Lie, Lie, Lie, Nostalgia.

[Casual Shinji]

Jurassic Park

When that movie was announced I went... well, ape shit. More ape shit than I ever remember being. And when I finally saw it the movie had literally kicked out my brain and taken up residence in my skull. I couldn't stop talking about, probably to the annoyance of my family, but I was too young to notice this at the time. So yeah, I was a big Jurassic Park fanboy.

Now... I see what I consider to be Spielberg's weakest movie.

Really? I think it holds up exceptionally well. The tension, the dinosaurs... I still get chills the first time the guests see the long necked dinosaurs (which we now know never existed, but still )

Even the fact that it's now common knowledge that dinosaurs looked nothing like that and most likely had feathers, it still works. Imo.

There's just a lot of things about it that kind of annoy me now, like...

- How does Grant know the Velociraptor's hunting strategy, or that the T-Rex can't see you if you don't move, before he's even seen either one?
- Why can't the T-Rex smell Grant and Lex when he's inches away from them?
- Where did that giant chasm in the T-Rex pen suddenly materialize from?
- When Malcolm is sitting in the back of the jeep waiting for Ellie and Muldoon to return he's clearly on the main road next to the T-Rex pen, but when Ellie and Muldoon return with the Rex hot on their heels they're suddenly in the forrest.
- When Grant and Tim climb down the tree to avoid the car, why don't they just climb to the other side?
- How the hell does Arnold's severed arm end up behind the pipes in the maintenance building?
- Why don't they just shoot the dinosaurs? Though this is an issue I have with the whole franchise. They keep showing you all these guys with guns, yet never do we see them actually use them on dinosaurs.

 

[Parasondox]

The bad, well I used to loved this when I was little....

What... the... hell... was... that??

Actually that nicely brings me on to my next point, anyone remember Dinosaurs?


Thought this was the best show ever... until I looked back at it recently. What was I on?

 

[DeimosMasque]

The bad: Beast Wars: Transformers

As a kid I though it was great. Then not so long ago I stumbled across a clip on Youtube. OH MY FUCKING GOD, THE HORROR [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obOyXacQGN4]!

*Watches clip* What was so bad about that? Yeah the animation is dated but it's not like as bad as some of the movies that used it coming around the same time. The stories a bit corny, but Transformers has always been that way. I was never a real Beast Wars fan but that like wasn't all that bad really.

 

[Random Argument Man]

The good: Pretty much my entire N64 collection

The Bad: X-men evolution.

The hilariously bad that I found a new way to enjoy it: You have no idea on how this gem can make you laugh. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgbo3Im7bvo]

 

[Pink Gregory]

The Bad: X-men evolution.

I remember liking that. Of course this was then, and I have no attachment to the comics whatsoever.

 

[Nimcha]

Jurassic Park

When that movie was announced I went... well, ape shit. More ape shit than I ever remember being. And when I finally saw it the movie had literally kicked out my brain and taken up residence in my skull. I couldn't stop talking about, probably to the annoyance of my family, but I was too young to notice this at the time. So yeah, I was a big Jurassic Park fanboy.

Now... I see what I consider to be Spielberg's weakest movie.

Really? I think it holds up exceptionally well. The tension, the dinosaurs... I still get chills the first time the guests see the long necked dinosaurs (which we now know never existed, but still )

Even the fact that it's now common knowledge that dinosaurs looked nothing like that and most likely had feathers, it still works. Imo.

There's just a lot of things about it that kind of annoy me now, like...

- How does Grant know the Velociraptor's hunting strategy, or that the T-Rex can't see you if you don't move, before he's even seen either one?
- Why can't the T-Rex smell Grant and Lex when he's inches away from them?
- Where did that giant chasm in the T-Rex pen suddenly materialize from?
- When Malcolm is sitting in the back of the jeep waiting for Ellie and Muldoon to return he's clearly on the main road next to the T-Rex pen, but when Ellie and Muldoon return with the Rex hot on their heels they're suddenly in the forrest.
- When Grant and Tim climb down the tree to avoid the car, why don't they just climb to the other side?
- How the hell does Arnold's severed arm end up behind the pipes in the maintenance building?
- Why don't they just shoot the dinosaurs? Though this is an issue I have with the whole franchise. They keep showing you all these guys with guns, yet never do we see them actually use them on dinosaurs.

I don't really care about nitpicking when those things don't cheapen the experience. For me.

 

[Matthew Large]

Not sure I'm really adding much to the discussion here, but I can't help but notice that no one else appeared to notice the OP's play on "In The End" by Linkin Park...

...I approve ^-^

As for nostalgia... I have very fond memories of Linkin Park's two prior albums (Hybrid Theory and Meteora) now you mention it! Having re-listened to them recently, I have to say I'm still believing the hype those albums were awesome...

