So I myself am a dinosaur in the Melee scene. Started in 2005, and I was the last person from the generation I started in that was active up until 2020. I still occasionally show up to a weekly or larger local maybe once or twice a year, if the timing is right or I know a certain person is showing up. I might boot up Slippi a couple of days before to refresh myself.
I play mainly 2D fighters these days, at the moment Granblue Fantasy Versus RIsing and Strive. I dabble in pretty much the rest, and am semi active in Rivals of Aether 2, though I mainly just play ranked or with a few friends. As a married man with a kid, I have a lot less time to go to locals, so I tend to devote my time to the weekly FGC meetups and monthlies since that's what I'm active in.
It's still crazy how cerebral the game is. I don't have to think as fast in other fighting games as I do in Melee, constantly fighting for positioning, dash dancing, moving around platforms, trying to find my openings.
I never thought I'd step away from the game long enough to ever think basic stuff like wave dashing would actually feel.... demanding? Rivals 2 made me finally realize just how strict Melee is with inputs. Never thought I'd actually miss a buffer, since Melee was my first competitive game, along with 3rd Strike and GG XX, which also had no buffer and strict input windows, so that was my baseline for many years.
Of course I also quickly get reminded of why I eventually stopped playing. 15 years of Fox doing waveshine to upsmash or fishing for upthrow to uair or Marth and his enormous grab range eventually wears on you.
On the flipside, beating the new blood still warms this old man's heart. I remember starting to sweat when I saw a BOXX player sit next to me in bracket, thinking I was going to get rocked by some execution monster, then I ended up winning 2-0, though I still had to work for it.
Also there's like 3 Luigi's in our scene now, wtf? I got eliminated in winner's and losers in one weekly last year by Luigi, one of which I was salty about because I use to destroy him when I was active.
So like the title asks, how does it feel returning to Melee after you've retired? Or to those dinosaurs still currently active, how does it feel to still be playing with the new generation?