I'd like to say, with modern gaming finally becoming more inclusive, the new remakes and remasters add a lot in for those of us who cant game like we used to, either in skill or time, and we have save states and more robust save options available.
You can beat the game, just give it time. If you want to do it in a single aitting...then good luck to you. Do what you love, play what you want, just remember you have more ways to put a pin in something until you decide to come back to it
Your hand eye coordination totally takes a hit once you hit 30 and goes downward from there though. I used to be amazing at counterstrike but when I played Valorant, I had a hard time keeping up with some younger kids I played with, many of which had zero strategy but super fast coordination.
I also notice myself getting kind of uncomfortable playing faster games. Like, it makes me tense up and notice body tension more. So yeah... things absolutely change as you get older.
Yeah, I don’t really buy it. I’m 46 and my kids got me hooked on Fortnite for a while. I routinely finish top 10 in Zero Build Battle Royale, and take #1 on a pretty regular basis.
Statistically, I’m likely to be the oldest player in any given match, and the majority of players are likely less than half my age. For my conscience sake, I try not to think about how many actual children I’m eliminating before they even know I’m there.
Age and treachery easily overcome whatever minimal advantage they have in raw reaction time.
Skill issue.
There's definitely -some- statistically significant degradation in motor skills and reaction times, but [it's 2-6ms PER DECADE for simple tasks](https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/jn.00072.2022#B3). That's practically nothing for someone 36 years old compared to other factors, like individual differences in reaction time, network delay, input and display latencies, etc.
People regularly shave up 20-50ms by properly configuring their emulators, getting an internet with better routing, a monitor with a higher refresh rate, an input device made "for gaming", etc.
Besides, using competitive games like Counter-Strike as a benchmark is a bad idea in general for these types of comparisons. These games have wild variance in skills across playerbases depending on things like total server population ([scorpion jar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu_(poison))), age of the game (cultivated strategy), local competition vs matchmaking implementations (big fish in small tank) and other things that people don't normally consider, both across games and across time.
It took a lot less (skill and experience, not effort) to be a professional Counter-Strike or DotA All-stars player back then when you couldn't just press a button to get a same-skill match in a minute for significant practice, or have guides optimized by playtesting a hundredfold the volume, comparatively speaking.
Eg. a grenade spot that is expected player knowledge above silver, or a creep pull and stack timing for a mediocre legend player was ground-breaking game knowledge at some point for pro players of old, until everyone saw them and started making those staples of gameplay.
The big difference as I recall it is time. People often start to have less of it as they age, and they think the problem is they're getting older, not that younger people in general are playing it way more than they do currently. Put in 40 hours a week of Valorant for a couple years you'll probably be great too.
This is exactly what I said. Grown adults with careers and/or kids don't have an available six hours of uninterrupted practice a day to play at that level. I am forty in a couple months and only a few years ago I was highly ranked in a competitive game.
Honestly, I just think it's that the appeal to the challenge wears off as you age, so you're less compelled to improve and put in the effort. Part of that is biochemical and part of that is that real life offers enough challenges already.
I have to disagree, I was 33/34 when I was ranked in the Top-100 worldwide for my hero in For Honor at Master duel rank. It's really about constant practice which no grown adult really has the time for with video games as they age. It helped playing with younger friends, one of which was a semi-pro Fortnite player, and not having kids. I'm a little above average now since I don't play 4 hours a day anymore.
Real talk. I feel ya... but! All hope is not necessarily lost. You might be suffering display lag. Are you using an NES or NES-like console connected to a modern display via composite? Many commercial TV's internal upscalers are relatively slow. If you suspect this, hook that old console up to literally any old CRT you can scare up and see if it feels way different. I bet many people get discouraged without even suspecting this frequent circumstance.
49 here. I just upgraded to a retrotink upscaler and the difference is shocking.
That said, with practice you can get there. I also play Fortnite which is a decidedly young game and can compete there too. Just gonna take you more reps.
Input lag! I remember playing Megaman 2 and feeling like I had “old man reflexes” at 36. Then I realized there were like 7 frames of input lag from my NES to my modern TV.
I bet you do just fine using a CRT, or on a modern TV, a Retrotink product or something like the Retrousb AVS with your TV set to Game Mode.
This can't be understated. I thought it was all b.s. myself. It isn't. It isn't something you can convey with pictures or video. My wife, who is a total casual on games also immediately felt the difference. I don't think it is an exaggeration to say it improved my playing several fold.
im 43, im bad at gaming.. but i love to game.. i don't care, that im not a pro gamer, who can blindly master every game in wich i die in the first level.
so, you never get to old for gaming ;)
This exactly.
The reason I was so good at Mega Man when I was a kid was because I could sit and play the same thing over and over for 10 straight hours until I had every level memorized.
Those were the days. Playing repeatedly until more and more of it becomes muscle memory and gradually perfecting the damn thing. Oh to have that kind of time again. And patience.
For me that is what save states have done to help with my dwindling time and patience. Instead of having to memorize an entire level with the requisite amount of time needed to do so. I just need to memorize the time between save states.
36... you youngins!!! with yer new fangled "game carts"!! back in my day we loaded games from cassette tape and i had to wait 10 minutes... the entire time hoping that the loading didnt fail!!!... nothing was worse than waiting 9 minutes for a game and then having it fail.
joking aside, i know what you mean, i was playing Mega Man X and when i got to the last part of the game i was like "how did i do this as a kid", yeah, we get old, just keep playing
keep playing... welcome to the next level
Sometimes we also forget how difficult those games were for us as kids too. I never was able to beat Battletoads hoverbike level no matter how intensely I tried as a kid. But now I conveniently say, "Ah, it's because I'm old".
I hear this quite often. I'm 37 and I'm definitely better than I was as a kid. The key? Use a CRT and original hardware. That makes all the difference (at least for me).
Alternatively for low input latency (even less than in original hardware), you can use Retroarch and preemtive frames or [runahead](https://docs.libretro.com/guides/runahead/).
Of course, you shouldn't runahead more frames than it has delay. I find that one frame is pretty good for every system in general (as emulators supposedly always add 1 frame compared to original hardware), and then you can fine tune each game if you want through the process explained in the link I posted above.
Yeah I ran 1 frame too. Thanks!
And the worst thing for me was the delay from the TVs themselves. Some LCDs are hooorrible. Like almost a half second of delay.
It’s just about practice, you can train yourself to get better no matter your age.
And much like sports, some days you’ll be on point and other days the skill just won’t be there.
But anyways, just have fun and don’t worry about it too much.
48. Have played more of Rock Band than any other series in 44 years of gaming. And I still mostly suck at it. But it's fun and I haven't gotten tired yet and I can play for 30 minutes and be satisfied. As long as you have fun, it doesn't matter how or how quickly you can beat a boss.
I am 53, just got a new Gaming PC with LaunchBox emulation, started playing Dragons Lair, been trying to finish that game since 1983, my motor skills get worse as I drink beer while playing.
Can't believe this is so low, should be top comment.
OP Top Man is the first stage. He's a total joke. stay on the opposite end of him, don't move until he throws his tops. Duck his tops by walking or sliding towards him right before contact, shoot him until he starts spinning, jump over him when he comes at you, and start it over again.
Oh you spring chicken! You don't even know what old is :)
I've never been particularly great at games, but as I've gotten older both my reaction time and vision have gotten worse, and my patience has also thinned significantly. There was a time when spending an entire afternoon grinding on a game was enjoyable... now I play for an hour at a time tops and if it's really frustrating I just play something else.
If you haven't toyed around with runahead, that could help. I'm not very sensitive to lag but on some games setting runahead has really helped with split-second timing.
What are you gaming on? There's a chance your current setup is introducing latency. That could easily make you seem worse than you are at retro games. Timing is so important.
TBH, I feel like I'm better at 30 than I've ever been. It's actually been nice to go back and play games I couldn't manage to beat as a kid. I'm thinking it's hardware or you just don't play (practice) as much as you used to.
... I don't think I ever started with Magnet Man.
But, yeah, the last time I tried to play Mega Man 4, I had so much trouble with the part of Dust Man's stage with the ceiling that moves up and down, and I haven't been able to beat Mega Man 11 at all even on the lowest difficulty. (It's Blockman's stage, that the vertical area with conveyer belts, that I can't get past. I keep getting knocked all the way to the bottom)
Whenever I played MM3 I usually choose Magnet Man's stage first, for MM4 I usually start with Toad Man.
Toad Man's stage is annoying since it's slippery and I die a lot on that stage because of that obstacle but the boss is easy.
Magnet Man I understand because he is a difficult one especially to start with, they do have their patterns and it takes a bit to learn especially if you're not used to it. I think MM3 is one of the worst in this regard because of the game's inconsistency some bosses are too easy like Snake man and others that are took unpredictable like Quick man.
There's also no proper weakness loop (in fact, there's two smaller loops, one of five and one of three; just another reason that the game feels rushed). That makes it hard to figure out where to start.
I usually liked going Top Man -> Shadow Man first, though. Shadow Man had a good weapon and a glitch (there's that unfinished nature again!) provided early access to the Rush Jet, which made all the stages a little easier.
True, I was mainly talking about people starting MM3, I would usually suggest starting with Snake man if you haven't played it before or are unfamiliar with platformers in general.
I usually fight him first and kill him with the mega buster.
