Games that make you sad, but for a different reason

[Az]

I was digging through some magazines from 5+ years ago the other night, that last few that were produced right before everything in the US went belly up. (Except for Game Informer which I think is garbage and will forever pigeonhole as a shitty Funcoland sales device.) That was right around the "games aren't art" flap so dozens of developer interviews and game editorials all spoke of how an up and coming game was so artsy fartsy and emotionally involved that it would make you cry.

Which, as a side note, I think is the stupidest measuring stick you could ever use to determine emotional involvement. A movie, book, or song doesn't have to bring one to tears to establish its validity as having emotional investment by the audience. Heavy handed tear jerking moments are no more or less valid than jump scares or fart jokes if they work as intended. Anyway...

What are some games that make you sad but for a reason other than the actual content of the game, and why?

Are there games that you avoid for that very reason? Or on the opposite end some that you play just because of that?

For example; maybe a game that reminds you of a loved one that has passed on, or reminds you of a better (or worse) time in your life?

[Emperor Megas]

A lot of games make me sad, but I'm not sure that many make me sad for reasons other than the games' content. I suppose 'melancholy' is as close to sad as I get about some games in that respect.

For example, I still have my original copy of Phantasy Star for the Master System, and every now and again I'll boot it up just to see if the save battery is still alive. It's always alive and well, and my saves are still there. The thing is, the saves are from Junior High and High school (1989-1993), and each save slot has the name of a girl I dated back them.

1. KIANA
2. LAURI
3. NIKKI
4. SUNNY
5. MAYTA

Techinally, I dated Lauri first, but it was short lived, and Kiana was my girlfriend off and on all through my teenage years, so she got top billing.

Anyway, I'm 42 years old, so seeing the names of people I dated in the early 90's, and the feelings and memories attached to them and that period in my life make me feel really meloncholic, if that's a word.

Also, there are a handful or games that I have with some soot damage on the cases/boxes from a house fire that claimed most of my original game collection well over a decade ago. It was the house I lived in since the 5th grade up until my mid 30's. I had to move after the fire and I chose to move across the country (from New Orleans, to rural Minnesota), a fateful move that changed the course of my entire life. Every time I organize or inventory my games and see those soot marred cased it makes me reflect on my life -- where I am, where I came from, and how my life has played out since, for better or worse, all initiated by circumstances that were beyond my control. In a way, it was the best thing that could've happened, but it makes me sigh all the same.

[goldenband]

This is a great idea for a thread. I just wish I had something to contribute -- I can't think of any game that makes me sad for reasons extrinsic to the game, or that I specifically seek out for any reason other than generic childhood nostalgia.

The closest thing I can think of happened over a much shorter span of time. As a teenager I played Battle of Olympus, in which you name the female character you'll be rescuing, and then you don't really hear about her until the very end of the game. So I named her after a girl I had a raging crush on (and who had an unusual first name), and then took a couple weeks to beat the game.

I don't remember whether anything changed between the start and finish of the game -- eventually, she and I fell out completely, so it's possible things went downhill even during that period. But I do remember sitting bolt upright in my seat when her name flashed onscreen at the end of the game, and getting pretty weirded out until I remembered how it had happened. (The fact that the game uses passwords made it a bit freakier.)

[SpaceHarrier]

For example; maybe a game that reminds you of a loved one that has passed on, or reminds you of a better (or worse) time in your life?

The first example that stuck out to me was from this category. Now I got Donkey Kong Country 2 back in December of 1995, but only got so far before moving on to something else. Almost a decade later I was engaged to a really sweet girl and we would play games together. So at some point we picked up the original save file and fought our way through that infuriatingly tough tower level, making it to the level before the last boss, before giving up again. She would always comically mimick the "ONK!" sound that the croc baddies would make when being stomped on.


Anway, things didn't work out.

Only a few years later, her life would come to a sudden end.


I thought back to those times we used to play DKC 2, and how we never made it through. Realizing the battery backup would not hold out forever, I decided I had to finally beat K. Rool for the both of us, in tribute to her memory.

Boy, he is a tough final boss in this one. But in 2012 or so I made it through. DKC 2 started as a fond Christmas memory and fun but challenging game I could not overcome. Then a bonding experience with a loved one. Finally, in memoriam to love and life lost.

[Edmond Dantes]

I've had a few games that I've grown to hate for reasons not directly stemming from the games themselves. For example when my cousin was four years old he would always demand I play Donkey Kong Country for him... now I can't stand DKC.

As for making me sad, though? Well... there are some games where I play them and my memory connects them to an era that's long since passed, most especially I remember Space Quest 6 being the first time I ever rented a PC game (and the last, unfortunately) and how amazing that was... and how quickly that ended, probably because even back then pirating PC games was way too easy.

