game girl advance: Old School Charm

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June 24, 2005

Old School Charm

Apparently Nintendo is hinting that they might enhance the Nintendo classics to be downloadable on the Revolution (link, thanks Kotaku). Of course, it's too early in the game to accurately guess what Nintendo has planned. This is a company that shrouds itself in an almost mystical secrecy over its projects. For all I know, Nintendo will implement some way in which your very thoughts will move Mario across a holographic landscape in which you distinguish between good and poison mushrooms through a smell simulator.

But most people are guessing that Nintendo’s going the more likely route of applying newer graphics to their older games. And while I wouldn't mind if Nintendo made two downloads of their games, an original and an enhanced, I'm not sure if that's how the Big N rolls, son.

Personally, I find there's some charm to the graphics of older games. Especially the early NES games; there's almost something minimalist in the sprites of games such as Super Mario Bros. and Kid Icarus. The simple graphics work well with the simple games. Not that I'd be against some sort of cool three-dimensional realization of those simple sprites, ala the World 1-1 stage in Super Smash Bros. Melee.

But as far as I'm concerned, I'd prefer to have my classic NES games in perfect emulation rather than a prettier version that plays the same. I think that the game industry should actively celebrate both the history of games and the amazing technological progression of the medium by retaining the look and feel of older, classic titles in retro-releases. Remakes are cool and certainly have their place, but I’m just the type of pretentious dork who would rather have Han Solo shoot first.

Posted by Mike at June 24, 2005 02:12 PM | TrackBack

Comments

there's almost something minimalist in the sprites of games such as Super Mario Bros. and Kid Icarus

"Almost" nothing. The graphics of old NES games are often very well designed, and these days they hold up better aesthetically than their 16 bit counterparts precisely because of the strict limits that hardware put on the artists.

Posted by: Mister Toups

on June 24, 2005 05:15 PM

I think there's also more to the original versions than just their aesthetics, too. Being restricted to a small color palette and a low resolution forced developers in the 1980's to make game worlds that were less detailed than today's, but easier to navigate through because of the reduced complexity of their visual spaces.

These days games are so photorealistic and hi-res that it's actually hard to identify all the different elements of a scene. In Doom 3, for instance, I can't make out a flaming skull enemy until it's right in my face, but in the original Doom I could see them from a mile away because my environment was more visually sparse. You see this problem everywhere; I think it's one of the main reasons for the downfall of the adventure genre over the past decade.

I wish I could say that Nintendo avoids this kind of thing, and perhaps most of their games do, but it's actually one of my main problems with Super Smash Bros. Melee--there's just so much junk on the screen that I can't tell what I'm supposed to focus on, or even where my character is.

Posted by: Foopy

on June 25, 2005 06:35 AM

There's a lot of possibilities here. My guess is that Nintendo isn't going to be spending the cash to redo a lot of existing assets. Rather, I'd guess that they'll either A) utilize something across the board to enhance the resolution or aliasing of graphics or B) update textures on certain games using source material for higher resolutions. (Or C), both)

Posted by: RegularX

on June 25, 2005 09:18 AM

I'm not sure if that's how the Big N rolls, son.

Actually, when Nintendo released a bunch of watch games for the Gameboy Advance (Game & Watch Gallery 4, which I reviewed) they included both old school and new school versions. If they're that faithful to the friggin' watch games, then chances are good they'll at least consider releasing these ones intact as well. Unlike a lot of other companies which seem almost ashamed of their low-rez past, Nintendo takes their backlist very seriously. Which has good and bad implications.

Posted by: Jim Munroe

on June 27, 2005 11:21 AM

Yeah I think Nintendo trades pretty heavily on nostalgia. Also, hi-rez'ing those games to then give them away would probably be pretty expensive (both time- and money-wise).

Posted by: StGabe

on June 27, 2005 05:24 PM

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Posted by: outsider

on August 17, 2006 10:12 AM

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Posted by: Allan

on August 17, 2006 03:27 PM