Nostalgia. Is it really worth it?

Good evening all, today I wanted to talk about nostalgia. The question i'm asking today is, 'nostalgia, is it good or bad?'. 

Just before I get into it, if you unsure of what nostalgia means, Google defines it as "a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past".

Now, you're probably asking yourself, "How can nostalgia be a bad thing?!".  And I'd agree, nostalgia is great. Revisiting old games can be a great experience, playing through levels that you remember so fondly and bring back such good memories. One of my favourite examples is Spyro: The Year Of The Dragon. The third installation in the Spyro franchise and the last Spyro game to be released on the Playstation One. TYotD scored a 91/100 on Metacritic and a 9.1/10 from IGN. Fair rating for a great game.

    

The game of my childhood

One of my most fond memories of the game is the skateboarding minigames. For those who never had the opportunity to play TYotD, there were skateboarding sections were you had to either collect dragon eggs (which was the main aim of the game), or exterminating lizards on the track to get a dragon egg as a reward. As a child new to video games, I hadn't yet had the opportunity to play any sort of skateboarding game, so being thrown into the thick of it in my favourite game at the time was amazing for me. I'd find myself sitting there for hours at a time doing the same track over and over again, doing halfpipe after halfpipe without a care in the world. Times were good back then...

Yesterday however, I set up my Playstation Two and booted up TYotD for the first time in years. Oh how I relived happy memories as the soundtrack bellowed through my TV's speakers. First level, called Sunny Villa, went well. I honestly couldn't remember the level but I got through it okay. It then all went to crap in the second level, named Cloud Spires. There was thing ONE JUMP that I couldn't master. It got so bad I almost rage quit (which is unbelievable seeing as I was playing a PS1 game released 15 years ago which was meant for young children). I'm not sure if it's just me, but I find that rather disappointing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not disappointed in the game, I love the game! I'm more disappointed in myself. I'm allowing myself to get angry at a game I have so many fond memories of. Back in the day, when I was 5 or 6, I don't remember getting so frustrated over such a minuscule puzzle. Allowing myself to get angry at such a small puzzle means I am ruining my memories of the game and replacing them with feelings of anger and frustration, which obviously isn't a good thing. Does this mean I can no longer play the games of my childhood, simply because frustration takes over?

The Game Over screen I have seen
one too many times...

Another problem I faced is the gameplay. Video games at the time varied in terms of quality, some obviously better then others. In Spyro, to control the camera, you had to use the rear shoulder buttons, which for you guys who haven't had the opportunity to play the Playstation, are both L2 and R2. The camera also seemed to rotate itself when it felt like. Imagine trying to do a time challenge while the camera is doing what it likes! Not fun at all. Again, is this a case of replacing my previous fond memories with anger and frustration?

I ask you, my readers, do you enjoy visiting older games? Bringing fond memories of back is great and all, but do you worry about the problems that may arise from revisiting these older games? How do you feel about nostalgia towards video games

Thanks for taking the time to read this latest post. I'll try and get another post up later in week.

Until then, have a great week and enjoy any and all your video game shenanigans!

Connor :)