Does anyone else hate "retro throwback" games?

[ihaveelbows]

I like the side scrolling beat em ups. The TMNT game was sweet..didn't play power rangers because the reviewers I pay attention to canned it for good reason. I think certain franchises would thrive in these games. I remember playing a side scrolling Alien game and it was a mix of Duke Nukem and Pitfall.

 

[pyrinyx]

I'm just so done with 8-bit and 16-bit throwbacks in general. If I want to play either, let me go play my rom collection of the real shit. The last game I cared about that had this was The Messenger but only because it was kind of cool in how it handled transitioning from 8-bit and 16-bit by tying it into a past/future mechanic. But besides that game, I'm honestly tired of games aiming to be Super Nintendo like or NES like. And it's like, they stick to one style - pixels. They're so one-tracked it's unbelievable, like Donkey Kong Country for the SNES had its own style, why not try replicating that? There were all sorts of styles that the old games tried, but leave it to shitty retrobros to stick to just bare pixels.

 

[Otri]

It was interesting in the start, but it became boring very quickly now that every indie game is pixelslop

 

[Back me up!]

I don't hate it as long as there is a REASON why its "retro" styled beyond "The market is hot lets sell some slop".

Have a game from your childhood and want to make one like with modern fixes/designs? Fine
Only got a couple of people on the team and need to use an art style/game engine that is less intense? Fine

I do find it funny enough that it has been long enough that are moving towards "Playstation 1 Retro Style" but I can dig it. If you got a dream and team of 3 people go for it.

 

[GeorgeFloydFentanylStash]

I enjoyed the TMNT one that came out a few years. Interested to play the Terminator and Marvel ones coming out soon.

 

[What can I say?]

I disagree with what you and alot of other people in this thread are saying but I do understand your annoyance. To me Shovel Knight, Ultrakill, and Pizza tower are the undisputed kings of this kind of "genre", both great games that manage to take inspiration from older games whilst carving their own identity and mechanics.

Also I see Celeste being thrown around alot when this kind of discussion gets bought up but honestly I wouldn't really consider it a retro throwback. pretty much everything outside of the gameplay itself is either hand-drawn or 3D modeled such as the map, the dialogue portraits, the main menu, etc. It doesn't seem to be aping any particular game, it just uses pixel art. People often point to anything that uses pixel art as some kind of retro throwback nostalgia bait thing when pixel art in and of itself can foster just as many styles or appearances as hand-drawn art. I'm surprised nobody here or anywhere else called Balatro a retro throwback to casino's from the 90's.

If it's good it's good.

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

I'm one of those gay niggers who unironically plays CoD for the campaign

I've always loved Tom Clancy-ish globetrotting campaigns. Modern Warfare, Splinter Cell, some of the Battlefield games, etc. - they scratch a very particular itch.

 

[Fox Girl Enjoyer]

It was interesting in the start, but it became boring very quickly now that every indie game is pixelslop

Pretty much this. We've pretty much hit ever 8/16 bit popular game. There isn't much left. People just need to start coming up with their own ideas. Its not the 2010s anymore.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Probably. My earliest console was the N64 and my earliest PC game was Dune 2000, not even Dune 2. NES and SNES type games simply don't appeal to me, and I'm convinced people only liked Side-Scrolling Platformers because they didn't know any better back then.
I did rent a classic Sonic game collection for the PS2 back when rental stores were still a thing once and I did enjoy that, though I was also a Sonic autist in my youth.

I'd still consider N64 retro for sure, even 6th gen. Frighteningly, 7th gen might count now.

NES games don't really appeal to me either, with a handful of exceptions, but SNES is really good. I don't see how you can't like Mega Man X or Donkey Kong Country, have you really sat down with them?

Based Sonic enjoyed at least.

I like vidya with story. The best are the ones where you get to drive the story yourself but if the story's good enough it doesn't matter if it's linear. I'm a bit of a casual but I can still appreciate and adapt to playing games like Morrowind or Stalker, and I love the Souls games even at their worst COUGHDarkSouls2COUGH.
Basically I'm one of those gay niggers who unironically plays CoD for the campaign and spends 9000 hours reading wiki pages.

Well, SNES has some of the best JRPGs ever, so games with story are definitely covered thanks to the likes of Chrono Trigger. I can't believe people actually play CoD for the story, that's funny.

 

[Tablet County]

I don't see how you can't like Mega Man X or Donkey Kong Country, have you really sat down with them?

I actually forgot Megaman X was a SNES game. That's another one I've played through a PS2 collection, though most of my time with Megaman was spent with either Battle Network on the GBA or ZX on the DS.
I prefer 64 to DKC, but I do remember Country being probably the best 2D platformer I've ever played.

Well, SNES has some of the best JRPGs ever, so games with story are definitely covered thanks to the likes of Chrono Trigger.

I dislike the turn-based combat of JRPGs, and I really hate games where I have to put the story on pause and grind levels for progression. FFX and Lost Odyssey both forced this upon me and I haven't gotten back into traditional JRPGs since. Unless you count the Tales series; Symphonia and Vesperia are both certified kino.

I can't believe people actually play CoD for the story, that's funny.

It's not so much enjoying it for the writing or the characters so much as it's enjoying a curated series of setpieces where you get into cool firefights. CoD multiplayer sucks and I've hated it since MW2 made it popular.
World at War and the Black Ops series have some of the more interesting campaigns, due to WaW's uncompromising presentation of WWII and Black Ops delving into whacky spy conspiracy shit. 3 and 4 suck because 3 is trying too hard to be deep and 4 is just Overwatch. BO2 also got experimental by introducing a semi-branching storyline and a secondary hybrid RTS gamemode that plays parallel to the campaign.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I've hated low effort pixelshit long before it was cool.

