I have been revisiting lots of games in Retroarch during the past year and damn... the innovation and style from the 90's can't be matched. Japanese devs were on fire. And you know what... I love that games looked like games and sounded like games, not like today where we have these uber realistic productions with Hans Zimmer esque OSTs that play like shit.
I think that the japanese gaming industry lost their mojo around 2004. Then they started catering to weebs and their internal markets. Japanese games used to be at the forefront of innovation as well, but then the Western gaming industry destroyed them in the HD era.
The period from the mid 90's thru the mid 00's had a combination of unique factors that made it the best period in gaming:
- Japanese devs produced incredible pixel art during the 16 bit and 32 bit eras. Since by then they were really experienced at their craft.
- PC gaming was growing at a breakneck pace both in popularity and tech. The golden era of PC gaming started in 1993 with Doom and ended with the big 3 of 2004 (Half Life 2, Doom 3 and Far Cry) 2005 - 2010 were the dark ages of PC gaming.
- 3D in gaming was new and devs had to experiment a lot. For that reason a lot of unique games were greenlit. There were no safe formulas like today. And since budgets weren't the GDP of a small country you could cater to niches.
- Just like rock music peaked in 1973, gaming peaked in 1998. Nothing wrong with that.
I think that the japanese gaming industry lost their mojo around 2004. Then they started catering to weebs and their internal markets. Japanese games used to be at the forefront of innovation as well, but then the Western gaming industry destroyed them in the HD era.
The period from the mid 90's thru the mid 00's had a combination of unique factors that made it the best period in gaming:
- Japanese devs produced incredible pixel art during the 16 bit and 32 bit eras. Since by then they were really experienced at their craft.
- PC gaming was growing at a breakneck pace both in popularity and tech. The golden era of PC gaming started in 1993 with Doom and ended with the big 3 of 2004 (Half Life 2, Doom 3 and Far Cry) 2005 - 2010 were the dark ages of PC gaming.
- 3D in gaming was new and devs had to experiment a lot. For that reason a lot of unique games were greenlit. There were no safe formulas like today. And since budgets weren't the GDP of a small country you could cater to niches.
- Just like rock music peaked in 1973, gaming peaked in 1998. Nothing wrong with that.
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