What retro games exceeded your expectations?

[Darklink]

Games that, for one reason or another, exceeded your expectations, or surprised you in a good way. Could be because you hadn't heard of it before, you don't normally play games like it, or it was just something you missed when you were younger.

For me a good example would be Final Fantasy Adventure on the Game Boy. I don't even know why I played it. I'm not a fan of the Mana series, nor am I usually up for playing a not-Nintendo OG Game Boy game. Something about it seemed charming to me, so I tried it. And I got an action-adventure RPG that's pretty good. The graphics have aged quite well for an OG GB game, the music goes way harder than it should, and the story is much darker than I expected. I liked the variety in weapon types in the game.

 

[dapperley]

Front Mission for SNES. I played through it last summer and really enjoyed it! Definitely different from many of the big SNES RPGs of the era.

A little difficult and arcane in the gameplay department, though. Motivated me to buy the remake as well.

 

[Cu-Neo]

For me it was Dragon Quest 1

I wanted to complete the Erdrick trilogy because the remake of 3 was coming out. And I really loved how simple Dragon quest 1 is: 1 vs 1 battles, the maps are simple designed and I love how the best armor and weapon are so broken for example the best armor can regenerate your HP every step you do and it halves fire damage like a 50%.

 

[Bonkers225]

Final Fantasy Legends 3(GB)
DBZ: Goku Hishoden(GB)
Felix the Cat(NES)
Bubsy(Genesis)
Worms Armageddon(PS1)
Cannon Fodder(GBC)
Virtua Fighter Animation(GG)
Baku Baku Animals(GG)
V.R Troopers(GG)

 

[Waffles]

Dogfight: 80 Years Of Aerial Warfare just blew me away.

It was not common to play a game where you could play as "the bad guys" on every single scenario, and they even included some rare wars in there.

 

[Chezlyn]

For me, its Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure.
Part Beat-em up, part 2D fighter.
You'd think a proper fighting title on GBA can't exist on the GBA's limited buttons but you'd be surprised how much creativity went into the One Vs One mode. Awesome animated sprites and official voice overs... on a damn GBA of all systems. Really surprised me when I first picked it up.

 

[moonbits]

Elevator Action Returns, peak videogame.

 

[Leon]

To be honest, the translated ROM of cyborg 009 on the snes, was bored one day and tried it on a whim, what i found was a oddly enjoyable anime tie-in game.

A more real example though i grew up with it would be batman on the nes though, the game is probably one of the best games on the nes.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

For me it was Dragon Quest 1 View attachment 5186
I wanted to complete the Erdrick trilogy because the remake of 3 was coming out. And I really loved how simple Dragon quest 1 is: 1 vs 1 battles, the maps are simple designed and I love how the best armor and weapon are so broken for example the best armor can regenerate your HP every step you do and it halves fire damage like a 50%.

1 is beloved exactly for its simplicity, no wonder it has so many versions and clones

All those american youtubers saying its bad or merely "not that bad" this was a truly remarkable game for 1987

Big maps that encourage exploration and experimentation, lots of variety with the different characters, lots of varitety in levels when many games from 87 just reused backrounds, lots of interascting with your enviroments, the only thing that makes it feel like an early famicom game is the repetitive music

Nintendo was tasked to make a promotional game for a one time festival and instead of just doing a reskin of a pre existing popular game for easy money they made one of the best most inventive platforms on the system
So much so that they later released the international version on carts too


DID YOU KNOW THIS GAME WAS ORIGINALLY POSTAL 2-

 

[Darklink]

1 is beloved exactly for its simplicity, no wonder it has so many versions and clones

View attachment 5199

All those american youtubers saying its bad or merely "not that bad" this was a truly remarkable game for 1987

Big maps that encourage exploration and experimentation, lots of variety with the different characters, lots of varitety in levels when many games from 87 just reused backrounds, lots of interascting with your enviroments, the only thing that makes it feel like an early famicom game is the repetitive music

Nintendo was tasked to make a promotional game for a one time festival and instead of just doing a reskin of a pre existing popular game for easy money they made one of the best most inventive platforms on the system
So much so that they later released the international version on carts too


DID YOU KNOW THIS GAME WAS ORIGINALLY POSTAL 2-

Man the US internet learning that Super Mario Bros 2 is an enhanced version of Doki Doki Panic was the most obnoxious thing to ever happen to the Mario fandom. Can't go two steps without some moron going "um ackthually it's not a Mario game". Completely ignoring that: A, it was made from a scraped Mario prototype, B, a ton of the characters and mechanics from it continue on to future Mario games, and C, was fucking awesome.

People were so obsessed with whether it was originally a Mario game or not, that they completely ignored the game.

 

[Leon]

1 is beloved exactly for its simplicity, no wonder it has so many versions and clones

View attachment 5199

All those american youtubers saying its bad or merely "not that bad" this was a truly remarkable game for 1987

Big maps that encourage exploration and experimentation, lots of variety with the different characters, lots of varitety in levels when many games from 87 just reused backrounds, lots of interascting with your enviroments, the only thing that makes it feel like an early famicom game is the repetitive music

Nintendo was tasked to make a promotional game for a one time festival and instead of just doing a reskin of a pre existing popular game for easy money they made one of the best most inventive platforms on the system
So much so that they later released the international version on carts too


DID YOU KNOW THIS GAME WAS ORIGINALLY POSTAL 2-

I consider super mario usa superior to 1 and lost levels, no question in my mind, honestly if 3 and world didn't exist it would probably be the best mario game imo.

