Is the old good now... less good?

I know this is definitely on the long side but bear with me, I'm going somewhere.

Rummaging through my old stored away junk, stuff like old year books, child-hood toys, and specifically in this case my old consoles. For whatever reason when I came across the box that contained my Nintendo and all my games I felt compelled to play something. Driven by the warm fuzzy feelings generally associated with nostalgia I went with Super Mario Brothers 3. Simply hooking up the coax splitter to the back of my TV was some how enjoyable. After nearing the point of hyperventilation I was finally off and rolling. As a child I recall spending hours, week after week hopping from platform, to Turtle, to platform without relent. On this day I find myself only interested long enough to hit the first platform and the initial Turtle bounce. Upon landing on that second platform I went no further. Returning back to EVE Online and I thought nothing more of it.

This morning my 9 year old cousin is hanging out here with me while his mother is at school. I'd like to think I've done my best to influence him toward the gaming ways and I'm happy to report he's taken like a fish to water. My wish is to see how he performs with Gears of War but I've been told that is strictly off limits so the game of choice for now has been Super Smash Brothers Melee. The kid really gives me a run for my money. Apparently his eye catches the old Nintendo sitting on the floor and he asks me if we can play that. It occurs to me he has never touched a Nintendo. Anyone who grew up in the same generation would agree to not know Nintendo is sacrilege. My assumption was naturally that he would at least enjoy it enough to play thorough for a bit and it we quickly switched. To summarize my assumptions left me disappointed. It took about 5 minutes before he was done and has now moved on to Twilight Princess as I type this. Watching him fish with the Wiimote is quite amusing though.

The whole reason for this "adventures with Mathew" story is to make a point. SMB3 was the greatest thing ever to me when I was his age. Seeing him pass over it so quickly got me thinking as to why. No one would argue the point that SMB3 was a simple game but that didn't stop it from being all kinds of fun. I figured I had simply outgrown the game, both in game play and in pure and simple repetition when I put it down a week ago. Mathew however had not. This was the first time he has ever ventured into an old school Mario and he was thoroughly unimpressed.

The subject of my whole never ending story here is ask if our old school favorites were in fact not so great, but rather praised simply because they were the first. Did we just not know any better? Will there be a day when my grandchildren pass on lets say Crysis and say "It's too plain, it's too basic"?

There are some outstanding excetions, but I'd say, "Yes" the old good is less good.

Kojima made a very good point about this, about how a classic car from the 70's is something you can appreciate for what it is, but that its enduring value is limited and cannot be compared to a new car. (He was talking about video games not being art, but you can still apply the analogy).

I'll cheapen it down a little. When I was a teenager,my first car was a very beat down Nissan Sentra, but to me it was awesome, I loved it, I was going to keep that car forever. I eventually gave it to a friend and got a brand new sports car. One day I had to borrow his car (my old one) and I was relishing getting to drive it again, with all the great memories I had of it, and I was faced with the reality that that car had no acceleration, no braking ability and handled like a broken tank.

You can never go back (with some outstanding exceptions).

It's too jarring a switch from modern games to games from 20+ years ago, primarily in the presentation. But you only have to look as far as the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS to see that the same exact types of gameplay can be successful and enjoyable today.

As for today's games, we've prety much reached this point where our graphics and sound are as good as they can be. Sure, there will be advances, but never again will there be such a jarring difference as between Super Mario Bros. 3 and Gears of War. Not technically, anyway.

I don't know. I could have sworn Super Mario Bros. 3 is still a lot of fun.LordAndrew

It certainly is. That's one of the ones I'd put in the exceptions pile.

Old games are still great. I love to go through my old consoles and the games for it and game for hours. But yet, I still enjoy the games of today, but I can never say I like them as much as I did the games of years past.

The reason your nephew passed it on so quickly is because he doesn't have that respect for the game like an older person would because he was raised on higher standards. Better graphics, better sound, better gameplay. He is too young to realize that he was playing something that could be considered part of the roots of gaming.

But, to answer your question is the old good less good, well IMHO the old good is still good, but it's all in the eye of the beholder. Some may not like it as much as others, but there are still old school gamers out there who love to get some gaming hours put in on the Nintendo. I mean come on, they still have Super Mario Bros. Tournaments for the Nintendo to see who can complete the game the fasest or the fewest lives and things like that, so apparently people still like it.

... he was raised on higher standards.cos_vanquish

That's pretty much my thought as well. I would bet a lot of younger gamers these days are in a very similar boat. You are also quite right about beauty being in the eye of the beholder.

I gotta wonder if you could ever really convay the significance of the Model T to the guy in the flying car. That's probably an exaggerated analogy but it gives some real meaning to that saying 'kids don't know how good they have it' for me. Perhaps thats just a product of my many many years of life, all 24 of em :P

Not less good; with the modern advancements in gaming technology, the flaws in older games get more evident. Just remember what old cd's said in their inner sleeves. "Because of its high resolution, the CD can reveal limitations of the source tape" (or something like that).

So all we can do is enjoy our old games knowing they are indeed old games. Super Metroid's graphics will never stand against Metroid Prime's. But it is way more fun. In my humble opinion, anyway... but I think it might work as some example.

Super Metroid's graphics will never stand against Metroid Prime's. But it is way more fun. In my humble opinion, anyway... but I think it might work as some example.

hedral002

Ya know, that's a good point. I played Super Metroid beginning to end. I've not revisited it in quite a while, I should try that out again but I never finished Metroid Prime. A few hours in and I just lost interest. That right there is a nice example of an old game that has stood the test of time, at least for me anyway.

I still enjoy that game and the games on the Wii's VC are very popular, so someone is playin the old games. A certain amount of nostalgia (though it wasnt until I got Mario All Stars that I played SMB3 but i grew up with Super Mario World) motivates us to like the games of the past. The mentality of this new generation seems to be newer is better, the newest edition is the best version and there is no way to prove otherwise. It is not necessarilly a bad thing (if your stuck in the past it doesn't even concern you) but it does motivate the actions of some developers (the most amazing graphics=the most amazing game). Do things always seem better in our memories? Yes, they do, but that shouldn't prevent you from enjoying the experience once more. The good ones of this generation will be looking at the new games of today in the same way.