Posts : 6441 Points : 6597 Join date : 2013-02-25 Age : 104 Location : East of Mombasa
Subject: Moments In Gaming That Brought You Genuine Joy Mon 8 May 2023 - 11:12
The inspiration from this thread is from here:
Taking your first steps into Breath of the Wild’s Great Plateau and knowing that everything on the horizon is yours to adventure was one of those moments in gaming that I’m sure brought of all us genuine joy.
It's plain to see that I'm a guy who likes to relive their happiest moments, and gaming has provided me with loads of those. I know I'll remember more as time marches on, but I'm more interested in youse sharing your moments in gaming that brought you similar happiness, and genuine joy.
Two of mine that spring to mind:
Sonic Mania:
The Sonic series has never been afraid to call back to its mainline past and that’s very tell-tale in Sonic Mania’s opening two Zones, which are a remixed Green Hill Zone from Sonic 1 and a remixed Chemical Plant Zone from Sonic 2. It’s business as usual as you speed down the slopes and through the loop-de-loops as you approach the end of Chemical Plant Zone Act 2, but suddenly your dropped into a funnel, the gameplay shifts entirely and your engaged in a match of Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine!
The recent Sonic games have taught you to expect throwbacks to the Mega Drive and Dreamcast games, but never before had Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine been recollected in any way. I thought this was absolutely genius when I first played it, a totally unexpected surprise and one of the few moments I remember where I paused a game and shouted out loud in glee! I was sat in my flat by myself too, which is admittedly riddy behaviour but I was just so happy when I realised what was going on.
Horizon Chase Turbo:
This is a very minor one but I thought it was very clever and it made me really happy all the same. Any time you boost, take pole position or collide with another car/hit any scenery in Horizon Chase Turbo your driver will produce a little speech bubble with a remark about what’s happened. There’s one very particular one that I only seen for the first time after about ten hours on gameplay; I was knocked off the track by a rival and put all the way back to the back of the pack on the last lap. My driver simply quipped “I’m losing my favourite game”, which is a very specific reference to a 1990s rock song where the video sees the singer drive through the desert in a convertible.
Again, it was one of these moments where I just thought ‘that’s absolutely class’, I thought that was so cool.
How about youse - any joyful gaming memories you'd like to relive here too?
Balladeer DIVINE LONELINESS
Posts : 25780 Points : 24609 Join date : 2013-01-16 Age : 33 Location : Admintown
Subject: Re: Moments In Gaming That Brought You Genuine Joy Mon 8 May 2023 - 16:20
Ace thread! Ace thread that I'm finding it hard to contribute to. I've had my major gaming moments but they're the same moments you all had: making Mario run along for the first time in my first game, Super Mario 64 blowing my mind when I turned it on, the Great Plateau in... er, what Cappa said. I've got one, but it's chuffing niche.
Xenoblade Chronicles X:
Not my favourite of the series at all, this. XCX tried to make Xenoblade into an MMO, combined with hard sci-fi, obtuse battle systems, and unlikeable underdeveloped characters and plot. It had some horrifying moments, and some very quick unpleasant deaths at the hands of giant surprise enemies, but not many examples of true joy - apart from one.
It happens about 80% of the way into the main story, ridiculously. You get to ride the big robots, 'Skells', at around the 50% mark - but at the 80% mark you get one of the game's biggest selling points. Yes this is silly. Anyway, that's when you get the chance to fly. You ride out of the game's main and only city, where you're told to take off and retrieve something from the rocks floating overhead. So you take to the air for the first time...
...and this plays.
Does this mean anything to anybody who hasn't got to that point in the game? Probably not. But it's a world away from the music playing elsewhere, which is more on the lines of 'here is a hostile oppressive world, try not to die!' (This is the theme you're hearing otherwise, for contrast.) The blast of synth as you take off into the skies is the first time the game really felt like it was saying, 'Have fun!' That's as you watch the world you spent ages running over (and away from) disappearing beneath your chunky mech feet, and realise that the sky itself is full of areas to explore too. Sorry TotK, XCX got there first! The mech in the air is a joy to control, a power and speed leap over where you were before, and you can zoom to anywhere on the map (that isn't guarded by mech-killing robots) quickly and easily. Another example of 'everything on the horizon is yours', but not to adventure: to conquer.
It doesn't last. The game's enemies scale up quickly to be able to wreck your mech, and that's if you don't run into the giant airborne dragon near your take-off point. And it doesn't cure any of the game's existing problems. Nonetheless, there's a moment there when you take off that was true, unfettered, genuine joy.
There's another gaming moment I can think of where mechanics and music join forces to create something that took my breath away, but I think everybody here probably knows that by now. I'll try to think up some more. I can well imagine that Sonic Mania moment being absolute class if you haven't been spoiled on it!
