Working Title 10.18.10: Working Mini-Rant #5: Retro-A-No-Go?

Posted by Jordan Williams on 10.18.2010

Many games, such as Shadow of the Colossus, are getting in HD upgrades and re-releases. But are we getting too much of it? 411's Jordan Williams take a look at the issue in the latest Working Title!

Welcome to the #1 Column to still think 7.5 is a good score, WORKING TITLE! Have I ever mentioned how much I hate numerical rating scores? No matter what the score, or what the rubric it always seems like if people see a game that is rated anything lower than an 8.8 as a complete and utter failure on every single level. Lets ignore that 7.0 is usually seen as 'average' on everyone's scale, and you have played TONS of Average games in your life time that you enjoy. Why we as a whole just do a letter grade system or just no system at all?

But enough of old man ranting; this week is another rant on a topic that is actually starting to annoy me a bit. It's safe to say that most of the people who are reading this (or mostly any gaming related news on the internet) are at least 20 years old, maybe even in the mid 20s like myself and others. So we grew up in the 16-Bit Era and the Arcade Era. We were there when we played all of those games that have everyone on a nostalgia jones is having now. But as much as I do love some of the older games out there...do we really need so many of these HD-Remixes and Re-Releases? Is it getting to the point of...well...saturation?

We all love them, but maybe some things should be left in the past a bit, because let's just go ahead and face the facts. Gaming has changed A LOT in the last 20 years.



Working Devil's Advocate: Nostalgia Infection

Everyone loves to talk about the good old days of gaming. Back when consoles exclusives meant something and every big game didn't involve you putting bullets in someone from a first person perspective. The era back when the Arcade was alive and you actually had to go out and put some quarters on the rack to be apart of the 'gaming community'. Before NEOGaf was the sounding board for all video game ideas and controversies and instead that took place at the food court in the mall.

It's no secret that out of the "Big 4" Entertainment mediums, Video Games is right up there with Movies in the terms of people who LOVE nostalgia and the old shit. But just like Hollywood, it seems to me, at least, the video games are starting to visit the well a bit too many times. Now before you jump on my balls let me get this straight. I am not saying that remakes, reboots, and re-releases are a bad thing. In fact I am usually pretty excited about some of the ones that DO get re-releases and what not...but I do think the shifting focus of churning a new "HD" pack out every couple of months of games in the back catalog is just a bit...well...lazy.

My reasoning behind it is twofold, the first part of it being that 20 years ago when some of these older games were in their heyday and getting all of the limelight, the gaming scene was A LOT different. Look at the Beat' Em Ups in the Arcade Era. You had the staples like X-Men, TMNT, Simpsons, etc. But those games were great for the fact that they were quick and simple fun, you put in a quarter, grabbed some friends, played a level and lost and that was it. If you were feeling hardcore you could put in 5 dollars worth and try to beat the game but they were never truly meant to be played that way. Now fast forward to today when gaming is all about longevity and replay ability. The Beat' Em Up for all intents and purposes is a dead genre. You simply CAN'T put out a game in 2010 that consists of nothing but "Move to the right and punch" without some other hooks into it. God of War gives you the cinematic experience and the difficulty and the fact that it's longer than 2 hours to toy with. Other similar games usually have platforming or puzzle solving in the mix. But as reviewers have shown, the standard beat em up just doesn't work for more than an "Aw, that was cool" nostalgia kick.

It's even a bit weirder when its game those for all intents and purposes aren't even that old. Shadow of the Colossus and Sly Cooper were great games but the hardcore people who REALLY, REALLY loved those games...well...let's face you. They probably still have a PS2 and those games for the sole reason of replaying them when they feel like it. So what is the whole point of doing an up-rezed re-release? I am sure it's nothing but a drop in the hat for developers to go through and fix the textures and make it look all pretty-tastic for the current gen, but if the games were really THAT beloved why don't they just go all in and make a new game?

What would you want more? A new shiny version of Shadow of Colossus or a NEW Shadow of Colossus? (Let's ignore that that game didn't leave any room for a sequel for a bit). Instead of throwing out a Sly Cooper collection why not just give us a NEW Sly Cooper?

The same goes for the nostalgia trip games as well. X-Men Arcade was awesome. There is no getting around that, it is probably one of, if not THE best Arcade BEmU around...but how much would you have liked it if they had made an updated/better version of that game (perhaps an Ultimate Alliance 3 without messing it up like they did 2) and left in the Arcade Version as a bonus unlock able on disc or something? It's the same sort of problem I had way back with Advent Children. They put all of this time and money (to a FAR FAR LESSER extent than with Advent Children) into doing this when they could be doing something new.

The second part of this that gets me is that while I am normally the defender of business in video games, this always just seems like a money grab to me. Let's put out the same game we put out 5 years ago with better graphics (or in some cases, no real changes at all) and charge people for it. While I understand that some of the games that get put out are undoubtedly hard to find (Beyond Good and Evil comes to mind) it always seems like something that should be given as a premium or at least with something else in the box. You could argue and say "But they are giving you two great games for the price of one with better graphics!" and that's honestly a great deal, but do I really want to pay for that all over again? If this was my first time playing Ico, or Sly Cooper, or even God of War I could totally get behind that. But if I was as big of a fan of the games as the people online claim they are...why don't I have that game already barring some freak accident involving a winged giraffe who broke my PS2?
If they can find some way to make the package seem a bit more worthwhile than just the sake of having nostalgia around, maybe I would be a little bit more open to the idea of all of these remakes and HD remixes and what not. But right now it just seems like a really small niche product that while increases fan support and undoubtedly gives us what we want, I always feel like I'd rather that development time (small as it may be) but used more towards something fresh and new. We give Hollywood so much flack of re-visiting the well, and even with newer games we always are so quick to throw out the REHASH word a lot…but…I don't know. It just feels really weird.

Not to mention some of these games really haven't aged that great or when you put them side by side. Look at the Sonic fiasco. Just LOOK AT IT. For YEARS now people wanted the good old Sonic. None of this Sonic Adventures bullshit or anything of that nature. The good old Nostalgia Sonic that they have all grown up with. Back when Sonic was fun and new and hip!
And then Episode 4 part 1 came out for 15 dollars and you got exactly what you wanted.
A game where you run to the right constantly and jump every now and then. That's it. That's what you wanted, right? It's not like that's terribly dated or anything, bit you are more than willing to pay 15 dollars three times for it.
Maybe this rant is a bit rushed, and a bit…out there. But sometimes I just like playing the other side of the argument, because without the Devil's Advocate side of things, sometimes we get everyone agreeing and being all happy go lucky and not wanting to step on anyone's toes.

And we already have too much of that on the internet already.

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Working Question
Unrelated to the above rant, do you think that The Pre-LC Movement is a bad thing? By Pre-LC (coined by Giant Bomb) I mean stuff like Dead Rising Case Zero and Dead Space Ignition. While some see these as essentially paid demos, others see them as great lead-ins to the actual games. Where do you stand?

Until next time, I'm Jordan Williams…and is it bad that I really don't have any will to jump back into Fallout: New Vegas yet?
Also you should really really listen to We're Alive (www.thezombiepodcast.com). It's fucking awesome.