Are you glad you grew up in the gaming era you did?

[MattAY]

It's a question I wonder myself every now and again.

I grew up with the likes of SNES ie. Mario with Sonic on the side, going onto Crash Bandicoots, Worms, a bit of Goldeneye and Mario Kart. Final Fantasies, MGS following them. I'm very happy I grew up with gaming gems like those. Dont see many of these around anymore.

Nowadays if I was 10 moving onto 27, I'd be playing absolutely nothing but CoD and Minecraft I'm sure. Not as iconic in my opinion. Do you wish you grew up in the time now? More games to choose from, but perhaps fewer gaming greats and more average games? Do you think if you were a kid growing up now, you'd wish you were born earlier growing up with the games I did?

I essentially grew up through the "gaming evolution" cycle. Games starting off in 16-bit to where we are now is basically my childhood! I dont think that much of a drastic change will occur in the gaming world again.

 

[Affen]

Me and my friend circle seemed to hang behind a few console generations and played snes games way into the ps2 era.

Nintendo still seems to deliver the most diverse selection of games and mascots to choose from. Virtual console is also bringing the old games to the new audiences.

 

[De-Ting]

I sometimes wish I was around while video games were taking their first big steps into pop culture. The first games I remember playing were from that time, but I never got to experience things like the Amiga or MSDOS, and by the time I started going to arcades, there was so much garbage out there that I never got to play most of the classics.

And of course, I was just a few years and dollars short of being able to experience the Humongous Junior Sports Network. I always imagined it would have been awesome to play Backyard Sports online and kick the trash out of other kids. *Sigh*

 

[StudioTan]

I'd like to think that if I was 10 now, all the jargon and trash talk in the COD community would have led me to pursue mostly single player titles. I hated bullies as a kid and I find them even more repulsive now. The Souls game's difficulty would have definitely repelled me at that age. I had a lot more patience for story telling games as a young person so I may have been a bigger fan of the Metal Gear series.

I wonder more if I would have as much fun playing older titles if I did not grow up with them. Would I be able to get used to different control schemes for every other game, inverted Y axis on most 3rd person games, old mapped buttons like fire/action on X,SQUARE instead of R1.... Most games today have similar control schemes, or are at least customizable. As a 10 year old who would be only familiar with modern games, I wonder if I would develop a taste for the older titles, or if I would quickly become frustrated and jump to something else.

 

[samsmith614]

Loved SNES. And then Game Cube. Anyone that hasn't had the experience of playing Mario Cart on Game Cube hasn't lived.

 

[WickedLiquid]

Considering how I grew up with Nintendo and PlayStation I'm very happy with the games I grew up with.

We were the first to be introduced to survival horror with Resident Evil and Silent Hill. We were the first to see video games that felt like awesome movies like Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII. We grew up with A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time; two Zelda games that have been hailed as the best of all time. We were there with Mario in Super Mario Bros 3 and grew up with games as they matured and grew up with us.

We were old enough to beat up hookers in San Andreas and young enough to kick shell in Turtles in Time. We are the gaming generation!!!!!!

 

[Master_Craig]

My two brothers and I grew up with old school video games. We got a Nintendo Entertainment System as a joint Christmas present when I was five, with Super Mario Bros. as well as Duckhunt and the original Nintendo Zapper gun (which we still have).

I have vague memories of playing an Atari when I was younger than five and we do have old Atari gear lying around the place.

We were very much Nintendo boys. We had Gameboys, a Super Nintendo, a Gameboy colour, a Nintendo 64, a Gameboy Advance and a Game Cube. All of this was shared between us and were usually joint presents to us all. We had a PC too with games like Duke Nukem 3D, Diablo, Starcraft, Fallout etc. We loved our games.

We eventually got our first "other" game console when I was sixteen, my brother got a PS2 for his birthday. Since then we've mostly been Nintendo, Sony and PC gamers. The Game Cube is still my favourite console yet.

I'm glad to have grown up with games since the beginning, or almost the beginning. We've played some of the most iconic games and we've played so many games that kids and teenagers of today don't even know, or they think they know but they don't.

My girlfriend's little brother has Pokemon: Red version emulated on his iPhone, he says to me, "Craig look what I got, the ORIGINAL Pokemon! Have you played this? No one I know has played it. This is the ORIGINAL."

Here I am thinking "Man, I've got the original legit cartridge at home." but instead, "That's pretty cool man."

I feel really grateful that I got to grow up with games from the beginning. I've seen the technology change from creepy looking 8-bit Mario to insane high definition, super detailed 3D graphics that contain a ridiculous amount of pixels, polygons etc. I'm also super grateful that my parents were nice enough to actually buy my brothers and I games on occasions like birthdays/Christmas.

Kids of today are missing out.

 

[gamerevolution00]

Hmmm, I wish i was born when the virtual games becomes reality. Like Sword art online , log horizon and etc. LOL

 

[Doombell]

It's a question I wonder myself every now and again.

