You know, for all the crap it gets, that whole "retro revival" boom that swept through the gaming industry a few years back (including some of the first "compilation" type titles in the ahead-of-its-time Super Mario All Stars, Namco Museum for the Playstation and the Capcom Generation series for Saturn's Japanese users) really did a lot of good. For one, it proved that older games, long since removed from new players' consciousness, could still sell buckets. Secondly, it showed that there was more than just a mechanical reason for the public's fascination with game compilation packs—there was nostalgia, and the more classic packaging, in-game cabinet, flyer, and box arts, legacy music, and cheesy retro ambiance that you could stuff in, the better.
Though it took game developers a little while to realize it, and the market and distribution platforms a little while to really catch up, the foundations of those two truths would lead to what this writer considers the greatest new trend in "nostalgia" gaming: what I apologize for calling "remakquels."
The most recent of them: Bionic Commando: Rearmed, the recently released Punch-Out!!, WiiWare's Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, Mega Man 9, the older and forthcoming New Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and Street Fighter IV.
Let me tell you why this stuff is great: because for all of my optimism and enthusiasm for games and the gaming industry, sometimes I just don't give a shit about the new Tomb Raider. I don't care about Assassin's Creed, I don't want to control Master Chief, I'm not interested in Drake, his fortune, Commander Shepard, Rapture as a place or a codename, I am not interested in World War II, looking at Samus' gun-arm is cool but not when it takes up an eighth of my view, and I'm sure Wii Sports Resort is great but I ain't paddling a canoe right now.
Sometimes, I just want to play the old games. The ones I played through tons when I was younger and a few times as I got older and then didn't have time to play games a dozen times each. But that's the problem, isn't it? I've finished them a dozen times each. What's the only thing better than your favorite games? Games that look and feel and seem exactly like your old games, but are new!
Somehow it took the ad-wizards at Video Game Headquarters long enough to do it, but we're finally seeing the games that work on those principles. Mega Man 9 plays, looks, and sounds exactly like Mega Man 2 did, and not the crazy later ones. Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is like walking into a K-mart in 1993 and picking up a copy of what would say Final Fantasy II 2 on its Super NES box in the United States.
For the most part, the ones that get it right do exactly what you want: they give you more of the games you will always love. But the really great ones are smart enough to make them not quite as archaic as they were when you were ten. New Super Mario Bros. lets you save your progress and start-select to quit out of levels. Bionic Commando gives you an actual arsenal and doesn't start you over from nothing once you're out of lives. Final Fantasy IV loads the status screen instantly and pushes you in and out of battles so fast you barely have time to get pissed that you're going into one (though the encounter rate is so high you just might anyway).
This week I'm taking on Don Flamenco, sending Cecil and Rosa's son on a quest to become a knight, and preparing to write an article about a Wii title that looks a lot like the original Super Mario game.
Through the magic and miracles of the other-market Wii software scene, I can even dip my feet in the denied true sequels to these games: Seiken Densetsu 3 never looked so good as it does on my TV screen with a Classic Controller in front of it, and Star Fox 2 is like entering a time-warp to when we were all ragging on the Virtual Boy and looking forward to Killer Instinct on the Nintendo Ultra 64.
If all this took was a few years comprised of assy deluges of bullshit retro packs, loaded with buggy emulation, cheap manuals, foolish game selection, inaccurate controls, and poor presentations, so be it—there's never been a better time to have been a gamer.
Though it took game developers a little while to realize it, and the market and distribution platforms a little while to really catch up, the foundations of those two truths would lead to what this writer considers the greatest new trend in "nostalgia" gaming: what I apologize for calling "remakquels."
The most recent of them: Bionic Commando: Rearmed, the recently released Punch-Out!!, WiiWare's Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, Mega Man 9, the older and forthcoming New Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and Street Fighter IV.
Let me tell you why this stuff is great: because for all of my optimism and enthusiasm for games and the gaming industry, sometimes I just don't give a shit about the new Tomb Raider. I don't care about Assassin's Creed, I don't want to control Master Chief, I'm not interested in Drake, his fortune, Commander Shepard, Rapture as a place or a codename, I am not interested in World War II, looking at Samus' gun-arm is cool but not when it takes up an eighth of my view, and I'm sure Wii Sports Resort is great but I ain't paddling a canoe right now.
Sometimes, I just want to play the old games. The ones I played through tons when I was younger and a few times as I got older and then didn't have time to play games a dozen times each. But that's the problem, isn't it? I've finished them a dozen times each. What's the only thing better than your favorite games? Games that look and feel and seem exactly like your old games, but are new!
Somehow it took the ad-wizards at Video Game Headquarters long enough to do it, but we're finally seeing the games that work on those principles. Mega Man 9 plays, looks, and sounds exactly like Mega Man 2 did, and not the crazy later ones. Final Fantasy IV: The After Years is like walking into a K-mart in 1993 and picking up a copy of what would say Final Fantasy II 2 on its Super NES box in the United States.
For the most part, the ones that get it right do exactly what you want: they give you more of the games you will always love. But the really great ones are smart enough to make them not quite as archaic as they were when you were ten. New Super Mario Bros. lets you save your progress and start-select to quit out of levels. Bionic Commando gives you an actual arsenal and doesn't start you over from nothing once you're out of lives. Final Fantasy IV loads the status screen instantly and pushes you in and out of battles so fast you barely have time to get pissed that you're going into one (though the encounter rate is so high you just might anyway).
This week I'm taking on Don Flamenco, sending Cecil and Rosa's son on a quest to become a knight, and preparing to write an article about a Wii title that looks a lot like the original Super Mario game.
Through the magic and miracles of the other-market Wii software scene, I can even dip my feet in the denied true sequels to these games: Seiken Densetsu 3 never looked so good as it does on my TV screen with a Classic Controller in front of it, and Star Fox 2 is like entering a time-warp to when we were all ragging on the Virtual Boy and looking forward to Killer Instinct on the Nintendo Ultra 64.
If all this took was a few years comprised of assy deluges of bullshit retro packs, loaded with buggy emulation, cheap manuals, foolish game selection, inaccurate controls, and poor presentations, so be it—there's never been a better time to have been a gamer.