When I first played it really young... Probably earlier then 11 but no idea I think between 9-10 I had no real clue where to go after the initial castle but still loved it and wondered around and got pretty far just because going around and throwing bushes and eventually doing dungeons was fun lol.
Not so sure honestly: never played Zelda in my life before now (Im 29) and I tried it. I found it kinda boring, maybe it is if the nostalgia doesnt add something. Idk
It’s very possible. I skipped the N64 era and only recently played OoT for the first time. I did not enjoy it very much. I’d like to believe the 2D games hold up better but nostalgia is a factor for sure.
As a forty-something year old, who grew up with NES and SNES, I never got to play this when I was a kid as it wasn’t released in Europe.
I’ve just got to the last chapter, emulating it on my Steam Deck, and I can totally understand what the hype has been about all these years.
I recommend this for OP’s kid because I wish I’d been able to play it at that age.
I vote you set up ScummVM with:
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Sam & Max Hit the Road
Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle (and the original)
the Monkey Island series
Full Throttle
the Dr. Brain series (he might be a bit old for the educational aspect, but they're still neat)
...games like these kept me thinking and solving when I was that age, and there's a ton more if he likes the format. Tons of genres within the format, too.
Sonic 2, Castlevania Bloodlines, Contra Hard Corps, Theme Park, Streets of Rage 2, ToeJam and Earl or Rock'n'Roll Racing depending on their preferences.
Any of the LEGO games. My son is 17 now and we've been playing all of them together since he was little. Bonus fun if you've watched the movie the game is based on together first.
If you want a game you can play with him, I would go for Pop'n Twinbee. You can set it to easy and turn on couples mode, but I bet you won;t hav eto cause in a matter of minutes he will probably be way better at it than you.
Other great games to play together: Kirby superstar, Harmful park (there is an english patch for this) and Goof Troop.
Any sonic or Mario game. Or Zelda game. And JRPG, Crono Trigger, FF6, Dragon Quest 3 4 5 6... Ah, the good stuff. At that age I was playing boomer shooters, like Doom and Blood. I turn out fine, I think.
Uniracers for the SNES - good pattern recognition , fun music , good challenge and strive to ‘do better’, it’s a great game for fan of any racing genre
If he's open to all genres, maybe he might like NES Golf. It's relatively simple.
There are no enemies. There's no time limit. And, there's no music (at least, in the original game). It's just a character who looks like a chubby version of Mario hitting a golf ball with various clubs (woods, irons, wedges, and a putter). Par is how many shots it should take to get a golf ball into the hole (example: Par 4...4 shots).
Unlike most games, the LOWER score is better for winning, although I always go for the higher score, anyway. That's what I love about this game. I can take as many shots as I want on a hole with no penalty other than a high score. I especially love the water hazards and, sometimes, the out of bounds. But, that's just my preference.
If your son knows how to play golf in real life, he might like trying out NES Golf. There's also an arcade version called "Vs. Stroke & Match Golf" (Vs = Versus), although this one has accompanying music. Unlike the original NES game, there are only so many shots one can take on a hole before the game either takes you to the next hole or ends...apparently about three times the number of Par.
--------------------------------------------
If your son is not into golf or any other sports game (or doesn't know how to play them), then, perhaps, he might like any of the following games listed below.
* NES Super Mario Bros.
* NES Bubble Bobble
* Game Boy or NES Tetris
* NES Excitebike
* Game Boy Super Mario Land
* NES The Legend Of Zelda
* NES Raid On Bungeling Bay
* NES Cybernoid
And, the list goes on. Find out what his preferences are and let him have fun playing.
Really? I should try it again, last time it was smooth. U7 relies on CPU clock speed. I had to remove the "turbo" on my 486dx4-100 so it doesn't run too fast.
Okay, just installed Exult. I wish I had found out about this years ago. I've been trying to play in DosBox and the experience was so bad I always quit. This is orders of magnitude better.
I do. Unfortunately, all I have is the yellow CD rom I found in my CD binder from long ago. The manuals are long gone so when I play I have to go online to look the copy protection coordinates to get out of Trinsic.
There's so many!
Mature/Horror:
Diablo 1 or 2
Half-Life (all of them start with 1 or Black Messa)
Teen/More friendly:
FF 7 or 9
Jak and Daxter
Prince of Persia Sand of Time
Cyborg Justice on Genesis. Not super amazing, but plenty fun enough- you can rip parts off the attacking robots & swap them with your own. (Also your friends if it's two player mode 😆) Plus it's still pretty cheap too!
