Classic games that you waited WAY too long to try out

[Solid SOAP]

The gaming industry has birthed some of gaming's most beloved franchises and games, some of which have aged better than others. After years of hearing the hype for certain games that are considered "classics", eventually you have to go out and try them for yourself to see if the hype was worth it. Post here games you waited way too long to try out, and whether you loved them to bits, hated them to the core, or somewhere down the middle.

Within the hype of Duke Nukem Forever last year when all that leaked footage got released, I began to wonder what all that hype was about. I've grown up hearing about Duke Nukem through all my older friends, but never got to try any of the games out for myself. Curious about what the Duke games might have in store for me and with the release of Duke 3D on Xbox Live, I downloaded a demo as soon as possible and wanted to give it a try. Initially I was put off by the extremely dated visuals, music, and non-linear game design, but as I played on and realised what exactly I was playing, how it was meant to be played, and what the expectations were at the time, I began to love it.

It's tounge-in-cheek humor mixed with fun firefights and great level design that'll have you exploring every nook and cranny of every level, Duke 3D is now among one of my favorite shooters of all time and I will be preordering Duke Nukem Forever as soon as possible. You don't see shooters like this anymore, it seems like every first or third person shooter these days either focuses completely on online play, leaving the single player mode in the dust, or is a completely free-roaming experience with very little character development for your main character in attempt to give you a sense of "being" while you play as a personalitiless schmuck. Duke 3D had me laughing every time Jon St. Jon opened his mouth with some sort of cheesy phrase or come-back, and I loved the variety of weapons and gadgets at Duke's displosal. If you've never played Duke 3D before and are willing to sacrifice modern gameplay elements in favor of dated ones, you should really give it a go. It's extremely rewarding and quite a bit of fun.

[Unionhack]

I grew up playing Baldur's Gate, but it took me until christmas last year to play BG2: Shadows of Amn, and the expansion, Throne of Bhaal. I play BG2 just about daily now; age be damned, it's among the most fun games I've ever played.

[Diogenes]

I only got around to playing Super Metroid for the first time fairly recently. Aside from a few hiccups, it's a damn good game. Shows its age a bit, compared to Fusion and Zero Mission, but I can see why it's so loved...playing it in its time, it must've been something amazing. That said, I think one run was enough for me. It didn't kindle the sort of crazy love for it that some long-time fans seem to have, and I don't feel any obligation to 100% or speedrun it, so that'll be it.

[Robogaman]

I finally got a chance to play Marvel vs. Capcom 2, *takes deep breath* I hated it. *shot in the head*

[Sean]

When I bought my DS a couple years back, I picked up Chrono Trigger. Even then, I didn't dive into it right away - almost a year after that, I finally got around to playing it seriously. The game was as good as people claimed it was.

Not too long ago, I also played the two Zelda games on the N64 for the first time. I enjoyed every second of Ocarina of Time, but I wasn't really feeling the magic with Majora's Mask, which I still have yet to complete to this day.

Lastly, every once in a while, I would tackle Tales of Phantasia for the SNES. I never get far into it, but I kind of like it, although it's repetitively exhausting.

[SHAX Hedgefox]

I finally got a chance to play Marvel vs. Capcom 2, *takes deep breath* I hated it. *shot in the head*

BURN THE INFIDEL! Nah, just kidding.

I waited 13 YEARS to play Super Mario RPG. Partly due to the fact that Square-Enix (being just like EVERY OTHER GAMES COMPANY) decided to say "f**k it", and passed australia right over on the release date. I'm not shelling out 500 dollars for the game and an American SNES.

BUT, thanks to the magic of emulators, I finally got to play the damn game. And it was awesome.

[Octarine]

I have still never, ever played a Star Fox game. Ever.

As for games that I actually have gotten around to playing... I only played Super Metroid a couple of years ago, and it was my first-ever Metroid game. It's now one of my absolute favourite games, and it really got me hooked on the series. It also took me a long time to properly get into Mega Man; I'd played a couple of games here and there, mostly in the Battle Network series, but it was years before I went back and played most of the classics.

[Flint]

The Dig, and a lot of other Lucasarts classics like Sam & Max Hit the Road, Indy IV, etc. I was a massive adventure game fanatic back in the days when they were the AAA of their time but for some reason I just never ended up playing Lucasarts' works. Only in the past few years have I been finally introducing myself to the old classics and, well, they're classics alright. The Dig especially is marvellous (outside a few bad puzzles).

Planescape Torment and the Baldur's Gate series are also something like this, with the exception that I still haven't actually played them. I really need to rectify that soon...

[Remy]

You never played the lucasarts stuff? That weirds me out! Lucasarts adventure games used to be like... the only thing I played.

[Flint]

I didn't get that many games as a kiddo and whenever there was a chance to get one, I couldn't seem to find any Lucasarts stuff on the few local stores that stocked games. Twas either Sierra or miscallenous other studios' works, when it came to adventure games.

Bizarre admittedly.

