So that raises an interesting question: are there certain genres of games that you can't step back to?? The GT reference makes a good point, I never like playing older model driving games. Are there other makes of games like that? We're not talking replay values, we're talking about playing after years have gone by and another generation of game has been made.

I'll assert that you can step back to RPG's because really they haven't moved very far between FFI and FFXI. Sure ,the graphics are radically different, but the basic elements of the game haven't changed and they haven't (in my opinion) made anything that is so radically awesome that it hurts to play older model games. But really, I'm in the RPG for the story and the completion level, and that doesn't get better with time (and can get worse).

We've established that driving games are hard to step back to. I'll argue that it is tough to step back to fighting games. Going back to Street Fighter one is just crap. You can't block in the air, there aren't many moves. It is just tough. Actually this is a hard one to defend. I think it holds true to the capcom and KoF games, but SC2 isn't really that much better than SC1 so I can see stepping back with that game. And then one game that I can definetely see stepping back to is Smash Brothers (versus Melee) the second one didn't offer much. So maybe fighting games are on the fence. Surely this will have to be explored more.

M