is NES the first console that aged well enough that you'd want to play games for non-retro reasons
(not counting arcade ports here cause that's a reflection on the arcade)
like, i'm sorry, but i'm not just randomly bump into a copy of Adventure(1979) and be like "oh that looks like a good time." That's like, just for the sake of looking back or the novelty of an old game
you don't need that context for like, megaman
maybe that's why we treat the NES like it was the first game console
the video game transition from 2d to 3d is a pretty funny and bizarre time
it was like when they removed the cap in terms of potential. like, sprites got prettier and more amazing but like, that's what it meant to upgrade
but then HOLY SHIT YOU CAN WALK AROUND IN PEACH'S HOUSE WHAT THE FUCK
that's why all of super mario 64 is taking place in that small area. because it was fucking WILD to actually BE at a place.
like i think the best way to explain what it felt like during the big shift from 2d->3d is
that lying kid on the school bus went from like
"if you jump on ridley's head 400 times you get a thousand lives and candy kong comes out and takes off her clothes"
to
"if you go over to a room on this level, you see your future self in the mirror and also mario remembers every single time you play and actually feels pain and candy kong comes out of the tv"
like i dunno about you but the go-to lie in my neck of the woods was that grand theft auto was making a game of the entire united states and you could visit your house
everyone who's old enough to remember 9/11:
can we all agree to pretend that everyone legitimately wanted to fuck candy kong
i don't REALLY believe this but it's not far off
@heatherhorns no that's the snes
@heatherhorns every copy of mario 64 is personalised
(i mean, seriously, you can see where the idea came from. it felt like such a deep world)
@heatherhorns i didn't know any other gaymers around that time, i was very much the isolated weird kid playing my final fanta seas, but i would've believed it probably
(and now that stuff like google earth flight sim exists, it's not even far from the truth)
@monsterblue pokemon go delivered on the promises of so many uncles working at nintendo
@heatherhorns i remember that one
@PsyChuan I remember a bunch of kids getting into a fight over whether that included a specific, mysterious pig farm that nobody was allowed to go near
@heatherhorns i think that one may have been geographically locked. also for me it was a game of the whole UK
@heatherhorns I never liked any of the DKC games and stopped paying attention to them after the first one so idk, not really
but I've definitely encountered young people in this day and age who think the NES (and often the 16-bit consoles as well) are too primitive to consider revisiting.
@heatherhorns and as much as the NES is my favorite console, the vast majority of the catalogue is barely-controllable garbage or shit that might have worked on PC but is nonsense with a d-pad and two buttons.
Like, I love the games on that console, and I'll talk about the games that are still great and playable, but I can also drop an entire essay about shit like Dash Galaxy, Back to the Future, Pinball Quest, The Immortal, Destination Earthstar, etc etc etc
GTA San Andreas had an engine limitation that made planes spawn really low to the ground, and if you were in an area with tall buildings they'd frequently crash.
This lead to a rumor at my school that if you shot down a plane before it crashed, you'd get a million dollars for "Stopping a 9/11".
@heatherhorns yeah, i think you've hit the nail on the head there. i'm probably very biased because the nes was my intro to consoles, but it feels like there was a bright line before and after super mario bros in terms of pick-up-and-play-ability. you didn't have to be a Gamer TM, everyone wanted a go
then again maybe some 20 year old feels that way about the wii
but actually yeah like
damn, this is totally me being an old fogey cliche but like
the transition from 2d to 3d is such a You Had To Have Been There thing. Like, if you're young enough to not remember it, like, it probably just seems overhyped how much it broke our brains
it's hard to make a parallel, tbh. not even with virtual reality, cause at least it's not the first time you were like "holy shit"