Awesomenauts comes back to 16-bit glory

More pixels doesn't make for better gaming for everybody

There was a time when making new advancements in video games meant leapfrogging the old standards -- games went from 8-bit to 16-bit to 32-bit to 64-bit. But now, it seems, everything old is new again.

For example, the folks who created the game Awesomenauts were so inspired by fans who remembered cartoons and games from the 1980s that they had a change of thought about the advancement of their game.

“Recently, we realized something was missing. Or rather, we had too much of it -- Pixels!” wrote Robin Meijer, producer at Ronimo Games. “That ends today.

"Our game Awesomenauts has always been heavily inspired by cartoons and games from the 80s and early 90s. Ever since its launch 2012, we’ve never stopped releasing updates and kept the game’s spirit close to those classic games and series.

“The new update we’ve just released brings the game back to the glorious, crisp and hyper-realistic 180p graphics that blew our minds back in the arcades. The screenshots you see are from the actual live version of Awesomenauts on Steam, and have not been altered in any way. Log on and try it for yourself.”

They’ve added a new 8-bit music track to the soundtrack to fit this new vibe. For a limited time, this track will play every time a new match starts, just to make sure everybody can enjoy it.

And for those players who would love a little more pixels with their game can increase the resolution to higher levels by hitting the cheat code CTRL+P.