Are Old Games Making a Comeback?

[Reprise]

I just don't find the genre interesting. I also find it tiresome that the indie scene that was once known for innovation and creativity pumps up new rogue likes on a monthly basis it feels like. I just roll my eyes every time. "Oh, another one, let's add that to the fifty thousand other ones the indie scene pumped out this year. So innovative and creative you guys are"

Yea I feel the same
Indie - Pixel Art - Retro - *Rouge Lite*

Yeah, I agree with this. The videogames media fawns over every single one of them, gives them 8/10, 9/10 and even 10/10 scores, proclaims them all as some of the best games of all time and yet, within a few months of each one being released, they're all forgotten about (other than Hades and Dead Cells).

There's just so many of them.

I remember when the indie boom first started and developers were being really inventive, creative and original. Now when I see yet another indie game with pixel art, that looks derivative, receiving rave reviews I usually roll my eyes.

[opa]

What irks me is how they market these pixel indies. Just about every single one of them has the trite phrasing of "Inspired by [insert classic game title here]!"

Inspired by Earthbound
Inspired by Chrono Trigger
Inspired by Super Mario World

You know what? I'll just save my money and replay Chrono Trigger and probably have a better time.

[Reprise]

You know what? I'll just save my money and replay Chrono Trigger and probably have a better time.

Exactly. There was one that came out only a few weeks ago (might be a month or so now actually) that is inspired by Chrono Trigger and honestly it just reminded me that I have Chrono Trigger on the DS and I wouldn't mind playing it again some time.

[Anapan]

I wouldn't have bought Sea of Stars except I really enjoyed their previous game The Messenger.

[RCBH928]

I remember when the indie boom first started and developers were being really inventive, creative and original. Now when I see yet another indie game with pixel art, that looks derivative, receiving rave reviews I usually roll my eyes.

I don't care too much about ones that claim to be "pixel art" but you can obviously tell its been recently made, but I have respect for those that mimic 16bit era games like they were made at that time. I am not sure how they do it, maybe there is a trick to it.

modern game trying to look like Pixel Art

Game looks Authentic 16-bit graphics

[Raging Justice]

I feel also like a lot of indie developers only understand the "classics" on a surface level. These developers didn't actually grow up on these games and don't understand what really made them enjoyable. They don't understand the heart and soul of these games. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is one recent example of a game that never feels like anything more than a cheap copy of Jet Set Radio/Jet Set Radio Future

Also, some of them try to copy these old games and add modern gaming elements to them, which is completely missing the point of making a retro game. The only modern things I don't mind is quality of life stuff like checkpoint saves (in place of lives and passwords) or an option to speed up gameplay in grindy rpgs. Beyond that, don't mess with what made these old games work.

To be fair, sometimes even in the AAA space you see them screwing up retro stuff too. I was a bit nervous when I heard they were remaking Resident Evil 4, because to me that game is already perfect. Sure enough, they found ways to fuck it up. One thing I always loved about RE 4 was that it broke away from a lot of the obnoxious rules of the franchise. I loved that there was no ranking bullshit. You could unlock stuff without having to do obnoxious things like speed running the game and only saving your progress like three times. Sure enough, the remake of RE 4 broke back the ranking bullshit

Trying to bring RE 4 in line with previous RE games goes against the whole point of RE 4, which was to NOT be like the previous RE games. It was the game that broke away from the RE formula. Not everybody liked that, but it was what made RE 4 special.

[Reprise]

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is one recent example of a game that never feels like anything more than a cheap copy of Jet Set Radio/Jet Set Radio Future

I wanted to love that game so much. I tried, but couldn't do it. It gets so much of it right, but it just lacks... something. I don't know what it is. It just ends up feeling kind of boring. Jet Set Radio is one of my favourite games of all time and there's just something so addictive about the gameplay and the main story mode. The level design was just fantastic. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk lacked whatever it was that made JSR addictive to me and what made the levels interesting.