Why We Suck at Video Games - Retro Bird

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Games played: Donkey Kong Country 3 (0:00), Battletoads (0:10), Revenge of Shinobi (0:34), Thunder Force IV (1:05), Spider-Man 2 (1:30), Super C (2:04), Donkey Kong 64 (5:50), Elden Ring (6:15)

[@thestuff10]

(8:58) "Alright, time's up. Let's do this. Leeeeeeroy Jennnnnnkins!"

[@philipmorgan6984]

What was that Zelda game?

[@stockpilethomas7900]

@DiamondDM13 Plus when you where a kid you had lots of time and you would mostly likely only get a few games a year. You would play the same game over and over. It was a big deal getting a new game. As a adult I buy when I want.

[@stockpilethomas7900]

@DiamondDM13 That's how I got stuck with NARC. Should have bought Strider instead.

[@jason5021]

Whats that elephant game at 3:20?

[@coastercube838]

As a sophomore in high school ( part of the younger generation) I must say, I LOVE RETRO GAMES!!! I’m on your lawn

[@RetroBirdGaming]

All right! Keep playin' them and spread the word at your school!

[@Mitsuraga]

You're doing us proud, son. A real testament to your age group.

[@JEFFALITY]

My children love Sega Genesis and it's a staple in our living room. It brings a proud tear to my eye. I salute you kid

[@Mitsuraga]

My daughter is right about to turn seven and, although she doesn't play video games often, loves the SEGA Saturn. She played Elevator Action Returns with me just the other day, adores the story and characters of Sakura Wars, was obsessed with Segata Sanshiro when she was around four or five, first played The House of the Dead and Virtua Cop when she was maybe three, and she played Daytona USA and SEGA Rally Championship well before she'd ever even _seen_ Mario Kart. She also loves hockey, and luckily, the Saturn has two good hockey games.

[@johnellis3383]

Awesome to hear but you need to step off my grass son

[@gravitywaves2796]

I have to admit I'm a big fan of save states for playing retro games. I just don't have the crazy amounts of time to spend mastering a game but still get to check out everything it offers.

[@Sorcerers_Apprentice_11]

I feel like it helps neutralize the higher difficulty level of older games. Of course, nothing feels more rewarding than doing it legit.

[@thedopplereffect00]

It converts beating the game by skill to beating it with luck.

[@Walkeranz]

Savestates allow us to see more ofthe art that are retro games. No need to master the games to enjoy them. Plus, some of that old junk is long without in game saves. No shame in save states for fun, but to beat the game you gotta be legit. Playthrough vs beating

[@breakfasthole]

I use them to practice difficult sections too, like a training mode that never existed. Being able to complete a game on the original cartridge is very satisfying.

[@iami3rian394]

Meh. Save states are fine, but also not great. Rwhtr than take the time and do it the old fashioned way, you don't need to memorize every pattern, in succession, over three weeks. Also though, I mean, come on......

[@km_studios]

I used to LOVE overcoming challenge in video games, but as I've gotten older, I find myself having less patience for difficulty. These days, I get enough difficulty and frustration in real life; I don't need it in my entertainment!

[@CatFish107]

I found a great game that's totally open for a choose your own level of challenge and frustration, all at a slow pace game : snowrunner. I have had such a blast offroading with an awd van, getting stuck in the mud, rolling down mountainsides, winching through snowbanks, loading up trailers with ridiculous stacks of cargo, and vans packed on the roof of a semi tractor. The game is HUUUGE too. Massive maps to go exploring on. Lots of variety in the missions. And you choose your own approach to it all.

[@khrashingphantom9632]

Spoken like a true adult. Lol. Life is hard enough as is sometimes, I play games to escape and unwind, not get beat down and ground away! Lol. That’s why I had ZERO respect for Demon’s Souls when it first came out. I single player game I CAN’T pause?! Yeah get f****!

[@TheMysteryDriver]

@@CatFish107I disagree. The runner games are overly difficult because of their vagueness and if you either don't know about off-roading already or the game itself it can be frustrating to perform simple tasks.

[@AzureCrook]

Yeah we get more receptive about failure as we grow up and experience our shares, that's why quick dopamine fixes became so popular to begin with, but it's basically the same as cheating, you're left feeling hollow after, no sense of achievement whatsoever because you didn't have to chase it and improve yourself to see it through to the end, a nice set of skills almost all oldhead gamers come equipped with 😂

[@whosaidthat84]

Preach! I've been working almost 60 hours a week lately and I don't want to spend hours upon hours trying to beat one level or boss. Moderate difficulty is perfectly fine.

[@coppermutant]

5000 games on an RetroPie carousel is the bane of gaming. You get that rush of having it all there at your fingertips but spend 1 minute on each, hopping around. Enter the 7800+. Now I focus on 1 game at a time, and take time to appreciate them.

