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Retro I have a 14 year old nephew that can kick my ass in Fortnite, but he is unable to beat the first world in SMB1 (NES)

FernandoRocker

FernandoRocker

Piranha Plant
So, yeah. This is a thread without a purpose...

I'm 39 (almost 40). I started playing back in the 80s. I was a Nintendo child, and grew up with the NES. I have no problems beating SMB1 (NES), Mega Man (classic), and I have no problems beating games like Cuphead or beating the bosses in Hollow Knight (with defined patterns). I also replayed Metroid Prime (remaster) recently and had a blast.

But my 14 old nephew... he considers himself a "gamer" (I kinda hate that word) and considers Nintendo games as kiddie games; he only plays Fortnite, Rocket League, GTA, and Spider-Man. That's basically his whole gaming knowledge. He really considers me old, and he is always sending me videos and memes about how old I am, specially because I can beat those old games.

But he is unable to even beat the first world in SMB1. Just the idea of having to press and hold a button to run is a weird concept to him, so he mostly walks. He can't beat the first level of Cuphead (he has tried).

But he can't kick my ass in Fortnite easily...
 
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Kids have it easy these days. Games were brutal and unforgiving back in the day. The old days really molded us into battle-hardened individuals. Days where we didn’t have the internet. Days where we had to draw our own maps and take notes. Days where we didn’t have walkthroughs.

Those were the days.


I’m 45. I was there. I saw it all.
 
FernandoRocker said:
Just the idea of having to press and hold a button to run is a weird concept to him, so he mostly walks. .
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See, what's wild to me about this part is, you say he plays GTA and Fortnite. Fortnite makes you press in the left stick to run (or at least it did last time I played. No clue if that's changed since), and Rockstar loves their nonsense "mash A to run" mechanic. How is it sprint button of all things that's throwing him?
 
BlackthornOrion said:
See, what's wild to me about this part is, you say he plays GTA and Fortnite. Fortnite makes you press in the left stick to run (or at least it did last time I played. No clue if that's changed since), and Rockstar loves their nonsense "mash A to run" mechanic. How is a spring button throwing him?
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I don't know... maybe having to keep the run button pressed and having to press another button simultaneously with the same finger to jump? I really don't know but he has told me that he would have preferred to run using a shoulder button (WTF).

Maybe he is just weird...
 
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if he put as much time into that game as Fortnite or whatever, he would likely be great at it. honestly, as a kid i was much worse at games. i'm better as an adult at every genre FPS, 2D platformer, etc.
 
It is because younger generations mostly don't care about old games, so why get better at it? My son is 8 and he loves retro games, specially Mario and smash 64, but not because of the challenge, but because they have multiplayer and are fun. For what I can tell, it is us, the old ones who care about challenge and story instead of the social aspect or the viral aspect of games nowadays.
Just an opinion, of course.
 
Games are social products first and foremost. It wasnt just about the games vack then, but also the magazine articles, talking with our friends on the playground, and bragging about us finishing these things and seeing parts our friends couldnt see.

Every generation builds those lessons in us individually. I know i would have never had the patience as a kid to play Pokemon if my friends also didnt have it and it wasnt so exciting to progress with them and the anime.
 
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We were driven to become good at these games because they were all we had! :p
 
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Time to torture him with Ghosts and Goblins OP! Or Megaman. Or Metroid prime 2. Or Tetris
 
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GPKs3 said:
Kids have it easy these days. Games were brutal and unforgiving back in the day. The old days really molded us into battle-hardened individuals. Days where we didn’t have the internet. Days where we had to draw our own maps and take notes. Days where we didn’t have walkthroughs.

Those were the days.


I’m 45. I was there. I saw it all.
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but we had this... 0055 hahaha

 
I'd say 14 and being really good in a game that is way more complex the original Super Mario Bros. on NES, makes this situation a tad strange... Even if he was younger..

I did came across a situation where I presented a Classic Sonic game to my 6 years old nephew that is so used to play mobile Sonic games, but he can't compreehend that he needs to move and jump manually.. (the the mobile games are all autorunners and you just need to tap to jump).

But again, he was 6, and what he's good at is mobile stuff.
 
CyberWolfJV said:
I'd say 14 and being really good in a game that is way more complex the original Super Mario Bros. on NES, makes this situation a tad strange... Even if he was younger..

I did came across a situation where I presented a Classic Sonic game to my 6 years old nephew that is so used to play mobile Sonic games, but he can't compreehend that he needs to move and jump manually.. (the the mobile games are all autorunners and you just need to tap to jump).

But again, he was 6, and what he's good at is mobile stuff.
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being good at something requires experience, if he has never played 2D platformers, he has pretty much no prior "muscle memory" and knowledge to pull from. depending on how old you are, you had a pretty linear experience of 2D games, which translated into eachother in a lot of ways, into 3D games and new genres as they blossomed. lots of varied knowledge to pull from.
 
the more logitistical explanation is just that you likely aren't going to be very good at every single genre out there, there's always going to be a few blindspots no matter what.
pretty much every game you listed (except Rocket League) has elements involving aiming and firing at targets. and that's clear it's what he excels at rather than precise platforming.

this is also why i'm not particularly fond of game journalism "controversies" revolving around a journalist being bad at a specific game (I.E. Polygon's DOOM preview, Venturebeat's Cuphead Preview). they aren't suddenly "not qualified" to cover video games because they're bad at one specific one, the issue is simply a problem of staffing, with them getting thrown into something they're not as experienced with due to time and circumstances.

the journalist for the latter outright stated this was the case, he was the only staffer who was able to travel to Gamescom (this was the first time the game was playable publicly if i'm not mistaken) during that time. he wasn't even initally planning to upload it, but the other employees encouraged him by finding the footage hilarious, which backfired as not even clearly labeling the video as a joke was enough to stop the usual assholes from harassing him.
 
Look

You gotta find the middle ground, which is a competitive game in a genre that neither of you plays

If possible, do a fighting game. One way or another, either you or this 14-year-old child will have to hold that L
 
Dolce said:
being good at something requires experience, if he has never played 2D platformers, he has pretty much no prior "muscle memory" and knowledge to pull from. depending on how old you are, you had a pretty linear experience of 2D games, which translated into eachother in a lot of ways, into 3D games and new genres as they blossomed. lots of varied knowledge to pull from.
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Its funny. SMB even for the time was a very big jump.

We have to remember that 2D platfirming didnt start with SMB. You had more simple games like Donkey Kong and Pitfall that only required a very simple and linear jump arc and involved no offensive capabilities.

Its hard to remember that SMB is a pretty damn complex game for the era.
 
oldpuck said:
I also have a 14 year old nephew and I can kick his ass in real life
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sure about that old man?

old-man-how-many-times-do-we-have-to-teach-you.gif
 
I've beaten all the C-Sides in Celeste and I've still never beaten Super Mario Bros. I've just never been motivated to put the time into it, and it's also a deceptively hard game to understand from a modern perspective.

For years I just played it like any other Mario game, but this doesn't work that well unless you're speedrunning. The committal jump physics and inability to scroll the screen back demand a cautious approach which feels more similar to Castlevania than it does Super Mario Bros. 3 and beyond, and the game works so much better once you understand this. World 1 is a little odd, but I can totally see the combination of apparent simplicity and subtle unfamiliarity being a problem for a lot of people who grew up in the 21st century. Lack of air control is like the tank controls of platformers, something alien to newer generations, viewed with distaste and generally considered archaic.
 
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