Stop! Nostalgia Time!October 27th, 2008 by Gloria
Del.icio.us | Digg | Technorati | Reddit | Stumble Upon
With the release of Mega Man 9 I find myself missing the old days of 90’s gaming. It’s true that games have come a long way in the last ten to twenty years, but my heart yearns for the simpler days. One of the main reasons I’m buying a Wii is for the downloaded games. I’m dying to play Secret of Mana again. I’m thrilled they’ve released Chrono Trigger on the DS. I’ll probably pick it up. But I want to ride Flammie the dragon and talk to mushroom people. I’m also hoping they continue to release my favorites, and I’m definitely going to reclaim the Donkey Kong series. Those were such good times.
It’s interesting to see how well received Mega Man 9 is. Older gamers love it because it takes us back to a day when there were no such thing as clunky camera angles. Younger gamers enjoy it because it presents them with a new challenge.
I tend to believe that older games were a lot more challenging than some of the newer ones. I remember trying to get through Pocky and Rocky 2 and just being utterly stuck. The Mega Man series has always been one that requires you to be on your toes to beat it. Indeed, even Nintendo Power marked the game down for being too frustrating. Have we really fallen this far? Timing is everything. For games nowadays, timing only matters if you’re doing player versus player combat. Most other game genres simply require you to powerlevel your way through the bosses.
Why don’t more companies make nostalgic games? It could be because they don’t see it as a money maker. Games tend to rely heavily on graphics if their storylines are…less than outstanding. If you strip the graphics away, you’re exposed to the ugly truth of how poor the writing is. The older Final Fantasy games aren’t considered the best because of their 15 hour long cut-scenes. It was the story that made you want to blow off the cartridge and play it again! It would be an interesting social experiment to see how well some games nowadays would fare when put to the 16-bit test. I’m guessing a lot would falter and fail.
Granted there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the good games of this decade. I’m not saying old-school gaming is better than new-school or whatever else. They both have their pros and cons.
I would, however, love to see more kickbacks to the past like they’ve done with Mega Man. Some games got their iconic start with tiny graphics and midi music. It wouldn’t be a crime to release some good hand-held or whatever games in the old-school style. I can’t really explain why I want to see it. I just do. I would definitely buy it. What about you all?
October 28th, 2008 at 8:51 am
I agree with the sad way society looks at games with an expectency with no effort. I have been a die hard megaman fan for years and still play them (although they are the newer collections/anthology sets since its easier to leave my ps2/gc hooked up then bust out the old stuff) and i have to admit, it is much more challenging than most games i own.
October 28th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Do I get Gorgeous Gloria with my copy of Metal Slug Anthology? I do agree with your point that when you see a game that makes you forget how to play or what the story is due to looks. Like Crysis which beat the heck out of the computer just to run, but the story was sorta in the background along with the music. I recently bought Final Fantasy 1, 2, and 4, Dragon Warrior 1,2, and 3, then also got Metal Slug Anthology. All because RPGs back then were difficult and had a juicy story, like FF 4 which had so much in it, the death of the sage’s daughter, the betrayal of Kain, Cecil’s journey to become righteous to save the world. Ah, that game was so great. Metal Slug Anthology although devoid of a story line was extremely fun to play, even though only 2d it looked great and had so many different weapons and vehicles. Earthbound period is the best example I can think of. Oh so many good games that was plowed over by these new generation systems. These games luckily got their re-release, except Earthbound, so many other people can play and view the games back in our time.
October 30th, 2008 at 10:04 am
I’m undecided about this trend, personally. Oh, I’m going to buy the re-release of Chrono Trigger for the DS, and play it all the way through, I loved that game, but I don’t think I’ve bought a Square Enix title that WASN’T a re-release since Final Fantasy X (which I wasn’t terribly pleased with). I’m a little worried they’re losing their touch.
Also, can I just say I love the cover to Megaman 9? Because it’s hilarious.
October 31st, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Castlevania-enuf said
November 8th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Great post. We’ve talked about this topic many times at OW. Our Top 20 Hardest Video Games of all Time were mostly all retro picks, while our Top 10 Easiest Games of all time were mainly newer games. In my xp newer games are LONGER but overall much easier. Too many save points, unlimited lives, these are things you needed a game genie to do back in the day. Check this article out:
Top 10 Reasons all Video Games Should be 2D:
http://old-wizard.com/?p=1303
November 24th, 2008 at 4:00 am
The good times … Donkey Kong was great (and it still is for us “old” guys and girls
) . I’m a Castlevania addict - used to play for hours. Your article and dnt ’s comment made me find it and play it again for over an hour today at work :D. I found a flash version on a site, it’s kind of small (the resolution) but it’s great ! Here’s the direct link :
http://games-now.com/PlayArcadeGames/Castlevania.html .. or click my name on this comment.
Thanks again for the great article it really made my day.
December 10th, 2008 at 5:29 am
It’s a guilty pleasure fo sho… and while I’m at it, borderline sadomasochistic. The Mega Man games have always been fairly unforgiving, and MM9 is no exception. I mean, c’mon! Beat the entire game from start to finish without dying ONCE?! Still, my fingers are glued to the controller, choosing a retro side scroller over newer titles like Gears of War 2 or Call of Duty: World at War.