Here's something I thought would be fun to talk about with each other, as the opinions tend to differ with a lot of gamers. At what generation do games start to become retro these days? Should retro gaming still start from 16-bit era (SNES, SEGA Genesis etc) and lower or would you consider the sixth generation (Dreamcast, GameCube, PS2) to be the start of the retro age? Or maybe even the generation after that, featuring Wii, PS3 and the X360? Was wondering what you guys' opinions on this is.

 Hm. Seeing as kids these days are growing up with PS4's and X-Box One's, and so many kids have a tablet, most kids don't (that I've seen, and yes, I've asked, I'm weird... I know.) even know what a Game Cube or Dreamcast is, I'd say everything up to Game Cube really. Kids know the PS2, from knowing that there is a PS3 and PS4, so they can confirm those exist.

   I always feel old when I'm talking to kids about video games and they don't know Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, Rachet and Clank, Prince of Persia, Silent Hill, Shadow of the Colossus, and tons of other games, that are fantastic, but a bit older.

   Like, I feel retro now. XD

This is actually a really good question.

I personally would lump the fifth generation into the retro category, but I'm torn on calling the sixth gen retro. I would say that as a rule of thumb, anything two generations old is probably retro, as systems that are only one generation old (PS3, XBox 360, Wii) still have games made for them for a few years after they become outdated, and are still produced in the developer's factories for a while as well.

So PS2? Probably retro, but I'm definitely comfortable with saying PSX is retro. And I guess if Vizzed is viewed as any sort of an authority on the matter (which it probably shouldn't be, as it never means to be), then it makes sense to call the PS2 retro since we were calling PSX retro while the PS3 was the current thing, so with the release of the PS4 It would seem to stand to reason that the PS2 would graduate into the retro class.


Really I think the reason it's getting so much harder to differentiate retro from non-retro is because the systems that are becoming retro age now still don't look retro. I mean nobody struggled to call the NES retro during the N64 days, because hey, it looked really old. But PS2? Yeah we can see huge improvements, but watch a video of Genji: Dawn of the Samurai's High Res cinematics and tell me that looks like a retro system. It practically rivals PS4 at times! So yeah, it'll only be harder and harder to classify systems as retro from here on out...I still can't imagine calling the PS3 retro in eight years...



F. Starr : You reminded me of a video I saw where a guy was telling a story about how when he was in Japan recently, some kids saw him playing on a 3DS and asked what he was playing. He told them he was playing Majora's Mask 3D, to which they replied "Oh yeah, that new Zelda game". He of course said " Well yeah it's new, but it isn't new". The kids were confused so he told them that it originally came out on the Nintendo 64. Their response? "What's a Nintendo 64?" -__- Just go away. lol

Xbox Original isn't retro, just saying. That's the one that made games made now just shooters and things.

The 7th generation is the start of the demise of gaming: all anyone plays is shooters and GTA, amongst other things, everyone is a cash cow and all that.

Also it's the start of a stupider youth public. I already know this.

Luigi442wii : I actually disagree with this, I feel the industry is making a turnaround on that. I think it's making a good attempt at broadening the variety of genres. Besides, the amount of adults playing games has massively increased too. But this is a little off-topic, ehehe...

I guess these days, I would consider the truly retro age to be PSX and lower. I certainly wouldn't go any newer than that.

Although I realize that PS2, 3 and the Xbox systems are no longer current gen, games are either still being actively developed for those platforms by big studios or they just stopped being active. So although it's kinda a "gray" area, I still wouldn't consider those systems "retro"