XCOM:TFTD was the first one I played in the series, and I went back and found that the original was just as good. I preferred TFTD because I liked the graphics and atmosphere a bit more, but as far as gameplay elements went, they were both great.

It is funny how the Good Old Games offered more gameplay. They really *had* to, since they couldn’t bank on glitzy graphics distracting the ADHD crowd. I miss that.

I do keep meaning to check out King’s Bounty. Thanks for reminding me. I’ve got Mount & Blade high on the list, too, albeit for different reasons. Oh, and I keep meaning to check out Battle for Wesnoth, a free hex-based strategy game. I’ve got retro gaming on the mind, something fierce.

Cracks Call was a 25% chance to destroy ANY land unit in MoM, hehe. I also loved Sorcery, to conjure expendable ground troops that packed a punch.

Sins of a Solar Empire is good, but despite all the candy and some new ideas, it is not nearly as complex as Master of Magic or Master of Orion.

You also mentioned X-Com, there were several re-makes and so on, but they all fell short of the Original. I liked UFO DEFENSE even more so than Terror from the Deep, basically the same underwater.

It is interesting that the old “Master” and “Star Control” titles were richer in regards of complexity and content than many contemporary games of the genre.

And no, no nostalgia involved here on my part, these old games offered more than modern games when it comes to concepts, ideas and features.
King’s Bounty is also only a remake of the original King’s Bounty, the somewhat different predecessor of the Heroes of M&M series.

I’m looking forward to more studios experimenting with new ideas or even evolving common genres and old but proven gameplay mechanics as Mirror’s Edge has tried with the FPS genre. Hopefully the popularity of Live Arcade and PSN will allow developers to try low-risk low-budget attempts at new concepts or adding layers to previously successful mechanics without the huge finanial risk titles like Mirror’s Edge and LittleBigPlanet have if they fail.

For another example, the light cycle bit of the Tron game was a lot of fun, and has been replicated repeatedly. It’s pretty much the same core game in the light cycle part of Tron 2.0, but with some added depth. The core gameplay mechanics weren’t jettisoned for a new hexagonal or freeform grid, and there are no light sabers to swing from the side. It’s a nice update to an old game, using elements that made the thing work in the first place.

My main point is that we need to understand why the older games worked in order to improve on them. If our idea of “improvement” is gore, sex and shiny phong shaders with 5 MB textures, we run the risk of missing the point of games in the first place. The game has to be fun, first and foremost. Games can be fun in very prototypical streamlined forms, which is what a lot of retro classics represent.

Another example is the Gamecube PacMan where other players can play the ghosts. It’s fun mostly because the core concept of PacMan is a blast. Putting players in control of the ghosts is a great twist for even more fun, but it could be done with extraordinarily plain graphics and still be fun to play.