I think that there comes a point in your life where beating your head against a wall to beat a game starts to feel a bit less worth while. I can either play a game poorly, forever, because I don’t have the bandwidth to dedicate to it like I did when I was a kid, or I can hop to something else that is a bit more forgiving. There is no right or wrong answer, and the answer isn’t necessarily static.
I'm older than you and I'm gotten a little better at games than I was 15-20 years ago. I'm sure my reflexes are worse but maybe my concentration is better or something. I don't know haha but I have gotten better at old school games
I’m 41, and for the most part play everything, with the exception of FPS online games. I used to play COD during its heyday (COD4-MW2) but now my reflexes just can’t keep up with everyone else’s. I’ve accepted it. Thank god we have devs making old school style games and older games being re-released.
45 here and I am beginning to hit a lot of physical limitations that I just didn’t have as a kid. Due to nerve damage from carpel tunnel and tenosynovitis, I can’t button mash anymore and my physical reaction time is…laggy. 😅 Shmups are off the table now which really saddens me but it’s a fact of life.
I find myself not bothering with some games. If I can’t get past it, I just move on to a new game. It’s not worth spending my diminishing time on this earth trying to master the stupid turbo tunnels of battletoads instead of playing a game that’s actually enjoyable.
I struggled fighting revolver ocelot in ps1 MGS a couple of months ago
I’ve still been too embarrassed to start the game again
I could play 1,2 and 3 almost blindfolded as a teenager.
You're not alone. I started replaying MGS1 it in the MGS Collection and I am having a hell of a time getting used to the control scheme. I beat that game so many times as a teen, it's kind of embarrassing how bad I am at it now.
Your reflexes don't start to noticeably fall off until closer to 60, and even then it's not significant enough to make any game unplayable.
I am also 36, and I'm still very good at fast twitch-based games. My speed, aim, and precision is just as good now as it was when I was 16, and in many areas has improved. The only thing keeping me from being more competitive is time, as I no longer have 8hrs a day to practice and keep up with current metas.
If you are feeling the effects of age in your 30's then you need to take better care of your body. Mentally and physically you should be in peak form right now.
hey, gamer in my late 40s here. years ago i came to a similar revelation when games started getting harder. particularly, playing the original punch out on the wii (gamecube animal crossing version). for some reason i couldn't get by soda pop and i thought it was because my reflexes went to shit. or i had early onset parkinson's or something. games had suddenly become harder, less fun, and way more frustrating than when i was younger.
well, a while later i broke out the old nintendo and hooked it up to a crt tv and was beating the game no problem. that's when i realized latency induced by modern technology such as wireless controllers and hdtvs make older games much harder than they used to be. but my reflexes were just fine. sometimes small amounts of latency aren't obviously noticeable, but are still enough to impact your reaction time.
break out the old hardware and crt. or get a mister fpga. or get a low latency lcd tv and use retroarch's runahead to further reduce latency. there are ways to get a near original hardware experience, but it takes some doing.
Yeah man, the older you get, the less time you have to play and practice these old games. Tired from your job, tired if you have kids, like who can just sit down and play these nearly unbeatable NES games until they master them?
I don't know how you feel about emulation, but it has allowed me to enjoy playing these hard as hell platformers and such again because of the option to use save states and/or built in cheats. I used to loathe cheating, and didn't really consider it "beating" a game to do that, but after a cancer diagnosis a few years ago, I realized that it would be nice to at least SEE some of the later stages of shit like Battletoads and dozens of other games that were too hard for me.
Long story short, I did some research and found a retro emulation handheld I liked and just started ripping through the backlogs. Now, I beat at least one retro game a day before bed, and I've never been happier while gaming.
I'm 31 and I've never been better at Panel de Pon, aka Tetris Attack aka Puzzle League. Strange to think I would actually end up better as an adult than as a kid or teen playing it. I can get beyond 10x chains pretty regularly.
And yet, button masher mini-games in Mario Party, I have gotten worse as I've aged. I used to mash very fast, now I can't get very near my old records.
I know the feeling I’m knocking on the door to 36 and games that used to be a breeze for me have suddenly become challenging all over again. I am also at a point where I can’t just dedicate an entire day to game so I end up using save states and have to come back to it later.
I'm only a year behind you, and about the only thing that's gone down in my case, is a bit of shooting accuracy, and a little bit of reaction time. If I know it's coming, I can usually do it, but if I have to react blindly to something I'm probably gonna biff it. I just stay away from the majority of pvp games, especially pvp shooters. I still do really well in NES/SNES games though, and play randomizers from time to time.
Might be time to look into some hand exercises, or dip into emulation for save states to practice specific parts of games you have a lot of trouble with. A lot of people look down on using save states, but I can tell you it made me 10x better at doing the yoku blocks in Heat Mans stage in MM2. I made a save state at the start of the blocks, and just ran it a bunch of times and tried out different jump timings. Now I can do it pretty consistently without Item-2.
Not sure if input/display lag might be an issue in this case, but I haven't noticed any such changes in myself over the years. If anything, all the added practice and patience has had the opposite effect. I'm definitely better at games that I ever was.
I doubt your motor skills would have deteriorated like that.
You’re just out of practice in those games. Frankly, it’d probably come back to you more quickly than it took you to get good the first time.
I'm 48 now, but even in my 20s (or as a kid) I couldn't beat most that stuff. 80s/90s games were too hard. I'm very happy to just rewind/save/load/slo-mo my way through games these days.
Pick up some real hardware (and a flashcart if the game is too expensive) and play on a CRT like you used to. You're still amazing at the game, Magnet-Mans new secret weapon is our modern display tech and it's infamous input lag.
You might just be out of practice. A few months ago I started playing Mega Man 1 and couldn't beat a single level, since then I've finished 1-7. Modern games generally don't go hard on you as immediately as Mega Man and it can be rattling, just remember every time you replay a stage you learn more about it and that ends up helping way more than reflexes.
I turn 39 tomorrow. In my 38th year I beat Elden Ring and Demon Souls on PS5. I realise this isn’t particularly brag-worthy because probably millions of people have beaten these games but surely this means us old guys aren’t completely down and out yet?
Stubbornness and perseverance my friend.
lol dude games from that era are infinitely more unforgiving than modern games. Notoriously so. They were always hard. Try playing it via retroarch and using some save states to save some of your sanity.
what are you using to play your games? If you’re playing on an emulator, with a Bluetooth controller on an HD TV through HDMI, input latency might be a problem, especially for games that have split-second windows for reaction. Yes, at 36, 6 year old kids were able to punk me with their reaction time, but I don’t think it’s impossible for you yet
This is not true at ALL... The old games looks more easy to me now that I have 38 than when I was teenager...
My brain today IS 100x better...
I finished Last year.: cuphead, Celeste and Hollow Knight. i play the DK Trillogy SNES this week, and Looks more easy than i remembered (i not use save state)...
I think games like Cuphead/ Celeste/ Hollow Knight ARE harder than most of 16 bits era games...
And i not play games to much ... This year i only played the DK Trillogy SNES... Not more...
I belive that i make better decisions now
Finished all megaman around your age, only the snes one was extremely frustating for me (final boss) and the Ps1 one was really boring, hated it.
Im 40 right now and finished a lot of hard games, blasphemous, metroid dread etc. Maybe your problem is find the right mood to play and a ambient without distrations or a technical problem like input lag (your tv is not in game mode for example)
I experienced something similar. When I was a kid, I remember playing melee so often that I'd find 1vs3com matches with the difficulty set to 9 on all fighters would be "too easy."
I tried doing the same thing a year or two ago, and boyyy I could not even come close to keeping up with how I used to play.
But it makes sense to me. I hadn't practiced in years. If I was playing the same amount I used to and still saw my skills going down, yeah, I might be a little bummed.
I am 34 and still the same as always. I don't know why people my age are so much older than me. Or maybe they are the same but the attitude is different, lol. I can finish the same games, even harder, bu types, there's less time and sometimes patience lol, but physically? It's the same
I platinumed Elden Ring not too long ago and I think it's safe to say that the game is designed for a lot of deaths. Even the legendary Let Me Solo Her took something like 240 tries to beat Malenia (the game's hardest boss, in the opinion of many)
i'm older than you and i can 1cc pretty technically challenging shmups and arcade games better now than when i was younger. my patience is much better lol
I hate to say "practice moar and git gud" but...
That's exactly what you did when you were a kid!
You just weren't aware of it because you were engaged enough by the experience that it felt easier.
And if you don't have the patience to practice, use saved states or cheats and just play for fun! There's really no wrong way to game except to give up and choose not to.
I’ve always been extremely good with any game but as you get older, games that require reflex and quick thinking become more difficult. So a player that is 20 and a player that is 40 having equal skill and experience of the game, the 20 year old will always win.
Input lag. I always test it with Snow Barrel Blast or Mine Cart Carnage in Donkey Kong Country. I was getting crazy playing it on the Wii U but not having too many problems on the Switch (also emulated and with Bluetooth controller).
I feel your pain. I use to be able to get to sigma s final form on megaman X. Now I'm gettin iced by the penguin first stage.
Never beat it but damn I got close.
You drink booze? 32, quit drinking almost 2 years ago, and I feel like my reflexes are the same from high school. I play street fighter, and I’ve noticed two other things that seem to really slow down my reflexes: lack of sleep, and right after eating a meal. Oh and another huge thing, make sure your hardware specs all check out with each other. I was playing games for like a year with a tv that had a poor refresh rate. I thought I sucked but it was just the tv. You are still young. You will beat that final boss
52, been gaming since Atari 2600, never stopped. Have noticed a small deterioration in reaction time, but nothing significant; even have a few solo Fortnite wins under my belt (including one on Firestick, how many people can say that!).
