Retro Gaming

[Jassassino]

The PS3 will be 20 years old in November, so enjoy your final 11 months of 'modern' gaming on the system, old men! 

I thought I'd make this topic because I've been looking at classic catalogues a bit more lately, and I've got a bit more of an itch to play games that I can play on their original hardware on it. 

Recently, I've been looking at trying to get through some PS2 classics which I missed back in the day - the original Ratchet and Clank series, the Dynasty Warriors games I missed in-between the ones I played, and most of all, I've been making a sort of mental list of PS2 horror games I missed which I'd like to play (which, unfortunately, think I may have to play on an emulator thanks to how expensive some of these titles look to buy). 

Anybody else delving deep into classic games lately? Or looking to buy some retro hardware which they craved when they were younger, but never got?

[BigBrother]

I posted this in the game chat, but I've spent a lot of the past year or so picking up old consoles and games. Last twelve months I've added a Dreamcast, Mega Drive and a Gamecube to the mix. Nice wee collection for the GC and DC; but my physical 'to play' pile is fucking huuuuuuuge (think I have close to 1000 physical games over PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, PS5, Vita, Gamecube, Switch, Switch 2, Mega Drive and Dreamcast and Xbox 360). And that isn't even counting the Steam pile, PS Store games and Nintendo store stuff. I may have enough games for the next 15 years aha.

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[Jassassino]

Fucking love that collection man. Also love your Gamecube games sharing a space on display with your degree and vinyl collection lmao. What made you get into the collecting, @BigBrother ? It's honestly really been fun personally to dig through titles and projects for these consoles I had absolutely no idea existed personally, and I feel like so many Japanese only titles remained into obscurity until relatively recently, it's like a whole treasure trove of storytelling.

[BigBrother]

Might sound sappy, but I love the physicality to it? It's such more of a conscious decision to decide what to play; and the mechanics of turning a console on, putting the disc in and hearing the little noises of the disc being read - and the fucking panic when a game isn't loading (looking at you Sega Dreamcast with your disc drive made out of cheese). Also, I own my games. I literally own them. So long as I have electricity I can play my games - delete my discs streaming services!

But yeah...I had a decent-ish game collection but I had to sell what I had as life sorta happened; so a big part of this has been re-purchasing a lot of what I had. I think I have most of what I sold - bar Silent Hill on PSX. I'll look into getting a copy this year maybe; I've done a lot of the bulk stuff; what I buy this year is going to be far more selective. A few big ticket things as opposed to 'let's get the entire FIFA series on Playstation' nonsense.

Been really interested in the Dreamcast and Mega Drive/Genesis for a bit. I grew up with the Playstation, I think I knew one or two people who had a Saturn and a Dreamcast; we were all waiting on the PS2, one guy on the Gamecube. But I'm slightly too young to have been a "Sega Kid". N64 might be next; I'd love to play No Mercy/WCW v NWO especially. But so much of the N64 catalogue is streamable on switch, and I've got one of the N64 wireless controllers that Nintendo did, so emulation might be a better option.

I was also playing with emulators last night on my phone; and I was legit playing Windwaker via Dolphin. Madness.

[Dirty Duck]

Glad you made this thread Jass as just before you did I nearly posted in gaming general to ask if anyone has/had a Sega Saturn. I'm a big Sonic fan and where there was never really a Sonic game for the Saturn (besides the port of Sonic 3D Blast, where the objective version is now the Mega Drive due to the original dev, the founder of Travellers Tales, unofficially patching his own game a few years ago. Gonna copy and paste my review of that at the bottom of this post cause why not*) I never really paid it much heed. But I never played Nights into Dreams by Sonic team and recently I've become more interested in it, Sonic Team deciding to make a new IP instead of immediately making a proper 3D Sonic game is pretty bold. Plus there's an exclusive Christmas version on the Saturn so obviously that is a must for festive gaming.

But tbh getting a Mega Drive or GameCube again is a higher priority for me. I own all of the Sonic Mega Drive games as I bought them when I was a teen in the 2010s, but my holy grail item is to get the Sega CD and 32x expansions for it and to play Sonic CD and Knuckles Chaotix-one of the best and one of the strangest Sonic games, respectively-on the original hardware. That's no small feat as both peripherals and both games are reasonably rare.

