The last couple of months have been pretty busy. I’ve moved, and have been given new responsibilities at my job. To top that off, my wife was recently injured in an accident. Needless to say, finding time to play games have been difficult, if not outright impossible. When I did get some time to play recently, I played some downloadable titles that are modern reminders of why I love this hobby.
Thank goodness for PSN and LIVEArcade games. They really are perfect for getting in those short spurts for getting your gaming fix. Lately, my go-to game has been Joe Danger, and now Scott Pilgrim vs The World. What should be short spurts of gaming fun (due to my time constraints of late) often turn into full on gaming sessions. That’s when it hit me. Games like Joe Danger, and SP v World capture the essence of what drew me into gaming in the first place–simple, uncluttered, no excuses fun.
Joe Danger reminded me of the fun times I had with my dad playing Excitebike, and it even rang my nostalgia funny bone for games like Stunt Cycle on the Atari 2600. Scott Pilgrim has so many old school homages its insane–even down to the old school 8-bit glitches that make the background look pixelated, and can make quick work of otherwise ridiculously difficult bosses. With a “Super Deformed-ish” graphic style, and RPG elements of the 8-bit River City Ransom, and gameplay mechanics that took me back to arcade classics Vigilante, and Renegade, I’m in retro paradise. It is games like these and so many others that I cut my gamer’s teeth on, and made life long real world friends around.
I’ve been in kind of a gaming funk since E3. As an old school gamer, I’m watching in horror as the hobby I love is being flooded with casual games, whiz-bang motion controls, and cookie cutter first person military shooters. For now they are co-existing, but as production costs continue to sky-rocket, and developers continue to be understandably enticed by the gigantic Casual/Halo/Modern Warfare money pie, I fear that the genres that I enjoy may be on borrowed time in the retail space. So, I’m saying thank you to developers of games like Scott Pilgrim and Joe Danger for all old school cats like me who couldn’t memorize a multi-player map and a perks list if his life depended on it–for being true to the game. Simple, uncluttered, no excuses fun. I”m not hating, I’m just glad that there is still room for me in the game space…At least for now.
Good article, I too have been overloaded with FPS’s lately and want more games to take me back.
Hope you don’t mind me making a pic for the article.
No problem. I just got a Mac and I’m still learning the ins-and-outs.
Nice read man. I hear ya on bringing simple back to games. SP has really caught my attention as of late and am eager to try it on xbox live (though I am saddened that I think it doesn’t have online xbox live co-op). Some of my favorite games have not been the big block buster movie style action games but rather the simple, innovated small games (Braid, Limbo, Shadow Complex). It’s always great when we can get that inner child glow/feeling we did when we were kids and just enjoyed games because they were fun. On a side note, best wishes and thoughts to your wife and a healthy recovery from the accident.