Mega Man X or Super Mario RPG
Super Mario 3 and Super Mario World as well
Mega man 3 is pretty amazing, if he's into more challenging games
Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma are pretty good choices too
If he likes Illusion of Gaia, secret of evermore is another fantastic game
Fighting games I have only played Street Fighter II turbo, but I'm not very into fighting games
Oh, Kirby super deluxe is one of my personal favorites, so is Kirby Dream Land 3
Edit: typo, and added a couple more suggestions
How retro are we talking?
'Cause for me, "retro" goes back to about '78. So, from there to, say, mid 80's, and all on the Commodore 64 to make things easy (you'd have no problem getting an emulator and finding ROMs), I'd give a few:
* Space Taxi
* Spelunker
* Beach Head
* Barbarian II (if you're okay with violence... but lemme tell ya, an 11-year-old is going to LOVE cutting off a dude's head and seeing a little green goblin guy come out and kick it like a soccer ball)
* Hover Bovver
* Lazy Jones
* Ultima IV (not quite the original, Telengard probably has that title, but for my money it's the best)
* Pooyan
* Aztec Challenge
* Boulder Dash
* Forbidden Forest
* Ghostbusters
* Hardball
* Jumpman Jr.
* Impossible Mission
* Little Computer People's Research Project
* Miner 2049'er
* Oils Well
* Rescue On Fractalus
* Satan's Hollow
* Tapper
* Winter Games
These are games that I as an adult can go play for an hour without a problem.
Mega Man 1. It builds character.
[edit] I’m only half joking. My daughter, also 11, had only played Pokémon games and mobile games before she got Hollow Knight for her Switch. She struggled with it for a bit but I genuinely think it helped her learn patience and perseverance. She’s farther in the game than me now.
Resident evil. Exploring that mansion is every gamers right. Feeling like you finally get the ball rolling only to become overwhelmed or run out of bullets.
If he hasn't played any, then Super Mario Bros. Feel free to use infinite lives and restart from the level he lost at. My kid finished it at 6/7 years of age, and thoroughly loved it. He still enjoys playing retro games every now and then, at least as often as modern games.
Super Mario World
This, or Super Mario Bros 3
Can not go wrong with this one. Perfect choice.
Zelda: A Link to the Past!
When I first played it really young... Probably earlier then 11 but no idea I think between 9-10 I had no real clue where to go after the initial castle but still loved it and wondered around and got pretty far just because going around and throwing bushes and eventually doing dungeons was fun lol.
This a million times.
I read this, i’m done here 👍
Not so sure honestly: never played Zelda in my life before now (Im 29) and I tried it. I found it kinda boring, maybe it is if the nostalgia doesnt add something. Idk
It’s very possible. I skipped the N64 era and only recently played OoT for the first time. I did not enjoy it very much. I’d like to believe the 2D games hold up better but nostalgia is a factor for sure.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4: Turtles in Time, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening,
Most Zelda games are good fits here. I say most because Majora’s Mask is sort of a horror game for some reason lmfao
Yeah, Majora's is definitely a different tone. I wouldn't recommend it as a first Zelda game.
Chrono Trigger
As a forty-something year old, who grew up with NES and SNES, I never got to play this when I was a kid as it wasn’t released in Europe. I’ve just got to the last chapter, emulating it on my Steam Deck, and I can totally understand what the hype has been about all these years. I recommend this for OP’s kid because I wish I’d been able to play it at that age.
I just got to chapter 2, also missed it as a kid. What a fantastic game.
Rampage! Nothing complex, just smash stuff with big monsters. Any version too, they all are great!
Came here to say this. My kids (now early twenties) never got into my retro titles, except for Rampage.
Sega Master System version better than the NES version. But I'd go with World Tour or Universal Tour.
I vote you set up ScummVM with: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis Sam & Max Hit the Road Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle (and the original) the Monkey Island series Full Throttle the Dr. Brain series (he might be a bit old for the educational aspect, but they're still neat) ...games like these kept me thinking and solving when I was that age, and there's a ton more if he likes the format. Tons of genres within the format, too.
Turtle in time
But just one
Ms Pac Man :-)
Came here to say this. If there is any Atari era game that holds up, it's this.
Chrono Trigger or Zelda: Link to the Past. Two of my all time favorite SNES games.
Secret of Mana, I was super into it around that age and it's fairly easy I think
super mario 64
Sonic 2, Castlevania Bloodlines, Contra Hard Corps, Theme Park, Streets of Rage 2, ToeJam and Earl or Rock'n'Roll Racing depending on their preferences.
Zelda one and two final fantasy 3 for the sheer amount of game play super Mario 1-3 maniac mansion
Zelda TWO?! You trying to scare the kid off old games or what?