[@laserramon9926]

Ghosts n Goblins kicked the crap out of 9 year old me back in 1989. Last year I decided enough was enough. Night and day I trained, death after death, continue after continue, until I finally beat it. So yeah, I've actually gotten better at gaming the more I've aged. Take that Nintendo hard.

[@CatFish107]

Congrats.

[@lightfeather9953]

Nice! I've had a lot of fun beating NES games as an adult that were way too hard as a kid. Still can only get halfway through battletoads though! Next time I'm going to 'cheat' by playing the PAL version instead. The US version was unintentionally hard because Battletoads was designed for PAL 50fps

[@laserramon9926]

​@@lightfeather9953yeah, Battletoads still kicks my ass as well as Ninha Gaiden. I hope you beat Toads, it's crazy hard.

[@laserramon9926]

​@@CatFish107thank you! 😊

[@Xoulrath_]

Noice. I might try to beat the game one day. The problem is that I'm just not that into it so that's pretty much my biggest roadblock.

[@jayjones9225]

The best feeling is beating a game you couldn’t beat when you were a kid. Having the patience and determination to get through it as an adult

[@TohTomajohs]

True. Sometimes u gotta come back another tim

[@tonyp9313]

Yeah that's true.

[@charaznable9209]

The worst feeling is playing a game you could easily beat as a kid and dying repeatedly on stage 1 until you get a game over. lol

[@CatFish107]

Current target to beat that I never finished as a kid: Journey to Silius. Fortunately it has a great soundtrack and I have a copy for super mega pocket / evercade. It's gonna happen.

[@AS-fu1kd]

I'm 74% complete Donkey Kong Country two. Been trying for ages to get that 102% with no walkthrough or guide.

[@TheJofurr]

When I was a kid I would put a game in my NES, die a few times then give up and play something else, assuming that I should be able to master them immediately or that it wasn't possible. When I went back and played them with the patience of an adult I realized that, no, you were supposed to stick with it and practice. Finally beating them after all those years was supremely gratifying.

[@ZapatosVibes]

hell yeah brother!

[@RetroBirdGaming]

I've had some similar moments as an adult as well. The process of getting better at a game can be extremely enjoyable.

[@iami3rian394]

​@@RetroBirdGamingthe best feeling ever, is when you finally do it.

[@livinlicious]

I don't know about you. But if I stopped playing that game. I stopped playing. You had no other games. You either played the one you had or nothing. Since not playing games sucked, you played and died a billion times. You literally played a summer only Mega Man. Of course you got gud at it. That's what happens. But now you pick up Mega Man and it's like, wth this was easy when I was 5, what happened? What happened is that your memory is a mess. You only remember the one time you beat it that summer. Not the other 40days you died.

[@CatFish107]

​@@RetroBirdGaming The biggest modern example I've experienced of a game incentivizing that is Hades. It really leaned into pushing me to learn what I screwed up on, what boss attack patterns were, and to try different approaches every time because of the boon and weapons changing.

[@army103]

In the last few years, I beat Super Mario World, Sonic the Hedgehog, Donkey Kong Country and Contra 3 for the first time...and there's no way I could have done that without save states! As a kid, I probably could have committed to playing the levels over and over until I mastered them, but in my forties I just don't have the drive to do that anymore. Save states let me experience everything those games had to offer without a lot of tedious grinding and frustrating restarts.

[@tonyp9313]

@@army103 Damn ok. Out of the games you listed, Contra 3 is the hardest. You put easy ones on here though like Super Mario World & Donkey Kong Country 3. Sonic is a bit harder but the 1st 2 have save files.

[@army103]

@@tonyp9313 Perhaps I should have said I never *would* have beaten them without save states. As I said, I'm sure I could have beaten them as a child, so of course I could have managed it as an adult. But I doubt I could have blazed through any of them in one life on my first try, and I just don't have the patience (or desire) to spend a bunch of time gradually working my way through 30+ year-old games, repeating certain levels/tricky parts multiple times. I just wanted to cruise through them and move on to something else.

[@tonyp9313]

@ I get what you're saying. I do the exact same thing using save states. I don't want to be bothered playing a section multiple times etc. Nobody says you have to beat games on your 1st try. I'll turn my games off at a certain point even with save states & get back to them. I was just surprised that Super Mario World was a game on your list, that's all. Cuz that game has a save feature.

[@CharlesFitzgerald-pm5uk]

Contra 3 is ridiculous it's so hard, my dream is too complete UN Squadron

[@GameReaver85]

My biggest issue with the difficulty of a lot of retro games isn't the difficulty of the mechanics, but the lives and continue based systems that force me to completely start a game over and complete the levels/stages that I've already proven I can beat, just to get back to the point of failure. Nothing worse than getting to the final boss of the game, only to lose all of your lives and having to do all of the stuff over that you've already proven you can conquer, just to get a shot at the final boss again. And for that alone, that is why I love save states. I typically try to use them fairly, by only doing a save stage after the completion of a level, and not in the middle of a stage or a boss fight.

