I recently bought a second hand snes, having that nostalgic feeling about several games and chatting to some colleagues i bought it on impulse. After buying it I wondered whether the games were genuinely fun or whether it was fun in terms of what was available at the time. Anyway a few days passed and eventually it arrived in all its glory. As soon as I opened it I had that feeling, you know the one you used to get as a kid when you got a new console. I turned it on and slid the Sensible Soccer cart into the slot and proceeded to play it. I’m pleased to say that the game is still AMAZING the simplicity in terms of gameplay and balance was sublime.
These days football games are all about graphics and 3d realistic interpretations of the game, back in the day developers didn’t have the luxury of being able to accurately represent the game 100% so instead focused on fun gameplay! With the explosion of indie games recently over multiple platforms phones, xbox etc… of course indie teams don’t have the luxury of massive development teams and there feels like there is a parallel with the older generations of computer games.
So is the way forward for indie games a look at the past? I certainly believe that most indie game developers will remember fondly games of yester year that inspired them and hope that more developers look at the past and tap into the fun that sadly doesn’t exist as much these days. I’ll certainly be purchasing some more snes games to gain some ideas and inspiration.
