IGN's gone retro...

[Gregory DG]

With Atari joysticks and the woodgrain Atari adorning the top. Now... I wonder if they'll actually cover any Atari games?

 

http://retro.ign.com/

[Jess Ragan]

Their definition of "retro" is questionable, judging from the reviews on that page. Sneak King, the game that was released in late 2006, is now considered a golden oldie? My how time flies when you're an editor at IGN.

 

How 'bout you guys add some of the reviews from SaturnWorld to that page? They've been languishing in Internet limbo for nearly a decade, and it's about time that changed.

[Gregory DG]

In all fairness, Retro just got going so they had to purloin content from their other sites for now. According to this first article they're planning on covering all the old systems. I'm just interested to know when the first Atari one comes out considering that the theme of the site is Atari 2600!

[catbox_9]

Now... I wonder if they'll actually cover any Atari games?

 

http://retro.ign.com/

 

You mean Super Mario Bros. wasn't the first game video game ever?

[Atarifever]

They gave Blackbelt a 5? A FIVE! To Blackbelt. The videogame. That's nuts. What's next, a three to Super Mario Bros?

Edited January 12, 2008 by Atarifever

[Pixelboy]

I have to admit, it's hard to take seriously. And besides, even if IGN does a good job of it over the next months and years, anything they have to say about the Atari, NES, Super-NES and PlayStation eras will sound redundant since most of it has already been covered quite adequately by Retro Gamer magazine.

 

RG does have its weaknesses (all those issues published and still hardly any coverage of the ColecoVision? Come on...) and they tend to avoid the N64/PlayStation era (although that's slowly changing), but overall, RG's got retro covered the way I like it.

 

Regardless of how much retro experience the IGN writers may have, I feel IGN is just too modern a gaming site to handle retro gaming in a way that will keep me coming back for more. Still, I might drop by retro.ign.com every once in a while, just to see if my initial expectations were correct.

[Gabriel]

Before I clicked on this, I figured it would be another excuse for IGN to advertise Super Mario Galaxy by way of "Mario's rich gaming heritage." So, I click and when the page loads up, the most immediately noticable things are the Super Mario Galaxy graphic on the main story scrollbar, and the "History of Super Mario Bros" article in the box below. Then there are a couple of bash reviews of the Sega Genesis to reinforce that Mario is the best thing ever.

 

Oh, and a little bit of advertising for Nights and Metroid tossed in too.

 

I predict it will become a wanksite for recycled Nintendo games on the Virtual Console. As well as a place to do humor/bash reviews of old games. Oh, and when Super Smash Bros Brawl comes out, this page will probably be plastered with tie in retrospective features.

[warmachine]

Before I clicked on this, I figured it would be another excuse for IGN to advertise Super Mario Galaxy by way of "Mario's rich gaming heritage." So, I click and when the page loads up, the most immediately noticable things are the Super Mario Galaxy graphic on the main story scrollbar, and the "History of Super Mario Bros" article in the box below. Then there are a couple of bash reviews of the Sega Genesis to reinforce that Mario is the best thing ever.

 

Oh, and a little bit of advertising for Nights and Metroid tossed in too.

 

I predict it will become a wanksite for recycled Nintendo games on the Virtual Console. As well as a place to do humor/bash reviews of old games. Oh, and when Super Smash Bros Brawl comes out, this page will probably be plastered with tie in retrospective features.

 

Sounds predictable to me.

[NightSprinter]

Not if I can possibly help it. Did some work on the Atari side of the game database a little over a year and a half ago. I pointed my old boss to this thread to let him know they're gonna need some help from at least someone who has "some" real knowledge of the retro stuff. So if I get back on with them, at least there'll be an AA member who's going to work to straighten things out.