10. Guitar Hero:

This was the biggest thing at the time it came out. Now where is it?

The idea of a video game hinging completely on a peripheral was nothing new. Dance Dance Revolution had made a huge name for itself as one specific music-based genre, and while it had imitators of its own, nothing compared to the amount of imitation that Guitar Hero would spawn from the simple concept of playing music on fake musical instruments. Five buttons and a strum toggle were all the buttons found on the first Guitar Hero controller, making it incredibly simple and accessible. But while Dance Dance Revolution still has its niche carved out, Guitar Hero carved out an entire chunk of the video game market, allowing Rock Band to sneak in with it, and then imploded the genre entirely within a few short years. It’s hard to think that just a few years ago Guitar Hero was one of the biggest franchises on the market but is now entirely absent from any future lineups.

9. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare:

Suddenly the military became cool again.

Perks and XP and online name-calling. These things all existed prior to Modern Warfare, but not all at the same time in a well-known entity the way Call of Duty 4 made them common-place in just about every multiplayer mode in a First-Person Shooter released these days. Beyond simply the multiplayer framework, the narrative framework- gritty “realism” painted with browns and grays and hoorahs- has permeated further than I’d prefer to acknowledge. These days every new FPS that has a war-type setting is required to call itself “the answer to Call of Duty,” a claim that rarely has any sort of merit. When other games are going out of their way to exist purely as a reason to attempt to outdo you, then it sort of places you on a list like this.

8. Super Mario 64:

Well well, a giant bomb lives atop this mountain. How quaint.

People take Mario for granted. They really do and it’s a shame. While a new Mario game pops up like clockwork every new console cycle, sometimes more than once if we’re lucky, it was Super Mario 64 that changed things the most. Before Super Mario 64, the architecture wasn’t in place to see how a 3D platformer was built. The ideas were there, but it took Mario to place the bar high up and say, “Alright, clear this.” Even Mario games themselves are subject to the old question, “So, is it better than Super Mario 64?” Open areas to explore and secrets to find were fleshed out here for everyone to ogle over and demand more, something that Rare would do over and over and over again, each time making a variation of Super Mario 64. Simply, Mario just showed that he knew how to transition into 3D better than any previous franchise, something that his chief rival, Sonic, is still struggling to get right.

7. Final Fantasy VII:

How often did you hear Latin chanting in games before this?

A lot of RPGs have made us laugh and made us cry, but few have started something in motion that can never be undone: Oversappy melodrama. Final Fantasy VII burst onto the PS1 with graphics that amazed and a story that overwhelmed gamers everywhere, but in its earnest attempt at creating a connection to the player, something happened that allowed the genre to slowly spiral out of control into a never-ending battle against goofy dialogue, uncanny graphics, and an over-abundance of drama played up for the sake of drama. Don’t get me wrong, Final Fantasy VII is a good game in its own right. Unfortunately it is also the grandfather for every game or even character in a game that can be summed up with dark eye shadow and the phrase “Whyyyyyyyyy?! “

6. God of War:

Such a tragedy, literally.

Hacking and slashing are now commonplace in video games, but the Hack n’ Slash genre is essentially just the descendant of another mostly retired genre called the Beat ‘em Up. The concepts are the same with typically one guy running through a gauntlet of the same enemies over and over, literally just fist-fodder, until a boss is conquered and you are declared a Bad Dude. The main difference is blood, and God of War decided to set the tone for exactly how relentless a manly 3D Hack n’ Slash needed to be, partly through an upgradeable attack combo system and partly through the bane of many gamers’ existence: Quick Time Events. All too often reviewers utter the statement “Like God of War but…” when reviewing new games, something that solidifies my thoughts on God of War setting a standard that all games of its ilk are judged upon.

5. Grand Theft Auto III:

A cathartic release for so many gamers, but an unsatisfying release in the long run.

One aspect that most childhoods consist of is the ability to play with toys in any environment and do whatever you want with them. Total freedom. Video games have been trying to replicate this concept for ages, but no game succeeded in pushing us closer to that goal in one hearty jump than Grand Theft Auto III. It effectively created the sandbox style of gameplay, i.e. a world completely open for you to screw around in. You see a car you’d like? Take it and have fun. Want to jump your car off bridges? Go for it. Want to go on crazy killing sprees? Ye-yeah, okay, you can do that as well. The only regret is that the medium of the sandbox game began with a title hinged entirely on theft, drugs, and murder. And even though we’ve come a long way since GTAIII’s release, the most popular titles in the sandbox genre tend to be GTA games and games similar to GTA.

4. Street Fighter II:

The introduction to the realization that no matter how hard you try, you'll never be as good as everyone else.

