General Gaming Discussion
Why gaming was better in the 90's
By tapedeck, May 19, 2008 in General Gaming Discussion
tapedeck
80's gamer. N-E Staffer.
A great article for us oldies HERE
Who agrees...I do.
bmoose
Settled In
Articles like this always make good points, playing the old nostalgia card. I gotta agree with most of it, especially durability and multiplayer although online can be cool when its not a hassle.
In fact, I've just stopped playing Super Mario Bros 3, I can't get over how difficult it is. I swear I completed it when I was a young'un but now I can barely get past the fourth world.
In fact, I've just stopped playing Super Mario Bros 3, I can't get over how difficult it is.
I recently started playing SMB1 on the VC again and I can get to the last, last section in about ten mins but I cannot do it. I remember completing it when I was a nipper too but the last world gets me everytime. I just don't have the patience anymore.
gaggle64
I really don't think it was better then what we have now. Even the dark looks rose tinted in this article.
darksnowman
Not a terrible list, but it really is just written to latch on to the nostalgia of the readers... it makes me feel older than it probably should. I tell you, in my day games were just made out of two colours, none of these fancy colour palettes you have nowadays. And what are these newfangled controllers? Long gone are the times of just having one joystick and one action button.
His number one reason is a good one actually. You DID used to be able to judge games on their graphics, because good graphics really did mean an all round polished game. If a game looked like crap, that usually meant it wasn't fun. It's a fitting point too, last night I got Toki Tori on Wiiware, and I judged my purchase of it purely on the games graphics. I liked how I was able to do that and it did hark back to this old way of judging games.
And does SMB3 have the best graphics on the Nes? Hmm, I always thought it was solid but not spectacular. I'd say that Kirby is one of the best looking Nes games- we had this thread a while ago based on an article "Games that Pushed the Nes," which anyone who didn't see it first time round should have a looksee at now.
Hero-of-Time
Got It Memorized?
Ah happy times indeed.
I do agree with the internet points he makes. The internet has been great for finding more out about the games I like but in regards to making games easier he is totally right. Sure you dont have to look at guides/faqs but when your stuck and its so easy its just too tempting.
When I played Zack and Wiki it was the first game I played in AGES where when I got stuck and I didnt use a guide and it felt great when I finally beat the game. It gave me the same satisfaction of when I was playing on the NES/SNES as a kid and I kept dying on the same part over and over but when I finally beat it you felt you had earned your victory
Great article. 1,3,4,6,8,9 are the best points.
Agree with most points, especially the 'No Internet' one.
When I was a kid (insert Cranky pic above), games would just suddenly appear on the shelves and that would be the first you'd hear of them (the same with the consoles themselves). I'm pretty sure the first time I saw Sonic the Hedgehog was when I saw a friend actually playing it. The first time I saw Super Mario Bros was watching someone playing it in the arcade. Same with Streetfighter 2.
Sure there were games magazines, but they were pricey and they didn't announce a game two years before it came out.
Suddenly I'd be filled with this burning desire to get a NES/SNES/Megadrive, aching to play the game at home.
This doesn't happen to the same extent any more. Perhaps it's because I'm a super-old adult now, but perhaps it's because brilliant games were suddenly *there* in your face, with no hype, no anticipation and ultimately no chance to dash ridiculously high expectations.
Frequent Poster
I loved the simplicity of those old games.. even though they had "crappy" graphics compared to todays standards.. but it says something (i think) that there are old old games that I would rather play (H.E.R.O. ,Boulderdash and Thrust etc. bring them to the VC RIGHT NOW!!) than some of the newer stuff I have tried recently..
Late 90s/early 00s had the best games. Starting with FFVII and ending with Shenmue.
Games were better then because there were less of them. If you only eat chocolate once a month then you will enjoy it more than if you scoff it down 3 times a day. It's the same with gaming. We are too spoilt.
I agree with the graphics though.
Mr. Bananagrabber
Garbage. Gaming is better now than it ever has been and it'll probably continue to get better and better. Almost all of my top ten games are from the last eight years.
Number 5 is ridiculous. He's honestly trying to pass of the fact that there were less excellent games back then as a plus point. What the fuck?
But weren't you born in 1989?
...Yes? What difference does that make?
If you're trying to imply that I'm too young to have experienced 90's games, you're wrong. I've been playing since I was 4 and I've played pretty much every game that's considered great from every single decade. There were excellent games in the 90s, but people seem to forget it was full of shit as well. Just like nowadays.
If you're trying to imply that I'm too young to have experienced 90's games, you're wrong..
Not at all. I was implying you are too young to have experienced playing games throughout the 90s. Which you are.
For me, the magic of games in the 90s (and earlier) was there because it was an industry still in its infancy and there was much that had never been seen before. Granted, there are games released since 2000 which have seen just as much innovation and critical acclaim. Maybe the Golden Age for each gamer is simply during their teen years.
Yeah, that's probably true. Ten years from now I'll more than likely be complaining that games are no longer as good as the classic era of stuff like Half Life 2 and Ico.
I love plenty of games from the 90's don't get me wrong. There are hundreds of games from that decade that I love to pieces. From late NES to early Dreamcast. Actually, I never really thought about it like that before. The 90's covered everything from 8 bit to 128 bit.
That was indeed an excellent article. And he makes many good points with regards to why that era was an excellent one for gamers. I would also add the point (continuing on from the internet one) that MMO's have ruined gaming for myself. I am a self confessed wow addict and have barely played any other game since its release 3 years ago. Oh how I have missed so much! *Cries*. The problem is that every minute your not playing you feel like your wasting time that could be spent better improving your character with some kind of endless grinding session.
Luckily there is an expansion coming out soon, so between now and then I am playing wow less and trying to at least try to catch up on some of what I have missed in the last three years
Pointless levelling doesn't really do much for me. I want epic storylines and gameplay.
