Gaming Stockholm Syndrome

[mbd39 | 2,020]

3 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

Well, I'll retract my claims of former "mastery", since as a kid, it never occurred to me to make a pacifist run at the game

It involves a hilarious amount of slowdown with so many enemies on screen.

 

[RH | 4,903]

I could have sworn I posted on here, but I guess I didn't hit submit?

Anyway, I definitely had a few games I really, really liked in my younger days but to be honest, I have no clue if some of them were bad.  My nostalgia glasses are over 20/20 today, so it's tough for me to be a fair judge.  But, here's my list of games that I doubt others consider "classics" so they probably are just fair at best.

• Cybernoid (NES) - Tough as nails and I could never get much further than the past stage.  Still, I loved it.
• Anticipation (NES) - Not a great party game once you memorized everything, but once my brother and I did learn all of the timed puzzles, it was usually a game of seeing who could tap the "OK" button fast enough to answer the questions.
• Yo! Noid (NES) - I think others think this is a good game, I'm not sure, but I loved it a bunch.  It was the only CAPCOM title I owned for the NES.
• Star Voyager (NES) - I borrowed this from my uncle a lot.  I really liked it, although I never ever really figured out the point of the game.
• Stealth ATF (NES) - Ok, it's a fair game but what made it suck for me is I could almost never land the plane.  So... I rarely made it past the first stage, or training even if that's what it was.  Regardless, I enjoyed playing a game as a stealth fighter jet!
• Wheel of Fortune (NES) - Same as Anticipation.  This is a fine 8-bit version of the game, but once you've memorized all of the puzzles and can guess them after 2-3 letters are revealed, it's not fun.  But I continued playing it anyway.
• Lunar Pool (NES) - I still don't know why I enjoyed playing this game, usually lowering the friction to 0.  It's an ok pool sim for the NES, but what I got into was just mucking around with the physics.
• Sonic 2 (Game Gear) - Yeah, no.  This is just not a great game.  It's too hard.  But it was my first game on my Game Gear so, dog gonnit, I logged tons of hours on it.
• Star Gate (Game Gear) - It's a puzzle game.  Probably not a bad one, but I bought it without even looking at the back of the box.  I loved the movie, and the genesis port looked cool from commercials, so I assumed it'd be the same general game.  Though I was at first disappointed with it being a puzzle game I did enjoy it regardless.
• The Berenstein Bears (Game Gear) - This was a game my sister had, but once I had worn out all of my other platform games for the system, I borrowed this one.  It's an easy enough game, but I still found it enjoyable for a light game.
• Star Wars (Game Gear) - Ooooooh my gosh, I'm sure this is considered a bad game but I outright loved it.  I never beat it, I don't think, but I got close and never tired of trying.
• Jurassic Park (Game Gear) - I guess this one is good?  I don't know.  I loved it to much as a kid to objectively grade it.
• Star Wars Rebel Assault II (PS1) - My Dad bought this to give to me when he bought me my PS1 one Christmas.  I have great love for this game because of it.

Edited November 30, 2020 by RH

[GPX | 1,369]

Trying to rack my brains what was so bad that I kept persisting with it till the end...

Probably one of the biggest disappointment was Alex Kidd Enchanted Castle on Megadrive. Utter garbage with crap graphics, poor collision detection and mundane game from start to end.

The funny thing is that I was an Alex Kidd fan back on the Master System, and this supposed upgrade was shittier than all the MS Alex games! As a kid back then, a game was purchased every few months, so despite how good/bad the games were, I tend to persist with them all till the end. Stockholm syndrome is a very appropriate title with the bonding of a poor game where resistance is futile (no other games to play)!

Edited November 30, 2020 by GPX

[Webhead123 | 675]

21 hours ago, Gloves said:

I'm sure I'm not alone in this. When I was a kid my access to games was pretty limited...

I'm curious to hear of any such games you all might have stories about. Obscure or otherwise shitty games that YOU like, or that at least hold a place in your heart if only because it's all you had, so you made due, and maybe it grew on you over time through sheer force of will.

