Early 2000's Nostalgia Gaming

[Saetha]

So, confession time - I guess I'm a quite a bit to the younger end of the gaming spectrum, being 20, but my nostalgic video games all come exclusively from the early 2000's Play Station 2 and Game Cube and original Xbox. Games like Super Mario Sunshine, Jak and Daxter, Star Fox: Adventures, and seemingly forgotten games like Kya: Dark Legacy and Herdy Gerdy.

To a degree I feel like this era's overlooked as far as nostalgia goes, and it makes sense if the majority of people involved in the industry didn't grow up in that time, but it always struck me as strange when people listed pixel-art side-scrollers as nostalgic. And it got me thinking - is there an untapped market there?

Supposedly the majority of developers are in their 30s and 40s, so I guess it makes sense that they'd overlook the nostalgia factor of this era, but honestly as someone who grew up with it, I can't help but think how ecstatic I would be if "retro" game developers started catering to that, instead. There are only so many times I can replay Sly Cooper before getting bored - but an active genre of gaming that returned to those bright, cartoony, often quirky and awkward but somehow charming style of games that I remember from back then.

I can see some games today that seem to be hitting on that. Yooka Laylee, A Hat In Time, etc. But it got me wondering if our definition of "nostalgic" gaming is narrow, and if so, what sort of games are you nostalgic for that don't get much attention?

 

[aozgolo]

There is a lot of nostalgia for this time period. I personally count the PS1 as my de-facto nostalgia machine despite being around for the NES and Super NES era, I just have my best gaming memories for that system. There's certainly some grand appeal to these generations for nostalgia purposes, however the main reason they aren't as heavily featured in terms of retro appeal is because it's largely indie studios going for that, and indie studios lack budget. There are several indie studios I've seen do 3D style games but they often get either stuck perpetually in early access due to slow development cycles, or they release incredibly short games that don't come close to the kind you are mentioning.

The rise of pixel art and 2D game indies largely came about due to overcoming programming and technical limitations of the era where those were AAA. For example you don't see indie studios making retro pixel art games now have to worry about coding around color limitations or swapping out sprites due to RAM limits, or dealing with a limited code set in a console, they can just code the game and it works. With the art assets it's remarkably easier to create as well, with tons of programs out there that can make doing pixel art and animating it a breeze for anyone with time and patience (I even make pixel art sprites and I'm not an artist)

When you jump to the Fifth, and especially Sixth generation of game consoles (PS1/PS2 era) This is the real rise of 3D. Where art assets and engine programming become a lot more advanced. You no longer need a full team of people to overcome technical limitations, but you do for creating art assets and managing your engine. It's just too much for a small indie studio (many of which are often 1 or 2 people in reality) and the budget required is often too high for these studios to do anything.

As to why AAA studios don't still make games like those? Well there's some risk involved, so they dab their toes in once in awhile in the cheapest way possible. Re-mastering. There are a few cases where they go a little further like with Crash Bandicoot where they are remaking the first 3 games for PS4, but it's largely seen as a genre more catered to kids despite it's nostalgic appeal for millenials. Thus we mostly see it done by Nintendo, and by certain developers who are largely dipping their toes into the toys-to-life market like Skylanders and Lego Dimensions.

 

[Saelune]

Overlooked? That generation is probably the most perfect gaming generation. Games were advanced enough, yet made well enough, and there was great variety in genres and stories and gameplay. Each console had practically separate libraries that made considering what console you get actually mean something (I was lucky to have available all 3 though).

That generation was a repeat of the SNES era, which had perfected the new styles and technologies of the NES era, just as the PS2, GameCube era perfected what the PS1 and N64 started. And for Xbox's bizarre entrance, it made a good showing, beginning online gaming as something real for consoles. Online gaming is expected now, but the 360 and PS3, ie last gen, was the first time online gaming was mainstream on consoles, and it was the Xbox that really pushed it to that. (Online gaming before that, like the Dreamcast, was far more novel and experimental)

Plus Morrowind, best game ever.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Give it time.

Right now we're in a period where devs make a lot of games based on 8- and 16-bit nostalgia, because those were the games they had as young kids and grew up with. Chances are, say in about 5-10 years, a new generation of devs will step onto the scene with nostalgia for the games of their youth aka the PS1 to PS2 era (would prefer the latter tho).

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

I started gaming on the 8-bit NES and moved onto the first Playstation before I finally found my real home. The PC.
To me, the ration between good and bad games on those consoles were indeed better back then, only fewer games made overall.
My golden years of gaming were between ?95 and ?05. On the PC mainly. During my teen years (10yrs old to 20yrs old).
Sure, good games are still being made but they are mostly weighted down with DRM and riddled with bad corporate practices.

 

[DOOM GUY]

Early-mid 2000s were certainly some great years for gaming. I already feel some nostalgia for some very early 2000s stuff, but a lot of that stuff is still too fresh in my mind for me to consider it old.

 

[Kyrian007]

Late '90s to early '00s was my high school and college years. And a great time for video games. The only drawback (and it was just for me) was I was at the end of a pc gaming cycle (my pc was getting obsolete) and for a few years I switched to console primary instead of pc gamer. And as much as I missed being on the cutting edge of pc gaming, I was getting back in to consoles at exactly the right time. Between the N64, PS1 era and the Gamecube, PS2 era there were several of the best consoles of all time.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Overlooked? That generation is probably the most perfect gaming generation. Games were advanced enough, yet made well enough, and there was great variety in genres and stories and gameplay. Each console had practically separate libraries that made considering what console you get actually mean something (I was lucky to have available all 3 though).

