My dear NES fans. It appear we are at an impass.

Many of us are asking Nintendo to return to its roots of old, pleading for the Zelda charm, the Punch Out quirkiness, the simplicity, the intensity, but where are our voices going to? It feels like nobody can hear us.

As it were, the latest Zelda threads can show that gamers are asking for something, and nobody is hearing. What ever happened to the things of old, and can they ever come to be again? Are we asking for the never-to-be?

Who remembers the smokey music of Castlevania, the not too  colorful, not too dark themes, brown smokey themes of the past?

Where are the main colors of Mario?

Easy, the color is brown! Brown brown brown, ... and green and blue.

Where is the smokey sound of Zelda 1 NES? or was it just a fluke? Why did the sound of the violin become some kind of trumpet?

What ever happened to the important yet scary theme of death?

What about the theme of the unknown?

These enchanting tunes, were they all just a big fluke?

What games today bring you closest to these experiences of the past, and why do you believe developers are no longer able to recreate them for us, especially Nintendo? What business decisions or art decisions led to the departure from these roots? I ask you, dear retro readers.

I hope Zelda turns into a FPS with some killstreaks in it, imagine a retro Hyrule map pack ^-^

I said retro gamers welcome Mr. "who cares"

I'm not sure of the exact number but I think the Nes was only able to display 8 colors at a time out of a palette of 56. SOmething like that.

Anyway, the games of the earlier gens were awesome because people didn't know what made a great game. They were trying EVERYTHING. It was all so fresh and new. Sure, there were tons of Mario clones, Space Invaders clones, and Commando clones but there was always this feeling that we were pioneers in some unknown territory. Companies were trying all of these crazy gimmicks and peripherals on their way to making something special.....or shitty. We had a lot of shitty games back then. It was when somebody got it right that we knew we were looking at something special.

Games that give me that feeling are the games that are the leaders in their genre. Games that make me feel like I'm doing something new but not playing a gimmick. Those games are fewer and further between these days, though. My short list would be Dance Central, Fez, Heavy Rain, Gears of War 1, Dead Rising, Braid, Mighty Switch Force, Skyward Sword, Wii Sports, and anything from Twisted Pixel. Games that seem to go against the norm and stand out.

I'll add more but I want to see which way the conversation goes.

*couldn't wait*

Rhetorical question: Do you think that games for smart phones fit the bill? There's a bit of a gameplay renaissance going on there. Games like Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, Plants vs. Zombies (the big names) that are simple to develop, low budget, and simple in concept but manage to suck you in for hours. Maybe that's where the new retro revolution is. Probably ten years from now, creativity in smart phone games will have come to an end and every game will be a knock off of every other game save for a few. Meanwhile, the simplicity of dinner plate games will begin the cycle again.

I'm way too young to of experienced the era you're talking about, but I sure do love the music.

First of all, thanks for sharing those videos. The music is always wonderful to hear. Impressive how so many years have passed yet they still remain magical...

Do people really want Nintendo to return to times of old? For how long? I too want Nintendo to make the Zelda, Mario and Metroid games like it did with the NES, but i also want the new ones that exist now.
The thing is, both can co-exist. For example, look at what Capcom did with Mega Man 9 and 10. Old school games that people loved, the same way they did them years ago and seeing as they weren`t retail material, they sold them digitally. Nintendo too could do that.
Wouldn`t you buy a retro Zelda, Mario, Metroid online if Nintendo made one. I know i would.

But is that all that Nintendo and other companies can do?
Look at 3D Game Dot Heroes. The visuals alone throw you back to the good old times and from what i read it really feels like old Zelda games.

I honestly believe there is a way Nintendo can make games like in the NES days without losing what was great about them.
The best way to achieve that is to remember how they made games back then and how they would make them if they had better resourcer at the time.

You can still find games like this if you look to the Indie community.

Even though Miyamoto is pushing the youngins opinions?