22 Painful Gaming Memories Only '90s Kids Will Have

    Best decade in gaming history? Maybe, but we had to put up with a lot of crap.

    Dave Cook
    by Dave Cook

    BuzzFeed Contributor

    1. Staying up until sunrise because your game had no save or password feature.

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    The sun would be rising, your NES would be about to melt because it had been on for 10 hours straight, but damn it, you were going to finish Super Mario Bros. 3.

    2. The devastation when you had to take a rented game back to Blockbuster before finishing it.

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    "But I haven't completed the Venice stage yet. Can't we just BUY Tomb Raider II?"

    3. Your dusty Mega Drive and SNES carts refusing to work no matter how many times you blew in them.

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    "Blow in it again, it still looks like a messed-up nightmare." Ninety per cent of the time it was a magic fix, but if not you'd end up hammering the reset button repeatedly.

    4. Not being able to see your Game Boy's screen on a sunny day.

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    You'd bug your parents for Handy Boy magnifying glass, light, and speaker system, then you'd realise it looked terrible and didn't even work anyway.

    5. The sheer anguish when you heard Channel 4 had cancelled GamesMaster.

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    Or Bad Influence! if you preferred ITV. Remember their video blast with all the cheat codes you could only read by playing your VHS in slow motion? Amazing.

    6. Bombing yourself into a corner then dying within the first five seconds of a Bomberman match.

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    "Guess I'll just watch you guys play then."

    7. When your PlayStation memory card was full, so you'd have to agonise over which save files to delete.

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    You'd delete your best Gran Turismo cars and the Metal Gear Solid tuxedo, only to discover your new game actually needed four blocks, not three. Fuuuuck.

    8. When the Game Gear's feeble battery died just as you were about to complete something.

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    Guess that was just the price you paid for playing in colour.

    9. The sheer rage when a Tekken n00b beat you by mashing Eddy Gordo's kicks.

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    On the other hand, this was also the best way to have a laugh by making your pals go insane with fury. Just mash X and O. Simple.

    10. When you'd been rinsing multiplayer on 56k dial-up, and your parents opened their phone bill.

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    Quake 3, Chu Chu Rocket, Unreal Tournament, and Doom players will remember legging it out of the house as fast as possible.

    11. Two words: Water Temple.

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    Wait, no, three words: Fucking Water Temple.

    12. When you found a save room in Resident Evil and didn't have an ink ribbon.

    13. Having to turn your PlayStation upside down because the lens was knackered.

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    Always the last resort after the pen trick (and disc-swapping) stopped working.

    14. And when the Time Crisis gun wouldn't calibrate properly no matter how hard you tried.

    15. When you realised the SNES version of Mortal Kombat had no blood or fatalities.

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    What was the point playing it if you couldn't plunge your fist into someone's chest and rip out their still-beating heart?

    16. Your "friend" taking both chickens when you were about to die in Streets of Rage.

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    You'd be on your last life and about to fight Mr. X, but your pal with the full life bar would inevitably eat your life-saving snack. Friendship deleted.

    17. When your buddy would do this right before the finishing line when you were playing Road Rash.

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    "You're SO getting smacked with a chain next race."

    18. The moment you realised you have to complete Ghouls 'n' Ghosts TWICE to get the good ending.

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    At this point you either turned off your console and binned the game forever, or you committed to the long haul.

    19. Trying to beat Contra without the Konami code.

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    It got to the point that if you died on the first level, you had to just reset the game. Same went for losing the spread gun. Actual tears.

    20. The fucking Medusa heads from Castlevania on the NES.

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    No matter where they hit you, there was always a strong chance you were going down the nearest pit. Urgh.

    21. The soul-crushing disappointment of the Super Mario Bros. movie.

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    Do you remember feeling baffled when they revealed their names were Luigi Mario and Mario Mario? What the actual hell was that all about?

    22. And, worst of all, when your pal would make you player two, and force you to use the shit controller.

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    We all remember the one: It was generic and sticky, the plastic coating would be coming off, and it was covered in random turbo buttons. Some friend, huh?

    But hey, it wasn't all bad.

    Nintendo

    Because the odds were stacked against you, finishing a '90s game was a truly euphoric feeling – one the youth of today will never understand. So, in short, we win.