Video games are serious business. At this point in time you can go out and train every week to hone your skills for a chance to compete head-to-head against other skilled opponents in all sorts of fighting games. But before Street Fighter II, there really wasn’t a game suited for competition of that nature. It didn’t invent the fighter, but it did tap into the core of what a fighter needs- balanced mechanics- and go nuts with the concept. Suddenly every character, used correctly, could prove victorious. Strategy was involved and mastery of controls was needed. The limitations of the buttons and joystick could no longer be blamed for a missed punch or a failed special move, leaving only yourself at fault for a painful defeat at the hands of someone better than you. I don’t even want to try listing the clones that Street Fighter II spawned, but I don’t mind giving props where props is due.

3. Halo: Combat Evolved:

Wonder why all sapce armor looks like this now...?

I just don’t like the Halo games, despite how hard I’ve tried. I don’t believe that they’re awful games, but I could never get into them. Regardless of my personal feelings though, Halo: Combat Evolved really did take the FPS genre and standardized a handful of mechanics that are still routine today such as the two-gun carry limit, regenerating health, and online multiplayer for an FPS on a console. More than anything, that’s what Halo demonstrated: That a First-Person Shooter could not only work on a console but work well. Unfortunately, it also meant we’d have to suffer through wave after wave of space marine games where the main characters are faceless one-man-armies who are too gruff to even care about the things going on around them. Even so, Halo is the reason the Xbox is alive today. Without it, we wouldn’t be mentioning Microsoft among the gaming companies these days because they wouldn’t even have a gaming division anymore. Man, talk about huge industry-shifting changes.

2. World of Warcraft:

If you had the choice, would you decide to live in the real world?

Gaming addition has become worse and worse, but it’s not because people are any weaker. Rather, it’s because games are just getting better and better to the point that a handful of players begin to prefer their lives as a Night Elf over that of a delivery guy. World of Warcraft wasn’t the first MMORPG to find success by far, but the level of success it has reached is unfathomable. It dominates its genre and refuses to share. Entire development companies go under just attempting to create a game to share the Internet with WoW. What World of Warcraft has done is create a model for a self-perpetuating game, one than never ends due to constant additions to the world. Instead of having to create a new installment of the series every few years, Blizzard is able to just release another expansion pack to WoW, snagging more and more users every year. It’s unreal what WoW has accomplished, but it’s certain that few other games have changed everything we knew about the medium like World of Warcraft.

1. Super Mario Bros.:

Hail to the king.

Except for maybe the granddaddy of all game-changers. The video game industry was in a freefall during the early 1980’s thanks to an over saturated marketplace full of poorly-made titles. The whole “home console experiment” thing that Atari had got going was winding down and it seemed that video games were doomed to become a fad that had already died out. But then came the Nintendo Entertainment System and Super Mario Bros. Everything changed at that point as players experienced precise controls, clever level design, hidden paths and secrets, power-ups, collectibles, iconic music, and a princess that was forever in another castle until she just had another quest for you to conquer. As soon as Mario demonstrated what a video game was meant to play like, developers rushed to replicate the formula with such notable conventions as the aforementioned power-up system, a coin-like item that when collected to a certain number rewards with more lives, and the simple “platformers go right” rule that wouldn’t be broken until Super Mario Bros 3 changed the rules yet again. No game deserves more respect for changing everything like the squat little plumber in red, and that’s why he tops my list.

So there you have it, Ten Games That Changed Everything. Did I leave off any games you feel should be on here? Leave a comment and let me know since I’m sure I didn’t cover every single game out there worth mentioning. Let your voice be heard and if you’re lucky, maybe you’ll succeed in changing my mind as well.

Want more video game Top Ten Lists? Then check these out:

-Top 5 Franchises That Should Get a LEGO Spinoff

-5 Aspects of Pokemon That Make No Sense

-Five Games I’d Like To See On The 3DS Without 3D

Let's go gung-ho on some aliens again, why not?

Halo: Reach is a prequel to the franchise. Master Chief isn’t present, but the upshot is that we get numerous Spartans instead, Spartans that can actually remove their helmets and reveal their faces to the camera. This allows the player to get more up close and personal with the characters, similar to ODST, making the story a little harder hitting, especially when you consider that the whole point of Reach is to tell the already known story of how Reach fell to the Covenant. I’m really not spoiling anything to tell you that this entire game, story-wise, isn’t going to end on a positive note. However, the story is still very strong, even for a Halo game, so fans shouldn’t be disappointed there.

Gameplay is largely untouched from previous Halo titles. The health system is reverting to the original Halo style of a rechargeable shield over a depleting health bar, a reversion I say “More power to you, Bungie” since it helps establish these characters’ humanity better to show that they can bleed. Other than that, you’ll see a few new guns, the loss of dual wielding (good), and the return of a pistol that can ACTUALLY kill enemies. Awesome.

Halo knows how to do firefights pretty danged well at this point.

