The gaming audience often loves to ramble about how certain genres and titles are not accessible to later generations because they haven’t “aged” well. It’s a load of bull, I think, and it doesn’t fall on the game to prove that it can be just as enjoyable now as it was back in the day.
That responsibility falls entirely on the gamer, who must adjust their expectations. Games have the ability to be playable and enjoyable forever for the right audience, and PC online retailers like Steam and GOG are quickly becoming the best outlets for this to happen.
Take this retro-release for example. Shock Troopers is an SNK Playmore classic that was released on both arcades and the doomed NEO-GEO console. Because of its limited availability, the game has been something of a cult-hit for the last 20 years, and its recent appearance on Steam is possibly the widest release it’s ever had!
Now, a whole new generation of gamers are going to get to play this intense bit of action for the first time, and it’s going to be interesting to see how they respond. My hope is that those who actively seek it out will find a game that falls in line with modern hits on the indie scene, and it will show them the light of late 90s NEO-GEO action titles. I’m kind of jealous for them, actually.
Of course, it could go the other way and they might think it is too old, too hard, or just hasn’t “aged” well. All I read there is that “I have better things to do than try to understand why this game is still popular 20 years after its first release.”
My generation also has reason to be excited. Now, we no longer have to turn to MAME or other ways to play this lost classic. Check out Shock Troopers on Steam today.
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