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I have for the last 4 days been attempting to play Astral Chain. The more I play the more frustrated at it I got. It just simply wasn't the game I wanted it to be.

While trying to figure out what I did want to play I glanced over at my PS2 that so happens to be right next to my Switch. THAT was where the games I want to play right now are. Stuff like Shinobi, Nanobreaker (is that even a good game?), Gungrave, that's what I'm craving right now.

So last night instead of suffering through an investigation in Astral Chain that was going nowhere, I played some Kunoichi (Nightshade) and Ikkitousen on PS2.

They don't seem to make those fast 60fps action games anymore. When they do it's Devil May Cry 5 a game with great action but really drab lifeless environments.

It's almost like if I want these games, I have to make them myself....

Got me thinking though, what else isn't being made anymore that used to be everywhere? What are you missing.

It's not a big genre overall, and has never been strong, but 3D beat em ups. This isn't stuff like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden, but stuff like Yakuza and God Hand.

I miss 90s style FPS games. Fast paced, relatively close range, crass and sarcastic humor. There are still a few, I know, but so many shooters in the past ten or fifteen years have been realistic, serious, dudebro shooters. I miss Duke Nukem's style. That's why, despite its being an objectively subpar game, I absolutely adored and still do adore Duke Nukem Forever.

- single-screen platformers
- single-screen fixed shooters
- Gradius/R-Type styled shmups (not bullet hell)
- Pong variants
- action-platformers that take 30 minutes to complete
- 5-7 hour ARPGs with bump combat
- self-contained sports games (no lengthy seasons and so on)
- 2D beat 'em ups with medieval aesthetics
- all ages Japanese visual novels and adventure games

Indie games generally do a great job of covering the bases of genres that would have been otherwise forgotten. I would say the one genre that is nearly extinct right now is 3d platformers, I don't know how come the genre is just kaput when 2d platformers are thriving the way they are right now. Don't get me wrong, I vastle prefer 2d platformers but I still appreciate a good 3d one every now and again

@Bonesnap: A few of those games get decent representation in the indie game scene, you can find a pretty good number of:

single screen platformers
non bullet hell schmups
short action platformers, but generally more in the 1-2 hr range, but with save features

as for medieval 2d beat em ups, I don't think they were ever that common, sure you had knights of the round, legend, d and d, golden axe and a few others but they were never that prominent. If you have a hunkering for those kinds of games you can probably scratch that itch with some indies (too tired to think of specific examples right now outside of the obvious castle crashers) and some openbor mods that do a good job of paying homage to those games.

@Elkin: I also enjoy duke nukem forever so you are not alone.

@dikdik: yes, nanobreaker was a good game, at least I remember enjoying it.

I havent really dug into astral chain yet, the tutorial and prologue were meh and about an hour long so I am not super thrilled with it but I plan on playing it soon, it sounds to me that I might be disappointed because really I prefer walk straight, beat things up, repeat

I was going to echo what was pointed out already, PC games keep making clones and remixes of all the old genres. The ones that get it right and get noticed are ported to switch.
I just found out about Whip ! Whip! made by some veteran game makers and music from Zuntata (taito).
I actually don't make the time to play all the games I wish I had played. Mame on a 32" SD CRT displaying all the game properly, I constantly find new games I never knew about by companies that I loved but are long dead.

ElkinFencer10 wrote:I miss 90s style FPS games. Fast paced, relatively close range, crass and sarcastic humor. There are still a few, I know, but so many shooters in the past ten or fifteen years have been realistic, serious, dudebro shooters. I miss Duke Nukem's style. That's why, despite its being an objectively subpar game, I absolutely adored and still do adore Duke Nukem Forever.

Funny enough, the indie scene has gone in the completely opposite direction, and we now have a ton of roguelike FPS games. There may be some stuff in there you enjoy. But we have been seeing a recent revival of "classic" FPS, some of which is spectacular, some of which is...well, crap, but I still play it.

As for me, I miss classic survival horror. Yes, the indie scene has been doing some awesome stuff with horror games, but I still kinda miss my tank controls.

Personally, I kinda hate rougelike games. I still want that consistent world and level design. I've played a couple though, and I agree that the indie scene has definitely picked up the AAA studios' slack.

I miss the Compile / Kaneko caravan-style shooters. There was a brief resurgence in Star Soldier-style shooters, but they leaned more bullet-hell, and that's not how I prefer them.

Dikdikvandik wrote:While trying to figure out what I did want to play I glanced over at my PS2 that so happens to be right next to my Switch. THAT was where the games I want to play right now are. Stuff like Shinobi, Nanobreaker (is that even a good game?), Gungrave, that's what I'm craving right now.

A new trailer for the upcoming Gungrave sequel came out yesterday. Not a lot of gameplay shown, but it's spliced in there.