Video Games - Now vs. Then

This post is going to be a hot rambling mess. You have been warned.

This post is the collision of two thoughts - how good video games were as a child, and how futile they are now. I was playing Super Mario World the other day, and it made me miss all those old games. And I bought the new Halo today, and it made me angry at how ALL these games are the same, and honestly aren't as fun.

For the record, then "then" I'm referring to is primarily the Nintendo 64/SNES. Now is the Xbox/PS3/Wii.

At it's most basic level, then was simple, now is complicated.

THEN - THE CONCEPT
Wasn't it so much more simple? You'd play with you're friends - who were right next to you. That is, in the same room, and would be there when the TV turned off. You shared experiences together, not apart. It was so exciting when your friend beat the final boss.
Talking about simple - you could beat these games in a hour. Super Mario World was completed in 10 minutes and 54 seconds. They set up the game so you could BS you're way through or play the whole way. When I first got Super Mario 64 (Christmas 97 or whatever, if we had a video camera, I'd probably be a YouTube celebrity too) my cousin had 110 stars before the end of the day. Now it took me like 20 something hours to beat GTA. Not totally complaining - but it's part of the simplicity storyline I'm carrying.

Also part of the fun was the cheat codes. Every game had them. Hitting up, down, right, right, right, left, down, and up to get a big head was SO worth it. You could have those things memorized. Or the GameShark? What a god send. Until it messed up my Diddy Kong Racing game so that the levels were permanently invisible. That was a letdown. Cheat codes barely exist anymore.

NOW - THE CONCEPT:
Now, you can play with your friends online, so you don't actually hang out. It's nice when my friends are far away, but it's dumb when it's 20 minutes. And after the TVs off, I'm on my own again. And honestly? We all look like the biggest losers with those headsets on. The "shared" experiences are gone. It sucked taking turns, but you cared more. Maybe it was also my youth and obsession with video games. Then my ADD started kicking in, and if I can stay in my seat while someone else is playing Call of Duty then I must be on some kind of drug.

Playing online means well. Especially with friends. It's so much better than playing the computer, but people are such sore losers. Or they yell and kick and scream online. Or they find ways to cheat through the game. It's so lame sometimes. I'd rather kick the computer's ass then deal with a whiny 12 year old who wants to sing the latest Drake song but doesn't know the words and can't drop an F bomb cause his mommy might hear him. No thank you.

THEN - THE GAMES:
Almost every hit N64 game was Mario & Friends. Kart. Golf. Tennis. Party. Smash. Only like 6 more Parties. Honestly was there ever anything better than Super Mario 64? Maybe Zelda or Goldeneye, but that game will forever go down as a life-changer. And from a social stand point? Mario Kart 64 is the base of my FAVORITE drinking game, and honestly I never get enough of it.

I kind of look like this guy, but without the amateur hour.

I've upgraded to Wii Mario Kart, but if there's a chance to do it on the N64, game on. Sure, there were a lot of shitty games that never should of ever been made (Earthworm Jim 3D will go down as the biggest disappointment of my childhood) but the great games were unreal. Smash Brothers is an awesome 4 player game. Except everyone gets mad that I'll win everytime. Such is life.

Same for SNES - The Mario games were fantastic. They also had their fair of shit. I think my favorite SNES game was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. I remember me and my one friend played that game every Saturday night. I was SO excited when they were making a re-boot for Xbox, but it sucked more than Earthworm Jim 3D. This also gets back to the old arcade games. Like that X-Men game? Chucky Cheese games. I'm starting to drool.
NOW - THE GAMES:
The top selling games are all sequels and franchises. The Madden/NHL/NCAA/NBA. The Halo/Call of Duty/GTA/Tom Clancy stuff. Couldn't tell you one game I played where I'll really remember anything. What was the storyline of any of the Call of Dutys? I have no idea what all those Halos are about. These games aren't made so that we remember them forever, the same way you remember a book or movie. They're made as time killers. To play online Call of Duty online for as long as possible until then next one comes out (aka a year later) and then sink another $60. It's changed now. It's not the game using their own experiences. You're supposed to create you're own. Playing some intense game of capture the flag with a last second win. That's lame. I also don't have enough friends online and don't have enough care to to things like that, so I'm not getting as much out of it as others are.

These sequels suck. I can only think of one series that's had good ones: The Grand Theft Autos. Maybe that's because I really enjoyed the violence (and playing it without my parents knowing made it a fun challenge too). I don't know what the difference is between Maddens 02-10, but I've bought every single one. This year was finally the year I didn't. They sucked me in for 8 whole years. This new Halo game? It's too complicated. Trying to reinvent the wheel. I think Halo 2 was the best Halo for online play. The game just worked. Instead, they had to make another 3 now that have all sucked compared to that. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, and don't make me spend more money on more poorly-designed products. I thought Modern Warfare was amazing. MW2 was better - and that's rare. I don't get why the Call of Duty people are making new games every year. Make it every two.

To boot - the games are money sucking whores. Every game you buy (for $60) will then have download-able content that costs $15 bucks a pop usually. They purposefully hold things back to release it later to suck more money out of us. It makes sense if you're a greedy bastard, but I, the poor unemployed graduate, gets annoyed.

I think people are starting to get sick of the new games, so Nintendo tried to do something bold and go back to the old school 2D platformer and give it a 21st century upgrade. That game saw huge success. Not worth my $50, but I know people loved it.

Add in this crazy 'motion' craze we're going through now with Wii and soon for the Xbox. Why do I want to play a video game without a controller? That doesn't sound fun. Part of video games are the laziness - all I need to move is my thumbs. Having to jump up and down and swing my arms and things? I'll get tired in two minutes.

The only good thing to come from the current systems are the wireless controllers. Seriously. But - the buttons suck. They're more buttons on that thing than my first cell phone.
We can't go back to such a simple time, because the technology has changed. Or maybe it was just my childhood and everything is so much more simple as a child. It's probably a lot of that honestly. Now we worry about too many other things. I know I wrote a post earlier about the death of our creativity focused on movies and touched on it for video games - but it's true. All these sequels and franchises. Easy money, no substance. Every now and then you'll see the true gem of the bunch - something that separates itself from the rest. Those are the ones you'll remember.

So this post took like four hours of me thinking and reading and playing and a few very-important phone calls to friends I haven't spoken to in years to devour how and why this all happened. Thank you to them. I doubt they read this.

Isn't it absurd that the video games world's most famous character is a plumber who has a pet dinosaur and saves princesses from angry standing turtles? That's how you make a billion dollar franchise.