Why do we still play retro games?

[Gnashvar]

Retro Studios, the Texas based company that recently made Donkey Kong Returns on Wii. I haven't played any of their games but I am sure I would love them very much. They are extremely talented.

I'm sure you have played something by retro studios

Metroid Prime
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Metroid Prime Hunters
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Metroid Prime: Trilogy
Donkey Kong Country Returns

They are also working on Mario Kart 7

[BoneSnapDeez]

In the 80s/90s the most popular and bestselling games (Mario, Zelda, Mega Man, Final Fantasy) were phenomenal and worth playing. Today, the most popular and bestselling games (CoD, Halo, GTA, Gears of War, etc) are effing terrible and I generally have to look around for obscure titles to find something worth playing. I call it the Xboxification of gaming, crappy over-hyped American games are being pushed to the forefront.

You forget how well crap sold back in the 80's and 90's. Pac-man for 2600. Yearly mediocre sports titles on the SNES, Genesis, and PS1. Movie games like Addams Family Values. Cartoon show games like AAAHHH! Real Monsters. It's not that people today have worse taste, it's just that the mediocre titles that attract the masses have switched genres. Today, it's FPS games and party games, instead of arcade clones and poorly designed 2D platformers. If you want evidence of this, just go to a retro game store and peruse the Genesis bargain bin section.

I think it's a paradigm shift that has occurred in tandem with peoples' perceptions of gaming. When I was a kid, I was mocked for playing video games, it was a "nerdy" habit for kids who couldn't play sports, get girls, etc. Today I work with middle schoolers and see kids made fun of if they DON'T own at least a couple of current-gen consoles.

Video games are more mainstream now than they were when I was little, but I have never been called a nerd or looked down on because of it. All the kids I ever knew had at least one game they liked playing.

I wasn't talking about shovelware. What I mean is that popular video games of the 80s/90s were vastly superior than the most popular/bestselling/highest reviewed games of today. Look up the top games from an old issue of Nintendo power vs. the top rated games of IGN, which are garbage. This is opinion of course, but the thread itself is simply asking for opinions ("Why do we still play retro games?").

As far as being treated like a fool for playing video games, I'm about a decade older than you. Trust me, video games were not cool in rural Maine in 1991.

[Inazuma]

Ohh...that's a statement I don't fully agree with. Not to say that the games you mentioned were bad(Diablo is a personal favorite, and I feel it's a shame you left out Warcraft and Warcraft II), but Blizzard released its share of clunkers too.

Hey Inazuma, have you ever played any of the D&D-based western RPGs like Baldur's Gate? I know you enjoy JRPGs, but what do you think of western RPGs in general? Found any you really enjoyed?

Warcraft looked like a good game, but I didn't play it.

I may have played a little bit or watched my friends play games like Baldur's Gate, but I didn't like it very much. I don't like that art style. Honestly, I didn't like the art style of Diablo and Starcraft that much either.

I'm sure you have played something by retro studios

Metroid Prime
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Metroid Prime Hunters
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Metroid Prime: Trilogy
Donkey Kong Country Returns

They are also working on Mario Kart 7

I haven't played any of those games but I want to play them all at some point.

I didn't know Retro was making Mario Kart 7. I guess that'll be my first game of theirs. I will probably buy it this year.

[frankdux]

i haven't read all 12 pages of responses, so forgive me if i've repeated something someone else said:

I enjoy retro gaming because as i've gotten older i've learned to appreciate what makes a good game, and it isn't state of the art graphics or dolby digital surround sound. it is gameplay and fun. that's it. like a fine wine, truly fun and original games can age quite well. and so now as i'm older and have more income, I can go back and play all those great games i missed out on. and even though there may be new games that are also fun, i feel like i owe it to myself to go back and play those older games i never had the chance to play.

[mas]

I love the retro games. For me it brings me back to my childhood. The games were better, more fun and original. Look at all the new retro console's that come out now, I think people miss the games of yesterday and they relieze that games today are too easy and it's all the same thing over and over again. Fps and sports and Realism graphics. I remember the console wars of the 16bit. I remember getting my ass kicked at the arcade's playing street fighter 2 where you were next to the other guy and you said good match. Now you get your ass kicked by someone you dont even know and he talks trash to you because he's 12 and stays home all day beating people online. What's so fun about that!!!!
Anyway's sorry for the rant but I have a friend at work who buy's the new stuff all the time collector's edition and special edition and when I tell him I was playing anything from 3 month's ago or even retro he say's UHH WHY? IT'S OLD AND SUCKS.
Bottom line is I think people are going back because they miss the old games and for me it's more fun playing the snes,nes,gen,n64,ps1 than the new stuff.

[flamepanther]

i haven't read all 12 pages of responses, so forgive me if i've repeated something someone else said:

I enjoy retro gaming because as i've gotten older i've learned to appreciate what makes a good game, and it isn't state of the art graphics or dolby digital surround sound. it is gameplay and fun. that's it. like a fine wine, truly fun and original games can age quite well. and so now as i'm older and have more income, I can go back and play all those great games i missed out on. and even though there may be new games that are also fun, i feel like i owe it to myself to go back and play those older games i never had the chance to play.

Very well put. Thank you.

[Zing]

Nostalgia is certainly a factor, but I do believe that older games (my favorite console is the SNES) are objectively better.

I just hate so many things about today's current generation of video games: terrible controls (dual joysticks/half-assed motion controls), abysmal writing and plotlines, hours and hours of padding, cut scenes, DRM, downloadable content you have to pay for, the endless amount of shitty remakes and sequels, load times, the proliferation of crappy American army man games, etc.

I guess an easy to sum up my feelings about retro vs. modern would be:
Retro: Japanese games made for nerds
Modern: American games made for fratboys

I was going to type similar sentiments, but you pretty much covered it here.

[flojocabron]

Some old games are still awesome.

No worries about dlc

No patches to deal with.

No updates or files that have to be downloaded.

What else hmmmm.???