To make a few things clear, the topic was meant to focus on recent games from the last and early current generation of consoles; ones that we can easily trace their inspirations on the games made today. If I had to state an exact time frame I was going for, I would estimate from the launch of the Xbox/Gamecube/PS2 to the starting years of the 360/Wii/PS3 life cycles (so roughly 2001-2007).

What compelled me to write this was a desire to point out a few of the overbearing trends that seem to have such a firm hold on what the video game industry thinks are the “in things” these days. We’re at a point where graphical technology is almost as good as it can get already, which means games for new consoles will have to focus more and more on their own aesthetics, themes, narratives, and game mechanics, and I just don’t want to see a whole new video game generation stagnate and bomb because games start looking all the same.

So… besides being an HD Twilight Princess, what else we got?

For those of you asking what I would have developers do, well to be perfectly clear, I am in no way against looking at our recent past for inspiration moving forward. So, to counteract my previous list, here is another: 5 Games that weren’t exactly trend setters, but still developed a cult following with unique traits that the industry could stand to learn a thing or two from.

Super Mario Sunshine

About time they had a vacation.

This one goes out squarely to the people at Nintendo, specifically the ones making Mario games. No, Super Mario Sunshine was not the best Mario game. It was however, in my opinion, the most original. Chris actually wrote up a retrospective on Sunshine, commenting how it was one of the only Mario games not to take place in the Mushroom Kingdom, and had level designs that took a much needed jump away from the typical meadow, water, lava, ice, dessert, cave, and haunted house tropes every other installment of the main series has succumbed to like they’re going down a chekclist. Sunshine also gets kudos for finally taking off the training wheels (if only for one game) and actually opening with a plot that cannot be summed up with “Princess Peach is kidnapped…again.” (Yeah, she does get kidnapped eventually, but for once, it’s not the main crutch of the story.)

Of course, we all know why this game wasn’t as famous or successful as every other Mario game. No, not because F.L.U.D.D. was occasionally sketchy to control, or because 3D underwater swimming levels still suck no matter what game you’re playing. No, Sunshine got the shaft because it DID take risks and DID make those changes that I listed above. Now, I loved both Mario Galaxy games as much as the next platforming fan, but even I started to notice as the games progressed, that it felt less like “Mario in Space” and more like “Mario in the space version of the Mushroom Kingdom.”

Look, Nintendo, I know fanboys weren’t all too pleased with this game, but you shouldn’t listen to fanboys every single time. You should listen to me. Fanboys are crybabies who whine because Mario had to carry a super soaker and didn’t get to stomp any Goombas. I for one saw the value in a game that, flaws and all, was a refreshing new take on a series that drastically needed it. I don’t know about anyone else, but I am holding up hopes that the next Mario installment for the Wii U does something crazy again. Like Time Travel (Stone Age, Greek, Medieval, Renaissance, Western, Sci-fi Future versions of Mushroom Kingdom? Come on, that’d be fun), or, how ‘bout this: Mario and Luigi actually manage a plumbing factory that is sabotaged by Waluigi (seriously, give that guy a legitimate villain role already).

Final Fantasy X

After a New Years nightcap and a heated battle between the east and the west/story and gameplay, Midnight of January 1st 2012, my otaku friend finally accomplished the ultimate: he got me to cave and play my first Final Fantasy game. So we blew the dust off his PS2 and inserted FFX, and after I spent the first several hours whining and moaning (mostly just in spite of my friend) about how horrendous looking Tidus’ outfit is and how the last ten years have taken a serious toll on the game’s voice acting (Sorry all you FF fans who thought the voice work was revolutionary for the series, but go back. It has not aged well), the game… is actually pretty good. I’m about 20 hours in now, and I’m liking it so far. The plot is very quest-oriented and has a diverse cast that is well developed. The gameplay is turn-based strategy with random encounters, and while that style of gameplay started to grow old for me back in the day, I find myself enjoying the strategy part of it a lot here. As for the highly-coveted Blitzball minigame, while not my cup of tea, I still value its existence in the plot as it breathed a lot of personality into the world and the characters.

This may just be a guess, but around the point Pokemon became this huge hit in the late 90’s and pretty much owned the turn based strategy genre, spawning dozens of hashed out clones, that could be contributed to why turn-based RPG’s started to lose their muster a bit in the last generation and why Square Enix has been so fixated on trying to develop new and interesting combat systems with their latest installments, rather than focusing on what they used to do so well, which was create unique, yet cohesive, quest based stories with endearing characters and gameplay that favors using your mind over your thumbs.

The following plea comes from the request of my friend, a dedicated follower of JRPG’s for years.

Square Enix, we get it. You have proven to us time and again that you can make games look pretty. You can also make RPG combat as fast-paced and interactive as we can possibly ask for. Great and great. But your narratives in recent years have been everywhere from unmemorable mediocrity at best, to overbearing incomprehensible disasters at worse. You actually had something real special going with FFX. We would gladly go back to turn based combat and random encounters if you gave us another story worth playing through.

The same goes for all other developers. Turn based RPG’s don’t all have to be shallow Pokemon knock offs. They can be clever. Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door was another good one. In fact, I like that one more than its real-time platforming-esque sequel for the Wii.

Lostwinds

Okay, so this game came out in 2008, a little after my aforementioned cut-off date above, but since it’s an indie game that released on the launch of Nintendo’s online network, WiiWare, I think it still counts. Lostwinds is a 2D puzzle platformer, a simple tale about of a boy named Toku on a trek to save his village from an evil spirit polluting the land, all the while aided by a wind spirit named Enril.

While Toku is controlled normally by moving left and right with the analog stick, the wind spirit Enril is controlled with the Wiimote. Having a player interact with two separate characters simultaneously in and of itself is unique, but where this game really shines is how it uses the Wii’s technology to manipulate the winds as a means of platforming. Eventually, Enril learns to manipulate the other elements to solve puzzles: fire, water, earth, you name it.

Last week I mentioned how difficult it was to find a truly worthy motion control experience with depth. Lostwinds, and its sequel Winter Melodies, were the kind of Wii experiences I’ve been looking for. It is the perfect example of a game that makes the most of what the Wii has to offer. Meanwhile, it also looks great and sounds great. Pretty short, but it’s cheep, so it balances out. Any Wii owners out there who have yet to check this out, I highly recommend it. If more motion games played like this, than I’d be way more inclined to believe the industry when they say that motion gaming is here to stay.

Super Smash Bros.

The series that needs to no introduction (because Chris and I may have mentioned it a couple hundred times already), Super Smash Bros. succeeded in completely innovating the fighting game genre. It replaced health meters with damage meters, one-on-one with 4 player battle royales, flat battle maps with a wide variety of unique terrains, and button mashing combos with special moves that are easy to learn but hard to truly master.

The series’ second installment, Super Smash Bros. Melee, went on to be the best selling GameCube game every single year of the console’s life cycle, so by no means was the series unpopular. It had a huge following, so why did this style of fighting games never really expanded to other series, save for official sequels and a few failed attempts? I guess it depends on whether you think SSB is successful do it’s innovative gameplay or because it is a love letter to Nintendo fans with its all star cast spanning 20+ years of video game icons. I want to believe it’s a combination of both.

If another game, movie, or TV series has a strong following, and someone made a polished SSB style fighting game around it, I am positive it will sell. (Here are some ideas of franchises that would work almost perfectly.)

And the Number One Game I would like to see more of is…

Ratchet and Clank

Last week, I mentioned how one of the gaming trends I am sick of this generation happens to be dark gritty shooters staring power armored space marines. Sci-Fi has always been the most popular theme in video games, and it probably always will be. In video game’s origins, it took the form of classic arcades like Asteroids and Space Invaders. Now it takes the form of these juggernaut hits like Halo and Gears of War that tout themselves to be these dramatic space operas with huge open conflicts and “realistic” human characters. All the while the industry has become too naïve to realize that Dark Sci-Fi has become the most formulaic and cookie cutter theme in video games.

But you know what I am not sick of? Whimsical sci-fi platformer-shooter hybrids staring power armored space Lombaxes and their diminutive sarcastic robot partners. Ratchet and Clank make the top of my list of games we need to see more of because they represent a surviving franchise in a style of games that has been all but forgotten in the modern day. In comparison to the other sci-fi universes out there right now, the series’ anthropomorphic characters and very Pixar-like art style and animation make it stand out severely. However, if this franchise started on the Super Nintendo, alongside big Sci-Fi icons of the time like Fox McCloud, Samus Aran, and Mega Man, it probably would have fit right in.

Around the late 90’s/ early 2000’s as platforming adventure games started to make a permanent jump from 2D to 3D, we saw a ginormous slew of new cartoon/animal themed characters launch for all consoles. Unfortunately, due to a combination of gamers getting older and the hardcore trends that the industry introduced to optimize this change, many of these new characters were lucky if they got a whole trilogy of successful titles before they were promptly upstaged by these ultra famous mega hits (like the games I mentioned last week).

So, while Jak, Sly, Banjo, Conker, and Rayman were all left behind in the last two generations, Ratchet’s creators at Insomniac Games endured and moved on to make a whole new trilogy for the PS3 anyway (keep in mind, they were doing this in between making a whole other series that the industry did want, a dark gritty sci-fi alternate WW2 history shooter in Resistance). Graphically, the games’ cartoony characters and art style translated on an HD system to be one of the most vibrant and colorful instances of world building I’ve seen. While the tone of the Ratchet and Clank games has always been pretty lighthearted and witty, I can’t stress enough how pulling off truly clever and well timed humor like this game does is light years harder than writing Oscar bait war dramas like Mass Effect.

For the record, I am not saying that they just need to keep making more Ratchet and Clank. I felt that series was capped off perfectly fine with 2009’s A Crack in Time. Insomniac has done their part. Let them move on to work on Overstrike. No, what I’m saying is that all those other cartoon/animal platform adventurers that were left behind in the last generation need to catch up. Sly Cooper is getting a revival this year. That’s great. I hope Jak and Daxter is soon to follow. I hope Rayman Origins, which came out this holiday, sells well enough so Ubisoft will give Mike Ancel the go to finally make Beyond Good and Evil 2. I’d love to see Banjo-Kazooie have a comeback. I pray every day that Crash Bandicoot will be passed down to a competent developer that will finally know what they’re doing.

Maybe Sonic will finally…um…actually him I have given up on. Sorry, he’s just hurt me too many times in the past.

Hey those guys have trees growin' out of their heads. What the heck am I playing?

Let’s set the stage for why some people just weren’t happy with Mario’s GameCube outing. The year is 2000 and people are excited to see what the GameCube can offer. During a tech demo, and if knowledge serves me correctly it was the same tech demo that showed what Link and Ganondorf could look like on the ‘Cube (please don’t quote me on that!), a video detailing a supposed game called Super Mario 128, the proposed sequel to Super Mario 64, was teased. Being the usual characters that gamers are, our first and only assumption was that the tech demo was a definite statement of the game’s existence, showing over a hundred Marios running around, traversing spherical platforms. Naturally, we were confused when we instead got Super Mario Sunshine.

To quell some fears regarding Super Mario 128, while the game was scrapped, the concepts certainly were not. A number of other games were born from the ideas it created, such as Pikmin, Twilight Princess, and Super Mario Galaxy. And also, according to Nintendo, Super Mario Sunshine, a game that couldn’t actually run on either the PS2 or Xbox due to the amount of colors its graphic used (fun facts!).

Man, we really need to stop obsessing over tech demos already.

The basic plot of Sunshine is actually a lot different than most Mario games. No, not so different that Peach isn’t kidnapped and Bowser isn’t the Big Bad once again (that never changes), but the overall game is a drastic shift away from any other Mario game to date and stands alone as something wholly unique. All Mario games include the usual grass levels, water levels, snow/ice levels, fire/lava levels, sand levels, and underground levels, plus perhaps a castle, fortress, or haunted house for good measure. Sunshine, thankfully, does not include any of these as we know them.

Instead, Sunshine gives us a tropical village, a beach, a harbor, an amusement park, a scenic waterfall, a hotel, a village suspended by gigantic palm trees, and a resort island as the hub world. Can you catch the theme here? Everything takes place on the vacation hot-spot Isle Delfino and revolves around that one unified theme. It’s like Mario just went on holiday and we all got to join him.

I absolutely love this concept and need to stop and let it sink in. Mario is one of those characters that people whine on about never changing his formula, never switching things up or doing things different. Sunshine was a very clear attempt to try something different than every other Mario game, both with the setting and the gameplay mechanics themselves, still completely unique again to Sunshine. People forget that everything was different- not bad different but just different- and as a result Sunshine was one of Mario’s least successful adventures. Why would anyone wonder why Nintendo hasn’t taken any real risks with him since?

You're darn right!

Speaking of that gameplay, this time around Mario is joined by a sentient hydropack named FLUDD that dispenses useful information while also acting as a spray nozzle, a hoverpack, a jetpack, and a propeller. Water and graffiti are at the center of everything as Mario is mistaken for someone who’s been painting the island in sludge, easily cleaned with a few squirts of water. The platforming is drastically different than most Mario games thanks to the hover feature of FLUDD (no longjump here), but that doesn’t mean the game is easy.

Oh man, the highlight of the game comes when you encounter your first secret level. Each stage had one or two, placed in a cave or open doorway or some such, and when Mario jumped inside he’d be teleported to a place that can only be described as Platforming Hell. FLUDD would be taken from you (eliminating your hover feature safety net) and you’d be expected to get to the end of some of the most difficult Mario stages in his long history. Each level would be just a series of elaborate challenges suspended over insta-death that’d push you to utilize Mario’s primal skills with triple jumps, flips, wall jumps, and careful timing. These challenges were just straight up hard, and they’re worth the price of admission all by themselves. Plus, a snazzy a cappella version of the Mario theme plays during these stages, and who doesn’t like that?

Still, the game isn’t without some drawbacks. For one, this is the only Mario game that contains a fully voice-acted script, meaning that Peach, Toadsworth, and sadly Bowser all have full speaking voices. Bowser Jr is cringe worthy, but when Bowser chimes in with what sounds like someone doing a mocking parody of the character, things go from uncomfortable to just plain painful. At least there isn’t a whole lot of this going on, so it’s by no means a deal breaker. I’m just saying Bowser sounded better in the Super Mario Bros Super Show.

Also frustrating are Blue Coins. In all other Mario games, Blue Coins are just coins that count for 5 coins or something similar, but here you must collect 10 to get a Shine Sprite (the Power Stars of this game). There are 120 Shines Sprites, just like Super Mario 64 had 120 Stars, but 24 of those Shines come from these Blue Coins, which are hidden everywhere in levels to the point of being ridiculously difficult to find. Some are hidden in obvious places, but then others pop out when you spray random objects, forcing you to spray everything like you have OCD. That was a bit much, but yet again, not enough to ruin the game for me.

Have you ever seen Bowser so sad? I think it's because you weren't playing the game.

Even though Sunshine gets a bad rap, a lot of Mario mainstays come from the little island including the Piantas, the Noki, Shadow Mario, Petey Piranha, Toadsworth, and even Bowser Jr. You can see the influence reaching to the Paper Mario series, the Mario Kart series, and even into some of the sports titles besides continuing trends set up here in the Galaxy games. Nintendo certainly hasn’t just abandoned the memory of Super Mario Sunshine, despite what many may believe.

Were I to come up with a hypothesis as to why Sunshine has such a bad reputation, I think it would come down to two reasons colliding head on. The first is that this was the Mario game on the GameCube, a system that only Nintendo hardcores seemed to love (such as myself, which is why it’s my favorite system). The second is that the game breaks away from so many Mario traditions that it’s a bit jarring at first. I mean, neither Koopas or Goombas even make an appearance, or a large handful of other classic Mario enemies, so longtime fans may have felt like this one didn’t technically “count” or something, especially owning to the cornerstone of the game being FLUDD and cleaning pollution from the game.

If the water backpack mechanic was broken then I could understand the frustration, but it was awesome, so what the heck was the problem?

I think it was just unfortunate timing as the game is gorgeous to look at, even by today’s standards, has a soundtrack that’s severely under-appreciated as well, and was bold enough to try something very new in a series that’s been and still is regarded as formulaic to a fault.

Don’t let this absolute masterpiece go to waste. You’ve got a perfectly serviceable GameCube built into the Wii, so head out and find Super Mario Sunshine at a used games store. It can’t possibly be too expensive. Go play and enjoy. Besides, are there any other Mario games where Mario wears shades and a Hawaiian shirt? I didn’t think so.

Power.

Courage.

Wisdom.

Long ago, the three virtues of Hyrule held the world together in harmony.

Then, everything changed when the Demon King Ganon attacked.

Only the Hero of Time, Master of the Triforce of Courage, could stop him,

But when the world needed him most… he vanished.

A hundred years passed, and my crew and I discovered a new Hero of Time,

A Wind Waker named Link,

And although his wind waking skills are great,

He has a lot to learn before he’s ready to save anyone.

But I believe Link can save the world.

Unlike my editor, I am a relatively new Zelda fan. Sure, I have been familiar with the franchise for a long time, but it took a while before I actually sat down and gave it my undivided attention. I played all the way through my first Zelda game, Ocarina of Time, during my freshmen year of college five years ago. Immediately I was hooked. Instant classic. Soon afterwards, I moved onto my second game, Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Despite all controversy surrounding it and how it quickly became known as, how my old college buddy Kevin put it, “The freak of the series,” the transition from Ocarina to this felt perfectly natural to me.

[Sidenote: Don't get my friend Kevin wrong, as he loves this game. Likewise for his then-girlfriend-now-wife Alexz, who is an amazingly stunning artist in her own right. Both wonderful acquaintances of mine that celebrated their first year anniversary just yesterday, and more relevantly, helped fuel my love for this game long after I completed it.]

Ironically enough, Wind Waker opens with a retelling of the events of Ocarina of Time, where upon rescuing the land of Hyrule from Ganon and being returned to his childhood (where the events of Majora’s Mask will take place), Link disappears from the future timeline, leaving the world defenseless upon Ganon’s inevitable resurrection. Fast Forward a hundred years and the land of Hyrule is completely submerged under water, while the legends surrounding the Hero of Time have become just that: Legends. People’s only reminder of a time and land long forgotten is a small tradition of forcing young boys to dress in the Hero’s trademark tunic and cap upon their thirteenth birthday.

Enter our protagonist.

So if I’m to understand this correctly, the dark, serious, badass Link from the Ocarina/Majora era mysteriously “disappears” just as the world re-enters peril, and in a hundred years, once Hyrule has gone to compete hell (or in this case, Davy Jones’ Locker), his duty as the world savior is inherited by his future life, who just happens to be some random light-hearted carefree boy who is handed this destiny before he could have ever conceivably been ready for it. Oh, and he can bend air. Yeah, that sounds awfully familiar to a… certain favorite show of mine, eh?