[@ReinMixTape]

That's the one downside of the much bragged about 'bringing the arcade to the home'. Since there was no slot for inserting quarters into a SNES or whatever, quarters became lives/continues.

[@jment34]

. It teaches you perseverance and really mastering a game. After a while the first levels become automatic and easy.

[@AD3Supa]

1:27 - 1:40 I haven't finished the video yet, but I've already liked the video because of this. Perfect description and exactly how I felt about achievements/trophies ever since they came out.

[@rstone3345]

I was all about hard videogames when I was younger. I could beat Silver Surfer and Battletoads with relative ease so it is a bit disconcerting that I can barely get by the first few levels of these games these days 😔. But now as an adult, with responsibilities, I just don't have the time to commit to ''getting gud''. Never thought I'd ever reach this point, but I'm almost exclusively an easy/story mode gamer nowadays as I barely have time to play long sessions so I need to experience at least a little bit of progression in my limited time.

[@deraykrause4517]

I've had every console since the Atari 2600 and I've always sucked at video games. Still do. Still play games though. Problem is, a lot of the older games weren't difficult, they were "cheap". It took a good developer to make a hard game that wasn't just a poorly programmed mess with dubious hit-boxes or knock-back death loops that couldn't be avoided.

[@stuffthings1417]

save states for retro games i already beat as a kid is perfect. who has hours to waste getting cheesed? plus, speedrunning techniques can be practiced. also, nobody has to use it. win win.

[@PowerSynopsis]

I got bonus points. I actually raised my hand. Retro Bird has conditioned me to be a goofy goober through his goofy goober videos every Friday night.

[@robzo87]

I remember my dad taking me to go rent Rocket knights adventure at this local video store that was down the street from our house. At the time I had just entered Kindergarten, so I had a limit on play unless it was the weekend. That game really gave it to me as a Child, and I would always get destroyed at stage 5!! My family would be cheering me on, but I just could not get past that moment. At 37 years of age today…I’ve beaten this game a lot, and I still love every single minute of it.

[@ReinMixTape]

I've never beaten RK1, I get past the first city stage where bombs etc come down from the sky. Then I find myself inside a section where you have to jet pack between tight angles to keep ascending. Sparky keeps on bouncing wrong and I'm never sure how long to hold boost for either. I have beaten the sequel Sparkster though, because you don't need to wait about for the jet pack to work. That one change made the game play so much more fluid.

[@robzo87]

@ Stage 5 for sure! Once I would figure out how to maneuver through the ascending part of this round then I’d be down to only 1 continue. It’s when you arrive at the final point of this stage where I would lose trying to run away from Axel Gear. We eventually found this game on sale at a service merchandise in 1994. I conquered it right before PlayStation arrived on the scene, but still play it every once in awhile to this very day. Try playing on easy to get a feel for this game.

[@CatFish107]

I have been bad at shoot em ups for more than 3 decades at this point. I still love them. The newer option to have novice mode in a lot of cave shmups is great for me. Gives me a chance to start wrapping my head around the bullet patterns, rather than instantly overwhelmed.

[@wallruss5850]

I love Mushihimesama's (and its sequel's) gamemode options where you choose between fast bullets with easier patterns versus slower bullets with difficult patterns, in the addition of practice mode.

[@amin0_acid310]

Been a vidiot since 2600. While I feel I suck at retro games, I still clean some clocks. Never give up, never surrender!

[@ColonelHarry]

1:05 Thunderforce IV deserves us to train and beat first stage, the game is so good. Probably the best game of the Megadrive.

[@burtonvigil3481]

Lots of retro games call the player a Failure. I love that😊

[@andrewdowell6474]

This video hits home for me because on and off for the past year, I've been trying to master Twisted Metal 2 for PS1. I'm working on doing deathless runs with each character and boy has it been a frustrating endeavor. Luckily I've gotten the worst characters out of the way first so the handful I have left shouldn't take me much longer. TM2 has been one of my favorite games my whole life but I never realized how much I sucked at it till I made myself get good enough to beat it without dying.

[@ScottAskins-t3n]

We all hope and dream about being good at retro video games.

[@tonyp9313]

@@ScottAskins-t3n Like Mike Tyson's punch out lol

[@NerdCrave]

I have a very low tolerance for what I would call bad game design I like difficulty in the right context, but when I’m getting shot from something off screen that I can’t even see that pisses me off when I have to take a blind jump and end up falling into a pit that pisses me off

[@RetroBirdGaming]

hahah :)

[@ballrude]

Retro Bird, you are seriously entertaining and I love your videos. Keep up the good work!

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying them.