 

[Parasondox]

Not sure I'm really adding much to the discussion here, but I can't help but notice that no one else appeared to notice the OP's play on "In The End" by Linkin Park...

...I approve ^-^

As for nostalgia... I have very fond memories of Linkin Park's two prior albums (Hybrid Theory and Meteora) now you mention it! Having re-listened to them recently, I have to say I'm still believing the hype those albums were awesome...

Thank you and my love for Linkin Park still hasn't stopped. Just dislike those who say they are "too mainstream". Damn hipsters!!

 

[balladbird]

It's a little embarrassing to admit, but as a child, I adored Bubsy 3-D.

When i was a kid who had just gotten a playstation, I asked for Crash Bandicoot, describing him as an "orange cat-thing that jumps and spins" and my poor confused grandma got me bubsy instead. XD I spent soooooo many hours playing it as a kid... never could beat it, of course... the game wasn't designed competently enough to really be possible to beat, but I had fun with it.

Needless to say, once I saw the number of internet critics who lambaste it as one of the worst games ever made, I had to hunt it down again and see whether my memory was lying to me. I think as a child I was just really easy to impress.

 

[Veylon]

Let's see... I see now that Captain N isn't nearly as cool as I thought it was back then. Even if it is, in some sense, a call-forward to Super Smash Brothers. Also (sort of?) Nintendo related: The Super Mario Brothers movie. I still like it, but I've come to accept that it's bad by any objective standard.

Other than that, I feel like my childhood stuff has held up pretty well.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

The good: Starship Troopers: Roughneck Chronicles.
While there are parts of the show that are really strained (Really Deep Doo-Doo), for the most part, it holds up surprisingly well as an alternate continuity version of Starship Troopers. The animation is definitely dated, but the facial expressions hold up rather well.

 

[Suhi89]

Yeah I loved Linkin Park as a teenager and today, well, I still love them but purely for nostalgic reasons. I cringe at the lyrics and I used to think that was good rapping, really?

In terms of things I don't think have held up? Pokemon (the TV show) and Dragon Ball Z. I loved them both, I used to run home from school excited to watch one or the other. It was great. I tried to watch them back as an adult hoping the nostalgia goggles would get me through. Not even close. So many episodes of filler with nothing happening. Episodes of Goku powering up an attack with lots of inconsequential, boring dialogue. Then he unleashes the attack after 5 episodes and..... it has no effect. I mean, come on.

And Pokemon. I never realised how unlikable and incompetent Ash is. He essentially doesn't win any badges on his own merit. And there is an episode that is mainly taken up by a metapod vs metapod fight where all they do is harden....

Nostalgia goggles work much better for games though. Even though I can see the faults of Final Fantasy VIII, for example, it was one of my first ever games and certainly the first with any sort of story. I still feel a rush the first time I walk out to the world map and hear that music.

Actually, I don't think there's a single game I loved as a child that I don't still enjoy going back to today.

 

[Flutterguy]

To borrow a line from Jello Biafra.. Giving up on future dreams to dwell on rosy memories will make sure your best days are in the past.

Obviously I enjoy nostalgic foods, games and TV shows more then I really should. I'm tired of this internet culture of people sharing everything nostalgic like it has deep meaning. I'm cool with people making some original content, or making it available online for others, but don't flaunt around like watching Card Captors made you neat or interesting.

 

[vid87]

I've always known they weren't high art or anything, but I've come to discover how groan-inducingly ridiculous the original TMNT and Power Rangers were.

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

The good: the Alien trilogy. Watched it all when I was 6 so it counts.

The bad: Totally Spies. I think I just watched it (as a prepubescent no less) because they were in skin-tight suits.

 

[Evonisia]

The bad: Totally Spies. I think I just watched it (as a prepubescent no less) because they were in skin-tight suits.

Totally Spies used to run on a channel which was later replaced by Disney XD. I kinda don't want to find a way to rewatch it now, all I remember is some specific episodes and that the smart, green suited one constantly got mind controlled.

OT: Gonna go with the Star Wars prequels. Upon re watching I know they're either bad (AotC) or kinda meh (TPM/RotS) but honestly I still kinda like them, moreso than the none Empire original Star Wars films definitely.

On the other hand, I tried out some obligatory pacman game on some games site, and I'm reminded of how much I adored it as a child, but find it utterly annoying and having no difficulty curve. Pacman suffers from the same thing BioShock Infinite did, in that it was fine if a tad irritating on the first go, then every thought put to it after wards makes the experience feel much worse (especially on retries).

 

[Kyrian007]

No, that's never really happened to me. As it turns out I had really good taste as a kid and the things I liked back then I'm totally good with today. That's probably why I think that the current "hate on" for nostalgia is just a kid thing. Teenagers trying to act "adult" saying "U is only like that stuff cause of all teh nostalgia goggels."

