It’s been quite a while since we wrote an article about (upcoming) live action movies based on anime, comics or videogames (read the last one here). Especially considering that it seems that almost every movie released these days is based on the former. Or did the Marvel franchise just got inside our heads? Time to analyse what’s happening in the wonderful world of movies right now.
Ever wondered why the NES Classic Edition was so popular? Why so many people are playing World of Warcraft Classic? Or why it seems that Arcade Halls are popping up everywhere? How come these retrogames are still so popular?
33 million players
One of the most popular games of the past months, according to various websites, has been World of Warcraft Classic. Even the dutch newssite NU.nl had an article about it, and for our non-gamer-country, this is rare. 33 million people played one the game by Blizzard, the company behind World of Warcraft. That’s 0.5% of the world population! The success of this retro-version of this game (I’ll talk about this later) falls in line with the recent success of the NES Classic Mini and later the NES Classic Mini: Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The NES CLassic Edition console sold out, selling 2.3 million copies in just three months. And even if you don’t want to spend your money on the original (well, more a re-printed version) there are plenty of rip-offs going around offering the same ROM’s. And to be honest, I couldn’t resist those Facebook Ads and bought one of the rip-offs too. It’s greatly satisfying :-).
End Game
So what makes these retro games so popular? One reason is that modern, full priced games can be very overwhelming for less experienced gamers. etro games are easier to jump into than their more complex counterparts. Even for me (and I consider myself an experienced gamer) it was really overwhelming when I tried to jump back into the current state of World of Warcraft. Jumping in at level 100 is really different from starting out your new character at level one, fully experiencing the game.
Older retro games had little to no story. You could just jump into action, hit some buttons, and be done. For me, there’s rarely a time when I feel like putting hour upon hour into a single game. Now, when I feel like playing a video game, I just want to play something I can fire up quickly. Classic arcade games don’t require the sort of time commitment modern games do.
Retro-games were games you could actually finish in a reasonable amount of time. No DLC’s, no updates, you just bought the game, played it for a few hours (or a few dozen hours, depending on the game) and then you’d actually reach the end. They are a complete experience that won’t change in any way after you plug it into the machine.
So what are other reasons people still play retro games?
In a poll on our Facebook group, 14% of the people say that some old skool games are more awesome than current new releases. But the biggest group, 86%, just want to play games from their childhood again… Nostalgia is a huge reason for people to play retro games.
Nostalgia
Consider the age of the average gamer, which is somewhere in the range of 34 to 36 years old. About half of all gamers (give or take) are in their mid thirties or older and you can bet a huge portion of this demographic grew up playing video games on the early consoles like Nintendo, Sega and Playstation.
Personally, I have great memories of staying up late with my niece playing MegaMan 2 and writing down the passwords for the different levels we completed so we didn’t have to start all over again. It’s not a surprise that many want to relive those memories and remember the good old days when games were games and nothing ever sucked… However when attempting to relive these games, you’ll realise memories are misleading. The classic titles were not perfect and many probably return to modern games.
Local multiplayer
Split screen and LAN are uncommon these days. Older games had the split screen and LAN capability to play with your friends at home. Today you need to have two copies of the same game, two consoles, and sometimes even pay for online connectivity in order to play with your friends. The Nintendo Switch in that regard is even worse than their 8-year-old counterpart Nintendo 3DS, where you could play online multiplayer games even if just one of you had a copy of the game. Nostalgia kicking in again: playing Need For Speed with my brother, him playing with the arrow keys and me playing with WASD, still kicking major ass of course 😉
Money
The current price for a game, be it for PC or console, varies from 30 to 60 euros. Games by bigger game studios tend to be expensive; smaller studio’s or indie games are often more affordable. But compared to the hundreds of retro-games you can play online or download for free, it’s no surprise that people love to go back to those games on occasion.
Having previously written about the DOOM release for phones and tablets, people who remember the great fun it brought back in the days are probably pleased to find that you can still buy DOOM on Steam. At €5 per game, or €15 for the DOOM Classic multipack (4 games in total) it brings hours of gameplay at a fraction of the cost. Even console classics like Halo, one of my favorites on XBox, are being released as a Steam Multipack. For just €40 you can buy 6 Halo games to enjoy for hours and hours.
