Topic: Why Do YOU Play Retro Games?

So why do you play retro games? After all there are 3 major home consoles with extensive video game libraries along with PC gaming and portable systems with their own huge selection of titles available. Is it as simple as chalking it up to nostalgia and your desire to be like the The Wizard and score 50,000 points on Double Dragon_ or is there more to it? Is there some magic from Videoland present in these titles that does not exist with the modern games of today? So feel free to take a few moments away from your View-Master and share your thoughts here on why you play games that were originally released on cartridges and measured in bits!

_{How often are you this guy?}

First off I dream of flying on Gameboys, talking turtles, and wild warp zones. I loved my Nintendo and Super Nintendo growing up and that has carried over to me today at age 30. Outside of pretending I was a Goonie or Ken Griffey Jr. I was playing Nintendo as a kid. Now, admittedly I wasn’t very good but I always had a blast nonetheless. Internet cheating was available back then so you had to rely on your skill and ingenuity, your friends, or your babysitter's goofy boyfriend. A Nintendo Power and a Player’s Guide would occasionally come in handy if you were a lucky duck but that was about it. Well, I guess there was also the oh so tempting “hint line” you could always call if you had your parents’ permission. So yeah, I can admit nostalgia plays into my overall preference of playing retro games. To go back and play a game I remember and struggled with as a kid is as fun now as sneaking out of the house at night with your buddies during summer vacation. But there is more to it than just reliving the innocence of my youth.

So, well why do I play video games in the first place? Like most of you would probably respond as a form of entertainment of course. Being truly entertained for me is when I really get absorbed into something. But I have been finding out that the more realistic games are the less that I get immersed into it. Maybe I find it just a little too depressing to kill realistic human-like beings as opposed to 8 and 16-bit style uniquely imagined characters. I know, there are plenty of games out there today that don’t have realistic looking enemies so sure, there is even more to it. I love the bright and bold colors of the charismatic 16-bit sprites and I enjoy the simplicity of the details that comes with the 8-bit. Also, the bleeps and blops of the original 8 bit chip tunes to the very impressive audio from the Sony SPC700 and Sony DSP processors of the SNES, the music of these era’s are unlike anything else and usually set up the perfect atmosphere. So much was done with so little yet my imagination totally wants to get wrapped up in these games like Alf’s obsession with Lucky.

Another way my imagination gets lost into retro games is the lack of explaining everything out or minimal cut sceneage. The action hardly has any down time so sure one level I may be in a jungle and in the next I am in the snow but in my mind that makes total sense. Why? Because I had to come up with some fun and wild reason in my Chuck-E-Cheese head instead of the game telling me that another Commander McVanilla is just ordering me too. IGN had an article one time about how all the male video game characters look boringly similar these days and I agree with that. But I digress, the story from a page or two from the instruction manual is all the background I need and whatever information is missing I conjur up something rad like Gary Wallace and Wyatt Donnelly in Weird Science.

I am sure there is more to my old-skool game preference then the quick thoughts above but I would like to hear others thoughts on why they play retro games. I still occasionally like playing modern games and I am planning on getting a Wii U though my video game preference will always be that of the era from 1985-1996.

_{You may dream of peace but I dream of this.}

Because they're fun.

I play retro games because for one thing, most retro games I like I enjoy more than a lot of new games.

Seriously, if you gave me a choice between Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy 2, I would choose Super Mario 64 after many hours of thinking about it.

Probably would do the same for Super Mario Bros. 3.

Alright here I go...
I was born in 1997 so I missed a HUGE chunk of gaming history. My craving started in 2009 when I was able to play Super Mario Bros. on the Wii virtual console, and I wanted to get a Gameboy Color. To this day I own more Gameboy systems than the DS 4/7 Gameboys 2/4 DSes (counting the 3DS 3/5). The Gameboy Color is my favorite Gameboy and probably my favorite handheld ever. I may even get a NES SNES and N64 from my uncle sometime soon. I love some older games more than newer ones and I love the Handheld Virtual console. So why do I play retro games because I missed out on them.

I like playing them because I'm a fan of the franchises. Like the older Zelda and Mario games. ^_^
Same reason as @Square-enix fan, I was born in 1993, so I missed out on some.

same as others have said: being born in 1993 and because they are (most) better then the new stuff

Just to clarify, I don't think they're better than the new stuff. I prefer the plot lines of the newer additions to the older ones. I started playing the first LoZ for NES, and there doesn't seem to be any plot. It just drops me in the game with no explanation as to who I am or what I am doing.