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It’s definitely not the most fun Sonic game to play but for a first foray into 3D it gets a lot right. The music and visuals still feel like the Classic Era (which is a fun novelty in a post-Modern Sonic world)-Sonic's model has a lot of charm and character and the Green Hill-esque chequered floor was likely a big help for players back in the day who maybe weren't used to traversing a three-dimensional space (which can have its moments of awkwardness in this game, for sure). The game’s style is very endearing and hits that pseudo-3D sweet spot just right, with a soundtrack which makes exceptional use of the Mega Drive’s sound chip (Rusty Ruins is especially good, and the Special Stage theme has a riff that inexplicably sounds like the Super Mario Bros 2 Character Select music…?).

I had a lot of love for Flicky (1991) as a kid so seeing them feature and the basic gameplay loop mirror that game (by having you save 5 flickies from inside of badniks who then follow behind you in a sweet little row) was a nice change from just reaching the goal and takes advantage of the potential for exploration that the new isometric levels grant. Providing a gameplay purpose for the animals inside the badniks is a great concept; Panic Puppet Zone's enemies do not contain flickies as they are trapped inside glass containers instead, presumably meaning this is the facility where they are turned into badniks-a nice piece of storytelling through level design. However, while the flickies are a big part of the game's identity they wind up being a source of frustration in gameplay as getting hit has them all fly off in every direction. This isn’t that bad for the earlier levels as you just round them up again but in later levels it's not uncommon for a few annoying flickies to fly over hazardous terrain. When this happens there's not much to be done besides wait for them, as getting hurt by said terrain will only lose your flickies yet again. It’s like having 5 rings that you have to re-collect every time you’re hit but they all have unique movement patterns to make getting them again ever so slightly harder.

The special stages are incredibly easy given that they’re the only part of the gameplay that players on release would have been used to from previous Sonic games as they’re your basic auto-run collect rings affair. Not very memorable. Knuckles and Tails serve as the entry point to these stages though which is a nice excuse to see them in 3D.

Eggman’s boss battles are all decent and have a good amount of variety. One complaint is they seem to take a lot of hits to kill and don’t necessarily change up throughout the fight, making them drag slightly. The final boss does have several stages to it which does help it feel a bit more exciting, but this is the only thing that makes it feel especially grandiose compared to the bosses before it. I would have liked to have seen the flickies incorporated somehow given their integral nature to the rest of the game, but it’s a fine final boss regardless.

Overall it’s a fun game with good ideas and the issues it does have seem to stem from the fledgling nature of what it was trying to do rather than a lack of care or poor design. I find it really touching that Jon Burton took the time to make this director’s cut. It wouldn’t be unfair to expect a developer who has spent most of his career developing for a multitude of IPs belonging to companies besides his own to feel jaded or dismissive of an oft-forgotten Sonic entry but Burton clearly has a fondness and respect for this little game he played a part in 30 years ago. The changes he made really enhanced this experience and I hope one day I can look back and feel as proud to have been a part of something as Jon Burton seems to feel about being a part of Sonic 3D Blast.

Also: bring back the old Traveller’s Tales logo!

[NateDog]

I've been picking up more older games than newer ones for a few years now. Not many stores here that still sell them unfortunately but CEX can have a few gems here and there and there are sites for local sales that I use a lot too. A few years back I had a habit of going into CEX stores and looking for the most obscure and shit-looking titles I could find, so I walked away with games like Portal Runner (PS2) for €1 (seems like you go through portals into other time periods and end up riding a lion at some point), Eve Of Extinction (PS2) for €1.50 (you play as a guy trying to find a way to turn his sword back into a woman), and a few others. My most recent pickups were Urban Reign (PS2) which looks like great fun, Resident Evil 4 (Wii) and I'm eyeing up a few PSP and Vita games on other sites as well. I love picking up games for those, and I've been telling myself for years that I'm going to get the PSP3000 red model that was released in Japan but haven’t been able to justify it yet.

[Null]

Yeah I’ve slowly transitioned into a retro gamer as time has gone on. Obviously I still like the odd modern title here and there but the fact for example in 2025 I spent the entire year playing games with release dates ranging from 1987 to 1999 says it all.

