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Retro Games For the retro gamer in you, system unspecific. |
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#1 |
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Hooked On Retro
Since I finished my first game on the Wii's Virtual Console, it's been difficult to get back into modern games.
For example we got Little Big Planet 2 for Christmas and I've barely touched it because of the Donkey Kong Country SNES games. They're far more fun to play. And Gears of War 2, I'd been wanting that one for a while, so I finally picked it up. Yes, I did finish it and it was great, but modern games seem like the Chinese food cliche: An hour after finishing one you're hungry again. Modern games seem more like interactive movies than video games. They're very entertaining spectacles, but they seem to fly past. Retro games force you to play them over and over again, learning every detail, honing your skills until by the end you're pulling off moves you'd think were impossible when you started the game. Learning a tough retro game feels like learning to play a musical instrument. I know there's a different way to modern games like Gears of War 2. You sit there for hours playing Cops 'n' Robbers online on the same handful of maps until you know every last pixel. The difference is I don't feel any progression, the only reward for memorizing a map is a score. In retro games your reward is getting further in the game, (unless you're talking REALLY retro like the original Donkey Kong, then your reward is just a score). Aside from the occasional blockbuster like GOW, the 360 and PS3 are mostly used for smaller downloadable games, and most of those pale in comparison to the classics from the 80's and 90's. |
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#4 |
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I've been in the same boat since the 32-bit generation, honestly. The percentage of modern games that hold my attention is so much lower than it was/is with retro titles.
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#6 | |
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You ever wonder when you were younger why you grandfather still lived like it was the year when he was younger ? You ever think to yourself "why didn't he change with the times ?" That's what I think of when I hear a convo about how current games are boring.
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Rev.Krazy double stamps it! Last edited by krazy : February 21st, 2011 at 08:42 AM. |
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#8 | |||
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That's a completely subjective, of course. I don't think that games (in general) are "better than ever", I think that there are many games today that are much better than the best of what there was back in the day, but I think the percentage of great games today is less than it was back then.
There are games from more recent generations like Ico, Rez, survival horror series like Silent Hill/Resident Evil/Fatal Frame ect., arcade racers like OutRun2006, and multiplayer games like Left4Dead, Resident Evil 5, Mario Kart: Wii, etc. that are some of the best games I've ever played. But there are far more games that don't hold my attention like many of the older games did/do. Games from older generations, in addition to being a lot more charming than most of the games produced today, can be ended in a matter of minutes to a few hours, tops. I don't have to dedicate 20 hours plus to get the complete experience, which sucks if I'm not that into it, which is the case with most modern games. If it's not going to keep my interested the whole way through I'd rather it be short and sweet. Quote:
I won't speak for Overkill, or DG, but I enjoy modern games a lot, just not as much as the next guy, because I have very specific taste and expectations for games than modern gamers do. In general I don't like 'open world' type game play, for example, because I don't like the feeling that there's not a structured, cohesive story that's playing out. It makes the experience feel less 'cinematic' to me, for lack of a better word, like a 'chose your own adventure', or a 'Mad-libs' book. Just wandering around with all of the time in the world and no penalty for doing other things, or nothing (or taking forever), bores me. I like there to be a sense of urgency in games, and that's lacking in most of the modern games released today. I don't like hyper realism in a games either, because I like the fantasy element and escapism that games offer. That's the main reason I play them. I don't enjoy anything about real world war, for example, and realistic depictions of it are both boring and off putting to me. While there are honorable, academic, and altruistic aspects of military service, and lessons to be learned from wartime events in the real world, none of that is present or relevant in video games depicting realistic warfare. It's striped down to a simple matter of killing other humans, realistically, with military efficiency, and gloating to your friends about it. I respect everything that goes into making these types of games, I just personally don't like the machismo and mob mentality inherent to the experience of playing tactical shooters, especially in groups. I'm really not drawn to the type of community that plays these sorts of games. I don't think it makes an appealing single player experience, either. Now if you throw in some lasers, and aliens/monsters, and silly one-liners into the mix, well now, that's a different story, entirely (which is why I enjoyed HALO). I feel the same way about sports, too; I think that they're boring as hell. In fact, I'd rather do 8 hours in solitary, making license plates, than 1 hour in a sports bar, during the Super Bowl, with hot Hooters girls serving drinks in their underwear. HOWEVER, if there were power-ups, and fire attacks, and shit like the stuff you see in Mario sports games in real life sports, shit, I'd probably be the biggest sports fan alive. I wouldn't actually play them, but I could watch my friends play a few games of Arch Rivals, NBA Jam, Cyberball, Mutant League, Double Dribble, High Impact, Street Football, (which I actually did play a few times), etc.. Even though I wasn't a fan of the genre, those older quirky sports games had charm. I also enjoy being scored in games, something that virtually no games do anymore. Being scored makes the experience seem more worthwhile to me, and motivates me to improve my skills and play through a game several times. I still enjoy puzzle games