For those interested in Kickstarter, we have noticed a trend. We are dubbing this trend the “Retro Rebirth.” Basically it gives producers a chance to appeal to nostalgia while making a new game. Today we will go over two such games. We will also explain just how much success the trend is having on Kickstarter.
Kickstarter and Cheetahmen 2
What is it? Cheetahmen II was an okay game in a set of terrible games. Nostalgia confuses people into thinking it was ever great. However in comparison to the other Action 52 games it was amazing.
Why did someone try to revive it? A great many people on the internet used it as a review to boost their career. It gave many of them instant credit as gamers, at least among a casual audience. Those of us who are hardcore had to stifle a yawn. However it still has some appeal among various fanbases.
How much success have they had? Well, check out their Kickstarter right here. They are probably going to get funded fairly well. Did they have as much success as we expected? Not so much, when you consider that they got endorsements from popular Youtube celebrities.
Kickstarter and the Great Giana Sisters
What is it? The Great Giana Sisters was a less-than-spectacular rip-off of Super Mario Brothers. It wasn’t bad in the sense that it was broken. It was mostly just the same game. Very few people played it in comparison to some other games.
Why did someone try to revive it? Black Forest just wanted to create another indie platformer. That is as far as we can tell. The Giana name was just a way to add some nostalgia to it. The Kickstarter makes it look nothing like the original. We will admit that the graphics are quite nice though.
How much success have they had? Not much yet. This is partially due to their huge goal. 150K is aggressive for anyone. Much less for people who did not have celebrities. The game itself does look quite nice. However a dual-gameplay platformer is not something new. This has been done before by many games.
The final verdict on Kickstarter and Retro Rebirth
So as you can see, people are now tacking on nostalgia to original games. Is it working? It definitely does not look like it. Cheetahmen 2 will win on celebrity endorsements. Project Giana, at the time of this writing, is not funded due to other reasons such as their high goal. Other factors seem to hold a much bigger part than simple nostalgia. Perhaps the only projects which can truly move forward with this trend are ones with a massive nostalgic fanbase. While this is an interesting trend to look at, you might want to avoid it for your own game.
