What would you say is the appeal of retro games?

[seether]

?

[maximo310]

You usually get to jump right into the game w/o worrying much about a narrative, along with score based gameplay for a large amount of titles.

[sworddude]

Jumping right into the action seems like a pretty weak sauce appeal to me the games are way to different for such small things to have any influence in that.

People aren't going to drop modern games just to save some time, such games  gameplay wise are totally different night and day, you can't compare the last of us, dark souls or battlefield with games like mario world or strider to name some examples.

In my opinion It's about certain genre's of games with their respective visuals gameplay music and sounds wich give it the appeal wich are very different from modern games.

[hoshichiri]

Gameplay wise, it's a completely different discipline than most modern games. Most modern games focus on waypoint finding/following, creative puzzle solving, and multiplayer interactions. Retro tends towards reflexive response, trial and error, and pattern memorization. I was just discussing this with a co-worker who recently got the new Genesis collection & watched a younger relative flail horrifically in Sonic the Hedgehog.

There is also the aesthetic differences, simplicity compared to modern titles, and pure nostalgia to contend with- all notable factors.

(Do you guys ever get the feeling we're being secretly researched for some journalist's big expose? "Gamers- who are they, what drives them, and what triggers them to become violent, mass-shooting monsters? Story at 11!")

[bikingjahuty]

I think the appeal of retro games is mostly nostalgia; I feel like retro style games typically appeal to those that grew up with these games or similar games and remind them of simpler times in their lives. That's not to say these games aren't fun and nothing more than trips down memory lane, but I feel like their main draw is from people trying to recapture their past.

Also, as some have stated, they are typically easy to jump into and just play. There aren't any super complex systems to learn or convoluted control schemes to get used to; they are very accessible and easy to get into compared to a lot of newer games. I feel like this is the reason many prefer retro or retro style games, and why they occasionally appeal to those that weren't even born until well after the days of the SNES or NES. I think there is also something to be said about the sprite work of older games which has a very cool asthetic, as does old video game music which has a charm of its own.

[emporerdragon]

A fun game is a fun game. That's all there is to it.

[badATchaos]

They're like a fine wine.

[kamikazekeeg]

Nostalgia is much of it, but there's generally a simplicity and straightforward style retro games have.

[bast]

I think it´s the simplicity, there were no downloading times, no dlc, everything was in the box

[undertakerprime]

Nostalgia is much of it, but there's generally a simplicity and straightforward style retro games have.

I was going to say almost the exact same thing.

Part is nostalgia, but part is the simpler type of game, with a simpler type of graphics, totally unlike the polygonal powerhouses of today.

Plus, old school platformers or RPGs tap into totally different and unique skill sets which are not very prevalent anymore.

[pizzasafari]

There's a lot of things. The biggest one is that there's a pretty huge difference in mentality between making modern games and people making games back then. In the past games were a new, budding thing, and the people making great games were doing so because they saw potential in the medium, and they wanted to take it to new heights and made their money that way. The people in charge of the AAA market nowadays do so because video games are the biggest industry in the world right now and have no real passion for games. You can see the difference in mentality in old AAA games and new AAA games like night and day.

Then there's the issue that hits smaller devs that do care about the games they're making, it's too easy nowadays. Back in the day developers had to be really clever when making games because of the limitations they faced. There was only so much they could do with the hardware they were working with, and there was only so much data that could fit on a cartridge/disc. The latter meant that unnecessary trash in games would be cut for space limitations, whereas nowadays that isn't part of the process, the main limitations are budget and time constraints, the latter of which typically just means first come first served with regards to content being added to the game, rather than the worst stuff being thrown out. Time constants weren't as big of a problem back in the day because the market didn't care as much about deadlines.

This isn't to say modern games are bad. But there is a purity to old games that no-one can deny. And also when going into older games you can normally do so with an optimistic mind because of the above reasons, whereas nowadays it's hard not to be cynical. Old games are like your disabled eldest son that is a bit slow but genuinely does his best and you all love him for it, modern games are your shitty toddler that runs around smearing his shit on the walls and screaming but you put up with him because he's clever for his age and he sometimes tells you he loves you.

