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A few weeks ago I issued a gaming survey. I asked our readers – here, on N4G and on the various social media sites we use – to tell me why they keep buying re-releases of old games. I asked whether you would buy the new release of Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi at the end of the year and whether you thought the re-release was warranted.
I got some great feedback and I hope to answer some of these questions below.
Before that though, I contacted Sega* for a quote on why these games are still so popular. This is what they had to say:
‘People have always had a great fondness for the retro games, one of the things you see popping up in discussions amongst the SEGA community and gaming community at large is the love for the Dreamcast system. I know of no other console that is missed quite like SEGA’s last hardware outing.
Gamers have been wanting DC games to be available for a very long time. For some its the chance to revisit their youth, others its to gain more achievements, whilst for some its the opportunity to play titles they never had the chance to.
Perhaps the best proof is the reaction we got post-announcement. Comments and game suggestions flying in from all over the place, Sonic Shuffle, Skies Of Arcadia, Shenmue, Sonic Adventure 2, Chu Chu Rocket. I’d not seen Toy Commander’s name mentioned so much… ever. Articles and polls on the likes of Kotaku and GameFAQs about the other DC titles the users want ported – pretty much everyone went nuts.’
And this is a great indication of what you all wrote to me as well. It’s also fantastic to see that the guys at Sega are taking notice of what the fans want. No doubt if the re-releases at the end of the year are as successful as I think they will be then we may even see a few of those suggestions become a reality.
In terms of games, I think the quote above covers the majority of what people want. Add Jet Set Radio (or whatever it was called over in America… SORCERERS ARE NOT PHILOSOPHERS!) and you have the perfect DC collection. What interests me here isn’t so much that the DC had an iconic set of games that people want to play, that isn’t surprising. It’s more the fact that everybody is saying at least some of the same games.
Perhaps it’s just a mixed group of people now being able to readily complain online compared to in the late nineties, but nowadays whenever a game is released it seems to split the community. Half will complain, half will celebrate.
Not so with some of the Dreamcast back catalogue. Apparently some games are almost unanimously fantastic, which is nice.
But I can’t help thinking of the nostalgia element here. I remember Shenmue as an excellent game that will now be as dated as hell. All the things that Shenmue did and did well have been taken and improved upon for the best part of a decade and now I feel that, out of context, they could feel like old hat.
But that is viewing it objectively. I know in my hearts of hearts that if Sega announced tomorrow that they’re releasing Shenmue to the PSN that I would reply in an over-excited tone “How much?”
They could probably even charge full retail price and STILL have that game sell.
This is where we get into the most interesting part of the survey. Why do we keep buying these games? I mentioned last time that I own four or five copies of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game. This week, because of Sonic’s birthday deals, I bought another copy.
Why? It was cheap, I had about the right amount of points left over from Risk and I like it. Are these good reasons to re-buy something I already own multiple times?
Probably not. It doesn’t justify it but at the time it just felt right. In fact, a huge amount of you told us that impulse spending accounts for your purchase of retro games. That faint glow of recognition can push you over the edge to pull out your credit card.
And while you may regret it moments after buying, it doesn’t matter because for a second there you almost felt like you did the FIRST time you played the game.
Almost.
And then you realise that it’s not 1993, the SNES isn’t the limit of all graphical power and that girls still don’t understand you 17 years on and everything gets a little depressing.
The last question I asked, whether you would buy the re-releases of Sonic Adventure and Crazy Taxi at the end of the year, was met with a cautious yes.
Most people want to wait and see what features will be included with the games and what exactly the price point will be. As this may not be decided until a few weeks before the release date, it may be a little presumptuous of me to say that these will sell well, but I feel it is inevitable.
And I’m glad about that. Both are great games which I’ll play through multiple times if I have to just to show that I have the achievements/trophies in a couple of games that I loved very much as a kid. That’s before I even get to ranting about the HD graphics.
This survey hasn’t really surprised me, just confirmed what I already knew. Gamers like old games – maybe because they think the quality of modern games have declined or perhaps just purely for nostalgic reasons – and if you make those games available then they will buy them.
I’ll buy them, anyway…
*Special thanks to Kevin Eva.
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