Friday, February 19, 2010

Power of the Classics

6 comments:

  1. At the near beginning, I knew where this one was headed and this is quite possibly my favorite one...and let me tell you why.

    I agree that games nowadays are just almost too much. It's why I'm not a fan of things like GTA or ultra-realistic games...it's hard to find escapism when everything seems so real.

    This is why I love my Ultimate Sega Collection on my X-Box. I can relive some of my childhood,and honestly still find enjoyment out of the old games like Shining Force. Also, I love Mario Bros. 3 and will just pick up and play that if I feel the urge to. Why? Because it's just damn fun.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yay! Super Mario Bros. 2! That was a weird game. Whoever came up with the idea to throw vegetables at enemies?

    Also, I have to seriously disagree with the ending. There are lots of modern games with wonderful art design that still make you think. Maybe you're no longer using your imagination to interpret pixel art. The really good modern games get you to think about the story, the characters, and the world the game is set in.

    But then I'm not a graphic artist, so we see things differently.

    ReplyDelete
  3. When visuals are abstracted, gamers are free to create an experience which will be different from everyone else's. I'm not saying ALL modern games fail at this, but just the ones that seem more about graphic realism than dynamically intuitive gameplay. Certainly some do both (i.e. Shadow of the Colossus, InFamous, Prince of Persia 3).

    I just keep meeting people that ONLY seem to care about elaborate graphics and it's upsetting when I see the industry moving in that direction. A lot of great-looking games aren't much fun. Thank goodness for LittleBigPlanet, Nintendo and indie developers.

    And yes, Mario 2 is still my favorite of them all, even though I know others are a lot bigger. Like Lan said, it all comes down purely to the fun factor.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ah, David, you hit the nail on the head!

    It also comes down to business. Why go through the enormous effort to improve gameplay when it (shockingly enough, I think) would be easier to create visually superior but substance-challenged (re: gameplay-challenged) games? Developers and coders got a date to meet, dollars to make, and retailers to satisfy.

    That said, games that both look great and play great are the exception and most definitely not the rule, and I wish the converse were true. But these games do exist, and are in my collection--like the much-revered Gran Turismo games, the Crash Bandicoots, the Ratchet & Clanks--pretty games containing superior gameplay do exist, but aren't plentiful in number.


    As an aside, though, I am not as virulent against pretty-looking games as some of my contemporaries (re: you) are! I like to look at pretty pictures as much as the next man, and some of these games are interactive works of art, so on that level I can appreciate them.

    ReplyDelete
  5. this is so true. The people looking over martin's shoulders: I love their faces!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Although I do agree, there are some games out there that are wonderfully done. Although some of my favourite games are not the most "graphic-intense".

    ReplyDelete