Now, I fully understand longtime Zelda fans’ desire to continue the series down deeper more mature routes. With the exception of Metroid, Zelda is Nintendo’s only other dark franchise, and while I have not played all the way through Majora’s Mask yet (one of Chris’ favorites) I am aware that the themes and tones it established set up the series to go down some strange and scary places. But for today, I should really only speak for myself, and personally I loved this new Link. He was cute, funny, expressive, when we first meet him he’s got like surfer dude hair and beach clothes, and he lives with his family in one of the only two remaining human populated towns on the surface. In Ocarina, Link started off already a bona fide woodsman, as well as an outcast, and his events are set in motion because… a glowing ball with wings and a talking tree told him to. In Wind Waker, Link’s adventure sets in motion because his little sister gets taken away. I myself am the oldest of four, so that I can totally get behind.

The two complaints everyone has heard a million and one times about this game are about the visuals and the sailing. To start, I am in the middle of my second playthrough now, and still, five years later (eight if you count the games’ actual release) after I got my bright shiny Blu Ray system on my Dad’s Plasma TV, this game still stands as one of the best looking games I’ve ever played. Visually, Graphically, Aesthetically, however the heck you want to put it, this game has aged better than any Zelda title to date. Honestly, I do believe we have the stylized cartoony art style to thank for that. A huge aesthetic flaw in many last-gen games was that the more they tried to look realistic, the more the graphical limitations of the time showed through, and the more they looked fake. Wind Waker is just beautiful to look at. The colors are so rich and vibrant and little things like how ocean waves and explosions are depicted are so pleasing.

Now for the second complaint. Despite micromanaging the wind being a little tedious, I got really into the sailing of this game a lot. The scale of this game’s world is grand. You’d see a small dot on the sea’s horizon and watch as it got bigger and bigger; it was so addicting. I could spend hours searching across the ocean for stuff to do, goodies to unearth, sea monsters to fight, and getting every square of my map marked off. And once you were done, you could learn a tempest move that could teleport you anywhere just a league away, if not instantaneously.

So in essence, the two most frequent negatives concerning this game aren’t really negatives as far as I’m concerned. Not only that, once those two hurdles are overcome, the rest of the game is pretty much familiar territory. The controls from the N64 era were translated to the GameCube almost seamlessly. The dungeons are all unique and varied and there are side quests galore. Your sidekick comes in the form of your animate ship, the King of Red Lions, who is just about the most perfect combination of Navi and Epona. He tells you what you need to do once, then trusts you to get there on your own time, all the while serving as your transportation. It’s also cool how he can take certain items you find on your quest and give them a second function by attaching them to his sail.

Which brings me to another love of mine, the game’s supporting the cast. Other Zelda titles I’ve played, I meet maybe one or two side characters that I really care about and the rest just feel kind of bland. In this game, it felt like everyone I met was bleeding with personality. The dialogue was genuinely funny too. The Ritos in particular, the Bird-people of Dragon Roost Island, became one of my all time favorite species of the entire Zelda mythos. There’s even a few dungeons where Link gets to “possess” some of the side characters whom you get to momentarily play as and use their abilities to help solve the dungeon’s puzzles. I also like how this is the first game where Zelda actually fights in the final confrontation with Ganon. Yeah, they totally played up how Shiek was suppose to be this badass ninja in Ocarina of Time that would fight along side you, but in the end, all she did was show up right before every dungeon, dump some exposition, get her ass kicked once by the shadow boss, teach me a new song that will teleport me to a place I’m already at, then disappear again before I even start the dungeon. Kay thanks.

The overarching story of Wind Waker, while primitive and somewhat juvenile compared to other Zelda titles, feels at least consistent with a nice sense of progression. Both the Master Sword and Link’s musical instrument were weaved into the story excellently (two facets that ended up feeling very forced in the plot of Twilight Princess, as if they had to shoehorn them in somewhere because they are a requirement). Another strong point in the story was how they put effort into giving Link actual motives and reasons to traverse each dungeon, beyond just “look for such-and-such mcguffin.” All joking aside, I truly stand by the parallels I made to my favorite show, Avatar the Last Airbender. Both stories open with a dark melancholy intro of the world’s predicament. They then proceed to begin the adventure on a fun, lighthearted tone. Slowly but surely their plots thicken and grow more perilous over time. By end, each story gives us an epic and satisfying conclusion that proves just because something is made for children doesn’t mean it can’t be deep, moving, and just as fun for an older audience. And while this does not segue at all, it’s worth mentioning that were it not for Wind Waker, my all time best character on Super Smash Bros. Brawl would not exist. So thanks for that.

For someone who owns just about every console Zelda game in some form or another, several of which I still have yet to complete, it says something that of all the games, the one I chose to revisit in preparation for Skyward Sword is undoubtedly the black sheep of the series. [Pranger's Note: The officially sanctioned "Black Sheep" of the Zelda series has been designated Zelda II: The Adventure of Link according to Gaming History. Carry on.] My rational behind this is that while Skyward Sword is technically classified as a prequel to Ocarina of Time, its brightly colored cell-shaded art style and game play mechanic of flying birdback across a sea of clouds to small islands scattered throughout the sky make it sound more and more like a spiritual sequel to this game. How much the final product will actually feel like that when it’s released to us this November, only time will tell.

Until then, there you have it. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, the Zelda adventure that launched its own cult following. Why not go play it in the meantime?

All my best friends in one easy place. How can I not be happy?

It has never been a secret around here that I am very attached to Nintendo and generally prefer their systems and games over any other systems or games. For full history (and I’ll try to keep this short), we go back to when I was only 2-years-old, roughly. It was my dad’s birthday, so my mom decided it would be fun to get him a Nintendo Entertainment System. Neither he nor I knew that the system would really turn out to be for me. I sat and played Super Mario Bros endlessly. I’d rent and borrow any games that people would loan me. I played as much as possible (somehow avoiding most of the games the AVGN hates to much, except TMNT, which is awesome if you know how to play it).

When it came time for the next generation of consoles, back then being something completely new, there was the choice of the Sega Genesis or the Super Nintendo. I couldn’t afford either, so I waited and waited and waited. Finally, probably half way through the SNES’ life, my cousin decided to sell his SNES to me, a system that he had modified to play Super Famicom games (who knew I’d eventually want to play Dragonball Z games on the system?).

I received a Game Boy not long before that as an amazing birthday gift, and then a Game Boy Color when my cousin decided he needed to get rid of that, too. From there came the N64, another system that I had to wait painfully long to finally buy, eventually snagging one when Mario Kart 64 came out, bucking the trend of buying my cousin’s hand-me-down systems. He would taunt me about purchasing Ocarina of Time Day One, implying how much better he was than I. It pained me but my parents refused to let me blow the entirety of my money on the one game. They forced me to rent it instead, then borrow it from a friend under the assumption I might not like it. Little would any of us know that it would become my favorite game ever, regardless of how clichéd that is to say.

Finally remaking this was just begging me to spend every cent I had.

That was the final straw for me before I had a steady flow of disposable income to call my own, so the GameCube was a purchase I made as soon as it was available. The Game Boy Advance was bought a little later just because I felt like it and had some money that was burning a hole in my pocket. That system lead to a number of impulse buys such as Advance Wars and Golden Sun, risks that definitely paid off. My GameCube would get the most love of just about any system in my house over the next few years as Super Smash Bros Melee brought about a competitive streak/pettiness inside of me that no game since has matched.

Flash ahead to the DS cropping up, a system I wouldn’t have the money for just yet, only to be rewarded for my patience with a system under the Christmas tree that same launch year. The Wii, however, I bought instantly and never looked back. That was my blow-by-blow for Nintendo systems. I never owned a Virtual Boy, didn’t buy a Game Boy Pocket or Advance SP (until only a few months ago for my wife) or a DS Lite. Each and every system has been played to the point that the money spent was well worth it.

That should set the stage for where I am now with Nintendo. I’ve been through it all. I was there in the early stages, the rough patches, and the recent successes. I’ve seen how the company handles itself in good times and bad and most importantly I’ve seen the progression of gaming, not just small snippets here and there. All of this leads me to say as follows: Nintendo has a history of people just plain not getting them.

I can point to this very much during the GameCube era. I was labeled as “Nintendo Boy” by my drama teacher in high school, a hardcore Xbox/Halo fan. I was never really sure what to do with that, whether I was supposed to feel guilty (as it as always meant to be hurtful when shouted by my teacher and his followers), or rather if I should feel proud of my loyalty through the roughest times.

And the GameCube era really was the roughest of times for Nintendo, at least in the public’s eye. Nintendo and its system were labeled as “kiddie,” a completely pointless and just blatantly ignorant observation based on the fact that the GameCube did not have Halo or some such pew pew shooter. To explain the kiddie moniker, Nintendo, especially during the GameCube lifetime, were all about fun and accessibility over something adult for the sake of adult. Games were becoming more realistic and trying to prove that graphics were absolutely everything, whereas Nintendo was making games with as many vibrant colors as possible. Guess who loved Super Mario Sunshine? This guy right here.

I'd gladly clear graffiti off buildings with a water pack that doubles as a propulsion method. Go chew a mushroom and get off my back.

I argued with more people than I care to remember regarding the GameCube’s “kiddie” attribute, each time having to point out a short list of games geared toward older players such as Resident Evil 4, Eternal Darkness, and even Metroid Prime. Speaking of Resident Evil 4, it was supposed to be an exclusive, and I was proud to say it was exclusively on my system, as were Nintendo. Of course, Capcom being Capcom decided to do what they always do and said “Hell with it, let’s put this on the PS2 with more content.” In fact, one of Nintendo’s supposed biggest faults in this current generation is their lack of support toward 3rd party developers. I say that you can look to Capcom’s actions here for a solid explanation as to why Nintendo looks out for Number 1 more than the 3rd parties. They touted this exclusive title and Capcom broke their deal. Shame on Nintendo for basing things on the honor code.

Granted, Nintendo weren’t always the nice guys, as Sony can tell you regarding the PlayStation. The NES era, while packed full of classics, was also packed full of garbage. Overpriced garbage I might add. Back then Nintendo had zero competition and could decide on prices and quality, and they picked “high” and “whatever gets this out the door” as the only qualifiers.

Still, currently, Nintendo does have far less of a hand in promoting games on its system unless they’re 1st party titles like Mario and Zelda. I can argue here that this is all because Nintendo is only a game company, unlike Sony and Microsoft who just have relatively small game divisions compared to their massive size. They can take bigger risks and throw money at any situation. Nintendo, historically, has been unable to do that.

This doesn’t mean that Nintendo has been penniless though. A lot of people kept saying that Nintendo was about to go out of business and become the next Sega when it became clear that the GameCube wasn’t outselling the Xbox and PS2. However, “not outselling” and “failing to perform” are two very different things. During the GameCube/PS2/Xbox cycle, Nintendo was nowhere near flopping, even if the GameCube was a complete failure, which just wasn’t the case (a complete failure means discontinuing before the next console, not getting integrated into it). See, Nintendo’s always been more or less bulletproof thanks to their handheld market, which they’ve never lot a grip on.

Mario usually helps with this quite a lot.

That is until now. As soon as the 3DS was announced, fans were clambering to find out more. “What games will be on it?!” “When will it come out?!” “How much will it cost?!” That last part is what did a number of the usually eager fanbase. $250 is a lot to spend on a portable system. It’s one of two reasons I never had an interest in a PSP. The other was an entire lack of excitement for the games on the system, which the PSP and 3DS also have in common for me. Launching the 3DS without any immediately significant games is no good, but it’s once again not without precedence. More on that in a moment.

First, I want to talk about another aspect of Nintendo that a lot of people, specifically now, are feeling. There is the assumption that Nintendo does not like its fans, does not want their money, and does not want to learn. People got mad when the GameCube was released without a DVD player in it (awesome, it kept the price down and I already had a DVD player). Then the same thing happened with the Wii (awesome, kept the price down and I already had a DVD player, and ironically I watch Netflix on my Wii as I don’t have to pay for a Gold account to do so, which I had to do on my Xbox 360). Operation Rainfall is a great example of fans demanding something from Nintendo and getting, essentially, told to shove off.

But why?

The motivation behind Operation Rainfall is to get Nintendo of America to release three Japanese RPGs here in the United States, two of which have already been localized for the UK. Despite demands, despite petitions, despite being a generally great gathering of like-minded gamers, Nintendo has said the usual “We don’t have plans now, but wait and see someday.” A lot of people see this as Nintendo being just downright stupid as there are thousands of gamers wanting to give their money to Nintendo but being refused. Just hold on though, because there are two parts that make rational sense as to why Nintendo has hesitated here.

I'm still all in favor of fans getting their way.

Let’s talk Earthbound. Why? Because I love Earthbound. You probably love Earthbound as well. A lot of people love Earthbound. Except most of us all loved it after the fact. It was a colossal failure on the SNES and has been the main game people can point to as to why Nintendo aren’t willing to try something new on the RPG front here in the US. Sure, we whine and complain a bunch, constantly wanting more games to be localized, but then comes the other half of the equation we always, ALWAYS seem to forget: Fans of geek culture never turn up when they’re supposed to.

Take a moment to think about Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Great movie, right? Oh yeah, I loved the hell out of it. I saw it in theaters twice and then bought the DVD. Guess what other fans forgot to do? Go see it and buy the DVD. Scott Pilgrim ended up getting completely trounced in the box office for no good reason as hundreds of thousands of geeks said they wanted to go see it. Kick Ass was the same deal. Simple fact: We’ve proven that we can’t be trusted to show up when companies take risks on us doing just that. Want some game-related anecdotal evidence? How about No More Heroes or Mad World or Zack and Wiki or A Boy and His Blob? All great games, all applauded for coming to the Wii, none sold enough to matter much. Oops.

So when Nintendo says kindly that they have no immediate plans to release certain games in the US, remember that there’s a precedence already set. Do I want the Operation Rainfall games to show up in the US? Absolutely. Will I buy them? Not a chance. Does that make me a bad gamer? I don’t really think so.

Now we’re back to the immediate state of Nintendo. The 3DS hasn’t been selling amazingly due to the high price and the lack of AAA games for the system, games that Nintendo has announced but hasn’t given us yet. Thus far we have Ocarina of Time 3D (I bought that one, in case you were wondering), and soon Star Fox 64’s remake, a new Kid Icarus, a new Mario game, a new Mario Kart, a new Paper Mario, and a new Luigi’s Mansion. And of course a new Smash Bros somewhere down the line. I couldn’t be happier with that line of promises. Best of all, those titles will be staggered just enough that even I will be able to afford them. Happy day indeed.

C'mon, you can make this happen, I believe in you.

See, another thing to learn about me, I never understood the constant complaining of people saying that the Wii had no good games. I can disagree completely there. I can come up with at least 10 games on my immediate shelf that felt entirely worth the system’s existence, all released at a staggered pace. I got the most time out of Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 and Smash Bros Brawl, but Donkey Kong Country Returns, No More Heroes, Metroid Prime 3, and Super Paper Mario were all great to me as well. And the best part is, my collection isn’t done yet. There are still a handful of Wii games I’d love to own soon, like Masamura: The Demon Blade, A Boy and His Blob, and Kirby’s Epic Yarn. I just haven’t had the money yet to buy any of them. Most of my games come secondhand from my Xbox 360 relatives, and from that system I can only count about 5 that I own and really loved with a handful of others that are on my “buy if they’re cheap” list. And I still have Skyward Sword to look forward to this year.

“But Chris! I don’t like Nintendo games!” Yeah, alright, what’s your point? Then don’t buy a Wii. I don’t like Modern Warfare and yet people everywhere love those games and flock to them like moths. And I can understand exactly why, but I don’t get mad because the Xbox 360 is flooded with similar titles. I just get happy playing what I feel like.

Back on the 3DS, the price suddenly drops by $80 and everyone rushes to point fingers and ridicule. By Nintendo dropping the price they’ve effectively signed a statement reading, “Yup, we’re getting desperate so please buy the system.” In all reality though, would we rather they slash the price of the system to encourage new buyers, or would we rather they acted too proud to see when something needed change. They’ve already announced the games we want, now the system costs something we can all get behind. And if you bought the system early, you get 20 free games from the Virtual Console as a thank you for supporting the initial launch.

I still don’t understand the hesitation behind the 3DS’ eventual library of games. Systems never launch with strong titles anymore. The Xbox 360 had pretty much nothing that made me want the system immediately and the PS3 still doesn’t have anything that can convince me I need the system right now. Remember, Nintendo is just one company, so they can only make so many games at one time. They didn’t make Capcom release crap like Resident Evil Mercenaries or watered-down versions of whole games like Street Fighter IV. And they didn’t tell Ubisoft to remake Rayman 2 and pump out more Rabbids games. Let other publishers take the blame for stupid and frankly lazy choices, not the company offering the platform. Do we applaud Apple for Angry Birds? Hell no. Do we boo them for flashlight apps? Hell no.

To refresh you, I got a DS the Christmas season it came out. I didn’t have a single game for it until Mario Kart DS came out. I bought that, Animal Crossing DS, and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time all within a month of each other nearly a year after actually getting the system. New Super Mario Bros would follow a bit later as well as Metroid Prime Hunters and Pokemon Diamond/Pearl. I just think it’s a shame they pushed Pokemon Black and White onto the DS instead of holding them back for the 3DS. That small move and we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

Let's try for another one like this, eh?

My point is that I know the best is yet to come. I know the good games are on their way, even if Capcom doesn’t like Mega Man fans anymore. I know that Nintendo still knows what they’re doing. Cutting the price doesn’t look like a company getting desperate; it looks like a smart company being aggressive with their risks. Nintendo president Iwata doesn’t sound like someone who isn’t listening to fans. On the contrary, he sounds like he’s more than ready to work with them to make the 3DS a success.

I bought a 3DS today along with the Ocarina of Time remake. I’m ready to buy the next game that comes out on that short list of first-party games up there. And then the next. And so on. I’m excited for the Wii U. I’m optimistic about Nintendo’s future, even if so few people seem to remember where Nintendo’s come from. Here’s to you Nintendo, for all those years together. Let’s make it many, many more.

Am I crazy? How could a game this good actually be bad?

A little backstory is required here (as is usual), both for myself and for Square Enix as a company. First, we’ll deal with Squeenix. It didn’t used to be Squeenix. Before Squaresoft merged with its biggest competitor, Enix, it was the creator of some of the most amazing games ever to grace the Super Nintendo including Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, and Final Fantasy III (really VI, we’ve been over this). The entirety of my contact with Squaresoft was through Mario RPG, so when a friend forced me to play Final Fantasy III on the SNES, telling me it would change my life, I was skeptical. That skepticism faded rather quickly, giving way to such a deep connection that I could in deed be hurt by plot twists meant to hurt the gamer’s emotional status.

