We've all got muscle memory for our games. Whether it's action-packed or even just navigating the menu. Sometimes it sticks with us for years, and sometimes it doesn't. Do you have any tales of when your muscle memory on an old game came through for you just when you needed it most, or perhaps when it failed you in your time of need? --- I for one have trouble with muscle memory and Super Smash Bros. I can't go backwards from my current Smash game (in my case it's still Smash4) to any previous version without entirely flinging myself off the edge (in Melee) or simply crawling around the stage striking every attack too slowly (in Brawl). However, when it comes to old platforming games like Donkey Kong Country and Yoshi's Island, my skills are still as sharp as ever: every timed jump and arc and the exact angle to hit an enemy or throw an egg are as precise as ever, like nothing has ever changed. It's weird, honestly, keeping a mostly useless skill in tact from 15 years ago...
Occasionally I try to wavedash in the other Smash games. I don't know why, since I was never good at it to begin with, but... yeah, it happens. Other than that, not really. I imagine that, if I were to get TIE Fighter again, I could definitely remember where each enemy shows up and how to fly like I used to.
In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon you can press A and B simultaneously to heal quickly, but one time when I was playing, I just randomly forgot how to do it for no reason in the middle of a dungeon. Nothing like that had ever happened before and it kind of freaked me out for a moment. I just kept randomly pressing buttons hoping it would work eventually and I eventually figured it out.
I'm kind of the same, actually. I can easily start playing an old platformer that I haven't touched in years and play like it hasn't been more than a few days. In fact, overall I feel like my muscle memory works better when replaying old games compared to when I'm jumping back and forth between newer games, where I end up just getting the controls mixed up instead (especially when going between playing something on a Nintendo system and on my PS4, where suddenly I get all of the buttons mixed up for a while).
Oh yeah, that's a whole other part of muscle memory that I can get tripped up on! When a game's UI tells me to press X, which button I press is almost random. I mostly play on a Xbox One controller, so I muscle-memory default to the button on the left of the letters group, but if I go over to 3DS and am told to press X, I'll hit Y instead because it is the one on the left now. Or when I play Zelda on N64 the sword-slash button is B on the left, but on Gameboy Color the two buttons are arranged more like A and C-down in their arrangement, which means the button I want to be a sword-slash simply doesn't exist! Not only are is the labeling inconsistent between these games and consoles, but the corresponding button may or may not even exist! Man, that was a rant. There's not really any solution to it either.
I have the first world of Super Mario World down in my memory, it's completely effortless for me to time the jumps and know the location of enemies. While this came from playing the game repeatedly, there are other instances in games where I've needed muscle memory for difficult parts. The original Crash Bandicoot is the main culprit here. Due to awkward camera angles and lackluster depth perception, muscle memory almost becomes a necessity here. The game is fun once all of the jumps are figured out, but learning it can be a chore. The subsequent Crash games are not exempt from this either, but the original is the main culprit, in my experience. I can also navigate the Smash 4 menu with relative ease, having done so hundreds and hundreds of times. I could probably get to almost any game mode or feature without looking, which just shows I probably played it a little too much.
I can go back to Mario Kart 8 after months and still have no issue remembering the controls and drifting mechanics. For any other game, it usually takes me about a minute to get reacquainted with the controls. Action RPGS take me the longest to get back into. I can quit playing one for a few days and be completely lost on how to fight enemies. Good thing most of them have a controls screen to glance at when it’s necessary.
A good example of muscle memory done right for myself would probably be Cave Story, among other platformers. I learned to play the game by playing it normally, which is all fine and dandy. But then, just for the heck of it, I decided to play on Hard, and they should honestly change the name of that mode to Impossible, because hoo boy! Even getting halfway through Hard mode in Cave Story will absolutely put some hairs on your chest, and I had to basically become a master of the game to get as far as I did, which was basically the last level before a triple boss fight and an even harder final level to the game. I could talk about other games which has become intuitive like this, such as Hollow Knight, Mario Kart 7, or even Smash Bros, but Cave Story is definitely the best example of extreme muscle memory that I have.
I have a weird relationship with Mario Kart. I mostly haven't played it in a long time, so the most muscle-memoried version for me is still Mario Kart DS. It would probably take a minute at most for me to get back to that. But when I went back to Mario Kart 64 a few months ago, I was completely awful for an entire Mushroom Cup 100cc. I entirely missed the start boost every race(and never figured it out), I was sliding into walls near and far trying to drift, and I couldn't even gather the courage to try Yoshi's Valley or Bowser's Castle. It was overall just embarassing, and I could hear my past self making fun of me the entire time...
Ah, yes. This reminds me of the time that I entered a local Mario Kart 64 tournament with my brother against some really good kids around town. I did pretty well, until I literally got to the last lap of Sherbet Land, where I got stuck on a weird corner that stuck out of the wall, and by the time I worked myself out of it, my opponent long raced past me and eventually won. My brother won the tournament in the end, and got a trophy for it, but I totally blame the game for that one. (I paid him back in a later tournament in Pokémon Stadium, so don't worry about that.)
When it comes to super smash bros, my muscle memory is pretty much nonexistent. I mostly just push the buttons in random orders and hope it will do something useful. In games like Mario or Banjo Tooie, I've played them so much that the controls just feel like second nature. Unfortunately, I don't have any fun stories to share.
In Monster Hunter it has gotten to the point I can play the game on autopilot like it's nothing. In voice chat you will often hear me talking during tough fights like the fight isn't hard (this could also be a thing to calm my nerves during a rather intense battle)
