Does anyone else hate "retro throwback" games?

[Al Qaedurr]

Undertale and its consequences have been a disaster for the indie gaming scene.

 

[Calandrino]

All I'm saying is you haven't really lived until you've played X-Multiply and Xexex.

Life Force 3 is coming, so I'd like to think X-Multiply 2 is at least a possibility.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

All the "Seal of Quality" meant was that the producer of whatever piece of trash it was on was paying Nintendo their cut. Only idiot milennials and zoomers think it meant any kind of standards beyond "it won't make your NES explode" were upheld.

First off, we know that Nintendo had strict rules on censorship, including violence and reference to violent acts, language, sex, and religion (so on, so forth). Some of these games got away more than others (Maniac Mansion versus Shadowgate and Uninvited). There were two checks that Nintendo did, a "lot check" which did game-breaking bugs, and a quality check, which was more subjective and rated on a 0/40 scale (this mentioned on VGH's video on Super Sushi Pinball).

There were some common design elements on the licensed Nintendo games like pressing A to jump (even Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde had that). HK originals, some of which were brought over as Color Dreams games, ignored that. If there was no "real" quality check beyond game-breaking bugs we'd see even more trash.

 

[StacticShock]

Indie gaming sucks today and I'm tired of pretending it doesn't and that it's going to "save gaming!!!"

that's how indie gaming has been for like... decades.
with the advent of internet it just made slop easier to find.

 

[skykiii]

There were some common design elements on the licensed Nintendo games like pressing A to jump (even Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde had that). HK originals, some of which were brought over as Color Dreams games, ignored that.

I've played more than a few licensed games that ignored that as well.

 

[cybertoaster]

Indie gaming sucks today

Always did, even when it started it was 99% suck, people mention only the 2-3 games that didn't suck then forget about the shovelware or the shit the journos shilled back then.

 

[Code Zero]

There's something about the look of these games that never sat right with me. I don't want to call them ugly but they almost never look as good as the retro games they're trying to emulate. I say this as someone who doesn't really care about graphics but a lot of indie 2d/pixel art games look offputting.

As for the gameplay, it can be very derivative. Might be related to lack of creativity in many spheres these days, we either get remakes or near-clones of prior released works. And maybe lack of resources and funds to do much more than that. I wonder though why can't we get retro throwbacks like ps1 era titles, instead of always 2d snes style games...

 

[4chanJanitorDefenseForce]

The word "retro" is the core of why these games suck. It's hipster faggots pushing this shit, and they don't even know the meanings of the buzzwords they use. "Retro" doesn't mean old. It means fake old. People who wore bell bottoms in the 70s weren't rocking a retro style. People who do it now are.
Super Mario Bros. is not a retro game. The pixelshit indie games are.

People are so focused on "le retro oldschool classic hidden gems of yesteryear" that they fail to see why their own game that apes older games is shit: because they don't have an original bone in their bodies. I've said this before in regards to all media, and I'll say it again: the titans are dead or retired. We can't lean on John Carmack and these old codgers who are spending their twilight years relaxing. Now we've got Becky (Bill) Johnson making a game with PSX-level graphics that's essentially Harry Potter fanfiction with a lot of "OH NO HE DIH-UNT" lines.
David Cage and Michael Ancel have been cancelled. Amy Hennig might be making her last game before retirement. John Romero just likes to talk about Doom, not make games anymore. Roberta and Ken? They're never coming back.
It's currently a bleak landscape of millennials who know only "let's remake or remaster this" because they lack originality, and it's going to require an infusion of people who actually care to fix it. The problem with that is unless those people are black deaf transwomen in wheelchairs who write about white genocide, they're likely to not get a shot.

 

[StacticShock]

Now we've got Becky (Bill) Johnson making a game with PSX-level graphics that's essentially Harry Potter fanfiction with a lot of "OH NO HE DIH-UNT" lines.
David Cage and Michael Ancel have been cancelled. Amy Hennig might be making her last game before retirement. John Romero just likes to talk about Doom, not make games anymore.

romeo did make a game though and during his interview with yatzhee croshaw he mentioned he likes making games, same as the father of lies peter molyneux.
you also didn't mention that the PSX-level graphics weighing about 6GB in disk space which is more like 8.5 times heavier than a actual PSX game running 8.5 times worse than a actual PSX game being emulated about some weird mental illness the dev/writers have instead of trying some game mechanic because devs are afraid of making the game about being fun rather than the mental illness.

 

[4chanJanitorDefenseForce]

you also didn't mention that the PSX-level graphics weighing about 6GB in disk space which is more like 8.5 times heavier than a actual PSX game running 8.5 times worse than a actual PSX game being emulated

I never notice.

 

[StacticShock]

I never notice.

they you haven't been pirating enough games, gotta get those numbers up rookie.

 

[4chanJanitorDefenseForce]

they you haven't been pirating enough games, gotta get those numbers up rookie.

