Suggestions For Future Retro Rereleases
Hello, Dylan H., here. I've recently purchased MySims (2007) on PC, and I'm having a blast. I plan to purchase the cozy bundle soon after I save up a bunch.
It's exciting to see EA and Maxis embrace the retro Simming community and port over legacy titles to new platforms. I work in retail and physical copies of the Cozy Bundle are already sold out at my store, and the Cozy Bundle has been one of the top 30 sellers on the Nintendo Eshop for weeks now, and I hope this signals EA and Maxis to take the plunge into porting more legacy content to not only the Switch, but also PC and other platforms as well.
The Sims series is vast, with spinoffs of spinoffs of spinoffs, and the Sims itself is a spinoff of SimCity, too! Many of these ventures took liberties and risks with the core Sims formula and it's an era that sadly has been lost to time as consoles and handhelds have finally caught up to PC in terms of capabilities.
What I'm getting at, is why not look into the weird, the wacky, the more obscure ports and releases in the series? MySims getting rereleased came out of NOWHERE and it was a thrill to see that pillar of the Sims, not only get acknowledged, but manifested into a duology of two really solid ports on a platform that makes perfect sense.
From the release of the original "The Sims" on PC in 2000, EA was already interested in creating curated, custom experiences for consoles with "The Urbz" entering development first, and ultimately snowballing into a slew of Sims releases on console, at least one per year on all of the leading platforms from "The Sims" all the way through "The Sims: Bustin Out" and "The Urbz", all the way to The Sims 2 generation with "The Sims 2" (which began development as "The Urbz 2" before transitioning to a version of "The Sims 2" and ending its run with "The Sims 2 Castaways"... But the console versions are only the BEGINNING of the Rabbit Hole...
The handheld versions is where it REALLY gets crazy... These games changed so much of the core Sims gameplay while still having that trademark wit and spirit and ultimately becoming their own weird, wacky thing. The Griptonite Games Trilogy spanning from "Bustin Out" on GBA, all the way to "The Sims 2" on GBA, DS, and PSP are a GOLDMINE of wackiness and crazy and are so totally unhinged...
These games are so very special to so many people, across console, handheld and PC, and I feel that bringing back not only the PC versions of "The Sims" and "The Sims 2" but also the console and handheld editions as well, either through the source code or through emulated ports, would not only be successful, but would be a BOON to games preservation, and would save a bunch of these weird, wacky and experimental games from rot and overinflated resale prices. Heck, bringing "The Sims Complete Collection" and "The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection" back to PC via EA App, Steam or even GOG would be sufficient and would make so many people happy, but going that extra mile, bringing back the various console and handheld editions of the past to modern platforms, as untouched as humanly possible, would bring the nostalgia so ROCK HARD, oh my goodness!
In essence, bringing back MySims... The floodgates have been opened, PLEASE take advantage of this opportunity, and bring back as many of these classic PC games, console editions and handheld variants as possible, to as many platforms as possible, in a humanly reasonable time frame for your developers (don't overexert yourselves, maybe focus on bringing back games at a steady rate to manage those resources just right)
I don't care if it's a drip feed of singular games or bundles, if we at least get something brought back every year or so, I'll be happy... Don't know about everyone else. Game Development is hard. Working with source code and rom/disc image files from decades ago is MUCH harder.
What I'm trying to say is, the old stuff is great! There's no way to give you money for the old stuff anymore. Please bring back the old stuff so we can give you money! Everyone is happy.
Any day I don't have to go online to pay exorbantly high prices for a game that was 30-40 dollars at launch is a good day for me. The secondhand market is a nightmare - we need more of these rereleases because gaming history is important, these games shaped childhoods - they shaped lives, even. Some creators wouldn't be where they are today without these games. Please don't stop at MySims - bring back more legacy content. ESPECIALLY bring back the PC versions of The Sims 1 and The Sims 2 with all of their expansions included - the fact those aren't on GOG already is a CRIME TO HUMANITY. Please, we want to give you money for these games! Let us give you money for these games!
And don't be afraid to bring back the WEIRD stuff. SimAnimals and SimCity Creator - I almost forgot to mention those, the Wii versions of those are the definitive versions, bring those back too! (Some of the videos I've seen of SimAnimals - The video on Scott The Woz's "Scott's Stash" channel was hysterical... If you know, you know.
I would also look at Youtube videos of all of the games I mentioned - there are full retrospective videos on the Console and Portable versions of The Sims and MySims that ROCK, and I imagine some might have influenced the decision to bring back MySims. There are so many people who grew up and are fond of the DS version of The Sims 2 - I grew up with the DS version of MySims, why not bring that back too? There are so many collections on Switch that feature DS games, its weird dual screen form factor be darned, there is a way to bring back DS games to systems with only one screen, so there's no excuse -
Bring 'em back! We want the retro! We even want the WEIRD and retro! You bring back MySims? Floodgates are now open - Take advantage of it for crying out loud!
Made it this far? Great!
Ciao for now!
- Dylan
