As gamers prepare to enter the new millennium, it's interesting to take a look back to see just how far gaming has progressed. Graphics continue to improve with every new game that comes out, and every day I hear the same thing from a lot of people who grew up in the NES era: "Whatever happened to gameplay?"

It's an interesting question. Nobody can deny how far graphics have come, even from the vector graphics days with Asteroids, Missile Command, and Star Wars. Now it seems to be a race to see who can push the most polygons per second or how many MIPS the processor can handle. You can even put the original Street
Fighter II Turbo and Mortal Kombat II machines side-by-side with Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Mortal Kombat 4 and marvel at the improvement in graphics in the past 5-6 years. But whatever happened to gameplay?

Although game developers will deny it, very few games contain the same tight controls and amounts of fun that games for the NES and SNES used to have. My occupation involves working in a used video game store, and I sell NES systems and games almost daily. The classic NES games like Zelda, Super Mario Bros., Ninja Gaiden, and others still attract players of all ages to this day, some 10-15 years later. Why would someone want to spend their money on a system whose era had ended some 5 years ago? Because the games were fun to play, that's why. The graphics fall way short of today's standards, and the tinny sound effects may sound strange, but when push comes to shove, the gameplay speaks for itself.

So, here's a plea to Nintendo and other game developers out there: Please don't forget about gameplay and your roots, because after you strip away the polygons and the color palettes and the redbook audio tracks, you're left with gameplay. It's what made Mario an icon and Link a true hero... and it's what gamers will be waiting to spend their money on.