Throwing off the shackles of todays gaming culture...?

[*Adam*]

I'm sure there are a lot of us here that are regular readers of Edge magazine.
Has anyone else noticed the retro perspective (almost a nice pun!) that Edge is increasingly taking?

This has been perfect for me and I am really embracing the concepts behind the change in attitudes.

I have just sold my gamecube and have no interest in an x-Box and PS2. Perhaps it is a lifestyle thing as much as anything else BUT i have chucked it all in and bought an SP with lots of games.

I can count on one finger (Metroid Prime) the games I have played through to real completion on my cube. I would consider myself a pretty dedicated gamer too. Sunshine was the first Mario game I didn't complete in full.

I was so dissapointed. I have really not taken well to the latest gen of games systems. GoldenEye and SM64 did capture me (as strangely did Diddy Kong Racing) but the fatigue set in soon.

HOWEVER, games like Metroid Fusion, Mario Kart SC, Zelda LTTP(again!), Golden Sun, Breath of Fire, Advance Wars I play to the very death, until the game is really complete.

Why am I so gaded towards 3d all encompassing games. Why do I get more immersed in games that don't have so much 'environment' built in?

2D games appeal to me so much more. Am I just a nostalgia monkey, or is there a real phenonmenon here with long term gamers?

[PeteJ]

It isn't something you can even begin to explain. I've been playing games as long as I remember, but I have never been one to look back 'to the good old days'.

I've always been much more interested in the future than the past, thus Retro really isn't my thing.

I find it just as difficult to play 2D games as you 3D. But that isn't to say I've not enjoyed any 2D games recently...

[*Adam*]

It's so weird isn't it. I would say Goldeneye is my favourite game of all time (SM64 and OOT coming VERY close) and they are all 3d new gen ish games.

BUT now I am getting more enjoyment from the games without all the flashy graphics or amazing SFX.

I just want a gaming experience to be engaging and fun. It's the GBA SP that has given me that, and not GC.

Maybe it's a phase

[tankplanker]

How old was you when you played Goldeneye?

I found that with music I find more difficult to really take to an album from when I was a student @ UNI/6th form. My favorite albums are all from then.

I guess you get stuck in a time warp?

[JRMacumber]

What? Is it time for the monthly "I'm tired of today's games" thread again? Man, where does the time go...

[rjpageuk]

I think a lot of the problem comes from the time we have available now and the length of games now a days.

At least this is a problem with me.

I couldnt ever hope to finish Wind Waker, Metroid Prime etc. etc. because I dont have enough time anymore to dedicate to these sort of games.

I end up buying new games before these are finished and they sit on the shelf. I recognize this isnt a problem with the games more a problem with me.

I now look for shorter games which are the type of thing you can put an hour into a day and not lose out - you dont need to play them for long stretches and so they hold my interest better.

I would certainly put a majority of 2d games (especially the SNES greats) into that category above. I think that is the difference between them and their 3D incarnations rather than the fact they are just better games.

[*Adam*]

Yep you have a valid point, there is an instantness (a new word) to the GBA and the cartridge in general.

Maybe the fact that I can and will play my SP on my daily commute is reason enough.

I played doom 1 and 2 thorugh to the end on the GBA and it is (although ancient now) part of the same breed of games.

Perhaps I'm not sure.

I don't really connect with the ultra real graphics. I prefer to see cool looking sprites. It's a taste thing.

Oh and it is not a rant saying 'it's not like it used to be' and 'games these days are rubbish' it's just a matter of taste.

i wondered if anyone else had felt the same phenomenon

[Senna]

I know where you are coming from, and I think it may be the fact that many games (not all) are becoming less pick-up-and-play. For example with a Sonic or mario game you could start playing away pretty easily, and most of the time it was obvious where to go. I find these sort of games more fun than the vast majority of titles realised today.

BUT, I still played Metroid Prime all the way through, I absolutely love Star Wars KOTOR which are both hardly easy at first.

It seems just to be more of a nostalgia thing, in wanting to play the sort of games that you played when you were a child, when you had less responsibilities etc.

[Welrain]

I'm going back to the genre's that Ive had the most fun with... light guns games and scrolling fighters..both quick pick up and play genres.

[2 Point]

It seems you have shackled yourself. All the games.hardware you have discussed is N, dismissing Sony and MS.

If you didn't commute, would you still play games, or do you play games just to fill time between other activities?

I enjoy large 3d games, getting the map in my head is part of the game. I've got an SP, usually played when I'm bored/travelling. I wouldn't take time specifically to play it when I have vastly superior games to play on my consoles with surround sound.

[badgerpie]

I enjoy large 3d games, getting the map in my head is part of the game. I've got an SP, usually played when I'm bored/travelling. I wouldn't take time specifically to play it when I have vastly superior games to play on my consoles with surround sound.

I feel like this. I love my GBA for commuting or when on Holiday. Lying on the beach playing Advance Wars is fantastic, but when i'm home i'd rather be playing on one of the big three.

[*Adam*]

It seems you have shackled yourself. All the games.hardware you have discussed is N, dismissing Sony and MS.

If you didn't commute, would you still play games, or do you play games just to fill time between other activities?

I enjoy large 3d games, getting the map in my head is part of the game. I've got an SP, usually played when I'm bored/travelling. I wouldn't take time specifically to play it when I have vastly superior games to play on my consoles with surround sound.

No I have been a gamer for a long time. I play my Advance at home and left the cube sitting doing nothing.

I'm not dismissing MS and Sony. I just don't happen to have either.

I have played through and completed Halo, Project Gotham and GTA Vice city though during various loan spells

[E. Randy Dupre]

Increasingly annoyed with this whole retrogaming thing. I fail to understand why people feel the need to classify playing games released more than three years ago as somehow different from playing ones released this week. The same applies to the totally pointless 2D vs 3D arguments.

Look - a game's a game. A good game's a good game and a **** one's still ****. Their relative ages have nothing to do with that, nor does the perspective in which they're rendered.

I'll watch black and white movies every now and again. I'll listen to records that were recorded before stereo technology became the norm. Doesn't mean that I can't or don't enjoy newer takes on those forms, and nobody's trying to class me as a retroviewer or a retrolistener. Know why? Because film and music buffs generally recognise the worth in an example of the media they enjoy without worrying about the age of the hardware that produced it, and they aren't that anal about their hobby or blinkered by nostalgia that they constantly have to bitch about how things were much better back in the day.

[Adrock]

As with music and movies they have definite era's involved with them. And people generally have a certain era they affiliate with and enjoy more than other era's, it doesnt stop them from listening or watching other music or film but they still always go back to that era as their favourite.

I would say i prefer 2d games over 3d games, that doesnt mean im dismissing all 3d games. It just means that i prefer the feeling of 2d, maybe thats because i was brought up playing mega drive games so i've gotten used to it, but it just feels right for me.

[Ady]

TBH, I think selling your GC was unwise as its the only machine of the current gen that -in any way- encapsulates the immediacy of older games.

Did you not play Super Monkey Ball, Viewtiful Joe, Ikaruga or P.N.03, for instance?

That said, I can understand why you'd champion the GBA. It gets a lot of stick, but I really think it's a great little machine. Probably the last of its kind, too.

As for 2D vs 3D, I have no preference. If a game is done well, that's all that matters to me.