Samm_the_Barberrior
Good old nostalgia. I'm not convinced games were better back then, but it does explain why I enjoyed them so much in the early 90s, given that the standard of some games today is much higher than anything that I could ever have dreamed of back in the day.
Girly hiyaz!~ Gamer
Definitely agree with him. Gaming and games from the 90s and 80s are just much better imo.
mcj metroid
i prefer gaming of the 90s myself:) give me super mario world over anything now.
RossK
hes right about the interent..gaming was more magic when we didnt have it and reloied on magazines for epic news and stuff, but then ..well i know look at us discussing this on the internet..we coundt NOT have it now we know what its capable of , but it was a simpler time .
Nicktendo
N-Europe Staff
Excellent article. For me personally the internet has all but ruined gaming. That, coupled with the way the current industry penalises creativity and innovation with poor sales, instead churning out "sure thing" yearly updates. Obviously the Wii has strived someway towards changing that, but comapered to the 90's my hobby feels somewhat shallow. I have little desire to play a game for more than 30 minutes.
Maybe the fact that being a kid with lots of time in the 90's made gaming what it was, I had a SNES with 25 games by 1995 and I loved all of them, even the ones I've discovered to be "shit" according to internet based reviews. Super Troll Island, Mickey Mania and Krusty's Super Fun House were 3 of my favourite games when I was a kid, along side the Marios and Zeldas for handhelds and 16-bit consoles. I didn't start buying magazines until '97 when I got NOM and eventually N64 Magazine. While the N64 was awesome and the magazine really complemented it and introduced me to some spectacular games, World Driver Champ, Jet Force Gemini at the turn of the century with the emergence of the Internet it started to go downhill.
IGN was a revolution to me, limitless amounts of information and message boards dedicated to my favourite hobby. Eventually I began working and managed to afford 3-4 different magazines a month and since then for me gaming has become more of a dissapointment. While all the gamecube games were great, Sunshine, Wind Waker and even Melee didn't entise me like there N64 counterparts. Eternal Darkness, I would say would be the last game I was in Awe of from start to finish. I found myself enjoying games on the PS2 even though i didn't own one, GTA3 was particularly stunning as it was new and I'd never heard of it in development until I had it in my hand.
This also is a testement to GTA4, 2 years I've been waiting for that game. I even spent £250 on a PS3 the day before it came out and it was the biggest load of overhyped shit I've ever layed my hands on. In essecne I saw it as a really bad mish-mash compilation of every genre going. Yet I was so excited thanks to the Internet and the hype, that I was only going to be dissapointed and this, for me, is where gaming has gone wrong. I think over-indulgence and limitless information is to blame and personally in my opinion the Internet has almost killed gaming. Also online voice chat is a JOKE unless it's with friends and nothing can ever compare to in the flesh multiplayer all-night fests. For the Year I had my 360 not a day would go by when I got abused and called a n****r by some stupid little American 'tard.
Sometimes I stick Kid Icarus on the VC and it makes me smile for 10 minutes but then I get bored with the ridiculous difficulty. Yet, Ironically I'm playing this game for the 1st time thanks to the Internet.
Emasher
Even though you will probably say that I'm too young to have experienced the 90's, And TBH I was never a gamer during the 90s. Many of my favorite games come from that golden decade. I'd rather play SMW than many of the games that will come out today. But mainly thats probably because many of my first games were re-makes and ports on the GBA. I think that a gamers decade of preference is probably either when he/she was a child or more commonly a teenager because that's when you have the best appreciation for them. Many adults even those who used to or are still gamers will look at a game and say, what's the point. Many children and teenagers will look at a game and see a visual representation of fun. Its the same way that someone who was a gamer before 3D games will have liked OOT alot more than someone who had never played a 2D zelda game. We also probably have more fond memories of gaming during that period of our lives because that was when all our friends still played games.
A truer word has never been spoken. Great post. Exactly how I feel at times.
At least Nintendo still have the magic touch in their games. Yet like an adult, I've grown accustomed to the day-glo wonder of the Mushroom Kingdom etc and their mechanics. Although Kondo's music still hits a note deep inside me, I'm less aurally affected by it than when I was younger. Gaming is becoming fast-food or 'insta-thrills'...
Just...Like...Everything...Else.
At least we know Nintendo will always be around, right?
Gaming is like being a junkie - looking for that next high. The moment which will make you go "AW MHY GAWD"...Trouble is, you only ever get those moments once/twice every decade. The Wii was the last one for me...Not even GTA4 made me shit myself with excitement. Nintendo have given me the most highs in my gaming life and GTA3 was a great example as another (as it made me feel "free".)
Mind you...(In the words of King Of Kong), I'd rather be addicted to videogames than alcohol, nicotine, crack cocaine etc...
Look at the achievement system, gaming is more about "who smoked the most weed" and who pwned the hood rather than the interest and passion for the form on display. That's a WHOLE other debate though.
And you can't really sit on the shitter with the internet...Magazines will always hold a niche market for those with the runs.
But yeah, we're all here getting high on games, talking about the good old days and how gaming aint what it used to be and there's no soul in it etc...Yet some young player is getting high right now from a new line of gaming crack.
I JUST BLEW MY MIND.
Will Make You An Offer You Can't Refuse
Yeah too much information completly ruins gaming, that's why I try not to read too much about games, asides from the essential and what I have to know to write for the site.
It's a shame people can't play with the eyes of a child anymore, always worried about pointless and useless things, overanalyzing every game, demanding this and that, instead of just enjoying something that's fun, worrying more about postin about games than playing them. I am happy that I have somewhat retained some perspective, but it isn't the same as before, some things got better, others not really it's just not as magical
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