Comment on Great games you would recommend from before 1990?
emb@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Pre-1990, you’re mostly looking at the NES library as the go to. The older Atari games I don’t think are worth it, outside of the historical context angle.
I’d say give Zelda I and II another shot. They are clunky, as most things from the era will be. But when you engage with them on their own terms, I think they’re both really rewarding experiences.Don’t be afraid to look for hints, some things can be obtuse - you can probably find old magazines in the Internet archives to reference.
If 1990 exactly counts, Crystalis is a Zelda-like with RPG elements that outdoes Zelda is many ways.
Castlevania is another one that’s really great, but very clunky. There’s no air control, so once you jump that’s your arc.
SMB 1-3 you probably have played before, but if not those hold up.
Even more frictionless, the first 2 or 3 Mega Man games feel just as refined as if they were made today.
Ninja Gaiden is known for challnge, but it also controls super smoothly and feels good to play.
Basically I guess my recs are mostly just explore the NES library. There’s some Sega worth checking out and probably TurboGrafx too, but NES had most of the classics.
What kinds of newer games do you generally like?
Hard to say which genres I like most, but I like games which present a good story & atmosphere or do interesting things mechanically. Besides sport games I play nearly everything.
Games which I really enjoyed: Disco Elysium, Outer Wilds, Hollow Knight, Planescape: Torment, Pillars of Eternity, Tyranny, Return of the Obra Dinn, Zelda: Twilight Princess, What Remains of Edith Finch, Pyre, HalfLife & Portal series
Sounds like point and click adventures might be your jam? Check out the Macventures (which had NES ports, although some of the ports go past your cutoff date): Deja Vu, Shadowgate, Uninvited.
Point and click adventures were a very popular genre at the time, although they had a well-earned reputation for difficulty and illogic. Someone who knows more about them could give you more specific advice.
I played a lot of JRPGs, and it’s hard to recommend JRPGs of the period. They’re rather different from both their 90s descendants and their late 80s WRPG contemporaries, and you look like you would much prefer 90s JRPGs. The 80s have two phases: the antique JRPGs focused on exploring the world with a simple plot, and the pre-classic JRPGs with a much heavier focus on plot not yet accompanied by much skill at storytelling or pacing. The best of the antique JRPGs is Dragon Quest 3/Dragon Warrior 3 (1988). It’s a little complex to just jump into, so if you bounce off the complexity I would retreat to Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior (1986). If Dragon Warrior’s grinding weren’t so slow, it would be easy to recommend as a tutorial game to anyone trying to get into JRPGs.
If you’ll take a game from 1990 on the nose, Dragon Quest 4/Dragon Warrior 4 is the most polished pre-classic JRPG in your time range. If not, Phantasy Star 2 (1989). But these games are hard to recommend nowadays to someone with modern tastes because they’re not as polished as Dragon Quest 3 and don’t have a 1990s-sized storage device for better storytelling and writing. The one thing I’ll say for Phantasy Star 2’s writing is that it has the guts to go places that games even now rarely go.
FigMcLargeHuge@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
With all due respect, I have to disagree with you there. You seem to be lumping all Atari games into the 2600 category. The Atari computers had plenty of classics.
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
Star Raiders
Choplifter
Miner 2049er
The list goes on and on, and if you add in the Commodore, Apple, and TI computers it gets even bigger. Pre 90 consoles, you have Colecovision, Intellivision, etc. Of which I personally love love love Utopia for the Intellivision.
emb@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Valid! Computers are a huge blindspot for me, and there’s no doubt depth there.