The Renaissance of Video Games and Their Remakes (Part 3)

Continued from last time...

The NES was the first widespread, home console that contained worlds that could stand on their own visually. As time went by, the worlds got bigger and the visuals grander. Even now, what has been elusive in video games has been achieved, even in a small way. Using current generation technology (Playstation 3 to be exact) emotion has been portrayed digitally in a surprisingly accurate way. Just check out this video titled "Kara"

If you haven't figured it out, I love video games and I have a nostalgic love of the ones I grew up playing.  Even today, I love playing Mega Man 3, Mega Man X, Super Mario Brothers 2, Castlevania, Battletoads, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Donkey Kong Country, Final Fantasy IV, my list could go on for pages. Every one of these games is a classic with great (timely) graphics and game mechanics. As downloadable content becomes more and more popular, games from yesteryear have been re-released. In general, I love that these games having a resurgence so those of us without the foresight to keep our old systems and games can enjoy them again. However, I do have an issue when instead of just putting out a straight port of the game the developers feel a need to update the game, specifically the graphics. I'm not sure what the mindset is, maybe it's that despite it's popularity when they originally came out, graphics have come a long way (which is true) and people wouldn't be as receptive to the original visuals.

One of my favorite games of all time is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. It was originally an arcade game that was ported to the Super NES. I played both, but enjoyed the Super NES version more for several reasons. It had more levels and since it was on a system I owned, I could play it whenever I wanted. I used to play it in college regularly with my room mate while we played 12" LPs we recently purchased. Of course, knowing what to do and having played it so much already, the game's story would only last ~30 minutes but I could play that game over and over, even right now. A few years ago, they re-released Turtles in Time as a downloadable game adding the suffix "Reshelled". It's a remake of the arcade version so there are fewer levels but they updated the graphics as can be seen in the screenshots below.

Almost finished with this topic so hold on until next time...

The Renaissance of Video Games and Their Remakes (Part 2)

Continued from last time...

Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not suggesting that there weren't any games before the NES that weren't good and there were popular systems before it. Atari, Colecovision, and Intellivision are just a few examples of competing systems providing solid games. Most people are familiar with Pong; the simple table-tennis simulator that used maybe 10 tones between hitting the dot back-and-forth. Adventure had such a simple premise: find a key, open a gate, find a spear, kill a dragon, find a chalice, take it to a castle, you win. There's a great Robot Chicken sketch that sums up the game in under 40 seconds (see embedded below).

Even before that, simple computers had games that used nothing but text (commonly called text-based games, oddly enough). They briefly described a setting and then asked you to type out commands on what to do next, normally just typing commands like "Open the door", "Walk North", "Eat Gruel", that sort of thing. A lot of frustration would result when various commands would result in replies like "Don't know how to 'Open' something", "Can't Walk North", "Okay". So it doesn't know the verb 'Open', there's a wall or something blocking you from walking north, and apparently you ate the gruel with no context on how that affects your next step. The point I'm driving at is that before the NES, games required much more imagination in order for them to be enjoyed. A lot of reading was necessary, any visuals were so basic that you needed to picture scenery in your mind to see it as the creators intended, and if there was any sound, it was very basic although some inspired sound effects did come out of it (Pitfall's swinging sound for example).

Hold on until next time...

The Renaissance of Video Games and Their Remakes (Part 1)

I know I failed at the whole "I'll try to write one blog a week" thing so far but I started writing one and I kept going into random other topics and it was suggested that I split it into smaller, more easily digestible parts rather than making one big one. I think it's going to be more prominently like this in the future so here's the first of probably many multi-part posts!

Most people who are approximately my age (27, for the record) were fortunate to be children at a time when video games were becoming a larger part of popular culture and society in general. The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES as most of us know it) created images on our TVs that were colorful and generally provided a path to follow and goals to accomplish (examples: rescue the girl or princess, save the world from evil, destroy the bad guys, etc.).  Most notably, the music in these games was inspired! Super Mario Brothers, The Legend of Zelda, Mega Man, Castlevania, Contra, Metroid, Ninja Gaiden just to name a few that had amazing scores to accompany the addictive game-play. Before Nintendo's ground-breaking system, most systems had to focus on the limited visuals and the sound effects. Even today with huge teams and million dollar budgets, music has the largest impact on the worth of a game. Music can't save broken controls, a terrible camera, or lazy/awkward design but it's constantly with you as you play, changes depending on the situation, where you are, and when you find required items. The lasting effect of music is what makes it have such an impact. In video games, much more so nowadays, you sometimes spend hours roaming the same areas and in those areas, the same music plays. If it's catchy, well orchestrated, and fitting, then it grows on you and if you ever hear that song outside the game, visuals will pop into your mind of the level that music plays in the background. It may even make you long to play it again. Music can have a polar opposite effect as well. The music could be so awkward or poor in construction that you'll grow to hate certain areas or even the game. 


Hold on until next time...