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Several standout games of 2024 drew on older games in sharply different ways: Crow Country openly takes inspiration from ’90s PlayStation survival horror, Astro Bot celebrates PlayStation history, and UFO 50 turns retro styling into the premise for 50 new games. Balatro and the Silent Hill 2 remake show two other routes back—rebuilding a familiar card game as a modern roguelike, or reinterpreting a specific classic. These examples support a narrower claim than “the best games were nostalgic”: some of 2024’s notable releases refreshed older forms without simply repeating them.
What it means for a 2024 game to channel the ’90s
Retro influence is not a single style. A game can revive a genre, borrow an old visual language, build on a familiar mechanic, pay tribute to a console’s history, or remake a particular earlier title. Those approaches can look similar from a distance, but they offer different experiences: a new game inspired by old survival horror is not the same thing as a remake, and an 8-bit aesthetic does not by itself make a game a revival of a specific ’90s release.
The useful question is what each game brings forward—and what it changes. In these examples, the answer ranges from an explicit homage to a new collection of retro-styled games.
Games that brought older forms forward
| Game | What it draws on | How the 2024 game uses it |
|---|---|---|
| Crow Country | ’90s PlayStation survival horror | A new survival-horror adventure set in an abandoned amusement park; PlayStation Blog explicitly describes it as inspired by ’90s PlayStation classics. PlayStation Blog, June 5, 2024. |
| Astro Bot | Platform-game ideas and PlayStation history | A modern PS5 platformer that pays homage to PlayStation’s history and includes character references, as described in PlayStation Blog’s 2024 award coverage. GameSpot also lists it as a PS5 game and describes it as modernizing platforming ideas in its 2024 best-games selection. |
| Balatro | Poker and card-game conventions | A poker roguelike in which players build decks using special Jokers, Vouchers, Tarot, and Planet cards. It applies a contemporary game structure to a familiar card game rather than specifically reviving a ’90s console style. PlayStation Blog, June 5, 2024. |
| UFO 50 | 8-bit visual style and the feel of a varied retro game library | A collection of 50 brand-new games across multiple genres, unified by a retro-styled 8-bit aesthetic. Metacritic’s game description presents it as a set of new games, not a collection of old releases. |
| Silent Hill 2 | The 2001 survival-horror game | A remake that reinterprets a specific classic with a more polished presentation while preserving important qualities of the original, according to GameSpot’s 2024 selection. |
Crow Country makes the ’90s connection explicit
Among these examples, Crow Country is the clearest direct link to the decade. PlayStation Blog describes the game as a survival-horror adventure set in an abandoned amusement park and calls it inspired by ’90s PlayStation classics. The page’s line, “Travel back to the 90s in this survival horror adventure inspired by ‘90s PlayStation classics,” is the publisher’s description, not an independent review. It lists PS5 and PS4, with SFB Games as both publisher and developer. PlayStation Blog, June 5, 2024.
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That makes Crow Country a strong example of an older genre’s sensibility being used for a new adventure. The evidence establishes the game’s stated inspiration; it does not establish that every part of its design reproduces a particular classic.
Astro Bot turns console history into a platforming tribute
Astro Bot reaches backward through PlayStation’s own history. PlayStation’s Game of the Year coverage says the game pays homage to the brand’s 30-year history and points to its character references. GameSpot’s year-end selection describes a platformer that takes ideas from the genre and modernizes them. Together, those descriptions support a mix of affectionate callbacks and a contemporary platform game, rather than a claim that Astro Bot is simply a replica of an older title. PlayStation Blog, December 17, 2024; GameSpot, December 9, 2024.
Balatro revisits poker through a different game structure
Balatro is a useful counterexample to a narrow definition of retro. Its starting point is poker, a longstanding card game, but its identity is that of a poker roguelike: players build decks and use special Jokers, Vouchers, Tarot, and Planet cards. PlayStation Blog names LocalThunk as developer and Playstack Limited as publisher. The connection here is an old, familiar game brought into a newer system—not evidence of a specific ’90s visual or console revival. PlayStation Blog, June 5, 2024.
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UFO 50 makes retro design its organizing idea
Rather than asking players to revisit one old game, UFO 50 presents 50 brand-new, retro-styled games in multiple genres, sharing an 8-bit aesthetic. That makes it the most direct example here of retro design as a collection-wide concept.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesMetacritic’s December 31, 2024 list gives UFO 50 a score of 91 on its best-PC-games page. The page says eligible games had at least seven professional critic reviews and labels the collection the best PC exclusive of 2024. Those are Metacritic’s score snapshot and editorial designation on that date—not proof that retro styling caused the score or a universal ranking shared by every outlet. Metacritic, December 31, 2024.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Silent Hill 2 shows the difference between inspiration and a remake
The 2024 Silent Hill 2 is a remake of the 2001 game, not simply a new title borrowing an older horror style. GameSpot’s year-end coverage characterizes it as a more polished reinterpretation that preserves important qualities of the original. That is a distinct kind of relationship with the past: the earlier game is the specific work being rebuilt, whereas Crow Country is described as taking inspiration from a broader set of classics. GameSpot, December 9, 2024.
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What these examples do—and do not—show
These games make a persuasive case that older forms remained fertile in 2024, but they do not show that nostalgia alone explains critical recognition or quality. The cited pages provide game descriptions, a publisher’s award coverage, an outlet’s best-games selection, and a score-and-ranking snapshot. They do not establish that retro influence drove sales, explain all players’ preferences, or characterize every game widely regarded as one of the year’s best.
The more precise takeaway is that “retro” can describe very different creative choices: a genre homage in Crow Country, historical callbacks in Astro Bot, a poker-based roguelike in Balatro, a new 8-bit-styled collection in UFO 50, or a close reinterpretation in Silent Hill 2. The shared thread is not one recipe for nostalgia, but the variety of ways developers can make older ideas feel newly playable.
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