damn do you remember that shit? we couldn’t wait to get out of class or do whatever we were doing to get in front of that tv to play super mario brothers or duck hunt. now obviously super nintendo wasn’t the first video gaming system release, i mean there was atari and whatnot, but super mario brothers, now that was a game. i honestly must have been too damn young to understand the point of the game but who cares, the mechanics were simple and it was damn fun just to play the two beginning historical levels over and over for some reason. in my opinion, this started the new wave of video games with those simple mechanics for running and jumping.
i think these days i have a nostalgia for the old school nintendo games. it’s the whole idea of simplicity and just raw mechanics of the game that make it so perfect. if you have seen the present wave of mario games, nintendo tried some interesting things with galaxy, and water, and 3d, but when it comes down to it, you just can’t beat that new super mario bros wii. they brought it back to the old school with a modern feel and now with 4 player co op, and after all these years its still fucking amazing. (yes i noticed the run on sentences) it could just be that nostalgia kicking in that makes it so epic but then why do i play with marija’s niece that has no idea what a super nintendo was and still have a blast? i believe it’s that foundation of simple game mechanics.
if you try to do too much with graphics and flash, but don’t polish up the mechanics and feel of the game, the excitement dies young. take limbo for instance, right off the bad they don’t have a nifty tutorial or help screen, your thrown right into the darkness and wake up confused. you become that character, with the graphics but not too overwhelming. everything from the shadows and the slight blur on the edges and the silence fits the mood. i had a whole group of people waiting and watching in awe as i controlled the character across the screen. you soon figure out really all you can do is jump and grab things yet we have this urge to see the little kid die creep up on us. these little addicting arcade games are suddenly making a come back with the playstation network and open source stuff going on all over the place and eventually i think the industry with cycle itself. we will get bored of the simple button mashing games and yearn for intense cg driven video games with that explosive flash.
eventually you just won’t know what you want to play anymore
if you take a look at when tv’s were first introduced in black and white, people were so amazed at how far technology has gotten, then soon after color was introduced. nowadays in the midst of all the bright technicolored commercials we have, every so often a black and white clip will appear with a modern touch and it will catch our attention more than the rest. it’s that fucking nostalgia from the past, or what people aren’t used to im telling you! now we have pop culture bringing back old school stuff and we are just getting into a mess of old school meets the modern day type shit and some works, some doesn’t but ultimately it will be a matter of time before history recycles itself in a new way.
perhaps i’ll take a few examples and begin a nostalgia post every week. most images were taken from google image search and piccsy.
