Hydlide exists for me at a very specific confluence of things in my life. It’s the first game I can remember playing that my dad actively loathed and constantly told me how stupid it was that I was playing it. My dad thought RPGs were for idiots, and if there wasn’t “skill” in playing a game then it was bad. He also thought fantasy was for (homophobic slur)s. This is why I didn’t play any RPGs until I was, like, 14 or something.
EXCEPT
EXCEPT for Hydlide. I played a ton of this game, partially because the mechanic of Run Into Enemies Until One Of You Dies is so transparently smashing numbers together, which somehow made it feel even more like a fuck-you to my dad. But also partially because the music was really annoying and I could tell it drove him crazy.
So yeah, this is literally the first time I remember being rebellious about things I liked (vs. just doing something I wasn’t supposed to do), as boring as that is.