One of the great things I love is when there are two or more news stories that can come together to show one critical point. Making leaps of logic is one thing, but leaps of logic supported by multiple branches is another. Today's critical point: there still seems to be plenty of room in the field for retro gaming, as evidenced by new releases found in both the Nintendo eShop and on Steam.
First, there's the Steam news, as Steam is now host to a copy of “Final Fantasy VIII.” It's actually a personal favorite of mine from my old high school days, thanks to my own overwhelming desire to turn my old high school into a flying, hover-capable platform complete with dorms. It also packs in “Chocobo World,” a game previously only found on the Pocket Station, which was never made available outside of Japan at last report. With a little advancement in the main game—a few specific conditions need to be met—“Chocobo World” can be played directly from the launcher, which is certainly a plus, and there's even some room to synchronize data between the titles.
Good news by itself for gamers who've been around a while, but for those who have really been around the block there's also some news from the Nintendo eShop, which is putting up a special focus on the retro this week with not only 3D Sega classics like “Sonic the Hedgehog” and “Altered Beast,” but also Nintendo mainstays like “Donkey Kong,” “Donkey Kong Jr.,” “Donkey Kong 3,” and “Game and Watch: Donkey Kong Jr.”
That's a pretty hefty slug of retro coming out of a couple different directions, and it just goes to prove that there's still a lot of love out there for the retro titles. It's nothing we haven't seen before, of course—retro love is nothing new—but the sheer longevity of the retro love, now, that's something to pay attention to. We've seen plenty of retro titles emerge on the various stores, not to mention new versions of old titles and even Kickstarters for expansions for and remakes of old titles. People still like those old games, and it's good to see that while everyone's waiting for the newest “Call of Duty” or “Fallout” or the like to make an appearance, there's still a little room to look happily at what we used to play, and go back to it every so often. Call it getting in touch with our collective roots, call it a note of respect for the biggest names of the older era, call it just a nod to knowing where we came from as gamers, but whatever you call it, it's still there and it's making us happy to this day.
It's easy to forget those old memories with all the great new stuff coming out, but even while a new generation has begun, it's worth keeping in mind just where we came from.
