With the XBox system costing about $180, and each of it’s games costing about $50 each, it’s hard to get the latest and greatest system and still have enough cash to go catch a movie. But who says you have to have the latest and greatest? “Retro” gaming is an inexpensive way to play a lot of games.

You don’t even have to go all the way back to the “Atari days”. The “Second Generation” systems, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), the Sega Genesis, and other systems will do just fine, and will cost about $50 for the system and several games.

One of the games highly recommended is “Super Mario World”, which is described by Norman Sather as an “adventure game”. This is the ultimate side-scrolling platform game. Tim”Brown called it “addictive”, and it is quite hard to put down.

The sequel to “Super Mario World” is “Yoshi’s Island”. Is it good mainly because, as David Prim put it, “is based on an awesome game”? It’s good because it’s another classic platforming game.

“Mortal Kombat” was also highly recommended. The original fighting game, is dedicated to the task that both Tim Brown and Norman Sather agree with:”“You get to beat things up.” When it premiered, people were concerned with its violence. But, times have changed so much that it now seems tame compared to other games such as “Vice City”.

It’s easy to get fun games for very little. All you have to do is look past the graphics, and focus on the gameplay. And, especially now, the only place to get good gameplay is on older systems.