Retro Review Relevance

A lot of people are familiar with the Angry Video Game Nerd. If not, here's a simple summary: He reviews old games from the Atari 2600 to the Nintendo 64 (the oldest I recall) which are exceedingly bad. I had a laugh and agreed on quite a few points. But what relevance does that have in today's video game market?

I was doing some cleaning up and decided to hook up the GameCube and play some Wind Waker. And I found myself wishing there were games that used some of these elements.

And then I put two and two together.

A lot of people I talked to see retro reviews as something to just draw in the nostalgia crowd. I'm realizing there are more valuable lessons to learned. In the case Angry Video Game Nerd, it's what NOT to do. The majority of these reviews also point out what worked.

As an example, let's consider Super Mario 64, which was the first game for the Mario franchise to leap from the 2D to the 3D. It's a great game. Are the two related? Not directly. Though 3D gaming was becoming more popular, what made SM64 a great game was it was a great game. I know, a simplistic analogy, but hear me out. The level designs were excellent, the controls worked well, it gave a great challenge, the music fit the game very well (I loved the Metal Mario music!), and it's story, while not monumental, was just right for the game. The graphics were good for when it was released, but by 2012 they'd be considered crap. So why is it hailed still as a great game? Because it is a great game.

Retro reviews only mentions crappy graphics or horrible sound if they are truly awful. They do consider the available technology of the game's time. When they cite bad music, it's because it was badly composed or played inappropriately, such as only having a single ten second track looping endlessly without pause. When the graphics are hit, it from seeing the artists not even trying, especially if you're questioning if something is a gun or a dildo.

Even though they talk about games made 20 or 30 years ago, a number of lessons from those times can still be learned. A good game cannot rely on good graphics alone. If it has no substance, it'll make people ask why they even bothered picking up the game and playing it.

If you can, I invite you to play a couple of yesteryear games and see what made them good and what made them bad. Not for nostalgia's sake, but to make you appreciate all the work that helped make some of the good game what they are today. And on the topic of games, I just lost the game! Have fun!