Old games find new life
THE E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo held last month at the at the Los Angeles Convention Centeris all about the new: new games, new gadgets, new ways to connect with like-minded players. So the inventors and developers who are hoping they’re creating the next big thing must be bewildered by the outpouring of enthusiasm for a remake of an 18-year-old game.
That game is Square Enix’s landmark “Final Fantasy VII,” a classic Japanese role-playing adventure that introduced many Westerners to the genre. When Sony announced a remake would be coming to the PlayStation 4, its fans — many of whom were children when it first appeared — roared with approval.
But it isn’t the only old game getting attention this week. Microsoft won over some skeptics by announcing it would be making the entire library of the good old Xbox 360 playable on the Xbox One. Rare, a studio whose games date back to the early 1980s, announced “Rare Replay,” a $30 compilation of 30 of its old hits, including classics like “Battletoads” and “Banjo-Kazooie.” And then there are revivals of long-dormant series like Bethesda Softworks’ “Doom” and Nintendo’s “StarFox.”
Nintendo, more than any other publisher, has been mining nostalgia for years: Every new “Mario Bros.” or “Legend of Zelda” title takes gamers back to the ‘80s, when they played the originals on the Nintendo Entertainment System. When the company’s “Super Mario Maker” comes out later this year, I suspect we’ll see tons of fan-created tributes to the Mario games of our youth. (AP)