[@jaredbrown691]

Literally everyone had a game genie. We all memorized the codes and we loved playing through the games with unlimited lives. Literally the same as putting more quarters in the arcade. No one ever played contra without the lives code and it was still so much fun. I think the vast majority of kids have always been looking for ways to make the game easier.

[@TechDweeb]

I suck worse than anyone here. I win!

[@RetroAdam]

Hey! It's tech dweeb!

[@blakkwaltz]

No, I suck the hardest!

[@Jarekthegamingdragon]

08:22 THANK YOU. This right here is the entire Doom Eternal debate. So many people hate doom eternal because they absolutely refuse to use the new mechanics. They just want to spam the super shotgun the whole game like they could in doom 2016. Suddenly when they game makes the player stronger with mechanical depth, people say the game sucks. Which, if it's not for you, cool that's fine, but that's objectively a player issue, not a game issue.

[@CasepbX]

Doom Eternal suffers greatly from the old saying, "more is less". They just threw too much crap at the player to remember in such a fast paced environment. I don't think the game sucks, but it feels like an ADHD clusterduck of an FPS. I'm pretty happy that Doom The Dark Age will be vastly different.

[@tequilamokinbrd]

For me it's not that I suck, it's more that I have nothing to prove anymore. I beat Mike Tyson's Punch Out when I was eight...I don't have to give myself anxiety in my 40s trying to do it again. I don't feel the need to torture myself with the toughest games all the time...I beat Gunstar Heroes with my kid yesterday on Normal difficulty...that's good enough for me.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Haha sounds good to me.

[@merlingt1]

Kids today have too many options. I used to get one NES game a year and would spend while summers playing that single game.

[@johndiggle4229]

I love getting good at games. Im 30 and have no time to play a 100 hour game so for the last month or so a few times a week I was trying to beat Journey to Silus on nes. Id get a little further every session until one night I actually beat it. Thats just an example but idk failing does not bug me that much 😂😂

[@troyshilanski380]

At 54 years old if theres a cheat even using console commands its there for me. Part of the fun.

[@rodrigogirao8344]

Dunno about Bezos, but Elon Musk is one of the world's top-ranked Diablo 4 players, and Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak used to be an elite Tetris player.

[@nunyabusiness896]

How TF does Elon have time? He runs like 4 companies, is constantly at speaker events and interviews, will soon be part of a government program to cut governmental waste, etc.

[@Totavier]

Sometimes we can suck at games due to the lack or not properly developed personal skills of ourselves, some can be: reflex, memory, rhythm, co-ordination hand-eyes, concentration and the most important: patience. I personally suck at fighting and musical games because they rely a lot in quick reflex and rhythm, something that I'm kind bad at it, mostly rhythm in which I'm 100% terrible at it. 😂 Same thing goes with the shmups but that one is mostly by the quick reflexes.

[@CatFish107]

Ah, if you're playing shmups by reacting, you're already losing. The real pros (not me, I suck but love playing) play by memorizing routes, careful planning, precise movements and timing. Reflexes just get you accidentally flying into a shot.

[@supersquirrels7]

4:45 minecraft is more brutal than most retro games imo. You can loose like 30 hours of progress from one randomly generated block of lava. Generally I think the industry has a good balance of hard games and easy games coming out right now. Especially the games popular with kids. When I was in elementary school there were the kids who could beat sans and the kids who couldn’t. You have nothing to worry about the younger generation “dying once and giving up”. Besides most of the really easy games are the cinematic games. The ones trying to limit game overs for immersion. Those aren’t the kinds of games that really need high difficulty anyway.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

So, you like the balance where it is right now and feel happy with the options available? I can respect your stance.

[@ZombieNation85]

Watching you ‘fail’ with Ellie in Donkey Kong Country 3 was painful. You can point your water shots upward diagonal and you can also loft float the barrels by pointing upward when releasing so they don’t go so far away. Love that game and love the channel.

[@3dmarth]

You can also hold down to drop the barrels outright instead of throwing them, can't you? But yeah, I started to wonder if the bad Ellie gameplay was part of the joke. :P

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Yeah, what it was is that I was rusty on the controls for Ellie and couldn't remember. I wasn't dying though.. so I kept the footage. And I tell ya what.. I don't get away with anything in my gameplay footage without hearing about it in the comments :)

[@charaznable9209]

Getting older has definitely made me worse at video games, I do not have the energy or the patience I used to, and with my backlog I've got too many options to stay fully committed to playing a single game.

[@tonyp9313]

Being Older has made me a lot better at video games. You have to play video games on your days off work. Just schedule a set time. Stick with physical copies, don't buy to many games & for your backlog either beat them or get rid of it. Trust me. I used to have a backlog with PS4 games, then I switched to the Switch & found that I am now playing way lesser games because they are more expensive & I beat 1 a time before I buy a next game.

