The other day I found my old N64 in the attic with a copy of Goldeneye. I remember the days where endless amounts of fun could be had with four N64 controllers and a large TV playing this into the dead of night. Admittedly I was only seven and should NOT have been playing it (keep to Mario and Viva Pinata kids!), yet it was harmless none the less, as well as being an age where my parents didn’t know that it was violent. But I digress, I snapped in the cartridge and loaded my old save file, which was completed. Deciding to challenge myself, I made a new file and began again, expecting to blitz it all and finish by the morning. However I was met with a different kind of game when it started. I was rubbish. I missed every target. I even struggled with the context sensitivity of it. How could a 7 year old me be better at this game after lots of experience with modern FPS games? Heck, I wasn’t the best at Halo or Call of Duty, but I wasn’t bad. It made me think, which is why I ask this question now; Has the modernisation of the gaming industry stripped away our gaming skill?
Lets start with something easy. A game that has lasted generation after generation. I’m talking about Mario Kart. I have owned every single release of the game, the hand held and console versions. The aim was to prove to myself, I could do just as well on the new games as I did on the old games so many years ago. I even kept a record of completion times and the results confirmed my fears:
Mario Kart Wii: 10 hours 30 mins approx
Mario Kart DS: 7 hours 10 mins approx
Mario Kart Double Dash: 8 hours 30 mins approx
Mario Kart GBA: 4 hours approx
Mario Kart 64: 4 hours 20 mins approx
Mario Kart: 3 hours approx
From first glance this doesn’t look too bad right? Bare in mind that by completing the game, I do mean attaining EVERYTHING available in it. When we compare Mario Kart Wii with the original Mario Kart, it has at least (the very, very least) ten times the amount of content (don’t quote me on this, I know it’s more, but I’m trying to prove a point). If we scale that, I should have completed the original Mario Kart in HALF the time I did. I’m not new to it. My older brother and myself played it for hours on end when I was younger and we were fairly good. I know the game, I know how to play it, I know what to look out for and heck pointing a kart in the right direction shouldn’t be so difficult. But what about the graphics and controls? They’re out of date and you’re sure to do bad with them?
That is the essence of this article. Years ago I wouldn’t have a problem with completing it in an hour and a half. Right now, I can’t stand up to anything I used to be able to do. It’s a similar story for other games. But instead of going on about games that have become more difficult for me for no apparent reason (lack of practice isn’t an excuse if I can still kick ass on later titles) lets look at games who’s fundamental concepts have stayed the same for years.
The Legend of Zelda. A brilliant game that has stood the test of time fairly well. I find that playing any Zelda game brings back memories of playing outside in the trees in front of my house, picking up a stick and pretending to be a knight in heavy armour, on his way to rescue a damsel in distress. (Actually, I pretended to be a samurai fighting for his honor, but the point still stands). I’ll compare two titles; Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess. Here are the times;
OOT: 4 hours approx
TP: 6 hours approx
This is closer than I was hoping. Take into account that whilst some new mechanics will be introduced into Twilight Princess, the basic game stays the same. Additionally, I’ve played OOT to the point where the Water temple takes no more than 15 minutes, so it was bound to be quicker. However I’d like to point out that TP does have a longer gameplay time, yet the difference when we look at it isn’t that much. It’s plain to see that games affected by modernisation change the way we play games (obviously) but also change the way we approach them.
As I said earlier, I was struggling with the controls of the older games, yet they were practically the same layout they have been for a long time. If we look back to Mario Kart, the controls are the same (since I use a Classic controller for Wii, it is pretty much the same). Yet the running of Mario Kart Wii allowed me to control the way I was driving with much more fluency than the SNES, as you’d expect. However, no matter how much I try, I can’t reach the same level of prowess I used to. This continues to baffle me, so I had an interesting idea to try out. I noticed that Nintendo had started to release games that used to be on the N64 to the DS and 3DS. The DS and the N64 had pretty much the same computing ability as each other, so I decided to check it out. The game I’d be playing first, Diddy Kong Racing.
Diddy Kong Racing N64: 3 Hours approx
Diddy Kong Racing DS: 3 hours 15 mins approx
I guess this illustrates my point. Whilst it took me a while to get used to both sets of controls, the fact that they’re very similar (in terms of how well synched they are) shows that my skill level stays the same. Both games controlled exactly the same and I wasn’t phased by anything. Look at these other times;
OOT N64: 4 hours approx
OOT DS: 3 hours 45 mins approx
Super Mario 64 N64: 6 hours approx
Super Mario 64 DS: 5 hours 50 mins approx
As you can see, I’ve done quite a lot of experimenting. Don’t get me wrong it was fun, but I think I’ve now got a fear of Koopa shells and Banana peels. But the question still remains, are we worse at gaming?
In short yes. But at the same time no. Whilst I proven that handling old games is difficult, the whole point of modernisation in the industry was to include more content, tighter controls, better graphics and so on. Newer games give us a lot more to handle than older games ever did. I mean, in the original Mario Kart you had to point the car in the right direction, get all the item boxes possible and drift around a few corners. With Mario Kart 7 you have to do all of that whilst performing tricks, gliding, diving, avoiding traps and traversing tracks which have more complexity than ever. Without the increase in control quality, modern games would be impossible.
However this bring out another point. The skill in a game when we were all younger was about actually playing it, controlling what was happening took a lot more than it does now. Yeah we have more going on, but that doesn’t distract from the fact that the skill is focused on handling the game rather than playing it. I guess you could say that gaming has turned into a chore, but thats for another time.
What do you think about this? Have your say in the comments below and tell me your opinion!