I've covered a topic quite similar to this many weeks go, under the title of "Why Must Our Artistic Tastes Change?". I'm going to continue on that sort of subject as I think it is important, one that many of us do not talk about, but does happen to every single one of us. True, it may not be as important as the subjects of morality or decent behavior, but if it's an important topic than it is worth talking about nonetheless, and if we start sweeping any of them under the rug than we run the risk of sweeping all of them under the rug.
The idea for this title and general post came about only an hour or so from it's first draft. I was watching Jim Sterling's Jimquisition on the backlash and critical reception for the video game Mighty No. 9, a game that when you really boil it down, was crowd-funded successfully in the first place because of fans nostalgia.
Jim goes into many other notable aspects of the specific game, so if you have not watched it I would recommend doing so after you read this post.
Video made by: Jim Sterling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR5TP129_pI
I heard many people argue that the biggest drawing point was that Megaman had not been given a new installment in so long that Capcom most likely abandoned the franchise, and fans were desperate for more. I sort of agree, however, knowing what people can be like, I personally feel that the Kickstarter would have been funded even if Megaman was still ongoing. It had the man everyone believed created the franchise, and when you have nostalgia for something, you can tend to jump on board without asking enough questions, or any questions at all.
I never played Mighty No. 9 and thus my only opinions stem from watching other people play it, which is also my history with Megaman. See where I'm going with this? No nostalgia for Megaman meant I had no interest in playing Mighty No. 9, and honestly, that should have been a warning sign. A good game is a good game no matter what you had to invest in the first place, personal nostalgias and investments should only be a non-required plus instead of mandatory. If I needed to love Megaman to even care about Mighty No. 9, than just how much did the game have to offer? Based on gameplay videos and let's plays, I honestly kind of hate what I've seen of Mighty No. 9, because even there I can see what is so wrong and underutilized with it. I've also seen a few things about Megaman, and my opinion always was "I doubt I would like it but I can see the appeal."
Megaman got lucky in it's nostalgia factor while Mighty No. 9 did not. From what my unbiased and admittedly hands-off feelings can muster, Megaman was good for many reason, but one of them was because of when it came out. Games have advanced so much since then, it is no longer impressive, but because it does feel like the old game that it is, the enjoyment factor is still there because it at least feels like a product of it's time. When something is revolutionary, it tends to still work while the thousands of copies instead feel stale. When Mighty No. 9 comes around and says "We can do that same thing today!" and does not feel like it learned any lessons from the past decades of gaming, you have a game that doesn't work right and the nostalgia glasses can easily shatter.
Being inspired is different from simply banking on nostalgia, and sadly, there are people and companies that completely do that latter and know it every second. I'll give Mighty No. 9 the benefit of the doubt and say that I do believe the game faulted because the developers did not know what they were doing, they were not malicious in their doing. Honestly, the developers own nostalgia is most likely something that helped blind them in the process. As someone who isn't a Megaman fan, I can easily say that the franchise has it's place in gaming history but it is now outdated and needs improvements to be relevant and comparable while still being what it is at heart. Take for example 2016's DOOM, which was beloved for doing just that. Growing up with this game, or becoming a big name because of this game, and it can be very hard to not see that, and instead see the potential for an unofficial spin-off to do exactly the same today and be just as good.
Sometimes, however, nostalgia dumps are malicious, hence my concern for the subject. They do this because quite frankly, it keeps working. Companies are not stupid, marketing research is done because it works so damn well, even when we catch on. We say won't watch that crappy TV show we got a promo for, but we do. We say we've heard the same lies from politicians before, but he it's an actor from a reality show this time so maybe it's the pro-racist stuff that's the lie instead. Nostalgia can work that way as well, because we used to be the kind of person who liked that thing, and many times we just jump in blindfolded because of it.
I brought this up before in the "artistic taste" post, but think back to your childhood. Think of a movie you watched all the time, that you absolutely loved. Ask yourself if you've seen it since then. Ask yourself, truthfully, if you do like this movie now. The reality is, you have just as much a chance of liking it as you do anything else.
I'm not joking when I say I did my best to throw away my nostalgia goggles a long time ago. I don't like having opinions on something purely based on what I thought of it as a child, or even a teenager, or even my first few years in college. I only graduated college little more than a year ago, and there I things I loved then that I hate now. Ir has nothing to do with the fact I used to love it, it's just that I first saw it at a time when it appealed to me, and I now have the opinion I would naturally have if I discovered it only recently.
