Is the Magic of Discovering Games Gone? - Retro Bird
Вставка
- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- In this video, I talk about the difference between how we discover games now compared to how we discovered them as kids. But mostly, I'll be talking about the legendary kid that is Eddie!
Is the Magic of Game Discovery Gone? - Retro Bird
If you'd like to gain access to my retro blog or just support the channel - you can find my Patreon here: / retrobird
New videos uploaded every Friday! Be sure to ring the bell if you subscribe!
Follow me on Twitter here: / retrobirdgaming
or on Instagram here: / retrobirdmatt
#retrobird
Games played: Mario Golf (0:00), X-Men 2 (0:20), Legendary Axe (0:35), Castlevania Chronicles (0:43), Rocket Knight Adventures (1:10), Thunder Force V (3:15)
It's not gone my friend; just harder to achieve than when we were growing up. And let's face facts;Jimmy is NEVER going to get his games back. Who's the dirty dog now? 😂
And it's about time that Rocket Knight Adventures made another cameo.
My favorite youtube channel!!!
Your sense of humor is perfect
Almost as good as a chocolate banana shake
Wow. I guess I was an Eddy. Maybe I still am.
I think halo for xbox killed it I havnt played another game since for console.
The "Eddie" spirit: the newest piece to the Retro Bird lore
Fun story about Castlevania Chronicles. I started extreme mode when the game was new, and gave up at stage 2. Then, 22 years later I fired up the Playstation, and the save was still intact. Actually completed extreme mode 2 decades later. I've still got it!
Loved discovering new games from magazines, ads on the tv and school playground talk (sometimes even recommendations from an Eddie). I still feel excitment from some releases with big hype around them but I definitely resonate with the message of the video, it was just a different time as they say...
alot of games were good now u get bugs and nah I'll passed
This "Eddie" comment was so funny to me, because my name is Edson. My friends called me "Little Ed" (Edinho). I live in Brazil and I had a Saturn on my teenage/young adult years. All my friends that had Mega Drive (Genesis) and Super Nintendo came to play at my house. I asked my Dad always to buy some new games, so I was definitely an "Eddie", for my neighbors. Here we have Tectoy, so the Sega Saturn was filled with many kinds of games. Hahahahha. Great video as always, thanks!
one of the worst things one can do these days is to watch trailers for display pics of games that catches our eyes, and then we have companies releasing all sorts of videos related to the game and special collectors editions that leave nothing to the player's imagination.
@@Jucelegario Those were the times! The 90s. So many legendary games, we came to discover.
Hora que li Edinho pensei, como gringo fala assim? Aí me toquei que pode ser Br...😂😂😂
Retrobird keeps the magic alive 🙌
My Eddie’s name was Frank and he opened my world up to the N64. Thanks Frank! (Wherever you are)
I'll never forget going into a store and seeing the SNES box for Yoshi's Island. The way they put that Super Mario World 2 logo with it made me nearly shadow drop in my pants. Back then, just seeing a new number next to a familiar logo was enough to create that magic. To this day, that 3 next to the Sonic The Hedgehog logo still looks sexy to me.
It’s been a little while since I last watched, but I just want to say I always appreciate the style, quality, and your signature sarcastic humor. Your videos are always a pleasure to watch!
Timmy!!! It's you! Are you here to get your game back? Forget it. It belongs to Retro Bird now.
Thank you! Happy to hear that :)
The magic is still there, you just have to look for it. Sometimes you get into your backlog and realize it was on the shelf the whole time.
And knowing is half the battle
Man, this whole video was a shadow drop.
Dude cracks me up in the first 2 minutes. Deserves a like
For me the magic was walking into an arcade and seeing the warm glow of all the screens, the dodgy customers, the stale tobacco smells and then sitting down on a hard stool to play something I had either played before that I loved or standing behind someone to see what a qgame I had never played before was actually like after someone had popped in a coin. The demo screens as well. Damn I sure miss real arcades.
I immediately related to this, and discovered I am an Eddie. Loved this!
