The Decline of Video GamesFollow

This thread complains about your favorite video games. If you don't like reading complaints, just leave, I don't care. Whatever.



First, I'd like to say I was there from the birth of Atari, the first NES, and the first Game Boy. I made the leap from 2D to 3D games and welcomed them with open loving arms. I even owned a SEGA Dreamcast, and had games for it! How many people can say that? Not many. I think only seven. Anyway, all in all, I own over 400 games and 15 different systems. My point is, I totally love video games.

That being said, I am severely disappointed by some recent video games. Here's my critical reviews since I'm bored.

*Spoilers follow.*





Super Mario Galaxy - This game is a total step down from Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, despite being fawned over by fans as the best game of the year.

About the only controls you need the entire game is shaking the wiimote. Long jumps and crouch backflips are nearly entirely done away with. You can also aim your wiimote at the screen (or have a 2nd player do it! yay 2 player Mario!) and shoot star bits though. What a cute gimmick huh? It must be really exciting for someone to watch you play while they get to shoot useless star bits around the screen!

There is no real challenge in this game until after you have totally defeated Bowser. Remember how difficult it was to get some stars in SM64? The average time required to get each star is around 5 minutes. You will have at least 50 lives by the time you beat the game if you do not reset, which is possible. Occasionally you might die to a well-placed trap, but it wont happen again when you start over with a new life, almost exactly right where you died.

I love the Petit Prince theme about it, the physics are pretty neat, but the levels are totally linear to totally ruin this fact. There is also ZERO exploration for you to do the entire game. And Peach's Castle has been replaced with a space station littered with new and exciting secrets. Oh what? Nevermind, it just has totally useless 1-UP mushrooms everywhere, and you can run from the top to the bottom in about 3 seconds.

Did I mention once you collect every star your reward is that you get to do it again, as a taller green version of yourself? *cough cough* I did it anyway hoping for some revelation, and yes, it was more boring the second time.

The story is fine I guess, odd plot holes and all, since you rescue Princess Peach from peril and defeat Bowser in the end, the way it should be. The power-ups are mildly amusing too, but used far too sparingly throughout the levels.


Now let me ask you something. Do you remember Tall Tall Mountain in SM64? How about the snowy mountain where you raced the penguins down? Grabbing the bunny in the dungeons? Maybe King Boo in the haunted mansion? RAINBOW CRUISE?! The final battle with Bowser atop the endless staircase? I haven't played this game in at least 6 years and these crystal clear images come to mind with ease.

After finishing Galaxy two weeks ago the only memorable thing I can recall is how quick levels and boss fights were over. That's because every level and boss fight is nearly a copy image of one another.


Long story short, this game can not compare to its predecessors and anyone who says otherwise has suffered head injuries and can't properly remember them.






Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass - Your hand is held the entire time you are playing this game, it is a disgrace to the main selling point of the Zelda series: adventure.

Every dungeon is totally linear and there is almost no possible way to get lost. In every boss fight it is perfectly clear how to kill them and even easier to execute.

The only memorable difficult part of the entire game is when you have to close your DS to imprint a symbol on your map, which is a cute little gimmick. (Which took me about 3 minutes to come up with admittedly)

Despite having a whole ocean to explore, there is hardly any explorin' to do. Dora was mucha disappointed.

Unless you totally lack hand-eye coordination battle will be a complete cinch, you just put the stylus on an enemy to kill it. Not a terrible feature of the game by itself, but Link's shield does almost nothing because of this, which dismays me greatly.

Every power up can be found without the use of a guide, and it's not tricky at all to get every single one. I guess it's only fair since they aren't useful power-ups? *lol beam sword*

The only replay value lies in collecting every boat part... who cares though? By collecting boat parts you increase your ships heart points, something which you will never need more than three of anyway.

The story and characters are well-written, but it's not enough to make up for the shortness of gameplay, another weak point. I finished the entire game, from start to finish, 20 hearts, full golden ship, every upgrade obtained, while traveling this weekend in the back of a car. That's kind of sad considering you spend most of the time sailing the boat.