Little did I know, all safe and snuggly with the knowledge that Squaresoft was responsible for some of the best games ever released on a Nintendo console, that Squaresoft and Nintendo had parted due to Final Fantasy VII, purely because the game made more sense being on a disc-based medium due to storage constraints. I stayed loyal to Nintendo, snagging a GameCube when the next console cycle hit, but in doing so I was aware that there was virtually no chance of seeing any good RPGs on the system, least of which from Squaresoft.

We’ve finally reached a point where the story reaches to Crystal Chronicles as one fateful day I read through my monthly issue of Nintendo Power and learned that Squaresoft, now Square Enix, would be releasing an RPG for the ‘Cube. But not just any RPG! A Final Fantasy RPG! Such elation would be rare for me, so with a key eye to every new detail, I was ready to purchase the game Day One. This is where the trouble begins.

Sweet, easily fixable trouble.

Let me be clear before this article progresses any further, even though I’ll still inevitably get a hateful response somewhere down the road: Crystal Chronicles is not the worst game ever, nor do I even feel that it’s a particularly bad game. To be honest, after I gave it a second chance, it certainly grew on me. But it could and really should have been a lot better, based upon the various well-reasoned points I’m about to me. So let’s start the hate train with the most obvious fault: Multiplayer.

Multiplayer in an RPG is a wonderful concept, but it is hard to find an RPG that meshes with other players. Usually, this cannot be achieved with the standard turn-based RPGs as those involve too much micro-management to remain fun for all players. Real-time RPGs though, such as Secret of Mana or Tales of Symphonia, work fairly well to balance the need for constant engagement by all players at the same time. Crystal Chronicles was sold primarily as a multiplayer experience, hinging the majority of the design on the need for up to four players actively playing at once. And in theory, this should have been great. Except it wasn’t.

Everything fell apart due to a simple design flaw: Every player was required to connect a Game Boy Advance to the GameCube in order to play the game. While you could play in a single-player game with just a GameCube controller, multiplayer refused to give that option. The point of the GBA controller was to offer each player with more than just what was on the TV screen, with some players having a map displayed on their GBA, some having the conditions to unlock better rewards at the level’s completion, and stuff of that nature. Extraneous information meant to improve the teamwork, somehow, by enforcing the need for all players to share what they had at their disposal. Again, in theory this makes sense. In practice it just doesn’t work.

My main complaint rests with how rare it was for me to encounter friends that met three critical requirements to play Crystal Chronicles with me. Number one, I knew very few people with their own GBA. Number two, I know even fewer people who had a GBA/GameCube game link cable. Number three, I knew absolutely no one who had even the slightest interest in playing Crystal Chronicles for any sort of length of time, being it a one-day thing or until the game’s completion.

It may shock you to learn this, but this isn't me and my friends. I'm just using the image for a point of reference.

Simply having the option to use the GameCube controllers during multiplayer sessions, rather than the GBA game link mess, could have alleviated much of my stress. I could conceivably convince friends to give a random GameCube game of mine a try as long as it didn’t require an investment from them beyond time, but to ask them to have a GBA and the link cable, an item I think I’d used with a total of four games (Metroid Prime, The Wind Waker, Animal Crossing, and Crystal Chrinocles), was just not happening.

I did manage to persuade my cousin to try it out with me, just once, leading me to understand another aspect of the multiplayer: It isn’t meant for anything less than three people. Besides the frustration of my GBA being non-backlit and trying to play in a darkened room, and even besides the technical difficulties of the link cables getting disconnected frequently, what really ruined our good time was an even simpler design mistake: The Crystal Chalice.

I’ve got to explain the story of the game before things will make any sense from here on out, so let’s take a break and just listen to what’s framing the game itself. Crystal Chronicles takes place in a world covered in a poison called miasma, staved off only by special crystals. Each town has its own crystal, but said crystals are powered by myrrh, something that’s produced only by myrrh trees. To completely recharge a crystal for one year, three drops of myrrh are needed with each myrrh tree giving a single drop every three years. You collect the myrrh via your crystal chalice and once you fill it with three drops, you travel home and save your family and friends for another year. Should you fail in your mission to collect myrrh drops every year, your hometown will die. It’s a simple premise but within it comes huge, HUGE problems for gameplay, all because of the crystal chalice.

Given the option, I think I'd just stay home nere the town crystal, thanks.

Since the world is covered by miasma, you will slowly die if you aren’t being protected by a crystal. Your hometown is free to roam about, as there is a giant crystal protecting all of it, but as you travel to different parts of the world your only protection is your crystal chalice. And that’s where the trouble begins as you have to carry that stupid chalice everywhere.

In a single player experience, a small flying Moogle will carry it for you, dragging it along. Sadly, this Moogle isn’t usually fast enough to keep up with you at a full sprint, meaning you’ll quickly outrun him. For some reason, to alleviate this annoyance, Squeenix decided to make the Moogle get fatigued if he’s made to carry the chalice for too long, meaning he’ll complain and ask you to carry the chalice so he can regain his stamina. If you don’t help him, he’ll lag way behind, leaving you to rush into the poison gas and slowly chip away your health.

However, in a multiplayer game, you don’t have a friendly Moogle helping you along. Rather, one of the people playing will need to carry the chalice for the party. The direct purpose of this seems to force players to stay in close proximity to each other, stopping a possible hang-up when playing with more than one person on a single screen. Still, it becomes incredibly frustrating to have to lug that stupid chalice around everywhere and ensures that there can be no swift dodging maneuvers. For example, if you have two characters and are fighting a boss, you’d assume the best strategy would be to drop the chalice between the two of you and fire off some magic attacks and bum-rush with everything you’ve got. But if the boss happens to be mobile, you’ll need to get moving fast, something that isn’t easily possible as it takes time to pick up the chalice and start running, hopefully coordinating between your partners the proper direction to run.

If only these characters weren't chained to a giant bowl, things would be wonderful!

When my cousin and I tried playing we soon hit a massive roadblock that killed our enjoyment of the game. We’d been playing for a few hours and ran into no real difficulties beside the tedium of barring the chalice. Then we hit the mine level and made it to the level boss, a boss that moves around and leaves very little time open for attacking. It had downed my cousin, leaving me to run around and try to revive him in between avoiding attacks and dragging the chalice with me. I’d set the chalice down, try to revive my cousin, fail, and eventually have to give up as the boss was too swift in trying to kill me. But I couldn’t attack it as dropping the chalice, attacking, and picking up the chalice again took too much time, resulting in a severe hit from the boss. Eventually I just couldn’t do anything to avoid the attacks and died. We figured we’d be punished with a repeat of the boss fight or something. Nope, turns out death here is just like the usual Final Fantasy games: Back to your last save point, in this case all the way at the beginning of the game. We shut the game off and never tried playing as a team again.

Again, I actually really like Crystal Chronicles. The world is full of really interesting histories, the graphics are stunning, the music is amazingly beautiful, and playing levels over and over to grind up your character is strangely enjoyable. But Crystal Chronicles wasn’t built to be a single-player game, or at least it didn’t want to be. Its selling point was the multiplayer experience, an experience severely lacking due to logistics. Yes, it’s possible to assemble the proper group of people, a group that all have Game Boy

Advances, link cables, and a willingness to play, but it is not very likely that everyone, or even a majority of the gamers who bought the game for that matter, actually could assemble the needed parts to get the most of the game. I sure couldn’t. D & D is an activity a group of people need to give a lot of time and devotion to, but it’s not something just anyone can really get into because of that same required devotion. Crystal Chronicles is similar, but it didn’t have to be.

Two simple fixes and things would have been perfect. First, lose the GBA-only controls for multiplayer. Sure, keep the option, but don’t force it on everyone. Secondly, include a tireless Moogle in multiplayer, and send him to the single-player game as well if he gets the chance. Crystal Chronicles is a bad game because of the promises it made and failed to keep, something that’s almost worse than a bad game that never tried to fool you in the first place. I can see exactly how great the game could have been in the right circumstances, but instead it’s merely an oft-forgotten gem on the GameCube, a system that couldn’t afford for any games to be forgotten.

At the very least, take heart in the fact the series is still going in some form or another.

As usual, that’s just my opinion talking. You can disagree all you like and you won’t be wrong. If you loved Crystal Chronicles, every single aspect of it, regardless of the faults I saw, nothing says you didn’t enjoy every bit of the game. Like I said, I was disappointed with it but I still loved the hell out of it when I gave it a serious chance to prove itself. Enough out of me, did you love Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles? Or were you just as frustrated as I was? Leave a comment and let me know. Sadly, if I don’t get at least three comments within the year my village will die of a horrible poison. You wouldn’t want that, would you?

Want more Bad Games That Should Have Been Great? Check these our:

-Bad Games That Should Have Been Great: Metroid: Other M

-Bad Games That Should Have Been Great: Super Smash Bros Spinoffs

-Bad Games That Should Have Been Great: Turtles in Time: Re-Shelled

What's to be scared of, Fox? It's not like you made a bad game...did you?

A little history on the project before we begin: During the N64’s heyday, Rare was chugging out good game after good game, both with original properties like Banjo-Kazooie and properties created by other companies such as Goldeneye and Donkey Kong 64. Early concept pieces started to surface regarding a project they were calling “Dinosaur Planet,” a Zelda-like game set on…well…a dinosaur planet. The main character was a fox and carried a magic staff that could shoot fire and propel her to greater heights, among other things. Nintendo saw this and said, “Hey, why not make this the next Star Fox game?” For better or worse, Rare went ahead with the title as Star Fox Adventures On Dinosaur Planet, shortened to Star Fox Adventures once it finally got released for the GameCube. And there you have it, we get the worst Star Fox game as a result.

To preface everything, Star Fox Adventures isn’t necessarily a bad game, but it is an awful Star Fox title. Were it released as its original concept everything could have been easier to swallow, the little nit-picky aspects could be shuffled away looking at it as something new and exciting, but instead there’s no way to look at the finished product and say, “What the hell were they thinking?” When you think of a Star Fox game, the first thing that comes to mind involves R-Wings and space battles. Adventures sorely lacks R-Wings and space battles as they previously appeared in Star Fox 64. Keep that in mind by the way; Star Fox Adventures is the game they did directly after Star Fox 64. That’s like following Pokemon Silver with Pokemon Snap as the next chronological game to the series’ canon.

Fox, go back to Abercrombie and don't come back until you're in military garb again.

What little R-Wing moments Adventures has felt like something tacked on to appease both Nintendo and Star Fox fans, with the latter feeling downright bamboozled. The only time the R-Wing was used boiled down to just a quick warp between areas, though you could do a mini-game where you had to collect gold rings in order to advance. Basically it felt underdeveloped and didn’t deliver the Star Fox charm that was expected.

The meat of the game turned out to be the on-foot world traversing and dungeon navigating that would draw parallels with the Zelda franchise. Fox’s staff had different abilities that only really worked in specific instances. That staff boost ability I mentioned earlier? You had to have a place to stick the staff in order to allow it to boost you to a higher ledge. Certain enemies were weak to fire and others were weak to the earthquake attack. The various rooms of each area required a switch be activated to open the next door, blah blah blah, it was Zelda with Fox McCloud.

Case in point: How many games have you hold an item floating over your head when you acquire it?

And once again, I have to say that it wasn’t a bad attempt at the Zelda formula. The basic structure was there just fine, the world was very well fleshed out and the progression of the story flowed as naturally as possible. Until every moment you were reminded that you were supposed to be playing a Star Fox game. The final boss inexplicably turns out to be Andross for some reason, and Falco appears in the eleventh hour to assist you. Slippy provides you with…I forget why Slippy was there actually. But Peppy becomes the Navi for Fox, giving really annoying comments performed by the worst Peppy voice actor the series has endured.

One of the largest problems with Adventures really is the voice acting. Peppy’s clearly forced “old character” voice is painful, but just about every character you encounter has some accent that grates on your ears and dialogue that makes you want to scream at the screen. Tricky, a triceratops prince, becomes the main aggressor throughout your campaign as he’s constantly following you wherever you go. Seriously, an animal buddy is one of the worst things you can attach to a game.

And a Scottish accent for a rock man? Just shut up, you're screwing with me.

Oddly enough, one thing critics seemed to be just fine with was the combat system. Somebody along the line decided that Fox’s staff was a cool weapon to use and that combat was deep and satisfying. This is about as much of a lie as you can tell and on par with saying that Cheetos provide a rich array of flavors in a single bag and can act as an entire meal. The attack moves Fox can perform are all scripted, of which there are a total of three. Enemies can be damaged by any, so you pretty much pick your favorite and start spamming it. And I seriously mean spam those attacks as each enemy has a health bar made of hearts that requires you to strike them upwards of four times each, meaning your elaborate and flashy staff moves do little more than waste time. God of War, for all that I find offense with, at least makes you feel adequately powerful the majority of the time with the moves you pull off. Combos flow into one another and swarms of enemies provide little resistance when you’re at your best. Star Fox Adventures is the opposite. Fox flails around with the same three moves but does such little damage that the entire exercise feels more like it’s for the designers to feel happy that they programmed three cool animations and less about you enjoying said animations after about a dozen uses.

"Pew pew!"

There just isn’t any real substance to speak of here and it’s entirely because the game has Star Fox slapped on the front. Were Rare to go back in time and finish the game as originally intended with just Crystal as a character, there’s a high chance Dinosaur Planet would have been a cult hit, if not its own franchise. Instead, we added a female fox for Fox McCloud to swoon at and little else. I’m actually just about out of things to say regarding Star Fox Adventures, but I have one last story to tell: The story of how Other Chris and I became close friends.

A few years ago I was involved in a student-run TV program at the University of Oregon called Duck U. I happened to be an executive producer that year and as such, I had weekly viewings at my house. About an hour before a viewing, I was sitting alone playing Star Fox Adventures just waiting for people to arrive. Other Chris was the first person to show up and immediately asked what I was playing. I told him it was Star Fox Adventures, a game that sucked. He asked why I would play it if I knew it sucked, to which I replied, “Because I have to play it for the franchise to make sense.” He became enamored just watching me play, clearly hating the game I was powering through just to see the ending for no reason other than to feel justified as a Star Fox fan. We formed a powerful friendship that persists to this very day, making it the only worthwhile piece of anything that came out of Star Fox Adventures.

Always an upside I suppose. I mean, the graphics weren't all that bad either.

It probably wouldn’t be fair to rag on this game without mentioning what I expected it to be. Naturally, the best course of action would be to just drop Star Fox from the title and make it Dinosaur Planet again, forcing it to stand by itself. Assuming that wasn’t an option, the next best thing would be to retool the combat system. Add more combos, better enemy tactics, and a greater sense of power when wielding a magical weapon. Take a look at any Zelda game, especially the console Zelda titles. The sword combat is simple, yet it functions perfectly. Attacking enemies feels natural and the sword combos flow smoothly into one another.

The combat now fixed, we move on to the voice acting. I’d be in favor of the Banjo-Kazooie style of voice acting, which boils down to random jibberish from the characters with text to read along with. These are dinosaurs, so why the heck not? That way I don’t have to listen to the inane crap being spewed into my ear holes.

Maybe better enemies, too. That might help.

Lastly, either do away with the R-Wing segments completely or make them integral to the game. As they appeared in the game, they were nothing more than a hold over from the previous title in the franchise, totally worthless in this new setting. If every new area required a daring R-Wing flight through a canyon or an ice cavern or a boss that got so huge that it required you to take to the skies, then maybe things would have worked better. Adding R-Wings to a game with one-on-one ground combat ensured that neither half of the mechanics worked at 100%.

Should you play Star Fox Adventures? As a bad game, it’s not the worst. If you’re desperate, like me, to find play every inch of a series’ story, then go right ahead and blast through it. There isn’t much incentive to explore extra areas and look for secrets, so the overall game shouldn’t take you very long in the grand scheme of things. At least we got a better pilot than Slippy out of the equation.

Seriously, if anything was gonna turn me into a furrie, Crystal would do it.

Want more Bad Games That Should Have Been Great? Check these out:

-Bad Games That Should Have Been Great: Fable II

-Bad Games That Should Have Been Great: Dead Rising

-Brawl in a Half-Shell: A Review of TMNT Smash-Up

10. Mass Effect 2:

A great game and a great soundtrack. Bring on the next game in the series!

Not too long ago, I blitzed through Mass Effect 1 & 2 a total of two times in a row. Afterward I realized that I really liked the soundtracks I heard. This prompted me to, naturally, find said soundtracks and listen to them properly without my attention focused on things happening on-screen. And you know what? Mass Effect 2 is wonderful as an orchestra soundtrack. The background score fits things perfectly with drama and action, yet it still has those rare techno nightclub tracks that I’m so fond of. Simply, this is one cool soundtrack.

9. Custom Robo GameCube:

You probably never played this game, but I loved it.

Yeah yeah, I know, “You like THAT game?” Yes I do, actually. I found Custom Robo on the GameCube, the first Custom Robo game to make it to the US from Japan, to be an extremely underrated game that few people really gave a chance to. It was far from perfect, especially the concept behind the Robo battles, but for some reason I became rather fond of the soundtrack. Enough so that I’ve listened to it multiple times in its entirety. It has a very arcade-like quality to it, a quality that I enjoy due to my upbringing with video games in general. The music stirs up emotions I wouldn’t expect a game like this to stir up, so in the end, hey, I love this game and especially love this soundtrack. I really wish they’d make a new game in the series or remake the originals. Why haven’t they done that yet?

8. Super Mario Galaxy 2:

A space dinosaur is acting as maestro. That's awesome.

Of all the Mario games, how could I pick the newest one? Well, for one, the Mario Galaxy games have a real orchestra doing the music for them. That alone goes a long way to kick things up a level in terms of quality, but really, it’s just that both the series staples and the new additions are treated with equal care, making excellent recompositions of old favorites and new tracks that become well-loved instantly. The Puzzle Plank Galaxy’s music blindsided me the first time I heard it since I audibly said, “Wow, I think I really like this.” Taking background music for a Mario game and combining it with orchestral pieces in such as way that neither aspect is lost is just a feat I’m astonished by. Therefore, I love this soundtrack.

7. Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game:

You can actually just download this soundtrack and forgo the game, it's that's much better.

