Retro Media In 2025: Bringing The Past To The Present

Retro games - Pexels

Is there anything better loved in today’s world than the blast of nostalgia brought by enjoying things from the past? Whether it’s picking up an old computer game, rewatching some of your favorite childhood shows, or embracing modern media that has a retro vibe in one way or another - all of these things tap into our love for the past, for childhood memories, and provide us with that nostalgic feeling that warms us to our toes.

Arcades And Casinos Step Into 2025

A powerful memory for many of us is the arcade games that used to pop up in almost every town. There was nothing like it, walking through those doors with a big stack of coins, listening to the clink and rattle of change pouring into cash boxes and coin cups. These days, it’s a lot harder to find a physical arcade, and much of what they offered has been replaced by modern slots that tend to be entirely computer run.

That doesn’t mean that the classic vibe of the old-school slot machines is gone, however! While there are plenty of slick and modern titles being released, there are also many options out there that positively embrace the retro vibe and recapture the glory of the early fruit machines.

If you’re looking to play slots that will hit that retro feel, Retro Wild Ride could be a great place to start, offering the nostalgia of old-style cars, big billboards, and even your choice of soundtrack.

And if that’s not quite the ticket and you’d rather play slots with some of the real classic images, you can pick from a myriad of games that play on the staples of fruits and bars, sometimes with modern twists to update them. Sweet Fruits, Cosmic Fruits, Hot Glowing Fruits - you name it, you’ll find it available to enjoy. It’s hard to deny that the amount of options out there makes this activity a hundred times better than when we used to play as kids; you’re no longer limited to a handful of machines. There are choices galore!

If you’re not sure where to start, you can always check out the Best Classic Slots to find games that are sure to get the nostalgia ball rolling - games inspired by retro fruit machines. It really is the best of both worlds.

Metroidvanias are Back

If the arcade isn’t hitting those treasured memories for you, it might suggest that you were more into the home console scene. For many of us, the Castlevania and Super Metroid series were our first introduction to the world of gaming as a whole, and they certainly left their mark.

Few other games can claim to have created a genre as distinctive and powerful as the metroidvania pair, and there have certainly been many attempts to copy and recapture that charm in the years since.

Still, you could be forgiven for assuming that the metroidvania genre was pretty much dead these days. After all, a lot of its most iconic features were designed to work around the limitations of the hardware of the day. In the modern era, where game engines are capable of rendering complex 3D objects in real time, adding detailed lighting and particle effects, and including vast, intricate worlds, is there still a place for the 2D platforming and boss fights that defined this genre?

Well, with the much-anticipated release of Silksong, over 5 million players seem to say that the metroidvania genre is alive and well. Silksong, much like its predecessor Hollow Knight, taps into the atmospheric landscapes that made the Castlevania and Metroid games such successes, but also revitalizes the genre by updating it to the modern era with better controller support and crisp visuals that could never have been possible in the 16-bit days.

Felix The Cat Returns as a Figurine

Stepping away from games and into nostalgic cartoons, Felix the Cat is considered to be one of the most iconic figures from the 1960s through to the 1990s by many people, and for good reason. These cartoons cemented themselves as a deeply memorable part of animation history, and bringing him into 2025 with a sculpted figurine is the perfect way to relive some particularly precious childhood moments. Complete with a magic bag of tricks (who could forget the bag), this is the ideal addition for any enthusiast trying to get into the retro vibe.

Felix is a well-loved character who remains stubbornly iconic even now. He’s got really widespread appeal, too, having appeared in media since his creation in 1919. Felix successfully made the transition from silent to sound, and has remained with audiences ever since in a whole range of forms, including a graphic novel that was released as recently as 2023.

Having a Felix the Cat replica to place proudly on a games shelf is the perfect way to give a nod to the past and the fun this character represents. There’s something magnetic about his happy grin that the figurine has perfectly captured, letting fans relive the glory days of this much-loved feline.