One of the best things about looking at older games is seeing how much of the ethos is built around play. It's always a matter of "well what activity can we make engaging?" instead of being an 80 hour story about killing people being bad no matter how cool the cinematic is. 

Simogo Legacy Collection is an anthology of some of the earliest games from Sayonara Wild Hearts devs Simogo, and it's a great example of how to make good games at a small scale. Their scopes are more narrow and you can see genuine creative vision- free of more boring metrics like visual fidelity or sequel bait. 

Redefine Play

One of the things that really catches my eye with the Simogo Legacy Collection is just how many of these games exist simply because they are. Games like Beat Break Bandit have a story, sure, but you never feel like the game is just a vehicle to get to more story. It's simple- tap to the beat to control the bandit- but also I never feel like I'm working towards something more fun down the line. It's a game in the now, because the gimmick of tapping to the beat to sneak around is in itself so much fun- the level-specific twists are just an add on. 

So many of the titles in the collection are like this. They demand your participation in interesting ways that leave you no time to be scrolling your phone in the mean time. DEVICE6 is another one I'd say is a masterclass in game design.

 So much of it is just narrative- you're largely reading a book. Yet, the book itself is asking to be rotated and messed with. As you move through the horizontally-scrolling text you're suddenly catching glimpses of another passage that's upside down- only to discover its own branching narrative will eventually lead you to turn the page upside down and go back to that same spot. 

It helps that these games are also immaculately put together. Just look at titles like The Sailor's Dream- a game all about simply finding the narrative. Doing nothing outside of swiping in different directions, it's just an incredibly evocative experience. You're sucked into these worlds, all with minimal input that still manages to be incredibly engaging. 

Simogo Legacy Collection Verdict

If you're a creative in desperate need for a transfusion of the new or simply someone looking to escape the mold of modern gave development, I implore you to give the Simogo Legacy Collection a fair shake. There's some genuinely interesting gems here- the kind that really make you rethink what entertainment is supposed to be as you extract joy from tilting a page or doing a jazzy little turn. 

You don't even necessarily have to be a fan of the newer entries like Lorelei and the Laser Eyes- this collection is a curiosity that stands on its own two legs, though it's entirely up to you how much appetite you have for such things. 

Final Score: 8/10