Old School

I still remember the satisfaction I felt after beating the final boss in Ninja Gaiden, saving the princess for real in the original Super Mario, discovering the secrets in Deus Ex, roaming through the jungles of Syphon Filter 3, or even getting past the first freaking level of Battle Toads after several weeks of excruciating pain. You can call it hopeless nostalgia, and you’d be right. And I’ll search for and dissect every video game that will give me even a tinge of that experience.

Today

Flashforward to today – I’m no longer out of the loop (otherwise I’d be very bad at my job), I have access to virtually every game released, but few of them have the capability of scratching that ‘’itch’’ like the old ones did. It’s not like I’m against everything new (insert ‘’Old Man Yells at Cloud’’ meme template), but there is something about the structure and pacing of old video games that make me feel at home.