I was also one of those kids. We didn't have a lot of money growing up, so picking up a new game or taking a trip to the rental shop was an exciting thing. While I did eventually get a Nintendo Power subscription and spent allowance money on other gaming mags from time to time, in the pre-internet days, you just had to make the best of what you had.

I'll just get this out of the way now...I actually love E.T. on the Atari 2600. I loved it as a kid (beating it about once a week or so) and I still love it today. Is it objectively great, even by Atari standards? No. Is it the worst game of all time? Not even close. Am I blinded by nostalgia? Maybe.

I had Ghostbusters on both the 2600 and, later, on the NES. I played a ton of both version because...it's what I had. Honestly, I've always thought the 2600 game was superior.

Back to the Future on NES is a game that I still have a lot of fondness for because it was one of the few games that found its way into my collection. The gameplay is clunky and the music is repetitive but I can honestly boot it up any time and enjoy my time with it.

Fester's Quest is another guilty pleasure. I enjoy it less overall than BttF and even at the time, my brother and I joked about many of its poor features...but when your choices are limited, what else are you gonna do? I've never finished the game (I've tried but even *my* patience has limits) but I can go back and play through the first few areas and have some fun with it.

Monopoly on NES was another one that I somehow obtained and you know what? It's probably the best version of Monopoly ever made (including the actual board game). I played an embarrassing amount of it in the early 90's and I still find the graphics and sound incredibly nostalgic and appealing.

And I don't care what anyone says, I love Sewer Shark on Sega CD. Yes, I think I only had 3 games total for the system and all 3 were amazing (to me). The other two were Spider-Man vs. Kingpin and Jurassic Park. Even so, something about the setting/atmosphere of Sewer Shark pulled me in. I must have beaten the game 20 times. And Falco was my digitized queen.

Edited November 30, 2020 by Webhead123

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

Just now, Webhead123 said:

 

Fester's Quest is another guilty pleasure. I enjoy it less overall than BttF and even at the time, my brother and I joked about many of its poor features...but when your choices are limited, what else are you gonna do? I've never finished the game (I've tried but even *my* patience has limits) but I can go back and play through the first few areas and have some fun with it.

I enjoyed Fester's Quest as a kid because it is basically the top-down/indoor mode of Blaster Master for the entire game.

(and suffers from the same bad low-mid-range-power weapon functionality :P)

[TDIRunner | 2,734]

Until the PS1 era when I had my own money to buy games, my family very rarely bought games for our consoles.  When the SNES came out, the only NES games we owned were SMB/Duck Hunt,SMB2, SMB3 and Rad Racer.  Same thing during the SNES era.  When the PS1 came out, the only SNES games we owned were SMW, Yoshi's Island, and DK Country.  So I'm fortunate in that we basically only owned good games.  We rented a TON of stuff, but if a game wasn't that good, we just didn't rent it again.  So I really can't think of an objectively bad game that I enjoyed as a kid just because I had nothing else to play.  

 

Edit:  I forgot about Game Boy games, but even then, it's the same story.  The only games we owned were Tetris, SML, SML2, SML3 and Kirby Pinball.  

Edited November 30, 2020 by TDIRunner

[captmorgandrinker | 1,649]

I got lucky that the handful of games I had were pretty decent (well most were; looking at you Tag Team Wrestling).

It also helped that word got around school pretty quickly during the NES era that I was the kid buying Atari 2600 games for a dollar.

[glazball | 168]

Picked up a few turds in the NES days when it tooks months to scrimp and save for one game.  Once you pulled the trigger, you played the hell out of it for better or worse.  These come to mind:

Karate Champ - I clearly remember being at Target and choosing this over Urban Champion (in hindsight they both sucked)

Dragon Power - this game was not very good and the main character looked like a monkey boy, but damned if I didn't play the hell out of it

Mighty Bomb Jack - picked this one up at KayBee Toys because it was only $20

Mystic Defender (Sega Genesis) - an early title that looked great in screenshots but was short and mediocre.  With so few games after launch I played through it countless times.