Anamanaguchi is an awesome band, and I’m not just saying that because I had the chance to meet them and see them play live. However, I will say that if you’ve played Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game more than a few times, you know that the music gets stuck in your head to the intensity that old Mega Man tracks are still imbedded inside your frontal lobe (or wherever they keep that stuff). I started having trouble sleeping after playing the game enough since I wasn’t able to stop the music in my head from waking me up. In total I’ve probably listened to the soundtrack a dozen times at this point, and I’m still hearing new tracks that I’m enjoying. The game gets a serious boost thanks to the soundtrack, so that’s why it lands on my list.

6. Final Fantasy VI:

It's a tear-jerker, so bring a tissue.

My very first Final Fantasy game was Final Fantasy III for the SNES. I’m aware that it’s really VI, but I don’t care anymore. The point is, the soundtrack was the first thing that made me like the game to begin with. I didn’t want to give this game the time of day but the music I heard in just the first half hour of gameplay alone forced me to continue playing long past the point of thought. I just knew that I now loved this game. Every character has a distinct and likeable theme, multiple areas stand out as great examples of music done right, and the opera scene, a scene every gamer seems to know by heart at this point, is enough to justify placing this soundtrack in a special league of its own. That league happens to be this top ten list, but still, that’s something, isn’t it?

5. Chrono Trigger:

It's like if Dragonball Z had a good RPG tied in to it. Except better.

Take everything I just said about Final Fantasy VI, drop the part about the opera scene, add a trial sequence, multiply things by a factor of 1.1, and you have my love for Chrono Trigger’s soundtrack. I picked Robo’s Theme not too long ago as my favorite track from this game, but it was a hard, HARD choice to make since each character has a theme I really love. The Battle with Magus, the world map, the opening cinematics, it all adds up into one monster of a good soundtrack. I’ve even managed to get my wife to successfully play Chrono Trigger while actually liking it to the point that Frog’s Theme can make her turn her head and yell out, “Oh! That’s my Froggie!” So there you go, welcome to the list Chrono Trigger.

4. Soul Calibur 2:

A flaming sword with wings is on the cover. 80's metal bands would be jealous.

Now before it happens, let me stop you right there Mr. Soul Calibur fan: The only Soul Calibur game I own is Soul Calibur 2. I played Soul Calibur 3, and acknowledge that a lot of people consider Soul Edge or Soul Calibur to be the best of the series. That said, I don’t care about those games; my favorite is 2 and one of my favorite game soundtracks comes from 2. I’ve been able to listen to it repeatedly and still enjoy myself since each track is extremely detailed to fit the stage it’s from. In fact, the amount of detail is staggering to my feeble little brain to handle. Having so many epic tracks in one 2-disc soundtrack boggles the mind, so I try not to think about it too much. I forgo that thought process and just enjoy the music for what it is: A masterpiece.

3. SSX Tricky:

I'm weird, I know, but whatever because this soundtrack is perfect.

If there’s one thing EA does well, it’s assemble soundtracks. While the SSX series doesn’t have any tracks that are inherently exclusive to SSX, SSX Tricky became one of the first video game soundtracks I decided I needed to order online, purely so I could listen to it at my leisure. And listen at my leisure I did. To this day, I’m amazed that every single track on the soundtrack is a track I have no problem listening to, and even more, some have become real favorites of mine as normal everyday music. It is a shame that the CD doesn’t include the mixes of “It’s Tricky” into the other tracks, brought on by filling your Tricky meter, but at the very least you have a solid CD filled with good music to cruise to while driving, and really, isn’t that what most music strives to be? Now why couldn’t I summon any interest in the series after Tricky?

2. TMNT IV SNES:

If only there was an official CD release for this soundtrack. I'd have bought at least one copy.

I knew I was going to select Turtles in Time as a favorite soundtrack, but what I didn’t know was whether I’d choose the SNES soundtrack over the arcade soundtrack. Here we are at the fabled day and I’m down to the wire having to make the choice, so with a gun to my shell, I’m going with the SNES version. Why? Something about it sounds better to me. Perhaps it’s the desire to hear this soundtrack played with real guitars. Because it has yet to be converted to such an awesome tribute album, I prefer to hear it as if it were closer tied to a video game, and the SNES version does just that. Plus, something about the arcade music sounds, I don’t know, weird. Debate aside, listen to Turtles in Time’s soundtrack and try and tell me it doesn’t sum up beat-‘em-ups perfectly. If only someone could recreate this soundtrack for a GOOD TMNT arcade game, my life would be complete.

1. Super Smash Bros Brawl:

Brilliant!

At last, my favorite video game soundtrack, and wouldn’t you know it, I managed to select the king of soundtracks. Most soundtracks on this list contain under 50 tracks, whereas Super Smash Bros Brawl has over 300 tracks, a staggering number by all accounts. I have a version of the Melee soundtrack on CD as performed by the New Japan Philharmonic, but Brawl far outshines it in diversity and scope. It contains the greatest hits of video game music with tracks from Mario games, Zelda games, Sonic games, Metal Gear Solid games, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Pokemon, Metroid, Star Fox, and more. It’s unbelievable just how much work and how many composers had a hand in this soundtrack. This is the most bang for your buck, so if I was forced to choose only one single soundtrack to listen to for the rest of my days, here it is. Can’t do better than this in my eyes.

There, I’m done. Four consecutive posts all about video game music. I’m all musiced out, but that doesn’t mean you have to be. I want to know what your favorite video game soundtracks are. Do you love some of my choices as well? Or do you have some you’re surprised I didn’t mention? Leave a comment and let me know, though it may take a while to respond since I have over 300 songs to listen through before I can do anything again.

Want more Top Ten lists? Check these out:

-10 Pokemon You’d Rather Not Evolve

-Top 15 Best Overclocked Remixes

-The 20 Greatest Mario Enemies Ever

Ooh, I'm getting antsy just thinking about Smash Bros. I should go play instead of writing this.

The idea of all my favorite Nintendo stars fighting each other in one big game was a concept I never imagined would become a reality. Even now I’m a little skeptical that it really exists, and furthermore, that it’s straight-up awesome. But somehow Super Smash Bros is a real thing and for that I couldn’t be happier. So to start a Monday off right, how about a Super Smash Bros Retrospective? That’s what I thought.

Super Smash Bros (1999):

How can you not be anything but excited when you see this box?

The essence of the first Super Smash Bros can easily be captured in the classic game commercial set to the Beatles song, So Happy Together. Mario, Yoshi, Pikachu, and Donkey Kong are holding hands as they skip through a field. Then without warning Mario sweeps Yoshi’s legs and they all start fighting. The commercial is perfect, and as a kid every time I saw it I knew I needed Smash Bros on my N64.

My first encounter with Smash Bros was once again from Nintendo Power with its usual hype train. All I needed to know was that Mario and Link would fight against Fox and Pikachu and I was addicted. I read the Nintendo Power articles over and over again, hungry for my Smash Bros. I even went out and preordered the game through Hollywood Video’s game kiosk, the precursor to Game Crazy (Lord rest their souls). Unfortunately, I was quoted a price that was awesome, ($35), but then waited and waited and waited and still, the game did not come in. I had to wait a whole week after it came out before my Hollywood Video got the game in. “Alright, that’ll be $50.” Uh-oh, he must have misspoke. Nope, the price was set and the first guy just screwed up. I went to Toys ‘R Us and got a copy with a coupon for $45. As soon as I got home it was time to try out my new favorite game ever.

It seems so simple now, doesn't it?

The very first character I tried out was Link in the arcade mode. The controls were entirely foreign to me, especially the jumping mechanic. I had to relearn all sorts of things for Super Smash Bros in order to just proceed through the game, but after a week or so I was starting to get the hang of things. I hadn’t played many fighting games before, but I could see why I definitely liked Smash Bros better: Battle length. Most fighting games had matches that usually lasted under a minute, maybe two if you were really pushed, but otherwise there was no such thing as an epic fight. With Smash Bros, you didn’t whittle down your opponent’s health but rather inflicted damage in order to make it easier to throw them further, leading to the ultimate goal of knocking them off the stage. I loved this concept, plus each character played differently, so I was almost never bored.

My friends and I would get together for four-player matches every few sleepovers, going nuts with the 12 characters and nine levels. We got our money’s worth for sure. And after we’d played for long enough, we’d just set four computer characters to fight each other as we did a running commentary, naming each character after someone we knew from school. It was simple fun and we thought nothing could be better. One of my best friends at the time, Derek, was also my arch nemesis, so whenever we played he was Fox and I was Pikachu. I let him borrow my game for a week and when I got it back I realized Fox’s character stats placed him at the top, showing that he’d spent all week killing Pikachu over and over. I wouldn’t stand for that, so naturally my next week was planned out for me. Life just couldn’t get any sweeter.

Super Smash Bros Melee (2001):

Best follow-up to anything in the history of ever.

When the GameCube was announced a whole bunch of excellent games were announced along with it. But for me there really was only one game: Super Smash Bros Melee. A new Smash Bros game on a better system? AWESOME! I started seeing commercials for it at movies theaters and on TV and soon I was psyched once more for a game I hadn’t even played yet. I didn’t need anything more than the knowledge that the original 12 characters were back, plus more, equaling 26 characters total (Sheik and Zelda counted as two characters). Also, 29 levels instead of nine? Double the items? More moves for everyone? Sold.

I preordered Melee as soon as possible, knowing that my GameCube’s purchase would be overly justified once Melee was mine. Sure enough, I brought the game home and went to town, though initially I was at a loss because I had to relearn the controls yet again. No matter, a week later and I was mastering the game more than I ever thought possible.

And mastering it properly never felt so sweet.

Melee added a lot more in terms of, well, everything. Everything got better. I was almost sad since I knew I could never go back to the original N64 version now that Melee had entered my life. I did pretty much everything I could as a single-player playing alone, honing my skills against opponents that I never played against because, sadly, so few other people seemed to own a GameCube. At this time everyone I knew had gotten into Halo, so I was left in the cold.

Until strange things began happening. At the end of my Freshman year of high school I was told about a Melee tournament happening at a festival our school did during the last week of classes. I practiced against a casual acquaintance to better my skills and I realized, “Wow, I’m actually really good at this game.” The tournament began and I did what anyone else would have done: I pretended I didn’t know how to play the game. My first opponent scoffed and killed me once, thinking the match was going to be super simple. Then I laughed and said, “Just kidding,” and proceeded to utterly destroy him. I was unstoppable, up until the final match against Jeremy Lynn, the deaf kid. His brother was hosting the tournament and the final match pitted me as Adult Link against Jeremy as Mr. Game & Watch, a character I’d never seen anyone use well. My usual tactic of trash talking and mental psyching didn’t work against Jeremy since, well…connect the dots for me. Regardless, after a grueling match I came out victorious, taking the only happiness the deaf kid had in his life (also, I beat him in chess later in the week, just because I’m an evil man). Oh don’t get me wrong, a month later he came over to my house and spent two hours demonstrating how I completely sucked at Melee compared to his unrelenting talent, but it didn’t count on the scoreboard. I was the official school champion.

For good measure, I made sure to kick fox's butt on principle alone.

I retired from Melee for a while until my Senior year when I met two of my closest friends ever, Trinh and Thomas. The three of us met in Japanese class but decided to start playing Melee as often as possible, creating a massive rivalry between we three. It turned out Trinh was unbeatable as Fox, and Thomas played a mean Marth, but in three-person matches I’d rule with Adult Link. Allow me to regale you with my greatest moment ever:

Trinh and I were in a heated battle for first-place, fighting at our usual favorite, Final Destination, he as Fox and I as Link. On a side note, it should be pointed out that in terms of character tiers, Fox and Marth were numbers one and two, whereas Link was near the bottom, and yet I still managed to go toe-to-toe with them, so eat it best friends of mine. Anyway, the match was coming to a close and it looked like Trinh was going to outdo me. He knocked me off the stage and as I fell I realized I’d never make it back. However, a Blast Barrel was rolling off the edge. Seeing my one chance I aimed toward it as it fell, hitting it right as it was about to exit the screen. The three of us assumed I had exploded, but it was actually the barrel blasting me straight up. I Spin Attacked to the corner, leapt at Fox, and sent him flying off to his own defeat since Trinh was so amazed he could hardly move. Single greatest game moment of my life, and there’s no way I could ever recreate it.

Super Smash Bros Brawl (2008):

That fire you see here represents the explosion of joy in my heart when I heard about Brawl.

Among the Wii titles I got excited for, the word “Brawl” came up a few times, letting me know that Melee would have a sequel and that it’d be bigger and supposedly better than the first two by a long shot. I watched the teaser trailers over and over and sunk into the pattern of religiously checking Smash Bros Dojo for nightly updates, drip-feeding me information about the new game. Who would be back? Who would be new? And what more could they really add? I was about to be blown away yet again.

The newest addition was the Final Smash, an ultimate move for each character useable whenever someone acquired the Smash Ball, an item of untold power! And I really mean that, too. Some Final Smashes, like Marth or Zelda’s were instant KO’s if they hit, whereas Mario, Sonic, Fox, and a mess of others had Final Smashes that owned multiple enemies way too effectively. Did is sway the balance of the game? Absolutely, but I was in love with it.

It also made you feel like a jackass if you got caught in a Final Smash, as it should.

To celebrate the eventual release of the game, of which all Smash Fans were forced to endure push back after push back of said release, I held one final going away party for Melee, a Last Chance Melee Smash, as I called it (because I’m oh so clever sometimes). A good long night of Melee was followed by a trek to my local Game Crazy store at midnight to get the new game and start playing that very night. The pilgrimage caused some annoyed gamers, but dang it, it was symbolic of my endless struggle waiting for this game.

It was no shock that the amount of content in Brawl was staggering. The unbelievable fan service Nintendo paid to diehards was worth every single unhappy moment I endured as a GameCube loyalist all those years ago. Just the soundtrack alone was phenomenal to behold. The first Smash Bros had maybe a dozen songs, total. Melee had closer to three-dozen. Brawl had over 300. GAH. Throw in 40 characters, yet more items, and user-generated stages and that’s a wrap: Best game on the Wii. The game even went out of its way to repair the problem of wave dashing that nearly broke Melee for me. I got good in Melee, but I could never be as good as the game-breaking moves that some players figured out. I’d watch those matches on YouTube and just think, “Wow, that looks so unfun to play.” Wave Dashing in Brawl, gone. Yeah, replaced by something else, but at least a progression was made.

Make Nintendo's best game ever: Mission Complete.

Brawl wasn’t without its faults though. I couldn’t for the life of me understand why Mewtwo was missing. He was a tough character to unlock in Melee and even tougher to master, but he’s totally absent in Brawl. Plus, while the local multiplayer is one of the best experiences of any game in recent years, the online component is awful beyond respite. You can just skip it, unfortunately.

Silly monkey. Now go find Mewtwo!

Now comes the real question: What happens next? Will Brawl be the end for Smash Bros games? As the creator of both the original and Brawl, Masahiro Sakurai, mentioned, his goal was to make the best damn game he could, as if it was definitely going to be the last of the series. That doesn’t rule out another game, especially not now that the 3DS is on its way out, but there’s nothing on the horizon to give Smash Fans hopes of the next big game with Geno, the return of Mewtwo, and every stage from every game in addition to all new stages. It’s asking for a lot, but they delivered last time, so why not here?

Like you didn't all want this, too.

And I’m spent. My love for Smash can only take me so far since, well, there are only three games to the retrospective. So tell me, are you a Smash Fan as well? Or do you hate the game? Can you destroy families with Zelda’s Shiny Kick like I can? Or do you have a different character you end lives with? Time to share your memories of Smash. Don’t make me Shiny Kick you in the face.

Want to read another retrospective? Take a look at these:

-Games You Should Have Played: The Donkey Kong Country Trilogy

-More To Catch: A Pokemon Toys Retrospective

-The Plastic Wars: A Retrospective on Army Men

Thank the gods Leonidas and his 300 never ran into THIS Persian Prince.

“Most people think time is like a river that flows swift and sure in one direction. But I have seen the face of time, and I can tell you: they are wrong. Time is an ocean in a storm. You may wonder who I am or why I say this. Sit down and I will tell you a tale like none you have ever heard.”

As much as I wish I could say this line was true, unfortunatly I have seen a Disney Movie of the same name a month prior and am very aware of the tale. However, after taking a little trip to it’s roots I couldn’t be more happy with my time traveling experience, literally.

Have The Time of Your Life…Figuratively Speaking

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a 3D platformer adventure game released in 2003 for the GameCube, PS2, Xbox, and the PC, so there are more than enough options of where to find this game. Made by Ubisoft, the same team that brought us the recent hit series Assasin’s Creed, newcomers may notice just how much new platformers like AC or even Uncharted have been inspired by this game. But even now seven years later, when it comes to agility and acrobatics, this one still takes the cake.

Running across walls while narrowly avoiding spikes never gets old. Ever.

I cannot stress enough how well the platforming is done in this game. Seriously, it’s like they extracted the exploration mechanics of the original Tomb Raider, then encased it in gold. Leaping, climbing, crawling, somersaulting, wall jumping, wall running, pole swinging, pole balancing all feel incredibly intuitive. The level design is made specifically to test your reactions with every new obstacle, and they progress in difficulty at a very fair pace. The whole time-mechanic in the game helps soften the frustration you may have in certain tricky parts. If you miss a jump, simply hold the rewind button and try again.

More Than a Pretty Control Scheme

For a game with such a strong focus on game play, the story is incredibly well crafted as well. A villain named Vizier (the guy that conveniently looks and acts exactly like Jafar from Aladdin) tricks The Prince of Persia into plunging the Dagger of Time into an hourglass, creating a sandstorm that turns all the people of Azad to monsters. The only three unaffected possess magical objects. Vizier with his staff, the Prince with the dagger, and Farah, the Princess of Maharajah, with her medallion. The Prince and Farah quickly make a pact to transverse the labrynths of Azad to return the Sands of Time to the hourglass and undo the damage he has done.

What you do you prefer? Magic carpet ride for two? Racing through temples fighting off hoards of Zombie Sand Monsters?

While there are only two real characters in this entire game (plus the villain Jaf- I mean Vizier), they are both done excellently. The Prince is basically an arrogant jerk, but we quickly learn it’s a façade to hide his true insecurities about his lost father and feeling he may or may not be developing for a certain princess of a town he’s now responsible for sacking and cursing. Farah is quite possibly one of the greatest female companions I’ve seen in a video game. Unlike other games where it feels like a tedious escort mission, Farah never feels completely reliant on you. She has her own motives as the story progresses, but to avoid spoilers, I won’t say no more.