[Jassassino]

Might sound sappy, but I love the physicality to it? It's such more of a conscious decision to decide what to play; and the mechanics of turning a console on, putting the disc in and hearing the little noises of the disc being read - and the fucking panic when a game isn't loading (looking at you Sega Dreamcast with your disc drive made out of cheese).

Been really interested in the Dreamcast and Mega Drive/Genesis for a bit. I grew up with the Playstation, I think I knew one or two people who had a Saturn and a Dreamcast; we were all waiting on the PS2, one guy on the Gamecube. But I'm slightly too young to have been a "Sega Kid". N64 might be next; I'd love to play No Mercy/WCW v NWO especially. But so much of the N64 catalogue is streamable on switch, and I've got one of the N64 wireless controllers that Nintendo did, so emulation might be a better option.

Yeah I really get that man, making a concious decision to engage with the game from the moment you put it in feels much more meaningful and commited instead of just scrolling through your downloads and thinking "What can kill the time I have right now?".

Also love my Mega Drive, it's the second 'classic' console I bought myself, my first being my N64, which I played OOT and Goldeneye a shit tonne on. Mega Drive I haven't played much, but there's some really great standout titles on that console like Earthworm Jim which I loved to give a go, but found it insanely tough at the time lol.

Glad you made this thread Jass as just before you did I nearly posted in gaming general to ask if anyone has/had a Sega Saturn. I'm a big Sonic fan and where there was never really a Sonic game for the Saturn (besides the port of Sonic 3D Blast, where the objective version is now the Mega Drive due to the original dev, the founder of Travellers Tales, unofficially patching his own game a few years ago. Gonna copy and paste my review of that at the bottom of this post cause why not*) I never really paid it much heed. But I never played Nights into Dreams by Sonic team and recently I've become more interested in it, Sonic Team deciding to make a new IP instead of immediately making a proper 3D Sonic game is pretty bold. Plus there's an exclusive Christmas version on the Saturn so obviously that is a must for festive gaming.

But tbh getting a Mega Drive or GameCube again is a higher priority for me. I own all of the Sonic Mega Drive games as I bought them when I was a teen in the 2010s, but my holy grail item is to get the Sega CD and 32x expansions for it and to play Sonic CD and Knuckles Chaotix-one of the best and one of the strangest Sonic games, respectively-on the original hardware. That's no small feat as both peripherals and both games are reasonably rare.
Also: bring back the old Traveller’s Tales logo![/spoiler]

Yessssssss classic Traveller's Tales logo was iconic. I think I own one or two Sonic games for Mega Drive but I'm just not much of a fan! But the console is honestly wonderful, I think it has a really nice, classic kind of form factor - it feels a bit edgy in its all black look with the vents on the side, kind of like a 90's vision of 'the future'. Really dig it.

I've been picking up more older games than newer ones for a few years now. Not many stores here that still sell them unfortunately

Yeah secondhand and retro game shops are sort of dying, and I can see why too - not much money in anybody's pockets right now and the prices for the games which you do want are just increasing exponentially, especially when a franchise revival or spiritual succesor etc. comes out to bolster the demand for it.

Yeah I’ve slowly transitioned into a retro gamer as time has gone on. Obviously I still like the odd modern title here and there but the fact for example in 2025 I spent the entire year playing games with release dates ranging from 1987 to 1999 says it all.

Lmao yeah I was thinking earlier about my 'GOTY' list for 2025, and I've not even played 5 games which actually came out in 2025 to fill it out.

[Dirty Duck]

Yeah I’ve slowly transitioned into a retro gamer as time has gone on. Obviously I still like the odd modern title here and there but the fact for example in 2025 I spent the entire year playing games with release dates ranging from 1987 to 1999 says it all.

Wow you must have played so many retro franchises in 2025!

You:

[Null]

By the way according to our lord and arbiter of retro game playing Dirty Duck, my post should be disqualified or walked back from this thread on the basis I played the Final Fantasy remasters and not the original titles on the original platforms. I apologise for the confusion and any upset caused and will try and keep my definitions narrower in future to avoid any potential kinship that may accidentally arise from enjoying remasters of old titles. Thank you.