[Classic] Old games are great, don't forget

Sorry to say, I don't have the interest or attention span or time for 40+ hour games anymore, so my older games see lots of action...In some cases, ones I've replayed for years without getting tired of. I just want to plunk in a quarter or press start (preferably 5 seconds or less after hitting power) and just fucking PLAY! No storyline, no overblown characters I'll end up not caring about anyway, no tutorials explaining the retarded control schemes...Just give me stuff to shoot and collect and a Dpad/A/B buttons to do it with. It's amazing how much good time I had/have with...uh, Sqoon* than I'd have with 99% of what's out on PS3/360 and probably Wii. And I've said before...I think one of the reasons Guitar Hero is so big right now is people just pick up, play a couple songs, and go do something else.

Even "old" RPG's are sort of like this...A LOT of stuff happens in 10 hours in an older RPG, whereas 10 hours you're still learning the nuances of the people who introduce you to the cousins of the main characters you'll deal with in more recent RPG's.

Funniest part is...My NES games probably look better now than I ever thought they did in the past. 8-bit cityscapes are <3. Think the only generation whose graphics bother me are the 32/64 bit era and that was because 3D games looked like ass on all of them (the 2D stuff was sweet).

*A small, NES shooter from Irem that features aliens from Neptune melting the polar ice caps and you control a pink ship to shoot shit and save people underwater. People get eaten by sharks if you don't get them in time, while saving them powers you up. You also die if you don't refuel at least once every sixty seconds. Greatest storyline ever. Also has, like, 2 music tracks through the whole game that get stuck in your head...You go to turn the sound off and then realize how much you miss it, and put it back on.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Django!

Is it possible that you're just not playing the right games? I think one of the Wii's biggest selling points (and criticisms) is the availability of the dozens of "pick up and play" styled games. It's not a very accurate estimate to say that new consoles lack an arcadey experience when the most popular console has an overabundance of quick shot titles and the competition have platforms for small, short, pick up and play games. All three systems cater to that gametype in some what, especially the Wii since you can download all of those old games anyway.

(you quoted a bunch of people, but this was one of my snippets )

I'm definitely playing the right games...now. I find it much easier to concentrate on newer games knowing my roots and what I'm comfortable with and what I expect. Giving up trying to "catch-up" on everything I wasn't playing for one reason or another (ESPECIALLY RPG's...An RPG has to absolutely knock me into next week for me to give it a chance now and I don't see that happening anytime soon) was like a breath of fresh air. I keep quoting Guitar Hero because it's basically an arcade game that delivers quick, cheap thrills and a storyline that does the NES era proud (read: nothing that gets in the way, except put on a good show, have a good time, look good and don't fail!) I'm not saying modern systems don't provide the "pick-up-and-play" experience (Live Arcade is very tempting, retro collections rock and I'm a huge Burnout fan and Ace Combat/Dynasty Warriors are some of the best story/action fusions I've seen), I'm just saying the NES/SNES stuff I have is very good and compares favorably to stuff that is technically way more advanced. I just prefer to get away from the whole "games as art" mentality (you know, where you feel obligated to see what the game has to offer, even during totally dead periods) and just see how long I can stay alive and how many points I can get (another YOINK! for GH...I forgot how much fun playing for points was) I used Sqoon as an example of a very average game that is still good for 5 minutes of fun here and there...If a modern game can't compare to those 5 minutes of Sqoon, I'm probably not going to sink more time into it than needed.

I still have all my old systems and carts, so the VC doesn't really interest me. However, I stand behind it because it keeps some of the true classics from fading out entirely.

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Originally Posted by Rotorblade

Symphony of the Night just really sucker punched that series, didn't it? Homogenizing every game that followed it, I really don't understand how people can buy the same game over and over. If it ain't broke, don't fix it... but we can only play the same game over and over so many times.

Same here...I enjoyed Symphony for what it was and absolutely loved COTM, but at no point were either close to replacing the challenge and structure (and fun, honestly) of the older CV games and none of the newer games can hold my attention for more than an hour, despite how Igarashi thinks he's giving us "value". I felt the same way about Simon's Quest, but at least that had platform death going for it and lives (did it have levels? I forget...Never noticed them)...Might be a cool challenge to try doing it without continuing. ;p

Dunno...I think "RPG elements" are really blown up as adding depth, but I don't really see how adding levels really helps a platformer. Other than needing to find places to load up on EXP (and equipment) and powerleveling to the point the game is a cakewalk. Think it kind of nerfs the whole "problem-solving" aspect of games like CV3, which kind of forces you to get better. Imagine if you could level up as you play Guitar Hero and build high enough to absorb Jordan on Expert with hitting barely any notes (but still clearing). That...would be really lame to clear Expert Jordan with, like, 3000 points.