So… the platforming’s an A+, story’s an A, characters are an A, graphics and level design are all an A. But nothing’s pefect The combat unfortunately is a C. It’s kinda cool at first to slow down time, turn enemies to sand sculpures, flip over them, chop them in two, or any combination of the four, but you quickly learn all there is to learn and they just end up becoming tedious interludes between the platforming and puzzle parts that are actually fun. Not only that, the enemies get larger and larger in numbers and they become a far pain to dispatch. The more you get frustrated the more you die. Just be thankful that by the time all those fights are over, you get to the final boss Vizier and he’s only one guy so he’s cake. Sorry to spoil that for you all, but I figured you all could assume a plot point like “the bad guy is the final boss.”

To be quite honest, it actually wasn’t that bad.

It’s been a month since Jerry Brukheimer’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time arrived in theatres. Since then, it has garnered praise as “The first genuinely good movie to be based on a video game.” (Moviebob) As for myself, I was actually very pleased with how well the elements of the game were adapted to fit in the structure of a film. To be fair, only the very beginnings and very ends are a whole lot similar, but the complex hero/heroine dynamic, the action, sense of adventure, mixed with the magic of time was all there. As for which one I prefer? The movie does a fair job, but definitely the game.

If you won’t take my advice for it get this. Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw, the Gordon Ramsay/Simon Cowell of game criticism, has declared that the Prince of Persia Sands of Time trilogy is “the greatest franchise of the last console generation.” I must confess that I feel absolutely embarrassed to be seven years late to such a wonderful feat. To make sure nobody else suffers from the same fate, I strongly recommend to all who haven’t done so, defy the future and pick up this game.

Changes were in store for my beloved series. Would it mean the end for my love?

When last we left off, I was swooning over the storytelling prowess of Majora’s Mask and specifically, how dark the tone of the game placed the series. My hopes for a new Zelda game were high and I was eager to hear what would happen next. Before a real console sequel though, we’d be getting a little handheld detour first.

Oracle of Ages (2001):

If this looks a lot like Link's Awakening, that's because it looks a lot like Link's Awakening.

Nintendo Power did its usual thing of hyping me up for the new Zelda games, but this time things were different. Oracle of Ages was for the Game Boy Color, but it wasn’t being released all alone. It was one of two Zelda games released at the same time, so I was skeptical as to the true intentions of this noble little game. I still went out and rented Oracle of Ages, an odd thing to think about since renting Game Boy Color games was extremely rare. Anyway, I rented the game and played it, not thinking too much one way or another. This was another one of those cases where I needed to return once I was a little older and a little wiser. Sure enough, upon closer inspection I found Oracle of Ages to be an excellent game that specialized in the puzzles Zelda games are known for. But wait, there’s more.

Oracle of Seasons (2001):

Is there any wonder why I loved these two games?

Oracle of Seasons was released at the same time as Oracle of Ages, and while they had different core stories and different styles with Ages being more puzzle-oriented and Seasons much more about the action, it was the effect gained from playing them back-to-back that added an extra oomph to the experience. The reason being is that once you played one game, didn’t matter which first, you’d get a code to input in the other game when you started a new file. You’d get to begin the game with an extra heart and characters would reference your exploits from the other game, making the world feel more complete. Even better, these characters would give you a new code to input in the first game, unlocking new weapons and upgrades and such that could then be unlocked in the other game. And after beating the second game, you’d get the chance to fight with Ganon once more, tying things together so nicely. I was really amazed with how cool the whole package felt. Do not buy just one of these if you choose to play them. It’s required that you play both.

The GameCube is Announced:

But all was not well in Hyrule and lands beyond. A great schism was approaching. Nintendo had announced the GameCube and with it showed a now infamous tech demo that’d lead fans astray. The culprit? This image:

If you were a Zelda fan, this got you so jazzed it hurt.

The assumption was that this and a few other images shown in Nintendo Power were actual footage from a new Legend of Zelda game being developed for the GameCube. And why wouldn’t we believe that? It only made sense, plus it looked so much like Ocarina of Time but with better graphics. Except something was wrong. After seeing these images, Nintendo wouldn’t say anything for what seemed like a year until finally we got a look at the new Zelda title on the GameCube. And that’s when fans got mad.

Wind Waker (2002):

Goodbye Zelda series you knew and loved. Hope you like cartoons and sailing.

It is important to note that my opinion of The Wind Waker is this: It is an extremely great game, just a very bad Zelda game. I, like many other Zelda fans, believed the images previously seen in Nintendo Power were what to expect from the new Zelda title, so when a year later we see the equivalent of a cartoon penis pretending to be Link, we were miffed. And no, this wasn’t all fans, and even some fans that were miffed eventually didn’t have a problem, but the general feeling was that Nintendo had betrayed us somehow, regardless of their intent.

Despite any negative feelings due to a misunderstanding, The Wind Waker is a really great game. The art style is pretty darn cool and the controls are spot-on. But the tone doesn’t feel like a Zelda game. Sure, there are races from previous Zelda titles and landmarks mentioned, but overall it just didn’t feel that much like the games I grew up with. It just felt…foreign. And foreign isn’t a bad thing necessarily, unless of course I just wanted a true follow-up to Majora’s Mask with the same sort of mature themes done tastefully. This new cartoon style only pointed me to believe that the dark, sad atmosphere I had been touched by in Majora’s Mask would be replaced by this vibrant color scheme, as if to wash over any real emotion that could potentially occur. The cartoon-style Zelda games would continue to be decent, but they’d never come close to the expectations fans asked for Majora’s Mask’s sequel.

Four Swords Adventures (2004):

I assure you, it's a fun game, just yet another bad Zelda game.

And then something really odd happened. Four Swords Adventures was released on the GameCube to an audience that was mostly unaware (read: indifferent) to its appearance. I for one couldn’t muster a shred of interest when I read about it. I ended up playing it, as always, and all I could say was, “Wow, this is just Link to the Past 2.0.” Once again, it wasn’t a bad thing, per say. It was just another Zelda game that didn’t deliver where the fans were concerned. Art style, yes, it was yet another gorgeous title in the Zelda franchise, and once you got past how it broke with all Zelda conventions it was actually very enjoyable. But as I said, it just wasn’t what fans were asking for, and the multiplayer aspect that Nintendo was pushing for the title wasn’t available unless every player owned a GBA and a GBA-GameCube cable, of which I personally had the needed equipment but had no friends that did. I’d still recommend Four Swords Adventures if you want a simple, cheap game to pass the time in between larger titles.

Minish Cap (2004):

Good, the classic style gameplay. Fine, make it cartoony, just give me back my classic style gameplay.

Something had just broken inside me when it came to the Zelda series. My favorite games were still holding up, but the new releases were failing to stir any desire to fork over the money immediately and buy the next game. Minish Cap was one such example. Oh sure, when I finally played it I found that it was amazing, just as the rest of the Zelda games, but sadly the art style reminded me of Wind Waker. I’m not a snob, I assure you, but that art style doesn’t invoke joy from me. To me, the Wind Waker art style represents a movement away from anything serious within the series, meaning that ultimately the game is the adventure-genre equivalent of a Mario title, by which I mean the ultimate thing at stake is the same over and over again. Princess Zelda has been kidnapped and Link must go through a number of dungeons to get her back. No surprises, no real thrills. Great gameplay and dungeon design, but it feels like empty calories. I don’t feel as if the narrative if progressing towards bettering me as a Zelda gamer or rewarding me for continuing on in the series. All the older titles did, but now something feels like it’s missing. I needed more than trading Kinstones to keep me interested anymore. Would Nintendo ever satisfy fans like me anymore?

Twilight Princess (2006):

The Hero had returned at last.

Things were bleak in my eyes, and then the miracle that is Twilight Princess was announced. Suddenly I was more excited for a video game than I’ve ever been. That pure rush of excitement hit me and I was ready to experience a new Zelda title in the vein of my favorites. But a trailer wouldn’t be enough to satisfy. I’d watch it over and over, waiting for my game, MY game, to finally come out. But therein slept yet another problem.

Twilight Princess would be pushed back again and again until finally it became a launch title for the Wii as well as a GameCube game. I was confused about that, but I was already buying a Wii, so Twilight Princess was a no-brainer for a launch title. It’s still the version I recommend. And Twilight Princess is really recommended. The tone was darker without being overly serious, the story was pretty cool, and all the new elements were excellently added, such as the motion controls. I felt like a very powerful character once I had the bow in my hand, aiming with pinpoint accuracy. This was the game I’d been waiting for, no question. But in my ravenous greed for a new Zelda title I devoured it too quickly, beating the majority of the game (minus some tedious side-quests) in a little over 20 hours. I could only speculate where the series would go from here.

Phantom Hourglass (2007):

Crap, I spoke too soon. We're on a damned boat again.

And then the cartoon style of Zelda came back with a vengeance just to spite me. Phourglass appeared and as soon as I heard it was a DS title I was happy. I thought it would be like the older Zelda titles I enjoyed such as Link’s Awakening or Oracle of Ages. Then I heard you’d use the stylus to control, exclusively. That made me beyond sad. I don’t mind touch controls when they work, but I didn’t see any need to change basic movement and sword swinging from the tried and true D-pad/A button combo. It didn’t matter, I would still play Phourglass, and so I did.

Following directly after The Wind Waker, Phourglass had Link and Tetra/Zelda on an adventure that felt entirely unnecessary. A ghost ship appears and separates the two. Link must go find her through a series of dungeon-related events, accessible via boating. As I mentioned before, this just felt like empty calories. It didn’t feel like the series progressed anywhere but rather decided to fall into a rut. Repetitive gameplay, dull story and setting, and the first Zelda title not to add a single new weapon/item. Seriously, bow, boomerang, bombs? We’ve seen those before! Twilight Princess gave us things like the Spinner, the Ball and Chain, and the Double Claw Shots, but Phourglass couldn’t think of anything. How sad. I was painfully happy when Link saved Tetra in the end and the credits rolled, because it meant I never had to play this one again.

Spirit Tracks (2009):

If the characters in the artwork look like they don't care, that should be a pretty clear indication, shouldn't it?

Silly me, I had to play Phourglass again, except it was called Spirit Tracks this time. You’ve read my review detailing my numerous frustrations with Spirit Tracks, so there isn’t much more to say about this title. When it was first announced it seemed like it had to be a joke. Link on a train? Was there really nothing left to do with the Hero of Legend? At least it added new weapons/tools whereas Phourglass hadn’t, but these new items included the usual variety of bombs, bows, boomerangs, and the obligatory “odd” item, the pinwheel, an item I loathed because it required I used the microphone. Blowing into the DS microphone is NOT enjoyable in any game I’ve yet played. Even worse, the final boss fight felt nearly impossible due to the awful touch screen sword mechanics. I’ve never cursed so much while playing a Zelda game, a very bad sign. All Zelda fans could do was look to the future and hope, knowing that Nintendo had promised a new Wii Zelda sometime. But when would we know more?

Skyward Sword (2011?):

I'm ready for this game to knock my shorts off. It's got a lot to live up to.

This year’s E3 showed us our first true look at Skyward Sword, the official name of the new Zelda title for the Wii. It’s not out yet (obviously), but Nintendo has claimed it should be out around 2011. I’ll believe it when I see it happen, but the sooner the better. The last “good” Zelda game was in late 2006, so I’m ready for something new and something now.

Skyward Sword has a slew of screenshots, plus some gameplay footage and an excellent trailer showing off what we can expect. And what stands out the most? The art style. It looks very much like Twilight Princess but with a cell-shaded sheen, almost a hybrid between Twilight Princess and The Wind Waker. Naturally, this worries me. Has the precedence been set to ease the series once more toward the cartoony style? To me, this means a movement away from a deeper Zelda experience and a push toward more empty calories. The console Zelda games have always been excellent in one form or another, each very different from the last, but the cartoony-style Zelda games have a very repetitive feel to them. What also scares me is the decision of Skyward Sword to use motion controls for every action now, similar to how stylus control was forced work for the DS titles. Is the Zelda series officially dead to me? We’ll have to wait and see.

So what comes next? Where will the series take us in the future? Nintendo seems pretty keen on remaking Ocarina of Time for the 3DS, but that’s just a remake, nothing new. Will we ever hear Link truly speak? Will Ganondorf stay trapped or dead? I’m hopeful for what comes next, but how about you? Do you still love the Zelda series no matter what it does next? Or are too jaded at this point to care? I’m done with all my memories so now it’s your turn to pontificate about one of gaming’s oldest and dearest franchises. In the meantime I’ll just sit here and pray to Din, Nayru and Farore that Skyward Sword is awesome.

Need more retrospectives? Take a look at these:

-Mario: A Retrospctive

-Rare: A Retrospective

-Go Green Machine! A Ninja Turtle Video Game Retrospective

Because when I think "army of bombs," I think "time for a party."

Ah! We’re finally getting down to the party! Mario’s career has gone in many, many directions, but still one of the most unexpected and influential had to be Mario Party. It spawned a whole new style of party games, beyond inventing a genre that would be copied over and over. So let’s get this party started right with the N64.

Mario Party:

Boy does this screen take me back to the good old days.

Flash back to fifth grade for a moment. I walk into class in the early morning and my friends start telling me about a new game they’d just heard about called Mario Party. I press them for the details and they tell me it’s a game where Mario and his crew play tons of mini-games and go around a board to earn coins and stars and what have you. And it’s also a big multiplayer game. I’m pretty jazzed, so I head home and anticipate my Nintendo Power to confirm these accusations. Sure enough, Mario Party was a real thing and I was psyched.

While I didn’t own it myself for a while, I had a few friends that did, meaning I was no stranger to the game and its intricacies. The single-player mode was enough to keep me busy in the meantime, especially the mini-game challenge prompting you to play through all the mini-games in a sort of a single-player adventure separate from the main game, but it was clearly the multiplayer games that got people going the most. I still say it holds up well, so grab it used and invite your friends over.

The game certainly wasn’t without massive flaws. I’m not even talking about the dreaded bleeding palms caused by rotating the control stick at insane speeds. In fact, I considered it a badge of honor to have a callous on my palm showing that I had routered it harder than anyone else. No, the place where the game breaks is Chance Time, also known as “Now the Computer Decides to Win Time” where coins and stars could be traded to characters seemingly at random. If you landed on the space things were mostly gravy since you could make sure not to screw yourself over, but if a computer character landed on Chance Time, you know for certain that your stars are gone. You could be ahead with five stars and lose them all two turns before the game ends, just because the computer landed on Chance Time. No me gusta.

Mario Party 2:

I see pirates, wizards, and cowboys, and astronauts on the front cover. Sold.

A lot of people consider the second Mario Party to be the best, and while I won’t argue, I also won’t agree. Why? Because it did away with the palm-routering that I enjoyed from the first game. Otherwise the game was nothing but better with more interesting boards and a ton more mini-games. I was impressed that they didn’t just take all the mini-games from the first Mario Party and plunk them in the sequel with a few new ones. Instead the sequel had an entire new roster of mini-games, plus a few retooled favorites from its predecessor. I found that very cool. I also liked that each board gave the characters a unique costume such as cowboy or astronaut. It was just cool. But there wasn’t a lot to say about the sequel since it was simply a progression of the concepts.

Mario Party 3:

Hey, more isn't bad, so the more the better. Right?

And that’s about what every new Mario Party game would be: Just a progression of the concept. Mario Party 3 did add Daisy and Waluigi as characters, something I liked to see since more is generally always better in video games, and it had a definite “story mode” to play through, and by “story mode” I mean a rough framework to encourage single-players to play when friends weren’t around. More mini-games were added and nothing seemed to detract from the previous game. I wasn’t quite sure what would be next for the series but I had a suspicion.

Mario Party 4:

Okay, maybe more can be bad.

The GameCube finally got a Mario Party game to call its own and no one was surprised. Graphics were improved, but unsurprisingly, not much else changed. And this was a problem because there wasn’t much of a reason for owners of any previous Mario Party game to buy a new one. Why would we want a new version of a game we already had? The controls stayed consistently good and the mini-games were always the star of the show with excellent new ones added all the time, but it hardly seemed worth buying again. You really had to be devoted to the party to continue buying the new games.

Mario Party 5:

See? This counts as another Mario sports title now.

Are you noticing a trend? Mario Party 5 was once again just a new collection of mini-games and boards, but this time a few extras were added such as a beach volleyball extra mode, an ice hockey extra mode, and the Super-Duel Mode which had you assembling a combat vehicle for battle against the computer or other players. Were these extras beyond the standard game enough to differentiate it from previous titles? Well, not really. It was definitely nice to have more to do, but I’ll tell you, I got this as a Christmas gift one year and found myself really surprised. It was a Mario game, and a good Mario game, but I had no real excited feeling when I unwrapped it. I just thought, “Oh, cool, I guess I like these games.” Oh well, a free game is a free game. If I had to suggest a GameCube Mario Party, I’d suggest 5.

Mario Party 6:

I hate it when the sun and the moon argue like this.

More new mini-games, more new boards, but where could they take the series now that they’d pretty much done everything? “Add a peripheral!” Naturally, this was the go-to solution and would be for a while, but for Mario Party 6 a microphone was added to the game, allowing you to use it for a few mini-games here and there. And that was pretty much it. How was the story? Oh, the sun and the moon are arguing over who’s cooler, so Mario suggests they just go get some stars. Alright then, fair enough. I found it odd that Mario Party 5 took DK out as a playable character and Mario Party 6 decided that was still totally fine. DK fans were surely miffed. And he still hasn’t come back as a playable character.

Mario Party 7:

This is really the only reason anyone owns Mario Party 7, be honest now.

Okay, there’s no surprise but Mario Party 7 is just more of the same. The microphone was included, DK was still excluded, and it got mediocre reviews at best. The only significant thing I remember is I worked at Game Crazy at the time and there was a GameCube system bundle that included Mario Party 7 and an extra controller, but the total price was only $100. That’s as good a deal as any I’ve ever heard. But the game itself? Feh. You could have eight players now with two players sharing a controller, but that was the only really new thing. The story was about as thin as it could be with Mario and his friends on a cruise without Bowser, making Bowser really angry. Hilarity ensues, supposedly.

Mario Party 8:

Wiimote gimmicks? Check, with gusto.

The first and so far only Wii incarnation of Mario Party is, as expected, just like the previous games but now with Wiimote controls. Nothing new added, nothing old removed. Oddly though, Nintendo as forced to issue a recall after the UK release of the game because it contained the word “spastic.” Why? Because “spastic” has an entirely different connotation in the UK compared to the US and is considered extremely offensive since it refers to the disabled. Oops.

Mario Party Advance:

Yup, that looks like a Mario Party game for the GBA alright.

I had expected there would be a Mario Party on a handheld eventually, but when Mario Party Advance came out I was entirely oblivious since, well, I didn’t care. The main fault comes down to a complete lack of multiplayer capabilities. I hate games that force multiplayer experiences, but c’mon, this is a Mario Party game. You need multiplayer support. And to make matters worse, there were only four playable characters. For shame. Top it all off with “Random Chance” as the reason for most game losses and I’m glad I passed.