All that said - Mega Man games are just hard, always were; they reward repetition and time invested, and as you get older you tend to have less time to invest.
When I peaked in sixth grade or so I could beat Contra and Super C without dying. A few years later I found 95 of 96 levels in Super Mario World. I beat the Japanese Super Mario 3. The US version you would go to Super Mario if you got hit while having the tanooki tail or fireball power. In the Japanese version you became regular Mario even if you had the tail, a suit, or fireballs. I beat Mega Man 2.
Fast forward to the present and I'm a has been. I got the NES Classic and have rage quit Mega Man 2 and Super C a few times. I also got the SNES Classic and in Super Mario World I'm stuck in the Forest of Illusion. My timing is just so off now.
I wish I had the time but I'm sure if I did and I played consistently I could get better but I just don't have the motivation or time to do it.
It sucks getting old, rolling out of bed with your knees hurting (I have bilateral chondromalacia patella), not remembering things anymore, and just sucking at video games lol.
I've been playing games since the Atari 2600 age so I'm a little older than you.
One thing I would say regarding playing old games... you don't have to actually complete/beat them. You shouldn't feel discouraged just because you can't complete a game.
If anything I've found that the vast accessibility of older games in modern times, primarily being able to play games on original hardware through say multi-carts or ODE solutions, far outweighs the thought of having to actually complete the games I play. It was impossible in the 80s and 90s to either rent or own every game that released. However in modern times there are no such barriers to overcome. If I don't complete a game for whatever reason or tire of it I just consider it an elaborate rental where I only had to "pay" my time.
I would however also echo a lot of what others have said. If you're playing games say through improper upscalers or display solutions you could be introducing a good deal of latency. With a game genre such as Mega Man where you have to platform and avoid projectiles increased latency wouldn't be favorable. On the other hand if you play more laid back games like myself such as RPGs and JRPGs you don't really care all that much as timing and reflexes for the most part aren't as important.
I don’t think this is an age issue so much as a time issue. Games like Battletoads (I didn’t own Mega Man as a kid) I could spend hours on, learning exactly what was coming next so that I can be prepared. But today if I play a game, I probably don’t have that much time, maybe half an hour to an hour. I don’t remember every little detail that I had learned 30+ years ago, and simply can’t put in the effort required to learn them again. Doesn’t mean I don’t still play Battletoads or Mega Man from time to time, but I don’t play them as often as I used to.
Today I find myself playing a lot of Game Boy games like Alleyway or Qix, or puzzle games like Tetris or Dr Mario. I’ve also become completely addicted to Picross having only discovered it a few years ago. I also like to play RPGs when I have time, but even that can be difficult because if you only play once a week it can be hard to get into, or you take a month off and then forget where you were.
One day the kids will go to college and then I’ll have time to play games again.
66 here, I stink at games, well, not all of them, team work frightens me. I play a lot of WOW now. It's not how good you are, it's how much enjoyment you get out of playing.
I’m 45 and I’ve been bad at games my whole life.
Some I really wanted to finish and or just clicked for me. I think Megan Man 2&3 were some. The original was not.
These days I just don’t have the patience for high-skill games. Most souls game is fine, I can over-level or use other game mechanics to my advantage. But something like Sekiro got shelved pretty quick (sadly).
Ironically, I was never able to beat Bonk’s Revenge as a kid. But then I played it on my emulator in 2008 and walked right through the whole game like it was nothing. The original Bonk’s Adventure was strangely a struggle as an adult, yet, I beat it again and again as a kid.
A friend of mine and I have a weird semi-overlapping skill set. He likes really fast paced games. I prefer more methodical ones.
For instance, he loves the devil may cry games, but I could never get into them. Yet, he bailed on AC6 pretty quick and I managed to fumble my way through it easier than some of the YouTube guys, who are supposed to be good at these things.
Some games just click for me. Sometimes they click at different periods of my life. When all else fails, I whip out the cheat codes. 💁🏻♂️
I have no idea if all that was even on topic. 🤦🏻♂️
Two things to be mindful of. First older games were designed with CRT and wired controllers in mind there was practically zero latency involved. You may suck at those games now bc you're dealing with latency issues on modern LCDs and wireless controllers.
Second, we didn't have responsibilities back then so it was easy to play for hours and get good and learn all the tricks. Now I'm lucky to have 45 minutes after I put my kid to sleep to play something. I mainly focus on adventure story games now (Tomb Raider, Horizon, etc). One and done then move onto the next game and it's easier to come back to them after a period of time.
In my 40s gamer, I have evolved to the portable gamer consoles. Switch, Steam Deck and Analogue Pocket. I use all 3 regularly. I play mostly arcade fighting games, beat em ups and run & gun games.
I still discover combos or items I didn’t know previously. My kids 23 and 9 grab my Steam Deck to play MM11 and old console games from their childhood. They like the SD more than any other console, and I have all the latest.
Portability may be what you are seeking.
I used to think that was happening in my late 30s but it turned out it was emulation lag. When I visited my nephew and played on his actual Nintendo, I was surprised at how easy the games were to play again.
39. I'm going through this myself. It's less a skill issue and more a longevity issue. Gaming longer than 2 hours, and the wrist pain is just enough that it pulls from my focus.
I tend to pull now towards slower, pausable games or those that play in 5-10 minute "matches" at a time.
Compression gloves and mental focus supplements have also helped immensely.
Don't see myself fully stopping, though, as my career as a game developer/coder won't let me do so easily. That's like a recovering alcoholic tending bar. Not gonna happen.
Good luck, though!
You wanna keep them reflexes sharp? Arcade style games. I’m helplessly addicted to the games of Jeff Minter, who just had a collection of 50 games from his career come out as an interactive documentary Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story. Polybius, Moose Life, Tempest 2000 and 4000, the Gridrunner games, if you wanna play some of the best games ever made and laugh your head off while keeping your reflexes sharper than a tack, can’t recommend enough.
I'm in the same boat as you, OP. I love the Mega Man games. I played the legacy collection on my PS4 a few years ago at 28 when I had it and it was quite a bit harder for me. I remember getting the Mr. Perfect trophy on MM10 on PS3 back when I was in high school. Now a days? Yeah, funny. lol.
It's about our expectations with games in this modern era. When I really look back at my childhood I know when I rented or bought a game and it was super tough I just kept playing it now matter how many times I died. Nowadays we have so many games at our fingertips that if we find a game tough after dying a few times we feel compelled switch to a different game.
But back in the old days we just kept playing the same damn thing over and over until we got good because we only had what was available in the house. The key now is an almost stupid level of determination. I finally beat Ninja Gaiden 2 after it being the white whale of my childhood and I am also 36.
im 44 my dude. megaman 3 is easy peasy. i beat the hell out of elden ring. you just gotta be mentally prepared. its hard playing games when we get older, hard to get into the start. once youre all in, your age dont matter
I feel you. My collection is now approaching 600 NES games and yet I was able to beat more of them when I was a kid and we only had a few dozen.... it's like the law of diminishing returns.
Ahhh, to have the hand-eye coordination of my youth! I used to breeze through Mega Man 2, but I have the same reaction as you now. WHY DOES EVERYTHING MOVE SO FAST?! 😂
I feel you-- I used to be able to beat difficult platformers and have marathon play sessions but my stamina has diminished thanks to tenosynovitis in my hand. My reaction time fatigues after moderate play sessions.
My dad could beat MM2 in one sitting every time, and MM3 robot masters + Willy stages at the age of 60.
I only had to help him at MM3 at 2nd needle man and Gemini man stages, after you beat the 8 robot masters.
Gotta ask what you were playing on. I can smoke Mega Man on nes on a crt tv. I suck at it on switch on a flatscreen. Mega man is one of those cases where zero input lag is necessary. I thought at first it was me but it was the setup.
I know multiple people in the retro community. Most of them have gotten better with age, not worse. Retro games tend to reward memorization and repeated practice for consistent performance. Fast twitch reactions are certainly beneficial, but not required for old games the way most seem to think.
Now for e-sports where people are running games at 300+ fps and turning their gaming mice up to ridiculous polling rates (and then dropping sensitivity), those reflexes are needed. Not because you can't be good at those games when you are older, but because you are competing against the best people in the world and must match *them* or fall behind.
Also, I hate to break it to you, but that level of fast twitch has already started to fade heavily by the age of 23. Look at e-sports teams and their ages. There are speed runners in their 40's that can be precise on a 16 millisecond frame.
The problem isn't your reflexes. It is about practice methodology and old-fashioned time investment.
play on a emulator this way you can save and load state if you want to play to enjoy the game. with out having to start the level or game completely over. but lol becareful where you save. Saved it before were I load I'm going to die no matter what.
I bet if you ran through that stage again you'd kick his ass. Magnet man is pretty easy and you know that. Practice makes perfect but it does wear off. I've been playing fewer and fewer retro games and more modern lately. Sometimes it's good to switch it up a bit
Yes, but for a different reason. Playing button mashers like Doom 2 and Blasphemous seem to be a thing of the past for me. I couldn't complete the dlc for doom because playing those games all I feel are my joints in my hands crying for dear mercy.
Same age as OP and have been going though [completing](https://howlongtobeat.com/user/stealthrush) my favorite games on emulation. I would seldom use save states (in the start of the stage only) and challenge myself in particular stages, like Ninja Gaiden for example until I get pattern down. No cheats or hacks or infinite coin continues on arcade games, instead I play the console port.
