Unlimited Love for an Average Game: The Power of Nostalgia

About six months ago, while I was living in London, I went to a small video game swap at the hotel in the city. I didn’t have any expectations of what to find. I was just looking to see what I could get.

I walk up, turn my entrance fee, I start to look around. Almost immediately, I come across not one, but two gems. Nestled in a row of used DS and 3DS games, I see something I’ve been hoping to play for nearly a decade. Before my eyes, I saw One Piece: Unlimited Cruise SP, a 3DS port of a 2008 Wii game I’ve been wanting to play since I finished its predecessor, One Piece Unlimited Adventure. Not only that, but at the same table, in the same row, I was One Piece: Unlimited Cruise SP 2, the sequel to the first. Double jackpot.

I scooped them up, ventured to two Game X Change stores to find a used 2DS, and sunk about as much as both games would have cost new at retail. Why? Because nostalgia is a stronger driving force than any element the game could possess.

The One Piece: Unlimited games are not the most polished. With a confusing camera, laggy gameplay, and a reliance on repetitious fetch quests, they’re not the kinds of games everyone would enjoy. But as someone who’s loved One Piece and read the manga every week for the past 10 years, these games are treasure troves of lore waiting to be cracked open. I’m a huge fan of One Pieces games and non-canon content specifically, so I was familiar with the characters and basic plot of the games. But I wanted to play them for myself.

It is so satisfying to finally launch hordes of enemies into the air again with Luffy, my favorite stretchy pirate captain.

One Piece: Unlimited Adventure, the first game in my series, was basically my introduction to One Piece. I had only watched a handful of episodes on Toonami Jetstream before buying it, so most of the characters, including some main characters, were new to me. I probably spent few hundred hours in that game, exploring landscapes, collecting items, and fighting bosses. It was the first game I took a deep dive in to, and when I found out that a sequel was on the way soon after I got into it, I could not have been more excited. Unfortunately, neither the Wii nor 3DS versions were released in the United States. Both consoles were also region locked. The games were out of reach. Living in the UK in the spring, I finally had an opportunity to get these games, and I was elated to have done so.

The graphics on the 3DS port aren’t as good as the Wii version, but nostalgia is more compelling to me than visual quality.

Much like Unlimited Adventure was the first game I took a deep dive into, Unlimited Cruise SP 1 and 2 have been the first games I have invested in since I started college. With my variety of interests and generally busy schedule, I have found it hard to sink a lot of time into games. However, with some more free time this summer and a priority to play when I waited so long to get, I made steady progress.

Nostalgia and brand loyalty are brilliant driving forces behind game sales. Some folks will buy any game in a certain series just because they love the brand so passionately, even if some of the games are bad. Of course, while some fans may be disappointed in a lower-quality experience, others will overlook flaws for the sake of the overall brand experience.

Nostalgia is persuasive, but there is a breaking point. When a game deviates too far from the standard to have the same nostalgic feel, it is no longer worth the pain. For me, my breaking point was Unlimited World Red, a PS3 sequel to Unlimited Cruise. It had a completely different art style, no original costumes, far less fetch quests and location exploring elements, and it had ditched most of the bosses from previous games. Some of these changes were probably good, but when I picked up the controller, I wasn’t compelled. Where Unlimited Cruise has me eagerly exploring new locations and grinding for new items, Unlimited World Red fails to excite me. I will give it another try when I beat Unlimited Cruise, but nostalgia can certainly work in reverse.

If a game doesn’t match a previous installment (especially one that elicits nostalgia) close enough, it won’t resonate as well. And if even if a game isn’t good, it can seem like a treasure to those who have a strong bond to it. Maybe I’m the only one, but One Piece: Unlimited Adventure and Unlimited Cruise 1 & 2 will always have a special place in my heart.

Photos courtesy of Nintendo.