Retro game. It’s a term ostensibly tied to release date, but in truth the retro label has come to be associated with everything from pixel art and chiptune music to punishing gameplay and simpler control schemes. The resurgence of interest in old school games, coupled with backlash from some gamers against the cinematic focus of modern AAA titles, has led to a glut of self-classified “retro” games from the indie development scene and even from giant publishers such as Capcom, Konami, and Sunsoft. “Retro” is quickly becoming a marketing label meant to push units by triggering nostalgic memories of childhood gaming experiences among older gamers while also piquing the interest of younger gamers looking for an alternative to the high-definition cinematic driven games that permeate the modern marketplace. Unfortunately for both groups, the “retro” label serves more as a means to draw the attention of the target demographic rather than imply particular gameplay conventions or even aesthetics that might recall the style of games past. In short: some self-proclaimed “retro” games aren’t retro at all, and likewise, some games that may at first glance appear to be completely modern actually reflect the retro gaming philosophy. Below, the concepts of the retro design philosophy will be listed and explained, and along the way modern games that exemplify these traits will be included. Wherever possible, the modern examples will come from games without pixel art to further prove that pixel art is neither a requirement, nor even a central concept, of retro games.
Learn As You Play
Perhaps the most immediately obvious design philosophy of retro games is their intuitiveness. Once upon a time games lacked a tutorial mode or in-game instructions entirely, but gamers didn’t feel lost. While minimal instruction was provided in the game’s manual, many gamers simply popped the game into the console and worked out how to play through experimentation. Through virtue of controllers with fewer buttons and carefully crafted level design, players were rarely confused about how to play. And as the game progressed and new abilities were gained, players learned how to effectively use them organically through repeated use alone. Perhaps the most obvious example of this concept can be found in the two-dimensional Legend of Zelda games. In each dungeon, players attained a new item, but even without referring to the manual, the game made it clear how to use each one. Another famous example of this concept can be found in another Nintendo game,Super Mario Bros. In world 1-1, as the player moves across to the right, Mario encounters a walking mushroom (a goomba) right as he reaches a floating question block. Accustomed to avoiding enemy collisions, the player jumps, but as he does so the goomba keeps walking. If the player jumped straight up, Mario will land on top of the goomba, killing it, and possibly also hit the question block above him. In only a few seconds into the game, the player has already learned that Mario can kill enemies by stomping on them, that in doing so he will automatically be propelled upward again, and that a question block’s secrets can be attained by smashing them from below, all without the need for an in-game tutorial. Even if the player jumps forward instead, he still learns something about Mario’s jump mechanics, and there are ample opportunities within the first stage to learn about killing goombas and breaking blocks. The first stage in Super Mario Bros. also introduces players to the concepts of the mushroom, fire flower, starman, and 1-up mushroom power-ups, as well as breaking blocks only as big Mario, hidden coins in some blocks, and even invisible blocks. The two main enemies in the game, goombas and koopa troopas, are also introduced to the player. All the information the player needs to play the game exists in the first stage, with later stages offering greater challenges to test mastery of that understanding.
Perhaps the most immediately obvious design philosophy of retro games is their intuitiveness. Once upon a time games lacked a tutorial mode or in-game instructions entirely, but gamers didn’t feel lost. While minimal instruction was provided in the game’s manual, many gamers simply popped the game into the console and worked out how to play through experimentation. Through virtue of controllers with fewer buttons and carefully crafted level design, players were rarely confused about how to play. And as the game progressed and new abilities were gained, players learned how to effectively use them organically through repeated use alone. Perhaps the most obvious example of this concept can be found in the two-dimensional Legend of Zelda games. In each dungeon, players attained a new item, but even without referring to the manual, the game made it clear how to use each one. Another famous example of this concept can be found in another Nintendo game,Super Mario Bros. In world 1-1, as the player moves across to the right, Mario encounters a walking mushroom (a goomba) right as he reaches a floating question block. Accustomed to avoiding enemy collisions, the player jumps, but as he does so the goomba keeps walking. If the player jumped straight up, Mario will land on top of the goomba, killing it, and possibly also hit the question block above him. In only a few seconds into the game, the player has already learned that Mario can kill enemies by stomping on them, that in doing so he will automatically be propelled upward again, and that a question block’s secrets can be attained by smashing them from below, all without the need for an in-game tutorial. Even if the player jumps forward instead, he still learns something about Mario’s jump mechanics, and there are ample opportunities within the first stage to learn about killing goombas and breaking blocks. The first stage in Super Mario Bros. also introduces players to the concepts of the mushroom, fire flower, starman, and 1-up mushroom power-ups, as well as breaking blocks only as big Mario, hidden coins in some blocks, and even invisible blocks. The two main enemies in the game, goombas and koopa troopas, are also introduced to the player. All the information the player needs to play the game exists in the first stage, with later stages offering greater challenges to test mastery of that understanding.
