Isn't it awesome that 90s Gaming is back?

jaykhunter · 23-07-2010 10:46AM #1

OK, we're seeing a rebirth in arcade-style fighting games (SF, MvC, Tatsinoku etc); a new Mortal Kombat that looks to be an Overhauled HD Remix of MKII, 8-bit remakes of Mega Man, Duke Nukem, more platformers (Mario NSMB, Galaxy II, DKC Returns, Epic Mickey); Shadow Complex, 2D run and gun Contra-style games.....the 90s are back! And in High Definition! (unless it's on the Wii :pac:)

I realise that this isn't an insightful post, but I'm so happy about it (FPS games being prevalent for the last 10 years but unfortunately make me nauseous very quickly) that I had to post!

Retr0gamer · 23-07-2010 10:56AM

I don't think there's actually much of a revival to be honest. 2D gaming is still hanging in there on the DS and there has always been excellent 2D games even after the 90's they just wren't as high profile as the Mario games or Street Fighter 4. I'll get really interested when they start putting some challenge back into the games. Contra 4 and Megaman 9 and 10 got slated for their difficulty in some places when they aren't unfairly tough at all.

o1s1n · 23-07-2010 11:02AM

Nah I'm still on my current-gen 3D buzz

It never really went away for me to be honest

jaykhunter · 23-07-2010 11:04AM

Action/shooters

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I don't think there's actually much of a revival to be honest. 2D gaming is still hanging in there on the DS and there has always been excellent 2D games even after the 90's they just wren't as high profile as the Mario games or Street Fighter 4. I'll get really interested when they start putting some challenge back into the games. Contra 4 and Megaman 9 and 10 got slated for their difficulty in some places when they aren't unfairly tough at all.

ok that's a bit more accurate! I meant more 'console' because I don't own any handhelds. Definitely there's not been much platforming or fighters but have exploded in coverage over the last while! I think you're far too good at games tho RG!

I also don't think retro-gaming (don't flay me!) seems to have gotten mainstream over the last while as well, they have to be related! Maybe graphics have gotten to a point, and controls to a complexity, that it's actually refreshing to do something simpler. And going back to the well and fueling nostalgia sounds like a great idea

o1s1n · 23-07-2010 11:11AM

Nah I'm still on my current-gen 3D buzz

I lost the 3D buzz with the ps2. After being a ps1 whore for years (And the utter excitement at making the step into 3d gaming) I felt like in general, I was just playing the same thing over. The progress I was looking for just wasn't there. So after that I just went back to 2d completely really. My 360 never gets switched on at all. The odd big title but that's about it.

Retro gaming going main stream is a bit of a double edged sword. Its great as it means that the extra consoles I've been gathering over the years will be worth more, but at the same time it'll push the price up for everything else...and make all those charity shop finds and the like rarer!

As for the main aspect of the thread, I'm interested in seeing new games taking an older approach/style of play. I'm just not too excited about all this content being download only

Would absolutely love physical copies of Sonic 4 and the new Contra coming out. To make matters worse, there are a good few physical copy shooters being released, just none of them are coming to Europe and are region locked. Ah!

Retr0gamer · 23-07-2010 11:27AM

I think a big problem is that a lot of old school revivals are being handed out to companies that just don't understand how the original game worked or how it should play. Some companies do get it right, Grins remake of Bionic Commando was fantastic and Inti Creates did an amazing job on Megaman 9 and 10 while Wayforwards work on A Boy and his Blob and Contra 4 is stellar especially the pixel art in Contra 4. However the recent Rocket Knight Adventures game was really poor. The game was a pure platformer with collectables in each level. It just didn't work and it wasn't a rocket knight game. Any fan of the series will tell you that rocket knight games play like Contra games more than anything with small set pieces following each other but each containing unique gameplay. Then there's atrocities like the Turtles in Time remade with awful looking 3D graphics replacing the gorgeous pixel art of the original.