I can picture arguments for nostalgia goggles, and that would be franchises or fan specials, that sort of thing. There's a different word I'd use for that, and I used it earlier: Investment.
Here's an example: Digimon Adventure Tri. I did grow up on Digimon, however, as a child I really only liked Frontier. In high school I decided to watch the first four seasons again, and I really liked it. I'm older now, and I have watched those four seasons in both English and Japanese, I have played Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, and I have seen what is currently available in America of Digimon Adventure Tri. I am a huge fan of this franchise, and it's not because of nostalgia, I just straight up love it (although there's a reason I put an image for Adventure 02 in the logo picture, my opinions on that season did grow more sour after the re-watch). I've invested a lot of my time in it, and yes, since I was a child. I don't count that as nostalgia, in fact, I kind of can't in some regard, instead I just count myself lucky that a franchise that matters so much to me was able to show itself so early on in my life.
Bonus fact, my favorite movie and my favorite TV show were also things I watched when I was a kid. I loved them then, but not as much as I do now, because my age and wisdom has changed my opinion. I don't go "I grew up with these, so I love them." I go "I love these and I also happened to watch them when I was young."
Now, just to clean my palette, I'll admit a hypocrisy. I'm only human after all.
One of my favorite Disney movies is Fun and Fancy Free. Only because I grew up with it. My honest, brutal, and unbiased opinion on the movie? The first half sucks but at least it picks up after Jiminy Cricket goes to that little girl's birthday party and Edgar Bergen shows up. I still kind of love it, because my younger self enjoyed it so much. I own it on Blu-ray, and the only way to get it on Blu-ray was to spend the extra money to get it as a bonus with The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, which in theory is a much better movie that I've watched far less often than Fun and Fancy Free.
Also, every year, I watch Spot's Magical Christmas. That special isn't bad, I can objectively say it's legitimately good and has entertainment value even for older audiences. It's just that I'm way to old to enjoy it all that much, but it was a staple of my childhood (until I lost the VHS for a good chunk of time).
The reality of the situation is, there is really nothing wrong with understanding what you liked when you were a child, and how much enjoyment you got out of you younger years because of these things. The problem is letting those exact feelings betray you. I may be able to watch Fun and Fancy Free but if I thought it was unwatchable, I wouldn't hate the time I'd spent with it. I just wouldn't like the movie, and I'd move on that knowing it isn't anyone's fault.
I'm also very much immune to the opposite and far more damaging side effect, believing I still love it and everything about it. I see way too many people jump on board for anything tied into something they used to like. Be it the new Power Rangers movie coming out soon just because they grew up watching the show even though they had a completely different tone than the movie is promising, or the constant TV show reboots we get that sort of are reboots to older shows we liked before. Sometimes it's hard to sit back and think logically about something with a tie to your childhood. Of course I'm not saying you'll hate these, I'm just asking you weight it in your hands the same way you would something not tied to your childhood. Being objective is a good way to look at media, and it also means that if it ends up sucking after all, at least it'll hurt less because you didn't blind yourself beforehand.
And of course, try to stay objective to things you used to like as well. I spent a lot of time from senior year of high and my third year of college watching Nostalgia Critic (And yes I did pick that example for the obvious tie-inable reasons to the theme), and I don't regret doing that, even though the me of today wouldn't be able to watch those same episodes without sinking into my chair and sighing.
Again, only my opinion. It's just media, keep that in mind. My only real advice is to stay objective, that your nostalgia for franchises you love may actually just be a level of investment, and if you are younger and reading this, just try to understand now that you may or may not love everything latter in life as much as you did now (when it comes to media) but don't let that beat you up, because it was still your time and you should feel happy you got enjoyment value out of it. Somethings you might even love more.
Hell, whenever I disagree with someone on a movie or book or what have you, with their opinion being they liked or loved it and my opinion being I disliked or hated it, my only thought it that I'm glad they enjoy it. It's good to enjoy something and I wish I did too, but it just didn't work out that way. It's also okay to not like something, the only real negative is that it's too bad because enjoying things is fun, but you can't win them all.
At the end of the day, just try to be a little careful with how much you let nostalgia into your opinions on media. You don't have to throw the nostalgia goggles away like I did, I'm just pointing out than when you believe you loved something unconditionally and you are proven wrong, without the right bracing for it it can feel like a betrayal.
So, yeah. As silly as this may sound to some of you, without the right mindset, nostalgia can in fact be dangerous.