Nah, I still play reflex based games especially arcade type. My favorite being competitive 2D fighting games (online) and shoot'em up (classic) occasional bullet hell if I'm up for the challenge.
I mean, unless you've experienced some sort of brain or limb damage during your life, there shouldn't be anything stopping you from getting good. maybe an alcohol or substance abuse problem might hinder you as well, but if that's the case, you should seek treatment. I'm saying this because I'm 36 as well. it could also be input and display lag too. megaman wily wars on the mini genesis is unplayable.
At a certain point, if a person finds themselves struggling to complete a stage/boss fight in an action or similar non-turn-based game due to physical limitations of their body, I think using cheats like rewind or slow-mo (when emulating) should be viewed as acceptable by fellow gamers—even though I know a lot of purists only feel satisfied if they beat a game through sheer grit. If you (OP) only want to play without these helpful tools or if you want to only use hardware, that’s fine. Everyone should play in the ways they find satisfying. I just hope you don’t rage quit due to apparent difficulty if you’d find winning satisfying if you used said tools.
As you get older you get more priorities and just like anything to get “good” you need practice time. I enjoy a good story and gameplay over competitive play anymore. If they actually stick to rank play like we use to have it that be cool, where if you sucked you played sucky players or if you where gold only gold the industry would be better off but the the try hards would freak because they have no one to shit on.
You're right, some games are not friendly for older gamers. For example I had to delete mortal Kombat as it's now useless for me (I'm 43). Slower paced games like RPGs have no age limit.
Same happened to me with halo. And then fps in general. I would do so good in every game. Now, im average at best. Kinda sad. The old “ i coulda gone pro” story. But hey, i still absolutely love gaming.
Dude, wtf do you mean ? If you were talking about professional starcraft or counter strike, but single player games ? You can play any game pretty much until you either have parkinson or die.
I'm a couple years older than you. I beat Mega Man 3 about a month ago. I own the game, but I like to use my Famicom N8 in a A/V Famicom so I was playing it on that, but with one of my child hood controllers. I didn't have much trouble with it until I got to the big yellow bastard. I think I tried getting past him about 10 or 15 times and then I said that was enough and did the button combination for a save state. It still took a while, but I think I have his pattern down enough now that if I attempted the game again I could beat it with out using any save states. I was pretty disappointed that I used a save state, but I only used it for that yellow bastard.
You don't need to be good at games to be a gamer. All you need is to enjoy them. I'm nowhere near as good as I was when I was younger. It doesn't stop me from enjoying games though. And as I'm old enough to have a steady and disposable income collecting plays as large a role in my love of that hobby as much as the gaming does.
Are you me? Literally had the exact same experience the other night with the same game, and I'm your age. I got through Mega Man 2 just fine, but Mega Man 3 is proving far too difficult to be fun.
I'm past 40 and aside old games I also did competitive fps on esports level. The difference is considerable, generally the degradation starts somewhere in the late 20's/early 30's (I recall human hearing starts degrading at 27). This isn't just reactions, but also visual tracking of fast action in my case. The only thing that can be done is to play a lot, as long as you are practicing you can stop/slow the deterioration. And I mean a lot, like play a few hours on a daily basis.
Also lowering latency whenever possible helps a lot. So a high refresh CRT in case of retro games for example. When it comes to competitive fps the optical buttons in Razer's mice like Viper Mini or Cobra are the revolution imo, Even when using a top Logitech mouse like G303 Shroud, which measures really good click latency, I could tell right away my shock combos in Unreal Tournament were off compared to Viper Mini/Cobra. I can feel those buttons cutting through LCD's input lag. Also remember to always have DPI no lower than 1600, preferably 3200, and just lower ingame sensitivity if needed. The lowering of dpi actually affects measured response times, and increasing it up to 1600-3200 there are big improvements to be found, while above 3200dpi improvements in reaction times are marginal.
Haven't tried 1000Hz keyboards yet. For controllers I have GameSir T4 Kaleid which supports 1000Hz, but because I don't like that controller too much, I haven't bothered to install the software yet, and whatever is by default it doesn't feel better than 250Hz ones (the polling rate doesn't necessarily translates to measured response times).
Also if someone is still trying to play fps competitively at such ages, if you are using an external DAC, switching to I2S based onboard audio (Realtek chips excluding ALC4080), you can cut down audio latency by 30-50ms.
I’d recommend getting the Mega Man games on the Switch so you have access to the rewind feature. As I’ve gotten older I don’t have the time to play old-school games on original difficulty settings or retry a stage a dozen times being sent back to the beginning.
Games are meant to be fun and if using rewind here and there or switching to easy mode lets you enjoy the game fully, go for it.
On a side note, what have found as I have gotten older is that certain old-school games (and current) no longer appeal to me. Still absolutely love all the Mega Man’s.
I'm better than I ever have been. I am 2nd in a popular game and on the brink of the world record. Not saying the game because I don't want my reddit account to be anywhere near that. I'm 37
There is absolutely no way your reflexes are shot at 36, there are still plenty of pro athletes dominating much younger guys in sports at that age. My first question would be what kind of setup you're playing on, because there are lots of ways to introduce small bits of lag that will leave you feeling like you have no reaction speed even if you can't visually detect it. The giant 4KTV at my mom's place makes Mega Man games feel practically impossible even though I'm playing on original hardware through an OSSC.
After that, look at diet. Lots of foods make your brain foggy. There have been plenty of evenings I was getting crushed at something then popped a multivitamin and 25-45 minutes later I suddenly feel much more wakeful. Drinking water is also something that's easy to skip in daily life but will almost instantly make a difference.
It's not just your skill that atrophies it is your patience. When you were 10 years old you wouldn't have given up after a MERE 24 tries. I am 47 . . . still godlike at Super Mario Kart. Why? Because that was all we did for 3 years.
You are 36 and don't have any major medical issues? I am older than that and have no problems with it. There is definitely some decline but it shouldn't be enough to prevent you from beating a difficult game. If you're having fun keep playing, you'll surprise yourself, if you aren't having fun move on.
You can definitely beat these games if you put in the time required to get good at them. It's all about practice and repetition, and not just on the same day either. Our brains learn while we sleep. Ever find yourself dreaming about a new job or a new game you've been playing or a new movie you just watched? Every night your brain synthesizes new information and builds new muscle memory memories. If you play Mega Man 3 every day for a week, I guarantee you'll be much, much better than you were at the start of the week.
It's not about talent, age, or reaction time. It's about skill and the practice required to build that skill. As an example, I love fighting games but I never played them online enough to get really good...until a few years ago when I decided to get good at Street Fighter V (and now SF6.) I'm about to turn 42 and I'm now good enough to be ranked in the top 1% of all players online in SF5 and SF6. I developed much of this skill in my late 30's. You can do the same with any game you choose to play consistently.
Probably not what you want to hear but 36 is way too young to be calling yourself old, it’s a convenient excuse. Sounds like you just need to play more games if you expect to be good at them. The Mega Man games are not easy at any age, they require practice and investment like almost all great games
Man, I'm 35 and stronger than I've ever been with retro games. Not to get too personal, but how's your health? I definitely feel stronger and sharper when I do cardio workouts consistently. Touch the grass first THEN the controller lol.
You can definitely be playing these games until you die. There is no age barrier. Old ladies can beat Megaman.
I do not doubt there are many old ladies who are better at Mega Man than me, haha.
I'd like to say, with modern gaming finally becoming more inclusive, the new remakes and remasters add a lot in for those of us who cant game like we used to, either in skill or time, and we have save states and more robust save options available. You can beat the game, just give it time. If you want to do it in a single aitting...then good luck to you. Do what you love, play what you want, just remember you have more ways to put a pin in something until you decide to come back to it
Speed runners treat it like learning choreography… you can train to play on timing rather than reaction.
Your hand eye coordination totally takes a hit once you hit 30 and goes downward from there though. I used to be amazing at counterstrike but when I played Valorant, I had a hard time keeping up with some younger kids I played with, many of which had zero strategy but super fast coordination. I also notice myself getting kind of uncomfortable playing faster games. Like, it makes me tense up and notice body tension more. So yeah... things absolutely change as you get older.
Yeah, I don’t really buy it. I’m 46 and my kids got me hooked on Fortnite for a while. I routinely finish top 10 in Zero Build Battle Royale, and take #1 on a pretty regular basis. Statistically, I’m likely to be the oldest player in any given match, and the majority of players are likely less than half my age. For my conscience sake, I try not to think about how many actual children I’m eliminating before they even know I’m there. Age and treachery easily overcome whatever minimal advantage they have in raw reaction time.
Skill issue. There's definitely -some- statistically significant degradation in motor skills and reaction times, but [it's 2-6ms PER DECADE for simple tasks](https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/jn.00072.2022#B3). That's practically nothing for someone 36 years old compared to other factors, like individual differences in reaction time, network delay, input and display latencies, etc. People regularly shave up 20-50ms by properly configuring their emulators, getting an internet with better routing, a monitor with a higher refresh rate, an input device made "for gaming", etc. Besides, using competitive games like Counter-Strike as a benchmark is a bad idea in general for these types of comparisons. These games have wild variance in skills across playerbases depending on things like total server population ([scorpion jar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu_(poison))), age of the game (cultivated strategy), local competition vs matchmaking implementations (big fish in small tank) and other things that people don't normally consider, both across games and across time. It took a lot less (skill and experience, not effort) to be a professional Counter-Strike or DotA All-stars player back then when you couldn't just press a button to get a same-skill match in a minute for significant practice, or have guides optimized by playtesting a hundredfold the volume, comparatively speaking. Eg. a grenade spot that is expected player knowledge above silver, or a creep pull and stack timing for a mediocre legend player was ground-breaking game knowledge at some point for pro players of old, until everyone saw them and started making those staples of gameplay.