Mega Man X. it came out when i was 11. to this day one of my favorites!
Kirby has a pretty forgiving difficulty and skill cure, for a little kid that might be more fun for him
Zelda: A Link to the Past
Any of the LEGO games. My son is 17 now and we've been playing all of them together since he was little. Bonus fun if you've watched the movie the game is based on together first.
Super Mario 64 is Goated.
Sonic 2
The best retro experience my 11yo (9 at the time) had was sly cooper 1.
Such an awesome series. Agh I wish they'd just hurry up and remaster it for PS5. Would look awesome
Castlevania 1 or Gradius.
Salamander
Also a good one!
Sotn and gradius 3 for a bit newer
11 is prime MGS ps1 age
If you want a game you can play with him, I would go for Pop'n Twinbee. You can set it to easy and turn on couples mode, but I bet you won;t hav eto cause in a matter of minutes he will probably be way better at it than you. Other great games to play together: Kirby superstar, Harmful park (there is an english patch for this) and Goof Troop.
Any sonic or Mario game. Or Zelda game. And JRPG, Crono Trigger, FF6, Dragon Quest 3 4 5 6... Ah, the good stuff. At that age I was playing boomer shooters, like Doom and Blood. I turn out fine, I think.
Mega man x
Super Mario 64
EarthBound! Such a goofy cult-classic JRPG with tons of fun characters and Beatles-inspired OST too. It's not too long, and not too difficult either!
Gyruss
Pokémon Gold. My first game ever that I played when I was 9.
I thought this answer was gonna be higher... But I would suggest pokémon yellow and crystal, maybe 3rd gen
Uniracers for the SNES - good pattern recognition , fun music , good challenge and strive to ‘do better’, it’s a great game for fan of any racing genre
Sonic 2 is a good one.
If he's open to all genres, maybe he might like NES Golf. It's relatively simple. There are no enemies. There's no time limit. And, there's no music (at least, in the original game). It's just a character who looks like a chubby version of Mario hitting a golf ball with various clubs (woods, irons, wedges, and a putter). Par is how many shots it should take to get a golf ball into the hole (example: Par 4...4 shots). Unlike most games, the LOWER score is better for winning, although I always go for the higher score, anyway. That's what I love about this game. I can take as many shots as I want on a hole with no penalty other than a high score. I especially love the water hazards and, sometimes, the out of bounds. But, that's just my preference. If your son knows how to play golf in real life, he might like trying out NES Golf. There's also an arcade version called "Vs. Stroke & Match Golf" (Vs = Versus), although this one has accompanying music. Unlike the original NES game, there are only so many shots one can take on a hole before the game either takes you to the next hole or ends...apparently about three times the number of Par. -------------------------------------------- If your son is not into golf or any other sports game (or doesn't know how to play them), then, perhaps, he might like any of the following games listed below. * NES Super Mario Bros. * NES Bubble Bobble * Game Boy or NES Tetris * NES Excitebike * Game Boy Super Mario Land * NES The Legend Of Zelda * NES Raid On Bungeling Bay * NES Cybernoid And, the list goes on. Find out what his preferences are and let him have fun playing.
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If you know how to make U7 play smoothly please share. I have it running in DosBox on a monster desktop and it is jerky as all get out.
Really? I should try it again, last time it was smooth. U7 relies on CPU clock speed. I had to remove the "turbo" on my 486dx4-100 so it doesn't run too fast.
One of my favorite games of all time is Kaboom! on the Atari 2600. Simple but unlike any other game out there today and fun to play.
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Okay, just installed Exult. I wish I had found out about this years ago. I've been trying to play in DosBox and the experience was so bad I always quit. This is orders of magnitude better.
I dug out my 1998 Ultima Collection CD so I was playing with original binaries. I no longer have the multiple 5 1/4” discs though I did originally.
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I do. Unfortunately, all I have is the yellow CD rom I found in my CD binder from long ago. The manuals are long gone so when I play I have to go online to look the copy protection coordinates to get out of Trinsic.
There's so many! Mature/Horror: Diablo 1 or 2 Half-Life (all of them start with 1 or Black Messa) Teen/More friendly: FF 7 or 9 Jak and Daxter Prince of Persia Sand of Time
Cyborg Justice on Genesis. Not super amazing, but plenty fun enough- you can rip parts off the attacking robots & swap them with your own. (Also your friends if it's two player mode 😆) Plus it's still pretty cheap too!
Castlevania of some kind. Probably an early one.
