How to Be Good at Retro Video Games (Yes You Can) - Retro Bird
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 พ.ค. 2023
- In this video, I give tips that can make anybody better at retro video games.
How to Be Good at Retro Video Games (Yes You Can) - Retro Bird / How to Improve Your Retro Gaming Skills
If you'd like to gain access to my retro blog or just support the channel - you can find my Patreon here: / retrobird
New videos uploaded every Friday! Be sure to ring the bell if you subscribe!
Follow me on Twitter here: / retrobirdgaming
or on Instagram here: / retrobirdmatt
#retrobird - เกม
Games played: Contra (0:00), Ristar (0:11), Revenge of Shinobi (0:30), Castlevania (0:45), Battletoads (1:00), Altered Beast (4:15), Dark Souls (5:10), Metroid Prime (7:43)
I really enjoy your videos. I watched some older videos and I have to say the idea to no longer speak directly on camera some how works brilliant with you. No diss on your older videos. But I really look forward to your video each week. Thanks for the entertainment.
Thanks for another great video! Does your Nomad have an updated display in it? And if so, what's the average battery life you get from the battery pack (if you're still using it). I'm trying to see what others are getting from six AAs. It's definitely much better than the 2-3 hours I got on the original.
All are masterpieces
Basically be a Sega fan and you'll be a god of retro
This month I finally beat Batman on NES. It's the only NES game I've beaten. I'm so proud but I don't have anyone to share my excitement, so I'm sharing with you all here
Good job!! If you can beat that one, you’ll be able to beat many other NES games.
Haha, congrats!
Batman is no cakewalk, especially that final boss. If you can handle that game, then I think games like the Super Mario Bros. trilogy or Contra and Super C should be more than manageable!
Congrats! Finished Batman for NES not long ago myself. Was proud of it too 😊
@@3dmarthSuper Contas final level is no joke. Its always an achievement the few times I beat it playing solo
One of those I never managed to beat back in the days. Great job, it's not an easy one.
The best advice I would give is something retrobird taught me in a previous video. That is to set a goal of just getting a bit further then last play through. Sure its goning to take a couple of times, but having this mindset made me feel like a winner everytime I finally got passed a difficult area or a boss even if I died right after it. Thanks retrobird for this valuable lesson!
Glad you remembered that! I think it's a fun way of playing a game too.
It really helps to look at getting farther each time similiar to getting a high score. Trying to beat your old personal record. This keeps it alot more approachable then being focused on completing the game on each attempt. Also save state practicing a full game, beginning to end, has really opened up my ability to beat these games alot quicker. I will basically save state any sections that seems problematic and beat them a few times in a row to make sure I have them down. Once I get back to the game I can usually complete it in 1-3 full attempts (exhausting all lives and continues).
Im using save states on a game like Super Star Wars but games that are actually beatable, I make sure to play them and "get gud" its so much better of an experience to keep pushing a little bit more each time
@@prolifik302 Good to see. They are a great practice tool. Super Star Wars has an early cave where you can get 99 lives with a little farming. Makes the game very beatable, but could be considered cheap.
@@RetroBirdGamingsometimes its the only way 😂
I'm in my 40s and came back full circle to 2D gaming some 10 years ago. Don't find pleasure in playing 99% of AAA games these days. So going back and conquering or even discovering some amazing 2D games from the past has given me so much joy. My most recent accomplishment was beating the first Contra on the Contra Collection without using continues.
What I did was I would no-miss each level, then use a save state and go to the next. I did that till I "mastered" each and every level. Then I went back and did the whole game in one run. So, as Retro Bird mentioned, using save states can be a good way to practice. BTW, OP, love the thought provoking topics you come up with. 🤘
Save states and level select? That's basically like using a Game Genie. 😎
@toolbaggers You may have misread what I posted. whether I play shoot Em ups or run n gun games. I only use save states to practice individual levels or parts of the game that are troubling. then I always go back and do one full run of the games. That's the one negative. I will say about the way games used to be made. you had to always start over just to get to the level 6 or 7 or whatever part of the game you were having trouble with.
