Up, Down, Left, Right, Hold A, Start

Tape Deck Tuesday

I used to be comfortable referring to myself as a gamer. I played a lot of video games, and I was good at most of them, but these days I don't feel like I have the joystick cred to pull it off. Since I don't own a current-gen console, I'm terribly out of the loop on modern gaming and the various "benefits". Sure they have higher production values, actual plot, and impeccable graphics, but I still think older games had more soul.

Remember back when games used to have ACTUAL codes? The kind you enter by pressing buttons in a certain order, which in turn give you access to some debug menu, level select, or the ever popular sound test. Who the hell likes the sound in a 16-bit game enough to play through it over and over again?

It might just be me, but I feel like a lot of modern games just don't get it. I don't want to beat a game in fifteen hours on my first play-through. I want a game where you die three times in the opening level, and you don't have that "training mission" bullshit. Games should reward quick reflexes, hand-eye coordination, and perfect timing. Newer ones just feel like the only skill you need is patience, and your reward is a cutscene that takes longer than the whole level did.

Obviously there are some modern games that do have the feel and spirit of older ones, but my impression is that these aren't the majority. Instead companies seem to be focusing on the casual gamer demographic, pumping out a million versions of Rockband and flooding the market with generic shooters that can be beaten in an afternoon.

These games have value, but they don't have heart. They're useless, but I still miss high scores and having lives. I miss shitty debug codes that wear out their entertainment value in four minutes. I miss being amazed at the creativity and invention that got squeezed out of a system with four buttons. I miss actually reading the instruction manual just to figure out what the plot of a game was. Most of all, I think I just miss games that stay fun past the first play.