i love old videogames...atari 2600 and vector games. so when someone remakes a game i am generally interested. i was pretty excited to hear about space invaders extreme 2 but after watching a video of the game play, i really wanted to vomit and then scream. or maybe scream and then vomit...or vomit while screaming. the sounds and gameplay of the origional made for a very tense experience. i dont know how to describe it well, but it was dark. it really gave me this sense of impending doom and panic. overwhelming waves of alien attacks one after the other with absolutely no escape. you were going to die. but the remake has this really upbeat feel to it, from the colors, graphics, the music, the announcers voice, to the actual movement of units. it seems like most japanese videogames i have played recently are like this, i cant escape it. i dont know what to label the style or genre but for lack of a better description its cutesy and poppy. the graphics, the music, the style i find hideously ugly. i keep hoping the trend will die quickly. but it hasnt, its still here, its in all my favorite games and its driving me mad. i would have liked to have seen the remake of space invaders to have a hard edge, a visceral quality to it. ...i still cant get over that guy, that announcers voice, he really anoys the shit out of me. i dont know if its culture clash or if my particular taste varies widely from that of the average gamer. how do you feel about this, or do you, am i crazy?
no doubt, this trend is about to grow up! "retrogaming" is this trend and we must rediscover the... Hum.. retrogaming
Bah, Space Invader Extreme is awsome. It's a remake that actualy works and makes the game fresh again. If you want the classic, then freaking look for the original in some emulated form. I love classics but I think i've hit a saturation point where I can't stand to play the same damn thing for the Xth time. It's like watching a movie over and over and over again. Maybe it's just since I feel I don't get enough freshness from NG games since normal maps/paralax mapping gives me bad headakes so I tend to rarely play them). Also you're not xenophobic, you're just old. =)
I don't think there's xenophobia or any other culture clash going on here. Your description of your experience with the original Space Invaders tells me that you had your own interpretation of what the graphics and sound effects represented. We make fun of blocky sprites and abstract vector graphics, but there was a real benefit there in that gamers could fill in the blanks on their own and get their own sense of satisfaction as a result. Better technology means greater realism in 3D graphics, but the ability to personalize the experience is lost as a result. It's possible that Space Invaders was intended to be a campy, cutesy romp and that the technology didn't support the intent. On the other hand, any MFA will tell you that authorial intent doesn't override interpretation. Put another way, your experience with Space Invaders is perfectly valid and nobody can take that away from you.
I'm tired of cashiers at thrift stores letting me know that they had "one of those" when I'm buying a loose dirty NES for $4.98, and how much they miss it and how those old games were better. Seriously, retro sells, especially to non-hardcore gamers. It's hip.
Ahh yeahh, Donkey Kong 64, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Zelda: Majora's Mask. The man above me is correct. Retro sells.
Personally, I love Space Invaders Extreme. It's one of the rare examples when a remake of a classic game gives it a whole fresh feeling just like subbie mentioned. On the other hand, when I see remakes of classic games where they only improve the graphics I would prefer the original (like on the Bubble Bobble case). Expecially when I see a classic game haves lots of remakes (official or not) without offering something really new it get me on my nerves. Just how many times do I to see another Tetris clone, another Arcanoid clone, another Pong clone...gimme a break! Of course, there are classic games like the older Final Fantasy games when you would like to see new gamers to play them but it would be a problem if the won't get better graphics and sound. And that's how Final Fantasy III and IV sold like crazy on Nintendo DS even at players who haven't played the originals. If few words, there are classic games who need remakes when some other don't.
