We often look back fondly on the games of yesterday, especially when it comes to the purity of their design. In the days before DLC, before always-online, before microtransactions, they were things that you bought, once, they were complete, and you could enjoy the entire experience.
For a moment, though, let’s pretend that was never the case. That the humble NES had a modem, that 80s Nintendo was smarter about the internet than 2013 Nintendo is, that your favourite old games were riddled with the kind of nickel-and-diming bullshit that so many games today are full of. Or just made easier by the kind of hand-holding design so prominent in games today.
Maybe they’d look something like this. Programmer and writer (and it seems decent comedian) Hugues Johnson has, perhaps taking a page out of Zack Hiwiller’s book, imagined many of the greatest games of the NES era as titles bogged down with the baggage of today’s games.
https://lastchance.cc/if-super-mario-bros-was-made-in-2010-5531665%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
It is amazing. I’ve included a few highlights below, but there are more at Hugues’ site.
If NES games were made today [Hugues Johnson, via neatorama]
