I really stopped to think the other day that although we are in 2016, things have started to feel different. I found myself doing things that 2 or 3 years ago I wouldn’t have ever imagined becoming a part of my day. You might be thinking, “What exactly does that mean?” Here’s the thing -- it seems like the things that were popular in the '90s and early 2000s are all of a sudden seeing the light of day again. I’m sure those of us in college right now can all agree that we had the best childhood. We lived in a simpler time than kids that are growing up right now and never take for granted the great things we had at our age that luckily, seem to be coming back. Although most of these things could be thought of as things tailored toward younger kids, it seems like college kids seem to be enjoying and appreciating them more, which in my book is totally fine. Kids today have their stuff like phones, apps, “hover boards,” etc. but hey, we deserve to relive our childhoods too, right? Just the way we remembered it.
Video Games and Nintendo
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It is amazing to see 20- to 25-year-olds playing games like "Super Mario Sunshine," "Spyro" and "Super Smash Bros." even today. With all of the new video games released each year, who doesn’t want to bring back those old games we all played when we were 10-12 years old? Nostalgic video games are certainly making a comeback, and Nintendo is here to prove it to you. For those of you who don't know, Nintendo is re-releasing Nintendo Entertainment Systems this November. But it gets even better -- each retro console will have over 30 games built into it, including some of our favorites like "Super Mario Bros.," "Pac-Man," "The Legend of Zelda" and "Kirby’s Adventure." Clearly these games were not meant to be put to rest and Nintendo knows it.
Speaking of video games, even though it's 2016 retro style arcades are also still around. Just in Asbury Park, New Jersey there is an arcade featuring everything from skee ball to pinball and "Pac-Man" machines. Just walking into these places bring me back to my childhood where simple was better.
TV Shows
If you haven’t noticed, a lot of old TV shows that we all watched growing up are being shown on TV again! Nickelodeon at night now plays all of the old '90s shows like "Hey Arnold!," "CatDog," "Rocket Power," "Rugrats" and more! Even Netflix added my favorite childhood show, "Courage the Cowardly Dog" -- all four seasons. These are the shows we all talked about 3 years ago saying how much we missed all of them and wish they would come back and replace all of these other kid shows that don’t seem to have the same originality or entertaining quality to them. Well, now we have them.
Even shows like "Boy Meets World" and "Saved by the Bell" are getting air time almost every day. Just getting to sit down and watch these shows just as I did when I was in elementary and middle school brings back those great times. I would get home from school, eat those chocolate cookies in the school bus container and reactivate my Tamogotchi. Good times.
Pokemon
Even trends from the early 2000s are getting revived, like Pokemon. We all watched it growing up and owned the cards, battling with our siblings and playing the games on our Gameboys. Seeing how much college kids are enjoying things like "Pokemon Go" makes me glad things I grew up with are being revisited. Not even just the game, but I see kids still owning Pokemon cards and trading with friends, and if that doesn’t warm your heart I don’t know what does. If you go into places like Spencers, Hot Topic, even Target, Pokemon products are still being sold and bought. That alone is amazing.
Music
Now, it depends what you listen to, but I've noticed that a lot of artists that were popular in the '90s and early 2000s are releasing new music! Maybe this is showing what I listen to, but bands like Good Charlotte, Simple Plan and Blink 182 have just recently released new albums, which is so amazing. I mean, when was the last time you heard about kids getting online at 10 a.m. on a Saturday to score Blink 182 tickets before they're sold out? But you know what? I’m glad that exact type of thing is happening again and that kids our age are able to go to concerts for bands they enjoyed when they were a kid but were not old enough to see at the time.
Movies
In my opinion, one of the greatest things that is making a comeback is nostalgic movies. In the last few years, including this year, we have been given films like "Toy Story 3" and "Finding Dory" that were released years and years after their original films. Now, college kids can watch them and look back on when they saw the originals as children. Even live action films are being made to resemble their original classics that we all watched growing up. We were given this year "The Jungle Book" and "The Legend of Tarzan" and next year "Beauty and the Beast." I don’t know about anyone else but going to see those movies in theaters gave me a sense of joy that I would have never expected to have in 2016 as they brought back films from my childhood.
So here we are in college, looking back on all the things we watched, played and did as children, wishing we could relive that time. Luckily, it seems like our wishes are being answered and that nostalgia is making a comeback in the ways displayed above. I can’t wait to see what else resurfaces in the years to come because the '90s and early 2000s was an amazing time to grow up, and people seem to be realizing that now and bringing back everything we all loved.
