Games that you had no idea what to do in as a kid

RedXIV

In FF7, once you get into shinra tower, there's a point where you are asked to sort out your materia before fighting a boss. I had no idea how the system worked as a kid and tried loads of strategies before having a penny dropping moment.

Oh and when I rented out MGS the first time from the town video shop. They used their own custom cases to hold the games so when it got to the "look at the back of the cd case" bit, I knew I had a cd in my inventory and was checking it for ages. Didn't go back to it for a few years after that

Star Lord

Pacland in the arcade. This bit in particular:


I could not for the life of me figure out how you got across the water, as walking or running, the springboard didn't get you far enough.

Only saw how to do so later, when some others were doing it. Talk about a counter intuitive move!

krudler

The Last Ninja games were fairly baffling at times

Mr. CooL ICE

Was never a big strategy game fan, but I was 14 when I bought Alpha Centauri due of the rave reviews. Hadn't a notion how to play it and gave up. Didn't realise til later that the whole turn-based thing was actually part of the game.

Branoic

I was given a copy of the 1st Civilization game when I was 10, without the manual. I also had no prior experience in the genre and had no idea what it was, so I didn't even have any frame of reference to work off. But I was so fascinated by the game that I played it for hours and hours and pieced everything together. I'm 33 now, have a job, house, wife, kid, but that's still my proudest achievement :P

CiDeRmAn

LordChessington wrote: »

Didn't realise til later that the whole turn-based thing was actually part of the game.

I still feel like that about turn based games!

pablomakaveli

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

No thanks, I've resisted the temptation to google it for years now under the belief I'll return to it :pac:

I appreciate the knowledge that the game was at least partially to blame though!

Watch the fight between Simba and Scar in the film for a hint.;)

deathrider

Panzer General II on PS1. Not a, damn clue what was going on. Also I remember spending a long time doing nothing in a PS1 magic carpet game too.

Penn

Got G-Police for the PS1 as a present when I was younger. Not. A. F*cking. Clue as to what I was supposed to be doing or how to do anything. I can't even call it the worst game I've ever played because I just don't know. I don't know anything I did in that game.

Potential-Monke

Wizards and Warriors 3... Absolutely no idea what to do or where to go, coupled with the most infuriating jumping in any game ever!

super_furry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu3DkheSQhY

Hunter 3D on the Amiga. The first true 3D open world game I ever played and I never had even the slightest idea how to progress. Was great fun just wandering around and exploring though.

COYVB

I was so bad at Wipeout as a kid. Genuinely couldn't get my head around it, though i tried and tried and tried and tried

My favourite racer now.

RIP wipeout

2Mad2BeMad

Men in black on the ps1 I think it wad. I could beat resident evil 1 but men in black my god cudn get past the first levelled novices wa ta do

Cool_CM

Never came across a lot of enemy fighters playing F22 Air Dominance Fighter back in the day so spent most of my time staffing my own base after taking off. Also spent a log of time running across barren landscapes in Mechwarrior...

CiDeRmAn

deathrider wrote: »

Also I remember spending a long time doing nothing in a PS1 magic carpet game too.

I loved Magic Carpet on the PS1, and did quite well in it too, brilliant stuff, so early git builds his majestic palace and you lay an earthquake on his, carving it in two before summoning a volcano in the middle, just to rub his face in it.

Gunmonkey

Shining the Holy Ark on the Saturn, loved it but got stuck for ages in a mansion in a haunted forest. Had the whole area mapped out, me and my brother tore apart the game world trying to find where we had to go but no luck.

Ended up reading a guide weeks later in a a magazine and it was a bloody obvious solution to unlock the rest of the mansion.

CastorTroy

The Dizzy games on the Spectrum. Got to a certain point then got stuck.

Also played Hook and it was a part I had to learn how to fly by jumping off a height but couldn't. Tried everything I had. Tried just walking off. Gave up. Found out much later I was meant to "Use edge" or something like that.

the_syco

Myst

wandatowell

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiago?


wtf.

mightyreds

Revenge of shinobi for me the labyrinth level, could never figure out where to go just kept going round in circles, played that game so much always just to that level.

Mezcita

Little Computer People. Just thought it looked great. In hindsight I'm convinced my parents were drugging me as a child.

deathrider

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I loved Magic Carpet on the PS1, and did quite well in it too, brilliant stuff, so early git builds his majestic palace and you lay an earthquake on his, carving it in two before summoning a volcano in the middle, just to rub his face in it.

If I ever see it around these days, I'll pick it up, play it, and expose Past Me for the person he was.

Also, in relation to Carmen San Diego, I had major trouble with that on Master System. I was constantly told that she'd flew off to another county, and then told the colours of that county's flag. However, I didn't have the induction booklet which showed all the different flags, so I was well stumped!

Retr0gamer

Any western RPG until mass effect and listening to kat bailey when it all clicked.

I was too absorbed in jrpgs at the time. I hated the god awful battle systems and found it really boring going around being nice to everyone.

I didn't realise that yes the battle systems were utter **** compared to jrpgs but it wasn't the point of the game. Role playing the character and not feeling like you had to be nice to everyone was where the fun was.

SeantheMan

COYVB wrote: »

I was so bad at Wipeout as a kid. Genuinely couldn't get my head around it, though i tried and tried and tried and tried

How did you not get your head around pressing accelerate and turning when corners came up ? You learn to do this as a 3 year old when you start pushing your walker, or going around in your red and yellow roofed car

CiDeRmAn

Amateurs!
I learned to play that game with a NeGcon, that's where the real men were at!

And the Magic Knight games were impenetrable to me, aside from the first one, Finders Keepers.
Spellbound, Knight Time, lovely games but I had not a clue what was going on.
+1 on the Dizzy games, I fecking hate them!

Dozen Wicked Words

The Sentinel on my Spectrum. Kept loading it up because it looked so good, but never really understood what I was supposed to be doing.

Elite was the other game I kept trying to play, as I was informed by all the magazines how great it was, but just didn't get it at the time.

I think I probably get Elite now, The Sentinel still bewilders me.

J. Marston

Rory Gallagher wrote: »

Some Pirate game on the PS1.

Hadn't a ****ing clue what was going.

Overboard?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb8MiAYOBHU

Loved that game but I hadn't a clue what I was doing either.

Looking at it now, I wonder if Ubisoft used it as inspiration for Assassin's Creed naval battles.

SeantheMan

Didn't it come out as a demo with some other game ?

Skerries

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

+1 on the Dizzy games, I fecking hate them!

I enjoyed them, after I cheated and entered a poke for infinite lives

Skerries

Dozen Wicked Words wrote: »

The Sentinel still bewilders me.

yeh could never figure it out either, something about getting your sentinel higher than theirs or something