Games you poured time into when you had nothing else to play?

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

In the age of massive emulator libraries and Steam backlogs, it can sometimes be taken for granted the act of “playing what you have”. I’ve felt that recently with Phantasy Star on the Master System. I don’t have many games for my Master System, but I only really need Phantasy Star for right now. It’s a game that I can easily hop back into and have fun in at any time, and that really resonates for me. I don’t expect every game in this thread to be as prestigious, but I ask: what are some games that you played because they were all you had? Preferably a thread for good memories, but if you had a bad game you were forced to play, that’s fine too.

 

[ThePeon]

when I had nothing else to play ? That is a great dream to have. I got so much shit to play im not sure I will finish my back log in my life time well not if I keep procrastinating by playing MMO games instead of beating the game or I keep playing monster hunter wilds or world or Fallout 4 or skyrim for the 11000 time.

 

[psvitaforever]

This. I always bought consoles at the end of their life, meaning at Gamestop I could easily find used games at cheap prices... so of course I wasn't without games!

when I had nothing else to play ? That is a great dream to have. I got so much shit to play im not sure I will finish my back log in my life time well not if I keep procrastinating by playing MMO games instead of beating the game or I keep playing monster hunter wilds or world or Fallout 4 or skyrim for the 11000 time.

 

[ThatOneLum]

I nearly platinumed Uncharted 1 cus it was my only PS3 title when I got my first one.

Enjoyed the J&D reference and that but considering how hard i fell off the rest of the series down the line I wonder if if have played it at all without it being my only title

 

[Santas]

I've lost countless hours trying to get platinum trophies on fromsoft's games, but if you want a game that I was always playing when I had nothing else to, that game was probably Tokimeki Memorial.

You see, around 3 or years ago when I was attempting to get into college Win+Tab was my best friend (because I didn't want to be caught not studying), so when the translation patch came out I sunk my teeth in that game as hard as possible. So, I would always be mindlessly playing the game to conclude all routes while pretending to study. Once I got in college though, I've lost the need to hide my gaming, so I went back to playing online, and playing on console. Still like that game tho.

 

[Clippy]

 

[ThatOneLum]

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Oh I didn't know we were talking straight classics

 

[TotzOnGaming]

I usually fire up a shmup or play a game on my phone. Sonic Wings and Grinding on Chaos Rings 3

 

[Soul417]

When I was a kid my family didn't have many wii games.
So when I wanted to play a video game for video game's sake, I played SpongeBob SquarePants Globs of Doom. I can't say even as kid I liked the game I just replayed it cause it was what I had.

And Wacky World of Sports I played the shit out of this party game and still love the game to this very day.

 

[gwardojones]

Super Mario Land 1, Battle Unit Zeoth, and Rocky and Bullwinkle, all for the Game Boy.

I played Super Mario Land 2 first (which was awesome) and thought the first game was complete butt for a couple of years as a result. But being a kid in the 90s, there were long stretches where I couldn't get any new games, so it was back to SML1. I played it over and over until I finally beat it and heard that glorious end credits music. Something unlocked in me after beating it the first time. I realized I could beat it again and again without any issues, which felt really empowering, especially during a time in gaming where everything was inspired by quarter-munching arcade games and were therefore brutally hard.

Never beat Battle Unit Zeoth (or got past the second level for that matter), same with Rocky and Bullwinkle, but I did get really close with the latter of the two. I broke through a difficulty wall and was suddenly able to get through another handful of levels.

I miss those days, where you were forced to play the games you had, which required you to git gud or die of boredom. Not sure I'd go back if given the choice, but there was something magical about learning to love something you thought was trash.

 

[Badseed]

I unfortunately may have the longest list of unfinished games in the world. I'm still plugging away however. Its hard, i lost my collection in a house fire. so I emulate now

 

[Goblin Slayer]

When I was a kid, I got a NES for my 10th birthday, might have been my 9th I don't remember now.
I was taken to a local toy store and told I could get any game I wanted.
Dad got me the NES, and my uncle, the cool guy, was buying me a game.
So, like a kid in a candy store, I looked at all the cool box art. This was before they had to lock them behind glass, and you could actually look at the boxes.

I always liked space stuff as a kid. Star Trek, Buck Rogers, any kind of cool spaceship stuff thanks in part to the aforementioned cool uncle.

Anyway, I got Star Force for the NES. It had a spaceship in it. Had to be good, right?
Nope! It was a horrible vertical shooter. The first few levels were easy enough, then it got Bruce Lee kick-your-ass hard.

But it's what I had for a long time, and I played the ever-loving crap out of it.

I hate it to this day.

...goblins...

 

[MadzombieBane]

crossword puzzles

 

[VampireLord1024VampireLord1024's icon]

Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

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In the age of massive emulator libraries and Steam backlogs, it can sometimes be taken for granted the act of “playing what you have”. I’ve felt that recently with Phantasy Star on the Master System. I don’t have many games for my Master System, but I only really need Phantasy Star for right now. It’s a game that I can easily hop back into and have fun in at any time, and that really resonates for me. I don’t expect every game in this thread to be as prestigious, but I ask: what are some games that you played because they were all you had? Preferably a thread for good memories, but if you had a bad game you were forced to play, that’s fine too.

A decade ago that was with Phantasy Star Online since there were private servers and I could play while watching something else.

Classic Doom is an easy game to launch at any time too.

 

[Dakarus]

MS Paint.

 

[goregoregoregoregoregore]

I didn't have that much internet access as a kid and i only had a very bad laptop. During 2 months without access to internet at all i forgot to download more games so i spent these 2 months playing the first Dragon Quest on the NES, Touhou 6 and a bunch of poker and pachinko stripper games on MAME

 

[Faust03]

new super mario bros DS was always the game I played when I had nothing else to play when I was little.
now it's doom

 

[BlissfulBandit]

Dark Cloud 2, I sunk entire weekends into it, that game is magical.

 

[stealthRUSH stealthRUSH]

 

[Jeff]

 

[JPchicre]

I have a real love/hate relationship with Purble Place, It was so boring, but my Grandpa's place had no internet, and i did not know at the time how to look for games that wouldn't fry a budget laptop(I think it had a Pentium 4), Of course with net, i would spend hours in flash games sites. Age of War was one of them.

 

[zacharinolongpants]

I played the hell out of this Harvest Moon on PS2. I honestly didn't really love it lol. Not my favorite Harvest Moon but it when I was younger it was the only one I owned so I got what I could out of it. It was totally fine and not particularly bad gameplay-wise. However, my memory of it is that it was just always brown and rainy and muddy looking lmao.

 

[Not_Red]

Let me tell you, the amount of times I've opened my DS just to play this game for about 10-15 minutes is insane. Sometimes I don't even complete the puzzle after getting too many mistakes so I close the game and try again the next time I'm bored and have hopefully forgotten all the right tiles.

 

[E0N]

Pokemon. For 2 years I only played Green, Yellow and Crystal cause I had no other games to play.