The Nintendo Switch

I tried to get into Binding Of Isaac but the visual aesthetic just doesn't work for me.

same. i liked the gameplay but got sick of the whole baby humor thing

Yeah at that point, and in "retro" games in general, there were still mechanics or inconsistencies that they were still figuring out. Modern games do a better job communicating mechanics through design.

Another one I can think of it is the part of the fence you can jump over, which is indicated by ...two little bumps in the grass on the side you can hop from?

Or! Cracked things that sometimes break when you dash into them vs. ones that don't, despite using the same visual crack type. I think they were trying not to spoon feed too much, so that the player could discover via trial and error, but the bumps-mean-fence-hop thing is just bad pixel art/visual communication.

xxp

The unfortunate (seemingly) gothy Jhonen Vasquez inspired poop/gross theme of Binding of Isaac turned me off initially but once you get into the gameplay you tend to forget about the setting and theme.

My Issac skill and knowledge got to a point where I mapped a reset button to my controller because the game starts a lot quicker if you have good items on the first floor.

Until you accidentally smack the reset button halfway through a good run. Used to do that in N+ accidentally.

On that note, you should all play N++, which I think may be the greatest 2d platformer of all time. One of the only games where mastery makes you feel like a god. The only inputs are left, right, and jump. The rest of the complexity comes from the rounded hitbox on your character and the nuances of momentum-based movement. Unbelievable game.

You may remember previous iterations: the N game, and N+.

When I looked up must-have games after I bought my Switch, Binding of Isaac kept coming up, but everything I saw and learned about it made me say N-O.

Again, it's off putting at first, definitely.

I've enjoyed the LttP puzzles. Being stuck usually starts an exploring phase where i find new stuff before finally realizing I always had what I needed to get unstuck.

heart-removing pits in lttp are distinguishable from drop-you-a-level pits by sight

Modern games do a better job communicating mechanics through design.

frequently "design" here means "constant explicit instruction"

That was a problem more-so in the early to mid 00s. I think overall games have been less relentlessly handholding.

yeah there's definitely been a swing back on that this gen

I knew a guy who had "link, listen" as his text message noise on his phone 😑

Holy crap, you want good looking games? I just started Ori and the Blind Forest, and that intro is straight up Bambi (in every sense, sniff).

See, re: Link to the Past. I get the master sword - fine - and go back to rescue the princess, but can't get to her because of the lightning wall. I swipe a few times with my sword, but nothing. So I look up what to do, and yes, I'm supposed to use the sword, but I was swinging in the wrong spot. Fine. So I go back, open the lightning gate, get to the wizard, he makes her vanish and ... that's it. I'm stuck in the room. Fine. But aha! They made a point earlier that the magic mirror will teleport me back to the beginning of any dungeon, which I do. Ta-dah! I'm out. But it turns out, despite being told the mirror can teleport me to the start of dungeons, in this case I was *not* supposed to do that. I was supposed to know I needed to stab a curtain to expose a door. Groan.

hehehe yup. Agahnim exits the room through the top middle of the screen. Otherwise there's no obvious clue at all.

Back in the day I thought that sort of bs was there to sell strategy guides.

super metroid is full of that too, i love the game but if i had played it as a kid rather than later as a teen with internet access i probably would have been frustrated

Yeah, I dunno, I think I might be done with this game.

Well, there are some trickier puzzles coming up, but if you’re tired already, you’ve played (in my opinion) the most rewarding part

It's kinda more annoying than rewarding tbh.

I wish I could set fire to or permanently blow up every roadblock.

It is important to be sure that you in fact enjoy games before endeavoring to play one

Like games are supposed to be boring or annoying and thinking either of those things is the case means you don't like games. It is more important to be sure you are enjoying a game before endeavoring to continue it.

puzzles aren't annoying!

Of course they can be. But beyond that, having to, say, constantly equip a translation book to read signs (rather than just have them automatically translate after you get the book) is for sure annoying. And so is having to constantly navigate or remove regenerating shrubs and rocks to get across the screen faster. Those aren't puzzles, those are just impediments.

I also think a lot of people call things "puzzles" in games that may be puzzling but aren't really puzzles.

i have equipped that book twice, I think. i also immediately rammed the bookshelf when i saw it on top, though, so maybe i'm just a goddamn zelda genius floating through this puzzling zelda life with ease.

Don't you need to equip the book every time you want to read a sign?

And yeah, some people are just better at these games than others, or more experienced. I don't mind challenges in games or things to figure out, but I like the problems that, when you're forced to look up their solutions, make you say "oh!" and not just a deflated, frustrated " ... oh."

super metroid is full of that too, i love the game but if i had played it as a kid rather than later as a teen with internet access i probably would have been frustrated

― ciderpress, Saturday, September 28, 2019 7:22 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

there's a very tricky to find secret wall which you'd never think of reaching unless you knew it was there which is pretty much essential to winning the game. although I think it actually came with a strategy guide at the time so maybe it was in there

Josh otm. I love several Zelda games but I've tried many times over the years to find something to hook me into lttp or justify its placement on best of lists and it's really not there. You want a 10/10 adventure puzzle game on snes, play power soukoban

i'd rate lttp above the NES and DS zeldas but below all the game boy ones

Games are supposed to be boring and annoying!

“Boring” and “interesting” are the same thing

*watches empire, eats popcorn*

they're both words that don't mean anything so by transitivity they mean the same thing

I dunno, this is my first time ever playing LttP, I haven’t had to look up anything strategy or puzzle wise. I think what leads to success is being comfortable with the question, “What happens if...”

and really, it’s about how you want to spend your time. Like, if you’re cool with trying shit out to see how it works, you’re going to have a good time. If you’re going to get annoyed that it isn’t always clear, it’s not for you. Fair enough. I’m cool with not always knowing the next thing I’m supposed to do, I have fun with that.

@josh To some extent, it sounds like you were fucked by trying to look up tips. The game didn’t tell you that you were supposed to use mechanics in certain ways; your faqs did, and you got frustrated when they didn’t work

Also, no one even responded to my post about N++ so I’m going to reiterate: it’s on switch, and I stand by the claim that it is the best 2d platformer of all time

I will say, I don’t think fgti’s assessment was right. They mentioned the difficulty ramps up effortlessly; I didn’t feel that at all. The devs were clever coming up with mechanics that would increase difficulty, but they haven’t aged well.

I can totally see why the game might have been an important evolution.

N++ was made by my 1st year roommate and her partner. Well, not really my roommate, she lived across the hall and I was there all the time playing cards and smoking inside

Anyway idk there are lots of "classic" games that I play for 30-60 minutes and I'm like "wow this is boring"-- Uncharted 2 comes to mind

What is more boring, Zelda or JiC’s posts about Zelda

Anyway. Ori is exceptional.

i played the heck out of the original N back in the day but dunno if i want more of that now

ori is cool and anyone who doesn't like the escape sequences is boring a.k.a. interesting

I definitely played N Game in the computer lab in high school a couple times, I probably tried the original N+ on Xbox at someone's dorm at some point for a few minutes but I'm not sure. N++, maybe someday.