Revisiting your youth in the 21st Century

REMEMBER the good old days when computer games were simple 2D side-scrollers like Sonic the Hedgehog, The Simpsons Game and even that rare gem, Beavis and Butthead?

Do you hark back to the days of simple graphics and three-button controls? Do you shun today's overly complex and involved shoot 'em up all-action games with more buttons than a giant's duffel coat?

Or maybe you weren't much of a computer game fan but were more into board games like Cluedo or Monopoly? Either way, you're not alone; now you can revisit your roots from the comfort of the 21st Century.

While your childhood may have been during the golden age of Italian plumbers, blue hedgehogs and gorillas with barrels, you may have been born a bit too early to enjoy online games as a child. If you were enjoying the latest offering from Nintendo or Sega before the Internet even existed you will envy today's kids for not appreciating how easy it all is now, when they can play games for free instead of waiting for Christmas or birthdays to roll around; they don't know how easy they've got it.

However, the smartphone revolution has revitalised classics such as Monopoly, bringing them to a new audience of commuters and nostalgic gamers. It's not just smartphones either; Monopoly and Scrabble are now often pre-bundled into new computers, so you can be nostalgic without paying for the program discs. If three letter high scores no longer satisfy your gaming urges however, online scratchcards such as Monopoly Riches now allow you to win some cash to make up for all the rental fees you had to pay out in the past!

Monopoly isn't the only thing that has been revived in today's modern age, though. Fans of the classic and hugely popular game show Blockbusters will be thrilled to learn of its new scratchcard platform, meaning you can now win money from it even if you never had the chance to actually appear on television.

Perhaps the most celebrated game, though, is Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, which not only boasts a scratchcard but also an interactive DVD game, an online version and games for smartphone platforms and computers. Now you can test your general knowledge pretty much wherever you are, but try not to be too upset if you correctly answer the million pound question and then realise you don't win any money. Remember, it's the taking part that counts!

It's not all about the games, though. The 80s and 90s were famous for their tough-as-nails action heroes like Rambo, John McClane and Arnold Schwarzenegger in just about anything. The new millennium was curiously dry of such films, but now the phoenix has risen from the ashes and in recent years we have seen spectacular comebacks with Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Rambo, Rocky Balboa and Die Hard 4.0. If that doesn't give you action fans a kick of nostalgia and a sense of pride at how the old guys are still the best, all your Christmases may come at once when Tom Cruise reprises his role in Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

Deal or no Deal cannot carry the modern game flame alone and thankfully Blockbusters and Monopoly have swept in to remind everyone of just how great they were, and remain. Fans of 80s action films can now buy new sequels instead of watching their worn-out copy of the others for the millionth time, and console gamers can enjoy their favourite games in whole new mediums. Welcome to the future.