When people are calling modern things they know are modern “retro”, I think it’s just a simpler form of saying “retro-style”. I mean, when I’m talking about modern retro styled things that aren’t videogames, I personally say “retro-styled” myself; and I consider that to be what people also mean when they call modern things “retro”.

For games, I have to disagree that Retro can also mean games that look old. Again, I consider these to be “retro-styled” as well, not “Retro”, which to me indicates its actual age. VVVVVV isn’t retro, it’s retro-styled. Alwa’s Awakening is an NES style metroidvania game released in 2017, designed to feel exactly like something that could run on real NES hardware. Then in 2022, they actually did just that; they ported the game to real NES hardware and released it as the “8-Bit Edition”. To play it, you either need to flash it on a cart and play it on a real NES, or simply emulate it on modern hardware. In my opinion, this game isn’t retro at all; it’s “retro-styled”, even if you consider the fact it released on an actual retro console.

Maybe they’ll come out with some official mousepad. I can’t wait to see if they do Mario Paint and a new Mario Maker with this too, though.

I bought it when it came out even though I couldn’t reasonably afford it, because at the time my stupid teen-aged self wanted to collect every Nintendo published game on the Switch, and thought the game was going to be sold out if I didn’t get it. I was well aware it was scummy of Nintendo at the time, but I bought it because I was sure they wouldn’t do it again. I even got the limited time Fire Emblem English translation and still haven’t touched it yet.

Now they’re gonna release it on the eShop right!?.. Right?

Oof. Unless that’s the only Switch game you play, you are going to have a hard time realising that Switch emulation isn’t far developed enough yet for you to play a lot of your games without issues and just throw away your real Switch. Plus, Nintendo’s takedowns of Yuzu and Ryujinx last year massively slowed down development.