Have you ever come across the famous meme “Nobody truly understands the bond between a boy and the obscure PS2 game he played when he was younger?”
Even if you didn’t, isn’t it unironically relatable in many ways?
We all played the famous retro games such as Super Mario Bros, Mega Man, Castlevania, God of War 2, Resident Evil 4, etc., but we also played some games that no one really knows about… or that’s what we like to think.
The bond we share with those kinds of games is so astonishing that we hold them in such high regard.
Seriously, what drives us to act in such a way?
Is it our desire to be different from everyone else?
Maybe they got us to know ourselves better, told us so many things about our character that we had no way of realizing otherwise?
Imagine being in a video game shop with your parents, looking to buy a new game for your PS2, and you have no idea what to get. There is no internet, no way of reading reviews beforehand, absolutely no way of knowing what you want.
You simply decide after seeing the cover and a few screenshots on the back of the case.
Something grabs your attention. Something very familiar, yet so distant from everything you’ve ever played so far.
You bring it home with you, you eventually beat it, and you enjoy it thoroughly.
Years pass. You suddenly remember that hidden gem and start an intense research to find it yet again, but what you encounter is quite disappointing.
They say it’s a… bad game!? Mediocre at best!?
You feel insulted and your inner child screams: “No way! I had so much fun playing it! This is a great game! It’s one of the best!”
However, after playing it again with a mature mindset, you simply realize that it’s not the game that you value so much; it’s the memories you attached to it.
What Defines “Those” Games?
Most of the movie tie-in games could fit into this category.
They were mostly bad from a technical standpoint, right?
Your inner child disagrees.
How about Final Fight: Streetwise? It had a great combat system, a banging soundtrack, and a thrilling story, but all that stuff with the fictional drug called Glow turned things into a mess and ruined the game, correct?
Deep down, you don’t want to agree with that statement because you had the best time of your life while playing it.
Your younger self refuses to acknowledge the fact that it’s a bad game. OK, Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects was truly the worst. It had no balance, some characters had unfair advantages. This is something you can agree with, yes?
No. The persistent child still struggles to accept reality.
Because he had fun!
He had his OWN fun!
A fun that no one truly understands!
And that’s what makes those games very special to us.
They might not have been the best games out there, but the unique memories they provided us with were simply the best.
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