If there was one thing that really hit me at PAX this year, it’s how many new games seem to be taking their cues from the 16-bit era. It’s like the return to 8-bit gameplay phase that started 4-5 years ago with games like Mega Man 9, Grand Theftendo (now called Retro City Rampage), and New Super Mario Bros., has finally evolved to the next generation of retro. We’ve seen that evolution slowly phasing in with games like Shadow Complex, Mutant Mudds, Super Meat Boy, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Rayman Origins, and Fez, but not it seems to be everywhere, from Japanese titles like Black Knight Sword and Sonic 4 Episode II, to European games like Hell Yeah! and They Bleed Pixels, to Western titles like Sword and Sworcery, Super Time Force, Dyad, Runner 2, Double Dragon: Neon, Penny Arcade: Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness Episode 3, and now Guacamelee.
It was while playing Gucamelee that I first realized how big this 16 bit trend had gotten, as the game does absolutely nothing to disguise its love for SNES/Genesis era. Within 10 minutes of the PAX demo, you stumble upon a Chozo statue holding a glowing ball. Break the stature and you find a magical goat-man. This goat-man turns you into a chicken. Being a chicken has all the advantages of rolling into morph ball. It’s as if the games developers were saying “You’ve played Super Metorid. We’ve played Super Metroid. Let’s take that shared language and do whatever we want with it.” From there the game takes gameplay elements of 16 bit co-op beat’em ups like Final Fight and adventure titles like A Link to the Past, all wrapped in an art style that recalls a day when Batman: The Animated Series was a prime-time hit.
If this is the direction that gaming is headed in, I’m going to be a happy man.
