Fifteen years ago, Nintendo of Japan dropped a bombshell on the American market with its release of the Nintendo Entertainment System which would consequently go on to sell in record numbers. It created a whole culture of people that grew up on the games of the Nintendo. Elementary children, mostly males, would race home after school to play Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Megaman. It was an addiction. Unfortunately for the youth of this generation, the same companies that brought them their favorite titles have abandoned them in pursuit of a new crowd of gamers. Today, the titles that this generation know and love may be still in production, but the products themselves have changed.

I have been a fan of video games long before the introduction of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). As far back as I can remember, I was playing Pac-Man at the local Big Ben's Burgers or Parsec on my TI-99-4A. Yet, nothing quite equaled up to Nintendo's influence on the market. A large portion of my childhood memories are those spent playing the epic Final Fantasy series, or rivaling my friends in Street Fighter 2. Now that I'm older, I long for the same kind of enjoyment that I had with these games, but am disappointed to realize the industry has changed to shift towards new demographics.

This change is not entirely Nintendo's fault however. Many of their former top software developers, such as Squaresoft and Capcom, have shifted their weight over to the new Sony PlayStation systems. Without the support of these company's name brands, as well as Nintendo's wholesome family image, Nintendo had to change directions and start aiming at younger gamers. Meanwhile, the companies that jumped ship to develop for Sony were trying to undercut Nintendo by adjusting their existing titles to suit this new market, as well as creating brand new titles for this generation to grow up with. As a result, the NES gamers began to feel out of place.

The final nail in the coffin was overproduction. Companies now are more interested in selling popular titles like Star Wars or the WWF instead of quality games. This is suitable as a cheap thrill for kids, but it doesn't offer the depth that older gamers require. Consequently, the good games that an older gamer can sit down and enjoy are becoming far and few between.

This decrease in quality and shift to a younger generation of gamers has had the unfortunate consequence of leaving a large gap in the lives of the people that have grown up with video games. Boredom is at an all time high and many gamers have to seek new ways to waste their spare time. Worst of all, these old gamers can't see anything on the near horizon that interests them. Instead, more of the same new generation titles are scheduled for release. The only solace is that PC game developers seem to be aiming at the older market, but NES gamers just don't want to play on computer. They want their childhood back.