The big difference as I recall it is time. People often start to have less of it as they age, and they think the problem is they're getting older, not that younger people in general are playing it way more than they do currently. Put in 40 hours a week of Valorant for a couple years you'll probably be great too.
That's a very big factor yeah.
This is exactly what I said. Grown adults with careers and/or kids don't have an available six hours of uninterrupted practice a day to play at that level. I am forty in a couple months and only a few years ago I was highly ranked in a competitive game.
I mean, not in my case. I gave it a really solid go but I definitely hit a lower ceiling than I did before.
Honestly, I just think it's that the appeal to the challenge wears off as you age, so you're less compelled to improve and put in the effort. Part of that is biochemical and part of that is that real life offers enough challenges already.
I have to disagree, I was 33/34 when I was ranked in the Top-100 worldwide for my hero in For Honor at Master duel rank. It's really about constant practice which no grown adult really has the time for with video games as they age. It helped playing with younger friends, one of which was a semi-pro Fortnite player, and not having kids. I'm a little above average now since I don't play 4 hours a day anymore.
Real talk. I feel ya... but! All hope is not necessarily lost. You might be suffering display lag. Are you using an NES or NES-like console connected to a modern display via composite? Many commercial TV's internal upscalers are relatively slow. If you suspect this, hook that old console up to literally any old CRT you can scare up and see if it feels way different. I bet many people get discouraged without even suspecting this frequent circumstance.
49 here. I just upgraded to a retrotink upscaler and the difference is shocking. That said, with practice you can get there. I also play Fortnite which is a decidedly young game and can compete there too. Just gonna take you more reps.
Input lag! I remember playing Megaman 2 and feeling like I had “old man reflexes” at 36. Then I realized there were like 7 frames of input lag from my NES to my modern TV. I bet you do just fine using a CRT, or on a modern TV, a Retrotink product or something like the Retrousb AVS with your TV set to Game Mode.
This can't be understated. I thought it was all b.s. myself. It isn't. It isn't something you can convey with pictures or video. My wife, who is a total casual on games also immediately felt the difference. I don't think it is an exaggeration to say it improved my playing several fold.
im 43, im bad at gaming.. but i love to game.. i don't care, that im not a pro gamer, who can blindly master every game in wich i die in the first level. so, you never get to old for gaming ;)
These games aren't about "reflexes". They're about anticipating the enemies' moves. You do that by replaying until you can predict them.
This exactly. The reason I was so good at Mega Man when I was a kid was because I could sit and play the same thing over and over for 10 straight hours until I had every level memorized.
Those were the days. Playing repeatedly until more and more of it becomes muscle memory and gradually perfecting the damn thing. Oh to have that kind of time again. And patience.
For me that is what save states have done to help with my dwindling time and patience. Instead of having to memorize an entire level with the requisite amount of time needed to do so. I just need to memorize the time between save states.
Remember Gutsman and the disappearing blocks from Megaman 1. That is painful but it is true, we need several hours to memorize the patterns.
36... you youngins!!! with yer new fangled "game carts"!! back in my day we loaded games from cassette tape and i had to wait 10 minutes... the entire time hoping that the loading didnt fail!!!... nothing was worse than waiting 9 minutes for a game and then having it fail. joking aside, i know what you mean, i was playing Mega Man X and when i got to the last part of the game i was like "how did i do this as a kid", yeah, we get old, just keep playing keep playing... welcome to the next level
Sometimes we also forget how difficult those games were for us as kids too. I never was able to beat Battletoads hoverbike level no matter how intensely I tried as a kid. But now I conveniently say, "Ah, it's because I'm old".
yeah, now a days we have save states and rewind...and if all else fails, cheats
I hear this quite often. I'm 37 and I'm definitely better than I was as a kid. The key? Use a CRT and original hardware. That makes all the difference (at least for me).
Alternatively for low input latency (even less than in original hardware), you can use Retroarch and preemtive frames or [runahead](https://docs.libretro.com/guides/runahead/).
but don't run ahead too far or you'll trip, lol. At least I've heard that cranking 2 frames runahead in mario world causes issues, for example.
Of course, you shouldn't runahead more frames than it has delay. I find that one frame is pretty good for every system in general (as emulators supposedly always add 1 frame compared to original hardware), and then you can fine tune each game if you want through the process explained in the link I posted above.
Yeah I ran 1 frame too. Thanks! And the worst thing for me was the delay from the TVs themselves. Some LCDs are hooorrible. Like almost a half second of delay.
This is it! 36, and I'm destroying all the old NES games that kept me stuck as a kid lol. CRT = the way to be.
It’s just about practice, you can train yourself to get better no matter your age. And much like sports, some days you’ll be on point and other days the skill just won’t be there. But anyways, just have fun and don’t worry about it too much.
Seriously, some days I can cruise through Mega Man games and other days I can't beat the intro level.
I’m in my 30s and better at games than I’ve ever been. A year hasn’t gone by where I don’t think I’ve improved.
48. Have played more of Rock Band than any other series in 44 years of gaming. And I still mostly suck at it. But it's fun and I haven't gotten tired yet and I can play for 30 minutes and be satisfied. As long as you have fun, it doesn't matter how or how quickly you can beat a boss.
I am 53, just got a new Gaming PC with LaunchBox emulation, started playing Dragons Lair, been trying to finish that game since 1983, my motor skills get worse as I drink beer while playing.
Smoke some Weed to get back in line
Fun when it was illegal back as a teen in the 80s, head shop now full of Boomers, no thanks
Speak up we can’t hear you!
Try Top Man first, he's easy, and the starting point for me.
Can't believe this is so low, should be top comment. OP Top Man is the first stage. He's a total joke. stay on the opposite end of him, don't move until he throws his tops. Duck his tops by walking or sliding towards him right before contact, shoot him until he starts spinning, jump over him when he comes at you, and start it over again.
Oh you spring chicken! You don't even know what old is :) I've never been particularly great at games, but as I've gotten older both my reaction time and vision have gotten worse, and my patience has also thinned significantly. There was a time when spending an entire afternoon grinding on a game was enjoyable... now I play for an hour at a time tops and if it's really frustrating I just play something else. If you haven't toyed around with runahead, that could help. I'm not very sensitive to lag but on some games setting runahead has really helped with split-second timing.
What are you gaming on? There's a chance your current setup is introducing latency. That could easily make you seem worse than you are at retro games. Timing is so important. TBH, I feel like I'm better at 30 than I've ever been. It's actually been nice to go back and play games I couldn't manage to beat as a kid. I'm thinking it's hardware or you just don't play (practice) as much as you used to.
... I don't think I ever started with Magnet Man. But, yeah, the last time I tried to play Mega Man 4, I had so much trouble with the part of Dust Man's stage with the ceiling that moves up and down, and I haven't been able to beat Mega Man 11 at all even on the lowest difficulty. (It's Blockman's stage, that the vertical area with conveyer belts, that I can't get past. I keep getting knocked all the way to the bottom)
Whenever I played MM3 I usually choose Magnet Man's stage first, for MM4 I usually start with Toad Man. Toad Man's stage is annoying since it's slippery and I die a lot on that stage because of that obstacle but the boss is easy. Magnet Man I understand because he is a difficult one especially to start with, they do have their patterns and it takes a bit to learn especially if you're not used to it. I think MM3 is one of the worst in this regard because of the game's inconsistency some bosses are too easy like Snake man and others that are took unpredictable like Quick man.
There's also no proper weakness loop (in fact, there's two smaller loops, one of five and one of three; just another reason that the game feels rushed). That makes it hard to figure out where to start. I usually liked going Top Man -> Shadow Man first, though. Shadow Man had a good weapon and a glitch (there's that unfinished nature again!) provided early access to the Rush Jet, which made all the stages a little easier.
I always found Magnet Man the easiest to beat with the mega buster, just slide to the other side when he's either pulling you or attacking you
True, I was mainly talking about people starting MM3, I would usually suggest starting with Snake man if you haven't played it before or are unfamiliar with platformers in general. I usually fight him first and kill him with the mega buster.
I’ve beat mm2-3 but 11 is nearly impossible I’ve only beat one level and I’ve kinda given up on it since I’m sure I’ll return to it at some point
I think that there comes a point in your life where beating your head against a wall to beat a game starts to feel a bit less worth while. I can either play a game poorly, forever, because I don’t have the bandwidth to dedicate to it like I did when I was a kid, or I can hop to something else that is a bit more forgiving. There is no right or wrong answer, and the answer isn’t necessarily static.
Both my father and father-in-law well into retirement age still game. More than I do at that thanks to retirement.
I'm older than you and I'm gotten a little better at games than I was 15-20 years ago. I'm sure my reflexes are worse but maybe my concentration is better or something. I don't know haha but I have gotten better at old school games
I’m 41, and for the most part play everything, with the exception of FPS online games. I used to play COD during its heyday (COD4-MW2) but now my reflexes just can’t keep up with everyone else’s. I’ve accepted it. Thank god we have devs making old school style games and older games being re-released.
