If you could bring back one thing about retro games what would it be?

[Xan Krieger]

I think one of the biggest problems with this whole retro vs modern games thing is the vast majority of games made using the good old fashioned bits are indie, very few if any AAA developer wants to make something that intentionally goes back to the past for a bit.

 

[Bad Jim]

The idea of limited lives should be brought back - there is an inherent satisfaction that you get in finishing a game with a limited number of lives and it alters they way you play. Of course, this should be coupled with "secret codes" that allow unlimited lives or exploits like the Super Mario Bros. infinite 1-UP trick.

I'd go with this to some extent. It should be noted that you could usually get through those games in an hour, so it wasn't all that big a deal when you ran out of lives. But it might be really annoying with a game that took 10 hours or more to play through. So an AAA game would still need to be broken up into sections or something.

But yes, I'd say playing for half an hour or so with a limited stock of lives is much better than having one life but only having to survive between checkpoints that are maybe two minutes of gameplay apart. Long sections require mastery, while short sections tend to devolve into repeatedly trying to kill the same bad guys until you get lucky. Limited lives also make exploring worthwhile, since extra lives are always welcome as secrets.

 

[Lennie Briscoe]

I would bring innovation and creativity back in games. Back then games seemed to always be unique and be constantly outdoing themselves in terms of creativity and technology. We never knew what to expect.

I remember the first time I played Lemmings and thinking to myself: "Wow, I never played something like this before." Now, it's all Call of Duty 7, Ass Creed 8 1/2 or whatever.

I also liked that a few years ago you were always expecting the new breakthrough technology in games. When Doom 3 was released it had amazing shadows, something totally new and innovating back then. Half-Life 2 had amazing characters among many other innovations. And in gameplay there were also innovations, like the amazing Gravity Gun.

I think that's it. The sense of awe is missing from games. Even with a new console generation there's barely any innovation.

^^^ This x100

Awe and creativity used to be the norm. Companies seem so utterly devoted to these gritty/super-serious sensibilities now that folks forget to have fun. Or innovate, for that matter. For every Portal or Little Big Planet we have five me-too wannabes like MoH: Warfighter (pff haha!) that lack any kind of creative spark; titles that exist to cynically capitalize on a trend.

I'm not saying creativity is completely dead, I'm just saying that now would be a good time to practice your White, Thirty-Something Smartass routine and look for a job in the voice-acting industry.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Just saw this beautiful illustration of another part of gaming I'd like to see return from the dead:
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=331

 

[Xan Krieger]

Just saw this beautiful illustration of another part of gaming I'd like to see return from the dead:
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=331

Reminds me of some DLC for Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag I saw on Steam.

Spoiler

http://store.steampowered.com/app/260471/
Well you could go out and search for the collectibles or you can pay a dollar to have their locations revealed to you.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/260470/
You could go out and plunder for the resources you need to upgrade your ship or you can pay two dollars to have your ship's storage space increased and you gain 500 of each resource.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/260472/
For a dollar you can learn of each activity's location, or you could just go to each location, find a place to synchronize, and get it revealed for free.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/264750/
2 dollars gives you all the plans for better ship equipment

I get that it's for singleplayer but still, you're paying to get stuff you could get for free if you have the time to do it. I think each thing should put dollar signs on your map and ship to indicate that you didn't legitimately get the stuff, you took the easy way and paid for it.

 

[scorptatious]

I would bring innovation and creativity back in games. Back then games seemed to always be unique and be constantly outdoing themselves in terms of creativity and technology. We never knew what to expect.

I remember the first time I played Lemmings and thinking to myself: "Wow, I never played something like this before." Now, it's all Call of Duty 7, Ass Creed 8 1/2 or whatever.

I also liked that a few years ago you were always expecting the new breakthrough technology in games. When Doom 3 was released it had amazing shadows, something totally new and innovating back then. Half-Life 2 had amazing characters among many other innovations. And in gameplay there were also innovations, like the amazing Gravity Gun.

I think that's it. The sense of awe is missing from games. Even with a new console generation there's barely any innovation.

^^^ This x100

Awe and creativity used to be the norm. Companies seem so utterly devoted to these gritty/super-serious sensibilities now that folks forget to have fun. Or innovate, for that matter. For every Portal or Little Big Planet we have five me-too wannabes like MoH: Warfighter (pff haha!) that lack any kind of creative spark; titles that exist to cynically capitalize on a trend.

I'm not saying creativity is completely dead, I'm just saying that now would be a good time to practice your White, Thirty-Something Smartass routine and look for a job in the voice-acting industry.

Oh yes, games NEVER capitalized on trends back in the old days. There were never a bunch of Super Mario 64 clones (some of which are good mind you)or games involving anthropomorphic animals with attitude.

Seriously, I hate threads like this. I love some of my older games as well, and I do agree with some of the points on here. But for the most part, it feels like a lot of people on here are blinded by nostalgia.

