I play Xbox 360 and PS3 regularly, but I find that sometimes there is nothing better than settling down for an evening of playing something a bit more old school. This got me thinking about why I’m still more than happy to play something older even when there are so many amazing looking games on the market.

Simplicity

A couple months ago, I decided to go back to my N64 and buy some of the games that I used to love. The first game I got was F-Zero X, and I managed to get it on eBay for about £4 (about $6). Considering the price of games for this generation of consoles, I was pretty pleased with this bargain! This was a game that I used to love, and my friends and I would spend hours trying to beat each other’s track times. I didn’t really expect it to still be so addictive, but the first night I took it over to my friend’s house, we were up until the early hours still trying to get the top score! I realized that one of the most appealing things about older games is their simplicity. Racing games today look amazing, and the gaming experience is very realistic, but they’re usually pretty complex, control-wise. To play F-Zero X in its most basic way, you can simply use the analogue stick to steer and push two buttons: stop and go. This makes the game so much more accessible, and even non-gamers can get the hang of it. I think this is one of the main appeals of older games, as they were easy to play (not always easy to master!) and became a real group activity.

Replay Value

If I really love a game, then I will quite happily play it over and over again, even if is a fixed storyline. There are some games from this generation which I replay, but this is mainly due to the multiplayer or co-op aspect. Sega Dreamcast was my first proper console, and I still love playing on it now. I regularly replay Shenmue 1 and 2, Powerstone 1 and 2, and Jet Set Radio, and they are still as exciting to me as when I first played them. When Jet Set Radio came to Xbox Live, I bought it even though I still have my copy for Dreamcast. I was more than willing to purchase it as an arcade title so that I could play through it again on a more modern console. My boyfriend recently encouraged me to play Final Fantasy VII, as it is one of his favorite games and I had never played it. He sat and watched me play it from start to finish, and he was still as immersed in the storyline as when it first came out. I have so many Xbox games that I am never going to play again, and so it is really nice to go back to your comfort zone with a game you feel so familiar with. I think this is why I have ended up playing Pokémon Red and Blue so many times!

Story

When I started playing FFVII, I didn’t have any of the nostalgia that my boyfriend had. I played it as a new game and found it incredibly enjoyable! My gameplay total was over one hundred hours by the time I had completed the main storyline and most of the additional features. I spent hours on Chocobo racing, and even went through the painstaking process of raising a Gold Chocobo! The main thing that kept me compelled was the storyline and a love of the characters. I’m not saying that graphics don’t matter, but I do feel that these days, a lot of emphasis is put on how “pretty” a game looks. I would happily sacrifice the graphics of a game as long as it had a compelling and immersive story. Shenmue is another example of a great story, but unfortunately, the series stopped after the second game (There were meant to be seven in total). Shenmue now has a huge cult following, as people are dying to see how the story continues, and I don’t think they would care if the series was continued in the graphic style of the Dreamcast!

Do you go back to retro games and, if so, why? I would love to know what makes other people have the same fondness for them as I do!