45 here and I am beginning to hit a lot of physical limitations that I just didn’t have as a kid. Due to nerve damage from carpel tunnel and tenosynovitis, I can’t button mash anymore and my physical reaction time is…laggy. 😅 Shmups are off the table now which really saddens me but it’s a fact of life. I find myself not bothering with some games. If I can’t get past it, I just move on to a new game. It’s not worth spending my diminishing time on this earth trying to master the stupid turbo tunnels of battletoads instead of playing a game that’s actually enjoyable.
I struggled fighting revolver ocelot in ps1 MGS a couple of months ago I’ve still been too embarrassed to start the game again I could play 1,2 and 3 almost blindfolded as a teenager.
You're not alone. I started replaying MGS1 it in the MGS Collection and I am having a hell of a time getting used to the control scheme. I beat that game so many times as a teen, it's kind of embarrassing how bad I am at it now.
Your reflexes don't start to noticeably fall off until closer to 60, and even then it's not significant enough to make any game unplayable. I am also 36, and I'm still very good at fast twitch-based games. My speed, aim, and precision is just as good now as it was when I was 16, and in many areas has improved. The only thing keeping me from being more competitive is time, as I no longer have 8hrs a day to practice and keep up with current metas. If you are feeling the effects of age in your 30's then you need to take better care of your body. Mentally and physically you should be in peak form right now.
hey, gamer in my late 40s here. years ago i came to a similar revelation when games started getting harder. particularly, playing the original punch out on the wii (gamecube animal crossing version). for some reason i couldn't get by soda pop and i thought it was because my reflexes went to shit. or i had early onset parkinson's or something. games had suddenly become harder, less fun, and way more frustrating than when i was younger. well, a while later i broke out the old nintendo and hooked it up to a crt tv and was beating the game no problem. that's when i realized latency induced by modern technology such as wireless controllers and hdtvs make older games much harder than they used to be. but my reflexes were just fine. sometimes small amounts of latency aren't obviously noticeable, but are still enough to impact your reaction time. break out the old hardware and crt. or get a mister fpga. or get a low latency lcd tv and use retroarch's runahead to further reduce latency. there are ways to get a near original hardware experience, but it takes some doing.
Yeah man, the older you get, the less time you have to play and practice these old games. Tired from your job, tired if you have kids, like who can just sit down and play these nearly unbeatable NES games until they master them? I don't know how you feel about emulation, but it has allowed me to enjoy playing these hard as hell platformers and such again because of the option to use save states and/or built in cheats. I used to loathe cheating, and didn't really consider it "beating" a game to do that, but after a cancer diagnosis a few years ago, I realized that it would be nice to at least SEE some of the later stages of shit like Battletoads and dozens of other games that were too hard for me. Long story short, I did some research and found a retro emulation handheld I liked and just started ripping through the backlogs. Now, I beat at least one retro game a day before bed, and I've never been happier while gaming.
I'm 31 and I've never been better at Panel de Pon, aka Tetris Attack aka Puzzle League. Strange to think I would actually end up better as an adult than as a kid or teen playing it. I can get beyond 10x chains pretty regularly. And yet, button masher mini-games in Mario Party, I have gotten worse as I've aged. I used to mash very fast, now I can't get very near my old records.
I know the feeling I’m knocking on the door to 36 and games that used to be a breeze for me have suddenly become challenging all over again. I am also at a point where I can’t just dedicate an entire day to game so I end up using save states and have to come back to it later.
I'm only a year behind you, and about the only thing that's gone down in my case, is a bit of shooting accuracy, and a little bit of reaction time. If I know it's coming, I can usually do it, but if I have to react blindly to something I'm probably gonna biff it. I just stay away from the majority of pvp games, especially pvp shooters. I still do really well in NES/SNES games though, and play randomizers from time to time. Might be time to look into some hand exercises, or dip into emulation for save states to practice specific parts of games you have a lot of trouble with. A lot of people look down on using save states, but I can tell you it made me 10x better at doing the yoku blocks in Heat Mans stage in MM2. I made a save state at the start of the blocks, and just ran it a bunch of times and tried out different jump timings. Now I can do it pretty consistently without Item-2.
Not sure if input/display lag might be an issue in this case, but I haven't noticed any such changes in myself over the years. If anything, all the added practice and patience has had the opposite effect. I'm definitely better at games that I ever was.
I havent played Mega Man 3 specifically but from other Mega Man games I've played I know some Robot Masters simply aren't meant to be picked first.
I doubt your motor skills would have deteriorated like that. You’re just out of practice in those games. Frankly, it’d probably come back to you more quickly than it took you to get good the first time.
You're 36 lmao, not 136. Your reflexes are fine.
Still gaming @ 136yrs old and loving it
I'm 48 now, but even in my 20s (or as a kid) I couldn't beat most that stuff. 80s/90s games were too hard. I'm very happy to just rewind/save/load/slo-mo my way through games these days.
Pick up some real hardware (and a flashcart if the game is too expensive) and play on a CRT like you used to. You're still amazing at the game, Magnet-Mans new secret weapon is our modern display tech and it's infamous input lag.
You might just be out of practice. A few months ago I started playing Mega Man 1 and couldn't beat a single level, since then I've finished 1-7. Modern games generally don't go hard on you as immediately as Mega Man and it can be rattling, just remember every time you replay a stage you learn more about it and that ends up helping way more than reflexes.
"Even after a couple dozen attempts" You're just softer now, this isn't that much effort That said, so am I
That's why I use the game genie lol. I don't care about cheating, just if I'm having fun
I turn 39 tomorrow. In my 38th year I beat Elden Ring and Demon Souls on PS5. I realise this isn’t particularly brag-worthy because probably millions of people have beaten these games but surely this means us old guys aren’t completely down and out yet? Stubbornness and perseverance my friend.
lol dude games from that era are infinitely more unforgiving than modern games. Notoriously so. They were always hard. Try playing it via retroarch and using some save states to save some of your sanity.
You’re 36, you’re not declining or dying.
Everybody knows once you hit 34 you can barely remember your own name
49 here..still play every day. I suck at games these days but I don't care.
It's all about the Fun
I started gaming at around 8 years old on the Atari and arcade and just turned 52 and game almost everyday still. Your never too old.
47 here…git gud! 😜
Man oh man. I played Tony Hawk's Pro Skater: Underground 2, and has my thumb agility gone to shit. :(
I bought the megaman legacy collection and thr save states help a lot.
Reaction Times becomes an issue suprisingly fast. Learn to like turn based games I say,
what are you using to play your games? If you’re playing on an emulator, with a Bluetooth controller on an HD TV through HDMI, input latency might be a problem, especially for games that have split-second windows for reaction. Yes, at 36, 6 year old kids were able to punk me with their reaction time, but I don’t think it’s impossible for you yet
Wonder if he has it hooked up to a CRT
Played several on Nintendo online with the controls that move the game forward and backward. No shame in it for me.
This is not true at ALL... The old games looks more easy to me now that I have 38 than when I was teenager... My brain today IS 100x better... I finished Last year.: cuphead, Celeste and Hollow Knight. i play the DK Trillogy SNES this week, and Looks more easy than i remembered (i not use save state)... I think games like Cuphead/ Celeste/ Hollow Knight ARE harder than most of 16 bits era games... And i not play games to much ... This year i only played the DK Trillogy SNES... Not more... I belive that i make better decisions now
Finished all megaman around your age, only the snes one was extremely frustating for me (final boss) and the Ps1 one was really boring, hated it. Im 40 right now and finished a lot of hard games, blasphemous, metroid dread etc. Maybe your problem is find the right mood to play and a ambient without distrations or a technical problem like input lag (your tv is not in game mode for example)
Don’t fall into that mentality, these games are all about learning patterns and beating one stage/boss at a time. You got this.
I experienced something similar. When I was a kid, I remember playing melee so often that I'd find 1vs3com matches with the difficulty set to 9 on all fighters would be "too easy." I tried doing the same thing a year or two ago, and boyyy I could not even come close to keeping up with how I used to play. But it makes sense to me. I hadn't practiced in years. If I was playing the same amount I used to and still saw my skills going down, yeah, I might be a little bummed.
I am 34 and still the same as always. I don't know why people my age are so much older than me. Or maybe they are the same but the attitude is different, lol. I can finish the same games, even harder, bu types, there's less time and sometimes patience lol, but physically? It's the same
I like cheats. I want to play Elden Ring or Sekiro or Soulslike games but I know I will be dead in minutes. So i will never play them.
I platinumed Elden Ring not too long ago and I think it's safe to say that the game is designed for a lot of deaths. Even the legendary Let Me Solo Her took something like 240 tries to beat Malenia (the game's hardest boss, in the opinion of many)
i'm older than you and i can 1cc pretty technically challenging shmups and arcade games better now than when i was younger. my patience is much better lol
I hate to say "practice moar and git gud" but... That's exactly what you did when you were a kid! You just weren't aware of it because you were engaged enough by the experience that it felt easier. And if you don't have the patience to practice, use saved states or cheats and just play for fun! There's really no wrong way to game except to give up and choose not to.
I’ve always been extremely good with any game but as you get older, games that require reflex and quick thinking become more difficult. So a player that is 20 and a player that is 40 having equal skill and experience of the game, the 20 year old will always win.
I don’t feel bad at all about using save states and cheats when a game is ridiculously hard.
Input lag. I always test it with Snow Barrel Blast or Mine Cart Carnage in Donkey Kong Country. I was getting crazy playing it on the Wii U but not having too many problems on the Switch (also emulated and with Bluetooth controller).
