Can new games beat nostalgia?

[ChaoZ]

I played many games over the past few years, that are highly rated, and they just don't compare to games I played as a kid. I know they're good games, but it just doesn't bring that special feeling I experienced when I was younger. I used to think about games all the time and eager to get home so I could continue. Now, I can start a game and not play it again for months. For example:

Uncharted doesn't compare to Tomb Raider.
MGS4 to MGS1.
FF12 to FF7
Burnout Paradise to NFS3

The game that sort of came close is Okami (it's old, but I only played it recently).

 

[RedRooster]

Super Mario 3 was pretty much the pinnacle of videogaming history, but to go back and play it now is pretty disheartening.
You're right though, nothing beats nostalgia. That isn't to say the games aren't as good anymore, we're just not kids anymore.
Plus the games are too realistic, there's no Super Mario/Sonic/Road Rash anymore, it's all BioShock/Call Of Duty/Grand Theft Auto creepy stuff.

Does anyone with kids see their kids play like 10 hours straight on any games now? Just wondering, that'd be pretty telling.

 

[Spoooon]

For me, nothing really beats that first Christmas morning with the NES.

 

[Soundmanred]

Nostalgia is great until you try to replay the games we fondly remember. I can't stomach 90% or more of them now, and they were my life back then.
If I think a game was better than something I'm playing now, I'll replay it and that feeling usually goes away.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Nostalgia is great until you try to replay the games we fondly remember. I can't stomach 90% or more of them now, and they were my life back then.
If I think a game was better than something I'm playing now, I'll replay it and that feeling usually goes away.

Most of the games I can replay over and over now-a-days are ones that have really catchy music like Ninja Gaiden 2 and Mega Man 2, 3, and 4.

NES will never die!

Oh and Final Fantasy VI. I love the world of ruin overworld music (searching for friends, I believe it is called).

 

[thegimp03]

The games now are great games in their own right, but I'd have to say that there are way more distractions and other things that I can do now that weren't available when I was a kid so ADD kicks in fast and my attention is constantly diverted from one activity to the next.

 

[Soundmanred]

I can play Megaman 2, Mario 3 and a few others, but that's it as far as NES goes. SNES had some good ones too, but still only a few I replay every so often.
I'm not into alot of the popular games of recent history that are 75% cutscenes and 25% playing the game, so the older (non-optical disc based) consoles have the advantage there.

 

[gorcorps]

I don't think it's the games being any worse so much as kids being easier to entertain. As we grow up, we lose interest in games.

 

[purbeast0]

I played many games over the past few years, that are highly rated, and they just don't compare to games I played as a kid. I know they're good games, but it just doesn't bring that special feeling I experienced when I was younger. I used to think about games all the time and eager to get home so I could continue. Now, I can start a game and not play it again for months. For example:

Uncharted doesn't compare to Tomb Raider.
MGS4 to MGS1.
FF12 to FF7
Burnout Paradise to NFS3

The game that sort of came close is Okami (it's old, but I only played it recently).

uncharted is much better than tomb raider. hell go back and play tomb raider now, it is terrible.

MGS1 is just a better game than MGS4.

Burnout Paradise and NFS3 are nothing alike so i dunno bout that one.

But it also has to do w/you getting older and your interests growing differently. I still get giddy when a game I know is coming out is just around the corner. I'm goign to be that way w/God of War 3 and especially Super Street Fighter 4.

 

[biggestmuff]

One way to cure it is to play those games now. Most of them look like garbage and play poorly due to primitive controls.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

nostalgia has its place...but people get silly with it like proclaming things like TV sucks now compared to earlier years and things like that. same goes with games. people remember awesome games likes deus ex, HL, and starcraft from the 90s and forget that there were just as many shitty games back then as there are today.

 

[lifeobry]

Yes. FFXII was outstanding. Best game in the series.

/dons Flamesuit of Magnifcent Flame Protection

 

[Kromis]

Yes. FFXII was outstanding. Best game in the series.

/dons Flamesuit of Magnifcent Flame Protection

:biggrin:

 

[ManBearPig]

Oh and Final Fantasy VI. I love the world of ruin overworld music (searching for friends, I believe it is called).

i loved that fucking song.

best youtube comment ever:

"This song has purpose. I feel the urge to do something about global warming/genocide/oppression with a ragtag group of unlikely heroes."

so true.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

I played many games over the past few years, that are highly rated, and they just don't compare to games I played as a kid. I know they're good games, but it just doesn't bring that special feeling I experienced when I was younger. I used to think about games all the time and eager to get home so I could continue. Now, I can start a game and not play it again for months. For example:

Uncharted doesn't compare to Tomb Raider.
MGS4 to MGS1.
FF12 to FF7
Burnout Paradise to NFS3

The game that sort of came close is Okami (it's old, but I only played it recently).

