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Comment by YurgenJurgensen | Hacker News Reader

1) Anyone who says Celeste’s music is better than Super Mario Bros’ is a liar, and I don’t even like Nintendo games. 2) Let’s look at some of those release dates, shall we? 2019, 2013, 2020, 2017, 2017, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2016, 2013, 2013, 2008(!), 2019, 2021, and 2016.

That’s a period of 15 years. For an American, the NES released in 1985 and the PS2 released in 2000, also a period of 15 years. The fact that your “games of today” list is kind-of competing with four console generations itself is an indication that quality isn’t higher now, even with a considerably higher volume of releases.

Also only two of those games came out in the last 5 years, so things really aren’t looking great for modern games.

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Things aren't looking great for modern games as a whole because a HN poster didn't include new enough games in their list of modern games they enjoy?

Things aren’t look great for modern games because when people think ‘modern games’, they think of titles from the last decade.

Except most of those games aren't "retro" because, unlike real retro games, they are mostly still updated and they work on any recent computer/console.

So for me, even for the oldest ones, they are still part of the same "era". What I mean by that is that if you buy any of the items in this list in 2026, it will not feel like it's an "old" game.

Super Mario Bros works on any recent computer / console. Is it not retro?

Surely that just shows how much things have stagnated. If a 2011 game and a 2026 game don’t “feel” different, where’s the innovation?

That's not what GP said, what they said is one doesn't feel _older_ than the other, not that they don't feel different at all.

That aside, is innovation (technological or otherwise) the goal of video games? If past a certain year the best games of every don't seem to be any better than any other, but just different kinds of good, to me that's not stagnation, but rather that the designers collectively figured out how fun games that are not constrained by the hardware. There's a reason, for example, that past a certain point lives systems just about went away, or autosaving nearly completely replaced manual saving.

> Anyone who says Celeste’s music is better than Super Mario Bros’ is a liar, and I don’t even like Nintendo games.

…I’m a liar, I guess.

And I do like Nintendo games.

I think that person doesn't understand what a liar is either lol.

I'm too slow to finish a game like Celeste but the soundtrack is an all timer. Lena Raine's music is fantastic.

Super Mario music is great too ... why do we have to tear one thing down to lift another up?

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