To compare PH to any other recent hand-held Zelda games or the masterpiece that is the Wind Waker would be a disgrace.



TL;DR : There's no challenge and content in these new games, but just enough silly gimmicks to get by.




There are other games, but these stick out sorely to me because of the prestigious series to which they belong (my two favorite series actually). Call me a malcontent if you want, I'm just really saddened to continuously see people cry praise for these pathetic additions.



Are my expectations for new games to exceed old games just too high or something? Blah blah blah, I just wanted to vent my disgust at $90 poorly spent... now agree or disagree with me.

I've not found a good video game in nearly 2 years with the exception of Mass Effect. Worms £d games were disappointing, Star Wars hasn't released any newbies and every "critically acclaimed" game has been far too easy and/or far too short to enjoy them properly. Hopefully this'll change with Dynasty Warriors 6 and Force Unleashed.

Umm, every Zelda game is pretty much totally linear. Granted some like Twilight Princess have more side quests, it is still a completely linear game. I need to get Hourglass still. Galaxy is a good game. Saying that Sunshine is better however is a disgrace to gamers everywhere.

You only dropped two first party Nintendo games by the way. How are video games declining with the massively awesome games coming out this year? We already have Crysis and we will soon have GTA4, RE5, FFXIII, SSBB, MGS4, Spore and many more. Not to mention the very promising MMO's Stargate and Conan.

Also, I can see somewhat of a decline POV from the fact that gaming companies are not trying as hard. You're just beginning to see more of a separation; much like the separation between B movies and Hollywood movies (not saying all hollywood movies are great). The industry continues to expand every year and is now making more than Hollywood. How is that a decline again?

I also think a lot of you have this spoiled perception as to what "fun" is. Most of us began playing video games as children. Have you gone back recently and tried to play Pitfall on the Atari? Not as much fun now is it? Many of you have become jaded and spoiled by the many great games that have come out over the last few years. Do you seriously consider a game like Doom more fun than Doom 3?

Try going back and playing Redlight/Greenlight and tell me how you do with that.

i don't think there is a decline in games, but you (not just you, OP) having higher standards every time something "new" comes out.

Think about it.
Atari came out..you played the old games, you loved them.
Then NES came out..and "omg this is awesome!" times came with it.

The the super, sega, gameboy (OMG I CAN TAKE MEH GAMES WID ME!).
Games came out, all looking better then before.
Stories being told like moved our us.
Games that took "skill"

Internet meant people could "get" together. Share their gaming ways and tips.

Then the PSX came out... oh snap!
A dawn of a new day.
Followed by the N64.
Games were so "life like", Hello 3D worlds good bye 2Ds.
3D playing systems, comps games going 3D

Online games popped up here and there.
The fun seemed to never end.
Kids stopped going outside.
Were able to make friends because "OH HEY I PLAY THAT TOO!"
got fat together.

The DC came, but it was at a wrong time. Counsel system that could go online!?
-NO never! that is what the comp is for!
(i did have a DC. still have it, it was the reason I moved to online games).

ps2, xbox, gamecube, newer hand held games.
Online play, MMOs
Games looked even realer. Testing you skills against others (i was a big THPS fan, I say I was pretty "good" at THPS4 at my prime)
Playing MMOs on a comp.
They came to the counsel.

New wave ps3, 360, wii all in HDD.
You can see the sweet sweat on your favorite character's face as you run him down the field for a TD!!!

But..what of game play?
You loved playing with that joystick.
The a D-pad/keyboard.
Hard to invent something else..well, Nintendo did it (wii).

Stories?
Save the day, build an awesome can't beat team, learn better motor skills to bust huge combo lines; get through the story.
Game ends, you either say "meh i saw that coming" or "hope they make a part [insert number here]"

What else is there to do?

To me games get better "looking". Game play stays the same on most games (hit this button to attack, these do combos). It is the stories that get me; game companies have to keep coming up with something fresh.
How many times did you save a princess?
The world?
Or yourself and your "friends"?
Or had to build and army/force/level up to take down a nation/world/uber boss.

