Lots of the games I play are not new. While perhaps not all of them may qualify as truly “retro”, at least half of the games I’m normally playing are more than 2 years old.
Porting games to consoles on which they’ve never before appeared or re-releasing older games as downloadable titles is a good way for publishers to make money without having to invest in new development. I’m sure that porting game code to a new console isn’t the easiest thing, but it’s got to be easier than creating a new game.
Recently, they released Desktop Tower Defense for the Nintendo DS, and I snatched it up right away. It’s always been my favorite tower defense game, and the DS seemed a perfect platform for it. But there are many other games that I feel would make excellent ports, and many that I’m surprised I haven’t seen as downloadable selections on Wiiware, XBLA, or PSN.
Popcap has released more than one game on XBLA and PSN. Both myself and my wife play Zuma on our Playstation 3 frequently. So why hasn’t Zuma 2 been released on PSN? What about Bookworm Adventures 2 or Plants versus Zombies? I’d have bought Plants vs Zombies for the Nintendo Wii instead of for the PC had it been available on Wiiware. I’d also love to see a Nintendo DS port of Plants vs Zombies.
I’m sure that console exclusivity is the primary reason I can’t play Fable 2 or Dead Rising without buying an XBox, but I’m still hoping for a PC port of Fable 2, although Dead Rising is unlikely to get a port now that it’s so old. There was a Wii version, but from what I’ve heard it’s a significantly different game. Not as good.
Castle Crashers is likely a similar story – exclusive to XBLA. There’s been talk of a PSN release in 2010, and if that turns out to be true, I’ll likely buy a copy.
The Wii’s virtual console at first sounded like an amazing idea. All my favorite old Nintendo games! But they’ve totally flopped it by not releasing old games I want to play. I was glad to buy Super Mario Bros., Punch-Out!, and Ocarina of Time, but where’s Double Dragon 2? Where’s Tetris Attack? The Virtual Console has been around for years now, and I have yet to see my favorite old Nintendo games! In many ways, the Downloadable content situation in general is a colossal fustercluck. And I mean across all consoles, although the XBox is still the best by far. Just look at the situation with Trine. Released for the PC on July 3, released on PSN in Europe on September 17, and the PSN version doesn’t come out in North America until October 22. I doubt anyone will ever hear anything approaching a good explanation for that one.
And what about Commodore 64 games? After having heard (more than a year ago) that Commodore 64 games were going to be available for the Wii Virtual Console, I was ecstatic. But what have we gotten so far? International Karate is a fantastic start – before Street Fighter 2, I used to kick ass at International Karate. Summer Games II and California Games were… okay. Those are the games they’ve released. But where are the classic games that made the Commodore 64 great? Games like Druid, Forbidden Forest, Archon, Skate or Die, and the original Castle Wolfenstein. The Commodore 64 had great shooters like Into the Eagle’s Nest, Operation Wolf, Ikari Warriors, and G.I. Joe, killer platformers like Miner 2049er, Montezuma’s Revenge, Great Giana Sisters, and Jumpman, and it had fantastic RPGs like the Bard’s Tale series, the Ultima series, Phantasie, Wasteland, Autoduel, Legacy of the Ancients, Wrath of the Denethenor, and Pool of Radiance. What about the LucasArts SCUMM games? What about arcade titles like Defender of the Crown, Spyhunter, and B.C.’s Quest for Tires? And those weird quirky games such as Floyd the Droid, Star Paws, and Caveman Ugh-lympics. I could go on for a while about all the great Commodore games I’d love to see – I’ve left off many here. There are more Commodore 64 games than there are NES or SNES games, and I can only imagine that the licenses for them would be super-cheap. So why are there so few Commodore games available on the Virtual Console? And along those same lines, why not snatch up the ROMs for some old arcade games? One I’d love to see is the old arcade game Dungeons and Dragons: Tower of Doom.
Lastly, after the success that Scribblenauts has seen on the Nintendo DS, it would seem like a huge mistake to not correct that game’s shortcomings and then re-release it for the Nintendo Wii. If movement is separated from on-screen clicking, the physics system receives some minor tweaks, and the mechanics for placing chains and ropes are repaired, I’d recommend the game to anyone.
