Polygon: "Sony’s PlayStation celebrates its 25th anniversary next December. Of course, Sony has never been one for dragging its feet, so the company has already kicked off its birthday celebration with a commemorative mini-PlayStation console crammed full of 20 games. Some of those selections make perfect sense — if you’re out to make huge stacks of cash, you’re obviously going to include Final Fantasy 7 — while others ... well, let’s just say that Battle Arena Toshinden wasn’t all that remarkable back in 1995, and time hasn’t been especially kind to it."
For those times when you’d rather watch than play — these games are as binge-worthy as your favourite Netflix series.
It’s time game developers stop ignoring one of the most beloved features in gaming history: split-screen couch co-op. I miss it!
It's a shame to me that so few indie devs seem interested in catering to this era (split screen era) of nostalgic gaming. Many of them are interested in retro gaming, obviously, but almost all of them seem to drift either to platformers or Metroidvanias (no issue with either, there have just been so many). I'd love to see an indie dev really try to capture that late N64/PS1 through early Xbox/PS2/GameCube era of split screen gaming.
Nick Fernandez writes, "After decades of questionable practices around emulation, a chance conversation with a retro game store owner changed my views forever."
This is a great article and it's what many in the retro community feel.
I still play on original hardware if I have nostalgia for those systems I have my nes, mega drive, PS1, n64, PS2 connected through a retrotink 2x to a OLED Bravia and I'm happy with the image. Sometimes it's not even the games but the sound of a PS1 laser firing that makes the experience the changing cart or disc it's cathartic
If I don't have nostalgia for the system like SNES, Saturn, Dreamcast I'll emulate and maybe use a Bluetooth knock off controller or NSO controller to feel sort of genuine like the SNES NSO gamepad is awesome.
I also use ever drives for the cart based systems I own a few classics I love like super Mario Bros games, sonics etc but retro gaming is expensive so everdrive gives me that full library like emulation but I have the right gamepad in my hand because some systems just don't feel right unless you have the right controller mainly the N64.
But I'm under no illusion I'll have my retro systems forever all the console will inevitably die and that where emulation becomes vital. Its great for preservation and it helps make these old games accessible to younger generations who may wonder where their favourite franchises started and expose them to new things like games from the 8 and 16 bit era which still hold up really well.
I enjoy articles like this. It's actual game journalism. I would love to read more about the context of the store and the owner one day.
I started out completely against downloading emulators and roms. I considered it stealing.
However, recently, with companies like Ubisoft and others, telling me I don’t own my digital only game, and even the physical games that I do own are incomplete on physical media, some with nothing more than an executable file, on disc so that I have to download the entire game anyway. I have since changed my opinion on the subject. If game publishers don’t care about me, trying to do the right thing, then I’m not going to care about them. The industry brought this upon themselves.
At this time, emulation is the number one way to ensure game preservation. Even Sony and Nintendo is using this method officially to make older games playable on their consoles.
If my emulation were to go away then there is a chance the retro gaming market is likely fall into an even smaller niche since the newer generation of gamers will not even know those games existed.
You know, these type of stories are always subjective, however, we all can agree that these games belong on the list regardless of rank. Going down memory lane here...
Has my two favorites, SOTN and FFT.
Wow no RE3 or Xenogears good list though