[@nickparsons337]

The day I beat Battletoads with my trusty issue of Nintendo Power as a kid, as a Blockbuster weekend rental with my best friend; was a glorious day indeed.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

You dirty dog... congratulations :)

[@54raynor]

In all the years I’ve been playing the game, I’ve never made it even halfway thru level 11. Never managed to figure out how to corner the Clinger-Winger properly, which doesn’t work when the orb chasing you is faster than you and there are no checkpoints in the level. What sucks is that I can breeze thru every other level, including the final one.

[@nickparsons337]

@@RetroBirdGaming Thank you, kind sir. It was far from easy and would've been practically impossible if it hadn't been for the maps in Nintendo Power. It's also a feat that I've never been able to duplicate as an adult. Lol

[@Nightowl1981]

I couldn't beat Battletoads when I was a kid but could get through the turbo tunnel - without taking the warp route option.

[@EoR_2B4GOT10]

I don't hate on people using savestates. You only have so many hours in your day. If you like playing with savestates who am I to stop you? Part of the Get on my lawn aproach is to get people to just play these games. Whatever way you prefer doing is fine. I just love the thrill of actually beating a difficult game in 1 go. Maybe I should build myself a device that pats me on the back simular to how Retro Bird gets pats from Retro Birdette! Great video as always.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Thanks for watching!

[@mattb6522]

Good video! When I was a kid in the early '90s, I actually preferred "easier" games as I just didn't have the skills necessary to beat any game I played. However, as an adult, I have much more experience with gaming, so I actually enjoy a game that puts up a fight! I've been able to beat nearly any game I play now retro and modern alike! I do enjoy going back to retro games that require patience. As a kid, I foolishly would charge recklessly into danger as I had not really learned how to tactically approach obstacles. I don't mind that the only reward for completing an 8 or 16-bit games was just seeing the ending. It was the journey that was the fun part. Learning what works and what doesn't to play by the game's rules was actually quite satisfying. Of course, I can understand that one man's fun is another man's frustration!

[@blaketindle4703]

Dude I’ve been playing the Contra Collection on my Switch a lot lately and I’ve found Super C to be WAY more difficult than the OG Contra and Contra III The Alien Wars! I love the challenging fast paced action though! Contra and Castlevania are probably my favorite retro series of games.

[@Fools_Requiem]

I don't ask for much. Just give me a way to save my progress after finishing a level. If I beat a level, I shouldn't be forced to replay it over and over and over again just so I have a chance to beat the next level. Or at after I beat a boss, like how Super Mario World did it.

[@marcoalves9029]

Same here, honestly I don't really mind games being difficult, but being forced to replay the first N levels because I died at the N+1th level when I got there for the first time (and had no practice on that level as a result) is a bit of a dealbreaker for me

[@MrDakotaThunder]

I like the Rocket Knight Adventures box in the background. Beautiful!

[@FNHot]

Every modern game I play, i use a trainer with it. They took the cheat codes away, I put them back in. Make the game what you want, it should be fun, not a frustrating grind.

[@tonyp9313]

Save states are a great thing. I see comments on that either liking or not liking them. I'm just going to say this, it's not the same thing at all. It makes the games so much easier than if you were to beat them in 1 sitting for those type of games.

[@DivisibleByWaffle]

Grab yourself a Famicom and play the Japanese version of Battletoads! It's less difficult since Japan outlawed video game rentals in the 80's. When life gives you lemons, try eating an orange (or a banana) instead!

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Good idea!

[@daved8070]

As a kid, I would typically only get one or two games a year. So not only did I have more time, I had much fewer options to play so I had to get good!

[@brianhatcher2799]

I remember when I was in my thirties and beat the original Mega Man for the first time. That was a great day! Also, when you put in the time and effort into a game, it’s so rewarding and satisfying when next thing you know, you’ve mastered the gameplay mechanics and are able to tackle the game’s challenges head-on(Metroid and Batman on the NES are a few that come to mind and are games that happily I have beaten 😊)

[@counterstrike5694]

It is kinda important for kids to learn that sometimes you fail in life and when you try again and train you get better. My son likes to play lego city undercover and you cant lose in that game :D he likes to play retro games with me but only 2 player coop games and hates to play alone cause he is bad at them. he is only 5 years old so cant say what happens in the future... anyway life is a strugle with school and work etc

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Exposure to those games now will be great for your son. He's still young and might get more comfortable over time. Until then, you can be his protector in co-op!

[@PvsNP]

What about not having the original way in which games were meant to be played? Sometimes controls, displays, and emulation can introduce lag that makes some games harder. I believe that maybe this affects some of my skills in some of these games. This also helps me think that maybe it is not always my fault as well.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Definitely a factor as well.

