Something I've been thinking about recently has been classic game genres. Now, we all know that self-consciously "Retro" games like Fez and Bleed and Braid are big right now, but those aren't what I'm talking about here. Those play retro and look retro, but what I mean is games that are examples of "Retro" genres but aren't self conscious about it, that are just games made within those genres, without deliberately trying to be retro.

I'm a svcker for Bullet Hells. I love 'em. Short, sweet score attacks that are beautifully simple and challenging, like Ikaruga or Radiant Silvergun. However, there are few of these made anymore. Other genres like this are classic platformers, which outside of Nintendo we see very few of, Metroidvanias, Rail Shooters, whatever the hell Bangai-O was, and JRPGs (which are still produced, but are not popular and very few are shipped to the US). While I'm not a fan of some of these genres, JRPGs being an example of this, each of these genres brings something unique to the table, something fun and interesting, and often they provide a light hearted contrast to the grim, brown shooters that dominate the market. However, the only people that seem to be making anything like these are indie devs playing off of nostalgia, right down to MIDI soundtracks and pixel art. But, here's the thing, while I'm a svcker for nostalgia, I'd love to see modern takes on these genres that modernize, rather than wallow in nostalgia for nostalgia's sake.

Now, it's not a complete vacuum out there. I've been playing some Astebreed, which is awesome, go check it out. Been trying to get my hands on Crimzon Clover, and you could argue that the Dark Souls series, with its focus on exploration, backtracking, item collection, skillbased play and epic boss fights is a modern Metroidvania. And of course, there's always XBLA, but for the most part, these are genres with massive entertainment value that are largely ignored, at least in the West, by developers that have budgets and want to do something cool and new with them.

Do y'all know of any good examples of these genres made for modern systems, for modern gamers? What do you think of this concept? Should these genres simply be left to die? Why?