![]() A 2017 study in the field of media and communications focused on binge-watching TV shows-a repetitious, long-term activity that isn’t unlike the hours of practice that a world-record speedrun requires. Other disciplines may further our understanding of nostalgia’s role in gaming. The game gave Deitz’s roommates a way to return to “childlike joy” amidst their complicated reality of graduating college and facing an uncertain future, an anecdotal example of nostalgia increasing players’ happiness. It’s the same phenomenon noted by Mik Deitz here at Paste in a 2022 article on nostalgia and Minecraft. This benefit is another possible explanation for why players might gravitate towards older games, beyond nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. Their study, published in 2021, found that “Nostalgia is a psychological resource that can be harnessed to raise happiness and help combat loneliness,” a finding consistent across three countries and 3,500 participants. Researchers in the fields of management and psychology teamed up to look at the impacts of nostalgia during the pandemic. Other studies have found similar results. They reported that, “Nostalgia-an emotion with a strong connotation of warmth-is triggered by coldness.” Once triggered, feeling nostalgic increased participants’ physical warmth, thereby offering them bodily comfort, which suggests that “nostalgia maintains psychological equanimity.” Viewed through this lens, players might return to an oft-played favorite not from nostalgia itself but in search of a certain calm or composure, without even realizing it. In psychology, a 2012 study noted the physiological benefits of nostalgia. Combine that with the fact that modern games also receive patches that remove exploitable glitches, and players are looking, generally speaking, at longer run times for newer titles.Īll that said, the draw of NES games may be more complicated, and academic research on nostalgia paints a more complex picture. Newer games tend to have more complicated controls and longer cutscenes. One thread on r/speedrun argued that precise controls are part of the draw for Nintendo speedruns. Game mechanics may also be important, though, and not in a nostalgic way. These are fan favorites, and some speedrunners grew up playing them. The easy answer, of course, is nostalgia. What is it, exactly, that brings players back to NES titles, over and over and over again? What is surprising, though, is how interest in retro games never seems to wane, even with the release of new titles and systems. The three most popular series on all started long-term franchises, all of which are still active and had 2021 releases ( Mario Party Superstars in the fall, preceded by Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword in mid-2021). It may come as no surprise that the most active NES games, in early 2022, are what many consider the classics. Even so, that’s a lot of resets on a game that came out when Reagan was president. ![]() In the video description of a different record-setting run, Niftski thanked his fans for “positivity and love through the 5 days of this grind!” In the grand scheme of things, five days might not be all that long, particularly for streamers making some or all of their money by gaming. This never-ending quest for a better run can eat days of a player’s time. Niftski in particular noted in the video description of his any% world-record run: “I’ll likely go for 4:54.7xx sometime in the future!”-to further cut back his time. That’s more than 30 years of playtime, but even so, speedrunners show no sign of stopping. The most recent of those games were released in 1988. 3, The Legend of Zelda, and Ninja Gaiden, respectively. , a website that aggregates record data, reports active players in dozens of NES games, with the highest in Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. Though not dedicated to any one console, the subreddit r/speedrun boasts more than 200,000 members and countless videos, many of which are attempts at, or world records of, NES runs. He’s far from the only competitor perfecting NES runs. This record comes more than 35 years after the game’s original release. In December 2021, Twitch user Niftski set a new world record: in 4 minutes, 54 seconds, and 881 milliseconds, he completed an any% run of the 1985 NES classic Super Mario Bros.
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