The Bitmob community spends a great deal of its free time discussing new releases and upcoming titles. While waiting in anticipation of the industry's new and improved software is perfectly normal, the summer has offered a meager selection of games. With only a handful of titles left to distract us from the season's sweltering heat, the Bitmob staff asks, "Where da oldies at?"
Going back can be a tough thing to do. Between unbearably pixelated graphics and dated game mechanics, it can be all too easy to give up and return to the online-enabled, antialiased experiences that we so often indulge in. But the Bitmob staff has braved the ancient dangers of 8-bit rendering and control pads in order to provide you with a list of our favorite "go-back" games.
Dan Hsu
Co-Founder
I don’t do a lot of “going back” because I’m always looking ahead at new products. Ironically, I did return to a classic recently, specifically because of a game that hasn’t come out yet.
A couple of weeks ago, Demian and I got to check out Skulls of the Shogun, a turn-based strategy game heavily influenced by Advance Wars. AW kept coming up during that demo and then in the subsequent Mobcast, that it made me and Demian (two big fans) long for the good ol’ days when we used to battle wirelessly across our EGM/1UP offices. So the next time we got together in person for a Bitmob business meeting, we brought our DSes and played out a match of Days of Ruin.
I won, by the way.
Demian Linn
Co-Founder
I don't really revisit older games on any kind of regular basis either, except certain arcade games (like Ivan "Iron Man" Stewart's Super Off Road) that I always play any time I see them.
I do like to always have one game going that I'm playing for a long time, which will sometimes go on for years. Past examples include Their Finest Hour: The Battle of Britain, EA's NHL series, NFL Blitz, Starcraft, Warcraft 3, and World of Warcraft.
Jason Wilson
Managing Editor
My ultimate go-back games are the X-wing series. I frequently revisit these whenever I'm in the mood for some space combat, something that's sadly missing from far too many games now. I may have escorted the Rebel medical frigate Redemption or foiled Grand Admiral Zaarin's traitorous plot against the Emperor dozens of times, but as this series is one of the best examples of their ilk, I never tire of doing so. I wish LucasArts would make another of these excellent games.
Aaron Thomas
Editor
There are a ton of games that want to go back and revisit, but for the most part, I never get around to them. I'd really like to play Ico again, and I always fancy that I'll give Ocarina of Time another go. I constantly think about replaying Shenmue, though can't imagine I have the patience to do so.
But that's not to say that I never play old games. I have a PlayChoice 10 arcade cabinet, and I give people the beatdown in Tecmo Bowl every couple of months. I also have a ritual in which I beat Mike Tyson in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out! every year. The day I can no longer handle Iron Mike is the day I retire from the industry.
Brett Bates
Editor
I generally don't go back to games. There's so much out there, and I want to consume it all. I'm the same way with movies and books: I read/watch 'em, put 'em on the shelf, and move on.
That said, I do occasionally stick a favorite puzzler like Picross back into my DS after shelving it for months. It's incredibly easy to dive back into — no story to remember, no difficult controls to fuss with — and even after devoting more than 100 hours to it, I still haven't beat all of the puzzles. And that's not even counting the downloadable ones!
Greg Ford
Editor
My go-back game isn't one game, but rather one legendary series: Street Fighter 2. A lot of this has to do with the competition. In my younger days, I had a nearby friend who matched my skills just right, so we could play for hours on end deep into the warm summer nights. Any version that appeared on Genesis, we got.
These days, the frequency of play has gone down, but starting with some Street Fighter 2 titles popping up on Xbox Live Arcade (including the excellent HD Remix) and continuing with Street Fighter 4, I have another friend who just can't wait to get a thrashing by my hands online. As anyone addicted to the games will tell you, it's the beautiful chesslike nature of the matches that make any version of the game timeless.
James DeRosa
Editor
Which games have I returned to most often over the years? That has to be a three-way tie between Mega Man 2, Chrono Trigger, and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which happen to be my favorite games. Mega Man 2 is fun because I think it has one of the best soundtracks of all time, and I'm so familiar with it that I basically play it on autopilot. I can just put it in and rock out.
