Why is the PlayStation Classic such a bummer? This week on Kotaku Splitscreen, we discuss that question and much more.
First, Kirk and I break down the news of the week on the PlayStation Classicâs dismal list of games, that hilarious Fallout 76 beta bug, and the new game from the creator of Undertale
Then (21:14) we take another deep dive into Red Dead Redemption 2, one of the most fascinating games Iâve ever played. We talk about how it bucks AAA conventions, how weird it is, and how it hits a new bar for details that miiiiiight just be unsustainable. Plus: much more.
Listen here:
https://player.megaphone.fm/PPY9282891019
Get the MP3 here or read an excerpt of us talking PS Classic:
Jason: …There are a few good games on here, donât get me wrong. Tekken 3 is a classic, Wild Arms is a great JRPG. Final Fantasy VII, obviously. But not only is it missing all the classic PlayStation games like Tomb Raider and Spyro and Crash Bandicoot, itâs also missing all of the games that made that platform great, like Final Fantasy Tactics, and Xenogears, and a bunch of others that I could list. So basically this thing is justâ I donât see why anyone would want it unless they want to hack it to get more games on there, which I think might be a reason to get one. But man, $100 for this thing is just a major disappointment, especially after the killer lineup of the Super Nintendo Classic.
So I know you didnât grow up with a PlayStation â does this interest you at all?
Kirk: No. Iâm not interested in this one. I saw someone make this observation thatâs probably a pretty common one: the appeal of the Super Nintendo Classic is that itâs the pinnacle machine of the 2D era, and the PlayStation is just a more awkward console because itâs the beginning of the 3D era, so itâs more awkward. I didnât have a PlayStation, I donât have any affinity for any of those games or series, even to the point that I do with Super Nintendo games, despite that I didnât own a Super Nintendo either. So yeah, I have zero reason to buy this one. Plus, owning the Super Nintendo Classic has put me off buying these anymore, because itâs cool and everything but I literally never use it. It just sits here on my desk.
Jason: Thatâs fair, although you could if you didnât have so many other things to play. You could totally pick it up and say, âHey, why donât I try Earthbound for the first time?â
Kirk: Sure, but I have Earthbound on other systems, and alsoâ Exactly, I donât use it because there are other things Iâm playing instead, thatâs the whole problem.
Jason: To your point, by the way, I think in general 2D games have aged better than those early polygonal 3D games, which look terrible today and feel super clunky, so many of them. Even playing Mario 64 today is not quite as smooth as playing, say, Super Mario World today.
Kirk: Thatâs interesting. That sort of technological divide that can happen when a new type of technology is being explored. I think about this a lot with Fantasia 2000, that movie, and people have made this point with computer-animated movies versus hand-drawn animation. Going to see Fantasia 2000 now, itâs a really cool movie still, but there are these sequences where itâs very clearly computer animated, and there are these parts where itâs like, âOh this looks very much like early 2000s CGI.â And then they do the Sorcererâs Apprentice and itâs hand-drawn Mickey and it looks beautiful and everything looks amazing and youâre like oh, because they drew that by hand. Sort of a similar parallel there.
Jason: Itâs true, whenever youâre entering this realm of new technology, especially graphical technology, thereâs always going to be those awkward pre-pubescent years when itâs still trying to figure out what it actually is.
Kirk: And it makes for such a fun experience of looking at the covers of old PC and PlayStation magazines where the headline blares, âGraphics youâve never seen before!â next to the worst-looking polygonal garbage screenshot of just brown nonsense.
Jason: Itâs crazy. âThis is the cutting edge! This is the future of graphics!â
Kirk: And you always wonder if people are going to look back at Red Dead Redemption 2 in ten years and laugh at everybody freaking out about how that game looks.
Jason: Itâs hard to imagine. Because even back then, I owned a PlayStation 1 on launch, and even back then I remember thinking, âOh god this is ugly, I wish this was 2D.â One of the reasons I loved games like Suikoden and Lunar and other JRPGs like that is because a lot of them were 2D and stuck with that, which wound up tanking them sales-wise because everyone just wanted to buy 3D games at that point, but if you look back at them now theyâre still beautiful.
For much more, listen to the entire episode. As always, you can subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts and Google Play to get every episode as it happens. Leave us a review if you like what you hear, and reach us at [email protected] with any and all questions, requests, and suggestions.
