Nostalgia In The Indie Scene

The indie scene has received a lot of my attention lately. Despite the advent of the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Wii U, I've been more inclined to research projects of lesser known developers. I used to scan Kickstarter for new projects and checked the Humble Indie Bundles to see if there were any gems from the last few months that I had forgotten. But lately, I've found that I lack the drive to follow them anymore. My complaint is that the indie scene has gotten quite crowded. It seems that so many developer try very hard to push nostalgia as the main selling point instead of trying to offer something innovative and new. The indie scene has created a sense of déjà vu; every game I play seems to borrow from another game recently released in the past. Since the developers are small teams and also very young, they try to emulate the thing about what made games great to them when they were a kid. Rather than having other 12-year olds flock to their games, they target those 20-somethings (like me) who wear shirts that claim the 90's were better than what is happening now. It seems like nostalgia works on us the best.

Nostalgia is a powerful thing. It may mean a lot of different things to different people but I'm sure most people relate nostalgia with comfort and past happiness. I mean, that's the definition, isn't it? The alarming thing to me is advertisers use it as a tool to drive people to purchase things that they used to love in the days of blissful ignorance. I mean, they are re-releasing Surge again and people are buying it like it was the key to surviving Armageddon. Surge was never a good soda, and I'm sure most people will buy it purely for nostalgia. Surge, to me, reminded me of the days where my brother and I would walk down to our local 7-11 and buy Marvel Blaster cards and Warheads. Those are great memories and I cherish them, but that doesn't mean Surge is necessarily a good product. Remember this crap? Some things are better off left in the 90's.

The same feeling can help drive gamers to flock to indie games. The "retro feel" of it all takes people back to the days where they stayed in their parents basement and played until two in the morning. It's refreshing break from the AAA, high def graphic, first person shooter, always open world games that are being put out by big name companies.

Shovel Knight harkens back to the good old days of the NES Megamans, Castlevanias, and Super Marios

I understand that indie developers don't have a lot of money and have to be smart in designing graphics for the sake of having their idea developed, but it's becoming a trend.  I feel like indie developers can create games without the retro feel and still be innovative. While a lot of games do this (example: Divinity Original Sin), it's definitely more the exception rather than the rule. The other problem is that so many indie games try to go for the Metroidvania or Final Fantasy vibe.  While some of these games execute well, a lot fall short and end up becoming more of a chore.

Guacamelee has nice style but has a very odd implementation of Metroidvania gameplay

I'm currently playing through Guacamelee and have recently beaten Shovel Knight. While the games are fun, I feel like the formula is tired. Gaucamelee brings back the feeling of Metroid style games but doesn't really have a lavish and wide world to explore. A lot of the areas are very narrow and the only areas that are expansive are the cities. The cities, however, do not do much except act as a hub for sidequests and exposition.The gameplay is very fast and fluid but it feeds you combos you'll never really use in the real game and has an upgrade system that I feel like I do not need. You also find power-ups rather quickly which is good but makes it hard to remember where to go back to. Shovel Knight was successful in it's execution of combining Megaman with Castlevania and Super Mario Brothers 3, but that's all I could think about when I played the game. I just felt like I was playing those games instead of a completely new game.

I'm not saying that these games are terrible, on the contrary, these are must play games. But maybe it's just that I feel like that the adult me wants more progress in gaming than going backwards in time. One of the best examples of keeping the Metroidvania feel while moving forward was Metroid  Prime. The game was from Retro Studios (I know, ironic, right?) and it was their first game. They were able to take full advantage of the Gamecube's power while keeping the wonder and the exploration of the Metroid games in tact. It was glorious coming back to that game day in and day out. I guess it was too much of an indie game though. Nintendo really worked with them to make sure the game came out perfect.

I'm wondering if Sony's promise to cater the indie crowd will spark an increase in graphical and innovative quality in the indie scene. I'm sure that all these developers have amazing ideas and just need not only the funding but the support as well.

Metroid Prime: A perfect example of nostalgia and moving the gaming industry forward

I just hope that the indie scene moves forward with their technical capabilities,  I'd love to see what they can do with next gen. Indie developers have the creativity that the industry needs, but the AAA studios have the powerhouse technology to move the standards of gaming forward. If only we could have both in a game consistently, I wouldn't mind waiting a few years for a truly unique and polished game rather than having yearly franchise releases.