First time playing Rondo of Blood

[MobiusStripTech]

I have been super excited to play Rondo of Blood on my Duo R, but while I wait I decided to play the Wii VC version. I have been playing everyday this weekend and have to say it's too bad they don't make games like this anymore. I was not disappointed and can't wait to play it on the real thing.

[crazydean]

I have a friend who is mostly a modern computer gamer, and we were discussing modern vs old games. Basically, he was talking about how new games are so polished, which is why he isn't a fan of the older stuff. I was arguing that modern games feel too polished and have no charm. We had sort of a bug vs feature discussion.

PS. Rondo is great. I have never played the VC so idk if it is comparable to the real thing.

[Necromancer]

You can't go wrong with Dracula X.  Enjoy!

I disagree about polish.  Today's AAA titles are usually well polished, sure, but the same can be said from AAA titles back in the day.  Who's gonna seriously argue that Dracula X, Gate of Thunder, Yoshi's Island, etc. are unpolished?  Conversely, who's gonna argue that every new game is perfect?  There's plenty of games in every generation that would benefit from a little more time in the tumbler.

[SignOfZeta]

OG games were *finished* when they shipped, and booted in a few seconds. That's a sort of "polish" you can't get from anything nowadays.

[ChuChu Flamingo]

What I like about old games is that they experimented a lot and tried new things. Modern games feel like an extended movie at times and too much sequelitis. It also doesn't help modern gaming has stupid shit like day one patches, random updates, and headache inducing hand holding.

 Additionally, I felt old games a lot of times tested your reflexes and game knowledge.Beating a game actually meant something, Nintendo hard shit aside.

[MobiusStripTech]

It's been pretty interesting seeing how my kids do with old school games. They approach them in completely different ways than I do. They had a really hard time grasping the concept that many enemies just keep respawning and many games have timers.

[Michirin9801]

I've played the VC version on the Wii as well as emulating the original PCE version, from my experience they're pretty much identical!
Have fun ^^

Oh and, about the whole modern vs retro gaming thing, back then they had more room for experimentation because games didn't cost as much or take as long to make, so they didn't have as much to lose in case their game failed, and they often had loads of other games to fall back on in case that happened... Nowadays games cost bajillions and take forever to make, so one bad game can kill a games company (unless they have really deep pockets)
That leads to them not trying new things very often, taking less and less risks and trying to appeal to the broadest demographic possible so that they can make 'some' profit, which leads to homogeneity...

Back in the day each company had pretty much their own style, you could tell a game was made by  Hudson, Capcom, Konami, Sunsoft or Namco for example just by looking at it and listening to it, but now almost everything looks and sounds the same in their endless pursuit for realistic grafx and cinematic feel...

All that said though, we have one thing that is better now than it's ever been before, and that is the indie scene! Nowadays anyone with the right amount of knowledge and skill can easily publish a game! Some of the best games we've gotten in recent memory have been indie, and that happens because Indie game companies are in the same position right now that the AAA companies were back in the 80s and 90s, their games don't cost as much to make, so if they fail they're not completely screwed, and because of that they can take more risks and experiment more!

[esteban]

^^ To build on this: the dynamic seen in mainstream video game development (huge budgets, seeking broadest possible consumer base) is what stunted the film industry, of course.

The drive for "blockbusters" in gaming industry and film industry is really unfortunate...

[ChuChu Flamingo]

I honestly think we went to hd way too fast. Graphics are nice and all, but I like seeing more technical things, like more enemies on screen and better AI. It doesn't help that consoles still can't do 1080p 60 fps well, sometimes struggling to maintain 30. Budget wouldn't be a concern if developers didn't go for eye candy and trying to create hyper realistic graphics plus what you said about appealing to a large base.

It doesn't help all the great talent of yesterday giants have either been fired or squandered due to these practices.

I guess what I am trying to say is they went for style and no substance.

[gex]

My first play through of Rondo was 2007 on the Wii VC, which got me into PCE. I believe they do a great job with the port, except the graphics are a bit darker i think?

[fragmare]

Modern game polish = Buy $60 game on 50GB+ bluray disc.  Download 20+ GB of additional content required to begin playing though game came on massive storage media.  Download additional pack of bug fixes and updates.  Download $40 more worth of DLC.  Download bug fixes and updates for DLC packs.  Then, you're finally ready to sit through 5 minutes of cut scenes and dialogue to play the full version of your game!