No i never played SotN, but everyone says it's a great game.
Yeah, I miss my younger days of playing fighting and sports games with friends and roommates. Have you ever played online games like League of Legends? That's free to play but they sell you stuff.
If you ever want to, you can download Steam for free and there are a lot of great free games and demos on there.
I also spend a lot of time playing Marvel Snap on my phone. That's free. And a lot of fun.