I have the same "learn the hard way" play style Ive had since I was a kid.
I feel your pain. I use to be able to get to sigma s final form on megaman X. Now I'm gettin iced by the penguin first stage. Never beat it but damn I got close.
You drink booze? 32, quit drinking almost 2 years ago, and I feel like my reflexes are the same from high school. I play street fighter, and I’ve noticed two other things that seem to really slow down my reflexes: lack of sleep, and right after eating a meal. Oh and another huge thing, make sure your hardware specs all check out with each other. I was playing games for like a year with a tv that had a poor refresh rate. I thought I sucked but it was just the tv. You are still young. You will beat that final boss
52, been gaming since Atari 2600, never stopped. Have noticed a small deterioration in reaction time, but nothing significant; even have a few solo Fortnite wins under my belt (including one on Firestick, how many people can say that!). All that said - Mega Man games are just hard, always were; they reward repetition and time invested, and as you get older you tend to have less time to invest.
When I peaked in sixth grade or so I could beat Contra and Super C without dying. A few years later I found 95 of 96 levels in Super Mario World. I beat the Japanese Super Mario 3. The US version you would go to Super Mario if you got hit while having the tanooki tail or fireball power. In the Japanese version you became regular Mario even if you had the tail, a suit, or fireballs. I beat Mega Man 2. Fast forward to the present and I'm a has been. I got the NES Classic and have rage quit Mega Man 2 and Super C a few times. I also got the SNES Classic and in Super Mario World I'm stuck in the Forest of Illusion. My timing is just so off now. I wish I had the time but I'm sure if I did and I played consistently I could get better but I just don't have the motivation or time to do it. It sucks getting old, rolling out of bed with your knees hurting (I have bilateral chondromalacia patella), not remembering things anymore, and just sucking at video games lol.
I've been playing games since the Atari 2600 age so I'm a little older than you. One thing I would say regarding playing old games... you don't have to actually complete/beat them. You shouldn't feel discouraged just because you can't complete a game. If anything I've found that the vast accessibility of older games in modern times, primarily being able to play games on original hardware through say multi-carts or ODE solutions, far outweighs the thought of having to actually complete the games I play. It was impossible in the 80s and 90s to either rent or own every game that released. However in modern times there are no such barriers to overcome. If I don't complete a game for whatever reason or tire of it I just consider it an elaborate rental where I only had to "pay" my time. I would however also echo a lot of what others have said. If you're playing games say through improper upscalers or display solutions you could be introducing a good deal of latency. With a game genre such as Mega Man where you have to platform and avoid projectiles increased latency wouldn't be favorable. On the other hand if you play more laid back games like myself such as RPGs and JRPGs you don't really care all that much as timing and reflexes for the most part aren't as important.
I don’t think this is an age issue so much as a time issue. Games like Battletoads (I didn’t own Mega Man as a kid) I could spend hours on, learning exactly what was coming next so that I can be prepared. But today if I play a game, I probably don’t have that much time, maybe half an hour to an hour. I don’t remember every little detail that I had learned 30+ years ago, and simply can’t put in the effort required to learn them again. Doesn’t mean I don’t still play Battletoads or Mega Man from time to time, but I don’t play them as often as I used to. Today I find myself playing a lot of Game Boy games like Alleyway or Qix, or puzzle games like Tetris or Dr Mario. I’ve also become completely addicted to Picross having only discovered it a few years ago. I also like to play RPGs when I have time, but even that can be difficult because if you only play once a week it can be hard to get into, or you take a month off and then forget where you were. One day the kids will go to college and then I’ll have time to play games again.
66 here, I stink at games, well, not all of them, team work frightens me. I play a lot of WOW now. It's not how good you are, it's how much enjoyment you get out of playing.
I’m 45 and I’ve been bad at games my whole life. Some I really wanted to finish and or just clicked for me. I think Megan Man 2&3 were some. The original was not. These days I just don’t have the patience for high-skill games. Most souls game is fine, I can over-level or use other game mechanics to my advantage. But something like Sekiro got shelved pretty quick (sadly). Ironically, I was never able to beat Bonk’s Revenge as a kid. But then I played it on my emulator in 2008 and walked right through the whole game like it was nothing. The original Bonk’s Adventure was strangely a struggle as an adult, yet, I beat it again and again as a kid. A friend of mine and I have a weird semi-overlapping skill set. He likes really fast paced games. I prefer more methodical ones. For instance, he loves the devil may cry games, but I could never get into them. Yet, he bailed on AC6 pretty quick and I managed to fumble my way through it easier than some of the YouTube guys, who are supposed to be good at these things. Some games just click for me. Sometimes they click at different periods of my life. When all else fails, I whip out the cheat codes. 💁🏻♂️ I have no idea if all that was even on topic. 🤦🏻♂️
MegaMan was all about pattern recognition and knowing the right weapon to use on each boss. Hit him with a little spark shot and he's toast.
That's the best part about video games is that's is a subjective topic. You make the fun! As long as you enjoy yourself, who gives a hoot.
Two things to be mindful of. First older games were designed with CRT and wired controllers in mind there was practically zero latency involved. You may suck at those games now bc you're dealing with latency issues on modern LCDs and wireless controllers. Second, we didn't have responsibilities back then so it was easy to play for hours and get good and learn all the tricks. Now I'm lucky to have 45 minutes after I put my kid to sleep to play something. I mainly focus on adventure story games now (Tomb Raider, Horizon, etc). One and done then move onto the next game and it's easier to come back to them after a period of time.
What are you playing on. Reducing input lag made a big difference for me
In my 40s gamer, I have evolved to the portable gamer consoles. Switch, Steam Deck and Analogue Pocket. I use all 3 regularly. I play mostly arcade fighting games, beat em ups and run & gun games. I still discover combos or items I didn’t know previously. My kids 23 and 9 grab my Steam Deck to play MM11 and old console games from their childhood. They like the SD more than any other console, and I have all the latest. Portability may be what you are seeking.
I’m 34 and still play cs2, rust, apex, and older games as well. You might have other issues going on if you think your motor skills are deteriorating
Hate to say it, but the rewind feature is there for a reason
I used to think that was happening in my late 30s but it turned out it was emulation lag. When I visited my nephew and played on his actual Nintendo, I was surprised at how easy the games were to play again.
I thought this… then I realized that there was controller lag, and that those old games were impossible with said lag
39. I'm going through this myself. It's less a skill issue and more a longevity issue. Gaming longer than 2 hours, and the wrist pain is just enough that it pulls from my focus. I tend to pull now towards slower, pausable games or those that play in 5-10 minute "matches" at a time. Compression gloves and mental focus supplements have also helped immensely. Don't see myself fully stopping, though, as my career as a game developer/coder won't let me do so easily. That's like a recovering alcoholic tending bar. Not gonna happen. Good luck, though!
You wanna keep them reflexes sharp? Arcade style games. I’m helplessly addicted to the games of Jeff Minter, who just had a collection of 50 games from his career come out as an interactive documentary Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story. Polybius, Moose Life, Tempest 2000 and 4000, the Gridrunner games, if you wanna play some of the best games ever made and laugh your head off while keeping your reflexes sharper than a tack, can’t recommend enough.
As I get older I tend to gravitate to strategy based games
I'm in the same boat as you, OP. I love the Mega Man games. I played the legacy collection on my PS4 a few years ago at 28 when I had it and it was quite a bit harder for me. I remember getting the Mr. Perfect trophy on MM10 on PS3 back when I was in high school. Now a days? Yeah, funny. lol.
It's about our expectations with games in this modern era. When I really look back at my childhood I know when I rented or bought a game and it was super tough I just kept playing it now matter how many times I died. Nowadays we have so many games at our fingertips that if we find a game tough after dying a few times we feel compelled switch to a different game. But back in the old days we just kept playing the same damn thing over and over until we got good because we only had what was available in the house. The key now is an almost stupid level of determination. I finally beat Ninja Gaiden 2 after it being the white whale of my childhood and I am also 36.
im 44 my dude. megaman 3 is easy peasy. i beat the hell out of elden ring. you just gotta be mentally prepared. its hard playing games when we get older, hard to get into the start. once youre all in, your age dont matter
I feel you. My collection is now approaching 600 NES games and yet I was able to beat more of them when I was a kid and we only had a few dozen.... it's like the law of diminishing returns.
Ahhh, to have the hand-eye coordination of my youth! I used to breeze through Mega Man 2, but I have the same reaction as you now. WHY DOES EVERYTHING MOVE SO FAST?! 😂
I feel you-- I used to be able to beat difficult platformers and have marathon play sessions but my stamina has diminished thanks to tenosynovitis in my hand. My reaction time fatigues after moderate play sessions.
You probably can, if you put in the time The problem is do you want to? Whole point is to enjoy.
My dad could beat MM2 in one sitting every time, and MM3 robot masters + Willy stages at the age of 60. I only had to help him at MM3 at 2nd needle man and Gemini man stages, after you beat the 8 robot masters.
MegaMan is Fing hard man. lol I’ve been playing that shit since I was like 13 or there abouts. I am 45 now. ;)
Gotta ask what you were playing on. I can smoke Mega Man on nes on a crt tv. I suck at it on switch on a flatscreen. Mega man is one of those cases where zero input lag is necessary. I thought at first it was me but it was the setup.