You may not be familiar with modern arcade super players, but that's the way high level players frequently play nowadays. They use save states to practice. Then when they're ready, they always go for the full run and completion to truly get the one credit clear. Which is what I do when I play bullet hell games, run and gun games, and other arcade style games
You have to memorize alot
Strengthening your muscle memory makes you feel like a badass though.
That can help a lot but I feel it's generally not necessary and is kind of boring. Learn the basic patterns and play by feel. Reacting to uncertainty is a lot of the fun.
It's not a lot to memorize though. Once you adjust your brain for the perception of these games being way smaller than Modern games, it becomes that much easier.
thats bascially it. u had to memorize every pixel because they tightened up the difficulty in a lot of retro games to extend game play.
The input latency section of this video is vital.
Shit, I've personally had to explain to at least three people why playing Super Mario 64 felt so much worse than they remembered. (They were plugging the composite input directly into their laggy, old-gen LCD tvs)
I wish there was general wide-spread awareness about input latency. So EVERYBODY could give retro games a fair shot...
Rising up, back on the street
Did my time, took my chances
Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet
Just a man and his will to survive
My advice is to never let the game get under your skin too much. The more you continue to lose to your frustration, the more your ability to play properly goes down. Trust me as a guy that has blown a bit of a fuse at times with some really tough retro games it can really ruin your flow big time. Maybe pause and take a short break if you can't beat a certain level to ease your mind. Remember gaming is meant to be fun not stressful
I have been trying to curb my anger in general and find that its hardest for me with video games and driving.. i have improved my willpower to not let my emotions control with driving dramatically and now im trying to curb my video game anger. it has gotten better but i still have room for improvement lol its tough to reset your brain and your whole mindset but it has been rewarding too when i realize what used to piss me off but now doesnt phase me. I feel stronger in a way its weird.
the right mindset is the key to succeeding at anything. some people don’t have the patience to try to figure it out which is probably “half the battle”
True
Retro gaming advice. The 4 P's. Patience, practice, patterns =perfection. 😊
As an 80's kid, NES taught me to A. never give up, things are doable, & B. some games are simply borderline broken/too challening for a good time. Super C is a game I've never defeated single player & I keep going back - nice balance of NES hard & enjoyable play.
I think it helps not to give up too easily, but don't keep trying for too long, as usually you will get frustrated and impatient at that point. Play something else in between if that happens.
Repetition=Progression with retro
That & you actually have to have skill & knowledge. Not everyone picks it up & is good at them even with repetition.
I feel like an emphasis on mastery over completion is important for your mindset in retro gaming. A lot of people usually talk about games in completion terms since that's how most games are structured now, but that's not exactly the point for retro games. It's a lot more about the mastery side.
I recently got into Mike Tyson's Punch Out, and the game can be brutally difficult at time, but the real fun is getting good at the game. What's the fun of completing the game if you're not any better. Being able to absolutely whoop fighters who gave you trouble before is one of the most satisfying things ever. I remember beating Soda Popinski without even sweating where as before he'd whoop me real good. Punch Out kind of carries the spirit of retro games, since Little Mac is actually a wimpy fighter, but its his fighting spirit and determination to get better than carry him to victory. You never get any upgrades and little mac never gets stronger, so it's up to you to learn how to take down each of these towering fighters that can knock you down in a couple of hits, sometimes even just one. That's kind of the fun of retro games, mastery.
I recently beat Zelda II for the first time on original hardware no save states or rewind (NEVER AGAIN) and really it is basically what you said keep trying over and over again, memorize enemy patterns, defend and I'll add something here, a good walkthrough is a lifesaver!
I also beat Zelda 2 in 2017 when I had a original NES without save states and it took quite a while but it was fun
I beat Zelda 2 on that new Game & Watch! Far far faaaar from World Record in speedrunning, but that doesn't matter. When you finally beat THAT game, you feel like a true hero!
A few tips for beatlng Zelda 2 easier:
1) when fighting against the final boss - Shadow Link - just go to the left corner to make it very easy to beat him.
2) when fighting against that "ghost" as a castle boss, go to the right (or left?) corner and use that reflect. So easy boss when you do that.