I remember seeing rogue squadron in the shops for the N64 , then checking out a few shops to find the best price. The excitement of the journey home and loading the cart in was a great feeling .
I think we're definitely past the Golden Platinum and Diamond ages of gaming.
Thanks to RetroBird, I discovered Rocket Knight Adventures ;). That led me to discovering both Sparkster releases. Grew up with the SNES and now exploring the Genesis library. RKA is now one of my favorite games!
Very happy to hear that!
RetroBird was Eddie this whole time!
I think I might have been an Eddie. My favourite NES game was Yo! Noid! And my favourite Genesis game was Vectorman. I rented Ballz three weeks in a row. I just wanted to play whatever everyone else WASN’T playing. Good times!
For me, the magic today lies (mostly) in REdiscovery. I say “mostly” because there are still some surprises here and there with modern titles, like Astro Bot. Going back through my old library of games, or finding something I don’t own, but might have at one point, or might have played at a friend’s house, really brings back the magic.
Case in point, I have been rediscovering the beauty and fun of (you’ll LOVE this) the old *Donkey Kong Country* games for the SNES. Yes, everyone is ablaze over the return of *Donkey Kong Country Returns HD* for the Switch just because of it’s price point, and whether or not it’s a good port, so I decided to fire up the original trilogy just to have some fun.
I’m tellin’ ya, these old games are a blast. Playing them on my Switch in handheld mode is a treat to the eyes. I always loved them, but the MAGIC is back in my rediscovering just how great these games were so long ago.
I find that going back to play older games on older hardware is the real treat for me. More and more, I am a retro gamer all the way. Modern games just don’t usually have that sense of amazement. The funny thing about it is that the old games are ancient when it comes to technology, yet I still feel a sense of awe when I play them, especially SNES, Genesis, Turno GraFX-16, and Neo Geo titles. Something about the games from the 90’s really has me hooked.
On a side note, since the gaming community is so angry about it, I have been debating on whether or not I should get *Donkey Kong Country Returns HD* . Tonight, I settled the debate. Nintendo has the game available as a demo, so I downloaded it. While some may have a point about it being a tad overpriced, I gotta say, I had an absolute blast with this demo! That magic was definitely there in rediscovering this Wii classic. While it’s not pushing any boundaries, this game is very pathetically pleasing and it is every bit as fun as I remember playing it on the Wii. This one is going in my library. Why? MAGIC!
BTW, my name is Brian. How about those coincidences, huh?!
Hi retro bird just wanna say love your videos keep up the good work. I also wanted to say that I’ve been collection for about 2 years now and have a lot of games now! When I was young I always wanted a Super Nintendo, I’m almost 18 now and it has changed my life for the better, your advice has been helpful and entertaining too. Thanks!
The first time I rode the elevator to Siofra River in Elden Ring I felt the same sense of awe and wonder as the first time I saw Mario in 16-bits, the first time the dogs crashed through the windows in Resident Evil, or the first time I saw hundreds of players gathered together in EverQuest. These moments are rarer now but every so often I'm still reminded why I love gaming.
Such a great moment in ER. It really is rare to experience such wonder.
I knew 2 Eddies growing up, both introduced me and others to some great and/or weird games.
I like to imagine that Kevin bacon watched this video and was mildly confused as he tried to figure out those logistics. Also, I think I’m a half Eddie, definitely have some Eddie tendencies, but we had another friend who was definitely a full Eddie.
Before the internet! ........................ Really though, access to ALL the information now took the Eddie discovery moments away. The one thing that kind of gave me that feeling again, was discovering Rom hacks of my favorite games that I didn't know existed for a while. Just don't look for them for a couple years and there it is, "I got to try that!", all over again.
Renting games from the video store was my main Eddie. Back in the 90s looking at the cartridge of Mario Party 1 and taking the leap of faith. Best decision ever! Battletanks was an Eddie game for me as well.
