Aging Gamer: Muscle Memory

<p>I had often heard about Muscle Memory when it comes to playing games you use to love during your childhood&period; However&comma; I had never believed it due to the fact that I never experienced it&period; Dabbling with my older games on a weekly basis I wondered how I beat games like <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;vaporware-chronicles-mega-man-legends-3d&sol;"><em>Mega Man 2<&sol;em><&sol;a> and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;ghostsngoblins&period;fandom&period;com&sol;wiki&sol;Ghosts&lowbar;&percnt;27n&lowbar;Goblins&lowbar;Wiki"><em>Ghost and Goblins<&sol;em><&sol;a> when I was a wee eight year old lad&period; A few years ago I dusted off my <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;dkoldies&period;com&sol;nes-original-systems&sol;">original NES<&sol;a> and had serious problems playing those two exact games as a thirty-something&period; I thought I had lost it and that current games had babied my skills into oblivion&period; Little did I know&comma; the NES Classic would show me that I had lost no skills at all&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Thanksgiving Day was the first day I actually got to hook up and play my NES Classic and I was very pleased&period; It almost felt like when I got my original NES about 30 years&comma; but this time I was ready for the challenge that Miyamoto and company had designed&period; I first scrolled through all the games&comma; seeing which ones I had played and which ones I had never heard of&period; I spent a few minutes with <em>Ninja Gaiden<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Bubble Bobble<&sol;em> and <em>Gradius<&sol;em>&semi; the last two I owned as a child and still own&period; I did reasonably well with the titles I had already played and pretty crappy with <em>Ninja Gaiden<&sol;em>&comma; but I do pretty bad with new <em>Ninja Gaiden<&sol;em> titles too so that didn&&num;8217&semi;t surprise me&period; Then I finally decided to play one of my favorite NES titles&comma; <em>Punch Out&excl;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;142599" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-142599" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-142599" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;11&sol;26121536&sol;81f2Sm5hVYL&period;&lowbar;AC&lowbar;SL1500&lowbar;&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"573" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-142599" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>NES Classic Edition<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Nintendo&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Seeing that I was late to the game getting one of these I watched a lot of videos and read some articles on the machine&period; I&&num;8217&semi;d read a few stories where<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;mike-tyson-fights-punch&sol;"><em> Punch Out&excl;<&sol;em><&sol;a> was a somewhat broken game due to the timing being off because the game is no longer being played on a CRT television&period; This bummed me out a bit&comma; but since I had a few moments to play before we had to leave for dinner I decided to try my hand at the game once again&period; In five minutes or so I blew past everyone except for King Hippo because I had forgotten his trick&period; While chomping on turkey and rolls I finally remembered what his tell was and defeated him the next day&period; I thought this game was going to be unplayable&comma; but my skills haven&&num;8217&semi;t left for<em> Punch Out&excl;<&sol;em> which is kind of nice&period; Knowing that all your talent hasn&&num;8217&semi;t faded away with time a nice little perk to grabbing these Classic systems&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I hope that when I get my <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;amzn&period;to&sol;2YXFliM">SNES Classic<&sol;a> and <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;amzn&period;to&sol;2GV6blb">PlayStation Mini<&sol;a> there will be other games that unlock my older talents&period; It just feels good to school an old game that you use to be great at and that most people aren&&num;8217&semi;t too hot at nowadays&period; Most people won&&num;8217&semi;t get to experience this feeling for awhile&comma; maybe not until <em>Fortnite<&sol;em> gets a mini console will this generation understand muscle memory in games&period; It does suck getting old&comma; I won&&num;8217&semi;t lie to you&comma; but it really is nice to go back now and then and relive some of the best days of your life and that gaming had to offer&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>Like what you read&quest; Check out more of my <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;tag&sol;aging-gamer&sol;">Aging Gamer<&sol;a> series on BagoGames&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;