Retro gaming is very popular these days. Not only do we get bombarded almost daily with remakes of the old titles, but even new games are also done in retro fashion. Nintendo recently released NES Classic Edition and managed to sell 2.3 million of them in the first three months. There are three main reasons why retro gaming is so popular, and once you see them, it will be easy to understand the current craze about them.
No Microtransactions
Many players agree that microtransactions are the bane of modern gaming. Older games don’t suffer from it, but because the developers in the old days didn’t like our money. The reason is much simpler. When most of the popular retro games were created, the technology behind microtransactions didn’t exist, so this sinister practice couldn’t be implemented.
Of course, microtransactions aren’t the only way you can spend money on gaming. These days, you can even bet on them. If that is your cup of tea, you can easily find some of the best LEC odds, predictions and betting tips for your favorite teams and players and perhaps win some money to pay for at least some of the microtransactions.
But spending money isn’t the worst part of microtransactions. They have become so normalized that it is increasingly impossible to even play the game without using them. Games, especially mobile and multiplayer games, are prevalently using a very sneaky business model, called free to play, but play to win. In other words, you can download and play the game without spending money, but good luck trying to win against opponents who use microtransactions to buy premium weapons, ammo, shields, or any other boost developers can cram into their title. With retro games, you don’t have to worry about any of that.
No DLCs
In the old days, developers wouldn’t dream of releasing a half-finished game to the market. The practice was unheard of for two simple reasons, First, it was a matter of professional pride. Second, it would be business suicide, as no one would buy your games again.
These days, however, it is quite normal to release the game, sell it to players, and then start issuing patches and finishing it as you go. Many new games require months to become playable after they were officially released. One of the best examples is Cyberpunk 2077, with its almost endless list of patches and DLCs, and even more of them are coming through the pipe.
A part of the reason is that game development has become incredibly expensive, especially for Triple-A titles, but mostly it is due to corporate greed and the desire to have the game out on the market and earn money long before it is ready. We are not saying that the developers of retro games weren’t greedy, it is just that they had some measure about it and at least provided value from the day you bought the game. You didn’t have to wait for six months for it to become playable.
Nostalgia
Nothing triggers those bittersweet emotions of nostalgia about our childhood like a favorite game from 15 or 20 years ago. As we pop in the cartridge and the familiar logo splashes across the screen, we are instantly taken back to the part of our life where everything was much simpler and easier. Of course, the fact that we are now playing the game on a crisp Ultra HD 65-inch flatscreen instead of a foggy 19-inch cathode-ray tube TV helps a lot with making our memories seem far better than they actually were.
As soon as we start playing, the relationships we had with our favorite characters seem to rekindle instantly, only adding to nostalgia and increasing the popularity of retro games. Although many aspects of old games can’t really compare to new editions, it doesn’t really matter, since we are not playing for amazing graphics or high-end cut scenes. The reason we play them is to capture that feeling of carelessness and possibility we had as kids and nothing does that job better than retro games, regardless of how awful they look on our new Ultra HD 65-inch flatscreens.
It’s nostalgia for me, all the way, like you said, nothing triggers a mental regression to a more innocent time like the title screen of an old favourite. I still get all kinds of warm brain hugs from picking up my switch and firing up Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES emulator 🥰