But you can even go much, much cheaper. Dosgames offers a lot of DOS games for free. Of course, you need DosBox to run them on your state-of-the-art gaming pc (but that is also free). DOOM, Commander Keen, Blood, Quake and even one of my personal favorites, Jazz Jackrabbit, all for free! Seriously, this website can be a HUGE time sink if you want to escape your daily life.
What are your reasons to keep playing retro games?
Let us know in the comments or leave a message on Instagram!
With the release of Avengers: Endgame just around the corner, the group has to rally against Thanos and undo the effects of The Snap as seen at the end of 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. And they probably will. However, the Avengers will not regroup without Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Steve Rogers (Captain America) make up. But what happened between these two heroes in the previous movies? It’s time for a recap!
What seemed so far away is finally almost here … the last season of Game of Thrones! I have enjoyed this series every single year. I think my favourite scene from the show remains the moment when upon their return, the Starks find a dead stag, the sigil of House Baratheon. A bit farther away they find a dead dire wolf and her surviving puppies. The dire wolf has part of the stag’s rack in its belly. Knowing that the dire wolf is the sigil of the Stark family and there are as many puppies as there are Stark children (even an albino runt for Jon), they take the puppies in as companions. Obviously foreshadowing what’s to come.
I’m one of those people that loves Christmas. Sitting in your home with little fairy lights and candles, a warm mug of hot chocolate milk with a snugly onesie on while it’s cold outside. Buying the most awesome presents for friends and family and see the smiles on their faces when it’s boxing day. And of course, don’t forget all the good food and tasty Christmas treats. And it doesn’t stop there, nope, even my favourite games are bringing Christmas spirit into my world.
The days are getting shorter and colder. The leaves are changing colour and saying goodbye to the branches they were attached to. And yes, Starbucks is selling their famous Pumpkin Spice Latte. I for one love this time of the year. Not just because of the changes in scenery and the seasonal Starbucks coffee specials. No. I love this time of the year especially because of Halloween. A holiday filled with haunted houses, costume parties and a whole lot of candy. Who doesn’t love these things? Seriously!?
Of course some people are more prepared for the festivities than others. Not quite feeling the Halloween vibe yet yourself? We have your back. Because we have some pretty awesome ideas about how to get your Halloween groove on. And obviously Girl Gamer Galaxy always comes up with ideas that are at least somewhat gaming-related. So sit back, relax and get ready to be inspired…
So I’m a sucker for survival games! Maybe it’s just satisfying for my primal side or maybe it’s the thrill of having danger lurking around each corner. All I know is that I just love to play this genre of games. My favourite aspect about these games is the fact that you’re playing together to build an awesome base and trying survive every threat that crosses your path. Personally I’m a real gatherer. I’m always out in the unknown lands to get the materials our group needs to build and craft. I rather leave the actual building or shooting enemies up to other people from my group. I’d just simply suck when it comes to those kind of things. Right now there is a handful of games I love to play with my friends. In this blog you can read about my love for Ark: Survival Evolved, a game that everybody NEEDS to play!
Do you love gaming, movies and anime (not particularly in that order)? Yes? What about live action movies based on anime or games? Still a yes? Making a live action movie based on the former can be tricky. Here is why. If you base your movie on a game or anime you really don’t want to anger the die hard fans by deviating too much from the original. But! At the same time you want to reach a bigger audience than ‘just’ the die hard fans. Quite a challenge right? Some movie-directors thought they were up to this challenge. So here’s a short list of some (upcoming) live action movies based on anime or games.
During Dutch Xmas Con we had the chance to speak with Sibel Kekilli. Mostly known for her role in the populair HBO series Game of Thrones (GoT) where she played as Shae, Tyrion Lannisters mistress. Of course a quick google search will tell you everything you want to know about Sibel. Yes, she lives in Germany. And yes, she had an acting career before she played on Game of Thrones. We are pretty sure Sibel is bored with answering the same questions over and over again. So we decided to make this interview a bit more Girl Gamer Galaxy proof. We hope you enjoy reading Sibel’s answers to the questions we prepared for her.
After watching the Doctor Strange movie in the cinema, Marvel’s 14th movie, I just had to write about it. The movie was strangely amazing, even though I thought it was going to be really shitty. I am not a huge fan of all comic movies and some of them out there are seriously bad. *cough*… Batman VS Superman…*cough*. But this one was pretty cool. The cinematics were great. And no, I didn’t watch it in 3D, otherwise I would have a headache for the rest of the month.