I just hope the 3DS doesn't kill off 2D completely since what I love about the DS is the amount of 2D games on the system. 2D should never die because it's a unique experience that no 3D game can replicate.

As for the resurgence of fighters, a lot of that has to do with Street Fighter 4 which is the best fighting game since Street Fighter 3 3rd Strike and Capcom seem to be pumping out amazing fighters like Tatsunoko vs. Capcom and Marvel vs. Capcom 3 looks like it's going to be amazing. We've also got Blaz Blue making a big splash in the fighting game scene. I just hope SNK deliver with their promise of an amazing fighting game with KoF XIII since XII seemed like a barebones stopgap entry before XIII made a full game out of it.

CiDeRmAn · 23-07-2010 11:57AM

Nah I'm still on my current-gen 3D buzz

To me part of the apparent disappearance of the 2d genre (if it is a genre) is that consoles became capable of displaying 3d imagery, it became an obsession then for a while, I seem to remember Sony having a no2d rule for while, but now the developers simply choose the best way of interpreting their idea with whatever perspective they like.
As a result we have lots of games in every possible genre done in 3d or 2d, in sprites or polygons, depending on the devs desires, and the hardware capabilities.
The latter though is fast becoming moot as any hardware on the market now is capable of whatever rendering method, within reason.
Some games are made to be played in one way, like Megaman, other games seem best played in another, Doom for example.
Some titles are a melange like the new Metroid game, it all depends on the whim of the dev.
So, 2d never went away, it just ceased to be the only method available to us to play games.

The rosetinted spectacle wearers amongst us often forget the flood of gods awful sh1te that was released on the Snes and Megadrive in the form of dreadful shooters, platformers and fighters.
That said, they were instantly replaced by awful sh1te 3d shooters, platformers and fighters on the PS, Saturn and N64.

Retr0gamer · 23-07-2010 12:12PM

Stupid Sony and that no 2D rule. They denied us a localisation of teh Soul Hackers and Devil summoner because of it. At least they relaxed it. Sega of America wouldn't let anything 2D on the saturn reach the West with a few exceptions. Really stupid when you consider the best stuff on the system was 2D.

CiDeRmAn · 23-07-2010 03:59PM

Nah I'm still on my current-gen 3D buzz

And then you can mix it all up, so you have polygons in 2D, Ikaruga, and sprites in 3D, Wolfenstein, just to confuse the hell out of everyone.
And one isn't better than the other, no 3D Sonic has come close to the brilliance of even the worst of the 2D sonics on the Megadrive.
And also, surely 2D games, platformers, shooters, fighting games belong to the 80's, no?
The 90's had the PS, Saturn and the rest, more 3D than anything.
If anything the 90's was the era of the sh1te licensed games, and Army Men titles, may they burn in hell for making that rubbish.

justbrian · 23-07-2010 07:58PM

Action/shooters

As for the thread poll, the 2d games I like most are platform related. So I would like to see more new 2d platform games.

Jack burton · 23-07-2010 10:25PM

Action/shooters

Well for a while 2-D gaming was outlawed, everthing had to be 3-D, and we all know how that worked out most of the time, Street Fighter 3D, for **** sake!

And now they are starting to realise that "oh wait, 2-D gaming is still awesome, but lets still have some 3-D in there anyway" which is great! MvC2

Which brings me to my next point, why are retro revival games, like splatterhouse and golden axe, getting full 3-D remakes, what would be wrong with the classic style but with some sort of new twist.

Which then leads onto another sore point, milking and ruining franchises that I love, weve all seen so many classics, like final fight, altered beast and the above mentioned golden axe get destroyed buy "remakes", start some new franchises and quit raping the retro!

Rant over, *edit: Very incoherent and poorly written rant over

o1s1n · 24-07-2010 11:39AM

Nah I'm still on my current-gen 3D buzz

Jack burton wrote: »

Which then leads onto another sore point, milking and ruining franchises that I love, weve all seen so many classics, like final fight, altered beast and the above mentioned golden axe get destroyed buy "remakes", start some new franchises and quit raping the retro!