[Tulpa | 3,492]

3 hours ago, Webhead123 said:

And I don't care what anyone says, I love Sewer Shark on Sega CD. Yes, I think I only had 3 games total for the system and all 3 were amazing (to me). The other two were Spider-Man vs. Kingpin and Jurassic Park. Even so, something about the setting/atmosphere of Sewer Shark pulled me in. I must have beaten the game 20 times. And Falco was my digitized queen.

I forgot about the Sega CD games I had. Sewer Shark was pretty fun, if ridiculous. So was Ground Zero Texas, though a lot more repetitive.

Never could figure out Double Switch, and to beat that game you had to memorize every detail for a perfect run.

 

[croagunk | 798]

I can’t get past the first AT-AT in Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire on N64, even on easy mode. The tow cable just won’t cooperate with me. I keep trying, though. I would appreciate any advice. 

[RH | 4,903]

20 minutes ago, croagunk said:

I can’t get past the first AT-AT in Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire on N64, even on easy mode. The tow cable just won’t cooperate with me. I keep trying, though. I would appreciate any advice. 

Just shoot at the neck.

[DefaultGen | 5,401]

Some people seem to think Sub-Terrania is a bad game when it's like the raddest game on Genesis, so I don't know if that's Stockholm or what.

For sure getting "stuck" with bad games is an element missing from modern gaming, because games are so plentiful and cheap/free. Not that anyone should have to get stuck with a bad game, but if you leave something that bores you after 5 minutes you'll never learn the strategy to beating Dragon's Lair on NES or something, and there's something cool about sticking with a game like freaking Dragon's Lair until you beat it.

[Deadeye | 1,596]

Trog! on the NES for me.  I played a lot of it as a kid.  I wouldn't say it is a bad game (Stockholm Syndrome kicking in), but I don't think it has many fans.  

  

 

[RH | 4,903]

16 minutes ago, Deadeye said:

Trog! on the NES for me.  I played a lot of it as a kid.  I wouldn't say it is a bad game (Stockholm Syndrome kicking in), but I don't think it has many fans.  

  

 

I've never heard of this game, but it looks fun to me.  Is the goal to collect all of the blue gems and then get to the goal, before being eaten?

[Splain | 2,564]

I had just a Game Boy and a Commodore 64 for a while there. So I got ok at Ghostbusters and Impossible Mission on C64, but those aren't that bad. (the C64 Ghostbusters doesn't have the weird stair-stepping bit.)

For Game Boy, I have a weird fondness for Ren and Stimpy: Veediots and Yoshi's Cookie. But I didn't have good sense back then. I remember renting Link's Awakening and not liking it because I didn't know what to do.

[Tulpa | 3,492]

11 minutes ago, RH said:

I've never heard of this game, but it looks fun to me.  Is the goal to collect all of the blue gems and then get to the goal, before being eaten?

Yeah, basically. The arcade had unique graphics that gave the characters a claymation look, which obviously couldn't be replicated on the NES. It also had four players, while the NES version maxes at two.

[Webhead123 | 675]

1 hour ago, Deadeye said:

Trog! on the NES for me.  I played a lot of it as a kid.  I wouldn't say it is a bad game (Stockholm Syndrome kicking in), but I don't think it has many fans.

Trog! was a game that completely escaped my notice when I was younger but with such a unique name, I took a chance on it later in life and I found a sort of appreciation for it. I don't think I would call in an amazing "hidden gem" or anything but I found it surprisingly fun for what it is. Who knew?

[Renmauzo | 1,200]

We were pretty poor, so my Mom only ever got two games on the NES, the other few came from grandparent birthday Money or me collecting cans in the neighborhood and saving up. One of the two my Mom bought was Wizards & Warriors which was absolutely aggravating from a control standpoint. When my Mom almost broke the controller, I offered to take over and we got pretty far. Although we never beat the game and I recall turning red with seething rage, you played what you had back then and learned to press on. To this day, I still get that feeling of, "Maybe I'll beat it this time and call Mom in triumph", lol.

Since obscure was the other criteria in the OP, the other game my Mom bought was purchased under false pretense. The local rental store used to get in imports for rental...heck, in 89' and beyond, they started renting out TG16 games, but I digress.