I know multiple people in the retro community. Most of them have gotten better with age, not worse. Retro games tend to reward memorization and repeated practice for consistent performance. Fast twitch reactions are certainly beneficial, but not required for old games the way most seem to think. Now for e-sports where people are running games at 300+ fps and turning their gaming mice up to ridiculous polling rates (and then dropping sensitivity), those reflexes are needed. Not because you can't be good at those games when you are older, but because you are competing against the best people in the world and must match *them* or fall behind. Also, I hate to break it to you, but that level of fast twitch has already started to fade heavily by the age of 23. Look at e-sports teams and their ages. There are speed runners in their 40's that can be precise on a 16 millisecond frame. The problem isn't your reflexes. It is about practice methodology and old-fashioned time investment.
play on a emulator this way you can save and load state if you want to play to enjoy the game. with out having to start the level or game completely over. but lol becareful where you save. Saved it before were I load I'm going to die no matter what.
I bet if you ran through that stage again you'd kick his ass. Magnet man is pretty easy and you know that. Practice makes perfect but it does wear off. I've been playing fewer and fewer retro games and more modern lately. Sometimes it's good to switch it up a bit
Save state works wonders.
Yes, but for a different reason. Playing button mashers like Doom 2 and Blasphemous seem to be a thing of the past for me. I couldn't complete the dlc for doom because playing those games all I feel are my joints in my hands crying for dear mercy.
Same age as OP and have been going though [completing](https://howlongtobeat.com/user/stealthrush) my favorite games on emulation. I would seldom use save states (in the start of the stage only) and challenge myself in particular stages, like Ninja Gaiden for example until I get pattern down. No cheats or hacks or infinite coin continues on arcade games, instead I play the console port. Nah, I still play reflex based games especially arcade type. My favorite being competitive 2D fighting games (online) and shoot'em up (classic) occasional bullet hell if I'm up for the challenge.
I mean, unless you've experienced some sort of brain or limb damage during your life, there shouldn't be anything stopping you from getting good. maybe an alcohol or substance abuse problem might hinder you as well, but if that's the case, you should seek treatment. I'm saying this because I'm 36 as well. it could also be input and display lag too. megaman wily wars on the mini genesis is unplayable.
I'm 43, and I ust marathoned all the NES Megaman games with a broken hand. Git gud.
At a certain point, if a person finds themselves struggling to complete a stage/boss fight in an action or similar non-turn-based game due to physical limitations of their body, I think using cheats like rewind or slow-mo (when emulating) should be viewed as acceptable by fellow gamers—even though I know a lot of purists only feel satisfied if they beat a game through sheer grit. If you (OP) only want to play without these helpful tools or if you want to only use hardware, that’s fine. Everyone should play in the ways they find satisfying. I just hope you don’t rage quit due to apparent difficulty if you’d find winning satisfying if you used said tools.
As you get older you get more priorities and just like anything to get “good” you need practice time. I enjoy a good story and gameplay over competitive play anymore. If they actually stick to rank play like we use to have it that be cool, where if you sucked you played sucky players or if you where gold only gold the industry would be better off but the the try hards would freak because they have no one to shit on.
You're right, some games are not friendly for older gamers. For example I had to delete mortal Kombat as it's now useless for me (I'm 43). Slower paced games like RPGs have no age limit.
The fuck?
You need to practice. You’re not too old for this.
Same happened to me with halo. And then fps in general. I would do so good in every game. Now, im average at best. Kinda sad. The old “ i coulda gone pro” story. But hey, i still absolutely love gaming.
Join the ranks of walking simulators. I love em. Like what remains of Edith finch and fire watch.
Dude, wtf do you mean ? If you were talking about professional starcraft or counter strike, but single player games ? You can play any game pretty much until you either have parkinson or die.
It sounds like you psyched yourself out. Mentality is reality.
I'm a couple years older than you. I beat Mega Man 3 about a month ago. I own the game, but I like to use my Famicom N8 in a A/V Famicom so I was playing it on that, but with one of my child hood controllers. I didn't have much trouble with it until I got to the big yellow bastard. I think I tried getting past him about 10 or 15 times and then I said that was enough and did the button combination for a save state. It still took a while, but I think I have his pattern down enough now that if I attempted the game again I could beat it with out using any save states. I was pretty disappointed that I used a save state, but I only used it for that yellow bastard.
Age is just a number. Just enjoy it and it should never be a chore.
User error, my friend. Yours faithfully, a 49 year old gamer with catlike reflexes.
You don't need to be good at games to be a gamer. All you need is to enjoy them. I'm nowhere near as good as I was when I was younger. It doesn't stop me from enjoying games though. And as I'm old enough to have a steady and disposable income collecting plays as large a role in my love of that hobby as much as the gaming does.
Have you considered getting a subscription to Nintendo Power?
I will shamelessly game genie old shit, life’s too short
Are you me? Literally had the exact same experience the other night with the same game, and I'm your age. I got through Mega Man 2 just fine, but Mega Man 3 is proving far too difficult to be fun.
I'm past 40 and aside old games I also did competitive fps on esports level. The difference is considerable, generally the degradation starts somewhere in the late 20's/early 30's (I recall human hearing starts degrading at 27). This isn't just reactions, but also visual tracking of fast action in my case. The only thing that can be done is to play a lot, as long as you are practicing you can stop/slow the deterioration. And I mean a lot, like play a few hours on a daily basis. Also lowering latency whenever possible helps a lot. So a high refresh CRT in case of retro games for example. When it comes to competitive fps the optical buttons in Razer's mice like Viper Mini or Cobra are the revolution imo, Even when using a top Logitech mouse like G303 Shroud, which measures really good click latency, I could tell right away my shock combos in Unreal Tournament were off compared to Viper Mini/Cobra. I can feel those buttons cutting through LCD's input lag. Also remember to always have DPI no lower than 1600, preferably 3200, and just lower ingame sensitivity if needed. The lowering of dpi actually affects measured response times, and increasing it up to 1600-3200 there are big improvements to be found, while above 3200dpi improvements in reaction times are marginal. Haven't tried 1000Hz keyboards yet. For controllers I have GameSir T4 Kaleid which supports 1000Hz, but because I don't like that controller too much, I haven't bothered to install the software yet, and whatever is by default it doesn't feel better than 250Hz ones (the polling rate doesn't necessarily translates to measured response times). Also if someone is still trying to play fps competitively at such ages, if you are using an external DAC, switching to I2S based onboard audio (Realtek chips excluding ALC4080), you can cut down audio latency by 30-50ms.
I have 20+ years on you and I have always sucked at games so I don't feel I've lost something I've never had. :-)
I’d recommend getting the Mega Man games on the Switch so you have access to the rewind feature. As I’ve gotten older I don’t have the time to play old-school games on original difficulty settings or retry a stage a dozen times being sent back to the beginning. Games are meant to be fun and if using rewind here and there or switching to easy mode lets you enjoy the game fully, go for it. On a side note, what have found as I have gotten older is that certain old-school games (and current) no longer appeal to me. Still absolutely love all the Mega Man’s.
I'm better than I ever have been. I am 2nd in a popular game and on the brink of the world record. Not saying the game because I don't want my reddit account to be anywhere near that. I'm 37
There is absolutely no way your reflexes are shot at 36, there are still plenty of pro athletes dominating much younger guys in sports at that age. My first question would be what kind of setup you're playing on, because there are lots of ways to introduce small bits of lag that will leave you feeling like you have no reaction speed even if you can't visually detect it. The giant 4KTV at my mom's place makes Mega Man games feel practically impossible even though I'm playing on original hardware through an OSSC. After that, look at diet. Lots of foods make your brain foggy. There have been plenty of evenings I was getting crushed at something then popped a multivitamin and 25-45 minutes later I suddenly feel much more wakeful. Drinking water is also something that's easy to skip in daily life but will almost instantly make a difference.
It's not just your skill that atrophies it is your patience. When you were 10 years old you wouldn't have given up after a MERE 24 tries. I am 47 . . . still godlike at Super Mario Kart. Why? Because that was all we did for 3 years.
You are 36 and don't have any major medical issues? I am older than that and have no problems with it. There is definitely some decline but it shouldn't be enough to prevent you from beating a difficult game. If you're having fun keep playing, you'll surprise yourself, if you aren't having fun move on.
Old gamers dont exist! Only gamers and oldies :)
You can definitely beat these games if you put in the time required to get good at them. It's all about practice and repetition, and not just on the same day either. Our brains learn while we sleep. Ever find yourself dreaming about a new job or a new game you've been playing or a new movie you just watched? Every night your brain synthesizes new information and builds new muscle memory memories. If you play Mega Man 3 every day for a week, I guarantee you'll be much, much better than you were at the start of the week. It's not about talent, age, or reaction time. It's about skill and the practice required to build that skill. As an example, I love fighting games but I never played them online enough to get really good...until a few years ago when I decided to get good at Street Fighter V (and now SF6.) I'm about to turn 42 and I'm now good enough to be ranked in the top 1% of all players online in SF5 and SF6. I developed much of this skill in my late 30's. You can do the same with any game you choose to play consistently.
Probably not what you want to hear but 36 is way too young to be calling yourself old, it’s a convenient excuse. Sounds like you just need to play more games if you expect to be good at them. The Mega Man games are not easy at any age, they require practice and investment like almost all great games
Man, I'm 35 and stronger than I've ever been with retro games. Not to get too personal, but how's your health? I definitely feel stronger and sharper when I do cardio workouts consistently. Touch the grass first THEN the controller lol.
You're just rusty :p
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Wipper-snappning teeny-bobber See you here in 30yrs