The closest thing I have to what the OP seems to be looking for isn't a game though... its an old VHS tape of recordings of childhood shows, and in particular Fraggle Rock. It just so happens the last time I watched that tape was the night before I learned that my grandpa had died, so now the theme song to Fraggle Rock is sad for me.

[Zap!]

Total Eclipse for the 3DO makes me very sad. I got it in the bargain bin in January, 1997 on the way back from visiting my mom in the hospital. She passed away from cancer that month. Playing it is hard, especially when that main bad guy laughs at you when you lose.

[goldenband]

Actually, I thought of one: the SNES platformer Skuljagger. I don't avoid playing it, but I feel a twinge of guilt whenever I hear the character death tune in that game.

As a teenager trying and failing to beat the game, the last few levels were infuriatingly difficult (no passwords) and I used to blame my little brother (who liked to watch me play) whenever I lost a life. I even half-jokingly made up a song about it, using the melody of the death tune.

You know how it is -- if you're frustrated, you inevitably blame whatever's around you for the slightest distraction -- but even so, I feel kinda bad about that now.

[Emperor Megas]

Actually, Bust-A-Move 2 for The Saturn makes me a little sad when I play it.

Not getting a degree is one of many regrets in my life, and Bust-A-Move 2 sort of reminds me of brief college stint, which amounted to less than a year. You see I spent a lot of time in the computer lab back when I was in school. This is back in like '97 or so, before I had an Internet capable PC at home. Anyway, I used to put my copy of Bust-A-Move 2 into the CD drive of my workstation and listen to the Redbook audio tracks A LOT while I worked. Like, every day.

Anyway, whenever I boot up Bust-A-Move 2 today, which is generally about twice a year or so, the soundtrack takes me right back to those days gone by, and sort of twists the knife a little more when I'm flooded with thoughts unfulfilled life goals.

[bb_hood]

Zelda Wind Waker.

So before it was released I preordered it because I wanted the game and the bonus guide and extra game.
The day it was released I was in a good mood; I just got out of school (I was in my 3rd year of college) and I had a date later on with a cute chick I was friends with. I decided to pick up the game on my way home from school. Went to FuncoLand, got the game and was driving home.

My car was stopped at a traffic light, and I was behind 2 other cars. I look up in the rearview mirror and I see this shitty car just FLYING toward me. And in that instant I know its gonna slam into me. I brace for the impact and it SLAMS into me from behind. HUGE F****** MESS. The front of the car that slammed into me was now wedged into my trunk, and my car is just crumpled. The first thing I do is turn around and yell at the woman who crashed into me: "WHAT THE F*** DID YOU DO!!". Her front windshied is gone, so its like Im yelling right directly into her face. Shes ok, so she just cries out "OMG IM SO SORRY" and starts crying. She had been dialing her cell phone when she caused the accident. She wasnt looking at the road at all.

Anyway, I was relatively unharmed. I had a 2 inch small cut on my leg and my neck was just a little messed up. Right after the accident my neck was super stiff and I had some pain. One of my vertibres in my neck is twisted against a tendon so I get occasional numbness. My car was totally crushed between the car that hit me and the car infront of me. And I mean TOTALLY CRUSHED (except for the front seats). ALL of the windows in my car were shattered, glass everywhere. Out of nowhere an off-duty paramedic runs up to me and tells me to stay in the car. He goes to help the other people and I get right up and exit the vehicle. I wasnt mangled by any means.

However, two cars infront of me were also involved in the accident. The woman in the car in front of me got seriously injured. She had head and neck injuries and they had to rush her for surgery. I later found out she was paralyzed. The person in the car infront of her had similar injuries to mine (slight). So yeah it was a total mess because someone had to be dialing a cell phone. There was a lawsuit and the woman who was paralyzed ended up getting about 80% of what the insurace paid out because she was paralyzed.
Needless to say I had to goto the ER, and I missed my date. Honde civic that I had for a year and a half was destroyed... but thank god Zelda WW was safe. That was undamaged. So yeah, stupid Wind Waker always reminds me of this huge mess. I guess it makes me more angry than sad.. but whatever.

[Sailorneorune]

Super Smash Bros. Melee.

That little GameCube disc and I have been to hell and back together over the last 12 years or so.

From helping me survive college and a failed relationship, to helping me grow stronger and eventually endure its co-creator's passing (after it went on a trip to the East Coast and back for repairs)... Super Smash Bros. Melee has lent me the strength and love engraved into its little plastic shell.


Here it is, among its Smash Brethren. Also pictured are the Kirby Smash amiibo figures, a couple of custom Iwata figure-type-things, and Nintendo Force #17. (Not pictured: the 3DS version)

[Az]

I suppose 'melancholy' is as close to sad as I get about some games in that respect.

I'd have to go with this. The only manly tears shed over a game were during Fist of the North Star 2: Ken's Rage cut scenes, which as we all know is perfectly OK.

