For many years now retro games have been very popular, and retro gaming now gets regular mainstream attention from many sources such as documentaries, reissued games and plug n play consoles. There is however a lot more to it than that. A community of gamers and content creators that over time have shared their love of retro games which has gotten bigger and reached a wider audience. Let’s look at why is Retro Gaming So Popular.
Why is Retro Gaming So Popular?
It is now easy to get hold of emulators, play retro games on current gen systems and buy retro consoles with built in games and this along with social media has increased the popularity of retro gaming. Playing retro games is now easily accessible to a mainstream audience looking to re visit video games they played many years ago.
1. We Grew Up with Retro Games
It is great to revisit your childhood, they were often simpler times with simpler video games too. Going back to what we consider to be the classic games of the past (these will change depending on which generation of games you grew up in) is revisiting part of your childhood albeit through video games. It might be old arcade games like Space Invaders, Atari, Nintendo or even an earlier PlayStation or Xbox Console. We all grew up with certain games and playing those retro games we grew up with is fun.
Retro Game Collecting Posts:
- Is Retro Game Collecting Worth It?
- How To Get Started With Retro Game Collecting
- How I Started Retro Game Collecting
- Why Are Retro Games So Expensive?
- The Highs and Lows of Retro Game Collecting
- Retro Game Collecting Burn Out
2. Nostalgia is Fun and Has Become Popular
Nostalgia is fun and it is a big pull when it comes to retro gaming. I have taken friends to retro gaming events and although they are not a collector like myself the nostalgia and memories that are brought back through playing the games from the past is a lot of fun.
Memories of playing video games with old friends and family can spring to mind. Many also forget how fun the retro games of their past were and you can become hooked all over again. Believe me I know.
You can read more about Video Games Nostalgia here.
3. Big Business Has Realized that Retro Gaming is Popular
Let us not lie, nostalgia is now big business. We have old Toy Lines being reissued, re releases of retro games on modern consoles and of course all the plug n play mini consoles that have been released in recent years. That is not mentioning the Movies, Documentaries, T-Shirts and the different lines of merchandise that you can now find everywhere.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though as these products can remind people how much fun the games of their past were when seeing these products. This in turn can entice people to play retro games and even come read blogs like this. That’s a good thing.
4. Retro Gaming Have Become Accessible and Affordable
Why is Retro Gaming so Popular, well it is easier now than what it ever has been to play the retro games from your past. I mentioned mini consoles previously that come with built in games that you can buy on Amazon as well as widely available emulators with online services like Antstream also becoming available.
Here are just a few examples of some of the mini consoles you can buy on Amazon (with affiliate links).
Nintendo make a lot of their old NES and SNES games available on their online subscription service for Switch users and you can buy lots of retro games as download only titles for PlayStation and Xbox as well as physical releases too.
You can buy a brand-new current gen console and then download 25-year-old+ games on it. What a time to be alive!
You can even buy arcade machines for your home, from custom built cabs to the popular Arcade1Up cabinets. You can read more about My Home Arcade here.
5. Retro Gaming with Others is Fun
You have access to all these retro games, and you can play them with friends just like you did back in the day. Possibly even in the same room as them!
I have so much fun playing games with my kids. We’ll play Streetfighter 2 and even play classic arcade games like Pac-Man in 2 player mode and have mini competitions looking to beat each other’s high scores. Being able to play games with my kids that I can relate to rather than more modern games is great way to bring the family together.
6. Retro Gaming on YouTube
My discovery of Retro Gaming and collecting retro games was a hobby I followed for many through YouTube. I spent years watching other people talk about old games (Usually American YouTubers talking about NES Games), I discovered websites where you could play the old games along with emulation too.
Retro Gaming has become hugely popular on YouTube which in turn encourages others to go back and play or even buy the games they enjoyed in the past just like I did. YouTube has been partly responsible for making retro games popular over the last 10 years.
You find out How I Started My Retro Game Collection Here.
7. Collecting Retro Games is a Hobby in Itself
Retro game collecting is very much a proper hobby. You have people all over the world collecting retro games, selling retro games, and attending expos. You have collectors going for complete collections for specific systems as well as the more casual collector who picks up a bit of everything. We have magazines, podcasts and documentaries covering this hobby.
What started out for myself as a small games collection has turned into this website, a YouTube Channel and a whole host of new friends that I have made over the years. It has been a lot of fun.
My Top 10 Retro Games
This is a list of my Top 10 retro games that I love and think you should play. All classics in my opinion from arcade classics to home micro and console games that I still play to this day. These are games that people all across the world grew up with and are still enjoy today. These classics have endured the test of time and are also a big part of what makes retro games popular today and will for many years.
