Liam Lambert, GIZORAMA - "These days, Steam is awash with games intent on tapping in to Gen X “retro” nostalgia, and their over-abundance is enough to make anyone cynical about more rose-tinted 8-Bit platforming. Since it sells itself as “a modern-retro platformer that pays homage to video gaming from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s”, I approached BiT Evolution with a decent amount of trepidation. Game’s within this niche rarely do a great deal for me, since my nostalgia-gland (yeah that’s probably a thing) responds mainly to PS1/PS2/GameBoy Advance obscurities. How surprising, then, to discover that BiT Evolution is more than just a cynically designed, pretty-pixel-picture – it is a smart, lovingly designed pastiche of old ideas which is more than happy to play around with new ideas."
The indie scene has become increasingly guilty of succumbing to one of its most prominent tropes that has begun to grow tiresome - retro gaming homages.
Pixel art is infinitely less expensive to produce than hi-rez hand painted (look at cuphead) or 3d. It's probably 90% of the reason.
I'm glad to hear people are finally starting to get tired of it. I grew up with an Atari and NES and everything that followed. This graphics of that era were the best they could do back then and it was great, but to intentionally make stuff that looks like something you scrapped off the bottom of your shoe? No thanks. Making games ugly somehow became endearing and a fad - bleh.
Depends on the quality of the game if the game uses a retro style and adds nothing then yes but if it does that and add new mechanics the it doesn’t really matter.
Yeah, I think the problem is there are so many indie games out there where "it's retro!" is the only selling point, and not interesting new ideas, polished gameplay etc. Games like Braid, Super Meat Boy and Undertale succeeded because they were high quality games that felt unique, not just because they had a retro vibe.
NGN:
What was once old is new again. At least, this seems to be the case in the modern era of gaming. As the industry continues to push the technological boundaries of graphics, horsepower, and scope, many developers and gamers alike are backpedalling a bit, and rediscovering a certain nostalgic charm many classic games of the 70s, 80s, and 90s held. It is a charm that many modern games cannot seem to recapture. This has given rise to a renaissance of modern games that take on a retro graphical and gameplay style.
Have you ever wanted to play a game that encompasses retro stylings that span the timeline of multiple console generations? Well, BiT Evolution does just that. From the monochromatic visual appeal of original Game Boy games, to the more advanced graphics capabilities of the Super Nintendo, BiT Evolution bleeds retro. This isn’t just in appearances, either. The game will remind you about days of old, sitting in front of the television in your pajamas, to hit you with the nostalgia.
