What is the definition of 'retro' to you?

[Sumea]

The thing is while the word has a definition that is not what the word has meant in video game circle. Nobody is out here calling Shovel Knight, Hollow Knight and it's sequel retro games which would be the dictionary accurate way to use the word. It is one of those what the word "theory" means in different contexts type of shits. We have for decades said retro game to mean old games, old generation of gaming, sometimes stuff harkening to it like zsnes dev's game being named "8bit retro endurance". Nintendo would not be retro not in global sense since American video game crash has that bit at the start. No other part of the world but America thanks to Atari's market in America and just about only in America defined the trends that would also end up with the crash. Nintendo came to the market with much more powerful hardware at the right time that especially later with memory mappers could do much more complex game design that was leaps ahead of what was available in the past. Atari to NES is comparable if not even harder leap in some manner than one from SNES to PlayStation 1. The only way to define NES when it came out as retro is to butcher the word to just mean "a video game". Plus globally it was not true. In Japan it created the home console market rather than revitalizing anything. Atari etc. attempts existed but had no popularity. SG-1000 from sega launched at the same day with Famicom. Europe had a very healthy market with numerous 8-bit PC's and they had healthy gaming market while a pocket existed for Sega and even Nintendo, though Nintendo's premium prices kept it slightly in least popular category. Cheaper was always better in EU market. For Brazil's home gaming market, Sega is the most important name, and is king to this day. Nintendo had no hold because they had no such deal as Sega struck with Tec-Toy. There is something to be said about the side effect of Famicom and it's hardware being important to whole Asia but that is in cloned hardware, wide spread of what we call "famiclones" and bootlegs compatible with the wide array of different famiclones.

That whole paragraph praising NES had ultimately nothing saying anything about Retro games, the definition of retro or nothing else like that. Never even heard of a concept that a an era considered retro in gaming would become so old it is somehow not retro anymore.

People like to bring up these dictionaries to these discussions when the first thing is to throw that shit out of the window since "retro game" "retro gaming" etc. do not mean the same thing, 30 years of use of the word in context of video games have already defined what it means. It means older generations of gaming that are now a niche that only some select gamers are into as the vast majority of gamers are into the current thing and current trends. In these types of forum it is easy to forget that gaming today and for a long time has been a bigger business than even movies and that means that vast majority of gamers take it as a casual thing like watching TV, having Fifa with the boys on drinking night. The niecheness of an old generation that only some gamers are into is likely best definition of something being retro. And today, that would easily mean PS3 and Xbox 360.... and now with Switch 2 and dominance of Switch etc, even Wii U.

"NES never left"? Dude, tons of people sold their NES or shelved it to buy a Mega Drive or SNES and never looked back. Tons of people sold or shelved or gifted away their SNES, NES or Mega Drive to buy a PS1. Most people did that. No idea what the "never left" thing is about what there is a mainstream market still for NES? Nintendo still selling NES systems? Nintendo themselves still publish new NES games? That is just semantics diluting meaning from the term we all here know and have our own duck test for. It is in this forum's/write up site's name. It is in what "the Repo" hosts. To start arguing with a dictionary as a bible that actually NES is not retro and it even cannot be retro is to act so smart it loops into being quite dumb. In global scale, Mega Drive and SNES did the same thing for gaming as NES did. PS1, N64 and Saturn did the same thing to gaming NES did. Arguably especially PS2 did it tenfold. PS2, GameCube and Xbox did the same thing to gaming as NES did. It kept happening again and again and only by the explosive growths each generation wooing more people into the gaming sphere can news articles state by raw numbers that gaming is the biggest entertainment market. It was not NES, not SNES and not even quite PS1 that had such a market. It was PS2, Xbox 360, PS4 which had such a market.

 

[DjQuick2008]

20 years old is my standard to be honest im in a few groups on FB and theyve accepted me posting PSP. PS3 should be acceptable this year or end of year.

 

[BrawlMan]

13-20+ years for me.

 

[DjQuick2008]

13-20+ years for me.

im good with at the moment like 2006 being the standard PES 6 is certainly a retro game now classic

 

[BrawlMan]

im good with at the moment like 2006 being the standard PES 6 is certainly a retro game now classic

I just find it hilarious 7th gen is now considered retro, yet most original Wii games have aged visually better than most HD games.

 

[DjQuick2008]

I just find it hilarious 7th gen is now considered retro, yet most original Wii games have aged visually better than most HD games.

the Wii has some great shooters. Mario kart Wii is a visual masterpiece as well. I never had one back then but i used to play wii sports at house parties off my nut was definitely some fun swinging your arms about because you couldnt feel pain lmao.

Post automatically merged: Mar 19, 2026

the nintendo DS definitely qualifies as retro still have a DS lite with the multicarts amazing system with customisation available

 

[BrawlMan]

the Wii has some great shooters.

If you are referring to some FPS? Yes. But...the Wii is pretty much an arcade style rail shooters paradise and has a lot of great rail shooters than bad rail shooters. Nearly all of them are better gameplay wise and visually than whatever FPS games appeared on the console.

The Wii game with the best visuals will always be MadWorld for me.

 

[DjQuick2008]

If you are referring to some FPS? Yes. But...the Wii is pretty much an arcade style rail shooters paradise and has a lot of great rail shooters than bad rail shooters. Nearly all of them are better gameplay wise and visually than whatever FPS games appeared on the console.

The Wii game with the best visuals will always be MadWorld for me.

Ive seen madworld looks bloody fantastic im into rail shooters so yeah theyre what i was getting at.

 

[Sumea]

The Wii game with the best visuals will always be MadWorld for me.