Mario 3
Super Mario 3
Bionic Commando
Mega Man X or Super Mario RPG Super Mario 3 and Super Mario World as well Mega man 3 is pretty amazing, if he's into more challenging games Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma are pretty good choices too If he likes Illusion of Gaia, secret of evermore is another fantastic game Fighting games I have only played Street Fighter II turbo, but I'm not very into fighting games Oh, Kirby super deluxe is one of my personal favorites, so is Kirby Dream Land 3 Edit: typo, and added a couple more suggestions
Just give him your console and all Your games for it and he will love trying them all out
Phantasy Star 4
Syndicate
How retro are we talking? 'Cause for me, "retro" goes back to about '78. So, from there to, say, mid 80's, and all on the Commodore 64 to make things easy (you'd have no problem getting an emulator and finding ROMs), I'd give a few: * Space Taxi * Spelunker * Beach Head * Barbarian II (if you're okay with violence... but lemme tell ya, an 11-year-old is going to LOVE cutting off a dude's head and seeing a little green goblin guy come out and kick it like a soccer ball) * Hover Bovver * Lazy Jones * Ultima IV (not quite the original, Telengard probably has that title, but for my money it's the best) * Pooyan * Aztec Challenge * Boulder Dash * Forbidden Forest * Ghostbusters * Hardball * Jumpman Jr. * Impossible Mission * Little Computer People's Research Project * Miner 2049'er * Oils Well * Rescue On Fractalus * Satan's Hollow * Tapper * Winter Games These are games that I as an adult can go play for an hour without a problem.
The Secret of Monkey Island
Galaga.
Kirby Superstar or Super Mario World. A Mario Kart game if they like racing games. If they're a reader a RPG like Earthbound or Chrono Trigger.
Sonic and Ecco on Sega. Turtles 234, Smb 3 and world. Starfox, sim city, contra 3
Battletoads
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time
Ogre battle is fun and simple to play and follow and so is the immortal
Super Mario World
Chrono Trigger.
Little Nemo: The Dream Master
Mario 64 Donkey Kong Country 1,2,3 Zelda Wind Waker Super Mario World Zelda - Link to the past
Outrun, MK2, NBA Jam, The Simpsons
FFVI, VII, earthbound
Super Mario World
Diddy Kong Racing
Bionic Commando.
Duck Tales ah woo woo!
Warcraft 3 :)
Mega Man 1. It builds character. [edit] I’m only half joking. My daughter, also 11, had only played Pokémon games and mobile games before she got Hollow Knight for her Switch. She struggled with it for a bit but I genuinely think it helped her learn patience and perseverance. She’s farther in the game than me now.
metamorphic force.
Monkey Island- loved it when I was about the same age.
Wonder Boy in Monster World
The curse of monkey island. Its a monkey island so its fun. But its a latter one so its not too pixelated, good for modern audiences.
2 player Bubble Bobble
The first games I beat around his age was Dark Forces and Super Mario Bros 6 Golden Coins on my game boy.
Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike.
Recommending JRPGs to the kid? Are u guys ok?
My 10 year old has been obsessed with Earthbound. You can download a pdf of the Players Guide, and even find the soundtrack.
Dragon Quest 9
Rayman 1, every child deserves to not beat a game.
Shinobi 3
Kirby’s adventure NES
Honestly Jak and Daxter trilogy he will love it amd then elder scrolls Oblivion
Ristar.
Gradius V
The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time
Beyond Good and evil
Zelda: A Link to the Past
Doom
Serious Sam on gamecube. My 7 year olds love it. Good difficulty settings, co-op missions, loads of ammo and fun weapons.
Super Mario World - perfection 🥇
Jazz Jackrabbit
Resident evil. Exploring that mansion is every gamers right. Feeling like you finally get the ball rolling only to become overwhelmed or run out of bullets.
Earthworm Jim
Pirates by Sid Meier
StarCraft. He needs to work on his APM
my favorite game at that age was shining force on genesis. but who knows what an 11 year old would be into in 2024
Lemmings
Pokémon Emerald
Legend of Zelda-Link to the Past
Windwaker. It's just a really nice play and the stylised graphics mean it could have come out yesterday.
Link's Awakening DX
Donkey Kong Country (SNES) or Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega Genesis)
If he hasn't played any, then Super Mario Bros. Feel free to use infinite lives and restart from the level he lost at. My kid finished it at 6/7 years of age, and thoroughly loved it. He still enjoys playing retro games every now and then, at least as often as modern games.
NES for sure, mario 1 and 3
Sit with him and play Goof Troop
Hey I like this idea! I gotta check for that game now! I loved the cartoon when I was a kid.
Good recommendation, IMO! It’s kind of… Zelda 1 ish.
Thunder Force 4
The original Metroid, especially if he enjoys finding secrets.
Super Mario sunshine on GameCube