That sounds like an amazing experience haha. I have some fond memories like that with these games too.

I think in my case, the narrative isn’t the main thing I enjoy about metroidvanias - rewarding exploration is what I really love. Though I didn’t play a true metroidvania until I was into my teens, some of my favorite games before that were exploration-focused platformers and (simple) RPGs.

I probably would have been frustrated and given up with my favorite metroidvanias if I had played any too young, but 8-12ish would have hit that nostalgia + enjoyment sweet spot. But hey, even without any early nostalgia I can still love them :)

That’s awesome! I’ve only ever heard of Crystalis in the context of games that flew under the radar, I don’t think many people can say they actually owned it. Too bad the GBC port isn’t great.

Ooh, great question! Super Metroid is one for me too. I love metroidvanias now, and really enjoyed the nonlinear / exploration elements of Super Mario World, but I didn’t play a proper metroidvania until my teens. I think I’d take CV:SotN over Super Metroid, but I bet I’d have been more than happy with either.

I wish I grew up with some OG gameboy RPGs. Final Fantasy Legend, Dragon Warrior Monsters, Crystalis. They were just a bit too far before my time for me to get much exposure when I would have liked them best, so I don’t have any real nostalgia, but in revisiting old games I’ve always been drawn to those.

I timed my DSi; it varies a lot by game but the largest I tried (Pokemon Black 2) loaded in around 25 seconds on the first run, then loads in under 10 seconds on subsequent runs.

I recently started messing with my DSi again after a few years away from it, and you’re definitely not alone in being confused by it all - I really have no idea what exactly I did to it. To refresh everything I ended up just wiping the SD card, then putting Twilightmenu on it. I can still boot into unlaunch so I must have modified the firmware / internal storage before, but I don’t know if hiyaCFW is something that lives on there on the SD card.

Speaking of which, that’s the same setup as my SD card, which is a 32gb Transcend. I can’t seem to find my SD card reader to double check but I’m pretty sure of using 32k cluster size.

Might be worth mentioning, I have another DSi with a wildly different system boot time for no apparent reason. I set it up the exact same, but it takes 15+ seconds to boot vs the <5 of my main DSi, even when I swap SD cards. The only difference between them is that the one that takes a long time to boot is Japanese. Games take about the same time to boot so it doesn’t seem directly related to your issue but who knows.

The first time booting a rom takes a while, but after that it’s only a few seconds for me. Maybe something to do with SD card formatting/specs?

I like your distinction between ‘retro gaming’ and ‘a retro game’. Makes sense, well put.

Never heard of this one, but it looks like a lot of fun! I’ll be playing it soon, thanks for the tip.