If you have ever played a video game from the late 80’s, and then started playing a modern game, you’ll immediately notice many differences between them. First off, the 2D graphics may seem primitive compared to today’s very realistic look and movement of the characters. But the differences I am speaking of may not be the most obvious as how an older game looks in comparison to a newer one. For the sake of clarity, I’ll be comparing retro games as far back as the NES to modern games on the PS5/Xbox Series S/X. I someone narrowed it down to only five key differences that you the player may or may not have noticed until you really think about it. So, with that little intro aside, let’s get started with the 5 Differences Between Retro and Modern Games.
5. Games Take Much Longer to Finish than they Used to.
This one definitely sticks out at least to me. Video games from the 1980’s and 90’s are typically only two or three hours in length, with the exception of Role-Playing Games that can be dozens of hours long of course. A game like Contra for the NES falls in that two-to-three-hour range and has no save points. Which means you have to either sit there and complete the game and miss your daughter’s graduation (not a good idea) or just play it when you have more time to dedicate to your favorite hobby. But even though many games from this era are short, they’re so fun and challenging that you likely will want to play them again and again. Maybe not right away either, but in a few months or one years’ time, you’ll be back to the jungle with the iconic theme playing in the background that will be stuck in your head long after you beat or not beat the game as even with the Konami code is still quite difficult.
Now onto a more modern game like Red Dead Redemption 2. Perhaps not a fair comparison to a run and gun game but hear me out. RDR 2 is an open world western game that you can get lost in for hours just riding on your horse doing side missions, or even just riding just to ride and check out the scenery, the game is a beauty. Many modern games like this have all gotten the open world treatment. The Legend of Zelda: Breah of the Wild, Sonic Frontiers just to name a couple. Games where you can save your game at any point, games that can take 30-100 hours and beyond depending on how much you want to explore the game world. An older game from the 80’s typically doesn’t have side quests. Even the original The Legend of Zelda which felt open world for the time where you can kill enemies to get more rupees and look for secret items can take a bit of time if you have never played or didn’t look at a map or strategy guide.
Besides that, the main goal in Zelda 1 is conquering each dungeon and getting another heart piece and Triforce piece, fight Gannon and save the princess. The point is that even though the original Zelda had a fair amount of exploration it really is minimal compared to the worlds and universes you could spend hundreds of hours exploring. Games like Contra, Super Mario Bros. 1-3 and Double Dragon were all straightforward games in their approach to reach the end of the game without getting a game over. This leads us to the next difference between retro and modern games on my list.
4. Get a Game Over and Start at the Beginning of the Game.
You heard me right. If you get a game over in let’s, say the classic NES game Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, then try to hold back your tears because you will have to start the game all over again. And in particular with that hard as hades game, even if you somehow make it to the end, you’ll have to go back and retrieve an item that you need to complete the game, all without dying. So, basically, you have to complete the game twice to truly beat it, how very cruel.
Not all games were this brutal however, but like many popular platformers of the day like Super Mario Bros., you still had only three or four lives without infinite continues or saves. Yet in the first SMB and even the second one, there are secret warp pipes that transport you to further level worlds in the game to make things easier. In the first Castlevania, you start with a few lives, but if you get a game over screen which you will get often, you can just start at the beginning of the level. Frustrated players will likely give up mid-way through and start from the beginning again tomorrow. Or simply leave their NES on all night. Thank God now we have emulation devices like the NES Classic Edition where you can save state anywhere which really helps if you need to stop and reset your brain for the next encounter.
Now onto a modern game series that not only uses save states but has checkpoints too. Call of Duty, basically any of them from the PS3/360/Wii generation forward had anywhere save states. Although I never used them because of a little something called autosave also known as checkpoints which you get when you progress to a certain point in the game. To me, this feels like the game wants me to progress through the game where a game like Ghouls and Ghosts wants to challenge me at the highest level. But does this mean that newer games are easier than ones from the 80’s? Well even though it depends on the game, the answer in most cases is yes, modern games are easier to complete, although are more time consuming.
There are newer games that have that old school difficulty such as the Dark Souls games, and the games aren’t short either. The series in a nutshell can be defined as an action RPG with enemies that can one shot you unless you dodge, give some hits then repeat. Although the enemy AI can be unpredictable and punish you for using the same old tactics. There are save points AKA bonfires scattered around where you can also use to level up your stats, replenish your healing and magic flasks and so on.
There are many different character types that you can choose from, but I personally go for a more ranged character but that has a close-range weapon just in close you find yourself surrounded. I go for one of the magic wielding characters so that I can just blast unsuspecting skeletons from range for a while, go back to a bonfire to level up, rinse and repeat. Even though the souls series is notoriously hard, it’s still not as hard as old school games that don’t use save states. Of course, a way to remedy that even though it may seem kind of cheap is playing something like Battletoads on emulation and saving your game after every hard part of a level. No shame in doing this if all you want to do is complete the game, but it does take something away from the overall experience.
3. Downloadable Content (DLC) and Microtransactions
And now to something that is commonplace in video games today, DLC and microtransactions. Downloadable Content or DLC for short expands on whichever game you are playing by including things such as more in game missions, characters or even an all-new story. Microtransactions is using real world money to buy in game items such as weapons, outfits for your characters and more. The difference with both of these which I combined into one category is that this form of content doesn’t exist in retro games. Basically, you get what you paid for, everything from the beginning up to the 6th generation PS2/Xbox/Gamecube era. I’ll go over both DLC and microtransactions and how they are more or less the same in today’s age.
