Thursday, July 14, 2011

The evolution paradox



The truth is that I'm a bit of a retro geek. I still got my Super Nintendo and Dreamcast hooked up to the TV, most the "new" games I play are remakes of old classics or new entries in decade old series that gameplay wise are pretty close to being remakes. Yet I have largely had a positive reaction to new creative control inputs such as the DS touch screen and the Wii motion control. This might seem surprising given my more conservative tastes.

What is the explanation for this inconsistency? It might be explained by my Nintendo fanboy-ism, I have certainly been accused of this. But I would argue that the it has more to do with me simply being dissatisfied with direction video games has taken the past two generations. But still playing the same games over and over again gets old. These new control methods allows me to experience my favorite game series in a new way without having them evolve in the direction of shooters or introduce a competitive multiplayer mode.

Take a game like Skyward Sword or to a lesser degree Twilight Princess. The overall design of the Zelda series hasn't really changed since the N64. But the motion control allows the player to interact with this traditional series in an exciting new way without dramatically altering the key game design. Something that fits my tastes perfectly.