The first Mario Party was a game I took a chance on too. Paid off big time for me :)
hello Retrobird, can you review Audition Online, it's a dance video game please 🙏🙏🙏
I was definitely the Eddie in my friend group. Most of my friends were playing NHL 94 and I was dragging out the turbografx 16 and a copy of side arms, trying to show them how cool it was
I did not know there was a Thunder Force 5... you are my Eddie with these games in the background!
Let me tell you about lightning force
In 1988, my Eddie in middle school's name was Chad. And, in retrospect, he was (and still is) an absolute chad.
What's gonna happen when Timmy actually sees one of these videos?
Every other week, it feels as though you have a line connected to my soul. I'm in my late 30's and every video you make hits me so hard.
"The wolf man has nards!" -- Monster Squad. Look it up.
One of my fondest memories was watching my friend beat RE2 and thinking this was the best game ever!
When I was younger and got an NES, my first game was Q-Bert. I never ended up with Mario or Duckhunt, and instead, my next game - of all things - was Korean import. Not sure who remembers this phenomenon, but there was this notion going around that Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa!! by Konami was 'Baby Mario', which was why my Mom bought the game from our local retro store. I'd talk about 'Baby Mario' at school while everyone else was talking Mario 2 and 3 and everyone thought I was out to lunch. My next game was Star Tropics, so I was always the weird one with games no one had, lol.
Later, my friend one a Donkey Kong Country competition at Blockbuster in our city, and the prize was 2 free game rentals per week for a year, so we rented eeeeeverything. Mario's Time Machine, Nobunaga's Ambition (beat that together during a sleepover weekend...unified Japan, lol), you name it.
These days, I discover games from hearing someone talk about them or showing them. I recently picked up Panzer Bandit on PS1 from seeing it on video, Mole Mania from this channel, Operation Logic Bomb from CGQ's Weekend Rental series...and the list goes on.
One very cool way I've discovered GameBoy titles (didn't have one growing up) has been by participating in the YokoiKids Gb game of the month club. A submission is selected for a given month and the idea is to play that game and submit something based on or around it. Could be a review, a drawing, a sculpture, anything really. Last month was Trip World, so I asked my daughter to make a plush of the character Yakapoo and submitted it for her. It's all a ton of fun, and a good excuse to discover and play new GameBoy games :)
My "Eddie"'s name was Chris. When I had an NES with SMB3, he was rocking a SNES with like 20 games, and he rented several. I'd go to his house to play 2 player. He still lives around here, just a little further away than before. We went our own ways after high school. I remember he was playing a SNES loony tunes game, and when a gigantic Nasty Canasta started walking across the screen, I was like "holy sh_t". lol
My most recent magical discovery was thanks to either my wife playing this game, or Steam putting it in my discovery queue - I don't remember which. Little Kitty, Big City absolutely ROCKED my world once I started playing it! One of the very few games that I 100%'d AND hunted for all the achievements!
In general though, yeah the magic of discovering a banger of a game is rarer than ever.
What's bizarre is that I just had a conversation with someone about "cousin games" and I said the game that comes to mind is War Gods on N64. It was absolutely the game that fits perfectly in this context, it almost felt like a fever dream looking back because I forgot all about it but I somehow still knew so much about it
Eddie here! I had the Sega Saturn and the Virtual Boy. I ended up making video games 😂
It's not a Retro Bird video if one of the following is not mentioned: his bread bag collection, bananas, or Timmy
Timmy’s never getting that game back
*Bread clip
Get on My Lawn hat, honorable mention
Yes RB!
Hello from Oxford, England!
Great to have you back.
I missed not having a video last week.
Although i have been hammering your backlog!😊
Hope you feeling better bro 👍☀️
I am feeling better and glad to be back!
I laughed about 10 times more at this video than at previous uploads. Not sure why. Fun video.
The Timmy rug pull got me
1:50 I'm dying!!!
All in one day I found out about the Dreamcast and its cancelation at the mall.On sale under a 100 bucks and come home with a Big bundle of Dreamcast stuff including a light gun and there weren't many made. Rollercoaster of emotions that day. LOL
Happy your feeling better, thanks for the great video this week!
