The " old school" gamers tend to have a certain belief (I know, I' m one of them). This belief is as follows-

" There is nothing made in the 3D realm that can rival the best of the best in the 2D realm."

Now, while this may be stretching it a bit, I' ve heard it said on more than one occasion. When I first touched the joystick to play Pong back in ' 82, I was mesmerized. At the age of 4, I can still remember it. Now as I look back on 20+ years of gaming, I realize that I, and many others like me, fall into the " nostalgia trap."

The warm and fuzzy memories of " kid-dom" intersect with the memories of our old video games, causing them to shine brighter than they ever did when we were actually playing them. We place them atop pedestals that are unreachable by anything modern, and it' s simply because of one reason: we remember a time that was 100% innocent, and when you could sit down to play without a care in the world.

If we look back at them now, we notice two things. Firstly, we notice that the games really WERE fun. We weren' t just stupid kids that would play anything just to watch actions being carried out on screen. But secondly, we also notice that they just weren' t exactly how we remember them. The depth...well, no game back then contained a fraction of the depth that games like GTA, GT, and MGS have today. Most of them relied on one view, and one purpose; side-scrolling 2D, and get to the end of the level.

The simple bottom line is that the advancement in the industry is undeniable, and the immersion we can have from some of the best FPSs, action/adventures, RPGs, etc. is 10 times greater than it was way back when. Does it mean that all these new 3D games are " better" ? Not necessarily, but in many ways, they clearly are.

The two-dimensional world wasn' t all that difficult to master, and most developers had it mastered by the time the N64 and Mario 64 rolled around. Can we say that ANYBODY has mastered the three-dimensional world yet? Of course not. It' s a work in progress, as was the years 1980-1993. Obviously, they have been getting better, but the REASON that many old 2D games were inherently " better" is because they were MUCH easier to develop!

It' s like saying to someone, " I need you to draw me a house on this piece of paper," and then saying to someone else, " I need you to BUILD me a house." 2D to 3D...it ain' t easy. We need to admit to ourselves that certain things of the past (depth, presentation, graphics, sound) just can' t compare to what is there today. Logic can tell us that. Gameplay-wise? Well...it' s debatable. IMO, Super Mario Bros. is still the most flawless representation of gameplay that I' ve ever seen. And they just built on that for more complex stuff later on (Gunstar Heroes, Strider, Rygar, Ghouls and Ghosts, Shinobi, etc.). But since 3D really became the way (about ' 95-' 96), we' ve seen some VERY impressive advancements.

So take it all with a grain of salt, and let the developers do their work. After all, MOST of them are just working to please YOU. ;)

As for the term " hardcore," which many veteran gamers use to describe those who " understand" that all those 2D greats will " always" be better than anything 3D...that' s just asinine. You want to know how to define " hardcore" ? It has nothing to do with how many games or systems you have, how much money you spend on them in a year, or how much time you spend with them in a week. There is but one requirement:

You must love games. :)

Wow. That' s like... an entire essay. But I still read it all. Entirely true, too. In general I prefer 2d to 3d games for reasons mostly unrelated to nostalgia - but I wouldn' t say they' re " better," just that I like them more.
Oh, and personally I' d say SMB3 and Mario World 1 were far better than the original.

*applause* well written! I agree entirely with what you said. Perhaps because I was an active participant in the golden era of gaming, or perhaps that I have issues dealing with some of the 3D games (damn depth perception and my lack of it :) )

Well written

if you want a free game this month, not bad.
but some advice: keep it to one subject per rant as you can get quality AND quantity. haha

momo: I' m on staff, so I may not apply to the free game thing.

Just trying to get stuff going ' round these parts.

Glad some of you agree. I find it all to be very interesting, for the most part. It' s amazing what kind of role our memories can play...

Yeah, thanks fathoms for keeping Kikizo alive and well the best you can. Anyway, Momo, please quit posting short pointless comments. Every thread I see you in you seem to be posting about winning and trying to tell other people how to win. I don' t mean this in an offensive way. Many people are doing the same thing and doing it much more frequently. So to all new " post with nothing said" people, please quit. Anyway great, um.. guess essay, fathom. Keep it up.