With backwards compatibility the norm does anyone else feel nostalgia for consoles with fresh zero backlog libraries?

I've been thinking about the PS5 and Xbox series X recently, as well as the Switch, and one thing that the first two consoles have that has defined the experiences I have had with them is backwards compatibility. Since I owned both PS4 and Xbox One I started the new generation with a massive library for both consoles. That meant that I picked and chose the launch games I wanted to play and didn't need to worry about filling gaps or having games of every style. If I wanted a twin stick arcade shooter for PS5 I already had Crimsonland. If I wanted an open world racer on Xbox Series X Forza Horizon 4 was right there, and it even got a native version with improved performance!

This contrasts with the Switch, which started fresh. I bought it for Zelda, but I don't like having only one game for a console so I picked up some other stuff as well. Fast RMX is a fantastic F-Zero style game that showed me the Switch could do blazing fast gameplay at acceptable graphical fidelity. I finally got Shovel Knight and then soon after got into Binding of Isaac (both available on other systems but made appealing by the small library.) I played a few not quite launch games like Kamiko, which I did not like but I'm glad I spent time with.

Likewise with the PS4 launch the first game I completed on that was Contrast, a sweet little 3D platformer on PS+ that I remember fondly all these years later and only played because I wanted something for PS4. That's also why I got into Killer Instinct on the Xbox One, a wonderful cult classic fighting game.

For the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles the launch games I played were not about filling out the library but trying something I would have tried otherwise, or just experiencing the new graphics. It just wasn't the same. And while I support backwards compatibility and use it constantly and do not want consoles to launch without it, I can't help but feel some nostalgia for that experience of digging into a completely new library with relatively few choices and trying stuff you otherwise wouldn't because it's all that was available.

so what i'm getting here is that you, too- believe in generations.

dumb yuks aside- i get what you're saying. tabula rasa has inherent appeal- and if i'm being honest i think the only time i've ever experienced that was when the N64 launched and i played Wave Race 64, Super Mario 64, Pilotwings 64 and Mario Kart 64 in close succession.

though i also think, at least in this modern age, you might be robbing yourself of that clean slate experience if you buy new consoles at launch. they just don't have the launch lineups like they used to- and backwards compatibility enshrines that they don't need to.

all that said- i got a PS5 this past Feb. and since then- along with my PS+ sub i've managed to play Horizon Forbidden West, Astro's Playroom, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Returnal, TLOU: Part 1, and now GoW: Ragnarok in my first year of ownership. all things considered, i feel pretty good about that.

It's not backwards compatibility that bugs me, but just the lack of exclusives. There's just no good reason for me to want a PS5 right now because all of its good games can be played on PS4, which I already have, and to my eyes those games still look great.

My distinct memory of past consoles was being absolutely blown away by the new games like FF7 & Mario 64 and the generational shift but that experience itself has lessoned with each passing console, you can only go from 2D to 3D once.

And it did often come at a price with the glacial trickle of new games especially for the N64 or any console that didn't quite take off.

I couldn't survive with the Switch alone not today.

@mellotronrules: I'm definitely not in favor of ending backwards compatibility but you can be for something and also realize it has drawbacks.

What you're talking about is also very different than what I'm talking about. Of course you can still buy a console for its big exclusives and seek them out, my point is that when there was no backwards compatibility you were pushed to look for and try out games you might not otherwise play just because that's all there is. Like visiting an unfamiliar restaurant and having to try stuff you never have before. When consoles have backwards compatibility it's more like going to a place with your old favorites on the menu. The temptation will always be to default to those, unless there is some new special with a lot of buzz.

There is definitely something to what you are saying, even if it often does come with a lot of shitty-ish launch titles. I absolutely don't want BC to go away, but the sheer anxiety I get from looking at my games library accrued between 360 and Xbox One that I have not finished is really overwhelming. There is definitely a part of me that would love to start fresh (and begin creating all the same problems all over again!) I've always had issues with choice paralysis, and it has never been as serious as it is now, as shit like The Saboteur continues to taunt me from my library.

I see what you mean by this, but I think this generation more than any other in history feels a little half-assed that nobody is committing to it and I wonder if we'd be better off just skipping the PS5 Pro era completely and already start talking about a PS6 somewhere around 2024-25. Especially with supply issues hovering over all the hype, it just never felt like this generation got going from a gamer perspective, although I'm sure the accountants at least at Sony are very happy about where they are right now financially.

There's a few things that contribute to this. All consoles typically go through a post-launch game drought, but this time it is made worse by Covid delays. Then we have the problem that the PS4 sold too well for Sony to abandon it (I'm shocked to learn that GoW Ragnarök has a PS4 version when the previous entry already struggled with its frame rate!), and Microsoft on the other hand has a new console out that is technically the old console, just with an SSD this time around. And then we have both platform and generation-agnostic games as a service like your Fortnite and Apex Legends and Minecraft that'll run on basically anything.

If it weren't for the backwards compatibility, I wouldn't have bought the Series S. But nothing about it (except for the load times) feels next gen. Halo Infinite looks and runs fine but it is hardly a stunner to look at, in fact I might go and say that Halo 5 is a better looking game than Infinite, of course mostly thanks to its tightly crafted levels instead of an open world.