I grew up with the likes of SNES ie. Mario with Sonic on the side, going onto Crash Bandicoots, Worms, a bit of Goldeneye and Mario Kart. Final Fantasies, MGS following them. I'm very happy I grew up with gaming gems like those. Dont see many of these around anymore.

Nowadays if I was 10 moving onto 27, I'd be playing absolutely nothing but CoD and Minecraft I'm sure. Not as iconic in my opinion. Do you wish you grew up in the time now? More games to choose from, but perhaps fewer gaming greats and more average games? Do you think if you were a kid growing up now, you'd wish you were born earlier growing up with the games I did?

I essentially grew up through the "gaming evolution" cycle. Games starting off in 16-bit to where we are now is basically my childhood! I dont think that much of a drastic change will occur in the gaming world again.

I grew up in the same gaming era and I am glad of it. I don´t even wish to be youngster of these days. Don´t get me wrong. Games of this days are stil good but I have to say there is much more average games than earlier.

 

[thenerdds]

I sure am! It was an awesome era... The super mario brothers rock...

 

[Ivory_Soul]

Grew up on the Genesis and SNES. I almost wish I didn't as I can't enjoy games as much these days. The last 6-7 years, games have gotten boring and they hardly keep my interest anymore. 24 years of gaming and I've played EVERYTHING, and I mean E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-N-G. Every genre imaginable, every major game series. Once you experience the best of the best in ANY medium, how do you top it? I find very few games engaging these days.

 

[thenerdds]

I will never forget the original Crash Bandicoots though.. Good times..

 

[ryhaz]

I grew up with the gamecube/gameboy playstation 1 and im really glad that i got to experience them to their fullest potential

 

[gamerever07]

It's a question I wonder myself every now and again.

I grew up with the likes of SNES ie. Mario with Sonic on the side, going onto Crash Bandicoots, Worms, a bit of Goldeneye and Mario Kart. Final Fantasies, MGS following them. I'm very happy I grew up with gaming gems like those. Dont see many of these around anymore.

Nowadays if I was 10 moving onto 27, I'd be playing absolutely nothing but CoD and Minecraft I'm sure. Not as iconic in my opinion. Do you wish you grew up in the time now? More games to choose from, but perhaps fewer gaming greats and more average games? Do you think if you were a kid growing up now, you'd wish you were born earlier growing up with the games I did?

I essentially grew up through the "gaming evolution" cycle. Games starting off in 16-bit to where we are now is basically my childhood! I dont think that much of a drastic change will occur in the gaming world again.

I grew up with every game, Just because my father is much more addicted to games.

 

[gamerever07]

I sure am! It was an awesome era... The super mario brothers rock...

It rocks so hard, even The Rock became a pebble. Just kidding

 

[Jonathan_Leack]

Well, there's no knowing what games will be like in 10, 20, or even 100 years. But I definitely am happy I live in this era of science where we better understand the universe.

 

[Optimus-Crime]

My first console was a hand me down Atari 2600 when I was aware enough to turn on a TV and use the controller... I mean it was already in the house, I just had to develop the skills around it to use the damn thing. But once I did, it was all mine.

Then Nintendo. I was there for early NES til the end, and it made a fanboy out of me.
I followed the Big N to the SNES, staying loyal all the way through N64. At this point a drive to do other things, like enjoy a social life, began to tear at my lifetime passion of gaming, which still to this day fucks with me a bit. It's been such a huge part of my upbringing, after all. Anyway, I go to the GameCube, my girl buys me an original Dreamcast (my first console not made by Nintendo since the Atari) and I believe she bought me an original X-Box as well. Thanks, Sarah!

damn she spent money on me like crazy...

Well now I'm just like any other normal person, not brand specific, part of the PC master race but not really, because as great as my new pc is, I don't use it for games because I'm a fucking adult -- that's what my ps4 pro is for. Traded in my xbox one because it kept going offline. And I don't really play many games, it seems i just collect them.

But dammit, yes, I'm so happy I got to come up in gaming when I did. Today's games are mostly the same, and the ones that are led by one mega AAA title that eventually gets ripped off, spawning clones after clones with minor variations.
We got online, but in the process lost originality.

 

[oblivion437]

Wish I'd grown up earlier, that way I'd have a more grounded and objective perspective on gaming's history. I expect I'd have a lot less patience for games with narrative pretensions but I'd also be able to put them into an easy off-the-cuff reference for others to understand.

 

[Josh_Orona]

I'm pretty happy about the era in which I grew up playing video games. The Years of the Snes and Genesis, it provided a solid understanding for me as far quality gameplay over just a game looking good but having no substance as I moved forward into the age of the PS1, N64 and Dreamcast.

 

[Midgard]

Hell yeah. Lot of platformer, JRPG and not full of FPS game. No offense, but FPS nowadays like similar in many ways.