Yes, things aren't exactly peaches and cream in the game industry right now. But don't go telling me the gaming industry never did the whole "cynically capitalize on a trend" thing back then.

 

[Kotaro]

The feelies that used to come with PC games. Like, I remember an old spy point-and-click that came with a themed notepad, physical case files, and a few other knick-knacks. Not the best example, but just one that I can remember.

Nowadays if you want this stuff, you need to pay an extra $20 for a collector's edition.

 

[Lennie Briscoe]

I would bring innovation and creativity back in games. Back then games seemed to always be unique and be constantly outdoing themselves in terms of creativity and technology. We never knew what to expect.

I remember the first time I played Lemmings and thinking to myself: "Wow, I never played something like this before." Now, it's all Call of Duty 7, Ass Creed 8 1/2 or whatever.

I also liked that a few years ago you were always expecting the new breakthrough technology in games. When Doom 3 was released it had amazing shadows, something totally new and innovating back then. Half-Life 2 had amazing characters among many other innovations. And in gameplay there were also innovations, like the amazing Gravity Gun.

I think that's it. The sense of awe is missing from games. Even with a new console generation there's barely any innovation.

^^^ This x100

Awe and creativity used to be the norm. Companies seem so utterly devoted to these gritty/super-serious sensibilities now that folks forget to have fun. Or innovate, for that matter. For every Portal or Little Big Planet we have five me-too wannabes like MoH: Warfighter (pff haha!) that lack any kind of creative spark; titles that exist to cynically capitalize on a trend.

I'm not saying creativity is completely dead, I'm just saying that now would be a good time to practice your White, Thirty-Something Smartass routine and look for a job in the voice-acting industry.

Oh yes, games NEVER capitalized on trends back in the old days. There were never a bunch of Super Mario 64 clones (some of which are good mind you)or games involving anthropomorphic animals with attitude.

Seriously, I hate threads like this. I love some of my older games as well, and I do agree with some of the points on here. But for the most part, it feels like a lot of people on here are blinded by nostalgia.

Yes, things aren't exactly peaches and cream in the game industry right now. But don't go telling me the gaming industry never did the whole "cynically capitalize on a trend" thing back then.

I love the smell of unwarranted hostility in the morning.

Of course cynical cash-ins have always been a thing; where did I say they weren't? I have as many good memories with Sonic and Mario as I have bad ones with rip-offs like Bubsy and McKids. I just personally believe that it's a bigger issue today than it was yesterday just by virtue of the industry being an order of magnitude larger.

If that means I'm blinded by nostalgia, then so be it.

 

[asdfen]

dont understand whats stop anyone from playing any retro games most of the consoles have emulators out there and 99% of all old PC games are still playable on modern PCs

 

[sageoftruth]

I miss games being easier and less costly to make. Strange, since I've never helped make a game in my life, but we can see how that has stymied so many AAA devs and scared so many AAA publishers out of trying new things.

Now they're under the impression that they can't go back to more workable goals without losing everyone, and they just might be right about that with all these kids growing up with the idea that anything less graphically-sound than Call of Duty is unplayable garbage.

 

[Bad Jim]

stop making multiplayer only games

I disagree on this one. Multiplayer and singleplayer are different kinds of game for different kinds of people and devs should not feel compelled to put both in the same box without good reason. It's as arbitrary as saying that 4X games should be bundled with RPGs.

 

[Blitsie]

Crazy coincidence that I just thought about this yesterday as I came across this comic:

It really, really sucks how cool things like costumes, artworks and generally other extras like cheats and unlockables got completely removed from gaming for the sake of making more money. What happened to the days where you actually had to achieve gold medal in some difficult challenge room to unlock that ultra cool costume? Or had to go through this process or find this hidden place to get that awesome thing? Now its all about paying five bucks for some pack or only being able to get it by pre ordering it at this certain store.

I love gaming as it is right now but man, some truly magical things got lost as time went on, remember tactical shooters like SWAT? What happened to those?

 

[spartandude]

Expansion packs. God damn do i miss the old days (not even that old tbh) where sometime after the game came out a £30 expansion would come out with about 10-15 hours worth of content (im basing this mostly on RPGs btw) rather than £10 for maybe 1.5 hours.

Also it may be me but has map design gotten worse lately? Over the past 4 years Ive seen more and more games with maps that are just slightly altered parts of single player missions. Halo Reach was the biggest offender to me especially after Halo 3 had some of my favorite maps in all of online FPS games because the maps were all design around multiplayer rather than what works for both the mp and sp.

 

[Cerebrawl]

Game over screen. Remember back in the day, when you could LOSE at a game. Hell the closes thing we got to a game over now a days is the " YOU DIED" message in darksouls. -snip video-

Have you heard of roguelikes? They'd like a word with you. I particularly like Dungeon of Dredmor's "Congratulations! You have died." gameover text.

Spoiler: Dungeons of Dredmor death compilation

Heck there's plenty of games that at least have optional hardcore/ironman modes if that's your thing. XCOM: Enemy Unknown comes to mind.