Too busy playing God's Own Game.™

 

[Oilspill Battery]

you also didn't mention that the PSX-level graphics weighing about 6GB in disk space which is more like 8.5 times heavier than a actual PSX game running 8.5 times worse than a actual PSX game being emulated

Amid Evil is 8 gigabites and was made in unreal engine 5. The result is that it runs like shit on a lot of PCs and many people can't even run it without lagging.

This is the level modern developers are at all lmao

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Bing bing wahoo games are great examples of how fucking outdated some concepts are at their core.

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

One of the reasons why people think so highly of the 1990-2005 timeframe of video games is that everything was an improvement. Bigger games, richer experiences, and better graphics.

There was also true innovation too though, so we had both innovation and improvement, plus the birth of 3D which made everything exciting. It's not a period that can be replicated easily, if at all.

I am sick and tired of 8-bit type spite art. Its just so lazy and ugly. At least do 16 bit, or preferably not sprite art at all.

Sprite art is fine, just don't stick to copying a certain x-bit type, make it as good as you possibly can. Technically Vanillaware used sprites, do something like that.

Sea of Stars is proof positive that retro aesthetics can carry a game nowadays even if the rest of it is absolute shit.

I was pleasantly surprised to see people shit on that game. They all praised the art (it's awful actually) but many admitted it was poorly written and apparently has an extremely repetitive combat system.

I'm not sure where all these troonshine reddit games people talk about are coming from. It's always the same dozen examples from a sea of other indie games. I get it, you hate Undertale, Celeste, and Ultrakill. Play literally anything else.

It's in lots of games. Hollow Knight is always praised to hell and back, I suspected it had LGBT shit in it and decided to check one day, and I was unsurprised to see it does. It's pretty damn common.

There's something about the look of these games that never sat right with me. I don't want to call them ugly but they almost never look as good as the retro games they're trying to emulate. I say this as someone who doesn't really care about graphics but a lot of indie 2d/pixel art games look offputting.

I agree, I think it's twofold: 1) the artists just suck, 2) they're not adhering to actual system limitations so it throws off our expectations when an "8-bit" game looks off compared to what it's trying to copy.

I've said this before in regards to all media, and I'll say it again: the titans are dead or retired.

Nintendo is going to really suffer from this. I think we're already seeing it actually... The new Donkey Kong probably had nobody involved with the original DK or DKC games at the helm, and while I'll reserve judgement I won't be surprised if it's underwhelming. What new talent do they have? I'm afraid they'll be riding off the coattails of established series at best.

 

[whatever I feel like]

Nintendo Donkey Kong

Its being made by the Odyssey team. Nintendo deliberately doesn't build up names but a lot of those guys have 20+ years of 3D Mario experience.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

Its being made by the Odyssey team. Nintendo deliberately doesn't build up names but a lot of those guys have 20+ years of 3D Mario experience.

It sure doesn't show, then... As I said, I'll reserve judgement for now, and I'm even looking forward to it with cautious optimism, but something feels off about it, and not just the DK design. Nothing about it screams Donkey Kong to me.

 

[Tablet County]

To answer the OP, not really no. After malding at TLoU2 I decided I'd no longer allow games I don't like to take up real estate in my head unless I've actually played them. Not to mention there's this weird class of person who all speak with the same syntax whenever they're being dismissive or derisive of something and I think they may actually have some kind of memetic sickness.
More on topic, I don't really enjoy actual retro games (with some exceptions), so I don't care much for the throwbacks either.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

More on topic, I don't really enjoy actual retro games (with some exceptions), so I don't care much for the throwbacks either.

Why not? Just didn't grow up with them or something? What games do you like?

 

[Tablet County]

Why not? Just didn't grow up with them or something?

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.

What games do you like?

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.

 

[Judge Dredd]

It's in lots of games. Hollow Knight is always praised to hell and back, I suspected it had LGBT shit in it and decided to check one day, and I was unsurprised to see it does. It's pretty damn common.

That might be something different. It annoys me that every "Top 10 indie games of all time!" lists have the same journo approved "high art" slop. Disco Elysium, Braid, Gone Home, etc.

After malding at TLoU2 I decided I'd no longer allow games I don't like to take up real estate in my head unless I've actually played them.

This is something I agree with, but also don't understand.

Not to beat a dead horse, but I left the AAA plantation long ago, and I don't miss it. The only exception was Resident Evil 2 Remake. So when topics like the AAA price hike come up, I'm not outraged, I'm apathetic. It's baffling to me how people refuse to move on.

At the same time, I get accused of being "obsessed" with "woke". Recently I was talking on a leftie Discord server about game journos losing their jobs when they formed a union. I said it was to be expected. They asked for more money at a time gaming sites are bleeding money and the bosses are looking for any excuse to fire them and replace them with AI.
"So what you're saying is unions are woke."