My thought process wasn’t really even so much about the games themselves as much as the approachability of someone who has never held a controller before. As much as I prefer a dual joystick, shoulder button, and 4 face button controller now. It is a lot less daunting for a new player to have a simpler input schema. NES had a d-pad, 2 face buttons and the the start button and that was it. For a 5/6 year old who never played a video game before, that seems like a good place to start. The modern controlled is much more complicated and also not sized well for little hands. The few times my wife has tried to play a game with me, just controlling the camera while moving is too much for her. I have a 2 year old daughter who is just starting to figure out what a video game is. I’m wanting to start having her play with me, but I don’t think she will be able to use the controller correctly anytime soon.
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19·3 months agoI like to think I gave my nephew some perspective. About 10 years ago, I gave him one of those combo consoles that played NES, SNES, and Genesis games, and bought him several classic games from each. So for a couple years, he grew up playing the originals of Super Mario Bros., Mario Kart, Sonic, Mortal Kombat, etc. And every time I visited, I whooped his little butt at Mortal Kombat too. I think it made him appreciate it all the more when he eventually got a PS4 and beyond. Someone who starts with a Xbox 360 has no understanding of just how far games have come and no context for what made some of these classic IPs great from the get go, and what it was like to sit next to your friend, sibling, or cousin and play couch co-op together.
P.S. I didnt let him win in Mortal Kombat because he was a complete shit talker. He’d be on a 12 fight lose streak, and manage one KO by the skin of his teeth, and then look me straight in the face, puff up his chest and grunt out “Uh! Yea! Winners never lose!” He simply had to be punished for that arrogance.
And the ReDead face huggers approaching as you are literally frozen in fear.
On the NES, the original Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt, Super Mario Bros 3 (skip 2), Legends of Zelda, and Metroid.
On the SNES, Super Mario World, Legends of Zelda: A Link To The Past, Chrono Trigger, Donkey Kong Country, Mario Paint, Super Mario RPG.
On Genesis, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (basically the same as 1, but has multi-player) and 3/Sonic & Knuckles (you could combine both cartridges and play as Knuckles, it was awesome), Mega Bomberman, Toe Jam and Earl, Earthworm Jim 2, Aladdin, The Lion King.
On PS1, Spyro The Dragon, Tomb Raider, PaRappa the Rapper, Crash Bandicoot (all of them), Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 and 2, Final Fantasy 7, Metal Gear Solid.
On N64, Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Diddy Kong Racing, Legends of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Legends of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, Super Smash Bros, Starfox 64, Pokémon Snap, Pokémon Stadium, Banjo Kazooie, Bomberman 64, 1080° Snowboarding, Goldeneye 007.