The grumpy old man and his reactionary views

Get your hands off my video games!

I am looking at the lineup of games for Nintendos next handheld, the 3DS and the game that got me the most excited is the remake of Ocarina of Time. A game I already own for the Nintendo 64 (the first run gold cart) as well as two copies of the Gamecube port. You would think I would be more excited about something fresh and new instead of a 3D version of a game I have already played to death. But this is really indicative of my feelings about the modern game industry. I couldn't care less about most of the big name titles released this generation.

Either this means that there has been a dramatic drop in quality in recent years or I am turning in to a sad grumpy old man, reminiscing about the good old days. There are still a lot of new releases that I very much enjoy, but they are either remakes like the 3DS version of Ocarina of Time, or they are "neo-retro". Games made to appeal to our retro sensibilities, games that apart for their nice and shiny graphics just as well could have been released 10 or 20 years ago. Titles that have incorporated few if any of the "innovations" of recent years. The game that is spinning in my Wii right now, Donkey Kong Country Returns is a perfect example of this. Retro Studios have pretty much given the middle finger to the supposed advancements made in their craft the past 15 years and said this type of gameplay was a blast on the Super NES and with some slight tweaks it will be just as much fun on a modern console.