Perfect.
Modern examples: Guacamelee, Strider (2014), Shadow Complex, Shadow Warrior (2013)
Frantic Gameplay
The biggest influence on the design philosophy of games in the NES era came not from earlier consoles but rather the thriving arcade scene. Arcade games were—and still are—designed to drop players immediately into the action with little, if any, exposition and to keep the action coming with only short breaks every now and again to let players catch their breath. Arcades, after all, provide short bursts of excitement coupled with punishing gameplay meant to get the player’s adrenaline pumping. Arcade game designers had to produce a near perfect difficulty curve to keep players consistently challenged yet never feeling cheated, or risk their game being pulled from the stores and replaced with a better performing cabinet. This style of frantic gameplay, the focus on action over exposition, may have been in part to keep players “feeding the machine” with their hard-earned quarters, but it also came to be the expected experience from a visit to the local arcade. Even today with narrative-driven adventure games and Japanese role-playing games thriving in the home market, it would be absurd to expect either style of game to be available on an arcade cabinet.
The biggest influence on the design philosophy of games in the NES era came not from earlier consoles but rather the thriving arcade scene. Arcade games were—and still are—designed to drop players immediately into the action with little, if any, exposition and to keep the action coming with only short breaks every now and again to let players catch their breath. Arcades, after all, provide short bursts of excitement coupled with punishing gameplay meant to get the player’s adrenaline pumping. Arcade game designers had to produce a near perfect difficulty curve to keep players consistently challenged yet never feeling cheated, or risk their game being pulled from the stores and replaced with a better performing cabinet. This style of frantic gameplay, the focus on action over exposition, may have been in part to keep players “feeding the machine” with their hard-earned quarters, but it also came to be the expected experience from a visit to the local arcade. Even today with narrative-driven adventure games and Japanese role-playing games thriving in the home market, it would be absurd to expect either style of game to be available on an arcade cabinet.
Rez reflects influences from arcade shooters such as the classic Tempest.
Just as the arcades influenced NES era game design, retro games too reflect the arcade experience. Although limited lives and punishing difficulty, both staples of arcade games, are not necessarily reflected in retro games, these traits remain common among them as well. The shmup genre (short for “shoot-em up”) offers the most direct translation of the arcade mentality to home consoles and PCs, although indie developers have aimed to scratch that itch themselves, with some even going so far as to put challenge at the top of their priority list, leading to the aptly named masocore style—games so challenging that players need to be a little masochistic to even attempt victory. All action games owe a little something to their arcade ancestors, but retro games take this influence a step further to provide frantic, adrenaline-pumping action at a breakneck pace.
Sin & Punishment: Star Successor combines frantic gameplay with an anime-inspired narrative.
Strong Environmental Narrative
Despite technical limitations, the graphics in games of the 80s through mid-90s felt like living, breathing worlds. Developers took the time and effort to plan out each level and populate them with nuggets of insight that implied a richer narrative than was actually directly stated to the player during gameplay. Although old school games are sometimes derided for lacking a clear narrative, exposition was simply downplayed in favor of letting the world itself convey story information to the player. In short, games focused on the environmental narrative instead of telling their stories through cutscenes and dialog exchanges.
