Gaming, as a medium, has a tendency to look exclusively forward. Now this is, undoubtedly, a good thing. It means that the industry is always striving for something new both graphically and artistically. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have it’s downsides too. We all know the old saying “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Well, by constantly looking forward, gaming is running the risk of forgetting its own history. After all, it’s not like books and films, where old ones are constantly being re-released. If you don’t have the consoles to play them, a lot of games are just completely inaccessible to a lot of people. And that would be a genuine shame, here are a few reasons why retro gaming is still important.
Learn where your games come from
If we can only look back one or two console generations to see what influenced our favorite games, we’re never going to be able to truly understand where they came from. Every medium should preserve the things that gave rise to what came after it. Without understanding what made Nintendo NES games like Super Mario Bros. or The Legend of Zelda so great, it’s much harder to understand how to make games that are just as great on modern consoles. The next generation of game designers need to be able to understand where their favorite games really come from.
It offers entirely different gaming experiences.
One of the things about classic, retro games is that they are often completely different to modern games in almost every way. Sure, they might still have shooting, platforming, jumping, and fighting. But the way those things are presented are completely different. Whether it’s the maze navigation of Pac-Man or the bullet filled mayhem of Gradius. There are plenty of gaming experience that retro games can offer that newer consoles simply don’t. That’s not to say that those experiences are better, just that they are unique and different, and modern gamers shouldn’t miss out on them.
The games are just really good!
It’s as simple as that really! Classic consoles have huge libraries of games that are filled with stone-cold classics! It doesn’t matter which console you go to; you’re sure to find something genuinely fantastic. There’s a reason why games like Ocarina of Time, Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy still top people’s “best games of all time” lists. Perhaps it’s because of nostalgia, but mostly it just comes down to the fact that these games were great when they were released, and they are still great now. At this point, the library of classic games for older consoles is so large that you could probably spend your entire life trying to catch up on them all and never actually manage it. If you’re a gamer looking for classic fun, moving and exciting experiences then why not think about taking a look into the past for a change.