Edited September 8, 2010 by Flint

[Glenn]

This year I've been doing lots of retro catching up, thanks to Mahzes who has furnished me with a Nintendo DS Lite (so that's the GameBoy Advance back catalogue, too) and most recently, a PlayStation2 (which, unlike the one that barely survived university with me, actually works).

And I've absolutely loved it! In fact, it got to a point where I was taken aback at the gorgeous HD visuals of the PlayStation3, since I'd been playing so much sprite-based Sonic Advance and Sonic Battle, not to mention the GameBoy Advance copy of James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing. Okay, so that might not be retro-retro as many of you would define it (although hey, c'mon, 2004 was over six years ago) but I've loved finding great games for absolute bargain prices and falling in love with them while everybody else talks about the latest CoDding or whatever.

Of course, this is all set to change, with three new PlayStation3 games and three new Nintendo DS games heading my way before Christmas (not to mention a couple of Blu-Ray boxsets), but for now I'm loving the catch-up and will always look upon this past year very, very fondly.

[jennytablina]

I think maybe the latest I held out to play a classic was Klonoa or Sam and Max

I had played the demo of Journey to Phantomville on PS1 long ago and loved it, but finding a retail copy was tough (I believe it had a low print run) - I didn't have a playstation for the longest time (but had a friend who owned one so played a lot of classics like Spyro and Crash) but Klonoa was unobtainable for me at the time.

The GBA titles showed up and I played them, a friend showed off the gorgeous Klonoa 2 to me and I played that too and became a bit of a fan of the series. But still hadn't played Phantomville

The wii remake last year was released and soon as it was confirmed for Europe I ordered a copy and played all the way through it at last and loved it. It's a bit simple but it was a lovely romp while it lasted heh

Sam & Max I didnt get to properly play till 2007. I enjoyed the cartoon series as a kid but for whatever reason the game just never came my way. I played through with no sound, though my brother eventually got me a proper copy the other Christmas : )

[Agent York]

My backlog is in amazingly high number of games right now (I blame the fact I know where to get some amazingly cheap and great rare games, there's a few corner shops that literally sell no game last generation over $15 and most around $5-10, it's amazing) but I've actually been playing through several of them right now. I may not go as retro as some here (since I actually in the past have played about every retro game I've ever wanted to play with few exceptions) but what I'm really missing out on are a lot of the Sony-exclusive games since I have never had a Sony console before and have only played a few PS3 games recently at a Neighbor's house. Series I've never gotten to play and I want too include the whole Metal Gear Solid franchise (Twin Snakes on Cube but I can't seem to ever find it), all of the newer Final Fantasies (except 13... Yes I never played 6 or 7 or 8 or 9, etc), and a ton of others and I want too someday.

Recently I've first been catching up in playing every single horror game out there. I need to still buy and play Code Veronica of the resident Evil series and it's too bad I'm late to the game with the Resident Evil Outbreak titles since the online servers are down... But that was on Playstation too soo never had a chance. I didn't get to Silent Hill until this year and still got several more to go but I hadn't since I wasn't aware for the longest time almost all of the Silent Hill games have PC versions. And I only started Fatal Frame recently, though got 1 and 2 together.

There is a lot more out there, but steadily over time I play through them even if it's years later. Sometimes it's way more fun getting several great older games for he same price you can get a great newer game, I do it a lot if nothing big I'm waiting for.

Edited September 8, 2010 by Dusk the Alan Wake Keeper

[Tori Himemiya]

Well let's see...

I missed out on the first couple of Final Fantasys before 7. And I don't have the patience for them for some reason. D: Not sure if it counts but it also took me a long time to even pick up 7 and the ones after that.

I did waited a long time to play Resident Evil 2 but I never got to it until this year which I glad I am.

Oh and American McGee's Alice. I was pretty young when I first saw that on the self with a nice price and look at it now! D: I was too scared to buy it! >.<

So yeah.

[Chooch]

I didn't bother touching the classic Mega Man series until the around the time Mega Man Anniversary Collection came out. Then I played Mega Man 2 and 3.

Fucking hated both of them. I simply can not deal with purposefully shitty level design for long enough to complete any of the classic Mega Man games. I usually get about halfway through and then never want to touch them again.

I bought Mega Man 10 off a whim around the time it first came out. It was no different. ..Until I bought Bass, I guess. He's the only way I can even deal with that game and in the end I still don't like it.

[speedfreak]

Just last night I downloaded Kirby Superstar off the virtual console. It'll be my first Kirby game!

[Agent York]

Just last night I downloaded Kirby Superstar off the virtual console. It'll be my first Kirby game!

Trust me, you're in for a treat though if you got someone to play in-room co-op with like a sibling or friend you enjoy playing games with I recommend asking them if they would like to play a little since the co-op n the game shines a lot and makes an already amazing game more fun.

[Thirsty Pocket]

Considering all I would ever play was Mario ( and Donkey Kong Country 1 and Pokemon ) games until the N64 came around, the list goes on forever.