If it is fun to you, no worries. The Gamer Company did what they set out to do, make a game and have people buy it.

I don't think there has been a decline in video games, There are always going to be bad and good games and your opinion is going to be biased as you are comparing your favorite games to new ones which are going to different. Game designers won't make the exact same game and will try out new things. Also when you have played games for so many years you are going to have much less trouble beating them as before. I admit I still play my N64 and SNES from time to time but there are many great newer games as well.

Edited, Feb 15th 2008 12:19am by BlueLand

Tru Fac: Everything is always better in the past and future, the present is the most terrible time for any sort of art form, moral standard, or technology. The most surprising thing is that this statement remains constantly through despite the passage of time.

The easiest and shortest of the Metroid Prime series. )=

It left me desiring a lot more, in terms of depth and challenge.






Shaking the wiimote in any direction to make Link do his standard horizontal slash? Or was it by simply porting yet another GameCube game to the Wii to boost sales?

I have to admit, I had a lot of fun with Twilight Princess, but it wasn't anything spectacularly new for the Zelda series or where it can go. They could have made the game for the N64 and it would have been as much fun.




I see where this is coming from, but I have to disagree. These games aren't new "art forms" at all. They're the same games we've always played, just with a new "button" in the form of the wiimote or a stylus. And there are good games for the Wii, DS, PS3, and 360, but the decline in popular brand game quality is what scares me.

Also, the video game industry not like the art world, where fans will wait until a game developer is dead until they begin buying his games either.


I have never been more in love with video games than the months following the release of the N64 or Game Cube. I didn't get an Xbox or PS2 at release, but I wrote quite a few 9/10 or 10/10 reviews when I did.

But I've yet to feel totally wow'ed by any games on the Wii. There's so much potential lying dormant, I can't help but feel a bit bored by just sitting in a chair and shaking the wiimote every time I want Mario to do his spin attack. Hell, it might was well just be another regular button on the controller with that kind of "innovation" you called it?


I'm sure Super Smash Bros. Brawl will be an excellent game, and a few other games look quite promising (I haven't really researched them), but like other posters said it really seems like game developers are not spending enough time on the areas of a game that really count.

Robots don't understand sarcasm.



I completely agree. The best example of this right now is Crysis, where the graphics are phenomenal but gameplay is nothing short of medicore.

Hey a few non-games right after seeing a non-movie and eating non-food is just what a lot of non-people enjoy. I think I've made my non-point.

Seriously though Turin, why is every game you do not like a non-game, and every player who chooses a console you do not like a non-gamer?

Too bad Twilight Princess is actually a non-game so it doesn't count. Silly Himmelskralle.

I'm going to be rude TurinAlexander, but I'm going to also be honest.

You have recently displayed a large amount of ignorance about a few game related topics, have a flawed perspective, and are completely unaware of your extreme personal bias.

Calling certain games non-games is simply ridiculous. Games can be qualitatively better or worse, but they cannot be more or less a game.

The problem with this statement is that it describes most of the top Xbox360 and PS3 games as well.

Guitar hero/Rockband: There is no bigger gimmick than the peripherals and rock music.
Gears of War: Extremely short with a button press cover gimmick.
Bioshock: Short and depressingly easy. additionally a watered down version of System Shock.
Dead Rising: Decent amount of length, but being able to pick up nearly anything as a weapon is certainly a gimmick.

Most of those aren't bad games, but they and others certainly fit your description of being a "non-game."

To be honest based on your definition there aren't any "real games," on consoles. They only exist for PCs where you will find the longest play times, the fewest gimmicks, and greatest depth. That isn't to say those are good or even fun games, but they fit the description.

Until recently I've never played a game that challenged my mind more than my dexterity. Now there are more and more puzzle games. That for me is a boon. In my mind, mostly because of those games, gaming is better now than it was when I was struggling to master jumps in Super Contra, or Kid F-ing Icarus.