The last time I got truly excited for an upcoming game
Recently there was a new edition of The Game Awards™️, the show that replaced our beloved E3 as the main showcase of the year for new and exciting videogame releases. It's tradition in this house to sit down together and watch live the whole thing, if we ignore my questionable decision to do so (it being from 1AM to 5AM in our timezone) while having to work the next day.
A tradition that in some sense brings me back to watching those E3 conferences religiously since late 2000s, but that every single time comes to an expected disappointment because obviously, this is not the E3. A mix of a focus all your usual turbocapitalist traits with advertisings, farced social initiatives and generic videogames, when not strait soulless AI bullshit with gambling from chinese developers show how far have the industry come in these years.
And then, after talking of how much of an expected disappointment Metroid Prime 4 was for me, a friend we were watching the show with came with a question:
"When was the last time you felt truly excited for a videogame?"
Damn it.
It really made me think because that's not an easy question to answer.
I've been in this hobby for all my life, and that would make for almost 3 decades if we count from the days I started playing in my dad's Sega Master System II. I've seen and played many things in these years, and I think that's the reason it's so hard to surprise me nowadays. Another would be standardization of genres, lack of experimentation and search for revenue in bigger projects, but that's another topic.
I fail to remember any game on Switch or Wii U/3DS eras that really had me hyped to death, much less that it lived to the expectations. I try to come to some games that make me curious with an open mind, and they might positively surprise me, but that doesn't mean I was super excited for them in first place. Some examples come to mind are The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wind or Super Mario Odyssey (2017). But the game that made me the most happy I've ever was in the last 15 years was a remaster (Metroid Prime Remastered, 2023) and that speaks of how it was for me in those years.
I'm going out on a tangent, though. Taking a look back, I think I would have to go a LONG way back— as back as the 6th generation consoles. For the last games that I was expecting and truly held up to my heart, I'd have to go back to Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Metroid: Zero Mission (2005). I could fit in there also Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire (2003), because another one that I enjoyed a lot after the hype was Pokémon SoulSilver (2010), but being a remake I don't know if it could fit here. Though there's a point to be made because of how much new content there is in that release, but yeah, you get me.
Since then, it feels like every disappointment added to the aggregated resentment until I felt nothing but cynicism over newer releases. It takes very little for me new to notice some red flags on new games and that more often than not end up being true, to my disgrace.