Buskalilly Farore
Posts : 14507 Points : 14674 Join date : 2013-02-25 Age : 32 Location : Nagano
Subject: Re: Moments In Gaming That Brought You Genuine Joy Fri 12 May 2023 - 6:55
I have a very distinct memory of playing Mario Galaxy for the first time; everything from the little arm-stretched aeroplane run of joy up to my first gravity-boggling jump around a planet. 3D mario is a near constant supply of genuine joy, hence why it is probably my favourite flavour of videogame.
Treesmurf Dry Metal Baby Princess
Posts : 4008 Points : 4010 Join date : 2013-01-17 Age : 33 Location : Manneh
Subject: Re: Moments In Gaming That Brought You Genuine Joy Fri 12 May 2023 - 21:51
Ooft this is a great idea that I just know I want to contribute to and will struggle to because my brain won't let me think about it. I loved that Sonic Mania too, was completely unexpected.
The best I've got so far is a few particular games of Rocket League, one where a comeback from 5 goals down in about one and a half minutes led to a genuine moment of comradery between me and two randoms. Another time me and my pals were winning by quite some margin and I jokingly voted to forfeit only for my team mates to do the same so we lost the match due to an abundance of banter, it was too funny to be mad about it.
Buskalilly Farore
Posts : 14507 Points : 14674 Join date : 2013-02-25 Age : 32 Location : Nagano
Subject: Re: Moments In Gaming That Brought You Genuine Joy Tue 16 May 2023 - 10:31
Treesmurf wrote:
Another time me and my pals were winning by quite some margin and I jokingly voted to forfeit only for my team mates to do the same so we lost the match due to an abundance of banter, it was too funny to be mad about it.
Gonna report you for artificially losing to stay in an easier league.
Balladeer DIVINE LONELINESS
Posts : 25780 Points : 24609 Join date : 2013-01-16 Age : 33 Location : Admintown
Subject: Re: Moments In Gaming That Brought You Genuine Joy Tue 16 May 2023 - 12:02
Buskalilly wrote:
I have a very distinct memory of playing Mario Galaxy for the first time; everything from the little arm-stretched aeroplane run of joy up to my first gravity-boggling jump around a planet. 3D mario is a near constant supply of genuine joy, hence why it is probably my favourite flavour of videogame.
Oddly I can't think back to any interesting moments from the 3D Marios. I do of course have the same joyous moments as everyone else though. When you touch down in Gusty Garden and that music plays?
Here's a recent gem of one though. It's from Tears of the Kingdom, Runakit Shrine (Built to Carry - there's a ball and some rails); so if you haven't tried that yet, stay away! (And, er, be careful of my Twitter. )
Spoilered for (horrible) solution:
When I created that horrible thing, with two spokes still sticking out of it and a kind of table on its bottom, and it worked I absolute cackled. And there are a bunch of moments just like it. A joyous game.
Jimbob Rotating Platform
Posts : 4430 Points : 4455 Join date : 2013-01-15 Age : 40 Location : Milton Keynes
Subject: Re: Moments In Gaming That Brought You Genuine Joy Sat 20 May 2023 - 12:22
Oh this is a good question. I worry I have loads in my early life that I could share, which have sadly been eroded by the terrible state of me, my life, the world, and everything.
But!
Playing Boxer on the Acorn Electron (a rip-off of the Popeye arcade game, like all old home computer games of the era), really being too young to get anywhere but understanding that everyone should be talking about videogames all of the time always.
Both No Man's Sky and Starbound, getting off the starting planet and to a space station. Oh that first bit of the game you enjoyed? There's thousands of that.
Microprose F1 Grand Prix, that actually ran in 3D, and more importantly, realising how realistic it was determined to be, and allowing a "hot seat" option for multiplayer (this is before the internet, kids) so everyone could join in a race on a system that wasn't geared up for local multiplayer. F1 used to be interesting
^See Balla's answer: The first time I played Super Mario 64, and realised that 3D video games were actually fun (up until then the "future of gaming" was either unable to process 3D worlds without being boring, or the threat of FMV, the opposite of a videogame
Then getting onto Hyrule Field in Ocarina of Time. Even a couple of years later there was a worry I had, related to the above, that the extra dimension was going to exist at a cost in terms of the scope of a game. Mario 64 was big, but compared to e.g. Super Mario World or Super Mario Bros. 3 there was probably less in terms of "things. But seeing the field and realising how big the world was was a relief.
But then years later exiting the sewers in Elder Scrolls Oblivion, and seeing the whole world and its possibilities.
But then ^See everyone's answer about the start of Breath of the Wild. The "the crazy sons of bitches they've done it" moment
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Subject: Re: Moments In Gaming That Brought You Genuine Joy