Mario Party DS:

Maybe there's hope afterall for the franchise. Let's just hope it quietly fades away now.

Happily, the DS version did portable Mario Party right and included multiplayer, of which you only needed a single game card (though that’s with reduced features, as usual). Still, it wasn’t completely without merit. It got good reviews and it played well. Mostly, how could you pass up a Mario Party done right on a handheld? You couldn’t, not really. Check it out if that at all sounds like a good idea to you.

Okay, I think this party’s getting out of hand, so it’s time I called it a night. But the Mario Retrospective still isn’t over. I need to conclude things properly with a few Mario games I missed, plus just some overall impressions. Come back for that tomorrow.

Don’t forget to read up on all parts of the Mario Retrospective while you wait: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.

Can’t get enough Mario? Check out these articles:

-Mario: A Retrospective Part 8

-Let’s Think Deep: Achieving Perfection

-Ten Ways The Real World Would Ruin Video Game Worlds

Why don't all sports titles look this stupidly epic?

We’re coming close to the end of the Mario Retrospective in anticipation of Super Mario Galaxy 2, but which to cover today? Sports or parties? Parties or sports? I feel pretty sporty today, so let’s kick off this Mario sports edition of the retrospective. Play ball…Mario style!

Mario Golf:

Really, it was just golf with Mario characters, but who cares?

While Mario had dinked around in sports a few times before, such as in Open Tournament Golf on the NES, it was pretty much just golf with Mario slapped on. But it wasn’t until Mario Golf on the N64 where there really seemed to be something to this concept of sticking Mario and his friends in various sports. Mario Golf wasn’t overly complex by any means, nor was it even that heavily seeped in the Mario universe, but it was a great game with tons and tons to do. Just the task of unlocking all the characters and courses was enough to keep you playing for quite some time since the task was incredibly difficult. Try unlocking Metal Mario, if you can. It will require you to get a Birdie Badge on every single hole in the game, and while the first couple courses aren’t insanely challenging, once you get to the final few the difficulty will spike exponentially. You could download this off the Virtual Console for $10, or you could check Amazon for a cheaper price. It’s up to you.

Mario Golf Game Boy Color:

Really, it was just portable golf with Mario characters, but who cares?

I was big on my Game Boy Color and since I already enjoyed Mario Golf on the N64 so much, I figured I’d pick up the Game Boy Color version as well and see if it matched its N64 counterpart. The good news is that the game was excellent and played just like its bigger brother. The downside was the difficulty since you actually played a career as a character exclusive to the game (so not a Mario character). I found it impossibly difficult to correctly level my character up and spend points the proper way to stand any sort of a chance of having a decent golfer, but after a certain point it gets easier. Plus, you could upload your GBC golfer to the N64 version and play with them on the big screen in 3D, so that was certainly cool. I kind of wanted more of that whenever possible. You can literally find this used from Amazon for one cent.

Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour:

Really, it was just wackier golf with Mario characters, but who cares?

Eventually, a new Mario Golf was announced for the GameCube, dubbed “Toadstool Tour.” It played almost exactly as the first game, keeping the solid gameplay without an over abundance of Mario-ness to the title. It’s very nice that there were never any little things like power-ups to futz with the gameplay. It all came down to the swing and how careful you could play, and I was more than glad to give it a spin. But of course, this isn’t one of those titles that’ll have you constantly excited. You’ve really gotta love golf at a certain point to keep going, otherwise it’ll feel like a grind. Still, it’s a super solid game for any golf fan, and it’s under $5 used on Amazon, so it’s not a huge setback.

Mario Tennis:

I felt like this was naturally where Pong had progressed to.

Mario had dabbled with tennis before the N64 as well, but the 64 version became the title that everyone thinks back to first, partly because it also was just awesome. It sparked an intense interest in the actual sport of tennis and prompted me to take real-life tennis lessons. Not much came of it, but it got me going. The game itself was noteworthy for two important characters. The first was Daisy, previously seen all the way back as the princess from Super Mario Land, now officially Luigi’s counterpart, more or less. Also introduced was Waluigi, a character that tons and tons of gamers hate (and I really like for some reason). Mario Tennis played perfectly every step of the way, allowing me to get really good with it without ever feeling it was being unfair. After spending way more time with it than was probably healthy, I started looking forward to the possibility of more Mario Tennis games. I highly recommend snagging this one used off Amazon since it’ll run you under $7.

Mario Tennis Game Boy Color:

This game was just HARD! ARG!

Same as Mario Golf, Mario Tennis got a Game Boy Color version that played the same but which allowed you to play an actual career as a unique character. I really liked that aspect of the game since I thought it did a lot to encourage constant play with a definite point rather than just playing for the heck of it. Eventually things would have grown tired for me unless I was actively pursuing a goal, and it was one heck of a difficult goal to meet. The same held true for the GBC version of Mario Golf as in Mario Tennis that having to train your character means for a hefty portion of the game they really suck. It took a long, long time before my character started to show any signs of not sucking, but when I got there, my was it sweet. And hey, what do you know, I could transfer my characters from the GBC to the N64 version here as well. Excellent.

Mario Power Tennis:

Get your rainbow out of my tennis game! What the heck?!

I was very happy with the announcement of Mario Power Tennis, the GameCube Mario Tennis game, but after playing it I realized they did exactly what I feared: They added too many Mario gimmicks. Now every character had both a special power smash and a special power save that made the game really, really annoying. When playing a computer character, you keep hitting back and forth until you charge up your special power smash, then you let it fly, only to have the computer use their special power save and hit the ball back from anywhere on the court. This exchange would inevitably happen in reverse directly after, meaning any strategy was thrown right out the window in favor of just not messing up until the computer allowed you to have an opening to score a point. While it wasn’t a bad game, it pushed the limits of what I’d allow a game to do to me. But things were only getting started.

Mario Superstar Baseball:

Baseball's cool and all, but a cheating computer totally isn't.

By the time they announced Mario Superstar Baseball for the GameCube, it seemed almost like a complete instance of “Well duh.” The roster of Mario characters had swelled over the years, especially post-Mario Sunshine, meaning there were more than enough characters to fill out two full baseball teams. “Excellent,” I thought. “Time to get me excited for baseball in the same way Mario Golf and Mario Tennis had got me into those sports.” That didn’t happen this time. While Superstar Baseball wasn’t awful, it was ridiculously difficult due to one simple flaw: the game would cheat. The manual said the game wasn’t PROGRAMMED to cheat, but that if it was losing, it would shift variables in its favor. I found myself at the game’s mercy during one particular final game against Bowser where I was up by 9 runs in the top of the ninth inning. I was going to shut Bowser’s team out, no question about it. And then all of a sudden Bowser’s team scored a triple play on me without any warning. The bottom of the ninth came, Bowser’s team stepped up to bat, and they proceeded to hit ten homeruns in a row. I could do nothing to trick the computer with pitches or fielding. I just had to sit back and accept the loss. And I wasn’t even playing on the harder difficulty settings. What the heck?

Super Mario Strikers:

Wow, soccer suddenly looks really cool. How'd they do that?

Soccer? Mario? Sure, why the heck not? I heard that Mario would be getting a soccer game and I was skeptical but at the same time I was hopeful since someone at Nintendo Power mentioned that Strikers was like Smash Bros in soccer form. That was definitely the right thing to say to me, so when Strikers came out I made sure to rent it and see if it was really all that worth it or not. And I can definitely say that it made for a good rental game, though I’m glad I didn’t buy it since, yes, the core game was fun, but it was very, very limited. There weren’t a lot of characters and really not too much strategy beyond “Use your team captain’s special kick as soon as you reach half-field,” but it was still fun. And it also solidified something very odd for me: Mario characters have genitalia. How did I learn this? Because Waluigi would make the classic “Suck it” motion after scoring a goal. This motion only makes sense if there is something implied that you can suck, so infer from that what you will. You can come to your own conclusion for $7.

All the Others:

Let it be known that the ball Mario is about to dunk is also on fire. That counts for something.

Now, I realize it’s cheap to lump another eight or some odd games into this category here, including the Mario Golf and Tennis games for the Game Boy Advance, the Wii versions of Tennis, Strikers, and Sluggers, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, and the Mario Basketball game for the DS, but to be honest, I either have nothing to say about them since they’re exactly the same as their counterparts on other systems, or I haven’t played them. Specifically, I’ve played the Wii ports of Strikers and Sluggers and both of them were basically exactly like the GameCube versions except the controls were slightly different and slightly broken. Other than that, I’ll leave the job of talking about these titles to someone in the comments section, so go nuts.

Overall, Mario has hit every sport now except for football. Everything else has been covered, if even for the briefest of moments in a Mario Party game. Oh hey, we’ve got some Mario Party games to talk about, don’t we? That’ll be tomorrow. For now, leave a comment and hit the showers.

To catch up on the Mario Retrospective, check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.

Want to read more about Mario? He’s found in these articles here:

-Mario: A Retrospective Part 7

-Tips From a Grandmaster: Super Mario Galaxy 2

-Let’s Think Deep: Rethinking Remakes

Inventing a new genre that'd get copied again and again.

Did you think I forgot about my Mario Retrospective? Absolutely not. Now that I’ve taken some time off, it seems only fitting I should jump back in with something a bit different. In the last three installments I covered 2D platformers, 3D platformers, and the spin-off series. Today? Pedal to the metal, let’s hit Mario Kart.

Super Mario Kart:

Something about the classics just makes me feel good inside.

The SNES was just a monster when it came to game pedigrees. While Mario began in the arcades, the first time he and his fellow cast members would hop behind the wheel of go-karts and race happens in Super Mario Kart on the SNES, the first and only Mario Kart game with the word “Super” in the title. It was fairly simplistic with only eight characters, Mario, Luigi, Toadstool, Toad, Yoshi, Bowser, D.K. Jr, and Koopa Troopa, and tracks that were more about just racing than any real gimmicks. Still, the building blocks were set in place for what would become something far larger in just a single console leap. The original can be downloaded on the Virtual Console or picked up from Amazon for under $15.

Mario Kart 64:

Whoa, that was just one console leap? Sweet.

The first game I had on the N64, Mario Kart 64 was one of the biggest leaps I’ve ever seen a series take from the first to the second game. It was such a large jump that I can’t stand going back to Super Mario Kart since it feels dated. Mario Kart 64 was just too good of a jump. All the tracks became far more elaborate and diverse, from the hazardous Bowser’s Castle stage to the laid-back D.K. Jungle Park stage. Once again there were only eight characters, but Koopa Troopa was ousted by Wario. Technically, D.K. Jr was replaced by D.K. but that’s just splitting hairs. Also, Toadstool continued going under her newly official US name “Peach,” a transition that happened so nicely in Super Mario 64. Basically, Mario Kart 64 would be hard to beat. It’s also on the Virtual Console or on Amazon for under $20.

Mario Kart: Super Circuit:

Certainly impressive for the GBA.

Okay, technically another Mario Kart game with the word “super” in it, Super Circuit for the GBA was the first time the series went handheld. While keeping the character roster from the 64 version, the tracks and gameplay were much closer to the original SNES version, even with some retro tracks thrown in. For me, the controls were extremely difficult to get used to. Not to say they were bad, just that it took a while to really master this game properly. I never did get good enough to achieve a gold trophy in each cup, but I played this portable title to death. A used copy on Amazon will run you under $10.

Mario Kart: Double Dash!!:

Hey, nothing wrong with trying something new.

Here’s where I’ll pick up at least some flack from gamers: I absolutely loved Double Dash for the GameCube. While it isn’t my favorite Mario Kart game (we’ll get to that), it’s pretty darn close. The whole reasoning is how much I played this one in an attempt to unlock everything I could. I definitely managed to unlock my fair share of extras at the end of my GameCube career and got good enough to take on most challengers. Double Dash got its name for the fact that a player now controlled two characters in a single kart where one would drive and the other would carry a spare item. Tons of new characters got added such as Daisy and (here’s more flack) Waluigi, a character I actually like. This is just an awesome game. I’d still say this is the best console version of Mario Kart, so check it out on Amazon for under $15.

Mario Kart DS:

Sometimes, though, simplicity is best.

This is my favorite Mario Kart game, without question. It was the first game I bought for my DS and the first game I played online consistently. No more two-to-a-kart business, replaced with the classic style that everyone loved. Each character, of which there were once again many, had multiple karts exclusive to them. The controls were absolutely perfect, too. Races came down to simple skill and whether or not you had it. Except…sigh…snaking. The whole reason I stopped playing online was due to the rampant use of a technique called “snaking” which was done by taking advantage of the drift boost you could get. Except people found a way to use this perpetually during a match, meaning they were constantly past top speed an entire race and I could never catch up, no matter how perfect a race I played. They’d just boost down the straight-aways, looking like they’re winding down the track like a snake, and I’d have no chance to win. Still, for single play or with friends it’s my highest recommendation. Amazon has some good deals on new copies and a few used for $18.

Mario Kart Wii:

While not the best, those new tracks were pretty awesome.

The most recent Mario Kart game is where I think the series jumped the shark. The game isn’t awful, and in fact it goes out of its way to eliminate snaking altogether, something I was very happy with, plus it added motorbikes, a features I thought was incredibly cool. But there’s no worse instance of a game being broken on a fundamental level when it comes to a race. Sitting in first place is the least enjoyable place to be in Mario Kart Wii. You won’t get any good items, everyone else will be firing super weapons at you, and half of the time the game will just slingshot opponents past you for the heck of it. Few other games punish you for doing good. And even worse, there are characters and karts that can only be unlocked by beating cups with fast times, something that all comes down to luck in the end. Regardless, there’s a lot of fun here, assuming you’re playing with friends for fun, or even online using a pretty good implementation of the Wii’s online capabilities. If all you’ve got is a Wii, you can’t go wrong here. And ironically, Amazon’s selling the game cheaper new than used at $39.99 for a new copy, silly Wii Wheel included.

Alright, that checks off the Mario Karts from the retrospective. So what’s next? There’re still parties, sports, and RPG’s, so come back soon and see what gets covered next. But of course, what would this article be without me asking for some of your personal Mario Kart memories? Did you have sleepless nights with friends playing Mario Kart 64 like I did? Or did you engage in your own tournaments? Leave a comment and let me know. And just to be nice, I won’t even throw a blue shell at the first commenter.

Can’t get enough Mario? You can read more about him in these articles:

-Mario: A Retrospective Part 5

-The Top 10 Video Game Quotes That Need To Die

-Games You Should Have Played: Super Mario Galaxy

Man, it is so on now.

We’re knee deep in my memories of Mario, and now that both the 2D platforming and 3D platforming aspects of Mario’s career are out of the way, I figured I’d give him a break and focus on some of the other stars Mario has made along the way. This part is all about the spin-offs. We’re talking Luigi, Yoshi, Wario, and Peach. So what did they do that was so great? Well, let’s take a look.

Yoshi’s Island:

Remember, in the Mario Universe, babies come from The Stork. Apparently.

A lot of people were wondering what Nintendo’s next move after Super Mario World would be, and as usual, the next move wasn’t an expected one. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island came out for the SNES as a platformer, but the main character wasn’t really Mario, it was Yoshi. Mario was still there as a baby riding on Yoshi’s back, but he wasn’t necessarily a happy inclusion since whenever Yoshi was attacked, Mario would begin crying. Suddenly everyone learned to hate Mario, a feat that isn’t easy to accomplish.

Whining babies aside, Yoshi’s Island did its own thing, establishing Yoshi’s traits and abilities for years to come, such as his ability to shoot eggs, flutter for short distances, and perform a ground pound, a move that Mario wouldn’t even learn until Super Mario 64. But probably the best moment of Yoshi’s Island came at the end during the fight against Baby Bowser. The term “epic” gets thrown around constantly during video game discussions, but the final battle truly was. Go check this one out for the usual reasonable Amazon price.

Yoshi’s Story:

There's an art style you don't see every day. Why don't we?

Yoshi somewhat missed out when Mario 64 came out, being included only as that pitiful 100% completion reward, albeit unusable. He wouldn’t get his next big featuring until Yoshi’s Story, a game that was surprisingly looked over due to it’s more colorful nature and definite E rating. Still, you’ll have a hard time finding a better-looking game on the 64.

Gone was Mario, completely absent in Yoshi’s new adventure. Baby Bowser would make a return, but no Mario whatsoever. It was nice to be free of that shrill cry when hit by enemies, replaced instead with sounds of Yoshi nomming fruits left and right. While a typical playthrough of the game didn’t take very long and wasn’t all that hard, to unlock all 24 levels was just brutally difficult and only the best Yoshi players could manage the task. My wife, the Yoshi Master, did this without any trouble. Keep in mind, she’s also the only one of the two of us to have a 100% completion score in Yoshi’s Island, so I suppose not everyone is capable of something this challenging. Otherwise, the Virtual Console has this one as well as Amazon for around $10.

The Wario Land Series:

It's like if Mario just let himself go for a while.

Wario gets introduced as the villain of Super Mario Land 2, but after his defeat he next shows up as, of all things, the main hero of Super Mario Land 3, subtitled Wario Land. Thus began Wario’s individual career separate of his archrival, and while the first game was doing everything it could to separate itself from Mario, it still felt like a Mario game. Wario had power-ups and platforming similar to a Mario game, but the emphasis was placed much higher on treasure collecting. Collecting all the treasures and enough coins would reward Wario with a larger castle in the end, possibly even a planet if you were good enough. Mario made his one cameo at the end of the first game, just to spite Wario more or less, but after that Wario was all on his own.

The games after the first really separated Wario from Mario by making him invincible in some instances, placing a higher value on the power-ups as a means to progress and definitely on the treasure collecting. These days you couldn’t even recognize Wario’s games next to Mario’s, making him his own franchise. Still, the first Wario Land game is a fun place to start. Heck, you can get it for under $3.

The Warioware Series:

Do you understand what's happening here? Trick question, because no you don't.

But Wario wouldn’t just be content with platforming. Nope, he’d invent a whole new genre of games with the Warioware series, known for the incredible abundance of mini-games fired at lightning speeds. Each mini-game lasts for less than 5 seconds in some cases with a simple instruction like “Pick” or “Land” or “Chop” or something like that, purposefully disorienting you to make the challenge that much greater. Add to this a weird factor I can’t do justice to in words and you have yourself a winner.

The Warioware series would have a number of imitators over the years, as well as it’s own sequels whenever a new piece of Nintendo technology was introduced, such as the DS’ touch screen, tilt sensors for the GBA, or the Wii’s motion controls. For me though, my favorite game was the GameCube version. The controls lacked a gimmick, which I was fine with, but is supported excellent multiplayer. Take advantage of its obscurity and pick it up on Amazon while you have the chance.