Castlevania appeals to my inner collector. Unlike most games where you collect things (like Achievements), items in Symphony of the Night have tangible effects on your capabilities, and it's fun to move throughout the title's expansive world with your new power-ups. I've gotten the game's max completion rating (200.6%) three times.
The reason I've played Chrono Trigger so many times is because I love the game's fiction. It has a more vibrant, light-hearted appeal than most of Square's other games. It's an epic quest full of characters that are actually likable, not mopey sad sacks. And how can you say no to time traveling and 15 endings?
Jay Henningsen
Editor
Andrew Hiscock
Community Manger
My go-back game is Peggle on my iPod (although I own PC, Mac, and Xbox LIve versions as well). I have played it 2,659 times on my MP3 player alone. It's the perfect "on-the-can" game, but since I don't take 4.85 dumps a day, I can safely say I play it a lot when I'm not waiting around for nature to takes its course.
I figure I must have beaten the main game — plus all 75 challenges — some 100 times, probably more, and I have eliminated every single peg in the game at least a dozen times. Each time I run through the game, I delete my user file and start again. I am not sure if the game is fun anymore. I must be on a quest to have the strongest, unicorn-friendliest thumbs on the planet.
Jasmine Rea
Writer
My go-back game is a strange one. When I was 6 years old, I bought my first video game completely on my own. That game was the primitive strategy game Gemfire (Royal Blood in Japan) on the SNES. To this day I sit down and play that game for hours on end as I attempt to best the computer and try out new families to make the game harder on myself. It is a surprisingly complex game for the time, and even as a 6 year old, I found the magic in it. Sadly, I know it is lost to time since Koei never bothered to localize Royal Blood 2.
Alejandro Quan-Madrid
Writer
I find myself playing the first two Katamari Damacy games often. I really got into them when I was in college, and a lot of my friends dug them, too. At the time we would also listen to the soundtracks and reference funny parts of the games with each other, so whenever I revisit, it's just like super-fun-happy times. I wish that the other sequels were more up to par, but when I think about it, those two gems are the definitive junk-collecting sims.
Mark Hain
Writer
My go-back games are MMOs. I played Ultima Online for almost 10 years, on and off, going from other games on the PC, but I always found myself going back to it. For almost 6 years it's been World of Warcraft. Not only do they constantly add new content, even with what is there at the moment I always find myself going back to Azeroth after Modern Warfare or whatever current and popular game gets old or I beat.
Omar Yusuf
Writer
My family's always been pretty secular, which means we never celebrated Christmas in the way you may have. I've never set up a tree, enjoyed a Christmas Eve dinner, or opened wrapped presents. But don't feel sorry for me, because my family has its own holiday tradition! Every year since its release, GoldenEye 007 has enjoyed the attention of my entire family around mid-December. You see, my family is spread out across the world. With a brother in China, another in Britain, and parents in France, I rarely get to see my relatives.
When the family does gather, however, we gravitate, without fail, toward our dusty, old Nintendo 64. Why? Maybe it's because GoldenEye reminds us of more innocent times. Or maybe it's because my mom finds the Slappers Only mode hysterical. Whatever the reason, GoldenEye 64 is definitely my go-back game.
Ryan A. Rubis
Front-End Developer
My go-back game would have to be The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. It's just one of those games that I've inexplicably clung to since the early '90s, and I've made it a point to finish the game at least once every year or two—each replay having its own story attached to it. I've played the game multiple times with friends and family watching behind my shoulder, all night while worriedly waiting for my mom to come home from her gall bladder operation, and even on that long, 17-hour plane ride I had to take from home going back to America. I'm not even that big of a Zelda nut—there's just something about the game's brisk pace and cheery atmosphere that gets me.
Nowadays, it's my videogame version of comfort food—it sits neatly on the top page of my Wii's Virtual Console stack and is permanently parked inside one of my Game Boy Micros, just waiting for the inevitable replay.
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