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80s classics being reimagined for the 2020s

  • PRG

Just like movies, music and TV, we all tend to be biased towards the video games we played during our formative years. But there is an argument that those who were lucky enough to grow up in the US in the 1980s have a greater right than most. This was, after all, the dawn of the gaming age and like the Golden Age of Hollywood, it featured titles that genuinely broke new ground. They had us glued to our Ataris and Commodores for hours on end.

Today, gaming is a mainstream leisure activity enjoyed by Americans of all ages. Most of those who grew up playing those 80s games still enjoy gaming on their mobile devices and maybe consoles today. We might go misty-eyed over retro classics, but the truth is, 40 years on, they are not quite as playable or engaging as they appear through the lens of nostalgia.

Developers have not been blind to the nostalgia surrounding 80s classics. Here we look at three of the truly great 80s titles from the decade that style forgot that have been reinvented for the modern smartphone age. As well as making a lot off middle aged gamers feel young again, they have attracted a new generation of fans.

Crossy Road introduced Frogger to a new generation

First released in 1981, Frogger is acknowledged as one of the great video games of all time. Like Pac Man, of which more in a moment, it was among the first games to garner both male and female players. Over the following years it was ported to every home game system you can think of, including the Commodore, Sinclair, Dragon, Amstrad and, of course, America’s favorite, the Atari. In the 90s, it was still as popular as ever and found its way onto the Game Boy and Game Boy Color.

In 2014, game studio Hipster Whale hit upon the idea of combining the basic Frogger “road crossing” setup with the endless runner format that had been made so popular by games like Temple Run. The result was Crossy Road, and it has gone on to become one of the most popular mobile games, with more than 50 million downloads in the first three months.

Pac Man Wild Edition is for mature casino gamers

It’s not just a case of the old games not seeming so good by modern standards. We change as people, too. TV shows like The A-Team and Baywatch might have been our favorites 35 years ago, but our tastes are different at 50 to what they were at 15.

The same goes for gaming, but one 80s title that has succeeded in maturing alongside us is Pac Man. Like Frogger, it initially found fame in the arcades before being ported to every gaming system under the sun. It has also seen various new versions released to varying levels of success. However, the Pac Man Wild Edition casino slot game is one that is more likely to appeal to players in their 40s and 50s than a retro puzzle game.

Pac Man Wild Edition is a slot game that is available at both land-based gambling houses across the US and it is also appearing more and more often at online casino sites. It is a departure from so many licensed casino slots that all play very similarly and differ only in the symbols on the reels. This one is designed to be more like the game that inspired it. Using a format that is similar to original Pac Man game doesn’t just make this stand out from other slots, it also allows space for a host of bonus games that use the rest of the screen. Pac Man for grown-ups is definitely worth a try!

Tetris Effect: Connected breathes new life into an old classic

The first computer software to be developed in the Soviet Union and sold in the west, Tetris is a culturally significant product of the 80s. It also happens to be one of the most addictive games ever invented!

We all know how it works, and the game’s simplicity made it a popular choice for mobiles in the pre-smartphone era. When Tetris Effect was released for PS4 in 2018, it added new dimensions of background animations and music that change according to the gameplay. Tetris Effect: Connected has advanced this still further, creating a multiplayer game that can be either cooperative or competitive.

Metacritic described it as one of the best games available on the Nintendo Switch. That’s not bad for something that was dreamed up in a young developer’s spare time in the USSR in the 1980s.

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