Tokyo Game Show milks nostalgia for Super Mario and Donkey Kong era with retro offerings
Final Fantasy VII and R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 were among titles making a comeback at this year’s show, where distributors and console makers responded to demand for 1980s games
At the Tokyo Game Show, the world’s top firms competed to show off their very latest in hi-tech gaming gadgetry: from head-spinning virtual reality to cutting-edge multiplayer e-sports.
But crowds flocked not only to the latest smartphone shoot-’em-up, but to classic games from the 1980 such as Donkey Kong and Mario Brothers, as manufacturers wheeled out revamped versions of their old games consoles to capture a new market.
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Alongside the latest top-of-the-range models such as the PS4, Japanese electronics giant Sony caught everyone off guard by announcing the release of a miniature console – designed like the original PlayStation – with 20 vintage games.
Nostalgic fans and curious new gamers found PlayStation classics such as the 1997 role-playing game Final Fantasy VII and 1998-1999 racing game R4: Ridge Racer Type 4.
“Twenty-five years after we launched the first PlayStation in Japan, we are offering this version not only for fans from back in the day but also for those who never knew this console,” says Shu Takura, spokesman for Sony Interactive Entertainment, at the weekend event.
Sony’s move to roll back the years comes two years after bitter rival Nintendo launched the NES, a palm-sized version of its eighties-era games console to tap into nostalgia for titles from the early era of home video games.