3) when walking on that lava (overworld map) to the "great palace" (the final palace), you can try to walk into that "encounter" that will replace that harder challenge.
4) there's some good encouters in the overworld where you can earn experience points pretty easy to level up on attack, magic and heart. That will take you a long time, but it might be worth it.
5) at some of the 6 normal palaces, you can hit that guard at the entrance so an enemy appear, or a magic portion. If an enemy appear, just leave the palace (walk left!) and re-enter, and hit that guard again and hope for a magic portion. This is a great thing if you have that "Life" as a spell/magic. Then use "Life" to fill up your hearts/health, and redo this thing as much as you need to get full magic and full health.
And in some palaces where heads are flying in sinus curves, you can attack them and for every 6th (or so) head you beat, that head will drop a magic portion. Repeat this to fill up your magic bar so you can use "Life" to fill up your health bar. This is a great thing to do if you're not "that good Zelda 2 player".
6) before entering the first palace, walk down to the place where you can get a heart container. It's from that palace and just down at the desert and then you will walk between the rocks and the water.
There's probably so many more tips for a beginner to beat Zelda 2 more easy.
@@cjeelde congratulations! Zelda 2 makes you work for it.
I think the main rule for Zelda 2 is patience and defensive play. I feel most people who play it too offensively or try to run past enemies because of impatience. Each makes you take too much damage. Memorization isn’t needed much except for the hidden items and secrets.
Some challenging games like Super Mario Bros. 3 I struggled with for months and months before mastering them as a little kid. Then there are games like Battletoads that were just plain impossible no matter how much time I put into them. I’m just glad Game Genie existed so I was able to see all the content those games actually had.
Yeah Mario 3 is hard if you are playing it for the 1st time.
Tg for game genie and the "modern" save states to appreciate the content the developers intended 🤗
One thing id like to add is dont be afraid to be creative (save states really help this) and dont feel ashamed or discouraged if you are dying a lot. So much of retro gaming is your nerves and as long as you can control them and you have the practice you can get through most anything. Another tip I have is sleeping and coming back to a game will level you up if you are getting proper sleep. I got all gold berries in Celeste basically by playing right before bed or taking a nap and then going back to the game lol. I say this as a speedrunner with previous world records on multiple games who played retro games one handed for a year+ . You wont believe how much ive died trying something out or just feeling out my comfort zones! I see so many new and old players alike get upset or embarrassed when dying. Dont be embarrassed ever I promise you we are all learning at every level
To piggyback off what you were saying about not jumping into the fray, I find that that keeping enemies to one side of you is almost always the best idea.
That Ninja Gaiden, putting knives in drinks since 1988.
Comment for the algo. Most engaging channel about retro gaming ever!
Playing Staying Alive on loop seems to keep me on track to winning games. lol
04:37 it's exactly these kind of jokes that make me laugh every time! They are so well delivered and harmless, here to enjoy for everybody!
I like how you threw in the life tip toward the end about getting to bed at a reasonable time. Those of us that suck at life appreciate the pro tip.
I remember all the way back to my elementary school years that I starting playing Pac-Man World 2 on PS2 and initially struggled with some of the harder levels in the game. For the longest time (a few months), I was stuck on Clyde in the Caldera because I wasn't that good with rev rolling back then and kept falling into the lava when trying to butt bounce Clyde. I ended up running out of lives and saw the Game Over screen too many times, so I turned to the strategy guide and learned I could grind for extra lives by going back to Butane Pain to get to the secret area accessed by going down the hollow tree trunk and bouncing off a series of Angled B-Doings (trampolines) to reach the tree platform with a green button switch with extra lives. I rinsed and repeated as well as replaying Blade Mountain (great music in this level) to get even more lives. One day, I beat Clyde in the Caldera and made it to the ocean levels starting with Scuba Duba. I was so excited for that breakthrough. Since then, I kept replaying the game to hone in my skills and I can confidently get through the game (including that Clyde boss) without a single Game Over. Sorry for the long comment, but that's my story for the video.
