Why do I Retro Game? Let me tell you. There are several reasons why I chose to opt out of the next gen console race a few years back and rediscover the classics of old. While many people like and enjoy an infinite numbers of polygons, fancy cell shading and Dolby sound they don’t give me the same satisfaction that I got from the old 8 and 16 bit consoles. I have never gotten that “Saturday-morning-after-cartoon” feeling that was so wonderful when I was 10 and 11. In old NES and Genesis games there was subtle difficulty that made some games brutally difficult and others so simple that only complete and total mastery of the game is an excuse to play it. Combine that with the thrill of hunting for old games and you get that great nostalgic feeling that come from only playing the classics. Also please refer to the following diagram, which I've labelled "broke": Reason 1: Price. I am 28, in college, and have a mountain of debt and bills to plow through every month. I can’t afford a next-gen console let alone the games an accesories. Thankfully there are tons of enterprising gamers out there that provide me with emulators and ROMs at no cost. As a gamer I really don’t need Halo 2 and Resident Evil 4 when there are games like Faxanadu and Golgo 13 that need attention. If emulators and ROMs aren’t your thing, just run over to eBay and look for an NES package that has 20 decent games and the console for just over a hundred bucks. Wow, thats 1/3 the (proposed) cost of the Wii, ¼ the cost of a 360, and 1/8 the (proposed) cost of the PS3. Not only that, but you have just a good as chance of your console not working as you would buying any of the above. Reason 2: The Controller. Two or three buttons thats it. Punch and Kick. Gas and Brake. Shoot and Jump. What else do you need, really? When I started retro-gaming, especially with the NES, it was difficult to get readjusted to the simple gray rectangle, now I love it. I am not stretching my fingers into funky angles to hit the right combination of buttons to land on the platform, attack, dodge, get the 5 hit combo and return to a safe position for the super attack that is headed my way. Having and using a two button controller is like being dropped off in the desert with only a small knife and string to MacGyver your way out of the 8 bit wilderness. The Genesis was a bit easier to get adjusted to after not playing, primarily because of the size, not because of the extra button. Reason 3: Graphics. To me there is something calming in the old 8 bit pixilation. Maybe it’s because I still have to use my imagination, maybe it was because the designers were really great at what they did. There was no motion capture, no video cut scenes, and no load times. How great was that!! Pop in Kung Fu, beat the first stage’s ass, then walk upstairs and the enemies are already dropping out the ceiling. Sure the hardware was a little rough at times, too many sprites or too much action on the screen and you got a wicked slow down, but that just adds to the drama. There is nothing like smacking someone 360 in Super Dodge Ball only to have the sprite bounce in slow motion as he returns to Earth and skids to a stop in front of his teammates, WHO NEEDS BULLET TIME WHEN YOU HAVE THAT. Reason 4: Sound. The NES and the Genesis has some of the best original music ever. So great it has been copied and sampled for a generation of gamers and music listeners that have never played the games that the music was taken sampled from. A perfect example is an acquaintance of mine named DJ Thirsty. The first track I ever heard of his was subtle mix of the theme from Castlevania 2, a bit of bass and some spooky (ghosts wailing) sounds. Another track on his CD features a sample of the theme from Flashman, its pure genius. I remember using a micro-cassette recorder to record music from a few of my favorite games in the 6th grade for a project about music. If you would have asked me back then if I would still be listening to that music today I would have said “You bet your ass I will.” I would have been talking out my ass, but I wouldn’t have been lying. Reason 5 The Hunt. I live in an area that is pretty far off the beaten path. Economic hardship is a way of life in Western Montana. This type of environment is the perfect breeding ground for the pawnshop. Need a new Game Cube or X-Box controller? Skip Game Stop and Best Buy, head down to “We-Buy-Anything” and grab a controller for about $6.50, and they are always willing to deal. With such a rich abundance of pawn shops to prowl and you can find that copy of Final Fantasy III (VI) for the SNES for $9.00 (True Story). Sometimes you have to dig, and a good cleaning is always in order when you get home, but I have never gotten burned in a pawnshop deal. So there you have it, the primary reasons I will forgo the next-gens for the classics, my manifesto of sorts. There is hope for me though, if Nintendo comes thorough with Wii as console that supports the classic titles I will probably bite. I won’t, however, stop me from popping in a cart and jamming down a some 3D World Runner or Gauntlet. Something tells me the Wii-mote can’t fully replicate the feeling of the NES classic controller.