as much as I did back in the day. They're one of the few genres where score is still implemented. I've always favored style over depth of game play, too, which is why I still enjoy Japanese games (which are in the minority in the U.S. now) more than Western ones (someone who's a fan of Dragon Ball Z should understand my position on style versus substance. ![]() Ideally I'd like a balance of both, style and substance, but games are almost never that way, and I'd definitely lean towards the more stylistic, over-the-top offerings of games like say, Jet Set Radio, than anything with Tony Hawk in the title. Most of the games on the market were Japanese back in the day, which is one of the reasons I was so impressed with the industry back then. Enemies waving little white flags when you beat them, bad Engrish, the silly little Anime sweat tear when a character takes damage or is hurt, breaking the forth wall, hyper blood spatter, dramatic stills before dying, continue screen animations, fan service, etc.. I don't care how unrealistic it is for a 10,000 year old transgendered swordsman, wearing long flowing silk robes (that never get dirty, or torn, while fighting in dank dungeons), to slice a monster to bits, gracefully, in the air, or how unvaried the button combinations are for you to pull off successful attacks off when hacking your way through a crowd of Chinese warriors from the Ming dynasty, or having your Ferrari flip through the air, twice, in slow motion, and land perfectly on all four tires, with no damage to it or your girlfriend incurred after a collision with billboard at 100 mph. I just want it to look awesome when it happens, and for the music to be catchy, too. I like when I shoot an enemy soldier and they turn into a goofy dancing skeleton for a second before they disappear (Commando), or zapping a mobster with a light gun and having his spirit fly away, and then shooting his actual angel down out of the sky a second later (Gangster Town), and boss battle that consists entirely of winning two rounds of Rock, Paper, Scissors (Alex Kidd in Miracle World). There's not a lot of that sort of thing in modern games anymore, especially not Western ones. Madden, Gran Turismo, Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Gran Theft Auto, these types of games are the industry standard now, and I think that they're boring. Quote:
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^Just a little side rant there.
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#9 |
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Man, you wrote a lot
![]() I don't like open world games either. In fact I like my hand being held because I feel it tells the story better. But their is still a ton of games and series that that are not what is considered the "norm" Granted there isn't a lot the style games that mention above "urn into a goofy dancing skeleton for a second before they disappear (Commando), or zapping a mobster with a light gun and having his spirit fly away, and then shooting his actual angel down out of the sky a second later (Gangster Town), and boss battle that consists entirely of winning two rounds of Rock, Paper, Scissors (Alex Kidd in Miracle World)" but there are plenty of games that are just as creative in different ways. Like you said if I were to take my Favorite game this gen against my favorite game in the SNES era there is no contest. I'm just trying to point out that their are still plenty of games for everyone and I find current gaming due to better technology provides a greater immersive experience than the 16 bit era. Granted out of all the video game era's, the 16 bit is the one I think has aged the best. I understand where your coming from a little better. However, I still think there is plenty to discover. I honestly mistook your post for having the same opinion as Rob does in thread about being done with video games.
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Rev.Krazy double stamps it! Last edited by krazy : February 21st, 2011 at 05:23 PM. |
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#10 | |
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It's designed to be a 5 on 5 simulation basketball game. No powerups or any of that fun stuff. |
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#13 | ||||
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The really 'good' modern games are really, REALLY good. But the older stuff that was 'good' back in the day is just so fucking re-playable now. Quote:
I think that games are more immersive now than ever before, and they'll only get more so as we go along. Which is another reason that modern games have the potential to bore me like never before. There are people who play games like The Sims and spend hours doing mundane things that they wouldn't even do in real life, or doing things that they WOULD do in real life, virtually, when they could be putting some monster to the sword, or saving a princess or something instead. Immersion is only good if it's something that's exciting, or deep, or exhilarating or profound. Escort missions, pointless side quests that don't advance the story any, fishing for Tri-Force pieces that appear randomly (as fgarriel described, I've never played The Wind Waker that far), none of this seems fun to me. I can do boring shit in real life, and get some exercise in the process. I'm not really sure where Overkill was coming from with that whole being immersed in Channel F and Astrocade games bit. Maybe it's because he has to use his imagination so much with those games, I don't know. You can barely tell what's supposed to be going on onscreen most of the time after all. Quote:
It was also pretty damn funny when a black guy would go up for the dunk, and they'd cut to a white guy slamming the ball.
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SEGA hates me. Last edited by Aeon Storm : February 21st, 2011 at 07:40 PM. |
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#14 | |
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Arch Rivals/Run n' Gun are probably more entertaining basketball games for the time (to someone not that into sports). Last edited by Viper : February 21st, 2011 at 08:34 PM. |
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#17 |
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So what did you do with games once you had beaten them? You ran around and did the opposite. So then a game was made where you run around and do all the wrong stuff, but it's the way to play the game. Once you're bored with it, what's there to do?
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