One thing I love about retro games is that, in a way, they are like puzzles. Enemies have the same spawn points and behaviors almost every time, so figuring out how to exploit that and best attack them is just very engaging to me. And of course, you're building the necessary skills while doing so along the way. Also, another huge reason for my love of retro gaming is that I actually have time to play them! I'm in my 40s now and just don't have hundreds of free hours to devote to them. I can pick up an NES game and, if I'm good enough, can often be done with it between 30 minutes to an hour and afterwards be free to get back to adulting.
I love When the Nomad busts out!
For me, it's all about mindset. When going through Star Tropics or Zelda II, I found myself setting little mini-goals within the dungeons themselves. Just getting to a new room or making it to the halfway mark without taking damage was a big win, even if we died or ran out of lives in the very next room. Just going for doing a little better with every attempt kept me coming back to it!
READ THE INSTRUCTIONS! There is always useful info to learn. For example, in the controls section, you can learn moves that you need to use to progress through certain areas, that the game doesn't cover.
And when all else fails, bring a player 2! Nothing makes it suck less like a buddy!
One of the things I would recommend to get better at retro games that you can do that's free AND that you can do when you have a spare moment away from them is to read the manuals. Old games just didn't have the cartridge space for tutorial levels or instructions or (in the NES era) the game's story. For some games you're missing a big part of the experience if you skip the manual and you might also be missing an explanation of how the controls or systems work.
Also, don't feel any shame for reading up on GameFAQs either. When these games were new, everybody in my neighborhood played them and we all gave each other tips and tricks for getting through. GameFAQs is basically just that but for the internet era. (Also, you probably don't have like 2 hours to devote to memorizing Life Force every day after elementary school like some of us did.)
Man retro gaming is so ridiculously hard, but that’s the timeless charm. I remember playing ghosts and goblins as a kid and geting soft locked at the end because I accidentally picked up the knife and couldn’t get the shield back.
When I first tried Demon's Souls back in 2009, my first impression was how RETRO the game was. It reminded me of 5th and early 6th gen action / adventure games. It kills me how Souls fans act like those games are so innovative, (and admittedly they are in a few small ways, like level design) when really they're more about turning back the clock to where gaming was around 20+ years ago.
love your humor
there's no video yet where I haven't chuckled
This video made me think of Leslie Nielsen's "Bad Golf Made Easier":
- "We don't play golf to feel bad, we play bad golf but feel good!!"
So...
"We don't play games to feel bad, we play bad games but feel good!!"
Anyways a great video as always!!
Good video! I agree retro games can be quite the challenge compared to many more modern games. I grew up in the NES era and couldn't beat any game to save my life. You really have to just practice and be patient as a lot of classic games require a bit of trial and error to discover the best strategies.
If you want to ease into retro gaming, I would recommend starting with games that tip towards the easier scale of things to get your feet wet without diving in completely. Starting with Contra or Castlevania on the NES is steep mountain to climb. Maybe start with a game that is fun and not brutally difficult (yet still fun) like Castle of Illusion, Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers, Kirby's Adventure, Super Mario World, heck, even Super Castlevania IV is not as taxing as its older brother!
One last one thing if you're emulating is to check to see if there is a quality of life rom hack for the retro game you want to play. There are tons of rom patches available now for difficult 8 and 16 bit games that allow players of all skills to enjoy without tearing their hair out! Heck, there are also patches for many games that didn't have a save feature that now allow you to save the game natively (without being forced to use save states).
I've taken to playing a lot of old games on my retron 5 where I can use save states. It makes it possible to get through games I've never beat.
I have a retron 5. I use save states always when I play games from there.
Great tips, and the commentary is entertaining as always! One thing I struggle with, especially with more obscure games like Resident Evil for Game Boy, is figuring out where I'm supposed to go or what I'm supposed to do. Thank God for strategy guides.
Save states are incredibly useful and a game changer. When you have to start over from scratch it makes it easier for me to forget strategy.
I care that you beat the Turbo Tunnel. Good on you.
Thank you!
Babe wake up, new retro bird video just dropped. (Life just got a bit better).
