Reply Value; A term never used but often practiced by young gamer’s
Like a lot of us, a big reason why I started playing and collecting retro games is that it gave me fond memories of simpler times. Life was easy as a kid; a career and job were non-existent and responsibilities were minimal. This made it easy to ensure that once school was out completing Alex Kidd or Sonic 2 were the most important activities of my afternoon.
Back then I didn’t own a lot of games; however I played the games I did own, and I mean I really played them, like over and over and over again. Clocking Sonic 2 became insignificant if you didn’t have all the chaos emeralds, and let us not forget that if someone said “YouTube” we would probably think they were referring to their juice box straw!
Sega does what Nintendo…
They maybe characters representing competing companies, however the games they star in have more differences than similarities IMO
If you read my last post you will know that I was a Sega kid, however this wasn’t because I disliked Nintendo, it was simply because everyone else had a Sega. I had one mate whose dad bought him and his brothers a NES and they really lucked out as they had no one to share games and gaming tips with. As a kid, the NES was a strange looking thing with bulky carts and a weird Italian plumber named Mario, which in my eyes didn’t even come close to the awesomeness that is Sonic.
I was fortunate enough to spend most of last year living in Japan where retro games are not only cheap, but also readily available. Initially, I had plans to spend up large on Mega drive games, however I soon found Famicom and Super Famicom games were a dime-a-dozen, thus my relationship with Nintendo begun.
We have a new hero!
For the past two weeks I’ve been putting Nintendo’s hero Mario to the test in Super Mario World on the Super Famicom. Now, when I talk classic platformer’s, or any retro game with a non retro-gamer, whether they play late or current gen, PC, or handheld, I’m often told “Retro games are boring, repetitive, and too difficult. Why would you waste your time on something so old when you could play XYZ instead?” My answer is often along the lines of; “Well I don’t find XYZ challenging at all. You probably find retro games difficult, boring, and repetitive because you have the attention span of a goldfish.” (Well I don’t really say that, but I think it!) I find these
classic platformers like Super Mario World challenging, but not so challenging that its unplayable. The opportunity to save the game resulted in me not giving up and replaying later levels over and over until I reached that honorific point where my game could again be saved. (#nosavestates)
The reason I’ve found the time to write this post is that last night I finally saved Princess Peach and restored order to Dinosaur Land by killing the evil Bowser. I cant describe the sense of happiness I had after finishing this game, and if I’m honest my feeling of achievement when those credits rolled well exceeded the feeling I experienced when I completed GTA V, and I’m a huge GTA fan!
How can one be nostalgic about something they had never previously experienced?
Upon reflection, nostalgia plays its part in my passion for the games of yesteryear, but as I had never played Super Mario World as a kid, I can honestly say that I really love the challenge that comes with playing a game that was designed and released over 20 years ago. I feel that not only have newer games gotten easier, but gamers have become lazier. Yes late gen adventure type games have become much longer and in-depth, but their low level of difficulty makes it obvious they’re targeted at the masses as opposed to the enthusiast, which for me results in little challenge and very little replay value.
If you are to take anything away from this ramble take that you shouldn’t get too carried away buying those classic games. Yes, as an adult you do have the disposable income you didn’t have as a kid, and yes these games are a fraction of the prices our parents had to pay. Just don’t forget enjoyment should be had through actually playing them, even if that means playing the same level over, and over, and over, and over again!
Ramblings of a Retrogamer 