Gaming used to be something immediate. You’d put the cartridge in, turn on the console, maybe adjust some settings and then press start. Simple, direct, taut. And there wouldn’t be any 45-minute instructional segment on how to play the game at the beginning either: that’s what the manual was for. Yes, games used to have fucking manuals. After whining to mom and dad for an hour to get you the game, you’d rip that packaging open as fast as you could in the backseat on the car ride home and read the manual by the streetlights. It was fucking great that way and there was no reason for anything to change, but of course like all things gaming eventually degraded and become gayer. Now we have games that are more like taking a hit of an opium pipe than a video game. It’s all slow, morphine drip gameplay that I guess is supposed to lull you into some type of waking coma. Who the hell needs a game that’s 10 hours of fun (MAYBE) and 90+ hours of boring bullshit busywork? It makes no sense to me. Contra Hard Corps is a game that’s probably 1-5 hours TOPS, but is an absolute thrill ride for every second. Not only that, it’s hard as balls so its replayability is through the roof. I’m gonna be 35 this year and I STILL haven’t beat it, let alone gotten to the last level. There’s some hope in the indie scene I guess, I haven’t explored them much because I’m still playing my Sega Genesis and likely will be in the nursing home.