So closed minded I was. I eventually tried Banjo Kazooie, one of the best series ever, but only because he was in Diddy Kong Racing ( a game that I got because my parents couldn't find Mario Kart for Christmas. Im glad I got the superior game. ) But I still stuck to Mario ( I also loved Sonic, but my aunt was the one who owned a Sega, not me. )

Then Smash bros came out. I got curious about the other half of the characters I didn't recognized in the game. I tried Starfox 64, Kirby 64, and Ocarina of Time, and fell in love with these guys. I was still pretty freakin' closed minded about video games though. I would occasionally try something new, but I still mostly bought games with characters I recognized in Smash Bros, and Sonic, once the gamecube hit.

I never truly opened up to different games until about the year of the Wii's announcement. But I realise now that I haven't listed any games that I waited too long to try at all yet.

Well the latest game I never played until now, or rather, series, is Final Fantasy. I thought the series looked really really lame and uninteresting. The only two games that got me curious at all were FF1 and FF9. FF1 was way way too slow paced and difficult for me, and I didn't own a PS1 or 2 to play FF9.

I recently got the homebrew channel on my Wii ( Yeah yeah, shame on me. ) and I played the GBA remake of Final Fantasy 1. I was in love with it. I know it's criticized for being secerely handicapped in difficulty, but I could probably not play it with the original difficulty in tact.

I played FFII to the finish but... I hated it. I kept at it hoping it would get better, but it didn't.

I got the FFIII DS game and it seems pretty decent. I just got the nauteless(sp?). Im juggling this and FFIV at the sane time. I don't know if Im going to play all the FF games. ( definitely not Tactics, CC, Dissidia, or 11 ) But Im glad I finally gave the series a chance.

Also, River City Ransom. I really love the GBA remake of that.

Beyond that, there's a whole slew of popular games I never tried until way after they were released.

Edited September 9, 2010 by Lando The Bat

[Unionhack]

Ah, I also forgot Final Fantasy 7. I've tried to emulate it, but to no avail. Ah well, maybe one day. Until then, I'll say 8 was my favorite FF.

I've played Wild ARMs 3 (And it's my favorite RPG of all time), but I've never played 1, 2, 4, 5, or the remake of 1. So I need to catch up on that.

[Speederino]

It's only been a tad over a year since I first played Chrono Trigger. I started playing and I couldn't put it down. I also wish I had tried out Harvest Moon earlier then I did. That quickly became one of my favorite series once I started playing.

[Saint Nathan]

I simply can not deal with purposefully shitty level design for long enough to complete any of the classic Mega Man games.

So in other words you are very bad at jumping. Because the level design isn't even close to being shit.

That's the thing about Megaman games. If you fuck up, it's your fault. They're not going to hold your hand though it, if you trip up it'll slap you in the face with it's dick. If you don't trip up you'll be the best of friends.

Speaking of Megaman, I'm actually just now getting to try out Wily Wars. It's actually a damn good remake. Kinda off because only three of Megaman's bullets can be on screen, and they move soooo slloowww, but that's not even an issue unless you're hammering the fire button.

Edited September 25, 2010 by Galaxy Man

[Serperior]

Speaking of Megaman, I'm actually just now getting to try out Wily Wars. It's actually a damn good remake. Kinda off because only three of Megaman's bullets can be on screen, and they move soooo slloowww, but that's not even an issue unless you're hammering the fire button.

It has always been 3 bullets on the screen at once, it's just more noticable in wily wars because the bullets move slower.

[Patticus]

The game I waited an eon to play would be Ocarina Of Time. I played it in 2006, from the bonus disc that came with Wind Waker. After I got over how shitty the graphics looked after playing the sumptuous Wind Waker, I found it an increasingly enjoyable experience; challenging, imaginative, well written (as far as Zeldas can be I suppose; it's not exactly War & Peace now is it?). Some dungeon designs thoroughly infuriated me though, and any awe I might have felt in the late 1990s was absent from the off; it had been previously used up by several other games, Wind Waker in particular. A presistently recurring glitch on both the regular version of the game and the Master Quest game, freezing and disc read erroring the game in the end credits sequence, prevented me from seeing the game to the end of the final credits (and the video that played therein).

Good game, great at times, and certainly vital when it came to appreciating certain sections of Twilight Princess and indeed Wind Waker itself, but not the best Zelda I've played. Worth it though. Can't wait to replay it on the 3DS (if it's any good on there).

[Saint Nathan]

It has always been 3 bullets on the screen at once, it's just more noticable in wily wars because the bullets move slower.

I know, but this is the first time it's been a little bit of an issue.

Honestly though, this seems like the only non-8 bit classic Megaman I can really, really seriously get into because the sprites aren't so fucking weird (I'm looking at you 7, 8, MM&B, and pretty much all of the X series) and Megaman doesn't look like a slow mo runner.

[Sean]

So in other words you are very bad at jumping. Because the level design isn't even close to being shit.

People are allowed to not like something without you having to step up to them, try to negate their opinions, and be an overall ass.