10. Galaga – Arcade (Namco 1981)
An early 80’s classic that I didn’t really play back in the day. Now I will play it all the time. It is a great game to switch off mentally and just play. I don’t find it as frustrating as Space Invaders and although I do enjoy its predecessor Galaxian, I will always turn to Galaga to chill out and shoot some enemy spaceships.
9. Centipede – Arcade (Atari 1981)
I love Centipede as it has been a game that I have seen my Son grow to love over the last few years. To see a young lad enjoying a game from long before he was born just shows how important playability is. To get the full experience you need to play an original cab with the trackball and the 2-player mode is such fun too. Shoot the centipede as it breaks up making it trickier as it descends down the screen whilst dodging spiders too. An arcade classic.
8. Super Mario Bros 3 – NES
The third Super Mario Bros game reaches heights of quality that make it one of (if not) the best Mario games across all the Nintendo systems past and present. Beautiful sprites and music along with some great level designs would be enough to put it on my list. However, you also have the little extra in games and map system too that makes Super Mario Bros 3 the pinnacle of the NES Super Mario Bros trilogy.
7. WWF Wrestlefest – Arcade (Technos 1991)
WWF (now WWE) was new and exciting in the late 80’s/early 90’s and this arcade game from Technos captured the larger than life characters brilliantly by bringing them to screen as huge colourful sprites. This follow up to WWF Superstars did everything bigger with the graphics I have just mentioned and by adding a Royal Rumble Mode to the Tag Team Championship mode. All the big wrestling stars of the time were featured such as the Ultimate Warrior, Hulk Hogan, Earthquake and the Legion of Doom and the pure button bashing fun made this a must play game for all the new WWF fans in UK arcades.
6. Final Fight – Arcade (Capcom 1991)
The game that could have been the sequel to Street Fighter (it was going to be called Streetfighter 89) was a scrolling beat em up that as a teenager I absolutely adored. A lot like WrestleFest the sprites are huge and look fantastic. This was so much fun to play (it still is) and I always played as Haggar as I loved his more powerful wrestling moves. I would have been playing this around the same time I was playing WWF WrestleFest and it was definitely one of my go to games when I was in the arcades at the time. This is a game I will still play at home on MAME and usually a 2 player game with my son. Other than the decent Mega CD conversion the console and home ports never reached the standard of the arcade version.
5. Streets of Rage 2 – Sega Mega Drive/Genesis
The Streets of Rage games are Sega’s answer to Final Fight. Without Final Fight you probably wouldn’t have Streets of Rage. The original Streets of Rage is a great game on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis but the sequel took the series to another level and in my opinion to it’s peak. A fantastic side scrolling fighting game with simple but effective controls and an awesome soundtrack. Streets of Rage 2 is a great single player game but is even better in 2 player mode.
4. Streetfighter 2 – Super Nintendo
The original release of Streetfighter 2 was so highly anticipated back in the day. I already had a Sega Mega Drive but I ended up getting a Super Nintendo just to play this game and it didn’t disappoint. This was an absolutely great arcade port where little was lost in the transition from arcade to home console. The music, speed and fighting combo’s were all there to fully experience competitive fighting in your bedroom with your mates and it was fantastic.
3. Punch Out – NES
Where do I start with Punch Out? This is one of my all-time favourite games of all time and on any system. The graphics are fantastic, it has great humour, and it starts off pretty easy but eventually gets quite tough as you try to progress Little Mac past each opponent. The later stages can be pretty unforgiving if you haven’t played for a while and you really have to remember your opponent’s fight patterns and be spot on with your reactions.
The characters really make the game too with such opponents as King Hippo, Don Flamenco and Bald Bull to name a few. Fortunately, the game also has a password system so that you don’t have to always start right at the beginning of the game when you return to it.
2. Ghostbusters – Commodore 64 (Activision 1984)
The first game I experienced on the Commodore back in late 1984 and I was won over as soon as it loaded and the digitized speech screamed Ghostbusters. Not just one my favourite Commodore 64 games this is one of my favourite games of all time. A games I go back to time and time again as it has variety to it and at times is challenging as you get closer to the end stages of the game.
I have made a video of Ghostbusters by Activision that goes into the history of the games and looks at some of the other ports too. You can watch it below or here.
1. Star Wars – Arcade (Atari 1983)
Star Wars by Atari is one of my first gaming memories and one of the games that started my love of video games. I would always play the sit down cabinet version on trips to the coast and I loved it. I was and still am a big Star Wars fan so to play a game where you got to pilot an X-Wing Fighter and attack the Death Star was an absolute dream. The music, vector graphics and speech effects too made this pure escapism for any young (or old) Star Wars fan.
I still play it now on my Arcade1Up Star Wars cab and it is still as much fun now as it was back then.
Check Out More Retro Gaming Content
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Good video games will always be remembered and revisited and this is the case with retro games today.
Keep it Retro.
Daz
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