NOTE: I recently watched half of the Shovel Knight QL, and intended the following to be a comment on it. But the post turned out longer and more reflective than originally intended so here it is:

I just realized another reason for my aversion to 2D platformers, or perhaps even 2D games in general. Since I grew up during the PS1 era, the first game that I really enjoyed was Final Fantasy 7. Before that, since I have older brothers, I played some games on the SNES and NES. But I guess in some sense 2D games felt more linear/restrictive, just in sense of movement. So playing FF7 was like expanding my mind in how I think about moving about the world. But at the same time I realize that all games have restrictions, and stories for RPGs are overall fairly linear, no matter how complicated character development or side quests can get. So I guess in a way, I have trained myself to think that 3D is the logical progression for video games after 2D, and even now I sometimes find myself thinking that VR is the next logical progression for video games.

But I know that it's not like 2D will ever go away, or that 3D or VR is necessarily better or worse than 2D. It was just interesting to reflect on how I think about 2D games. Somehow whenever I look at a 2D platformer I almost automatically think "there's no depth to this", and in a sense it's true (again only in terms of movement). But at the same time I enjoy playing SF4, which is sort of in between, and I see the complexity of fighting games. But at the same time when I see other 2D fighting games like Blazblue, Persona, KoF, Super Turbo, something is missing. Or maybe I just don't have time to play everything, which is normal.

Recently I've been thinking "I can't wait until people stop making these 8-bit 2D platformers, and devs start making polygonal 3D platforms to target the nostalgia of people like me who grew up during the PS1 era" (something like Spyro 1/2). But.. that's kind of weird because at that point, there is almost a kind of hidden expectation/assumption that IF a game is in 3D it's NOT retro, and that once it is in 3D it's expected to have HD graphics. This is relevant to me personally because over the past year I purchased both the Metal Gear Legacy Collection and the Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster.

After playing the Remaster, I can hardly imagine going back to play the PS2 versions. Somehow looking at old 3D games from PS2 era doesn't have nostalgia for me, but looking at some old 3D PS1 era (like Spyro 2) does. And when I look at old 2D games, I imagine what it might look like in 3D or with better graphics. Almost 90% of the time I don't find pixel art styles appealing. It just looks chunky. I know it's part of the aesthetic and it activates different associations for different people. It's hard to completely abandon the logic of progression when it comes to art. Hmm. Perhaps there is some sort of threshold or critical point that all these 8-bit 2D platformers will reach and we will start seeing VR remakes of old PS1 era games.. or something.