• 31May 07

  8-Bit Sentimentality

  Harken back to that time long past, when your character was a clump of pixels that vaguely looked like Ron Jeremy as a brooklyn plumber. A little further on I remember trying to convince my parents to buy me a new game with the insistence that it had "Great Graphics". Coming from a ten year old kid, the statement was more then a little strange and being the wise and cynical man he is, my father asked if I knew what that even meant.

  

  I balled up my little fists, game clutched between grimy fingers as I proclaimed loudly enough to startle the store clerk, "It MEANS IT'S COOL!" The game in question was "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" for NES, so I suppose time has shown us that...YES! My father was right. I did NOT know what great graphics were! As I recall we made a compromise, I borrowed it from a friend and Dad got to keep his money. I think it worked out for the best...

   

  Fast foward a bit to the release of my hormones and of Super Metroid on SNES. I was and AM great behind the wheel of Samus. Better then great! A GAMER GOD whose sheer coolness and tight body served to fascinate all of my sixth grade homeroom's lowly women!

  I didn't get a date until high school. But I DID throw a rock at the cutest girl in my grade and if we adjust for adolescence in the same way we adjust human to dog years, throwing a rock at a girl in sixth grade was almost on par with talking her into making photocopies of her ass at an office party. It was a form of social interaction that would make my cavemen ancestors proud. But I digress...

  

  The point is, I quite fancied Super Metroid. I played the hell out of that game, and it was only the direct intervention of a friend that stopped me from playing it through for the eighth time by introducing me to Secret of Mana and Squaresoft. What a game! I fell into RPG's with the same vigor, costing me even LARGER chunks of my childhood! And a most unusual thing happened. Final Fantasy III came out (That's part VI actually, but they called it III.) and I loved it. It was my first Final Fantasy game, so I decided to look into part II (Part IV.).

  My best friend at the time warned me that it wasn't nearly as good. I asked what was wrong with it, and he explained the graphics weren't nearly as good as III. I played it a bit and he was ABSOLUTELY right! ... didn't really matter to me, but yes, I noticed a distinct difference! Heck, even the BOX ART was better! But I didn't really see that it had any bearing, and I eventually went on to play the original.

  

  Jumping ahead again to high school. I discovered the joys of owning a vehicle and sports, which cut into my once LONG hours of gameplay. PS1 was out, and my friend was an avid Battle Arena Toshinden player. Having missed out on the fighting game craze that was Street Fighter II (I know... and I call myself a gamer), it was quite a bit of fun. And Final Fantasy 7 came out... I'd been waiting some time for it, and I still have that faded t-shirt that came with my reservation of the game.

  Unfortunately, what DIDN'T come with my reservation was the game itself. I shrugged this off good naturedly, upon hearing that there was ANOTHER Final Fantasy out. Final Fantasy Tactics. This remains one of my favorites, and I was still playing it a week later when my "release day" reservation came up a week late. The PS1 stuttered trying to render the intro scene, I remember, with Aeris walking down the street. The only one in the little clique who had gotten hands on the game, the intro was a thing to be shared. The comment was made by Thomas as we watched the CGI, and I remember clearly, "Someday, the entire GAME will be this detailed!"

  I laugh now, because... in the scheme of present day, those graphics are utter crap. We're rapidly approaching my point though. Graphics continue to improve. They WILL continue to improve. FF VII was a little over ten years ago, and they're currently discussing making a PS3 rerelease, amidst the release of numerous peripheral games and preludes and sequels, etc. That's staying power. You DON'T see this as the case with many of the successive Final Fantasy games, despite superior graphics.

  

  I haven't been here all that long, but I notice that there's a good deal of noise about superior graphics, lauding screen shots and videos to prove the value of a game. I certainly don't MIND the new gen advancements, but graphics alone don't sell anything. Chasing the next gen graphics in lieu of gameplay is generally a bad idea, and a poor point of contention in a debate. I'm almost as thrilled with this growing trend for retro games to be available online, as I am with the new titles. So get in touch with your gamer roots and give the older games a try. Polygons? Cel Shading? Bloom? No where in sight. BUT these are the beginnings of many current franchises, and they've earned the title "c lassic" for a reason. 

  Besides... Super Mario for NES is BOUND to be better then Mario Party 8 was!

  • Posted May 31, 2007 10:40 pm GMT
  • Category: Opinion
  • 4 Comments
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