Embrace A Different Kind Of Virtual Console On Switch With The Adventures of Elena Temple

I don't really understand why developers make games like this. I am nearly as old as video games themselves and am the type of gamer who can have as much playing the classics today as I did back then.My 10 hours logged on Moon Patrol is testament to that When I play retro games though I want them to take up as much of the screen as possible and the same was true in the 80' and 90's. From little electronic consoles to handhelds and home consoles ,they all fitted the screen you were playing on,PAL borders aside. I hated those damn borders from as far back as I can remember,there was nothing to like about as them as they used up precious screen space on my little portable TV. So the thought of playing a game in 2018 that's likely not as good as the ones it's influenced by and one which I have no nostalgia for on a little screen within my my huge TV screen or on the handheld screen just doesn't seem like fun to me. When I got my Spectrum 128k in 1985 I was well aware its graphics were crap even for the time but if I'm being honest , a lot of the games I remember playing on t were more impressive than this.

Super Pitfall 2 starring Pitfall Harriet!

Looks like an Amstrad PCW og Apple II game. I could get in to that. The boarders are a cute idea, and could potentially help set the mood for different locations.

From an artistic point of view I think it looks interesting and I applaud it. From a game play point of view, nah.

Not to be rude, but outside of the gimmick, the graphics, even for a retro-inspired title, are awful. The controls also just look finicky.

Think of it like this, if you remove the gimmick, is it still a game you'd want to play? Not I, says I.

It looks even more basic than a lot of games from that era. At least the ones people tend to remember.
Applying Evoland formula to platformers sounds fun, but here it looks like a gimmick overlayed on a very dull game.

There's a free game on Steam called "You Have To Win The Game" that looks much more engaging than this.

I’d buy that for a dollar. Literally that’s it. Though I’m guessing it’ll be 14.99 or something ridiculous.

So I have all the Nintendo hand helds And ou will be surprised how hard those games are compared to today's games.

You just don't appreciate how far "gravity" in a game has come. The old games have a certain charm because the mechanics are no where near as refinded as we have gotten used to.

If this game is $10 or less it will be on my wish list just for the sake of having a new old game.

It's a cool concept, but the game just doesn't look fun.

this is £4 for pre-order very cheap and it looks really fun. from the trailer I didnt notice a huge difference between any of the filters that would be my only criticism.

@OorWullie You read my mind

Any art is subjective, but for me with some of these nostalgia laden titles, successful imitation does not = inspiration.

Rather just play my portable Atari 2600 then this.

Looks interesting to me, might get it. Wish there was a colour option though.

Depending on the price I’ll grab this. The music sounds awesome. Made to look like old retro games when they were cheap better mean this is cheap.

No thanks. This looks like a lazily developed game wrapped around a deceptive “retro” gimmick. This is the sort of game that would have been forgotten upon release in 1990.

I don't want to play a game made to look like it was made with all the restrictions of technology from my childhood, I want to play games I have nostalgia for - or actually GOOD indie games. I am sorry but a lot of these "just like the good old days" indie games come off as lazy or poor game design - from indie studios who don't want to bother with modern graphics or mechanics.

Yes there are some very good indie games styled on old school systems, but they still try to be top quality games. Stardew Valley, Shove Knight and Golf Story are excellent examples of games styled on old school but still polished and highly refined modern games. Sure it is pixel art but it is really high quality pixel art.

Playing a game that looks like it was struggling to run on the NES, on a modern device is nonsense and I am tired of this shovelware trying to mimic a sense of nostalgia with something that is, at best, a mockery of retro games.

Some Toy Advanced ??

Damn,forget God Of War for now,all my attention is going to be on this beauty!

I think it looks fine. We’ll see how it does.

@OorWullie totally agree. Although I think the premise here is somewhat “cute.”

Talking of spectrum, I’m still waiting on my Vega +

Too retro for me... I mean, while it's kinda cool to see the game rendered with an 8-bit / Gameboy look. It would have been better if you could play it with better color graphics (ie gba color graphics then 16-bit graphics), on the fly switching (like Wonder Boy). As it is, too crude for me, and from the video, it looks to be one of those game where they ramped up the difficulty (they often scores high on review sites) and takes out the fun.

I think it looks fun.

I'd like to express concern for whoever is holding that Game Boy up to the screen at that angle for that period of time. My arms ache for them.

I did not grow up with all those really old retro-consoles. I had a megadrive and a gameboy pocket but Playstation was already released then and gbc was soon to come. So I did not play those games or own consoles older than the megadrive. I don’t even have any means to buy old gaming machines because I would not find playing them ”fun”. But this is appealing to me. It has the graphics from the late 80’s and a very simple gameplay. If it’s cheap then it’s a great time-killer for me.

@Heavyarms55 I would go so far as to say that creating intentionally ugly pixel graphics in an artistic way can work, too (something like Retro City Rampage). This... doesn't seem to be ironically ugly.

I'll probably pick it up, as long as the price is right.

Why make a fictional in-universe GBA SP if the game playing on it doesn't resemble anything the real GBA actually had?

If you want a good GBA throwback game on Switch, look for The Mummy Demastered

Wasn't there some faux-GB game coming to like the Wii U five or so years ago that never materialized? It was about brothers or some such. I heard it released on Steam to mixed reviews. I guess they figured after that why bother. I still would have been interested in seeing it though. Just as I; interested in seeing a review of this one too.

This actually looks pretty cool!

Sigh. I'm all for retro games. I love the idea of making great 2D games with modern touches in this day and age. In fact, I prefer them over AAA games much of the time. But when I think retro-style, I think of games like Terraria, Shovel Knight, Salt and Sanctuary...not this lazy nonsense. This is the kind of game that one blogger I follow often refers to as 'fun for the developer, not fun for the customer'. Appealing to nostalgia to get away with selling a lazy looking POS like this...NES and Game Boy games were better looking and better-animated than this. It's just wrong to me. And a hard pass, even if it were free.

But I already have Life of Pixel...