As many times as I hear old school gamers ramble on about the "golden age" in gaming, it often can get annoying, until I found myself having the same problems. I noticed that I was missing the magic in gaming. I found myself passing through my game library and fingering through the Xbox 360 games, then the PS3 games, Wii games, and onto my PS2 games and stopping at my Metal Gear Solid series of games. I fondly remember trying to figure out how to beat Psycho Mantis and what weapon to use when trying to beat Vulcan Raven. I further scrolled down my gaming collection and came across Mortal Kombat II for the SNES and was reluctant to still have the 2nd grade line paper crumbled up with a huge amount of maneuver combos, and you guessed it! I just had to break out the old yellow tinted SNES to whoop some ass with Scorpion and Liu Kang, but the funny part was I found myself stuck to the 24 inch tube TV (because old school systems look like ass on my 52inch Sony LCD) when just a few hours before, I was asking myself “What should I play today?”, even though I just picked up a hefty amount of new games including Ghostbusters, UFC, Prototype, and Red Faction: Guerilla.
After five hours of completing through the grueling teared battles in MKII, I wiped my sweaty forehead and said “Damn that shit was fun”. Instead of going back to the newly purchased games for the Xbox 360, I went back to my shelf and yanked out WrestleMania 2000, the greatest wrestling game in my opinion, and continued to wreak havoc with my favorite wrestlers. I surely missed this quote “Golden age of gaming”. Whatever happened to the classic cliché games like NFL Blitz or NBA Jam? Now we have companies eating each other’s throats by battling over the NFL license and a triple threat release of NBA games, NBA live, NBA 2K9, and NBA 09, which again in my opinion did little to deteriorate my feelings for NBA Jam on the SNES. If you haven’t caught my drift, I’m implying that games released this generation, although maybe being more advanced in graphics and content, often for a 60 dollar price tag, lack the heart games I had when I was a kid. Take this for a count that we didn’t have Call of Duty 4 multiplayer when I was a kid, so I could understand someone who began their gaming entertainment with Call of Duty 4. I am not discrediting all games from today, what I am discrediting is the filth and heartless side of gaming that exists.
With the endless plethora of movie tie-in's that are blatantly not done right and not with the gamers enjoyment in mind, but rather with the blind pockets of gamers instead. Wanted: Weapons of Fate was not a great game, Iron Man was not a good game, X-Men Origins Wolverine was a good game, so was Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, but does that compare to the great movie tie-in's from the earlier generation consoles with games like GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo 64, or even the kiddish game, The Lion King, on the Sega Genesis? How about Die Hard Trilogy for the PlayStation, or games from not so long ago on the PlayStation 2 like Spiderman 2 and the Godfather? Can the heart in those games truly be compared?
The latest battle in games I have noticed are, besides the ever so annoyingly battle between fanboys, no-name characters that don’t say much throughout the game, like a generic character you play in the new Ghostbusters game meanwhile, we used to have many classic heroes like Solid Snake, Mario, and Mega Man. Not that I’m taking any credit away from Master Chief from the Halo series or Marcus Fenix from Gear of War, but in my opinion, heroes from this generation won’t be in my heart 10 years from now like Solid Snake and Mario are from 10 years ago.
Quality of content is another thing plaguing the gaming experience. Sure, more content making longer games can be a good thing, but what’s the use if that content results in a lacking of quality entertainment and bores you to death, or even a short game that lacks any kind of entertainment? Why are these games even out in the stores instead of being tossed right back onto the drawing boards, or at least a panel of Q&A testers that actually paid attention to what they were playing? Take for an example, Damnation, or Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Smash, what on God’s earth possessed publishers to put these games onto store shelves? DLC is usually a great way to enhance a game’s worth or fix problems post release; although no patch or fix in the world can make any hardcore gamer enjoy heartless filth like Damnation and Leisure Suit Larry. I remember the gaming days where you would buy a game, take it home, and play it until I pass out without having to wait for endless patches to make my game enjoyable.
Playing a game like Metal Gear Solid 4 makes me weep at the knees and makes me happy to be in the “Next-Gen” and reminded me of a few games from my earlier days. This made me realize how good and structured games like Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty and Snake Eater were. Call me crazy, but I can play Metal Gear Solid 1-4 over and over and feel like a spoiled kid in a candy store. However, when I play games that lack the heart of games I played and loved as a kid, I can’t help but question my 60 dollar purchase for a game that holds the chance to get chucked right back into GameStop.
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