Games with dated save files have a tendency to give me a few moments pause of depressive introspection. On consoles it probably doesn't go back farther than the DC, but firing up a game and seeing that the last time you played it was 10 or 15 years ago can give you a crash course in your own mortality. First you think, "Gee, I vividly remember the last time I played this game...10 years? Time flies!" then the flip side of "Gee... I'm old as dirt. Two more 10-year absences playing this game and I'll be dead." Deep stuff.

I love Alien Front Online and pop it in every month or so. Seeing the online leaderboard screen from circa 2002 is a sad sight. I wouldn't necessarily lump that game into this category, but there's a few games that are a bit sad because even though I have access to the game I don't have access to the environment I played it in. Playing an arcade cabinet in a basement isn't the same as in a real arcade from the 80's & 90's. There's quite a few 16 & 32-bit multiplayer-centric console games that I immediately identify with playing along two of my buddies that have long moved away. Sure, I can still play Circuit Breakers or Poy Poy, but it's a completely empty experience compared to what I remember with it being. It's like looking at a picture of your old teenage love: you pine over them, but you want them as they were at 16.... not 30 years and 5 kids later.

Games that have had the plug pulled on them are a bitch. It's a special kind of bitterness knowing that even if I had the people I originally enjoyed a game with, along with the hardware and the time, we can't just jump into Phantasy Star Online or other older online games. PSO is definitely one game that even with a perfectly serviceable single player game I just completely avoid. Just walking around the spaceship, hearing the music, or seeing the special holiday events makes me sad and frustrated enough to just turn it off since I can't properly enjoy it the way I want to.

Last week I turned on my 3DS for the first time in many months. Mii Plaza required an update. After it updated I noticed the Mii from my young nephew who died in a tragic accident last month. Sounds strange but it was as heartwarming as it was sad. It's kind of reassuring knowing that even though he's gone a bit of him lives on in cyberspace in all the friends he met online. He's one of the handful of people I have on my 3DS friends list and I always bring his name up when I'm online now just to see him for a bit.

[Guntz]

Probably Pikmin 1, the original Gamecube version. I first got it in 2010, right at a very rough time in my life. In its own way, Pikmin helped me through so many things. Much of the music in Pikmin gets me teary-eyed, namely the Distant Spring. It may not be readily apparent, but there are some subtle things in Pikmin that are sad. Consider that every single creature in the game, both Pikmin and enemies, lets out a little ghost when they die. Even the measly Shear-grubs that burrow in the ground, or the Pikmin equivalent of a Goomba, the Bulborb, have their own lives in this world. Pikmin is both beautiful and sad, it's still one of my all-time favorite Gamecube games. I wish I played it back when it was first released.

I also sometimes get a bit teary-eyed when playing Super Smash Bros. Melee, but more in the sense it reminds me all too well of the last time new video games were actually good. I have an issue of PC World from 2001 (october I think) that perfectly marks the beginning of the end for good video games in the traditional sense. In this issue, the big front page feature is the 50 best PC games of all time. It includes a lot of genuine classics from DOS and Windows. There's only one sports game and the only casual game included was The Sims. Half-Life took the #1 spot, which isn't much of a surprise, but it was nice to see games like Gabriel Knight and X-Com: UFO Defense on the list. They even added Beavis & Butthead in Virtual Stupidity.

What marks the beginning of the end is the feature on the impending Xbox launch. Granted, I like the Xbox, it has some good games, but it also encouraged a lot of horrible trends in gaming too. I don't think it's a coincidence that PC World did a top 50 best PC games of all time in conjunction with a sneak peek on the Xbox which was being released soon.

Why am I mentioning all of that? Super Smash Bros. Melee was also released in 2001. Man I miss those days, when there was something to look forward to in newer games. No HDTVs, no DLC, no microtransactions, no music games fads, no endless military FPS games, no endless mobile tablet games, just the last bastion of video games at their best. *sigh*

*edit: added SSBM

[Fuyukaze]

Animal Crossing, Worms, and Clubhouse games. While there's nothing at all depressing about any of the 3, playing them reminds me of my sister. When she was alive before her stroke, my mother, her husband, her, and me would all go out to eat after we'd get off from work and play them for hours while we ate. Often times we'd be the only customers in the places we went so the servers didn't mind. We'd trade fruits and help each other complete sets in animal crossing. We had a lot of fun blowing each other (sometimes ourselves) up in worms. With all the games clubhouse had, we still tended to play bowling or darts more often than not. It was so fun. Now even though my mother's still alive, the appeal is gone. Finding mail on our games in AC from her just makes the loss even more pointed.

Guitar Hero and Rock band also to an extent. When I was married I'd play the games constantly with my step son. He'd always get upset and rage quit because he felt he was bad at it and I'd always remind him it's not how well you did but rather, how much fun we were having. He'd always come back when I reminded him of that because he knew I didn't enjoy it unless he was playing and I knew he loved getting to play games with anyone, even with his short temper.