Got to remember in the early days games were made to lose. They wanted another quarter to be added into there video game. Now retro games don't use quarters, but they often only had two controllers, so the faster you died the faster you can share with a family member or friend. They were hard, so you could share game play with those around you. Games were shorter due to memory constraint, so the levels had to jump difficulty wise like so...level 1 was level one. Level 2 jumped to difficulty level 3. And level 3 jumped to difficulty level 5. Level 4 jumped to difficulty level 7 and so forth. So just remember older games were made to lose, so play how it was made for...with a friend and lose together! And if you can beat a game, more power to ya!
Conversely, I find a lot of retro RPGs to be easier than RPGs today, like grinding like you would in a modern RPG in FF6 or Chrono Trigger makes those games way easier. I think the game that did it for me was Sailor Moon: Another Story. Once you hit a certain level in each area you 1 hit kill enemies.
PS I'm proud of you for beating Turbo Tunnel
Thanks for being proud!
Nice timing of this video. Today I finally beat Altered Beast (I just got my Genesis mini a couple of days ago), as well as Dodonpachi Resurrection (3cc, should have been 2cc, but I still need practice on the last stage).
One piece of advice I barrow from Shmup Junkie is experiment. With Altered Beast, I tried a bunch of crazy experiments, from playing all the way to right to trying to get jump kicks to work. With Dodonpachi, it was a matter of seeing just how close bullets can get before hitting, seeing just how close I could get to enemy ships and still dodge their bullets (works better if I know what bullet pattern is coming) and sticking with practicing my bullet herding. I know if I practice the last level of Dodonpachi Resurrection, I can get 1cc/all-clear. And I'm hardly stellar at shooters. Thunder Force III is giving me issues.
What I'm getting at is with older games, you're going to fail... a lot. Just try to learn something from your failure. This is the path to progress.
More of a general comment on the channel but I love how down to earth you are and chilled out about how different people consume Retro 👍
Thank you!
Thanks for the videos, Bird. Please, keep making them!
I can't give younger-self enough credit for how good I was at video games from the 80s and early 90s.
Second favorite channel here easily
8:30 You know I think I might have that one person. I need to learn to just not answer when he calls😂
Just swung by your channel to see if you were still on break. Appears so.
Well keep on enjoying your time off, an can't wait to see your next video.
Thank you! I'll be back to working on videos again pretty soon here! This coming Friday will have a new video :)
I wold like to hear your opinion on the PSP.
It's almost 20 years old and I know it is weird but that console generation counts as Retro too.
I like looking up a speedrun of the game to help.
Been playing a lot of fighting games and beat em ups lately
and it helps so much when you find out what works good
on certain characters that seem cheap as hell.
1:06 Damn right! Keep that spread gun! Best in the game! Contra Spread Gun for life!!
Your tips for defensive play actually has worked wonders in modern games too for me, especially in multiplayer games.
Oh, for multiplayer games absolutely! Especially anything online.
Born an raised on old games since the Atari. The biggest challenge of old games is you need to sit down and practice the controller scheme, to get good. Then attempt to get somewhere in the game. Up is down, down is up and up is jump kind of thing. The 8 and 16 bit controls were the wild wild west of stupid layouts.
Excellent documentary. It covers everything I could ever think of.
When I was a kid I had all the time in the world to learn the patterns. Even so, some games like Castlevania, Ninja Garden, and Double Dragon took years to beat.
I was never great at any retro games
Game Genie was the game changer for me 😅 friends and I played for hours!
I beat a few NES games back in the day but it was always through trial and error, many fails, learning from those fails, learning patterns and knowing hit detection for you and the enemies. Some games I had to come back to years later to beat (when I was a bit older older, got the NES when I was 8) but not giving up in those instances were key to beating the games. It's easy to dismiss a game these days and say it's too hard but back then it was all you had so just had to keep trying and you got better naturally 🤷♂️
I care that you beat the Turbo Tunnel. I had to sit there with my Nintendo Power map to get through as a kid
Mindset is the most important thing. If you're not interested in a challenge, pushing yourself through hardship, failing over and over again, then retro games aren't for you. The enjoyment from retro games comes from the fact that they demand that you actually get better at them. Progressing through the game only comes from your improvement at playing the game, which just feels very rewarding.
That is why raspberry with Save states and rewind features are a good sent. ALL the Fun: none of the stress. Everything on the same device.
