On Video Games

For more than 20 years now, video games have been around as one of the major forms of entertainment. People were delighted when systems such as Atari and ColecoVision offered an alternative to television. Nintendo then burst onto the scene and took things to the next level. The quality and complexity of video games has greatly increased over the years. The graphics on many seem almost movie-like, and put the graphics of games like Pong to shame.
But I do not enjoy these new video games, and there is a reason. Video games used to be enjoyable because they were simple to operate and easy to use. Of course many games have had complex plots or strategies, and could take a long time to beat. Games like The Legend of Zelda or Metroid were excellent games, despite the fact that it could take days or even weeks to beat. Why is there a difference between that complexity and the complexity of today's games? The answer is simple: earlier games could still be played with very few options on the controller.
This is the thing that has pushed me away from video games. Playing a football video game requires one to memorize button sequences as complex as the code used to create the game. It used to be one button to throw and one to catch, and I liked it better that way. With old systems I would be able to play a game if I had an hour to kill. Now it would take twice as long just to memorize all of the different button sequences.
Another thing that annoys me is the view point of the protagonist. The graphics have indeed improved, but I think it has actually gone too far. It wasn't enough to elaborate on the scenery that you would pass by on your quest. There had to also be a sky with clouds that move, and grass with blades blowing in the wind, and broken twigs, and birds flying, et cetera. In order to appreciate all of this, a new joystick was added. Now one joystick moves the character and the other one controls the direction of his gaze. I can't play a game for more than two minutes without staring at the sky by using the wrong joystick, or even bumping it with my finger accidentally.
When my character starts staring at the sky or at his feet, I know how to fix the problem. The only thing is that the vision never lines up perfectly after that. You can play the whole board with the character looking slightly up or slightly down, but never straight ahead. It annoys the hell out of me.
I suppose the gist of it is that I long for games like Pac Man and Frogger. I want to jump over Donkey Kong's barrels. I want to walk along making burgers, armed with a pepper shaker in Burger Time. I even want the Mario Brothers, Castlevania, Mega Man and a bunch of others. I don't want to memorize how to make the guy move. You can give me an intricate plot, a complex strategy, and a game that takes a month to finish. But please don't give me the ability to stare at my shoelaces. It is unnecessary and unenjoyable.