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Stuff I Regret I Missed Out On

by ahoodedfigure

This is more about stuff that can't be played on the current line of consoles and computers.  I realize there are ways, many ways, to play old games, but I'm talking the straight and narrow here.

Showing 1-10 of 19 items

Pitfall II: Lost Caverns

1. Pitfall II: Lost Caverns

One of the first games with save points, nice branching caverns, different styles of obstacles in addition to just different things to jump over. Really catchy, dynamic soundtrack. Man, bummer.

Slot Racers

2. Slot Racers

I remember Dad gave me a choice between this and Night Driver. I picked Night Driver because, get this: I wanted to be an adult, and the only way I could do that was to turn my back on more fanciful things and pick the boring one. Actually, from what I've seen, Night Driver was pretty advanced and moody for its sparseness. Slot Racers was kinda weak when I got down to it, although to be honest I still would have probably had more fun playing Slot Racers.

Shadow of the Colossus

3. Shadow of the Colossus

While there are tons of games out there that I can't quite play anymore, somehow this game keeps popping up in my head when I think of stuff I'd wished I'd played. Guess that says something.

Might and Magic: World of Xeen

4. Might and Magic: World of Xeen

I actually got a chance to play this puppy, but I was having near visions of the screenshots from this thing, I wanted to play it so much. It's aged a bit, but I consider it to be one of my better RPG experiences even after so many games have surpassed it in other ways. It may not be for everyone, but in my mind the free-roaming style, strange humor, and cliche-bending world is really hard to beat.

Snafu

5. Snafu

For a Light Cycle connoisseur like myself, this would have been a nice surrogate. The Sears catalog had this in there, which I could tell was taken directly from a concept drawing, but it still looked interesting. There are now better Light Cycle games out there I think, including online competitive ones, but I still regretted not getting this when I had the chance.

Caverns of Mars

6. Caverns of Mars

I'm trying to keep it within games that I regret not getting NOW, then. There are some games out there that I know now are bad that I don't mind missing in hindsight, but I think I really would have dug this one.

Vanguard

7. Vanguard

Weird cover. I mean the 2600 version of this, where you actually had a secret way of getting much more points with a certain type of "enemy", that I read about in an ad for the game in one of the video game magazines I liked to read. The Rainbow Serpent solution was a really clever idea that sort of informed what game design I've managed to do since then (nothing you'd know about, although hopefully I can delete this parenthetical statement before too long).

Herzog Zwei

8. Herzog Zwei

Saw it in the catalog, judged it. Shouldn't have. I had no idea what I was missing. Now there are probably better games like this out there (funnily enough, Brutal Legend sort of follows the tradition of RTS with strong central avatar you control directly), but still, I think I would have had a lot of fun with this one.

Adventure

9. Adventure

I was actually a bit of a pre- D n D kid, mainly through the board game Dark Tower. I'm not sure what I would have made of this game, but I guess my imagination loved making up new roles for the things I saw onscreen anyway, so the skies could have been the limit. Yeah, but I totally would have called the dragons Big Birds or giant ducks, though, so who knows?

Valkyrie Profile

10. Valkyrie Profile

No spiky-haired kids here. Assemble the honored dead for the final battle... man, the regret's building up just writing about it. I hear the PSP's version has interminable load times, so I'm loathe to get a PSP just for that. Still, this game's interesting enough it would be one of the games I got if I ever had a PSP...

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