Luigi’s Mansion:

A simple concept that turned out to be extremely enjoyable. Bravo on the launch title!

A lot of people were disappointed to learn that Mario wouldn’t be starting the GameCube off as a launch title, but rather his green-clad brother, Luigi. He wouldn’t even be platforming. Instead, Luigi was thrown into a ghost-busting adventure in a haunted mansion and while most people couldn’t get into the concept, I was amazed with what the new hardware could do. The lighting effects were amazing, as well as some of the finer graphical points. But people just couldn’t get past the obvious omission of Mario.

Mario was in the game though. The whole point of Luigi going to the mansion in the first place was that Mario was missing, except this time it didn’t include geography and learning, thank God. It was all about Luigi going room-to-room with a vacuum cleaner that could suck up ghosts. I’m still wondering where the sequel for the Wii is since it seems like a no-brainer of a concept. Flashlight? Perfect for motion controls. Vacuum cleaner? Also perfect for motion controls. Where is this game Nintendo? Oh well, the original’s a steal wherever you go looking for it, and as usual, I recommend checking Amazon first.

Super Princess Peach:

If you don't give this one a chance just because the main character's a girl, you fail at video games.

What’s this? The Princess is the main character, not Mario or even Luigi? Yes, Peach got her first taste of stardom with Super Princess Peach, a platformer with its own style. I spent this last December tracking down a copy for my wife as a Christmas gift, and naturally I had to play it was soon as she was done. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that not only wasn’t the game lame, it was pretty darned good.

My only major gripe is the lack of a resolution to the umbrella’s story. They set up Peach’s umbrella sidekick with its own backstory, but they never really resolve it. At the end of the game Peach saves Mario and that’s that. No closure, not even with a 100% completion ending. Even if you have a slight curiosity, please do get this one. It gave me a solid week’s worth of gaming and I enjoyed every minute of it, more or less. Save some time and just take the online route rather than the painful trek I had from store-to-store.

Those are the main Mari spin-offs I played, though there are a lot more, believe you me. Yoshi, naturally, has a handful of games I didn’t even mention. And Wario only got a small section despite his dozen or so games. Of course, my Mario retrospective isn’t over yet. We’ve still got sports, karts, and RPG’s to talk about, but that’s something for another day. Come back late next week to read part 4. In the meantime, leave some more Mario comments, this time on his side-characters and the also-rans of the series. What is your favorite spin-off series? Or do you even bother? Me, I’ll just wait patiently for Luigi’s Mansion 2. I may just be waiting for a while.

Need more Mario? You can find him in these articles:

-Mario: A Retrospective Part 4

-10 Games To Play on Thanksgiving

-Games You Should Have Played: Super Mario Bros 3

Makotron's commemorative Mario poster, as seen from Deviant Art here, is just one of those images I can stare at for hours on end.

I started my Mario retrospective off yesterday by covering Mario’s 2D platforming career, taking him from the arcades through the more recent offering on the DS. I left off saying that I’d have to do a second part all about his 3D adventures, so that’s where we’re at for today. Here-a we go!

Super Mario 64:

Conglaturations! You've completed a great game and prooved the justice of our society!

Nintendo had a heavy burden on their hands when the N64 was announced. Suddenly, games were capable of more than 8 and 16-bit graphics. Everything was shifting towards polygons. Even more, platforming had to enter the realm of 3D if it was expected to survive. How could Nintendo ever rise to the challenge?

Enter Super Mario 64, a launch title with the N64, quite possibly the finest launch title to prove that, yes, this system was necessary, last proved with Super Mario World on the SNES and Super Mario Bros on the NES. Mario just had a knack for knowing the right things to do on every new console. But moving from 2D to 3D? How simple could that really be? Turns out extremely simple.

While Mario 64 certainly has some slip-ups, such as the awful reward for obtaining all 120 stars, the overall package is beyond solid. The gameplay, the real thing to judge it on, placed the 3D platforming bar higher than most games could clear on their first try, if ever. Fluid controls just made everything perfect. Mario was built without anything restricting his movements and adding a fairly simple camera only made the experience (mostly) easy going.

Naturally, Mario 64 wasn’t a complete walk through the park (cliché writing metaphor #76). It was brutally difficult at some times, especially the 100 coin challenges on each level. Those were just cruel at times, leaving you a mere coin or two away from the 100 but ruthlessly killing you like it took some sick pleasure from seeing you waste your time. Overall though, it’s a Must Play, and it’s easy to find on either the Virtual Console or Amazon for a price that’s reasonable for anyone.

Super Mario Sunshine:

After all the work he's done, yeah, he's earned this one.

The GameCube was announced and many people were wondering where Mario 128 was. Naturally, we as gamers thought the only possible title for the follow-up to Mario 64 could be Mario 128, because we’re just that blatantly stupid. Also, Nintendo made the mistake of showing a tech demo that included dozens of Marios on screen at once, leading people to believe that it was footage from the sequel.

While the GameCube didn’t launch with a true Mario game, it did get one within a year of release. Super Mario Sunshine came out to a willing crowd, but sadly, many of these diehards proved they didn’t have it in them anymore. And it all comes down to F.L.U.D.D.

See, the big gimmick with Sunshine was the waterpack on Mario’s back that allowed him to spray water and hover over gaps. A lot of people thought this dumbed the controls down, though the sections where F.L.U.D.D. was taken from you were just ungodly difficult in a good way. Still, most people hate this game relentlessly because it involved Mario cleaning Isle Delfino, a resort island, due to his wrongful conviction of polluting everything.

Honestly, I loved Sunshine for the exact reasons people hated it. I liked the idea that it was a game with a theme. Usually, Mario games always have a grass level, a mountain level, a sky level, a fire level, a water level, a snow level, and a sand level, among others. Sunshine had a fully realized theme for the whole game of “island resort” with beaches, waterfalls, amusement parks, and even a tourist village or two. I always thought this concept was really cool. I liked the feel, like I was on a Mario vacation. Simple, fun, great. Still, I’m not everyone, but I still rank Sunshine highly on my list of Must Play GameCube games. Especially now, look it up on Amazon for significantly less than the price of a new game. You’ll definitely get your money’s worth.

Super Mario Galaxy:

I think the Ice Mario power-up may have been my favorite from that game. I don't think I mentioned that before.

Finally we come to now. When I heard the concept for Mario Galaxy I was very skeptical. I thought, “How are they going to pull off a space theme?” Turns out Nintendo was quite aware how they’d do this. Lucky for you, you already know my thoughts on Super Mario Galaxy from my previous article covering just that. Also, don’t forget that Super Mario Galaxy 2 is coming out next month. That’s one month from pretty much right now. I wrote a preview article to let you know, remember?

Here’s my last little bit of advice: If you haven’t played Super Mario Galaxy, but you own a Wii, correct this and get it from Amazon today. Then, after you’ve realized how great the first Mario Galaxy is, preorder the sequel. Here’s the best part of the deal: A preorder of Mario Galaxy 2 from Amazon gives you a $20 credit for your next purchase. You better believe I’m using that for Metroid: Other M. Listen to me here. I worked for Game Crazy, so I know how frustrating getting hassled to preorder things is. This is one deal I fully endorse, and one I don’t get reprimanded on if I’m not making numbers, if that gives you an idea of my sincerity.

That about covers all things Mario right? Wrong. We’ve only just begun. All the “official” Mario series games are out of the way, but I haven’t gotten into the sports franchises, the parties, or the karts. Which to do first? Come back tomorrow and you’ll see for yourself. In the meantime, share some Mario memories in the comment section. I’m not just talking to hear myself talk. I mean, you can’t even hear anything in space anyway, which is where I am at the moment preparing for Galaxy 2. Just don’t forget my advice.

Still need more Mario? You can find him in these articles, too:

-Mario: A Retrospective Part 3

-Well Duh I Liked It: A Review of Super Mario Galaxy 2

-Tips From a Grandmaster: Super Mario Galaxy 2

Remember, Leon has proven that Kung Fu is an acceptable defence against zombie-ish villagers.

If you’ve been following me on Twitter (which you should), you may have noticed that I’ve been playing Resident Evil 5. I’ll have a full article on that tomorrow but for now I’m more concerned with its predecessor, Resident Evil 4. RE4 is without question one of the best games of all time and easily within my top 10, if not top 5. Why was that? Well hold on because I’m about to tell you since RE4 is today’s Game You Should Have Played.

A Classic By Any Other Name

The Resident Evil series is regarded by many to have begun the survival horror genre in video games. The games themselves, while being classics, aren’t exactly what you’d consider fantastic. Characters are stiff, the camera is a pain to deal with, and the dialogue can be laughably awful. Despite all this, the series pushed forward as an overwhelming success for years to come with a few sequels, some prequels, and more remakes than I’d care to remember. Problem was, after a while the formula became somewhat tired and dated. Enter Resident Evil 4 to change all that.

And enter this thing to make you hate your life again.

RE4 takes Leon Kennedy, last seen in RE2, and sends him to a rural village in Spain, tasking him with rescuing the President’s daughter, Ashley. It’s simple enough, but within a few minutes Leon has explained the needed backstory of the series and fallen into a heck of a lot of trouble involving the local villagers being possessed by something called Las Plagas. They are not zombies, though you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference from a few feet away.

You don’t Need Much Backstory For a Game Like This

The story itself is nice since it takes the series and decides it doesn’t have to be in a mansion or Raccoon City at all. In fact, it doesn’t have to be anywhere near any of those things, nor anything relating to the Raccoon City Incident or the T-Virus. Wonderful. I went in to RE4 having no clue to the series’ story and that has made all the difference.

Sure it's cheap to use a rocket launcher against zombie-ish monks, but hey, they started it.

Also gone are the series’ rigid controls and camera. No more pre-rendered background to deal with, breaking way to allow Leon full roam of his space. The camera stays over his shoulder, a style used all over after RE4, and allows you to aim with a surprising amount of accuracy. This is where the series becomes less about survival horror and more about action horror, but I’m all in favor of such a shift. Let Silent Hill deal with the actual scary things; I’m fine with a gun that can do some damage if I need.

One of the other big contributors to the shift is the inclusion of Quicktime Events within actual Cut Scenes. You’ve heard me complain about Quicktime Events in numerous articles at this point, but RE4 was still early on in the use of such a game mechanic, especially in a Cut Scene. They were smooth and original for the time, and the knife fight scene is still one of the game’s highlights, but they never overstayed their welcome. They just ensured you were paying attention even when characters were talking.

No other game has completely reenergized a series the same way RE4 has. It was such a hit with critics and gamers, Capcom decided to break their promise with Nintendo to keep it a GameCube exclusive and ported it right over to the PS2. Naturally, as soon as the Wii showed up, RE4 found its way over to the new platform with updated controls and extras. There are even versions for the iPhone and the PC. Essentially, I’m telling you that you have no good excuse for not having played Resident Evil 4 unless you’re a kid since, yes, it is very gory. I had a heck of a time finding screenshots that didn’t contain extremely graphic violence, so thank me for that.

"Yes Ashley, please, step in that bear trap. That's real helpful."

Everything about RE4 is near perfect with everything it does. Sure, having to take care of Ashley is rather frustrating, especially when you get through a tough section only to accidentally knife her and get a Game Over. But otherwise the characters are enjoyable, the setting is eerie enough without getting too bogged down in itself, and you never feel cheated by the game at any point. Bosses are still fun and the difficulty is high but fair, plus there is heavy replay value due to unlockable weapons and such. Also, the Mercenaries mode just ate hours of my time.

I just can’t recommend RE4 enough. RE5 on the other hand…well that’s an article left for tomorrow.

I still place this above most other games. Can anything change my mind?

I love video games. I play them frequently (and sometimes write about them, as you may have noticed). I always get excited with every new Mario and Zelda game, or anything that seems to interest me beyond a simple, “Oh, that looks like a fun game to rent.” But when I get down to it I always inevitably say to myself, “Yeah, this is good, but it’s no Mario Bros 3/Ocarina of Time/Final Fantasy 6.” Why is that? I know I’m not the only one to think this way. We’ve got to a point where we’re demanding games replicate our favorites from the past, but when they can’t we throw a fit. Can we ever make a new “Perfect Game?” Let’s Think Deep.

The Problem With Perfection

A good recent game to use as a jumping point here is New Super Mario Bros Wii, a game that borrows heavily from the classic Mario games, specifically Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World. It seems almost like a “greatest hits” from the 2-D Mario platformers. I loved it. I wrote about this on more than one occasion. I stand by my statements. But I didn’t like it as much as Mario Bros 3. Why? Because it wasn’t Mario Bros 3. That’s not a very fair thing to say, but it just didn’t wow me like Mario Bros 3 did when I was a wee child. Perhaps the nostalgic aspect got in the way and forced me to find a qualifier somewhere, so that when I said, “This game is amazing!” it didn’t somehow, in some way, obliterate the memories of my childhood past. I simply can’t allow myself to like a Mario game more than 3, purely because I remember childhood as something wonderful and the world today as something bleak. How can something from a place that’s bleak outshine something from a world that was wonderful?

Can I ever separate this moment from my mind when playing new Zelda titles?

The same problem presented itself when I played through Twilight Princess. I thought Twilight Princess was one of the best Zelda games, let alone best games, I’d ever played. I’d rank it somewhere within my top 15 games of all time. But I couldn’t bring myself to like it more than Ocarina of Time. “Oh wow, this is so cool! Uh, but, Ocarina was better.” Was it really? It’s impossible to tell since at the time of its release, Ocarina of Time was the absolute peak of adventure-style video gaming. It was, to me (and many others), the perfect game. If you’ve never played it before and try playing it now, you might not really agree with that statement. In fact, you may think I’m crazy for ever liking the game in the first place. It just holds so much of my childhood in it that it becomes hard to separate it from what it is and how I remember it.

Retro Is In

There has been a big push from major developers as of late to search back through their “classic” games and find some gold to resell, either in a remake of the classic or in a straight port to one of the online networks. Nintendo hit on a great concept with the Virtual Console, an online marketplace devoted almost entirely to selling us out treasured memories back for a reasonable price. Both the Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Network have gotten into this, even offering games from more recent past. One of my best friends is playing Final Fantasy VII for the first time now that he’s downloaded it from the Playstation Network. He’s so devoted to playing it that he’s selling me his other new purchase, Fable II, for $15. Is he liking it? Well, he’s found numerous gripes, of which I can agree with, but he’s still playing it for some reason. It just isn’t as amazing for him as it was for me.

You can download this right now on the Virtual Console for $10. Why haven't you?

Why is that? Final Fantasy VII is regarded as one of the greats, so how can anyone dislike it now? It all has to do with timing. I played it first when I was still relatively new to RPG’s. It was also the first game I played on my Playstation. I fell in love with the characters and really cared about what would happen in the story. The only commitments I had while playing it were to school (which was unimportant to me), and nothing else. I didn’t need sleep so long as I had a mission to do and a Sephiroth to defeat. I was able to look past all the flaws and see nothing but a fantastic game. When I try and play it now I can’t even get myself past the first disc, let alone finish the game.

So back to New Super Mario Bros Wii: People have a gripe with it for failing to be as good as its predecessors. I don’t think that’s quite fair. I especially hate hearing that it’s just a rehash of previous games since it’s a new freaking game with new levels and new power-ups and all that jazz. It’s a new game, just with references back to other games in the franchise. It knows where it’s coming from, but it’s willing to at least try to do something new within the established old. Why? Because fans love this sort of thing. That game has sold millions of copies –MILLIONS- and I have a feeling it wasn’t because people were just settling for whatever they could get their hands on. No, fans snatched it up by the mustache-loads because it was a good game that reminded them of something they loved from their past.

Is this the best selection of bosses you'll ever find? Hard to tell.

Capcom has been perfecting this for a while now, what with their final definitive release of Street Fighter II, a game that pretty much everyone who wanted to buy it already had. Still, it was a big success. They did the same thing with Marvel Vs. Capcom 2. They also tried bringing Bionic Commando into the new age with a big-budget new entry in the series, which ultimately flopped. However, their HD remake of said game was a huge success. A while ago they released a new Mega Man game with 8-bit graphics and an 8-bit soundtrack. And people downloaded it like…well I’ll tell you what that analogy is when you’re older, kids. It did so well that Mega Man 10 has just been announced and will follow suit with the same style and everything. Retro is in. But why?

You Can’t Change The Past

As I said, people can’t let go of their childhoods. A lot of really good games have come out in the past year (Arkham Asylum, Uncharted 2, Mario & Luigi 3, just to name a few), yet none of those will be on any “Best Games Ever” lists. The most recent “new” game to start appearing on those lists is Resident Evil 4, a game that Capcom ported from the GameCube to the PS2 and then the Wii since it had done so well. Final Fantasy XIII comes out in mere days, but will fans place it above all the others? Very doubtful. They’ll find something to gripe about, purely because it isn’t the game they first played and it isn’t the game they first loved. I want to say that Super Smash Bros Brawl is better than Melee, because it is, but I can’t force myself to say it. Something about admitting that the game I spent so much time and energy loving is now inferior is just something I can’t do.

I would gladly be forced to play this game for the rest of my life and only this game. I loved it that much.

And there may lie the problem of creating the perfect game. Companies will never be able to top their most successful games. Mario Bros 3 will still be Mario’s best side-scrolling adventure whereas Mario 64 will be the best 3D platformer period. Ocarina of Time trumps just about every adventure game out there. Final Fantasy 6 or 7 will always be favored over the new titles coming out. Even games that are similar to games in other series will always seem inferior. Shadow of the Colossus was and is one of the best game experiences I’ve ever had. Oops, someone at one point called it the “Zelda Killer.” Silly them, now no Zelda fan will ever love it more than their favorite Zelda title. I went out of my way to hate the game even before it was released on the grounds that it was blaspheming my beloved series. First Person Shooters keep getting touted as “Halo Killers” and so far there have been few to even come close to the mighty throne, with only Modern Warfare being the apparent rightful heir. It seems a surefire way to prevent your game from ever being considered one of the greats is to proudly proclaim that it already is. No one will allow that.

So can we create the perfect game? No, no such game exists. Even the mighty Ocarina of Time has major flaws. No matter what someone makes, someone else will always find a reason to dislike it. It seems to me that the best way to make something near a “perfect game” is to make something unlike anything that’s come before it. Sure, borrow attributes if you need to, but don’t do it so much that people are forced to compare it straight-paralleled to another game. If you can make something without any constraints then it might just excel to new heights. The task of doing that, though, is nigh impossible. You have better luck just staying with what works. Why is it you think Nintendo is so reluctant to create new IP’s in favor of new Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon games? Because people will buy the new games in the franchise no matter what, even if they don’t think it’ll be better than the games they remember. But they’ll always hope.