 

[tizlor]

Gladius for the Gamecube/PS2

Kind of got shuffled away during that era but it's really great.

 

[Jbranham]

The arcade version of hotuko no ken (fist of the north star )fighting game that came out in 2005 even though the combo system in this game is broken. When I saw this at a barcade that I go to I was impressed by the visuals of the game it reminded me of the anime so much.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

Man the US internet learning that Super Mario Bros 2 is an enhanced version of Doki Doki Panic was the most obnoxious thing to ever happen to the Mario fandom. Can't go two steps without some moron going "um ackthually it's not a Mario game". Completely ignoring that: A, it was made from a scraped Mario prototype, B, a ton of the characters and mechanics from it continue on to future Mario games, and C, was fucking awesome.

People were so obsessed with whether it was originally a Mario game or not, that they completely ignored the game.

D, 4 years after it came out in the west it came out in japan as Super Mario USA which makes it a mario game

E, it was made by people who went on to make mario 3; like its level designer Hideki Kono who went on to be the assistant director on smb3

F, As far as Ive seen everyone keeps saying "mario 2 JPN wast released bc it was too hard" but no one has ever proved it. Nintendo's playtester an internal strategist at the time Howard Philips was the one who first played it and said in the book "the ultimate history of video games" he didnt like but in he never said it was too hard to be sold worldwide. In a reddit AMA in 2018 he said the decision fell to NoA's president and he didnt tell him the reason

 

[Ligeia]

Rolan's Curse on Game Boy, a completely forgotten yet very enjoyable little game.

For me a good example would be Final Fantasy Adventure on the Game Boy.

Man, FFA is such a fantastic game, it holds a special place in my heart and it always pleases me when I see someone praise it.

 

[Waffles]

Another one was Nightshade for the NES.

I didn't even know you could pull point-and-click graphic adventures on the NES, but it wowed me.

 

[dropsmegamega]

PS1 Ape Escape. I never bothered with it because I didn't like the character design and it looked uninspired. All enemies are the same copy pasted monkeys?? When I finally played it I was really surprised, unique ape behaviors, tactics and names, open ended level design, unique control scheme, vehicles, very good ost... My favorite 3D plat on PS1.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

Another one was Nightshade for the NES.

I didn't even know you could pull point-and-click graphic adventures on the NES, but it wowed me.

Theres quite a few of them

Hell even if Im not talking about point and click, in japan the famicom and the disk system especially were known for their adventure games too
Ive seen many jap devs in their 50s cite Famicom Detective Club as a beloved game from their childhood, or the portopia serial murder case

If you want another "I cant beliecve the fc can do this!!" game look up Moon Crystal and Dynamite Batman

 

[Waffles]

Theres quite a few of them

Awesome. Thanks, Lee.

I only knew Maniac Mansion and Nightshade, but those recommendations sound great

 

[Lee__Kanker]

Awesome. Thanks, Lee.

I only knew Maniac Mansion and Nightshade, but those recommendations sound great

My pleasure
If you download a fds romset (or buy a famicom + working dysk system after 40 years and a tube tv that accepts an rf signal and a stack of floppys that haven been rewritten all of which Im sure you have) like 1\3rd of em are adventure games, I guess when they got all that new extra space the first thing they did was make genres not possible on the base fc carts; it must be also why there were so many action rpgs like zelda and other games with lots of levels and big maps; later they also started making visual novels on carts


As for suprising games, youtubers kept saying rockman went downhill after 3 but then I played all of them and 4 ended up being my favorite by a long shot. Like I said on the mega man thread its got just the right balance of everything the best levels great backrounds and the best moveset

How is this not on every top MD games?? this game is phenomenal!!!!
The md is a 1989 console thats just a paired down shinobi arcade board yet this is a tecnical marvel from every point of view looking better than many super famicom games, a fun co op experience and LISTEN TO THAT SOUNDTRACK HOLY BAT BALLS

 

[Moreno909]

Front Mission for SNES. I played through it last summer and really enjoyed it! Definitely different from many of the big SNES RPGs of the era.

A little difficult and arcane in the gameplay department, though. Motivated me to buy the remake as well.

You should try Front Mission: Gun Hazard

 

[Pinballbuzzbro]

Journey to Silius! Went in expecting a decent but not rly remarkable or well crafted mega man clone but instead got one of the best games on the nes (and no, I'm not just saying that because of the music lol). Level design was consistently challenging while also being extremely fair, rarely making me feel frustrated or annoyed, even on the final stages which REALLY shocked me since a lot of these retro platformers tend to lose steam and shit the bed once you reach the finale, but this game was a fun well designed treat start to finish and IMO it's a must play for fans of retro platformers, especially with that amazing patch that turns it back into a Terminator game like it was initially intended to be.

Fester's Quest too, that game basically just plays like zelda 1 but you have a gun instead of a sword and in weirdly typical fashion for Nes games it has some of the most insane imaginative boss character designs I've ever seen in a video game