I respect the ability stuff like in Super Metroid and these Metrovanias, but I GREATLY prefer the left-to-right-and-I-dare-you-to-make-it-through-alive stuff.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Forsety

You can't entirely blame Konami here for that. Old School platformers are a dying breed all around. Gamers these days just find them irritating. It's a genre that is going the way of the dodo, along with those old click adventure games like the longest journey.

I disagree. See: New Super Mario Brothers. Not perfect (like Mario 3), but it sold quite a few people on the DS.

And yeah, I do blame Konami entirely for...well, not ruining a series, but totally altering what a lot of players liked about it. I mean, "real" Castlevania effectively died when SOTN hit and I just treat the later games as sort of a new series altogether. Koji Igarashi simply didn't like the old CV games and wanted to change them. I chalk that up to more of an ego thing than really "evolving" anything...Of course, he states that he's giving gamers "value", but I couldn't stay awake up to the first boss in Aria or Harmony (and I have to hold my insides in even seeing pictures of Lament or Curse of Darkness) and I still play CV1/3/4 on a regular basis and still am amazed by how well-designed they are (especially 3). So, uh, yeah...

Dude makes a hell of a dating simulator, but I can seriously leave his take on Castlevania.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

My point with NSMB was that it sold a ton of copies, so you can't really dispute that there is demand for the game and ones like it.

However, the truely great 2D platformers have been few and far between, especially nowadays. Maybe even nonexistant. Klonoa 2 is the only thing that really comes to mind and that was a long time ago (although it was nice that they FINALLY gave us domestic Rondo of Blood). For the record, I thought NSMB was fun, but it could have been much better designed...New power-ups were lame, the overworld felt kinda slapped on and the control paled VS SMB3 or SMW (or even Peach, which felt TOO easy to control...which I liked).

Originally Posted by wiki's "response" section for NSMB...and it lists valid sources

New Super Mario Bros. met with great success upon launching in Japan, selling nearly 420,000 units in its first day of availability, for a total of nearly 900,000 copies in its first four days. At the time, it was the best debut for a Nintendo DS game; it has since lost the top position to Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.[25] The game reached the half a million mark in the United States in little over a month[26] (selling at a rate of 20 copies every minute), and the one million mark twelve weeks after release.[27]

As of September 30, 2007, New Super Mario Bros. has sold 11.5 million copies worldwide.[28]

The game has generally received positive reviews. It was rated 9.5 by four reviewers in Nintendo Power, making it one of the highest rated games since the inception of their current rating system. Among other positive reviews, IGN also gave New Super Mario Bros. a 9.5/10, making it along with Mario Kart DS and Elite Beat Agents, the highest rated Nintendo DS game on the site.

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Originally Posted by Django!

That's dandy and all, and I agree with you to an extent, but that doesn't mean one should make sweeping comments about entire libraries of titles.

Uh, okay...I didn't. I just said there are many games nowadays I have no interest in playing because they don't look very fun or aren't, so I won't force myself to like something anymore or "try to understand what the artist was going for" if I'm not enjoying the gameplay or my eyes are closing during a cutscene/tutorial. That's a game-to-game thing.

What I mean about games as art...Ico/Colossus are always thought of as examples of videogames as "legitimate art", while I find them exceptionally boring to actually play. So I'm not going to press further in seeing what they have to offer to "legitimize" the status of games. That's what I meant. I find enough art in finding a game that can hold my attention, because that generally means there's more than just the gameplay I'm attracted to, but it's still getting that part down really well. Like I said...8-bit cityscapes are just as much art as the latest PS3-polygon pusher and if anything, they're much harder to appreciate since they're considered archaic by many gamers.

As far as "art" goes...Hell, there's GH notecharts I think of as art (because of how well they represent their respective songs), so I'm not trying to play the elitist card there. I'm just saying I won't even try to appreciate something if it's boring the crap out of me, although some aspects might catch my eye (graphics, music, female bustline, etc).

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?