GTA 3 showing Claude in a black leather jacket shooting.

Is Playing Old Games A Waste Of Time?

When there are so many great games released every day, what is the point in playing older games?

In the ’90s when I was a kid, there were only a handful of notable releases each year. Getting one or two new titles a year was enough to keep me going until the next birthday or Christmas.

These days there is just too much choice. AAA titles release every month, sometimes several releasing in tandem, while many indie titles also carry more polish than the majority of the games that gamers were playing a decade ago.

There are too many games and too little time. That is a fact.

Despite that, it is still easy to justify going back and playing older games:

They Are Classics

We’ve all missed out on a classic or two. It could be because they came out on a console you didn’t own, or you just didn’t have the money to pick them up when everyone was raving about them.

Whether that is Half-Life, Super Mario World 3 or Chrono Trigger, it is well worth stepping back from the modern day offerings to experience the classics from yesterday. A classic is a classic for a reason.

It Gives Perspective

Sometimes gamers today take things for granted. Many games implement the same gameplay mechanics, such as the cover system, the storage and management of inventory items and choosing a 3rd person perspective over an isometric viewpoint.

But, why?

Revisiting older games gives perspective to modern gameplay mechanics. I remember the first time that I played Gears of War and felt how fluid and intuitive the shooting from cover mechanics were – I just knew that it would become a staple in future video games.

Going back to early games in a series can also give perspective to the evolution of the series. Many people complain about different aspects of Assassins Creed, for example, but going back to the earlier instalments you realise just how good the more recent instalments are. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of the whole series – I love exploring worlds that actually existed long ago, especially when they are created in the detail that Ubisoft’s title has – but it is inevitable that video game series evolve over time and older titles will feel less polished.

To Experience Stories That Deserve To Be Told

There are so many incredible stories in video games that people will never get to experience and so many worlds that people will never get to visit. Going back to older games, even just a selection of the best, means that you’ll get to experience amazing stories that you’d never have known existed otherwise.

Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy 6, Half-Life 2…there are so many incredible stories that deserve to be heard, even today.

Because A Game Is A Game

Too many gamers get caught up on dismissing games that were released before a certain point in time. That timeframe will vary – some refuse to play anything older than 10 years old, others refuse to play anything older than a year – but in doing so, they miss out on so many great games.

At the end of the day, we play video games to have fun. That means different things to different people – some like to immerse themselves in different worlds, others like to get really good at a sports title and compete online, others just like to play Solitaire to unwind at the end of the day.

Video games can be fun irrespective of their original launch date. The fact that so many older games are receiving remastered re-releases just goes to show that there is plenty of life in the back catalogue. Unfortunately, there are many incredible games that are not popular enough to justify an HD remaster, but that should not be forgotten.

Forget the year of release and check out some of history’s best games. You’ll find that they’re fun today and they’ll still be fun in 2050. Probably.

So, What Do You Think?

Will you be revisiting older games, or do you feel that there are too many great games being released every day to possibly waste time on an older title? Let us know!