[@breakfasthole]

@@PvsNP As it happens, I got the bluetooth SNES controllers for the Switch recently. There is obvious input lag playing Mario World on Switch. But then, I used the same bluetooth controllers on an original 90s SNES (using 8-bitdo bluetooth receivers), hooked up to the same HDTV using just a SCART cable, which should add further input lag and... there was no noticeable input lag at all 😮 There will be some minor lag because of the wireless controllers and the TV converting an analogue signal to digital but I was shocked at how much extra input lag there is using the Switch. On the plus side, I get to use official bluetooth controllers on an original SNES. Much recommended.

[@MegaDeox]

In addition to all of this, retro games don't have to be hard! There are many easier games that are still fun. Kirby is the obvious example, but recently I played Donald Duck Goin' Quackers, which is really fun and very easy.

[@tziirkq]

I suck at fighting games. But they're so fun to play. I actually don't mind losing at them, I just enjoy the action of playing them.

[@neogohanamv]

I hope you one day get your nannermobile, so you can drive to get your 2AM Chunky Monkey *in style*

[@logancrawley2634]

i use save states, im in my 30s i dont have that kinda time, i paid my dues as a child...i just wanna see some cool shit and have fun

[@thedeadpoolwhochuckles.6852]

I don't mind if a developer adds an easy mode to their games. But that's because im an adult and not an entitled gamer. I also understand that I don't have to play on the easier setting.

[@tonyphillips8726]

This guy cracks me up.

[@VladlustTV]

When your wife was tapping you on the back while playing battletoads I couldn't help myself but imagine her in a Banana suit with sunglasses lol. Love you guys!

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Haha :)

[@HebrewGamer100]

Many people were good at games as kids because it was the only game you got and you just had to play it until you got good at it.

[@ajculum723]

I’ve felt the opposite way about having more checkpoints in games actually. I’m much more willing to experiment with how I play the game and get better at multiple ways of playing when there’s lots of checkpoints. With few checkpoints or systems that put a high cost on dying I find a single way to play that works and simply hone it.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Yeah, save states are great for trying different approaches :)

[@makikuma91]

I always thought I'm the only one sucking so much at baldur's gate 3 or even retro dnd based games in general. Always wanted to get into them, but I ended up playing them with cheats or the easiest difficulty. But that wasn't fun at all. So now I'm playing dress up games. And...I'm happy.

[@TimewornUncle]

If you beat Battletoads, I will care. Also panning that line of NES games at 3:55 sure felt good in my very soul.

[@Nightowl1981]

Amazing lineup of games!

[@TheBobanator777]

you have the green xbox controller......where is the yellow one with banana shaped handles?

[@wettuga2762]

Completely agree with everything. Well, except for the farting, I would totally come forward proudly as the culprit.

[@VIRGOLEGACY]

As a gamer of over 30 years I must admit save states DEFINITELY made a lot those games easier to complete lol and let’s face it many of those were trial and error based anyway

[@TheMikeyb86]

I grew up only having an NES console in my house throughout the 90s and early 2000s. When we got a PC in the late 90s, PC games reigned supreme for my time and I got used to the "hand-holding". I've got way back into NES games over the past few years and from my experience, the hand holding has me so impatient with NES games. I get a game over now and that baby is off. It's taken a while for me to get back into not sucking at NES games and being persistent enough to beat the game. Glad to say I'm getting better. 😊

[@worldoffood123]

I am living proof that Battletoads can be beaten!! Honestly, there are far harder games. The only reason it's so infamous is the limited lives. Find a good way to farm lives and it's very doable.

[@striderskorpion]

Aside from natural skills (e.g., quick thinking and reaction time), I think getting good at games depends on the amount of time you are willing to spend on playing it. As a kid, my family didn't have a whole lot of video games, so we'd play the same games over and over until we practically mastered* it and/or got bored (*relatively speaking). When he was younger, I impressed my step-nephew at how "good" I was at New Super Mario Bros. Wii as he had a hard time with it. NSMB isn't particularly hard, especially considering how much experience I have had with Mario games, but I don't think he really had the patience to practice and learn how to properly play it.

[@TheMinchio]

Interesting video. Recently I had been thinking how old games used to have a reward when you completed the game in the hardest mode, be it an extra scene or even a different ending, that’s one thing I miss, and sadly I doubt that will ever come back to games, exactly because of what you mention in this video. My personal opinion is the market is oversaturated, and people want to finish the game as fast as possible just to jump into the next one, nobody wants to spend months or even years mastering a game anymore (that used to be the case back then), there is no time for that anymore! It’s a sad state, this has reflected in the development of games and the gamers have become less skilled, anyway, Great video! ❤

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Yeah, so many options. I feel like people (adults and kids) have more games than ever now. Makes it a lot harder to commit to a single game.

