In the first part of this article, I talked about how retro games still impact gamers today. How they bring a sense of comfort of the familiar. The ability to search out and play the games you might have missed out the first. The history that shows how modern games are influenced by the games that came before the. In this part, I want to talk about about how retro games can have a not so positive impact. They still matter, just not for the right reasons.
Availability
I know, I know. I spent an entire paragraph last week singing the praises of all the ways you can now find and play retro games. I still stand by it, but if you love an obscure title, you have to go out and find it. Retro game stores seem to be on every street corner, but you are basically hoping for a lucky draw. If you decide to to search the internet, you might be looking at a price tag you can’t afford. The mini player puts retro games in a easy to use format, but your favorite might not be there. And remember, for ever NES mini, there is a Playstation min right next door.
Regression
This might be a personal thing, but it is recent and infuriating. I recently started to revisit the Mega Man games. After spending most of my time playing recent games, I found that my skills for old retro platformers almost completely dead. It was mind blowing that games that I had spent so many years in became insanely hard. There is a flip to this as if you just play retro games, modern game require a skill set you have neglected. It was mind blowing to not even be able to get past the first screen of a game that I had beat multiple times. Bonus points for you if you can figure out what Mega Man it was. Hint: 1-4.
Rose Colored Glasses
This is a hard pill to swallow. Remember those games that you just had so much fun playing back in the day? I hate to tell you this, but they might not be as good as you remember. For me, this was Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest. I remember that as a kid, the game was fun and sorta scare. Re-watching a playthrough now, that game is really not good. Glitches, a ton of a fetch quests and a day/ night cycle that becomes annoying as the game goes on. You might not be able to go home again, but you can play old games. Just be prepared.
As far as bad things, retro games got off pretty easy. In the next week’s installment, I will cover some of the best places to look up retro game history and some game books that cover the history of retro games in a very interesting way.