Anyway, she brought home a Japanese game with a label printer sticker on it that read 'Baby Mario' (with a converter attached), which was the whole reason she rented it. Years later - many years later - I would come to know it's real name of Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa!, but at the time I just thought Upa was Mario. I fell in love with the game and I even wrote to the GamePro tv show with a 'level select trick' (lol), so my Mom bought it from the rental store. Everyone at school thought I was talking out of my ass when I mentioned 'Baby Mario', and kids just thought I was making up games that didn't exist because they knew I was poor. I'm not sure if I developed a complex from this, but I always have wonderful memories of playing as Upa, and while my sister has the cart now, I bought an FDS specifically to play this game that I love so much (and still hum the music of from time to time while doing things around the house ;). 

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

Just now, Renmauzo said:

We were pretty poor, so my Mom only ever got two games on the NES, the other few came from grandparent birthday Money or me collecting cans in the neighborhood and saving up. One of the two my Mom bought was Wizards & Warriors which was absolutely aggravating from a control standpoint. When my Mom almost broke the controller, I offered to take over and we got pretty far. Although we never beat the game and I recall turning red with seething rage, you played what you had back then and learned to press on. To this day, I still get that feeling of, "Maybe I'll beat it this time and call Mom in triumph", lol.

 

Wizards & Warriors is probably my all-time top candidate for "games I wished were better but kept playing because I wished that this time would be different"

Conceptually, as a kid, I loved everything about the game after having read the Worlds of Power book about it a zillion times.  But damn, the play control in that game is awful.

[mbd39 | 2,020]

2 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

Wizards & Warriors is probably my all-time top candidate for "games I wished were better but kept playing because I wished that this time would be different"

Conceptually, as a kid, I loved everything about the game after having read the Worlds of Power book about it a zillion times.  But damn, the play control in that game is awful.

I've never played the original W&W but I have Ironsword. Not even Fabio on the cover saves it from being a steaming pile of turds. And it is a game that could be very good with some tweaking.

 

 

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

7 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

I've never played the original W&W but I have Ironsword. Not even Fabio on the cover saves it from being a steaming pile of turds. And it is a game that could be very good with some tweaking.

 

 

But it is THE game that you wish was better, right?  Thematically, it was just so cool (at least after the childhood hype of the novelization)

[Sumez | 2,943]

I think I lucked out with a lot of the games I had as a kid. Like there was no reason for the Tiny Toons game to be any good, but it turns out it was made by Konami (a name that meants nothing to me at the time) and is really good, so yeah.

The closest to an example like this I can come up with is Solstice which I initially disliked, and returned to much later when I finally grasped it. And honestly it turns out it's a really good game, it's just not very approachable. So some times it's kinda of fortunate to be stuck with only a few games.

I think my best examples of "stockholm syndrome" are much more recent. Like when you put a several hours into a game before you have to face the fact that it just isn't good, and you "might as well" sit it out.
I made that mistake with Radiant Historia. I felt like I had to see it through, I even did all the awful sidequests needed to fight the true last boss. So many hours wasted on such an awful game.
In a way I'm still kinda glad I did it, because now I know not to trust anyone who praises the game  

 

Also, MC Kids is a fucking great game, what's wrong with you?

Edited December 1, 2020 by Sumez

[G-type | 2,480]

I have a fondness for Dark Castle, even though the game was absolutely brutal and impossible to control.

 

[arch_8ngel | 1,597]

Just now, G-type said:

I have a fondness for Dark Castle, even though the game was absolutely brutal and impossible to control.

 

Never played that one -- but it looks like something, stylistically, that I'd have had an extremely high tolerance for its flaws.

[G-type | 2,480]

3 minutes ago, arch_8ngel said:

Never played that one -- but it looks like something, stylistically, that I'd have had an extremely high tolerance for its flaws.

I think the aesthetic is definitely a part of it. I really liked the look of those Macintosh games... even the DOS ports of them. Dark Castle in particular has a lot of personality. I love how the prisoners shake their heads no when you walk under the booby-trapped key.