15 Lost Features from Retro Gaming That We Miss Dearly
Games these days practically demand that you always stay in motion at all times, lest you get a knife in the eye. Back in the old days, retro games made no qualms about letting you just stand around and take in the world. If you just sit and take it all for a couple minutes, your character will do something like look at the camera (like in Spyro the Dragon) or a little dance. Just helps that character feel a little more real.
While this isn’t exclusive to retro games at all, demos nowadays just aren’t the same today as they are now. They still do their core job of providing players with a slice of an upcoming game, but there was a sense of accomplishment at fiddling around with the controls during a game’s intro credits.
Back in the old days, a main menu meant something in video games, dammit. These days, it’s more of just a thing you have to go through to get to the real part of the game, but again, waiting in the main menu in retro games led to its own reward. You got to see slices of gameplay, more often than not, and it would be like watching a trailer before seeing a movie. Just awesome.
Death doesn’t carry a lot of consequence these days when you play games, unless you’re playing Dark Souls, of course. Retro games made sure to have players go in with some sense of care with the lives system. Was it sometimes frustrating? You bet! But it sure made you pay attention during boss battles, didn’t it?
Even though you were playing as one person in retro games, you always had a sidekick. These folks usually served as the comic relief, someone who could break the tension or provide you a subtle (after a fashion) tutorial. For good measure, they were an animal or mystical object who spoke in gibberish that, if translated, would probably come off as rude. But they were reliable, yes they were.
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What is Retro?
Generally, when one speaks of retro games and gaming, the general assumption is anything before the year 2000. We're now at the point to where online gaming is a foundation of the industry, and that didn't really take off until 2003 or 2004, meaning that anything before those years ended is considered fair game. As such, you'll see examples on this list that go past 1999.
Money, Money, Money
There's no denying it; retro games were much cheaper back then. Of course, one thing that those games didn't have back then was DLC and season passes. The prices for those can easily make your $60 purchase into one that's $110, possibly even more if you get in on microtransactions. Times are tough and not everyone can bleed $50 bills.
Demos
While this isn't exclusive to retro games at all, demos nowadays just aren't the same today as they are now. They still do their core job of providing players with a slice of an upcoming game, but there was a sense of accomplishment in fiddling around with the controls during a game's intro credits.
Main Menu Videos
Back in the old days, a main menu meant something in video games, dammit. These days, it's more of just a thing you have to go through to get to the real part of the game, but again, waiting in the main menu in retro games led to its own reward. You got to see slices of gameplay, more often than not, and it would be like watching a trailer before seeing a movie. Just awesome.
Lives
Death doesn't carry a lot of consequence these days when you play games, unless you're playing Dark Souls, of course. Retro games made sure to have players go in with some sense of care with the lives system. Was it sometimes frustrating? You bet! But it sure made you pay attention during boss battles, didn't it?
Manuals
Retro games were big on manuals. They may have been as thick as a children's book, but they served two purposes. The first was to give you something to read on the way home from the store, so you knew how to play the game. The second was to take notes at the end of the manual, like for cheats or passwords to get to a specific level of the game.
The Hero's Sidekick
Even though you were playing as one person in retro games, you always had a sidekick. These folks usually served as the comic relief, someone who could break the tension or provide you a subtle (after a fashion) tutorial. For good measure, they were an animal or mystical object who spoke in gibberish that, if translated, would probably come off as rude. But they were reliable, yes they were.
No Point
Maybe it's a byproduct of getting older, but retro games really didn't have a point to them beyond just to have fun. Not to say that there's anything wrong with the messages in modern games today, but... well, sometimes, you just wanna fight a giant turd monster without it being an allegory for something. Games back then were just being nuts to be nuts. You could just have a dragon on a skateboard without people analyzing it too much.
Errer
In the old days, game developers probably would agree that modern gaming was smart to implement updates to wipe out bugs and glitches. While they're certainly a godsend, they've also made us miss out on funny spelling errors, such as the infamous "All your base are belong to us."
Memory Cards
Hearing that your PS4 or XBone has 500 GB of memory sounds cool... until you realize that you could have more if you could delete some useless native apps. With retro systems, everything was dictated by your memory card, from your saves to your camera options. It'd suck if you lost your card, but it was more manageable than having to figure out what app to get rid of nowadays.
Cheats
The process of finding cheats in retro games and remembering them may not have been fun, even with GameShark, but actually getting to use the cheats? Oh yeah, that was a blast. You could pretty much make the game to your liking with zero negative consequences or achievements and trophies to worry about missing out on!
Everything Was Physical
Sure, DLC has gotten better over the past few years. But at least in the old days, when a game came out, you knew that pretty much everything the developers wanted to put in the game was in the game. You didn't have to worry about buying an Ultimate Edition six months down the line and feeling some buyer's remorse for being an early adopter.
So Many Secrets and Surprises
Nowadays, it's all too easy for there to be no secrets left for you to uncover in a game, unless you go on complete media blackout. Retro games thankfully didn't have that problem, and you could experience things for themselves. Unless your friend got the game before you, you wouldn't be spoiled on the secret level or that ultra cool kill power. And that made the discovery all the sweeter.
Box Art
These days, you pretty much know what you're getting in terms of box art. It's more often than not gonna be someone looking over their shoulder, or covered in shadow. Retro games had a more varied template with each generation, presenting the lead character with a cocky smirk, an important location, or anything the artist could think of. It gave you a sense of adventure!
Platformers
Yes, Mario is still around kicking it old school, along with a host of new kids on the block like Shovel Knight. But retro games are when platformers ruled the roost, and it's not so much that anymore. Anything from that era that's stuck around to now has changed to become an action title, or something sorely unrecognizable, as is the case with Spyro. Sad times, these are.
About the author
Justin Carter
Sometimes a writer, always a dork. When he isn't staring in front of a screen for hours, he's probably reading comics or eating Hot Pockets. So many of them.