Ah, the rose tinted glasses of nostalgia. Most of the time, when you go back and play these "greatest games of all time" that you grew up playing, they aren't nearly as good as you remember. Some stand the test of time, but most don't. The non-3D Mario games, Megaman 2+3, Super Metroid, etc. all are just as amazing now as they were back then.

I can't comment on the racing games or Uncharted, since I've never played them (okay I played the demo of Uncharted and wasn't impressed), but Tomb Raider was pretty cool for its time. A great classic game? Probably not, but it was awesome at the time to dive off of cliffs into lakes and run away from dinosaurs.

MGS1 was just amazing (technical limitations aside). The series has been all downhill from there.

FFXII was a horrible game any way you slice it. The only non-online Final Fantasy I have not finished (or even gotten halfway). Though, you chose FFVII as your "best Final Fantasy ever" and I also assume that you grew up playing it. That would...explain a lot.

Final Fantasy IV + VI > Final Fantasy VII. I mean, if you're gonna list "the best", then actually list the best! Most just choose Final Fantasy VII because it was "their first FF game", but it's not even close to the best. I remember playing Final Fantasy on the NES...ahh, paddling that canoe to the volcano, getting pwned all the way, and then realizing you still have to go through the volcano, kill the boss, and get all the way back to town without saving. Nostalgia is fun, but I'd never want to do that again.

/sneaks away

 

[vi edit]

It's like any other type of entertainment. There's a few titles that transcend their ages and are simply just good games...and not necessarily just good games from their respective eras.

The problem with games is that technology advances so fast that games even a few years ago seem old and unplayable. Unlike music where there really haven't been advancements in instruments or movies (outside of CGI) where people are still people. They just don't date themselves the same.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Best way to beat nostalgia is to try to actually play the games or watch the TV/movies for which you have such fond memories. Most of them suck. I remember trying to watch the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon a while back... I couldn't even get through a single 20-minute episode. Very few old games hold up well. I can't enjoy anything older than SNES-era (although I think that generation was the pinnacle of 2D games, and there is more worth playing there than on N64 or PS1... just my opinion of course). Also, I grew up playing games on a computer, not on video game systems, so I've never felt much nostalgia for old console games. They are all just too difficult and badly-made for me.

 

[reallyscrued]

This thread delivers.

Delivers sadness...

 

[TecHNooB]

Kingdom Hearts was built on nostalgia

 

[pathos]

Ahh, nostalgia.

I remember waking up one Christmas morning, and there under the christmas tree was an Atari 2600, complete with Pong and Battle. How many hours did we spend just playing those 2 games? And then came Adventure, Pac Man, and Pitfall.

The worst game in video game history, ET? We ownded it, we played it, we beat it.

I also remember when we finally upgraded our 2600 up to a colecovision, with the atari attatchment (so we could still play our atari games). Miner 49er, how I miss you.

I think hardly anyone would argue that pretty much ANY game is better than pong. But, it still holds a special place in my heart as being the very first console game I ever played

edit - damn I feel really old just about now

 

[JDub02]

tecmo bowl is still the best football game ever created.

i think the reason things were better back then is that companies had to focus on gameplay rather than graphics. no one had any expectations of realism so they had to make sure that the games were fun and played well.

i think that's why shadow complex was such a big hit ... it combined good graphics with great gameplay.

 

[meltdown75]

tecmo bowl is !#^*$ awesome.

Half life 1 & 2 on the PC are still the cat's ass to me. and battlefield 1942. all on the PC. before that I'd have to go back to the Genesis or Master System, or NES / SNES... the Dragon Warriors, the FFs... man. so epic.

new games are still cool... but i think all of us have our old faves that are pretty much untouchable.

 

[Beev]

Nostalgia is blinding. Horribly so. I have a friend who reveres Doom and thinks no FPS since can even compare, and that's just stupid. RPG's are probably the only games that can really stand the test of time.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Starcraft has the nostalgic effect but it is still awesome.

And the only way to play Ocarina of Time is on the N64. Speaking of which, I still have that game, and my N64 still works, hmm. . .

 

[blackdogdeek]

the games of yore have to be remembered in their context: we were younger and more impressionable, there were fewer consoles and fewer games and fewer releases, graphics were worse so gameplay was paramount, etc.

when all these factors combine you experience something so awesome it leaves an indelible mark on your memory.