Retro game renaissance sparked by simplicity, nostalgia

Izabela Bisiak Commentary Writer

If you have ever been in a class at Maine South, chances are you have played, or have seen some of your classmates playing games on their Chromebooks to try and pass the time.

There is an equally high chance that the game they were playing was some kind of retro game—“Pac-Man,” “Tetris,” “Minesweeper,” or something similar.

Interest in retro games has seemed to skyrocket in the last couple of years, even more so with the incorporation of personal school computers or iPads into most students’ daily lives.

With so many advances in video game technology, what is it about these retro games that have so much appeal to have kept them relevant for years?

The answer is simple: it is the straightforward, easy-to-understand objectives and interfaces of these games that people of all ages coming back for more.

This easy-to-play nature of retro games is a feature of gameplay that many newer games often overlook.

There is a reason you don’t often see students playing newer games like “Call of Duty” or “Fortnite” in class.

Of course, there is the issue that some newer games with intense graphics need computers with the capacity to run them.

Most of these games can not run at their full performance on the average laptop, let alone on Chromebooks, designed to function for schoolwork and little else.

These complex games also require you to put in lots of time in order to learn to play, let alone get good at them. These are all reasons why newer games seem like unattractive options for students looking for a quick and easy way to use their time.

Retro games are easy to learn, and, although simpler than newer games, can be played for infinite amounts of time.

People can play games like “Tetris” for hours at a time without stopping because there is no goal, no endpoint. “Pac-Man” and “Snake,” games centered around the idea of gaining points in the form of coins or apples, have no finish line.

The only thing you compete with is your own previous high score, which is what makes playing these games so addicting.

Finally, there is a certain aesthetic that retro games have that continues to draw people in, even as the years pass. The bright colors, recognizable music, and familiar characters, like “Pac-Man” evoke feelings of nostalgia hard to replicate elsewhere.

In the same way, people continue to watch older TV shows like “Friends”, or older movies like “Star Wars” and “Back to the Future”, people like to play older, classic games because they want to feel nostalgia, whether they were alive when these games were released, or even if they were born 20 to 30 years after.

There is undeniable evidence that nostalgia sells. Nostalgia is at the forefront of entertainment, media, and gaming right now.

Remakes of older animated Disney movies such as “The Little Mermaid” and “Mulan” continue to be released. One of the highest-grossing movies this past year was “Top Gun: Maverick”, a sequel to the original “Top Gun” released 36 years ago. People can’t seem to get enough of the past.

It comes as no surprise that students look to these captivating games, as they are fun to compete with friends for high scores, and have a nostalgic charm hard to find elsewhere.