I remember having a hard time locating a SEGA Nomad in 1995 (I was a Game Gear owner; with the TV tuner), nevermind today. Guess it'd be in some catalog or something, and the internet was probably a great help for you to get that, but this video is the first time I've seen one in years, and it's only been in print or something. Congratulations on attaining this!
I rewatched the vid again. I'm really glad you teach on what set ups to use with 0 lag.
Retro video games to me is exactly like me being in school when I was a kid. I was never taught properly. I was in special education for all my elementry years. In high school I had tutors. As a kid I was really bad in school. Used to barely pass by with like 60%. Then as an adult when I went to College. This is where they taught me proper techniques, how to study, what to look for etc. I was a whole lot better in school or taking courses later on my adult life. You just have to be taught properly & apply those skills.
Finally got around to playing Donkey Kong Country 2 after never playing it as a kid. It's extremely unforgiving, but it does add a lot to the excitement when you do finally beat a tough level.
You can save in that. Just redo levels to get Banana tokens I think. I forget which ones. Do that then when you beat a level go and save.
"It can be hard to enjoy something if you're terrible at it... like life." Deep.
YES!!! I totally attacked that dude at the first bonfire in Dark Souls thinking it would be inconsequential. Ot must have taken me a dozen times to beatngim after respawning the first time and realizing he was going to attack me forever.
This was some great motivational advice, I still suck at some old games but I have the right mindset nowadays which is to just have fun, and yes I do use save-states and "abuse" them to practice something a trillion times until I get it right and that's fun for me and gives me a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment, I guess in my brain is like I made it for real like I was a pro, I still had to put the effort and time to get there so I think is fair, but of course the more "purist" types would never think so. But at the end of day games are all about having fun your way and enjoying the ride, not for bragging or "superiority" that you're a pro, at least that's how I see 'em, this is the same reason I don't like competitive multiplayer games and the social aspect that comes with it of bragging about it.
That's awesome if you save states. I do to. Saying this is = to someone who plays a game in 1 sitting though is just false. No you aren't putting in the same time into it. The challenge is gone when you use save states. I can beat 98% of games using save states. Yeah some you won't beat but it's rare. I'll give you an example.
Sonic 1: Not everyone is going to beat that in 1 sitting let alone getting all the chaos emeralds when you play it for the 1st time or even if you play it a lot. With save states just as long as your avg at gaming, anyone can beat that getting all the chaos emeralds. Why? Because you can redo those bonus stages as many times as you want. Where as if you don't use save states, you have a very limited amount if tries to do them, or you might not even access them at all if you don't get 50 rings in a level or forget to jump into the ring. Not the same at all.
@@tonyp9313 Yeah I mean of course is not the same, what I meant is that I'm still putting some effort into it, some people treat save states like it's the same as activating a sort of auto-play function, I had many arguments throughout the years with people who believed this, that save-state "scumming" is the worst form of cheating, that it removes all challenge and that you might as well not play or let an AI play the game for you, which I of course don't agree, yes it makes the games easier but you still have to play it! and put the effort to get good, I look at it this way, it's like playing sports, you repeat something many many times until you become proficient at it, I repeat the parts that are hard for me until I get them perfectly right and that really feels good to me, is something that I never could've done when I was a kid and fulfills that perfectionist itch that I always had, I also try to 100% everything in the most perfect way possible and is very satisfying to me, that's how I play these games.
Also I can't play games in 1 sitting anymore, I used to play like that all the time for years when I was younger but I'm an adult now and I have limited time to play and my health to worry about (sitting too many hours is unhealthy and can get painful) I was pretty reckless and spent too many hours sitting down without getting up, sometimes even more than 12-16hrs playing games and I can't do that anymore, heck I can't even play 1 hour anymore without getting up and at least going for a walk or stretching my legs, my body and my mind just won't let me. We're getting old :P hehe.
@@AJ-po6up So I will answer your 2 parts here. Yes you are still putting in the effort when you save state. However I would say you are putting in like 2% effort. Where as if you beat them in 1 sitting that's 100% effort & if games have a password system or a memory card early PS1 has then about 60%. Using a guide also 60% effort.
