Retro Gaming Is So 2008
- Thread starter tendo82
- Start date
If you're looking for retro games to be anything more than pure fun, you're looking for the wrong thing.
Retro games are popular for that specific reason: They are fun, and nothing more.
Try playing Contra, its general regarded as one of the best NES games, yet you won't find anything thing deeper than, "Hey lets kill some stuff."
These days, people (developers especially) seem to thing that making games fun is a little bit beneath them. Its like they are trying to convince themselves that at the end of the day, all they are really doing is playing with a toy. Yes, the 360 is a toy, so is the PS3. You're lying to yourself if you think otherwise. A definition of the word toy is: Something that is specifically designed for fun.
I for one am sick of modern games that try to be some work of serious fiction. The result, more often than not, reeks of pretention.
Retro games are popular for that specific reason: They are fun, and nothing more.
Try playing Contra, its general regarded as one of the best NES games, yet you won't find anything thing deeper than, "Hey lets kill some stuff."
These days, people (developers especially) seem to thing that making games fun is a little bit beneath them. Its like they are trying to convince themselves that at the end of the day, all they are really doing is playing with a toy. Yes, the 360 is a toy, so is the PS3. You're lying to yourself if you think otherwise. A definition of the word toy is: Something that is specifically designed for fun.
I for one am sick of modern games that try to be some work of serious fiction. The result, more often than not, reeks of pretention.
You wanted to try out retro gaming and you went for PC Engine and Neo Geo, two systems that almost no one owned? (except for PC Engine of course... IN JAPAN) Then you proceed to play some hair metal game and World Heroes? Christ, no wonder why you had a bad experience.
Amiga, C64, NES, and Genesis for the retro (SNES if you feel like stretching it out a bit further). Atari, maybe, but if you weren't there there's no reason (and it sounds like you weren't there). On the PC, there's Origin and Lucas who put out some great classic titles.
You've got to do some research first, but I applaud your effort. I hope this won't deter you from checking out real "classic" games in the future.
Amiga, C64, NES, and Genesis for the retro (SNES if you feel like stretching it out a bit further). Atari, maybe, but if you weren't there there's no reason (and it sounds like you weren't there). On the PC, there's Origin and Lucas who put out some great classic titles.
You've got to do some research first, but I applaud your effort. I hope this won't deter you from checking out real "classic" games in the future.
A useful purpose? That's one of the strangest comments I've seen for a while. Is there a useful purpose for gaming in general?harhol said:
The earlier eras of gaming were interesting since (especially the NES/C64 era and before that) you had a lot of mad people with programming skills doing games mostly by themselves. This meant that the ideas they had were implemented almost completely uncompromised. Results were games like Mario, M.U.L.E. (a board game like market simulator, is vastly more fun than it sounds), Archon and a whole load of other bizarre titles. Someone like Miyamoto would have a very hard time pitching an idea like SMB in today's landscape but then the concept didn't really have to make sense.
Sure, today we have the occasional downloadable game that's like this, but back then it was really the norm rather than the exception.
I'm not saying there weren't bad games: games like Ikari Warriors and Yie Ar Kung Fu are examples of pretty awful games I used to think were awesome back in the day. Cauldron and Cauldron 2 were awful even then, chiefly because of their crappy controls. I'm just saying that seeing old as irrelevant and unplayable is just as bad as letting nostalgia take the better of you.
Great article Tendo, you handsome fellow you.
Retro gaming is something I have indulged in, primarily to see what all the fuss was about. I think a lot of it is about nostalgia. I found a few gems when I got a few retro consoles, but a lot of the games that people wax poetic about were bland and not that much fun at all.
Retro gaming is something I have indulged in, primarily to see what all the fuss was about. I think a lot of it is about nostalgia. I found a few gems when I got a few retro consoles, but a lot of the games that people wax poetic about were bland and not that much fun at all.
The only game I've retro played on purpose was Mario RPG. So much fun. And, I agree with the comment up there, if you're doing it for any other reason but for fun's sake, then you are doing it wrong.
Ah, so you don't have the same nostalgia. I agree with you, but sometimes I miss my old Genesis.Indigo_Dingo said:
Samurai Showdown didn't hit its stride until the second or third in the series. Beautiful fighting game, probably the first one I actually stopped and just enjoyed watching. First one was ass if I remember correctly though.
I dunno, it's more of a milestone game than something you really approach to have fun with. If you want to watch the evolution of the genre, this was one of the first games that tried to look pretty.
I dunno, it's more of a milestone game than something you really approach to have fun with. If you want to watch the evolution of the genre, this was one of the first games that tried to look pretty.
Nice article, but... retro gaming ins't sooo 2008...
it's 1990!
I still enjoy my FFVI and Chrono Trigger... but then again that's just me
it's 1990!
I still enjoy my FFVI and Chrono Trigger... but then again that's just me
World Heroes? Are you serious? That game is so laughably broken. I'm talking bug riddled, wooden movement, crappy hit detection type broken here. I still loved it, if only for the fact you could play with Rasputin and his heavy punch was a giant yellow hand. Jeanne d'Arc was also worth a few giggles.
I'm still amazed they put that game on the Virtual Console.
Anyway, I loved the Kyoshiro reference (that's Samsho's Kabuki guy for those not in the know).
And this is just about how I feel about retro gaming as well.
I'm still amazed they put that game on the Virtual Console.
Anyway, I loved the Kyoshiro reference (that's Samsho's Kabuki guy for those not in the know).
And this is just about how I feel about retro gaming as well.
I love retro gaming. Me and a work buddy go down to a store that only sells used games ever pay day and throw down like 20 bucks for old NES games. It fun to spend a night playing games where the only thing you have to understand is that A is your jump button and B is for attack. That and 8 bit music is awesome.