a Genesis kid instead, but at least stuff like Sonic and many other games on that console give that feeling

 

[Patches]

I'm more nostalgic for the time I used to have to play games and the rate at which very quality games were coming out every year. I pity the younger generations.

 

[Boo Man]

Final Fantasy VI & IX
Dino Crisis 1 & 2
Resident Evil 1, 2 & 3