Despite technical limitations, the graphics in games of the 80s through mid-90s felt like living, breathing worlds. Developers took the time and effort to plan out each level and populate them with nuggets of insight that implied a richer narrative than was actually directly stated to the player during gameplay. Although old school games are sometimes derided for lacking a clear narrative, exposition was simply downplayed in favor of letting the world itself convey story information to the player. In short, games focused on the environmental narrative instead of telling their stories through cutscenes and dialog exchanges.
The visuals of the post-apocalyptic world depicted in Journey to Silius reinforce the game’s Terminator inspired plot.
Visuals only tell part of the story, though. In retro games, the environment speaks in a more literal sense as well, through sound design that properly conveys the atmosphere of the world that surrounds the player and serves to immerse them in the environment. Non-diagetic music plays its part too, conveying the feelings that players are meant to experience within that given context. The Metroid series in particular is renowned for using sound to ramp up the tension and drag players into the power suit of Samus Aran.
Super Metroid uses lack of music to build tension as Samus explores a seemingly empty planet Zebes…
…before roaring to life again when Samus is ambushed by space pirates.
Thankfully, this trait of retro games is the most pervasive throughout the modern gaming industry. Even mega-popular multibillion dollar franchises such as Grand Theft Auto manage to use their environment to convey narrative information, they just also include a more traditional narrative told through cutscenes and player dialog exchanges with non-player characters.
Though not retro, The Wolf Among Us reflects strong environmental narrative.
Modern examples: Bioshock, Ring Runner, Shadow of the Colossus, Transistor
Abstract Visuals That Represent Something Greater
Despite the limited graphic and color palettes afforded by old school hardware, artists still produced fully realized concept art to represent the game’s world and characters. This art would then be abstracted into a simplified representation, with care taken to ensure the visuals would still read as intended. Players were meant to perceive more than just the simple, pixellated images when they played the games. Artists of this era had to be creative in choosing how to represent characters, objects, and environments to reflect the world as intended. Nowadays, with pixel art en vogue, some designers miss the mark and design their art backwards, trying to make the pixellated characters look like pixellated characters. It may seem like a subtle distinction, but recognizing that pixel art actually represented a hand-drawn concept really makes all the difference.
Despite the limited graphic and color palettes afforded by old school hardware, artists still produced fully realized concept art to represent the game’s world and characters. This art would then be abstracted into a simplified representation, with care taken to ensure the visuals would still read as intended. Players were meant to perceive more than just the simple, pixellated images when they played the games. Artists of this era had to be creative in choosing how to represent characters, objects, and environments to reflect the world as intended. Nowadays, with pixel art en vogue, some designers miss the mark and design their art backwards, trying to make the pixellated characters look like pixellated characters. It may seem like a subtle distinction, but recognizing that pixel art actually represented a hand-drawn concept really makes all the difference.
Shigeru Miyamoto’s original concept sketches for the arcade hit Donkey Kong reflect a cartoonish style.
Legend of Zelda character designer Katsuya Terada depicts Link’s battle with Hinox the cyclops from Game Boy hit Link’s Awakening.
There also seems to be some confusion among developers about the look of old school games. True, games on the SNES, NES, Genesis, and other contemporaries used pixels instead of polygons to render graphics, but the blocky, jagged look that has come to be associated with this era never actually existed. This is because everyone had CRT displays that are much better at upscaling images than modern LCD and LED displays. A combination of more accurate upscaling and scanlines produced a “blurred” look. The better artists of the period recognized this and would line up pixels intentionally to create the illusion of different shades of color and subtle shading as the pixels blurred into one another. This resulted in much more dynamic visuals compared to a direct emulation of pixellated graphics.
On the left: a bunch of colored blocks. On the right: pixel art. (Final Fantasy VI)
Modern examples: Axiom Verge, Rez, Tearaway
It would be inaccurate to claim that all old school games utilized every one of the above design philosophies, nor would it be fair to expect retro games to ignore modern conventions entirely. But the retro game label has been diluted by developers looking to make a quick buck off of nostalgic gamers. Art style and music alone cannot be the sole measure on which to judge a game as retro. Instead, developers should delve below the surface details to dig out what made old games so captivating and unforgettable even to this day, despite the soaring improvements in processing power and the ability to produce far more realistic visuals.
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