DLC
If you ever beat a game like Marvel’s Spider-Man for the PS4 and wanted even more, then you can, but it’s going to cost you more money. With DLC, you can expand on an already great experience with a new side story, new abilities and so on. But some may say, (mainly me) is it worth the extra cost? Well, it is if you waited for the remastered version on the PS5 which includes all three DLC chapters. Yet, some gamers don’t want to wait and buy each one as it comes out, but of course for many games now with DLC you can buy what’s known as a season pass for usually $25-$30 and get three DLC chapters to keep you busy for a while. This is definitely a far cry from games of old where you beat the game and either play something else or later play the same game again, which I do often if I really enjoyed the game.
In a way, this makes me not want to play the original game with the DLC more than once. Because sure you get a lot of bang for your buck, but if the base game is already long and you expand upon that even more, unless your retired or unable to work or go school then you won’t have time to replay a longer game let’s Skyrim more than once. Yet the DLC you might want to play again because they’re usually short enough but give the player something else to do and maybe even play as a character that they previously couldn’t play as. The problem I have with DLC is that it isn’t advertised, at least aside from an ad on my Nintendo Switch when I first power it on or through internet ads that I usually take as an annoyance without looking closely and click away from it altogether. Nevertheless, I like the idea of DLC, but I wish there was a better way to know that it’s out that can’t be confused with a spam advertisement.
Microtransactions
In what gamers refer to as pay to win, microtransactions allow you the player to buy in game items, skins etc. to enhance the experience of playing something like Fortnite. In the popular online game, players can use real world money in order to get fake video game money or V-Bucks to make the above-mentioned purchases. You can even buy experience to level your avatar up to twenty-five levels. Personally, I spend my hard earned duckets in Fortnite and other games thinking that I would be happier if I got a certain character skin. And to some degree yes, I immediately was like “Oh yeah, that looks cool.” But after a while, I was like “I probably didn’t need to buy the DBZ skins for all the characters, just Goku and Vegeta would have sufficed, but nooooo, I had to buy the four-character pack which included Beerus and Bulma, seriously. “
The skins may look cool although not always accurate to the original, but characters don’t play any different than a stock in game character that I paid no money for. Sure, you get a harvesting weapon, and some custom emotes, but is it that big a deal. Isn’t the goal to get the win and not your appearance. Seriously, when did video games become such a fashion show. Now sure, there are characters that are taller like Optimus Prime, but again he plays the same as any character in Fortnite, he just happens to be a bit taller. At any rate, microtransactions are fluff that you may or not need in your life. It definitely comes and goes in phases for me.
2. Games Used to be Difficult
Now this is a difference that some may argue needed to happen in the modern age of video games. As mentioned earlier, if you think games like Dark Souls are difficult by today’s standards then you have never played games from the 1980’s. Games such as Ghoul’s ‘n Goblins, Battletoads, and Contra just to name a few. Sure, there are games now like Super Meat Boy and Cuphead that are quite difficult. But, back in the day, most games were difficult and only gave the player three lives and one continue if you’re lucky. Lose those lives and its game over. These types of games encourage the player to practice, practice, and then practice some more in order to stand any sort of a chance at conquering the beast of a game.
This gave players a massive sense of accomplishment when they eventually beat said game. Or like many gamers have learned, a reason to not play games that are hard as steel balls as many have given up the fight before getting past the first stage. The dedicated gamers who thrive on challenge will love the old school NES difficulty as it was known and keep trying. As for me, once enough controllers have been broken in a frustration that can only come from losing countless lives in a video game, it’s time to probably play something a bit lighter like the lottery.
1. Games Have a Story Now
Back in the time of Pong and Asteroids, the concept was simple, to play the game and see if you can beat it. Nowadays, games have characters with emotions much like a Hollywood blockbuster. I would say that this all started with games like Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy 7, basically the 32-bit era in general. In the 8- and 16-bit years, where characters were nothing more than little pixelated sprites who must rescue the princess and save the world from evil was the most story we got back in the day.
Now, a heavier story with full voice cast, motion capture actors which can sometimes be real Hollywood actors and the ones who write the story. A good example of this is Metal Gear 4: Guns of the Patriots. A game where the player spends half the game playing and the other half watching well-acted and emotional cutscenes like they were at the movies. Some players don’t like story driven games and just want to get to the nitty gritty. But there’s no denying how much time and effort it took in not only programming the game but also having a team of actors do their part as well. This is something that retro gamers probably don’t like, you know, a lot of talking and not as much action from them. But then again, the early Final Fantasy games had much story meant everyone who played them could easily pick out their favorite character. Although not voice acted back in the 80’s, games, practically RPG’s had a fair bit of text to comb through instead.
So, to summarize. 8–16-bit games typically had little amounts of story and cutscenes. Games in the 32-bit era had more story, but it was the following generations going into today that really emphasized story. In some cases, you get interactive cutscenes like the God of War series, or Resident Evil 4 where you must press a button or button combo while a cutscene is happening to advance further. Now, there are visual novels where you really aren’t playing the game, just watching the story play out albeit with a beautiful visual style.
End Credits:
Video games have evolved greatly, but for the better? That’s for the individual to decide. I love some aspects of modern games like autosaves, characters that I can become attached to and exploring an open world. But some things like complex controls, and worlds that are simply too massive to explore can get to be too much. Games are definitely more relaxing in that I can lay back into my chair or couch comfortably and defeat a boss, whereas in something like Mega Man 2, I’m sitting up, hunched forward, eyes focused on the task at hand. Because one wrong move in an older game and its game over, while something 32-bit and later will have some sort of save function.
That’s why now, playing retro games through emulation or an FPGA device like a MiSTer that allows the player to save at any point is a god send for clearing those really difficult games like Ghouls ‘n Goblins as mentioned. Even if people who grew up in the 80’s can appreciate this as well as modern conveniences in games of today. In any case, those were merely a few differences between retro and modern games. The differences can be huge or small, but the games should always be fun, no matter when they were made.
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