 

[Back me up!]

I've always loved Tom Clancy-ish globetrotting campaigns. Modern Warfare, Splinter Cell, some of the Battlefield games, etc. - they scratch a very particular itch.

I don't think people remember/realize how mind blowing it was when Modern Warfare put you in the support vehicles like the AC-130 and such for the first time. I forgot which one it was put the one that had a whole series of 2 player missions with one person being in the AC-130 and the other on the ground as a grunt was amazing. Almost wish some one would make a non-gay It Takes Two like that instead of lesbians searching their feelings.

 

[El Goblina]

Frighteningly, 7th gen might count now.

Absolutely, we're further from the PS2 launch now than it was from the NES.

 

[Billy the Adult]

I don't think people remember/realize how mind blowing it was when Modern Warfare put you in the support vehicles like the AC-130 and such for the first time. I forgot which one it was put the one that had a whole series of 2 player missions with one person being in the AC-130 and the other on the ground as a grunt was amazing. Almost wish some one would make a non-gay It Takes Two like that instead of lesbians searching their feelings.

That was MW2. Not sure how many asymmetric co-op missions there were, but I at least remember the AC-130 mission and another where one player acts as a covering sniper.

I do wish more games were experimental but I don't have an issue with retro-throwbacks. Lazy, but I understand just using a tried and true method. I do wish there was maybe better filtering or categorization due to the sheer volume of indie games though.

 

[Calandrino]

I've hated low effort pixelshit long before it was cool.

I've hated everything new since things that are old were new.

 

[Safir]

I mean, Celeste is actually fun

Like, one of my favorite games was a freeware RPG Maker game called The Crooked Man

the duality of man

Platformers just need better themes. You can only do "fire world", "water world" etc so many times. The actual gameplay is timeless.

This.

---
I don't hate all retro throwback games -- some of them are retro because the assets are cheap -- but the ones I hate (could be confirmation bias) share something in common: they're marketed to zoomers who want gaymer cred. Very few of them played Mario or Zelda or whatever. Even the troondevs aren't all that old. A famous one, "Christine Love", was praised by the Internet Archive's Jason Scott Sadofsky for making a game visual novel about a BBS despite being too young to have seen a working BBS ("omg historical fiction!"), he even flew the troon out to a conference to show him off. That was a long time ago, that troon is old now! A large part of the retro movement is a cargo cult of letsplays and clickbait youtube compilations ("25 facts you didn't know about Mario"), troondevs make references and zoomers "get" without having experienced the thing that's being referenced. If it says "a love letter to" or "if X and Y had a baby", it's definitely retroslop.

 

[skykiii]

I dislike the turn-based combat of JRPGs, and I really hate games where I have to put the story on pause and grind levels for progression.

You won't have that problem with Chrono Trigger. If you do, something's very wrong.

Really most RPGs, as long as you're actually fighting enemies and not running from every encounter, you're more than prepared for anything the game throws your way.

I do wish more games were experimental but I don't have an issue with retro-throwbacks. Lazy, but I understand just using a tried and true method. I do wish there was maybe better filtering or categorization due to the sheer volume of indie games though.

I know a lot of times when I'm on digital stores, I wish I could just filter out anything that has "hentai" or "anime girls" in the damn title. (Games being anime style isn't the problem, but when your game is called something like "Anime Girls Slider Puzzle" that makes me think its a certain type of degenerate game I know I won't even click on).

A large part of the retro movement is a cargo cult of letsplays and clickbait youtube compilations ("25 facts you didn't know about Mario"), troondevs make references and zoomers "get" without having experienced the thing that's being referenced. If it says "a love letter to" or "if X and Y had a baby", it's definitely retroslop.

It reminds me of something that happens in literature fields, where you'll see people do a story that is meant to be a commentary on pulp story traditions or something, but very often the thing they're parodying or commenting on are either A) things that didn't actually happen or B) things that actually had a good reason to happen. So it comes off as shallow and like these people just read a TV Tropes article and decided to just form opinions based on that.

I often get a similar feel whenever I see an "eighties cartoon throwback" from animation types.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

A large part of the retro movement is a cargo cult of letsplays and clickbait youtube compilations ("25 facts you didn't know about Mario"), troondevs make references and zoomers "get" without having experienced the thing that's being referenced. If it says "a love letter to" or "if X and Y had a baby", it's definitely retroslop.

Not actually *experiencing* something doesn't mean it can't be done. No one who makes games has "experienced", say, World War II, but they could still make a compelling and interesting title based on it.

The problem is that these types do zero research other than whatever they're spoonfed on YouTube videos, or worse. If I was going to make a game about cooking and fine cuisine but my only frames of reference were "watched Food Wars and The Great British Bake Off" and/or "waited tables at Olive Garden for a month" then it's going to be terrible.

The other problem is that even something is derivative, these troondev-types always, always pick the worst things to "improve" on. If we look at something like EarthBound, they'll decide that it needs a fat BIPOC woman as a main character or replacing the tried-and-true battle system with some convoluted mini-game that makes every single battle a chore. They probably don't even realize that Ness and his friends basically fulfill the RPG archetypes, the hero with the best stats and well-rounded abilities (Ness, obviously), the magic character who has great spells but can't take much damage (Paula), the physical brawler (sort of--Jeff's real magic is the items he carries), and the weird gimmick character (Poo, with his general intolerance to healing items and armor but performs competently enough).

 

[skykiii]

I've hated everything new since things that are old were new.

(Not actually coming down on you, I just thought you'd appreciate the reference)

Jeff's real magic is the items he carries the friends he made along the way

Fixed a missed opportunity.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Fixed a missed opportunity.

...and yet, Jeff is still more useful than his Mother 3 counterpart Duster.