My answer has always been "Sorry kid, someday you might get it. But for now you don't understand." Nostalgia ENHANCES enjoyment of activities. I've found NO downside to that.
Now maybe if I found out the things I liked as a kid didn't "hold up..." then I could understand. But as far as I can remember all the stuff I enjoyed as a kid are still awesome today. Ducktales, Animaniacs, Batman tAS... check. X-Wing series pc games and Ultima 6 and 7... check. M*A*S*H in syndication and classic Twilight Zone, Dr. Who, and Star Trek on PBS... check. Babylon 5, TNG, and the X-Files (up until season 6)... check. Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, and Trigun... check. Some of the Star Wars EU (preferred Han-centric stuff or things like Stackpole and Allison's Rouge and Wraith Squadron series... anything that minimized the lazersword magic stuff,) Wheel of Time, and the Deryni series... check. Final Fantasy 1 5 & 6, (I liked 7 8 9 & 10 too, but I couldn't claim to be a kid with those) Metroid, and Zelda... check.

Yeah, there's some things I might not like if I tried them again as an adult... but for the most part I never get the urge to rewatch those things. There was a "pirate" cartoon... I can't think of the name of it. It might hold up, but I can't remember it well enough judge. The music I liked in the late 80's and early 90's WAS fairly horrid... but I have to admit. Nostalgia makes it put a smile on my face. Didn't always. I was ashamed of my musical taste until after college or so. But I grew out of such petty embarrassments. Now I can crank up the P.M. Dawn, Journey, and Van Halen without any shame.

I liked Marvel's "New Universe" comics (mostly Justice but also some C&D and a couple others,) and those aren't usually well thought of. But I have not opened the boot-box those comics are in for a very long time. I collected classic "Uncle Scrooge" Comics. But I was really only into the classic Barks and Rosa comics which hold up surprisingly well today. All the rest of my comics I collected as an adult (when I actually had some money to spend.) I did like some "teen mystery" books (Christopher Pike mostly) that might make me shudder today. But again, I don't have any real urge to revisit those stories so I can't really judge.

Soooo, maybe one comics series and some books that I haven't read in long enough to judge if they hold up today? Nope, nostalgia is ALL good as far as I'm concerned.

 

[lachlan4567]

I feel lucky, the games I like a lot based on nostalgia and some of the first I played turned out to great games even today.

Spyro 2 and Crash bandicoot 2 were my first ps1 games besides what came with it, ( monsters inc scream island or something)
I hold them as my nostalgic games and stand by that.

and I remember the Pokemon animated series more fondly then I'd like to admit,
I started watching it around when hoenn started ( on morning programs before school) and can now see why it is disliked to a degree, ( mainly ash making the same mistakes over and over, no character development ect ect).

 

[L. Declis]

Hmmm...

You know what I thought was good? Final Fantasy VIII. I used to think Squall was cool, and it was an epic story.

I recently tried to replay it, and here were my general thoughts:

Why is his teacher trying to bang him?
Why is he so unlikable?
Why is he complaining about being the best in his class?
Why is he complaining about all these women who are stupidly hot being hot over him?
Why is he complaining about being chosen for an awesome mission?
Why did he just become the leader of the entire school in less than a month after graduating?
Why is the combat so terribly paced?
Why do I need to junction every single spell?
Why do I junction about 1 spell each time?
Why does the game punish me for using the magic by attaching it to my stats?
Why is everyone so damn angsty?
Why does Quistis keep making rookie mistakes despite being an ex-professor as well as professional soldier?
Why is everyone in this place some kind of teenage genius at what they do?
Why is Squall STILL complaining?
Why does anyone like Squall?
Why are we not playing as Lugana more, as he is a far more interesting character with a more interesting story and is far more sympathetic but doesn't mope about it?

And so on. After I hit disc 3, I put the game down and simply couldn't bring myself to play it anymore. The entire cast is not exactly likable, and the protagonist is downright hated by myself. The combat seems to resent you playing, and the design choices are confusing.

However, Metal Gear still holds up as a good game.

Also, Mulan by Disney.

As a child who liked China, I thought it was cool.

My fiance is Chinese, so I thought she needed to see all the Disney films. We'll watch Mulan, she'll love it.

Oh my god.

It's so racist.

Everything is horribly racist in this film. And it's quite disrespectful of the culture. And of the woman and men. And everything.

She hated it. And I was embarrassed by it.

 

[RicoADF]

The good: Starship Troopers: Roughneck Chronicles.
While there are parts of the show that are really strained (Really Deep Doo-Doo), for the most part, it holds up surprisingly well as an alternate continuity version of Starship Troopers. The animation is definitely dated, but the facial expressions hold up rather well.

Did you know that the animated series was more accurate to the book than the first movie? The newest one invasion seems to have gone in the right direction though.

OT: The good - Command and Conquer (Tiberian Dawn/Red Alert/Tiberian Sun).

The bad - Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds. Not really a bad game but going back to it the controls can get very annoying. Still enjoyable though.