The Beauty Of Simplicity

These days, developers are doing some amazing things with games. With every new iteration of a game, more and more features are crammed in. One needs to look no farther than the Madden series of football games to see a good example of this. I don't know where they come up with their ideas, but you can pretty much guarantee that they've thrown in every feature but the kitchen sink in the latest release.

While I have to give them some praise for the fine effort that they've put forth, I'm not often finding myself wanting to spend a large quantity of time playing a game. It's almost sacreligious for me to say this from the perspective of a video game site webmaster, but there are a lot of other great things to spend my time on other than video games. If you're anything like me, your schedule fills up quickly during the summer. With photo shoots, cameo appearances, and public speaking engagements, it's hard to find time for gaming.

For that very reason, I find myself coming back to the TurboGrafx-16 over and over again instead of one of the newer, flashier consoles. I don't have a lot of time to invest, so a simple round of Bomberman is often just what the doctor ordered. Besides, I feel like sometimes quality gameplay is overshadowed by all the flash and glitz.

I know what you're probably saying...this guy sounds just like my grandpa. Honestly, I didn't walk both ways uphill seven miles in a blizzard to school. It was actually downhill on the way back. There are probably plenty of Atari 2600 fanatics out there that said the same thing about the TurboGrafx-16 when it hit the scene. Pitfall was a great game, so I'm not going to take anything away from them. However, the TurboGrafx will always have a special place in my heart and will be the console with which I spend the majority of my gaming time...no matter how little time that may end up being.