The Resurgence of Classical Games in a Next-Gen Era

In an age where graphical power and "next-gen gameplay" garner the most hype, more and more companies are attempting to return to their roots as often as they innovate - and gamers love it. It seems like an illogical response. With more titles attempting to reach the highest level of graphical realism, and more consoles aiming at providing the highest level of hardware potential, why are we embracing old titles so quickly and enthusiastically?

Between Micrsoft's XBox Live Marketplace and the upcoming Nintendo Virtual Console gamers will be given the chance to play many of the titles they "grew up" on on hardware that was nearly unimaginable 20- 30 years ago. The general consensus among gamers is "bring it on." There's no doubt that companies holding the classic game licenses are equally excited.

Games like Pac-Man and Pitfall had been relegated to cheap (usually poor) modern interpretations that obviously left gamers cold. A two legged Pac-Man, or a childlike Frogger, seemed to betray gamer's memories in a fashion that rivaled re-envisioned Star Wars flicks.

Give a gamer who is dissappointed with the new Frogger a MAME stick and an old ROM and they're at peace.

Give that same gamer a controller shaped like a guitar and 20 something classic rock tracks and they're equally satiated. You can ditto that response to the newest version of Zelda or Halo ... but why?

Today, Reuters has an interesting story that looks into the retro gaming hits and their current return to popularity. As the article hints, it seems that the "hour to learn lifetime to master" meme is what's driving these old classics.

Sometimes you want to sit down with a game like Space Invaders or Joust and just burn away an hour. Games like New Super Mario Brothers and even Geometry Wars are perfect examples of classic gameplay mechanics equalling contemporary success.

These older titles do something that games really have gotten away from, they let us veg. They're often more engaging than TV (especially when you have 400 channels and nothing to watch) and they appeal to our natural instinct to just play around.

You don't need a four-hundred page companion guide to get the most out of Pac-Man but you do for Oblivion.

I guess that raises another question - what games being published today will we be playing in 30 years? I doubt it will be the games requiring 40+ hours of investment. But I could be wrong.

Is it possible that games like LocoRoco, with its pure simplicity, will stand the test of time while games like Oblivion, with its reliance on "next-gen graphics" and epic storytelling, will fade away?