As a young and fair-weather gamer, I loved playing Super Mario Brothers because it was my older brother’s favorite game, and I wanted to be just like him. I can still hear the 8-bit theme song in my head, and I’m guessing you can too, if you played Mario as a kid.
“Bah dat dat doo dat dat doo,” goes the classic, repetitive, 1985 jam. The ubiquity of those notes in many of our childhoods was as constant as a hug from grandma, a pack of Gushers after school, or Saturday morning cartoons. Retro games like Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and The Legend of Zelda are comfort food for gamers.
Chris Schranck, aka FutureManGaming on Twitch, says, “I think a big part of playing retro games is just the feel of the game.” Schranck, 33, played Mario as a kid in Missouri so much that his mom set an egg timer to limit his gameplay in the mornings before school. He’s currently playing Batman: Arkham Knight.
“Playing retro games,” says Schranck, “you’re happy to be feeling like a kid again. As an adult, you have all these responsibilities and anxieties, and if you can just find a way to forget about that, even just for 15 minutes, it can help. I think if you can find something, anything, that can help you feel good, that’s a good thing. Retro games evoke these happy memories. Being a kid, opening up that new game or console on Christmas. How it looks, the beautiful pixel art. It’s the nostalgia, and remembering being young again.”
Amanda Lim, a 25-year-old competitive gamer in Singapore, also loved Mario as a kid because it was “cute and fun.” But she prefers FPS games these days and is currently playing Valorant. GameBoy was a pivotal part of her early gaming years. “Some people’s passion is being a gamer,” says Lim, “and gaming doesn’t restrict to age limit.”
wired.com
https://www.wired.com/story/why-retro-looking-games-get-so-much-love/