Rant over, *edit: Very incoherent and poorly written rant over

It's a bit sickening, isn't it? Sega are terrible for doing this. From Golden Axe Beast Rider to the rubbish Sonic games to that 'Sega Zone' Wii rip off thing, they just have no pride in their franchises at all. If it'll make a few euro they'll give it the go ahead.

CiDeRmAn · 25-07-2010 03:23PM

Nah I'm still on my current-gen 3D buzz

I have that collection for the PS2 with the selection of Sega remixed games on it, Golden Axe is terrible on it, so no change there

The best thing on it is the version of Virtua Racing, better than the Saturn version, not as good as the 32X, oddly.
The Outrun is an absolute turd, don't know how or why they'd release it, especially as the same format, PS2, also plays host to the genius that is Outrun 2006:Coast to Coast.

Doctor DooM · 25-07-2010 03:41PM

Platformers

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

And also, surely 2D games, platformers, shooters, fighting games belong to the 80's, no?

While there were fighting games in the 80s, fighting games as a genre seperate to beat em ups only really became prevalent (read: Good) with the release of SF2 in 91/92.

I know this is a tiny aside but just so's you knows.

Jack burton wrote: »

Well for a while 2-D gaming was outlawed, everthing had to be 3-D, and we all know how that worked out most of the time, Street Fighter 3D, for **** sake!

As far as I know there is no Street Fighter which abandoned the 2d planar gameplay, and the original Streetfighter EX has many defenders. It's certainly a better game than Street Fighter: The Movie Arcade

Interestingly enough, it is just about to happen- Namco are releasing Tekken x StreetFighter which will likely feature the SF characters in a 3d fighting game style for the first time.

chopperbyrne · 25-07-2010 07:03PM

Platformers

Yeah the Street Fighter EX series play on a 2D plane (Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha is fantastic), with only one or two moves utilising the third plane. (Akumas teleport moves in a circular motion instead of going through his opponent)

Vs fighters saturated the market in the 90s with everyone wanting a part of the Street Fighter II pie.

CiDeRmAn · 25-07-2010 09:11PM

Nah I'm still on my current-gen 3D buzz

Doctor DooM wrote: »

As far as I know there is no Street Fighter which abandoned the 2d planar gameplay, and the original Streetfighter EX has many defenders. It's certainly a better game than Street Fighter: The Movie Arcade

And you should know given how much time you spent playing it at the last beers!

Jack burton · 25-07-2010 09:14PM

Action/shooters

Well truth be told I havent played those games since i was about 9 or so but I was still just making a point, I do remember it being **** though

Doctor DooM · 26-07-2010 12:08PM

Platformers

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

And you should know given how much time you spent playing it at the last beers!

What can I say. I know what I likes.

o1s1n · 26-07-2010 12:40PM

Nah I'm still on my current-gen 3D buzz

Doctor DooM wrote: »

What can I say. I know what I likes.

I still can't believe you'd never played a Zelda game before! Everyone should play A Link to the Past through at least once in their lifetime.

Dude111 · 26-07-2010 11:22PM

Action/shooters

If 80s style gaming came back IT WOULD BE K-RAD!!

The 80s - THE BEST TIME EVER!!

CiDeRmAn · 27-07-2010 07:27AM

Nah I'm still on my current-gen 3D buzz

Dude111 wrote: »

If 80s style gaming came back IT WOULD BE K-RAD!!

The 80s - THE BEST TIME EVER!!

You watched Hot Tub Timemachine once too often mate!

The 80's were great for gaming, the early part of the decade produced some great stuff, Defender, Robotron, Galaga, Pacman etc. But I find the latter half just kind of blends into the 90's, gameboys, Megadrives, and so on. It's not til 95 with the launch of the PS that things get anotger real shake up.
Besides, gaming is more defined by gen than by decade.

Isn't it awesome that 90s Gaming is back?

Which "2D" retro-style genre is your favourite? 23 votes

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