[@johntuel2375]

I am currently trying to beat Marble Madness on the NES. I've made it to the end multiple times but I always run out of time right at the part where the maze appears and disappears before the goal. Problems with previous levels eating up my time is probably the hardest part about it. But I know if I keep at it that eventually I'll get that one moment where everything works and my timing is right and I'll make it through. The first time I played it was when I was about 8 back in 1990. So it will have taken me 34 years to beat if I beat it before the new year.

[@RobbleRouser]

Kind of stinks that a lot of my peers don't have the chops for older games and can't relate to me on that level. But considering they sacrificed their time spent on games for more time improving their own lives, I don't blame them.

[@bluetarantulaproductions6179]

I finally beat all the cups and speeds on Super Mario Kart (after god knows how long I have been practicing) and after I told my friends about my accomplishment....they didn't care. I know not everyone cares if you beat a game, though if the game is challenging and by overcoming that challenge you feel awesome! Then you try a different game and get creamed, lol.

[@jons9239]

My kids play my retro arcade all the time and freak out when it says game over. I tell them, you lose in all these games. You just get better at surviving.

[@luigiymario2xd]

I'd rather play nes games with save states 😂 I already played the damn games as a kid and almost never saw the ending on some of those so I want my revenge!

[@michaelturner2806]

For me it greatly depends on what the game is using for "difficulty". Understanding a game's mechanics and skillfully executing them, being ready to adjust and quickly react to new situations, when done well that's very rewarding to me. Rote memorization of long sequences is something that's not fun for me, like the Battletoads racing sequence. I've never played a Castlevania, but seeing so many people plummet to their death because of long knockback from jumping over pits and bumping into an infinitely respawning enemy when the attack to clear the enemy has a long windup and recovery doesn't seem fun to me. Taking it slow and inching forward bit by bit is satisfying and rewarding in some games but to me feels tedious in others. Games being too easy is another problem in the other direction. It's frustrating when I mistime a jump or otherwise fail a game mechanic over and over again with no consequences. Why should I even play the game at that point if there's no consequence for failure? Might as well hit up a cutscene compilation on youtube if I'm just interested in the story. It saddens me when developers have obviously tried to craft a challenge or put effort into an interesting non-secret area but the game itself lets me skip right through it with minimal effort. There's a spectrum in difficulty I think, from games that are just more difficult and more of a challenge than I'm personally willing to put effort into. Games that I think are just unfair in their mechanics, especially ones from the quarter-gobbling mindset of the early days. And of course there should be an appreciation for "difficult" games where the fun is just in the playing, and they didn't intend everyone to reach an end screen, just see how many points you could get or how high a level you could get to. And of course there's differences in games that are "easy" because it's more about the story and experience, and games that are "easy" because they're accessible, and games that are "easy" just to please people who can't stand the thought of a setback when Leeroying it. And I'm sure many others between and outside these.

[@XanthinZarda]

I mean, what though, what if there was a hypothetical game show where you could put your skills to the test in a variety of challenges, including art, screenshots, and sometimes, actually playing video games?

[@RetroBirdGaming]

That would be somethin'!

[@XanthinZarda]

@@RetroBirdGaming Actually, speaking of which...would that be on the potential cards, video game game shows? I know of about...threeish. There's the Arcade Pit, Nick Arcade, and Game's Master from the UK.

[@magic3383]

The thing about games these days is that they're all too hard. I beat Diddy Kong over a snow weekend when I was 14. Now at 41 it beats my ass.

[@Lando00100]

Gotta say when achievements/trophies first came out many unlocked features in game or others that fit into a trilogy. Nowadays there's really no point.

[@Legitimus_Prime]

0:24 You're one tall fellow, as you barely passed the door!

[@nigelhighlands3131]

The Jeff Bezos bit killed me, was in a terrible mood tbh and that instantly got me cackling. Thank you for making such good shit 🙏

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Thank you for watching! Glad that the video was able to help :)

[@pieterdenbraven7077]

Another good and funny video 😂 When I was a kid I loved those hard games, like ghouls n ghosts. They could also be very frustrating, when you had to start all over again. Now I am happy I can play good games that are more relaxing.

[@erneststackhouse1133]

i was so happy 2 get "Castlevania Rondo of Blood" 4 the Turbo Grafx16 that my kids sat on the couch 2 watch me play & there dad died instantly! Ha-Ha! i sucked, but i did what i use 2 do when i was a kid. Keep that cartridge in that Turbo Grafx16 & only play that game! Got my Castlevania mojo back! With todays games u suck at that game u just click onto the next game. For Retro Games changing the cartridge is too much of a hassle, so u just play on! That is why we were so much better as kids playing these games!

