As a particularly devoted fan of Chrono Trigger and Earthbound, I make it a habit to replay each once a year, to remind me of why I love to play videogames. Just like a good book, I've learned what to expect from each game, the twists of their plots, the nuances of their fighting systems, the witty dialog of the NPC's. They may be over 10 years old, but I find that I'm still enthralled with them each time I make my yearly run through.
Last year I was unable to make my yearly play throughs due to a massive move from my old house to my current appt. In that time I got a Wii, a PS3, and an Intel Mac that allows me to play PC games. When I finally had the time to set up my SNES, I figured that this would be the last year I would be doing this, as I have quite the backlog of Wii/PS3/PS2 games.
Yet, I can't stop playing. From when I started up CT to where I'm at now (just reached the end of time), I haven't been able to think of any other game in my collection.
I could be playing:
-CoD4 (I've had the game since it launched and I'm only at lvl 34)
-Orange Box (Portal is done, but I got to get through the Half Lifes)
-Brawl (working on getting my Peach and Lucas skills up to par)
-Mario Galaxy (I'm at 110 Stars with Mario, need 10 more then replay with Luigi)
-No More Heros (i'm ranked 10th, about to start on my rank 9 match)
-Burnout Paradise (got it for my birthday, just barely scratched the surface)
-Assassin's Creed (it's fun, not as bad as everybody says it is, it's simple fun)
-Super Metroid on Virtual Console (this IS as good as everybody says, and more)
-Rock Band (this gets more play than the others, but not nearly enough)
This doesn't include my PS2 games (Persona 3, Ar Tonelico, Odin Sphere) DS games and my dubiously acquired PSP games. In the next few weeks, I'll be adding Baroque, Arcana Heart, and Persona 3: FES.
So I wonder to myself what is it about CT that makes me ignore all these other amazing games. I feel bad that I'm ignoring these other games (even more considering how much was spent on purchasing them), but once I started CT again I've had that gaming tunnel vision. Until I get through the best ending of CT, I can't focus on any other game.
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Pedro Cortes's blog
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Play what you love. It's the best feeling in the world. :)
btw, it's the NOW gen!
Get it right or pay the price!
But, I've been doing the same thing really. There's a lot of games I have yet to play, and I'm trying to pay my respects to the games I couldn't play when I was a kid.
@Gen Eric Gui:
I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree. You're honestly the only person I know on the internet and real life that didn't like Chrono Trigger. I thought Chrono Trigger was one of those games that fanboy or not, EVERYONE at least LIKED that game. Did you play Chrono Cross first? I wonder if that made a difference.
See, that's the point. While I do make myself go back, if they didn't hold me like it did originally, I would've stopped playing it again. Instead, it still is holding my attention, despite the leaps and bounds games have made in the meanwhile.
@Rokvillian
I just said next gen to differentiate in my mind when I speak of my gaming. Force of habit really.
@Gen Eric Gui
Some of it is having to be there, alot of it is concepts that were very interesting that have yet to be implemented in a similar way in a game since. Also probably b/c Square didn't kill it with shoddy sequels and/or spin-offs, though I wouldn't mind one right about....NOW!
Oh ya, I forgot to mention playing Persona 1 on my PSP. MORE TIME DRAINING!!!!!
I stand by my statement. I found Trigger to be horribly shallow, full of holes, and poorly designed. Cross was pretty good though. It had a lot fewer plot holes and the handful of important characters got a lot more development than Trigger's lackluster cast. The combat system also didn't contradict itself.
I will admit, back when it first came out and it was the only thing to play other than FF4 and 6, I enjoyed it. Of course, I was like 8 years old then and liked just about everything I played. But now that I've experienced a lot more, both from that era and beyond, I can look back without my retrogoggles and see that it really isn't all that impressive at all. It LOOKS great and has some of the best visuals on the SNES period(In fact, I'll argue until I die that it's superior to most PS2 games), but as a game? Terrible.
As long as you enjoy it then. For me, I just don't want to spoil anything that I had when I first played it. Sometimes, when you go back, you can nitpick your favorite games to death. I'm not trying to knock what you're doing, because if you enjoy it, do it man, I just wish I had that kind of resilience to my own pessimistic side.