Comments on: Debate of the Day: Were Older Video Games ACTUALLY Better?

By: embercoral

embercoral — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 02:34:07 +0000

@Travis I don’t blame you for watching that stuff. Cartoons of old seem to have much more intelligence to them than the ones of today. What really bugs me is when an older series morphs into something different just because of changing times.

Case in point, Spongebob Squarepants: When Spongebob first came out, it had a childlike charm to it while also having subtle adult humor. It might not’ve been so out there like Anamaniacs was, but it was still fun to watch. Nowadays, I could care less what season the show’s in. After seasons 3-4, it started to become more adult humor and less childish wonder, and that killed it for me.

Another good example is Looney Toons. They’re a much older series of cartoons, but somehow they still find their way on TV. I managed to catch a glimpse of the newest adaptation, and I was all WTF. All the main characters and side characters were living in a town of some sort, and not only that, but it was up-to-date with current technology. Everyone had a cell phone, a car, a house, a job, and…and it was just so weird. I remember when Yosemite Sam used to shoot everything to kingdom come with nothing getting in his way (except for Bugs Bunny, obviously). In the episode I saw, Sam had his guns taken away by the town court, and he was trying to get others to sign a petition in order to get them back. Since when did he ever even remotely abide by the laws of…anywhere?

I guess some series’s (?) just don’t know when to call it quits…

By: Travis

Travis — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 23:17:32 +0000

Alright, hold on to your pants people. Its about to get bumpy in this comment. I still do watch Ren and Stimpy, and older nick shows such as invader Zim, and so on. It is not a pure nostalgic reason in which i choose to watch these thing, I watch them because there is nothing better to do haha and they still entertain me.
Now to adress the older video games, I have quite a few rom emulators on my pc ranging from gba to gamecube. So i can play the older titles, I play shining force on my PC all the time. Sure I could torrent the newest titles and play them, and yes some of the new titles are awesome, but most new titles are just over done and reused way to much. Such as war games ( Modern warfare, Black ops, and so on) they are so over used!! Every one is very similar to another shoot, run, shoot, run, shoot, you beat the game!! Its boring. Sure Skyrim was fun, I had a blast playing it, and i still play it! Im not saying that new games are crap, but I am saying that old games hold more of a challenge and more of a not recycle rinse and repeat style to it.

By: James

James — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:20:53 +0000

the problom with games today is that they worry so much on how they look that they dont care about the gameplay i started playin games during the ps1 and then a few years ago i started payin 50 squid for a game tat although looked great i could finish in half a day even though im not that good so i started playing games on nes snes gameboy and 64 and iv loved them all they might not look great but once you get playing them you dont care because the gameplay is amazing although dont get me wrong there are new games that both look great and play great today that the old ones cant hold a candle to but not enough of them the first thing to consider should always be gameplay then looks otherwise iv just bought a very expensive movie
p.s fave game super mario bros 3 nes funnest game ever

By: Nytekreepr

Nytekreepr — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 08:22:24 +0000

I think the problem with video games today are that if they aren’t mainstream and graphically powered, they are frowned upon. I grew up in the NES and SNES days and think that the best games came out for those two consoles, and here’s why: During those days just about every idea for a game was fresh. Granted there were the more popular games and sequels (I’m looking at you Mario), but the games coming out at the time had never been seen before. That made them so much more fun to play because you were pretty much guaranteed a new experience. Today’s games are so sequel heavy and unoriginal that there is hardly any fun to be had. Now I like blowing up a city as much as the next guy, but doing it game after game, with not much else changing, gets old and repetitive. I still play the oldies (and definitely, goodies) and I still love them as much today as I did when I played them for the first time as a child. My favorite game of all time? Super Mario Bros. 3.

By: thatotherdude

thatotherdude — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 23:46:16 +0000

its really about how games were made back then.

no one cared about having killer graphic and the biggest assortment of weapons or any of that stuff. it was ALL about gameplay. they wanted make things fun.

i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again. all 10 of the top 10 most difficult yet insanely fun games come from older consoles. nearly all of them come from the NES and SNES. maybe a couple from the genesis. even atari.

that said there are some modern games that blow the gameplay of older games right out of the water.

1. shadow of the colossus.
2. red faction
3. fable
4. halo 3
5. elder scrolls IV: oblivion

i dare you find a single open world RPG from any console before the xbox that can hold a candle to oblivion. it just doesnt exist. a lot of that is because of what the console were capable of, but given that exception i’d have to say the best one would have to be the ocarina of time.(one of, if not THE best game ever, and even it cant stand up to oblivon on sheer gameplay. a lot of its prestige comes from nostalgia.)

that said, i dare you to find a single modern platformer that can hold its own against super mario world. that damn game just doesnt quit. its just down right fun. bottom line. no matter how many times you beat it, its still fun. the only modern game i can think of would be crash bandicoot: the wrath of cortex. and even its fairly old.

By: Percy

Percy — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 11:38:50 +0000

I have to partially agree with you. A lot of older game lovers are bound by a bit of Nostalgia. however, being an old school gamer myself it isn’t all nostalgia. I have everything from a nes to a Wii, PS 1 and 2, and an X-box. I think my biggest differentiation is old school simple complexity vs. newer games Complicated simplicity. older games were simple in game play and abilities but there were lots of things to find and little odds and ends that kept them interesting. more and more modern games tend to focus a lot on How pretty a game looks and How many awesome things you can do in this game till you have overly complicated controls with several abilities that you sit there and go “ooooh” and use every other blue moon.
a lot of games I sit and go if you spent less time on looks and tweaked the gameplay just a little, and gave me a little mental stimulation this’d be a totally Badass game.
Although, I do love walking into someone’s college dorm or apartment, see someone get stuck in a game and going “the item you need is over there, and you need to hit that switch” have them ask, “you’ve played this before?” and me reply, “I haven’t a damn clue what this is.”

yes if for nothing else, old school games made me use my brain far more than modern games do. However, I don’t curse at new games near as much as I do old school games

By: Kyle

Kyle — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 07:21:36 +0000

End of line.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 07:21:02 +0000

Even thouh I suck at platforming I still find the older mario games fun and the post N64 ones sucky just for even looking at them.

The N64 showed A WHOLE LOTTA potentiol that Nintendo refused to take and they flushed the machine completely down the toilet by blaming their incompentency on Sony or this or that.

Nintendo needs to learn that creativity starts WITHIN them and outside influences should NEVER stop them from trying.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 07:15:52 +0000

I’ve seen Ad’s for Rugrats and it makes the kids look like they are on crack or something. :p

That’s besides the point:

Older games I believe had a (WOW!) feeling that can’t be re-created because they were new to you. Like using the keys to unlock a whole new world.

I know that’s cliched but hey. They don’t call them oldies but goldies for nothing!

My genre was the BroderBund/Humongous Entertainment era.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 06:51:38 +0000

I started with the NES so I guess there is some nestolgia involved but I do believe that the story telling has went down hill. Not since the NES since they usually didn’t have good enough tech in order to tell a story. Instead I think it started going down hill when the MMP’s like Everquest started happening. I think that is when the designers relized that they didn’t need to make good stories anymore as long as they could get people addicted in other ways.

Also what makes the old games better to me is that the designers actually had to invent the way games happened. Zelda and Mario will always go down as classics because no one had ever even thought of doing things in games like they did.