What’s Your Favorite Nostalgia Trip?

I wrote about this yesterday, but I am loving Sonic Mania, the new, retro-style Sonic game that leverages nostalgia—in its look, sound, and feel—and pairs that with excellent level design and pacing. The result is a game I can’t stop wanting to play, for the feeling it evokes. I’m right back there, in July of the early 90s, at my family friend’s rad basement, playing the Genesis. That Sega scream practically gives me chills.

I was a Nintendo kid, so any opportunity to play Genesis games—with their slamming synths and often faster style—was a treat.

Even though Mania is new, it offers the same style of surprise and joy I felt going through Sonic 1 and 2 with my cousins. Platformers have always been my favorite, and good, colorful, weird platformers (were there really any other kind, in the early 90s?), now so few and far between, my raison d’etre as a player.

How about you, dear readers? What’s a game that successfully brings you back to a happier, simpler time in your life?

Have thoughts? Swing by Waypoint’s forums to share them!