[@eskimo1000]

R.i.p my gaming skills❤️

[@xcrack6364]

I’m 41 and my reflexes have definitely slowed down to where I can’t even keep up playing anything online anymore. I don’t like competitive play. Cooperative, definitely though and I’ve played so many games over the last 35 years, that nothing really impresses or grabs me anymore other than hopefully the new Gears of War: E-Day coming at some point and the next monster hunter wilds. I tend to play things like Doom (classic and new). Maybe being older, my interests for gaming have just waned or maybe it’s the combination of that and seeing every series I’ve ever loved to play in the past ruined by modern tactics and blue haired investors calling the shots, not to mention social media and devs actually listening to a comparatively small group of “hard core” types over a series to make changes that benefit them which ends up ruining the game for people like me who loves to see new or fresh ideas even for long time running franchises. I only pay full price for Nintendo titles anymore as well as indie games which often are far better than any bloated, online required single player game that arrives broken on delivery BUT definitely has a working online store to buy stuff that obviously should have just been in the game in the first place.

[@FactoryFarmedCorpPolicyRobots]

hahah been watching for a couple of months and your writing, voice intonation and sense of humour are peaking :D your a funny guy . did/do you take acting or drama classes or have you just watched loads of comedians and television?

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Thank you. No acting. Just a lifetime of goofin' around :)

[@iShredStreets]

It seems that I don’t suffer from dopemine addiction. When I click on good videos (like this), I can watch them in one sitting without looking for other distractions.

[@philbuilds116]

When you mention the nannermobile I instantly think about Bam Margera in the music video for "Foxtrot, Uniform, Charlie, Kilo" by Bloohound Gang. My youth was so corrupted.

[@ZazzleFraxx]

Kids just need to learn they suck. I tell mine that every morning.

[@araujo_nj]

Yayyy😅 immediately after seing one of your videos and seeing some of the games you're playing, i feel an itch to play them too! Bananas, right! 😛

[@malhawkeye6427]

I raised my hand after you said there were bonus points. Do I still get the bonus points?

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Yes!

[@malhawkeye6427]

@@RetroBirdGaming oh yeah!

[@blaketindle4703]

Remember, “You’re Winner!”

[@Tall_Order]

Recently I got back into Skyrim to play all the new area mods and enjoy edge ui. But once I've done all of that, I'm going to donkey kong for a while. It's been a few years since I played those, and I especially want to play DKC2.

[@rockguitarist931]

Retro games can be tough as nails but there is nothing like sticking it to the devs by making it to a checkpoint and saving your progress.

[@Aaronwilliam]

They made games super hard so people wouldn’t finish them quickly. Thats was how they substituted for building a fully fleshed out game.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

I don't agree that a game has to be a certain length to feel fully fleshed out. For me, it's about how well-executed what's there is. A lot of thought went into the design of many difficult games. Rather than allow the player to run through unharmed, obstacles and enemies had to be designed and arranged in very clever ways.

[@breakfasthole]

@@RetroBirdGaming There's truth in both points here. Lots of games got the difficulty ramped up in later development so that they couldn't be completed in a weekend rental. But retro games were generally just made more difficult anyway.

[@RetroBirdGaming]

Good point. After games were finished, some games had their difficulty bumped up (often when released outside of Japan) to make them harder for the US market (in part to combat people being able to beat them as rentals).

[@View619]

Games were originally arcade titles you could play at home. Arcade titles were super hard to get your money, so a lot of retro games followed that format. There were plenty of fully fleshed out arcade games, but they still wanted your money. Albeit, I think modern games have pretty much spoiled us. Some of these retro games (Sonic, Donkey Kong, Mario) are actually very forgiving.

[@pixelpoppyproductions]

I remember when playing Streets of Rage 3 with my friends - and us finally beating it on the most difficult setting. We’d played all of the series many times by then, so we just wanted a challenge. It didn’t seem out of the ordinary. tough, but possible. Fast forward to now - it’s apparent that the difficulty was definitely unfair. But, I also tried the original Japanese version, and it felt so slow and plodding, that I still prefer the US version despite the unfair difficulty. I can’t beat it any more of course- I don’t have that kind of time!

[@Prowerexem]

At first playing retro games after growing up in the Xbox 360 era I struggled.. but then as soon as I got into it I started making it far without save states. I can actually make it past a stage in revenge of Shinobi finally!

[@kitchenpotsnpans]

I love your videos they always inspire me!

[@RetroBirdGaming]

That's awesome to hear!

[@kitchenpotsnpans]

@RetroBirdGaming RETROOOOO BIRBBBBB!

[@otakubullfrog1665]

Some of my favorite NES games are the ones I've never beaten.

[@GPAnimations]

I was just talking about this with my wife tonight as we played Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled on PS5. She grew up playing the original on PlayStation, I had never played it before. I was surprised how much harder it is to master versus modern Mario Kart and Sonic Racing games. I said I could tell it was an older game because it doesn’t give a damn if you beat it or not unlike most modern games.

[@JwFu]

New games, i just rush through forr the "story", still love my late 90's early 2000's games for the challenge!

[@kamikaze82]

I don't think we should so readily move past this nannermobile idea.