I am and glad you enjoyed it!
Thank you so much for your entertaining enthusiasm! It is so refreshing to be able to watch your videos to relax and remember. You have those cool Uncle Vibes. 😎
Judge Dredd on the SNES was an Eddie game.
Poor Timmy. Never going to let him down. 😂
As someone who has completely ignored VR up until a couple weeks ago when I was given a psvr, the thrill of discovery has been rekindled for me. So many cool experiences that I had no idea even existed until I dove down the rabbit hole very recently. It’s not going to be for everyone, but it has been a super fun and interesting journey for me so far.
#immyowneddie
I was able to experience a sorta Magic similar to "Discovering"
I've been playing White Knight Chronicles 1 on the PS3 Recently! And as I kept playing it, it gave me Flashbacks to when I first played Xenoblade!
It was the Magic of feeling like I was Playing Xenoblade for the First Time All Over Again! As well as, the Magic of Discovering a New Game that I LIKE!
I was friends with an "Eddie" for a long time. His name was Julian. RIP buddy.
I use to love his ice cream sammies: Big Ed.
Sorry to hear about your friend :(
Poor, poor Timmy. He's never getting Mean Bean back, is he?😂
😂😂
"Oblivion" was it for me when the 360 came out 2005, now it's just nothing......wow 20 years ago!
Try terraria 😊
This one cut real, *real* deep into my 42 yr old memory of playing games with random friends. Good lord.
Sifu and Rollerdrome gave me magical discovery feelings in recent years.
Also, movies still can do this, even when found recommended online. Seeing a movie that really hits your tastes in a story you haven’t heard can feel magical still to this day. And the amount of movies out there from history, they’re all pretty much shadow dropped unless you’re incredibly invested in movie releases
I got a Miyoo Mini+ and I'm discovering ALL SORTS of awesome games and hidden gems I never played as a kid. My first console was an NES and now finally able to play some of the games I always wanted to and it makes so happy
The Miyoo Mini Plus is my lunch break console. It's great for cataloguing your collection and playing your backlog. Definitely my favorite emulation portable for old-school games
I LOL'd at, "Eddie is a spirit!" 😂 That line was so unexpected. #EddieGames
Hey, it's your cousin's wife's nephew's brother's friend. You should play Toodee and Topdee. You're welcome!
WTF i had an eddy growing up and thats how I found out about ace combat games. SO SICKKKK hahaha
I might be an Eddie. I've played megaman 7 AND 8! You, however, introduced me to a game that would soon become one of my all time favorites: Celeste. thank you! you were my Eddie!
All right! Yeah, Celeste is awesome.
My Eddie introduced me to the TurboGrafix 16! No one else in my neighborhood had even heard of it until then. Great video!
I wish every shadow drop announcement said shadow drop the way you do.
I have sons aged between 5 and 13 and I can tell you they still experience the magic of discovering games. Its VERY DIFFERENT to when I was a kid and a lot of the time it isnt even games that would appeal to me, but it definitely activates magic in them ❤
Thanks for all your videos.
I think I'm an Eddie. I'm the one that had (still has) the PS Vita, always recommends Gravity Rush 1 and 2 (and got the platinum), introduces my wife to games like Slime rancher, etc.
at this point, I just feel bad for Timmy.. poor guy! 😂
My friend's neighbor was my Eddie. He had a modded origjnal Xbox with a ton of games on it. Introduced me to the gem that is Mortal Kmmbat Shaolin Monks.
I had both a good Eddie and a bad Eddie in my childhood. The good Eddie introduced me to Klonoa and the bad one to Metal Slug. While they were vastly different people and the other one turned out to be not that great of a guy, they both introduced me to some of my absolute favorite franchises!
Spot on! I’m 39, and bought a lot of games off of box art and description. Deus Ex on PS2 was one of the biggest surprises. Those surprises just added to the whole gaming experience.
