Debilitating nostalgia - How did I play like that?

[Trude]

Something that always seems to come up when I hear people talking about old time favourites is the realization of just how bad I've become at the games in my retro collection. Case in point: Sonic Advance 1 - 3. I used to play each stage for hours on end. In the car, on the toilet, in a tree and yet I can't for the life of me beat any of my best times now that I've gone back and started playing them again.

Captcha: over the hill.
God damnit, I'm not getting old, I swear.

 

[thoughtwrangler]

I think that's just about every retro game. There are a few that still play smooth as silk, but even stuff like Super Mario 64 is like "how the hell did I put up with this stupid camera?"

Games that I could speedrun pretty well, like Super Mario World for the SNES are way more challenging now. I used to have the Star and Special world levels down pat. Last time I played, I didn't even try 'em.

tl;dr - hackers are breaking into our games and making them harder than they used to be. It's the only logical explanation, really.

 

[Brain Tumor]

I can't believe how good I was at SNES Mario Kart back when I was like 10 or so. I try to play it now, and can't finish a race higher than like 6th on 150CC...

I think the OP can't beat his previous times, because he is not devoting the time he was back in the day. Attention span is waaaay too short now IMO. For me though, I am much better at some games than I was back then.

 

[Lufia Erim]

My excuse is that games have become so much easier now that when i go back to play nes games i have trouble beating them. However time will make you better at the ilder games because of how simple they were.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

I actually find I'm frequently better at games that I played as a kid. Every now and again I'll complete a game that I was unable to finish when I was younger. But I do play a lot of retro games in general and I also enjoy challenging games so I guess I've managed to retain those skills. I also don't think I was exceptionally skilled at any specific game as a kid so I don't have a high benchmark to compare myself to.

 

[theSovietConnection]

I recently have been able to reconnect my PS2, and what really baffles me is how I managed to solve some of the puzzles in some of these games, because younger me was a dumbass when it came to that stuff, or at least so I thought.

 

[EHKOS]

It's funny, I was just thinking about how last year I couldn't remember how to lower the sub in Red Faction. Looked it up then. Now I can't remember again.
I've found it works both ways, there are some games where I'm like "Oh no, it's this level." And then I'll breeze through it. Then in other games I'll get mollywhopped in sections I used to be able to do blindfolded.

 

[elvor0]

Abes Oddessy/Exodus, definitely. I remember 100% both those games as a kid. Now I just about managed Exodus and that thing has a quick save, Oddessy has a brutal checkpoint system and is controller snappingly hard. And y'know what makes me feel even more terrible at those games now? A blind guy did it! With all the Mudokens no less!