Wednesday 23 November 2011

(CLASSWORK) Nostalgia with Games, iggy's personal response

Nostalgia is a self relative emotion of ones yearning for an object, person, group of people, place or a combination of the above that happened in their past .

Often people who feel nostalgic gather with like minded people who share (relatively) the same experiences
and reminisce of "the Good ol Days ". Alot of people find it very cathartic to converse about the joys of the past when the present and future seem uncertain or difficult. What makes Nostalgia even more appealing is the fact that the past is irreversible and irretrievable the goldern mermories are offten the things you took for granted and became accustomed to.




In relation to video games my gaming nostalgia is rooted with my beloved PS1,particularly Rayman followed by Crash and Metal Gear. Being born in the 90's i completly missed the "Retro" gaming generation, but i have had my share of broken  NES controllers, Due to the Constained and quite frankly impossible mechanics of Ninja Gaiden, Battletoads, Paper Boy, Contra C, Castlevainia,Altered Beast,Punch Out, Ghost N Goblins, Blastermaster and Exicitebike.All of these games are exeptionaly hard but soo damn good, it seem that alot of new games have been Nerfed to make it more "accecable to a wider market" people actually complain when a game gets harder!?

For me Rayman was one of the BEST games i ever played, the levels were amazingly colorful and detailed  the soundtrack is amazing, atmospheric and original. 
The mechanics were well designed and familiar, it handled just like any other well made platformer but the difference was the INCREDIBLE level design, which gets progressively difficult to down-right IMPOSSIBLE. Only the hardest of players with the whitest of knuckles can progress past the harder level (Picture City and onwards). It is still and difficult now as it was then even with my "developed" 18 year old motor skills and my Call of Duty seasoned fingers and eyes, i still start to struggle past blue mountains.

I can count the amount of Saturday mornings till late and Sunday afternoons i spent glued to the TV, only to be yelled of it to take out the trash and wash the dishes.


The New yet to be released Rayman that has gone back to ist 2d roots a must-play for me. i hope its as challenging as the first one, i hope. the art-direction is superb and the level depth is so good it feels 3d like the old title due to the offseted foreground and background.