Maybe it's just me, but I've enjoyed video games (modern and retro), much more as an adult. Many games that people consider the "best of all time" are games that I got to experience for the first time as an adult, and I think because of that I was able to get more out of them. The magic is still there, it's the perspective that's changed.
My Eddie was named Michael and for the most part he was a good Eddie. He convinced me to buck the trend and get the SEGA Master System and I am forever grateful lol.
Eddie was the local arcade to me and my friends in the 80's, we never knew what new games were coming. The first time setting eyes on games like Rolling Thunder, Robocop, Shinobi, Double Dragon and Street Fighter 2 were magical.
Modern compilations is how I usually discover new/old games now. Perks include bonus art, cheese rewind, and sometimes online multiplayer. A fun way to discover.
If I find something I really like, I’ll go over and play it on mister.
When you're a kid everything is new, so it will feel more special.
Sure, but we had less access to information as well, so there was always a surprise around the coroner. We certainly didn't have the kind of entertainment options, either. I can't say for sure, but I really believe the time for us growing up in the 80s was just different than today. I actually feel sorry for kids nowadays. They seem to have to grow up way too fast.
@@stephenthomas1492Exactly, there is NO comparison. Today's kids have none of the surprise magical discoveries we had and it's really sad to me. Primitive, but very rapidly changing/improving technology and low access to information were the drivers.
It's was quite different though. 80's kids had their minds blown on a weekly basis. It was insane and awesome.
I do miss it sometimes
So deep go listen to some billie eilish and think some more 😢. just to make sure I'm clowning this fool
I'm the Eddie for my kids and some friends. I've amassed a fairly large collection (large for me) at this point, and am always showing them something new. I also introduced a friend to Demon's Crest now that long ago, and he was blown away (the intro is a personal favorite of mine). Even got a poster to go with it now.
Oh was up north working at a site 5 hours from my house. The 3DS had a copy of Demon's Crest on it. I forgot I had it there. Man had a used copy back in the day.
Damn this is a smart video. I remember times in my childhood when I briefly encountered a kind of kid that I didn't know existed. Growing up in a relatively small town in Oregon, I've always assumed those interactions were with "Big City" kids, or even kids from rich families, where the kid easily obtained all the things I only saw in magazines, and I quite literally assumed not a single one of these products existed in the wild. The Neo Geo was definitely one of those products. I remember as a kid thinking that the manufacturer has probably only sold a dozen of the Neo Geo because, according to my observations, no kid had that kind of money. Then I met an Eddie.
It’s definitely not gone as just a few weeks ago I was scrolling kickstarter and found Mindwave, tired the demo and loved it
My Eddie moment from my childhood was in primary school when a kid who came to my birthday party gave me (very generously) a copy of Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon on the N64. I'd never even heard of the game before, but it quickly became one of my favorites on the system!!
Ah, Eddie showed me Wolfenstein on his Dad’s computer. That’s when I found out computers can play games and after a faithful trip to CompUSA I got the shareware version of Doom for $5. That changed the entire trajectory of my career goals!
I'm an Eddie. I got games that most of my friends never had let alone, I was the only one who played Lego battles or had The multi tap for the Ps1 or even Had the Gameboy player for the GameCube and played my games at home rather than carrying around my GBA all the time.
This was just really good. I've liked the comedy and overall feeling of the content so far, but this hits home.
Glad to see you recovered well from your cold, hope you feel better!.
Anyway, back to the video actually in 0:40...
I still do that, lol!, last game that I bought just because the boxart looked cool was Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom on PS4.
And the game was neat and amazing!.
I definitely knew a few Eddie’s and they certainly did bring the magic. I am now an Eddie myself trying to keep that magic alive that I very much miss
As an Eddie myself (Edwin), this hit me in the feels. Especially since the only people who still call me Eddie are from my childhood. Neighborhood NES memories...ahhhhh.