What do you consider the perfect game? I think Super Mario Bros 3 is as close as one can come to perfection. Ocarina of Time is clearly a favorite of mine as well, but I understand when someone isn’t interested there. But what are your favorites? Do you have a game that you’re certain is perfect? Do you feel that Mega Man 2 got it right and all the games afterward just couldn’t live up to it? Do you think that Modern Warfare 2 perfected the multiplayer standard in a game? Do you believe that World of Warcraft is the end-all for MMORPG’s from now until forever? I bet you know what comes next: Leave a comment. I can’t find out any insight if you don’t give me some. The button’s right there, so use it to enlighten me further. I implore you.

Is the Wii a bad system? Let's Think Deep.

At this moment in time, the Nintendo Wii is set up to be known as the “winner” of the current console cycle due to the unexpected amount of sales and complete reversal from the previous console cycle. I for one couldn’t be happier for reasons I’ll get to eventually. Regardless of sales numbers, the Wii is nearly universally panned by gamers due to the high amount of shovelware populating the system. But does that make it a bad system? It got me thinking. What exactly makes a system good? Sounds to me like this would be a good opportunity for us to Think Deep. So Let’s, hmm?

“But The System Has So Many Bad Games”

The complaint I hear most often regarding the Wii has to do with the controls. Specifically, they don’t work. Publishers constantly release games that force the player to use either the Wiimote motion controls or even worse the Balance Board from Wii Fit that “works” about 25% of the time. This results in games that would otherwise end up being decent games turned into broken messes. It was a Godsend when Nintendo decided that Smash Bros Brawl would support GameCube controllers in addition to just about every other controller type they had. The complaint about controls is a valid one, but that doesn’t instantly mean the system is bad.

Right now we have the luxury of living in an age where there are three perfectly excellent systems to choose from. Even better is the effect the Internet has had on everything since reviews can come out before a game is even released, meaning that you know whether a game will be good or not. Think back to the time of the NES when the only system you could choose from was the NES. It wasn’t very simple to get reviews or news about specific games, so when you went to buy or rent a game, you did so almost entirely on the artwork and the description on the back of the box. How many NES games do you think were great? The NES was full of shovelware titles, as someone like the Angry Video Game Nerd can attest to, but I doubt anyone would ever call it a “bad system.”

Are you going to be the one to say the NES sucked? I don't think so.

Now we have the ability to know everything about a game before we even play it, plus there is an excess of reviewers out there contributing to the overall rating of a game (thankfully my silly little summaries aren’t counted in a game’s Metascore). The bad games get more press than they used to and the numbers we’re dealing with are heavily skewed. Simply put, the rating system isn’t perfect right now, but it does give us the ability to know more about our games in a way we didn’t have 20 years ago.

The Hardships of Luxury

So what does this mean for our friend the Wii? It means that everyone knows when a bad game comes out and gives the gaming community an opportunity to see the system’s shortcomings. The question remains though, “What makes a system good or bad?” Do bad games make a system bad? No, otherwise every system would be considered awful. As of now, all systems are roughly within the same general average game rating area between 65 and 75%, and that number is constantly shifting as new games come out. While the Wii may not be at the top of the list, it doesn’t mean it’s a crummy system.

The is the counter-argument for any Xbot speaking ill of the Wii.

Here’s the thing: People believe their favorite system is the best because it’s their favorite. What are your favorite games? If you love God of War and Metal Gear Solid, you probably believe that the PS3 is the best system and the other two are inferior. Huge on Halo and Gears of War? The 360 is clearly the best. Are you like me and love Mario and Zelda? How could the Wii not be the best system out right now? It’s all relative to what you like playing most.

To answer why I’m happy to see the Wii in first place right now, it all has to do with my favorite games. No, I don’t think the Wii is the best system out there, but I do consistently prefer it’s biggest and best games, such as Super Mario Galaxy, Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime 3, and especially Smash Bros Brawl. I’m ecstatic to hear that Nintendo’s doing so well because it means my favorite franchises will be around for a long time to come.

This is very much like the Console Wars of the early 90’s where it was either SNES or Genesis for the win. It didn’t matter what people said one way or the other about graphics or sound; it came down to whether you liked Sonic or Mario better and that was the decider. After the Genesis, Sega sort of lost its mind and ran everything that’s considered good about it into the ground. Sure, the Dreamcast was a nice glimmer, but it still failed due to Sega’s poor tactics in regards to marketing and just plain doing their fanbase justice. It’s only just now that they’ve announced Sonic 4, a game that fans have been telling them to make for over 10 years. I just can’t imagine the amount of agony a Sonic fan must have endured for over a decade, watching Mario fans get more or less exactly what they want while Sonic turns into a Werehog (which would mean “Man-hog” by the way).

Like him or not, this guy has ridiculous staying power.

The Year of The Usual Promises

2010 is promising to be a big one once again as Microsoft is releasing Project Natal and Sony is releasing whatever the heck its motion controller is called. If the Wii’s controls make it a bad system, why are its competitors, companies run by intelligent people, rushing to match the same “gimmick” that defines the system? Money, of course. The Wii has managed to bring in a share of the market that was previously untapped and created new gamers from the casual sector. If this means I have to deal with a few dozen shovelware titles so that I get a new Metroid this year, so be it.

It’s becoming very tiresome to hear every company or analyst decide that “2010 is the Year of the PS3” or the “Age of the Xbox” or whatever. Do systems ever have a year that is undeniably its year? Other than the Atari or the NES? And even if it has a good year, does it instantly make up for the previous years or any years to come? No, it’s just a gage for fans to based judgment off so that they can argue that their system is winning or losing or what have you. I love the Wii, but I’m currently playing tons of great games on the 360, and in a month I plan to spend an epic weekend with one of my best friends beating God of War III on the PS3. In the meantime, I still spend my nights playing my DS before bed.

So which system do I think is best? I couldn’t tell you. I can’t even decide which I enjoy playing the most. It comes down to my tastes at the time. I am plowing through game after game on the 360 because I missed out on a lot at the beginning of the console cycle, but I keep going back to my Wii to play Brawl every so often. Both systems have a valued place in my home, but I couldn’t tell you which is the better system. I think both have too many faults for me to consider either of them “the best,” but they’re nowhere close to “the worst.”

When Project Natal is released and has the typical smattering of titles built to demonstrate its capabilities and titles built to get money, will it ultimately decide the 360’s fate? No way. Fans will stick around and haters will claim the system is falling apart. It’s a cycle that will never end.

Has there ever been a system that you feel is perfect? For me, I was always happy with my GameCube. It was one of my favorite systems despite its lack of first-placeness. But what are your favorite systems and why? I loved my GameCube because I was addicted to the games and felt its titles were best suited for the sort of games I play. Still, that’s just me. I don’t think we’ll ever have a perfect system, but we can have systems that do what their fans need them to. Now it’s time to hear from the fans, so leave a comment about what makes a system good for you. Represent!

For a guy that's supposed to bear those crystals, he sure does look confused about what a crystal is.

I’m kind of curious about something. How many of you loved Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles on the GameCube? I bought it Day One thinking it was going to be the absolute best game I’d ever play for the rest of my life. I was pretty naïve back then.

Don’t get me wrong though, I absolutely loved the game for what it was and even played through it all again a few years later, but at the time my expectations were sorely unmet, partly because it promised a revolutionary multiplayer experience that cost way too much to enjoy: an experience that I never got a chance to try out since I didn’t have three other friends with Game Boy Advances and GBA Links to the GameCube. Regardless of all that I loved the first Crystal Chronicles game and saw a lot of potential in terms of story. Since then I’ve been waiting for a more substantial Crystal Chronicles title to deliver in terms of story. Well, here it is.

A Game For Some, A Joke For Others

The Crystal Bearers is the new title in the franchise for the Nintendo Wii. I had seen teasers for this one even before the Wii was out and already I was sufficiently psyched up since it looked awesome. Now that the game is finally out I can safely say that if you were like me and wanted the story-driven Crystal Chronicles game, you won’t be severely disappointed. If, however, you were looking for a game with amazing combat or anything, ANYTHING, that resembled either the Final Fantasy games as a whole or the Crystal Chronicles sub-franchise, yeah, move along, nothing to see here. The focus is story and it does it well. There are characters that you’ll like and some you’ll hate, but the point is that they’re all engaging. There is fun to be had.

It's harsh but sometimes the truth can hurt.

Unfortunately, the fun doesn’t go as far with the battle mechanic, though it does churn out a heck of a lot of enjoyable times just playing with whatever you can pick up. The main character, a guy named Layle (because video games need people with crazy names “just because”), is capable of telekinesis, so he goes around levitating things and throwing them around and whatever. Not incredibly deep, but the concept works well enough to get you through the game with a bit of practice. Sadly, the Wiimote will get in your way a few times since, as we’ve figured out by now, it isn’t the perfect controller Nintendo wanted it to be unless you’re playing Metroid Prime 3 or something. Just be happy when it works, which is most of the time, and forget when it has some hiccups. Nod and smile and keep going for sake of the story.

That cactus never stood a chance.

The other big downside is the shortness of the title’s playtime. It is going to sound odd but this is a Final Fantasy game with a very short playtime. I’m talking around 20 hours, roughly. Does that sound short to you? It will, especially since you’ll be enjoying the game so much. Oddly, the short playtime is a very good thing. While not all THAT short, it’s still short enough not to overstay its welcome but long enough to get you addicted to it. I’m not going to say it’s the perfect length, but it strikes a decent balance.

There isn’t a whole lot more to talk about. For a Wii game it looks fantastic as the world is solid and colorful and characters are lively and stand out and all that jazz. I recommend The Crystal Bearers and I’ll leave it at that. Parents, this one’s safe enough for just about any age of youngster out there, so don’t worry about it ruining their minds other than possibly being too “weird” for them to grasp. Still a fun game with a great story to like. For me, I’m satisfied.

They are shooting pure joy from my heart.

Halloween is pretty much here, but for some of us that doesn’t mean much. Why is that? Well we’re too busy playing video games to care what’s happening around us. As a result, we may accidentally pass up the day in lieu of just playing something bright and cheery, but there are other options for us shut-ins that still want to celebrate Halloween with some good atmospheric games. So here are 10 Games You Should Play On Halloween.

Resident Evil 4:

Sure, the first game is great and the most recent installment is pretty good, but Resident Evil 4 knocked my socks off when I first played it on the GameCube all those years ago. It was the perfect mix of fluid gameplay with situations that terrified me to no end due to stuff like, oh, I don’t know, chainsaw wielding zombies or Wolverine-style monsters with their eyes sown shut. I freaked, but I never stopped playing.

The thing about RE4 is that it pushed games to be at least as good as it was by deciding what 3rd-person gameplay should be for shooters and what to expect with quick-time events (one of two games I was actually okay with the silly feature). You can pick up a copy for the GameCube, PS2, or PC, and the Wii has a version with motion controls that work extremely well (Amazon’s got it for under $15). Just do yourself a favor and play through if you haven’t already. Just tell me when you get to Del Lago.

Silent Hill 2:

This is Pyramid Head. This thing should not be.

I was forced to play both Silent Hill 1 and 2 by my friends and I made fun of them the whole way through, especially number 2. And why? Because I didn’t want to let on that I’d probably be crying unless I found a means of coping with fear since Silent Hill 2 throws you into a bad situation and just makes it worse. If you haven’t heard of a Silent Hill game, you probably live a happier life than I, otherwise Amazon has the PS2 version for around $10.

See, Silent Hill is a town that’s cursed since a little girl was pushed to become pure evil and fill the town with demons (yes, I hate it when this happens, too). The combat is awful on purpose as the main character isn’t a great fighter or solider. He just wants to find his dead wife because she told him to meet him in Silent Hill (if your dead anything ever says this, don’t go). You will see horrible things and you will hear horrible things and by the end of the game you will have had to do horrible things and you won’t sleep with the lights off for a while. Seriously, if you ever want to terrify someone who’s played a Silent Hill game, flick off the lights and blare a disaster siren. They will go hide in a corner; I guarantee it.

Super Ghouls & Ghosts:

And that's about as far as I get.

No, not every game has to be extremely terrifying to make for good Halloween playing. Super Ghouls & Ghosts (and really any entry in the Ghosts & Goblins series), will give you nightmares just realizing you can’t make it past the first level. I’ve put the game on easy, cranked up my lives, and still I couldn’t make it anywhere near the end of the first level. The first level! And I’m not a bad game player. I’ve even beat I Wanna Be The Guy (go search this on Google to see what it is), so you know I’m hardcore.

Super Ghouls & Ghosts has you jump in the shoes of Arthur on a quest to save a princess from a demon. Along the way, Arthur will die and die and die because he will be attacked by every manner of zombie and skeleton and unholy death with only two hits before he dies. If that sounds merciful, it isn’t. Ten hits before death is even being stingy. But the game is still worth playing even if you can’t make it past the first few zombies, so go find this on the SNES or the Virtual Console. In fact, this is so dificult that it looks like people are practically giving away used copies on Amazon for under $4.

Super Castlevania IV:

The box art sort of says it all.

Yes yes and more yes. I’m not going for scary here, I’m just telling you to go play games that put you in a Halloween mood and Super Castlevania IV (so super it needed it in the title), is such a good game that you’d be a fool to just let it pass you buy. It’s on the SNES but also on the Virtual Console, making it an extremely easy and affordable purchase.

Simon Belmont goes toe-to-toe with Dracula yet again, but at this point the structure of the Castlevania games is nearly perfected. The game is tough but fair and beating it yields a sweet sense of accomplishment that games don’t typically give anymore. Just whipping zombies and horrors and Death itself makes this one a game you should be playing anyway.

Luigi’s Mansion:

Don't care; Great game.

There I said it. Go play Luigi’s Mansion, one of the first titles released on the GameCube. It gets a bad rap but the game was great, albeit extremely short. So what better game to play through in a single day? This was Luigi’s big chance to shine (the only other game he’s starred in since Mario Is Missing and that doesn’t count), and while he doesn’t get a chance to stomp Goombas, he does get a chance to rid a haunted mansion of ghosts and spirits and such.

Surprisingly, this was one of the best looking games on the system, and it was a launch title. I always found that strange. You’re going around a mansion filled with ghosts and everything makes spooky noises. It’s cartoony but it works. It’s a small diversion but it pays off, especially since you can probably find this title for $5 at a video game store, Amazon inclued. Just think of it like Ghostbusters but with Luigi instead of Bill Murray.

Ghostbusters The Video Game:

Or heck, why not just play Ghostbusters The Video Game? It’s new this year on the PS3 and Xbox 360 (there is also a pretty good Wii version, too), and if you are wondering, yes, it is just what you’d expect from a Ghostbusters game. And by that I mean it’s awesome.

Those games on the NES from back in the day? Yeah, those sucked. This game is like seeing the 3rd movie that never was (but will be due to the high sales of the game). Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis all reprise their roles for the game, and for a video game that’s simply amazing. You play as the rookie, a nameless new guy that the other Ghostbusters don’t want to get attached to since they think you’ll probably get killed testing out the new equipment. The best part of the game is the humor, but they still don’t skimp on the actual gameplay, which is also great. It’s just the perfect lighthearted Halloween game to play, plus it’s under $20. Good deal.

Eternal Darkness:

No don't try to figure out what they're talking about. You'll just go insane.

But maybe you don’t want lighthearted. Maybe you want to go over the edge with insanity. So go ahead and pop in Eternal Darkness for the GameCube and watch your mind slowly retreat into itself to hide from whatever you’re about to see on the screen. This game was the answer to anyone that ever called the GameCube a kiddie system. You dare challenge me? Snag it on Amazon for $15 and prove me incorrect.

What sets Eternal Darkness above other horror games is the way you play through multiple characters’ doomed stories. You know that each of these characters will die by the end of their chapter, but you want to see where their section of the plot takes them. Naturally, it takes them to the brink of madness as you have both a health meter and a sanity meter to deal with. If your sanity gets too low then weird things start to happen like the TV volume fluctuating, the screen turning on and off, and even a message telling you that your memory card is being erased. I freaked out around the point that my character thought her head fell off and she had to go pick it up. Read that sentence one more time if you didn’t catch that. Oh yeah is this game messed up.

Dead Space:

That hand there isn't going back on any time soon.

Yup, another game for the 360, PS3, and PC with play control similar to Resident Evil 4. You are one of very few survivors left alive on a space mining facility where a plague of alien something or other…yeah, it doesn’t matter. All that’s important is the fact that crazy stuff happens all around you and you have to fight off hellish monsters with futuristic mining equipment. Also, that the game is a Bestseller, meaning it’s only $20 these days.

The main draw here is the ability to sever various limbs from the enemies in order to rendering them unable to walk or attack. Instead of headshots being the best way to go, some enemies had more of a weakness in their legs or midsection or something similar to that, making you have to rethink the genre slightly. Not by much, but just enough to be extremely creepy and keep you playing past every insane challenge that comes up.

Left 4 Dead:

At least the Dead Space guy's hand still had a thumb.

Okay, so you could play this on your 360, or you could play it right on the PC. I suggest the PC version. Left 4 Dead is a Valve title and currently it is one of their best (which says a lot). You are one of four characters alive after a zombie apocalypse and you must work with the others to stay alive through swarms of the typical zombie fare. You can play this as a single player, but the best reason to play Left 4 Dead is to blow zombies away with three friends in cooperative play.

This is simply one of the best multiplayer games on the market right now, and Valve has been hard at work delivering patches and new content and a sequel hitting not too long from now (which promises to be just as great, if not better). If you saw Zombie Land this past month, this is pretty much the game that the movie is based off of, even if it wasn’t aware of it.

Bioshock:

Why won't you love me?!

I will never stop telling everyone to go play Bioshock. Maybe it’s my own guilt for not playing it until just recently, but Bioshock stands out as a game that understands what it means to create atmosphere in order for things to be scary. Out on the 360, PS3, and now on Steam for the PC, everyone can play Bioshock and figure out what I’m going on about.

You play as a character that survives a plane crash and swims to a lighthouse in the middle of the ocean, only to find the entrance to the city of Rapture, a dystopian society that’s been utterly destroyed after people spliced their genes way too much for God to allow. You’ll get to encounter Big Daddies, Little Sisters, Splicers, and Andrew Ryan, my new favorite villain. I can’t wait until Bioshock is made into a movie since the plot alone has me sold.

And that’s my list off the top of my head. I promise that there is something here for everyone, from the hardcore gamers out there to the casual players. But I know this isn’t a complete list, so tell me what I left out. Are there some games I should be ashamed to omit? Let me know with a comment or two in the comments section and let your voice be heard.