We are living in a golden age of nostalgia. When the future seems uncertain, there is a warm and fuzzy comfort to be had by revisiting Older, happier memories. For some, this comes in the form of movies or food. But for all of those gamers out there, this comes in the form of replaying older video games.

Is there anything more satisfying than diving back in time and quite literally replaying a memory? Older Games are filled with characters that taught us life lessons and big open worlds that let us roam free. And while some older games may not hold up as well as others, technology has advanced in such a way that it’s easier to revisit older generations of games than ever before. Even if you didn’t have the ability to play a game back in the 90s or early 2000’s, you can most likely play it right now.

Availability of Nostalgic Games

One of the main reasons it has become easier to replay older games is because they are becoming more available than ever before. If you have a decent PC or a laptop, all you need to do is download Steam to get access to most of the Older Titles out there. This is a great option for gamers who can’t afford one of the fancier consoles or expensive graphics cards. With companies like Sony porting even their most exclusive last-gen games, it’s a great time to have a PC if you’re a gamer.

Consoles are also diving more and more into older titles. The Nintendo Switch console, for example, has become a veritable hub for indie games as developers continue to port their games over to the handheld device. Nintendo is also allowing you to play older exclusives like Banjo Kazooie and Pokemon Puzzle League if you have access to Switch online. We are also seeing big companies like Microsoft and PlayStation offer subscription services that allow folks to play a new round of older titles every month without having to purchase the full game.

Graphics Evolution and Remakes

The focus on nostalgia in gaming of late has partially been caused by some of the bigger gaming companies out there. When we see games like Skyrim seemingly getting a new addition each year, it can feel like there is more of a push to spread existing content than to put out something new. That being said, it is hard to disagree that Skyrim is still worth playing even after all these years. This is largely due to the fact that the graphics for that game were pretty good to begin with and have only improved with each remaster.

Remastering the graphics in games or porting them over to other platforms is one way to bring new life to an old title, but one of the more notable ways is by remaking them entirely. Remakes are usually true to the original source material, but breathe new graphics and story content into an already classic title. We have seen this happen with the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, for example, which has had a ton of success so far.

Deep Franchises

Nostalgia isn’t just tied to older games, it’s also tied to older stories. When you look at games like Legend of Zelda that have a total of 29 titles in the franchise, it can be easy to see how nostalgia comes into play here. Each Zelda game is basically just a re-telling of the classic tale of Link, Zelda, and Ganon, but with updated quests and various different factors. Those things don’t mean that the franchise isn’t still great, though. Even after originally launching on the Nintendo Switch, Breath of the Wild is still worth playing as arguably the best open world game.

We see this same thing with other franchises like Resident Evil, Mass Effect, Final Fantasy, and the Elder Scrolls games. Every time a new title releases in these franchises, more and more people go back to play the older versions of the game. And as the conversation picks up again for older titles, even veteran gamers sometimes can’t resist the call to go back and play those games again.

Console Emulators Exist

Although it sits right at the edge of copyright infringement and piracy, that hasn’t stopped video game emulators to become a highly popular thing. These emulators offer the ability to run older games from previous generations of consoles directly on your PC or mobile device. Whether you’re looking to go back and play SNES games on your phone or PS1 games on your laptop, there are programs that will allow you to do just that. This type of software has allowed gamers to go back and play older titles that may have been lost to time otherwise.

Affordability

There is a constant stream of new games coming out. With a surge of indie developers producing smaller titles and the larger companies cranking out AAA games every quarter, it can be overwhelming to keep up. It can also get really expensive if you do try to keep up. Newer games tend to come at high prices, and even if you wait years for a sale, you may still have to pay a pretty penny to get access to it. Because of this, it can be so easy to fall back into older games you already own. And when you do get bored of those older games, it is all too tempting to buy a 10-year-old game for $4 instead of one of the newer titles for a full $60.

There is also an increase in free games worth playing both on consoles and PC. If you are a PC gamer, then you have access to weekly free games from the Epic store and they are usually pretty good games. They have offered up all of the Bioshock games for free before, which is a hard thing to pass up even if you’ve played them before.

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