A Tale of Two Games, Nostalgia vs Evolution - *Fixed*

Lately, I've been hitting the download content on Xbox Live Arcade pretty hard. One of them an older game that I used to play, redone with online play and the other a new spin on an old formula. They are both 800 MS Points ($10) and with my newly purchased 1600 Point Card, I planned on buying both. But I found a little more complicated than that.

-Bomberman and Living with Nostalgia-
I used to play Bomberman on the SNES. My best friend Kiehnoff had the game and a multitap and a lot of our middle school years were spend punch and kicking bombs at each other. When Bomberman was released I wasn't really interested because, it was 800 Points ($10), which is severely over priced for a game that honestly people don't really give a crap about, and for something I wouldn't have anyone to play it with, I really don't like playing online with random strangers who I hardly know or give a crap about. Also don't forget that there really hasn't been any changes to the game since its release on the NES.

Recently I started playing with the community off of Brad's Hard Drive and it's been amazing. I'd been reintroduced to the game I'd loved and I decided that since I had people to play with, it would warrant the purchase. I went on Xbox Live Arcade to purchase the full game only to find that there are also three Bomb Packs each with more costumes and levels at the cost of 250, 200, and 250 respectively. All together that's 700 Points nearly the cost for the game itself. Now, if I'm a huge Bomberman fan, but I refuse to buy the add ons. They are are the shittiest way to nickel and dime someone. Releasing multiple bite sizes piece is horrible. If they were to release a big expansion at maybe 400 points ($5), fine I could live with that.

Sure, people say, you don't have to buy them. You can just play the normal version. But who wants to have they feeling that they're missing out on something. Nobody wants to feel like they have to pay extra so that they're getting full experience. These companies have a guy who just sits around and say, Hmm...we could release it at this price but then we'd have to sell this many of them. Or you know what, let's raise the cost so that we'll still make the same amount of money selling less and if we get lucky, well sell more and make more profit. I've never liked this part of Corporations and Business, and I like it even less when I can feel it's presence in the games I play.

The people arguing that It's a choice and that I don't have to pay the money or play the game are right. I don't have to, I can just play Brad's copy. So thanks greedy microtransaction whores for helping me save my money for a purchase for something else, like those System of a Down tracks that are coming out for Rock Band next week.

-Geometry Wars and it's Evolution-
Now on the other side of the fence. This is how you do a SEQUEL! When Geometry Wars came out, it was a fresh take on a very old and tired formula. It was well priced, some would say a little too well priced, and stirred interest again in the score based game genre. When I heard of talks for a sequel and the Wii/DS versions, I was skeptical because honestly, what else could they do? Make it prettier and add a few more enemies? How do you change gameplay for something that really only plays one way?

I don't consider the Geometry Wars on the Wii or DS a sequel. It's more of a spin off. There were a few good ideas for implementation, but the controls just weren't right. You didn't have the precision that you have with two analog sticks. Things just felt different, even the pricing made the soul of the game different. So you should be able to tell that I really like the new Geometry Wars, but why? It'll be hard for some people to understand. It's just all bright lights and shooting to them, but Geometry Wars 2 is completely different from the original. The purpose, gameplay, scoring system, everything is different. Even how you shoot and evade are more complex. They've added new enemies but that was expected. But they didn't just stop there, everything feels like it's really been thought out. It wasn't hey, let's just add a new coat of paint and slap the roman numeral "II" on it. The changes are so dramatic, it's to the point where I can see myself consistently playing both Geometry Wars each for their uniqueness. I never though they so much could be changed in a game with such simple design. I still haven't even touched on the multiplayer so who knows what that will bring.

So here we have two games, both with very deep roots in early video gaming. But one which refuses to change and demands it's worth. While the other is changing in every way possible. It's not a hard choice to see which one, I'd spend my money on.

Maybe Japanese Development really is losing out.
David

I realized that somehow text had gotten moved around when I was adding pictures and that the earlier format was a little unreadable.