Video Games Have Changed

by Chris Vegvary

We’ve come a long way from video games like Super Mario Bros., haven’t we? From the original NES to the Xbox One, from Gameboy to Playstation 4, from Atari to the Wii U, there’s so many games and choices out there. While older consoles are now defunct and way out-of-date, there’s still quite a few of the classics that we like to play. Who can forget the original DOOM for PC, or Sonic the Hedgehog for Sega Genesis, or my all-time favorites, Final Fantasy VII for Playstation? Not the ones who played them, most likely. Playing classic games is fun, but the more modern games sure are something to behold.

There’s so many choices of consoles, and PC games also remain relevant, even though I’ve wasted quite a bit of money on PC games that wouldn’t actually run on any of my computers. Even though the next generation of gaming consoles is out, the previous generation’s consoles are still going strong. Mortal Kombat, a violent arcade fighting game that came out in 1992, featured some pretty realistic-looking graphics for its time, and it had more than its fair share of blood and severed/exploded body parts. When the game was remade for consoles in 2011, the graphics were completely overhauled, the controls felt better, and there were a lot of added bonuses, including the ability to go into “x-ray mode” to view the internal damage your enemy takes, and real-time damage your character takes as you fight it out (including ripped eyelids and other sick sh*t).

Back in the day, we had games for consoles and PCs. Now we have games for cellphones and tablets, games that become smash successes with today’s technophiles, or people who can’t seem to live without their electronic devices (I’m guilty, too). For instance, the game Angry Birds, which was first released in 2009, is an idea that is so simple, yet people love it so much that variations (and straight-up ripoffs) of the game are still being released today. There’s even a full-length movie in the works.

What does the future hold for video games? It’s hard to say, but I feel like this “next generation” of consoles (Xbox One & PS4) is sort of like a stepping stone in the direction of the REAL next generation consoles, because all in all, they just seem like Xbox 360s and PS3s with better graphics and a few extra features. Still, there are a lot of games that will be coming out in the future, and with this being the beginning of these new consoles’ lives, perhaps the boundaries of what can be done with video game graphics and functionality can be pushed more towards the limit than I thought possible.