It's not gone, it's just not everywhere, or mainstream popular, because guess what, most people don't like it.

I do like me some roguelikes though, but hardly ever run hardcore/ironman otherwise. YMMV. It's also a genre that's been pretty much exploding in recent years, there's tons of them, roguelikes everywhere.

 

[krazykidd]

Game over screen. Remember back in the day, when you could LOSE at a game. Hell the closes thing we got to a game over now a days is the " YOU DIED" message in darksouls. -snip video-

Have you heard of roguelikes? They'd like a word with you. I particularly like Dungeon of Dredmor's "Congratulations! You have died." gameover text.

Spoiler: Dungeons of Dredmor death compilation

Heck there's plenty of games that at least have optional hardcore/ironman modes if that's your thing. XCOM: Enemy Unknown comes to mind.

It's not gone, it's just not everywhere, or mainstream popular, because guess what, most people don't like it.

I do like me some roguelikes though, but hardly ever run hardcore/ironman otherwise. YMMV. It's also a genre that's been pretty much exploding in recent years, there's tons of them, roguelikes everywhere.

Well i didn't necessarily mean ,"you die, lose all your continues and have to start the game over. It's just that most games it's die/respawn/load checkpoint in half a second and you barely get time to ackownledge you died. I liked game that have little (skippable)cinematics when you failed , kind of like chrono trigger, to give dying a little bit of weight. Just something to motovate me not to fail next time.

Buuuuut that's just me. I know people hate losing, hate being told they lost, and hate waiting.

 

[Chrozi]

Arcades.
I wish there were still dedicated arcades having walls lined with uprights and specialty cabs in the middle. No ticket redemption, thank you.

 

[Tellis Argonis]

6.) The brutal, painful death of the concept of 'pay2win' freemium business models. It's not okay to sell power. Basically, Secret World good, Warframe bad. (in monetization, anyway. Warframe's gameplay is at least rather fun for a while)

Lol who buys anything in Warframe? It's easy enough to get new weapons in that game, you can get everything in the game without paying a dime for it. It's also got a very very weak PvP aspect to it, it's almost all PvE, and the game pretty much -is- going out to get and make the gear. They also hand out 75% discounts on platinum like haloween candy in the daily drops so in case you wanted like, more item slots for weapons or characters, badabing. Or simply play, and get weapons, trade rare mods for platinum, Heck you get a bit of starting platinum to spend on whatever. Like a dumb, I bought this scarf cosmetic thing instead of getting character slots. However, I do parade around going 'Oh look who haaaas a syadana and you don't. Such fashion, such scarf thing.'

Not really, but I do like my scarf thing a lot.

It's not selling power in the traditional sense, it's more convenience than power to drop some money on a weapon or something if you're truly that impatient. There's also a bunch of weapons you can buy with credits up front without needing to craft them.

Warframe is free, and it doesn't require a single dime to actually be played. Their market could go about with saying 'hey there's weapons you can buy with credits here other than some better assault rifle' though I guess I just didn't pay attention.

 

[The Random Critic]

1. no fast travel
2. require more thoughts or reflex to go though certain encounters
3. more single player focus

 

[marioandsonic]

Arcades in general. I miss them so much. And I'm not talking about arcades that only consist of "Spend $20 to win enough tickets to earn a prize worth $5" games, I mean old-school arcades that had old-school arcade games with old-school style gameplay. Don't get me wrong, there are still some great recent arcade games (that new Batman driving game is fun as hell), but most arcades now pretty much consist only of ticket games with MAYBE a Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga cabinet stuck in a corner somewhere.

Speaking of which, you know what genre needs to come back? Beat-em-ups. Doesn't anyone else miss beat-em-ups?

RELATED EDIT: A few weeks ago, I was in the mall's arcade, and I saw three kids playing the old TMNT arcade game. I figured they wouldn't mind if I joined in, and that was one fun as hell playing session.

Do you know how long it's been since I was able to play an arcade game with 3 other people? I'm genuinely asking, because I seriously don't know. Not that I minded, because I couldn't help but have a huge grin on my face while I played. And while I will probably never see those kids at the arcade again, we were all there for the same purposes: 1. To take down the Shredder, and 2. TO HAVE SOME FUCKING FUN.

*exhales*

There, I feel better now.

 

[Tellis Argonis]

1. no fast travel
2. require more thoughts or reflex to go though certain encounters
3. more single player focus

Agility puzzles that you -need- to get through in order to progress in a game are bollocks. I'd much much much rather them for be in-game goodies instead of 'You must be graceful like ANTELOPE to pass!' Unless that's the whole focus of the game. But like, if it's like in some survival horror out of nowhere? Bah.

Also according to a lot of big budget produces -do- have 'reflex based encounters' in their games. I'll give you three guesses to what they call them.

There's a lot, a loooot of singleplayer focused games out and about nowatimes. It's you got to mainly look and search for them. Like finding a good multiplayer game same thing and all.

If it looks like I'm jammering nonsensically I'm sick and stuff.