Browsing online is not the same as Browsing in the store....just looking at all the physical copies behind the glass...then opening the box in the car on the way home, reading the manual....now everything is digital and too convenient
I think I'm an Eddie. I did play Sonic and Mario, but a lot of games I like playing are retro PC games that many don't talk about much (on PC love Blake Stone, Monster Bash, and Jagged Alliance 1) or games others won't even think of playing (like cartoon tie-in games for example, love me games with my favorite characters).
I think I'm an Eddie because all I played as a kid were SpongeBob games, Ben 10 games and other cartoon character games.
@@Enzed_ Similarly, it was the Jimmy Neutron games for me. I still do play them, more recently playing Trolls: Remix Rescue and Smurfs: Mission Vileaf (seriously, Mission Vileaf is a great game IMO) as I do like those series, even though I'm an adult now.
Dude, you're so funny. I laughed so much watching this video. I love your style!
There's a game that recreated the feeling of that "magic" just about perfectly. UFO 50. It tells you nothing about the games aside from a little blurb and a little pixel art on the disk. It was really cool discovering all the secrets the games had and finding new favorites. It consumed my life for a while and I highly recommend it!
The last game that had a spark for me was UFO50 on steam. Its a port of a fictional 80s computer game collection that is really great for us older gamers.
Timmy probably carving Birds name on bullets somewhere 😂
🤣😂😅
He’s NEVER getting that game back..
Wow, you are stealthy on that Rocket Night game on the Sega Genesis over there...Good for you!
I find out about games on channels like this.
RB.......
You are an absolute 101% certified
Eddie!
😂😂😂
He's great, for sure. I wonder about why he calls himself bird. I like to think it's because he kinda looks like Tony Hawk.
@stephenthomas1492
Hahahaha!
Yes!
😁
My friend had mario 3 from Japan way before the north American release. He was a "Eddie".
I had multiple "Eddies" growing up.
Before I ever got into games, I was introduced by a brother-and-sister cousin duo who asked if I wanted to "play Nintendo," and we got started on a game of Duck Hunt. The games I played with them were some of the most mainstream of the mainstream, but from my outsider perspective, they were classic "good" Eddies (though the brother tended to vacillate between good and bad, he was mostly good). They also introduced me to PS1 gems like Crash and PS1 Frogger (that was a thing, and it was epic).
I also had a much older cousin who had a son, who introduced me to the Dynasty Warriors franchise. He was a good Eddie.
And I had a friend from school who introduced me to the SEGA Genesis, and the titles Sonic 1 and Golden Axe. Sonic was okay, but I REALLY loved Golden Axe (I was a big fan of the movies Red Sonja and Conan the Destroyer at the time). He was a fantastic Eddie; the archetypal Good Eddie.
I've also been an Eddie myself from time to time, once for an old friend when I introduced him to Pokemon Colosseum on the GameCube, and another time when I introduced a much younger cousin to X-Men Legends (also on the GameCube). To this day, I still try to "Eddie" a game to someone on occasion. I like to think I'm a good Eddie.
I love your productions. I really like the controller, spotlight, and background CRT. VV immersive
I have two games i remember finding on my own as a kid that became two of my favorite. I bought RoadKill on a discount shelf at a Menards of all places, and a used copy of Metal Arms Glitch in the System at a computer repair/used game store. I do think part of why they were so impactful was never having a bar set by being told about them, they were entirely fresh experiences for me the whole way through
You’re killing me, man! 😂 Great stuff.
Eddie! The living form of video game preservation before video game preservation.
Single handedly responsable for the question on the early internet "I played this game that had this or that as a kid but don't remember what it was called?"
For me, the Bonk games are likely my Eddie games. I remember the ads and I knew one kid that had a TG16. In more recent years, I came to realize just how charming they can be.
Mine was Spencer, he played games like Eve of Extinction and deleted my 120 hour final fantasy X save file
I wasn't expecting Retro Bird to cheese his special attack.
𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘸 𝘋𝘳𝘰𝘱
And here I thought I was the only Eddie. The Internet is both a blessing and a curse, but I’m glad to have been born in the “Eddies” (80s), lol, and have experienced first-hand the evolution of the gaming landscape.
**subscribes** 😁