Super Mario Bros 3? It’s alright. The original Zelda on the
NES? Never played it, don’t want too. Mainly because Link to the Past was
really annoying.
These statements would be seen as controversial and plain
old shit stirring to the average seasoned gamer or Nintendo fan. Was that my
aim? To provoke rage and grab attention? Well no, I said them because they’re
my genuine opinions.
Nintendo recently announced the NES Mini, a tiny recreation
of their first home console. It releases this Christmas for around £50 and it’ll
be fricking huge. It didn’t seem to me like a big announcement at the time, my first
reaction being one of “well that’s a bit of a novelty.” Then I see it shared
all over Facebook and Twitter by folks who wouldn’t normally talk about games outside
of FIFA. Nintendo have a hit on their hands. Do I want one? Well… no. I love the
idea, I love the nostalgia that’s captured in its look and I’d happily display
it in my home as my take on an ornament. Do I want to play it though? Thirty
games packed in, retro classics there to speak to the heart of any lad around
my age and say “you loved these once!! Buy them again!” Sorry but nope.
It amazes me now to discover how much patience I had when I was
younger. To play retro games now is a test of willpower, to die and die and
keep going on… How could I be arsed? Back when I was a kid my parents would
quite stringently say “you can’t have a new game until you’ve completed that one.”
Of course they also hoped that it would take me a year to do so before Santa
came back round again. Back then I had no choice. I also had no fricking save
points. When you died for the umpteenth time and you had used all your life’s…
well, that may have been the start of many a tantrum. To try it again, to get
past that part, you had go from the start. You had to wait until the following Saturday
really because you knew you needed at least three hours to get it all done
before the family would repossess the TV for Baywatch at dinner time.
Now? Now I’ve got way too many games to play and TV shows to
watch and friends to speak to, a wife to give attention too. I can’t afford to
die twenty times at the same point and then repeat what I’ve done over the past
two hours. I need to progress in a timely manner. I have no patience
It’s maybe more than that too. Games have changed and moved on.
I find myself declaring love for Mario Galaxy, 64 and 3D World but yet 2D Mario
barely raises a smile. Yet I know so many people who say the opposite. I’ve pondered
at times how I find the new 3D Mario’s a lot easier and less frustrating than
their old school counterparts yet people who I’d say game casually (that’s not
a slight, they just don’t obsess like I do) find the 2D games easier to play.
In a way it makes sense, at their core the old games are easier to learn. You’ve
got left, right and jump. Simple. Their difficulty lies in timing and practice,
in perfecting that pixel perfect jump. The new games relay on a greater sense
of space and navigation, in using a multitude of buttons to perform gymnastics around
3D constructions. Twenty years on from playing Mario 64 I’ve become accustomed
to 3D space in games and I suppose some others haven’t. However I’m still
allowed to get annoyed when someone who can’t work two control sticks in 3D
world can manage the kind of well-timed jumps in Mario Bros I’d be jealous of.
Nostalgias a lovely thing, that sense of warmth when something
from your childhood comes round again. I recently saw The BFG and felt it, I’ve
seen numerous cartoons which stirred it and even the new Ghostbusters (a film I didn’t
like) gave me moments of fond reflection. With games however I find it a whole
lot harder. Technology changes things and what was once fun can now be seen as
slow and frustrating. We’re in a world of instant gratification, of quick wins
and of 140 characters being the ideal length for commentary. I’m surprised you’re
still reading this…
At the end of all that… I don’t want a NES Mini. I don’t want
to play old games. I’ll take new games that remind me of them though! I still
like nostalgia damn it, it’s just the thought of it tends to beat the reality…
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