Not only the graphics but the music where they got a lot of rappers to do the hip hop/rap sound track and got two absolutely fantastic voice actors as the Shock TV commentators. It is a special game and while Anarchy Reigns/Max Anarchy is a sequel to the game, it also ditched the look for more "normal" one. Though still has that soundtrack a youtuber could put a ironic "ownage" compilation with.

The most amazing thing some developers pulled with the wii was making the motion control gimmick enjoyable even to core gamers and even enhances the gameplay in small few ways, like No More Heroes and apparently Red Steel 2 though that is just what I've heard never played it yet for myself. Quintessential Motion Plus game after Skyward Sword, they say.

 

[BrawlMan]

Not only the graphics but the music where they got a lot of rappers to do the hip hop/rap sound track and got two absolutely fantastic voice actors as the Shock TV commentators. It is a special game and while Anarchy Reigns/Max Anarchy is a sequel to the game, it also ditched the look for more "normal" one. Though still has that soundtrack a youtuber could put a ironic "ownage" compilation with.

I enjoy both games, but MadWorld defintely has the bigger impact. Anarchy Reigns I enjoy strictly for the gameplay, most of its characters, and its soundtrack. AR is basically MadWorld combined with Spike Out, with some cool God Hand elements thrown in.

like No More Heroes and apparently Red Steel 2 though that is just what I've heard never played it yet for myself.

No More Heroes was the second Wii game I ever purchased. I got it used for a buy two, get one game free at my local Game Stop back in December 26th, 2008. I was impressed by seeing some of the game the year before at college dorm in the upper floors.

 

[Princess Viola]

My cutoff for 'retro', at least for home consoles, is 'HD'. Any console that has HD output as a focus isn't retro to me, so for me 'retro' ends with the Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox, GameCube, and Wii. (Yes I do know there were a few PS2 games that output in 1080i and some 720p and 1080i games on the Xbox but neither console had a focus on HD output and those PS2 1080i games weren't even 'real' 1080i).

Handhelds? Look honestly the 3DS and Vita are retro at this point to me, IDK I'm not that bothered by that.

 

[Badseed Badseed]

"retro" is now a marketing term to sell you stuff on Steam, or whatever marketplace you use.
Just like "classic" was used before it.

 

[Zerpina]

Well, retro is really what we grew up with....
It's like we have rose tinted glasses for it, you know. It's not a specific time or place... it's honestly just what you grew up with, and trying to change that would be dishonest to ourselves

 

[Lokgamer]

Any game of Xbox 360 and PS3 or older is retro to me.

 

[Sumea]

Handhelds? Look honestly the 3DS and Vita are retro at this point to me, IDK I'm not that bothered by that.

So handhelds from PS4 generation are retro but systems from previous generation that are 5 years older are not.
Makes sense.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

North of a childhood? I consider anything that came out at least 18 years ago to be retro, simply because the youngest kids that were growing up when it came about all became adults since.

 

[Princess Viola]

So handhelds from PS4 generation are retro but systems from previous generation that are 5 years older are not.
Makes sense.

I count home consoles and handhelds separate.

Never said it made sense.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

Everything after the ps2 is "new" :P

 

[Dramatic enigma]

Leí una discusión en el otro sitio que más o menos giraba en torno a este tema, pero pronto se desvió. 'Creo que fue @Deadgar64 quien definió los juegos retro como aquellos que se hicieron antes de... un año bastante reciente, no recuerdo cuál.
Para ti, ¿qué significa que un juego, una película, un dispositivo tecnológico, o lo que sea, sea retro ? Dado que es un término tan vago y difícil de definir con precisión, no creo que exista una forma adecuada de decir "sí, esto es retro ; esto no lo es". ¿Debería estar delimitado por una fecha fija o en constante cambio, por criterios basados en la calidad, la estética, el sistema de control, los gráficos...?
Para mí, al menos, si un tipo completamente loco se me acercara un día en una parada de autobús (en mi país no hay paradas de autobús) y me pidiera que dijera, en voz alta y en ese mismo instante, la definición de retro , yo... primero, miraría a mi alrededor para ver si no está intentando atracarme, y luego diría, con un nudo en la garganta, que los videojuegos retro son, probablemente, juegos esos antiguos, "pixelados", "pitidos", que la gente jugaba antes de que yo naciera; incluso antes, de hecho: creo que las cosas realmente retro van al menos hasta antes de la quinta generación. Pero esa es solo la humilde opinión de su amigable vecino zoomer.

Es difícil precisar cuándo los videojuegos antiguos empezaron a considerarse retro, pero en mi opinión, sería a partir de la época de la PS2 y la Xbox 360. Incluso diría que los primeros juegos de PS3 y Xbox One también se considerarían retro (aunque esto último es una ligera exageración). Ahora bien, esto se refiere a PlayStation y Xbox, pero si hablamos de Nintendo, diría que sus juegos antiguos empezaron a considerar retro con los primeros juegos de 3DS (2014-2015). No sé por qué, ya que la 3DS es una consola mucho más reciente que la PS2 y la Xbox One, pero esos primeros juegos siempre me dan la sensación de ser retro.


Por cierto, me asusta pensar que dentro de unos años la PS3 y la Xbox One serán consideradas consolas retro. ¡Me da escalofrío solo de pensar que GTA V cumplirá 13 años este año! XDD

 

[Badseed Badseed]

THIS...

(real poster from 1974)

 

[gafo]

Retro is "anything back to when I was young".

 

[-------]

The good old past.

 

[extermist]

Generally speaking I regard anything from 10 years ago to be retro.

But if I apply the actual meaning of the word:

"Retro" refers to styles, fashions, or designs that consciously revive or imitate trends from the past, typically spanning from the 1950s to the 1990s. It signifies a "fashionably nostalgic" aesthetic.

Then my broader definition is any game with design that resembles or has any semblance to arcade game design.