Using save states is = to someone using a calculator in a arithmetic test (addition, subtraction, multiplication & division) compared to a student who has to do it without any aid at all. Lets say you are all allowed to use a calculator. Then you do. You'll be passing your exam with little to no effort every single time. Also you would be a lot faster finishing your exam. Now for the person who doesn't use as a calculator, there's consequences. He or she might not even finish the exam, take a lot more time to finish said exam & he or she might fail the exam because they had to do so much preparation & it's a lot more pressure. While the person with the Calculator doesn't have to worry about anything like that. All he or she has to worry is to know how to use a Calculator properly.
The 2nd point you made of we are all adults & don't have time to play games all day long. That I 100% agree with you.
Agreed- it's about having fun, so it's fine if you have to use states, cheats, or mods. The bragging rights aren't there if you do that, but does anyone actually care?
Personally, I find it most satisfying to finish a game without any of these assists if possible, but sometimes a game is just too difficult and time-consuming, and playing with some assists is better than not playing at all, isn't it? And save states still require you to play each section well, just not all at once. If you can beat a game with states, then you're (in theory) skilled enough to beat the game without.
Also, save states can be really helpful for practice, like you said. When I come across an especially difficult section, I'll sometimes practice it over and over on an emulator using states, but then go back and play the whole game in one go on a real cartridge, once I'm ready. It's not "cheating" by any stretch- I just cut out the tedious part of replaying levels 1-5 over and over.
@@3dmarth I don't care if anyone uses save states, Game Genie Codes, Codes in games or even a walkthrough. All I care about is if said individuals think they are on the same skill level as someone who doesn't use them.
Lots of great games featured here-excellent video!
Just dropping by to say that you and your channel are awesome 😁
Thank you!
All those bananas… fellah’s gonna get heartburn!!!!
Succeeding at retro video games is a lot like succeeding at life. Try, try again.
Our old games needed brains & skills to beat em.
Level skips and cheat codes originally started off as a way for testers to access certain parts of the game much faster. Over time they became an marketed feature for many titles :)
Perfect example of a defensive attack are the devils in ghosts and goblins
You make some really good and really funny videos. Thank you for that.
So glad to see you showing love to the new Rachet and Clank! I'm feeling you must have read one of my previous comments! Dude I have a spare copy of the Aleste Collection for the PS4 in case you want to try GG Aleste 3, a Game Gear game made in 2020. It's a sequel to MUSHA... sort'a.
How I got good a old school video games my friends taught me by watching them, but over the years as a retro gamer I like practicing on time trails when it comes to playing racing games, as for plat formers, RPG's and fighting I learn by practice on solo mode by working from easy to hard at least. Games that don't have the difficulty options I have to think strategic on them and that's mostly now either Eldin Ring, BOFTW or Tears of the Kingdom etc.
Always enjoy seeing the Nomad
Awesome sir!
After all these years,finally got through the NES Castlevania trilogy. Feels good to breakthrough those three (especially three).
Wonderful video! As someone who grew up with the PS2 and Xbox360 I had to learn playing retro games. I started about 10 years ago and everytime I beat an old classic it feels like a great acomplishment. Actually I also think that you have to learn enjoying retro games. I think that is the biggest problem for modern gamers trying old games. Too many gamers prioritize graphics over gameplay. You have to learn somehow that graphics don't matter. I have to admit that I am still learning to enjoy Atari 2600 games.
good points for defense!
Love my retro gaming but definitely failing at life 😂 great commentary
I really like your delivery
No state of mind can prepare you to that crazy bike section in battletoads
OMG the "turbo tunnel" from hell... i remember beating NinjaGaiden3, but not the crazy Battletoads 😅
You totally got me with the terrible at life joke twice 🤣🤣
I only use save states on an password screen. Never to help me advance in a game. I am religious about playing games in the way they were intended upon initial development. That's the fun way.
Great video!! That Nomad must have a upgraded screen it looks to clear!!😂😂👍👍
i remember playing snes as a kid and it took a long time to learn new games. however I was able spend a lot of time over weeks or months getting better at the game. also I didn’t get new games very often so i could just focus on one game until i could finish it. these days it’s hard to find enough gaming time get good at games I haven’t played before.
