Old Video Games and Video Game Consoles are Better Than New Ones

Justin Weidner
Mrs. Maulick
Language Arts 7-A
31 January 2020

Old Video Games are Better Than New Ones

        I have always enjoyed playing video games. I enjoy all games, although I really enjoy older games. Some new games take too long to complete. Old games have a more original feel. Old video games and video game consoles are better than new ones.

SNES, one of my favorite old consoles

        First, some new games have tons of excruciating, time-consuming side-quests, or sometimes new games just take an extremely long time to complete. According to GameCentral on metro.co.uk, “The problem is not the difficulty but the length of time it would take to beat it.” Games are not necessarily difficult. Sometimes they just take too long to complete. Old video games were usually a good length, not too long or short, but still enjoyable and with a lot of replayability.

        Next, newer consoles and systems are often flooded with faults or problems. According to Gabe Gurwin on digitaltrends.com, “The dock scratches the screen… The console bends over time" and in a different article, "Disc drive makes grinding sound… Audio is not working properly.” Those are just a few problems from the endless list of problems with newer consoles. New consoles often have several recurring problems. Old consoles had a few, but not anywhere near as many as new consoles, since old consoles were much simpler.

This could be an exaggeration...

        Some people think new games are better than old games because new ones have better graphics. However, old games have a more original feel. Old video game graphics may seem bad, even horrible, but older games were limited to a low resolution, so take into consideration what they had to work with. Besides, old video game graphics are iconic. They all have their own unique creative elements.

Mario Bros. (Look at how good the graphics are)

        In conclusion, new video games can never be as good as old ones. New games take too long to complete, new consoles have a lot of problems, and old graphics have an original feel. Maybe you should stop playing new games for a while and try a few older ones. If you can not find any to play, at least watch some videos on YouTube. Regardless of whether you like them or not, old video games are the foundation of all of our new games.

Growing Up With Video Games

Video Game Consoles of My Childhood

Alright, so I just want to say that back when I was a kid, around the same time as most of you guys (I was born in 2006) I actually grew up with consoles from before my time. I went over some of the consoles in my previous blog post (AWESOMEST VIDEO GAME SYSTEMS) but I would like to talk about some of my personal favorite games that I grew up with.

Super Mario World

From the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Super Mario World is one of my favorite games, and still is, because it's what I call "The perfect balance of Mario." What I mean by this is that it has pretty good graphics (considering it's on an SNES) and I'm not saying that the original Mario Bros. has bad graphics, but I'm saying Super Mario World looked pretty good for its time:

Another enjoyable part of this game is that it's not too complicated. I think anyone can pick up an SNES controller and at least beat the first few levels with ease. But that's the thing. I have played some more recent Mario games, and I do still tend to enjoy them for the most part, but they've added so many things to the Mario games over the years. Back in Super Mario World, it was jumping, sprinting, and spin-jumping, along with the occasional mushroom, fire flower, or super star. Nowadays, Mario games involve jumping, sprinting, and spin-jumping, along with wall jumping and like 500 different power-ups (Might be an exaggeration). I give this game a 10/10 for not being insanely complicated, but still being enjoyable.

Super Smash Bros. Melee

From the Gamecube. I'm sure probably 90% of the people reading this know what Super Smash Bros. is. If you don't... WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR LIFE!? Well, I still do really like all Smash Bros. games. I have played all of them on their original consoles EXCEPT for Super Smash Bros. (Commonly referred to as Super Smash Bros. 64) on the Nintendo 64 (N64), but I have played it on an emulator. I remember, back when I used to play Smash Bros. Melee all the time with my brother and sister. We were very limited when it came to selecting a character. The fighter roster looked something like this:

 As opposed to the current roster in Smash Bros. Ultimate (There are actually a few more not shown):

As you can (hopefully) see, there's quite a difference in the number of choices. Back when I played Smash Melee, I didn't really "main" anyone. I kinda just picked whoever I felt like playing and started the match. Now, in Smash Ultimate, I usually use Ness, who's from the game Mother 2 (More commonly referred to as Earthbound). I also give this game a 10/10 for the unique attacks of each different fighter.

Donkey Kong Country 2

From the SNES. Why Donkey Kong Country 2? Why not Donkey Kong Country or Donkey Kong Country 3? Well, simply because: I played the second game the most out of the three of them. The first 2 were pretty similar, anyway, but the third one was a little different, in the way that the world map worked, and also, the levels kind of had a different feel to them. In the second game, you play as a team of Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong, trying to save Donkey Kong from King K. Rool (In the second game he was actually Kaptain K. Rool). The game was a pretty simple 2D platformer.

It was a pretty cool game, and I really loved it growing up (Even if my brother always said how bad I was at it). One of the parts that I really enjoyed about the game was the soundtrack. I could listen to any song in the game for 10 hours and never get bored of it. I give this game another 10/10, not only for the incredible experience and the good graphics, but also for the sountrack. (It's going to be hard to not give these games a 10/10)

Super Mario Kart

From the SNES. Super Mario Kart. Mario Kart is a pretty awesome game. It mixes Mario (And some other Nintendo characters) with racing. There are many Mario Kart games, but Super Mario Kart is the original. Although the graphics are very blurry, it's still an incredibly good game. It uses a very early version of 3D courses.

