Gaming in 2026 is looking exceptionally good so far, aside from a few rogue elements like AI creeping into our day-to-day lives.
Some exciting new games are on the way with Halo: Campaign Evolved, The Duskbloods and Marvel’s The Wolverine all being on my radar as we head further into the year. GTA VI is also on my list, but I’m convinced it’s going to be delayed again, this time into 2027.
However while brand-new games are all well and good there’s something about the classics that always had my attention, and as someone with an extensive collection of physical, retro gaming media one of my personal goals for this year is to take many more trips down memory lane, revisiting games I grew up on as well as trying out ones I never got round to playing.
There’s only one problem with this, older games are hard to come by. Nowadays the best you’ll get is a handful of retro classics featured on a subscription service, or a remaster/remake.
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Now if you own a Nintendo Switch 2 like I do and want to have a quick playthrough of Luigi’s Mansion that’s all well and good, you can do just that provided you’ve got a valid subscription to Nintendo Switch Online. If you’re still on the Nintendo Switch though like so many Nintendo fans I know, you unfortunately can’t access GameCube games, they’re exclusive to the newer console.
As we highlighted the other day though, you can find just about every game that’s ever existed online in some form or other, and with free emulators you can theoretically play all of them for free, but there’s a catch.
While emulators themselves aren’t illegal, acquiring the ROMs for said games usually is, and even if you physically own a copy of the game you want to play on PC you’re still unfortunately standing in a grey area in terms of legality.
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It’s a damn shame, because while there are so many games out there that can be played legally via Nintendo Switch Online, PlayStation Plus Premium, GOG etc, there are so many more that are stuck in limbo. GOG in particular deserves a shoutout as its preservation project has brought several obscure titles back from the brink of death, and given them new audiences to entertain years after their release.
I’ve also got a bone to pick with remasters / remakes. One of my biggest gripes in gaming is when a remaster or remake makes enormous changes to a game, but becomes the only accessible version. Take Final Fantasy VII for example. Final Fantasy VII Remake has its fair share of fans but for those who prefer the turn-based style of the original the PlayStation 1 version of the game is still available for purchase. That in my opinion is how it should be for all games.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition is a bad example though, as all three games are only available on modern consoles through the “definitive” version even when it’s anything but.
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When the classics as we play them are so hard to come by, no wonder so many gamers turn to emulation despite the risks that come with it.
Something needs to change. Emulation is not malicious and yet so many gaming companies treat it as such. There’s a gold mine of retro classics available online and they’ve all been put there for preservation, not for profit. This isn’t me encouraging you to go out and pirate games, as at the time of writing it’s still very much illegal and shouldn’t be done under any circumstances. That's not going to change anytime soon either meaning the ball is in the developer's court to make them legally playable.
Sure physical media is still a thing and you can seek out second-hand copies online or from your local game store, but nothing lasts forever, and eventually all of our consoles, cartridges and discs will become unusable, it’s only a matter of time.
If an all-digital future is inevitable let's at least make sure every game gets a fair chance of survival, there's enough room for all of them.
Topics: Features, Nintendo Switch Online, PlayStation Plus, Retro Gaming, Nintendo Switch