Thanks for talking about input lag, it’s a big deal. Beating Megaman 2 on the PS4 collection was much harder than beating it on original hardware and a CRT.
Save states are what made me enjoy retro games. I grew up with PS1 and N64, I never really played previous generations much aside from a few occasions over at friends' houses, so whenever I'd try going back and play older games, I found them way too difficult, in a frustrating way, and I just couldn't get into them. Discovering save states playing old games on newer systems was such a revelation, it helped relieve a lot of the frustration I felt around those games and really made me enjoy them, and I'd recommend trying it to anyone else who have trouble with retro games. You still have to master sections of the game, but you can circumvent the harshest penalties of going all the way back to the beginning and such. And once you beat a game this way and feel like you nailed it section by section, it's fun to try and play it the normal way and see how far you can get that way now that you're familiar with the full game, and it then feels like a fun challenge, like a gauntlet mode, playing it the standard way.
Actually utilizing special attacks in games that have them is always good, I used to never ever use them as if using them was like wasting them, but they are meant to be used! Not using them is wasting them lol Just find that part in the game where you die every single time and use the special attack there, especially in shooters this can be really helpful.
Heya! Just a quick correction.
Response times and input delays are different things! Many people confuse the two.
Input delay is the time it takes for a button press to register on screen and response time is the time a pixel takes to change color. So how faster the response time, the less blurry the screen.
Many people think the 1ms on their monitor is the input delay, it is not.
Also as a little heads up: almost all monitors lie, barely any hits that 1ms response time, only Oled's hit that magic 1ms or lower.
Oleds also have class leading input delay, so I can highly recommend oled's for retro gaming( you need a converter for interlaced signals tho)
Last gen models tend to be pretty ""cheap"" if you look around
Yeah, the display lag (the more general name for it, as "input delay" is more of a gaming term) is never mentioned on the box, or on store pages. Fortunately, there are websites that collect this info for reference! And it turns out that PC monitors typically do have low lag, though it's more in the 10-15ms range.
The "response time" figure is meaningless: in theory, a 1 or 2ms response should make it less blurry in motion than a 5 or 10ms, but the latter may just be more honest.
Thank you for clarifying this. Perhaps even more than the two being mixed up, it could just be that "response time" could be thought of as literally describing input delay in a way. "The amount of time is takes for the screen to respond to the button you press".
@@RetroBirdGaming Actually, the "response time" is only how long it takes for the pixels' colours to change _after_ the signal is sent to the display. So it might take 20-50ms for the monitor to process and queue up the image, and then another 1-2ms (in an absolute best case!) for the pixels to change.
"Response time" doesn't tend to have a meaningful effect on input delay, but a poor response time does mean that fast motion will look blurry, as the pictures on screen are changing faster than the monitor can properly show them. And as X M alluded to, OLED displays have an actual 1ms response time, so motion looks crisp- more like a CRT.
Hope that makes sense- this is a strange topic full of misleading terms!
Man, sometimes it feels like shmups and run & guns are just too much for me to handle.
This channel is personally responsible for my increased interest in retro gaming (seriously, I've got way more retro games now than I did last year).
That said, I feel a lot of these tips even work with some more modern games. I keep thinking of Halo and playing on Legendary. You have to completely change your play style when on legendary and you can't take too many hits. Even the newest DOOM games have some similarity with boss fights. You have to watch for patterns, strike and get away.
Absolutely! Especially for any of the harder modern games.
Those are some great tips there 😁
Also worth mentioning - input delay also could be caused by wireless controllers non present in regular ones with wires
The end after the end credits on McDonald’s treasure land gave me a fuzzy feeling of my childhood . The only game I have sat down and played through more than once in the past 5 years
I always struggled to understand how to beat Mega Man Legends 2. So last year I took it upon myself to learn the game by playing on a simple difficulty and looking up guides on how the side quests work and other game mechanics as well. Then once I beat it, I played it again on hard and ooo boy it was WAY easier once I knew exactly what to expect! It felt so satisfying to actually beat it on hard in which I never could have before.