I feel like a lot of people that play the newer games might not enjoy this one as much, because here's something interesting: Although the maps are "3D" and you can fall off the edge of the maps, the maps are still completely flat. There are no stairs, no driving up slopes, no downward hills. Crazy. I actually really enjoy this, though, because I think of it as a design element. Something to make the game stand out. But there was still jumps. Sometimes, there would be ramps that would make you "jump" upon contact. I enjoy this game and still often play it with my cousins. It gives me real nostalgia. I give this game a 10/10 once again for the soundrack and just the game in general.

Donkey Kong 64

From the N64. Donkey Kong 64 is a 3D game that involves traveling to several different worlds and collecting many different things.

I'm sure most of you know the DK Rap... yeah, that comes from this game. I personally never really got into the game myself, but I did watch my brother play it quite a bit. I do still play multiplayer, though, where you have to hunt each other down and fight each other. I give this an 8/10, because I do still enjoy the game, but like I said, I never really got into it, but once again, it has a good sountrack, so that has to count for something, right?

Banjo-Kazooie

From the N64. Banjo-Kazooie is a game that I really enjoyed playing as a kid. You travel through several worlds, searching for golden puzzle pieces, called Jiggies.

I did actually play this quite a bit, but I don't think I ever completed it. Not without help, at least. I did also start the second game (Banjo-Tooie) several times, but I never got that into it. I also tried the third game, Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts, but that was made after Rare sold Banjo to Microsoft, and my brother and I both agree that Nuts & Bolts is actually pretty awful. I rate this a 10/10, I would rate it an 11/10 but I can't. The game, once again, has an amazing sountrack, good graphics, and an amazing feel to running throughout the levels searching for Jiggies.

Awesomest Video Game Systems

Video Games

I think a lot of people in 7th grade probably know by now that I love video games. Like, I basically live inside them. I play video games so much to the point where if someone says something rude about video games, it physically and mentally hurts me. Video games are awesome, but some are just better than others. But what's more important than video games? Video game platforms. Without them, you wouldn't even be able to play video games in the first place. Here's a list of some video game platforms that I have, in order of when they were released.

(First PC Game: 1962) PC:

(1990) Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES):

(1996) Nintendo 64 (N64):

(Sep 14, 2001) Gamecube:

(Nov 15, 2001) Xbox 360:

(2003) Gameboy Advance SP:

(2005) Atari Flashback 2 (This is NOT an original Atari console):

(Mar 2, 2006) DS Lite:

(Nov 11, 2006) Playstation 3 (PS3):

(Nov 19, 2006) Wii:

(2008) DSi:

(2009) DSi XL:

(Jul 28, 2012) New Nintendo 3DS XL:

(Nov 18, 2012) Wii U:

(2013) Xbox One S:

(2017) Nintendo Switch:

Which One is the Best?

Well, that's just an annoying question. It constantly attacks people who play video games as much as I do. The question even annoys me. I know some people think that "Playstation is the best, Xbox shouldn't exist" or "Xbox is awesome, Playstation belongs in the trash". That is probably one of the most common arguments I hear about video games that exists. I'm serious. I can also think of some "PC gamers" (That's the official name of these people) who only play on PC and think consoles or anything else is horrible. Now, it's alright to have your opinion. Everyone might think of a different answer for this. But in my opinion, the best platform is... none of them. Seriously, it doesn't really matter what you play on. I personally enjoy playing on older systems that I grew up with, such as the SNES, the N64, the Gameboy, and the Gamecube, but I do still play on newer systems, such as the Xbox One, the Nintendo Switch, and new PC games. But, where am I going with this? I think we can all enjoy a classic run through Super Mario World (Which is still to this day one of my favorite games, if not my favorite), but we still do like to play some of the newer games. Take Fortnite, for example. I remember back in Season 1, when I first started playing, I played on Xbox. But the thing about games like that is that it can be played on many OTHER consoles. So let's see, I've played Fortnite on Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC, and I know you can also play on Mobile and Playstation, and maybe even more. Now, some games that have multiplayer can only be played with other people on the same system as you, but some games, again like Fortnite, can be played cross-platform. Now, one other reason why people might like some systems more than others is just simply because of controls. I feel really comfortable with an Xbox controller, so much so that I sometimes use one on my PC, but I'm also used to keyboard and mouse, but one of the things that I just can't get used to is the Playstation controller. So there is really no "best" system, but if you want to have an opinion, by all means, have an opinion.

Emulators

Oh yeah, emulators. That's a thing. If you want to try some of these consoles out but don't have them, you should just get an emulator. Technically, emulators are an illegal distribution of games, but just because you're getting the games for free doesn't mean the FBI is going to bust down your front door in 5 seconds. Besides, tons of people use emulators. An emulator is basically just a program on a PC that lets you run a different console. I have used emulators several times, mostly just for SNES games that I don't own. I think you should really try some of the consoles listed above. SNES, N64, and Gamecube are probably the only ones that you can actually get an emulator for, but there are some other consoles you could try too. You can always do your own searching. But if you are going to get an emulator, be careful, because a lot of .exe files that are used to install something on a PC contain some form of malware or something like that.