The Retro Renaissance

As I mentioned a few posts ago many genres of games have tried and failed to revolutionise themselves and have now been forced into scouring their pasts for inspiration. The latest iteration of Mortal Kombat is even using this as one of its unique selling points and other franchises, including the famous plumber himself, have ‘gone back to their roots’ so to speak.

Once again I see that uncreativity had reared its ugly head on the horizon and is now staring directly at me; the utter contempt in its eyes for all things original commanding me to conform and take my seat in the soulless production line that is the games industry.

Normally I would spit curses at such a creature and vow to destroy it, even at the cost of my own life, with the most original and creative thing ever created by an original individual. In the face of this particular Demon however, I find myself torn. On the one hand creativity is a notion that should be defended to the last, especially in an industry such as computer game development where it can truly be used to its fullest potential.

On the other hand….these uncreative ‘homages’ to an age long past in the games industry is the beginning of a new cycle. The cycle in question? That of them and us. These games are aimed at us, but this is a fact that has thus far remained unmentioned by the majority of the games industry. The industry understands that members of ‘them’ who buy games are a larger market than us, so they want these *ahem* new games to seem as though they are marketed to them….even though they’re made for us.

Take New Super Mario Brothers Wii as an example. It’s a very retro-inspired 2-D platformer with modern day graphics, and is marketed as a game that all of the family can enjoy in their unrealistically large, clean, dog shit and IKEA free, Grandad accessible living room. In reality however it’s the Mario game that Mario fans have been waiting for. You see when I first played Mario many moons ago there was no such thing as us and them; there was just us. You either played games or you didn’t, and the type of game you favoured or the number of hours you played for was irrelevant. We were all part of the same fraternity of oft bullied social lepers and outcasts, and that made us stick together for the most part.

The rise in the popularity of gaming as a pastime has seen that gaming fraternity split and divide into several warring factions, all claiming their chosen console/genre/studio/etc to be the best way to game. Nonsense. There is no right or wrong way to game. Sure I have my preference and yes I get frustrated when franchises or developers abandon their core fans, but ultimately the survival of the industry depends on gamers of all shapes and sizes. Creativity would be nice, and is certainly essential for the industry to grow beyond its current state, but the industry can live without it….just about.

So is this foray into the past a good idea? Well….yes, it probably is. While it may not unite the denominations of gaming it is still a step towards that lofty goal. Games will be released that the gamers of old and old gamers alike can play and enjoy and this is surely a good thing. The worry for me is that the uncreativity Demon will rule unchallenged and that eventually all we will be left with are revamps of old franchises. Mario will be forced to save Princess Peach yet again, and I bet she still won’t give him that other cake that he really wants. Solid Snake will never be allowed to retire and claim his pension. Sonic won’t ever have the time to open that jewelery store he’s always wanted and won’t be able to sell any of the millions of gold rings and emeralds he’s collected. Samus Aran will never find a way of gluing those upgrades onto her Power Suit properly and will have to find them all again and again and again.

Should this be allowed to happen at least the denominations of gamers will finally be united, albeit in their suffering. For my part, I will sit there on the production line chained to my work station, ensuring that every game that is subjected to my scrutiny is as dull, colourless and unimaginative as the last. All the while harbouring dreams of originality, freedom and Demonicide.