Twilight Princess, on the other hand, really captured my attention with its in-depth story and was an amazing page turner.

To see where everything started, and to experience games with a different mind set.

because retrogames are awsome

This. At least half of the games in my Top 10 are retro games.

Innovation and ingenuity has greater opportunities when faced with greater limitations. You can play a classic Nintendo game and see countless creative solutions to all kinds of gameplay problems and limitations of the hardware. Today, games hide behind their almost boundless power; then, they had to constantly invent new techniques and solve complex design puzzles to make things work.

I'd say the same about films: look at the lack of imagination in the Star Wars prequels' special effects. There's a whole lot going on, but very little vision behind all the computerized glitz. Compare it to the original films, when finding convincing ways to film miniature models required a great deal of thought and hard work.

My grass. Withdraw your feet from it.

I don't have a manual for my VC purchases.

There are plenty of games on the PS3/x360 that aren't like that, and plenty on the Wii that are.

http://www.nesfiles.com/NES/Zelda/Zelda.pdf

I should check into both of those.

Because they have a certain feel to them, and have more attention to the gameplay than most modern games onmit.

That and they're easy to pick up and play. I'd much rather sit down and play through Sonic 3 and Knuckles in one sitting than play for hours a repetitive shooter online.

I'm not at my most articulate tonight, but I'll try. It's mostly to do with I just enjoy the way games used to be made. It does, however, have some to do with not being crazy about some of today's games. In some ways, a lot of games today feel more like interactive movies than actual games. This has to do with the state-of-the-art graphics, orchestra-quality music, and 3D aspect. Not saying this is necessarily BAD, just not so game-like. Then, when you consider that some games have you play a little, then cut scene, then play a little more, it plays more to the feeling of it being an interactive movie. I also find today's games less accessible and easy to get into. There are patches to download before playing, lengthy tutorials, complex button combinations. It tends to make a game tedious. When they become tedious, they're no longer fun. And video games are supposed to be fun.

Of course, I come from a far simpler time, when there was a joystick and (maybe) a couple of buttons. I was born a few months before the Atari 2600 even came out. I've found that the more complex you make games, the less fun they are. The shorter the learning curve, the sooner you can really get involved in the game. Hard to have fun when you're trying to remember a sequence of button presses to pull off a certain action. When you just have a direction pad to move, a button to jump, and a button to fire, you're ready for action immediately. There's also a charm and magic to yesterday's games that feels missing anymore. Difficult to explain. I like the artistic designs of character sprites, and uniqueness of level layouts/design. And chiptunes are just such an interesting, captivating sound, unlike anything else! And gameplay of retro games is still second to none, in my book.

There are many current games I like, and I know I'll like future games! But, the more games have evolved, the more I feel they've devolved. Around the N64/PlayStation era, it felt like video games started getting too big for their own britches!

@Ryno
Well written piece! You ought to submit it to a retro gaming publication! The NES/SNES era is the "Golden Age" to me too. I don't understand all this gobbledygook these whipper snappers are playing these days (I could sound like Cranky Kong with little effort, LOL). Now, I'm going to live up to my retro gamer's card-holder status by resuming play on MSX Metal Gear instead of Sons of Liberty, Snake Eater, or Peace Walker.

A giant part of it for me is nostalgia but it's mostly because the games are just so much fun and imaginative.
The music in 8-bit and 16-bit games is just so beautiful! The sprites and colorful designs in many games are really mesmerizing too. It's a whole other type of game. There's a lot more challenge than today's games. It's really hard for me to explain but the simplest I can put it is just:
They're fun and I ****ing love them!

There's a difference between leaving things to the imagination and simply not explaining jack crap like most NES games did. If you need an example, think of Dark Souls, where you have this rich world that you're never really told about. It's a game that leaves you wondering and constantly giving you things to ponder about, especially the ancient architecture. Even Pokemon is a good example: It has just enough to get you going, but then leaves you plenty of gaps to fill with your imagination. I'd go deeper into that, but my brain's conking out. Anyways, I think you get the idea. Most old games didn't give you much of anything to go on.