Why Retrogaming?

OPINION

Unless you have been living under a rock the passed couple of years, retrogaming has really taking hold of the gaming culture. But why? With Xbox announcing that the Xbox one can play original Xbox games and psn bringing the Playstation 2 games available to download on the PS4. Obviously it's a profitable market.

My first thought is age. Many of us brought up on the Nintendo 64 and Playstation one are now of an age where we have children of our own. With the Nintendo 64 being twenty one years old this year. So where favourite books of our parents, became our childhood favourites, this is why Noddy and Where's Wally (Waldo for our American friends) are still brought today despite being sixty eight and thirty years old respectively. This willingness to share our childhood favourites has transitioned media. From printed books to video games. As a father myself, little brings me more joy then having my daughter on my lap while playing the old Nintendo 64 especially games like rogue squadron and lylat wars (two of my favourites).

There is also the game play, in a time of achievements and trophies. Giving gamer a dopamine fix every time we hear that little chime. Games didn't have that and needed a reason to keep you playing. Nothing gives a better thrill than overcoming adversity. So games were harder for that reason. So when finished a hard section or boss, you got a huge dose of the good stuff that you could just relax with. So if the game was working against you so much that it became unbearable or was too easy. This was never going to happen. So games had to be challenging enough to keep you going but rewarding enough to have you to want to keep going as well.

Game play is more apparent now that remakes and remasters are becoming more prominent in collections. Shows that game play is the most important part of the hobby.

Story usually took a back step to game pay too, with the very basic save the (insert generic plot point here). Not that some games didn't tell great stories like final fantasy it wasn't that common as it is now. Hell bring up story is not that important on social media. the back lash is tremendous. This isn't saying story isn't needed just not that important. This also allowed developers to be more inventive with characters and ideas. Even games based on movie licences got to an artistic license to add and change parts for game play and fun; does anyone else anyone else remember Luke Skywalker taking on a sarlacc in a new hope? Me neither.

Finally the pixelated graphics stand the test of time better than the most advanced graphics engines. The best graphics on the xbox 360 are starting to age now. It won't be long until the current generation will similarly age. But pixelart, well that ages the best.

So in summery retro games are better for many reason, but also age better too. So even with rose tinted glasses of nostalgia. Going bck and playing them either on the original console or downloaded on modern consoles. Older games remain much of their charm. will continue you bring endless joy to kids and adults in many more years. Maybe even one day these games will be looked on as classical as Mozart, Shakespeare and Beethoven are considered classicla in music and literature.