And then of course there's the obvious nostalgia factor, we all feel a stronger connection to things from our childhood because they were a part of our lives while our brains were still learning and developing. So many warm fuzzy feels when I go back and play PS1 games. Prerendered graphics were the tits.

[cirno]

Eh, I always thought the idea that Retro games were made with more passion was kind of nonsense. Games were littered with cheap mechanics for no other reason to stretch the runtime, and when if you decided to seek almost anything outside of the mainstream companies, you'd be met with an unplayable mess.  There were plenty of good games, but seeking them out was like a minefield because respecting the player and their tolerance for frustration wasn't a thing.

The only reason there wasn't EA/Ubisoft type companies back then was because they couldn't, not because they wouldn't.

[pizzasafari]

^ I wouldn't say so. Like I said the reasons for entering the gaming market are completely different now to what they were back then. If you watch or read old interviews of the developers of the old classics talking about the games as they were making them there really was genuine passion in their words. Back then if you wanted to enter a multi-million dollar industry you'd enter movies or music or something like that, games were seen by the bigwigs as toys for kids. Making games was still to make profit obviously but people got into game development because they wanted to make games, not because they wanted to make massive stacks of cheddar.

Skip to today and now that videogames are raking in ridiculous sums of money the afforementioned bigwigs have jumped on the bandwagon, and their own talks about their games are full of 'WE ARE EXPANDING THE HORIZON OF VIDEOGAMES' and 'THE FUTURE IS NOW WE ARE VIDEOGAMES AND IT'S BECAUSE. OF. YOU.' and it's all so insincere it hurts. The genuinely passionate and creative people in the development teams of AAA companies are being stifled by the powers that be in the name of ridiculous timescales and backwards priorities.

[cirno]

Ah, but that's regarding the mindset of corporate folks, not game developers-and the mindset of those people haven't changed. Back then, like you said, they merely saw them as toys for kids, and that's why we got so many cheap, half baked licensed games even back then. Game developers are under the mercy of whatever their bigger, cold company wants-that was the case and and that was the case now.


So naturally, most games sucked, and you had to specifically fish the sea of new games coming out to find the good stuff.

Where's the change? They always say games as meanginless products, and still do-but now they've simply found it's more profitable to exploit adults rather than children. Becoming an AAA game developer isn't a get rich quick scheme because you're not the one getting paid most of the money. You don't spend years learning that sort of coding to prepare for making a 3D casino. It's a change entirely injected by the corporate folks, who care as much as they did back then.


Super Mario Odssey was made with the same amount of passion as Super Mario Bros, and, well, Star Wars Battlefront Two was made with the same amount of passion as ET for the atari. It's not a new thing, they just have new toys to devise evil plans with.

[aetherorange]

For me a big part of it is reliving the games I grew up with, or feeling the nostaliga of the era, even if I am playing retro games I never played back in the day. I also like the simplicity of older games. With free time constantly dwindling I grow tired of load times, waiting for games to install to the hard drive and downloading updates, conenctivity issues and lag for online games, etc. Nothing quite like putting in a game cartridge, clicking "on" and then starting the game within seconds.

I love the collectibility of older games too. I love the box art, the manuals, the maps that came with some games, I love the care that went into the whole package of a game back then. Now, you get a disc/cartridge and an otherwise empty case. Feels half-assed to me. Also, many games of today feel like the same damn game over and over. How many Call of Dutys, Maddens, Grand Theft Autos, Far Crys, Halos, etc do we need? I'm tired of online required games as other players often ruin the game for me. There are new games I enjoy still but many of them are retro in style, like Shovel Knight, or sequels to long loved classic franchises like Zelda or Mario. Retro games just have so much more personality than most new games too.

One last draw of retro games too is the fact that they're all avialable. There is no waiting for release dates, no pre-ordering, being hyped for something that ends up disappointing. The entire libraries of all retro systems are out, with reviews for pretty much every game, so you can pick and choose which ones you like.

Edit: And one more reason i thought of is that most modern games lack both replayability and challenge. Sure there are games like Dark Souls that really test your patience but most games are too cinematic and full of cutscenes and not enough actually gameplay.