For fans of Sonic the Hedgehog, San Diego Comic-Con 2016 is an event that ought to be remembered fondly. During a twenty-fifth anniversary presentation celebrating the blue blur, a pair of upcoming new games were unveiled for the first time.

The first was enough to bring literal tears of joy to the eyes of beleaguered fans like myself; it was Sonic Mania, the finely crafted love letter to the golden era of 2D platforming on the Sega Genesis. It was universally celebrated, from its inception all the way through to its final release.

The second, despite being touted as the main event, was treated with more caution throughout the process. Oh, classic Sonic is here again? Isn’t that what Mania is for? This customisable character is the main protagonist, instead of Sonic? Where is the fucking Chao Garden, Sonic Forces?!

For some observers, the cause for concern was based on tangible information; whereas Forces was helmed by Sonic Team proper (whose spotty track record had yielded mixed results in recent years), Mania had Christian Whitehead locked in as the lead developer — a guy whose talents in independently remastering previous Sonic titles was so exceptional, Sega brought him onboard to create official ports.

Other folks are simpler. We were automatically going to gravitate towards Sonic Mania because it was a game that looked and felt like the ones we had grown up with. Don’t judge us, we just want to relive our glory years, dammit.

Time and time again, I have confessed my blatant obsession with retro-style games. The most prevalent example is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, released in the early months of this website’s launch, but I’ve gushed equally as much about prior throwback titles, including 2019’s ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove and Streets of Rage 4 in 2020.

I treat these games with a certain degree of reverence, despite the fact that not a single one was anointed as my game of the year in their respective category. This is largely due to the fact that they are, by their very nature, less robust packages than their modern contemporaries; the focus is on pick-up-and-play arcade-style sessions rather than lengthy, sustained campaigns.

And yet, I adore them, pretty much universally. I’m a nostalgia-coded fella by nature, a trait shared by many people my age. It’s been so widespread in defining our generation, studies have been conducted, with findings including the nugget that, “when manipulated in an experimental paradigm, nostalgia increases meaning in life, self-esteem, optimism, and positive affect.” (Newman et al., 2019)

When manipulated for the purposes of selling a product, it’s pretty much the same. Every time I got a glimpse of gameplay footage prior to release, I was almost certainly linking the parallels between what I was seeing and the halcyon years of its predecessors; you show me a long-lost TMNT character from the 1987 series like Tempestra, my subconscious is connecting her with everything I loved from my childhood.

By and large, these retro-style games deliver the dopamine hit that I so desperately crave by “playing the hits”, as it were — bringing back old favourites for one last hurrah. I will most assuredly purchase any title that falls under the delineation of resembling the games of my youth.

There are some outliers, however, such as 2023’s Sonic Superstars. Though I was happy to see another game starring classic Sonic, and I did purchase it with enthusiasm, it didn’t evoke that kind of raw emotion that Mania had. The tricky part is trying to disentangle whether it’s a stylistic issue or a case of diminishing returns; it could be an instance of the aesthetics not being a 1-to-1 match with the Genesis titles, or the fact that my Sonic itch had already been scratched just a few years prior.

It leaves me asking what else could possibly hit me in that same way. In all likelihood, it would have to be a franchise that has otherwise laid dormant, such as Primal Rage or EarthBound, though even new licenses that tap into this appeal could evoke those latent desires — the upcoming games I’m most excited for are indie horror titles Crow Country and Ground Zero, with visuals that pay homage to PlayStation classics like Final Fantasy and Resident Evil.

There is, of course, a broader discussion on nostalgia in gaming as a whole, and I confess that I’m no more immune to re-releases than my likeminded contemporaries. Yes, I jumped on Super Mario 3D All-Stars when it released for the Switch (despite owning all three games individually on their original consoles), and I would gobble up a “Resident Evil classic collection” that brought back the original trilogy.

But it seems that anyone who really wants to capture my attention need only throw a long overdue sequel my way that brings me back to the proverbial good old days, whether it’s a Super FX-inspired Star Fox or an 8-bit Pokemon game that puts the dark days of Scarlet/Violet far, far behind me.

It won’t happen. It probably shouldn’t happen. But if it did, I’ll invest in whatever elaborate, ornate collector’s edition you wanna hawk. Shut up and take my retro-obsessed money.