I sit in front of my computer screen, trying to find a good bundle of SNES games on eBay, only to find most of them are full of bullshit sports games or shitty kids games that I don’t want to deal with. Is it so hard to find a good SNES game that isn’t Mario or Donkey Kong? Regardless, I wade through the oceans of shit trying to find such a good deal. I’ve done the PC emulation thing in order to relive my childhood gaming days, but nothing is better than actually owning the system, the feel of the old controller in your hand, the simplistic, cartoonish graphics but you just can’t help but love. Yeah, those were the days.

More retro goodness after the break.

It's a game that just can't be beat.

Now, I find myself wanting to relive those days. Not that I don’t enjoy my 360 and PS3. Currently playing Prototype, which is awesome. But there’s that part of me that just can’t get over the old NES/SNES days. I called my mom the other day, asking her if she knew where our old NES was and if she could find it so that the next time I was in LA, I could pick it up. Surprisingly, she found it, along with my original Super Mario Bros. cartridge. I would’ve thought my dad would have thrown it out a long time ago but no, it’s there and it’s perfect. Don’t even know if it’ll work, but hey…it’s worth a shot. And on top of that, I managed to find a complete SNES set on eBay, along with a few games. It wasn’t cheap and I’ve probably spent something close to 60 bucks. But hey, these games are hard to come by, especially these days. Unless you go the emulation route, that is.

Retro games are like the old movies of the video game industry. There are so many piles of shit, but hidden beneath that, you’ve got classics that redefined the industry. Even with all the excellent graphics and gameplay innovations that new gaming technology has brought us, the fact that many of the old games, despite their simplistic graphics and gameplay, are still playable is a testament to just how great a lot of these old games really are.

HADOKEN!

A lot of old games are beginning to make their way onto newer systems as downloadable games, but again, there’s nothing quite like having the old system itself, if for nothing else, as a testament to your gaming devotion. An NES and SNES will do, at least for me. No offense to Sega, but the old Master System and Genesis systems, although great, just weren’t for me. In my house, Nintendo ruled, at least until the N64 came out.

Many people will say that retro gaming is pointless, that old games are just too shitty and ancient to be any fun. Those people never knew the joy of making it through World 8-4 in Super Mario Bros. only to have to go through and play the game at a harder difficulty level and, sadly, will never know. But then again, who needs pretty graphics to play a game when the gameplay itself is awesome?