Bang Bang Bang
Super Mario Galaxy and No More Heroes sit mostly untouched on my Wii.
I never did get past Devil Hunter difficulty in Devil May Cry 4 for my 360, nor do I really care to. My created wrestlers in Smackdown VS Raw 2009 lay still at skill level 37.
I’ve logged on City of Heroes about a whole three times the last month. Hellgate: London I never went online with, nor apparently will I ever be able to again. Phantasy Star Universe has never been reopened ever since I lost my save data. Unreal Tournament 3 was never played after the second day I had it, once I beat the campaign.
For the past couple week, I have been playing older and more obscure games religiously.
Guwange is exquisite, despite being so simple.
Alien Soldier is climax after climax, without ever growing old.
Splatterhouse 3 is a gruesome, if not unique, take on the beat-’em-up formula, and manages to attain horror without sacrificing action, or sacrificing action for horror.
World Heroes is a very underappreciated fighter series that had several very interesting ideas.
I’m not exactly what one would call a “retro gamer”, but I can’t deny the wonder that several ooooold games had, compared to much newer games. A lot of games now fall in the category of same old–look at shooters as of late, for example, which mostly have been an obscene sea of dull grey-brown space marine. Earlier shooters could have you as a rampaging oni that could shoot arrows for some undeveloped reason, or flinging strips of paper, or a wild west cowboy cow, or an extremely potent psychic shooting only mind bullets, or a half-naked ninja chick.
Man.
I’d kill to have shooter protagonists nowadays be even not human.
Modern-day games are certainly more technically proficient, more capable of doin’ stuffs, and can realize imaginations like nothing else. But…I dunno…just feels like they’ve lost their soul. All the simple, fun, shooty-uppy stuff has been sacrificed for warehouses in space against nazis, while escorting a yappy guy who calls in your ear as support and finding keys.
I mean, seriously. Some of the top sells in the shooter genre lately? Halo 3, Dead Space, Killzone 2? You couldn’t find a more bland and uninspired bunch if you tried, but I guess these guys do something right. Even though it’s all THE FUTUREEEE with a faceless guy shooting up endless swarms of evil aliens and good god I could go on and on and on.
The past had a lot of imagination, that modern-day technology could really amplify.
