When I look at my Wii U, Wii and 3DS Virtual Console, a majority of Steam sale purchases, Xbox 360 games re-downloaded on Xbox One and now PS2 games on PS4 I can’t help but wonder “why did I buy all these?” Then promptly buy another classic I won’t replay for more than a few minutes.
For some inexplicable reason I’m compelled to repurchase classic games from the ‘90s and early ‘00s I once loved, despite knowing the chance of finishing them again is remote, and in many cases, I still have the original somewhere.
It was a fun novelty on Wii, and I actually did play the entire Donkey Kong Country series again. Likewise on Wii U I beat Metroid Prime for the second time, only to then plug-in a GameCube to see if I ever finished Metroid Prime 2….I could have have played the original like that, minus motion controls.
Those I consider money well spent, but it doesn’t explain the 30 other Virtual Console games I have on Wii U, and in-excess of 50 on Wii, which either haven’t carried over or require a fee I can be bothered looking up; I’m sure I’d just pay it out of some strange compulsion to own all these classics on a current-gen platform if going to the Wii U eShop was a more frequent venture.
We don’t need to replay the games of past eras, or even really want to, but there’s something appealing about having favourite games on a current-gen platform.
Nintendo certainly started it all, but it’s Steam that made it too easy to buy cheap and forget. In part because I used to be a bigger PC gamer than I am now, but even then a majority of my summer sale purchases were $2-$5 classics I had no intention of playing. I rebought the entire GTA Collection (pre-V) for $15 years ago. Bargain! Except I had them all on various platforms beforehand, and have barely touched them since. The same goes for my great many (too many) Star Wars games and the Hitman Collection I was determined to revisit; three years later the play count remains at 0 minutes.
In a way, that’s why I’m glad Sony has priced me out of the market at $23 for an upscaled PS2 game with Trophies on PS4. I’m still dangerously close to buying Vice City, because I’m delusional about playing it on console. I might dabble, but I really doubt credits will roll. None of this is up for debate, and yet I’m still trying to convince myself that it’s an okay repurchase because I’ve only had Vice City twice (both on PC — a disc and then on Steam).
Meanwhile I’ve had GTA III three times (PS2, Steam and mobile), enough to scoff at paying so much for it again, and I’m hazy on how many copies of San Andreas have come and gone — I think it’s five: PS2, Xbox, Steam, the horrible Xbox 360 720p port because a sale sucked me in, and mobile).
Arrrrgh, five times for one game is too many, isn’t it? Oh well, might as well make it six now.
Damn it, brain! No more San Andreas.
This is probably why remasters are so popular. We don’t need to replay the games of past eras, or even really want to, but there’s something appealing about having favourite games on a current-gen platform. It's reassuring to know they've made the jump with you, even if they won't be required to come out of retirement. While the PS2 Classics are super expensive, since I’m not really playing them anyway, it’s much better than an $80 touched-up re-release.
Now, when is Twilight Princess HD coming out? I really want to play that again from start to finish, or at least, I think I do.