That generation was a repeat of the SNES era, which had perfected the new styles and technologies of the NES era, just as the PS2, GameCube era perfected what the PS1 and N64 started. And for Xbox's bizarre entrance, it made a good showing, beginning online gaming as something real for consoles. Online gaming is expected now, but the 360 and PS3, ie last gen, was the first time online gaming was mainstream on consoles, and it was the Xbox that really pushed it to that. (Online gaming before that, like the Dreamcast, was far more novel and experimental)

Plus Morrowind, best game ever.

Its overlooked because not many youtubers talk about it.

Game Grumps, AVGN, etc. barely acknowledge that era of gaming.

 

[Kae]

Eh... It's starting to get there, most of my friends are hugely nostalgic for that era and we still get together to play Smash & TimeSplitters every now and then.

As for myself I was fortunate enough to be born in 1990, I still got the full arcade experience in M?xico especially considering how big King of Fighters and Metal Slug were here, which gave me appreciation for 16-bit games, and while the first console I ever owned was the N64 I did grow up playing an NES emulator called NESTICLE[footnote]The mouse was a pixelated bloody hand in that program.[/footnote] on the computer lab at my school using Windows 95 & 98 though I think the program was on DOS, in any case I remember wasting hours playing Castlevania or even games like Chip & Dale in co-op, and I know emulation is wrong and yadda yadda, but tell that to a 10 year old from a lower-middle class family, and they'll tell you it was the coolest thing ever, back then we recorded the ROMS into Floppy Disks and later CDs, and you were kind off stuck with them and we were kinda at the mercy of whatever interested the teacher since he downloaded them because most of didn' really know how to use the Internet, surprising I know but in the late 90s and early 2ks Internet was uncommon enough that most kids didn't use it, if I recall correctly I started using the Internet in 2003.

 

[Frankster]

Sounds to me like you've just got good taste <3

Anyways the ps2 era was the golden era of console gaming for me, at that point the 3d stuff actually become decent so there was a clear separation from the ps1 era which was one of transition.
I can definitly imagine it's not uncommon for people to be nostalgic for this period of gaming.

But thing is..nostalgic games are often 2d ones because of their distinct art style. And they had a clear focus on side scrollers and platformers.

Ps2 era onwards gets a bit tricky to determine its identity. Visual wise it's pretty much what we got now, just less fancy, and people tend to be horribly picky about subpar 3d graphics nowadays.
Game play wise.. Ehhh ps2/gamecube/dreamcast era was much more experimental, even now i'm discovering new games that tried different things (michigan report, a ps2 game where you play a cameraman for some tv crew in the middle of a horror monster outbreak) but other then that i don't really see how you can make a modern nostalgic game of that era other then having a lower budget on graphics and the omission of modern business practices such as dlc and really any reliance on internet capabilities.

TLDR nostalgic games from the 2d era have a clear personality in their art style before even touching the game, ps2ish era does not, so makes things trickier.
Even in the examples you gave, all i see is 3d adventure/platform games and that's just not exclusive to the era, we still get those. What made those games good were inherent qualities and design choices that just aren't as easily identifiable and marketable as retro 2d graphics.

 

[Drathnoxis]

How exactly would one tap into the nostalgia for that particular era? Games with mid level resolution that basically look fine? Pixel art is easy because it's a distinctive style, but I'm not sure what could really define the aughts.

Also Yooka Laylee, as the spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie, is more of a callback to the N64 era of terrible 3D platformers.

As for my nostalgia pick from that time, Luigi's Mansion is massively underrated.

 

[Fox12]

So, confession time - I guess I'm a quite a bit to the younger end of the gaming spectrum, being 20, but my nostalgic video games all come exclusively from the early 2000's Play Station 2 and Game Cube and original Xbox. Games like Super Mario Sunshine, Jak and Daxter, Star Fox: Adventures, and seemingly forgotten games like Kya: Dark Legacy and Herdy Gerdy.

To a degree I feel like this era's overlooked as far as nostalgia goes, and it makes sense if the majority of people involved in the industry didn't grow up in that time, but it always struck me as strange when people listed pixel-art side-scrollers as nostalgic. And it got me thinking - is there an untapped market there?

Supposedly the majority of developers are in their 30s and 40s, so I guess it makes sense that they'd overlook the nostalgia factor of this era, but honestly as someone who grew up with it, I can't help but think how ecstatic I would be if "retro" game developers started catering to that, instead. There are only so many times I can replay Sly Cooper before getting bored - but an active genre of gaming that returned to those bright, cartoony, often quirky and awkward but somehow charming style of games that I remember from back then.

I can see some games today that seem to be hitting on that. Yooka Laylee, A Hat In Time, etc. But it got me wondering if our definition of "nostalgic" gaming is narrow, and if so, what sort of games are you nostalgic for that don't get much attention?

Well, seeing as I'm about three or four years older then you, I'm just old enough to have fond memories of the PS1/N64 era of gaming. However, I was still a kid when the PS2 came out, so I have a lot of fond memories of that era as well.

I would say the series I'm most nostalgic about is Kingdom Hearts 2. It's just the perfect encapsulation of what a childhood game should be. I've ignored the handheld titles ever since 2005, but thankfully the recent release of The World of Final Fantasy has scratched that itch a bit.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Hmm... wasn't really into playing games back then. Mostly played old PSX titles. And when I say that, I mean I played Worms with friends, sitting up into the early hours drinking and doing lots of drugs. I can remember playing and enjoying Mercenaries and Cold Winter, but that's about it for PS2 games.