But you’re all Halo fans, you don’t care about the single player campaign. You want to know how multiplayer functions, right? Calm down, multiplayer is everything you want it to be and more. Every game type from the previous Halo multiplayer experiences have returned here, plus a few new ones. Essentially, you’re paying for the biggest, beefiest multiplayer experiences on the Xbox 360 when you’re buying Halo: Reach. It more than justifies the purchase, so we’ll leave it at that.

To round things out, the graphics get a nifty technical boost here, being built from the ground up rather than just reusing previous graphics from older Halo games. If graphics are your thing, you’ll approve of the bump the visuals got. Add to this yet another great musical score and it’s the complete package.

Yes, it looks familiar. Familiar can be good, too.

So, a perfect multiplayer experience and a good single player experience with great graphics and great sound? Yup, that’s Halo: Reach alright. But my review isn’t selling you on this game. I can include an Amazon link as usual, but you’ve already bought the game, so it’s sort of pointless, isn’t it? Halo: Reach is going to be a contender for 2010’s Game of the Year, so keep an eye on it. I, however, want to see what Bungie plans to do next, and more so what Microsoft plans to do with the Halo franchise. We live in an uncertain and exciting future now people!

Want more game reviews? Check these out:

-Samuses Should Be Seen, Not Heard: A Review of Metroid: Other M

-Scott Pilgrim vs This Game Review: FIGHT!

-Why Are You Reading This? StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Review

Sometimes the real world needs to stay away from our games, doesn't it?

The world is a very different, very scary place these days. Thankfully, video games are mostly blissful escapes from that harsh reality. But what if aspects of the real world started creeping into the fantasy realm? Here are ten ways the real world would ruin the video games world.

Pokemon Protected Under Endangered Species Laws:

Your lucky day, or a massive inconvenience?

The lands Pokemon games take place in are magical regions to live, full of awesome creatures ripe for the catching and training. And if you keep your eyes out and your wits sharp, you’ll run across a Legendary Pokemon.

BUT HOLD ON! You can’t capture that! Leave it alone! Because it’s the last of its species, it is protected by Endangered Species Laws, meaning you not only can’t capture it, you’ll be arrested for even trying. Pikachus? You can have dozens. But Lord help you if you catch a Mew.

Extra Lives Cost More Due To Inflation:

Suddenly every coin means a whole lot more and a whole lot less.

The Mushroom Kingdom is known as a land full of whimsy. Whimsy and war. Constant war. There hasn’t been a year where Bowser hasn’t appeared and tried to take over everything. At least Mario always shows up to save the day. That’s the one constant, other than the price of an extra life. 100 coins, right?

BUT HOLD ON! At this point an extra life would cost a heck of a lot more, possibly closer to 1600 coins. You’d see Mario steppin’ a lot more careful around pits if that were the case.

Families in The Sims Evicted:

Seriously, would you approve a loan for these morons?

Living a life as a Sim wouldn’t be too bad, all things considered. Your whole life is based off commercialism, you can easily find and make friends all the time, and if you don’t like your job, you can get a better one by reading a book for a few minutes. Wonderful, right?

BUT HOLD ON! How did you pay for your new house there? One of the causes of our current recession stems from the housing crisis where prospective homeowners were given huge loans for houses that they could never afford and thus were evicted at the worst possible time. The Sims are so incapable of taking care of themselves that they’ll wet their shorts if you don’t tell them to go to the bathroom. And these people were approved for home loans? Yikes.

No More Evil Corporations:

"I must destroy the world for reasons I forget why! Mwahaha!"

Shinra is certainly an evil, evil corporation filled with evil people doing evil things. The Umbrella Corporation is even worse, creating zombies and stuff for seemingly no reason at all. Luckily we have heroes to battle these massive companies. Some games are hinged on this massive takedown.

BUT HOLD ON! Before you go after the corrupt head of that awful organization, check to see if it isn’t crumbling from the inside after filing Chapter Eleven bankruptcy. And if a company is really, truly evil enough to destroy the world, the actual government is going to step in and stop that oil spill, I mean that zombie epidemic. No heroes are really required for the job, meaning Cloud and Tifa and the whole gang can just go shopping at Hot Topic instead.

Halo Protested On a Daily Basis:

"Why don't I just cram this down your throat instead? That sound cool?"

Earth is a hectic place to live, what with the fight constantly needing be finished. Aliens are popping up left and right with giant ships just to mess with us. At least we’re totally behind Master Chief.

BUT HOLD ON! This is a war, right? Those are BAD! Assuming we’re still our Earth, there will be those that believe the war is completely just. Then there will be the other half that opposes the war purely because it’s a war and those are always unjust. They attacked us first? That’s probably just because we were messing around in their solar system. You’d have a heck of a time getting anywhere as a soldier on the planet without someone picketing you and calling you a grunt killer.

Link Out of a Job:

"Hey! HEY! They took my job!"

Whereas Mario is the best option to save the Mushroom Kingdom, Link always steps up to the challenge and restores peace to Hyrule by rescuing Zelda. Otherwise he wouldn’t have much of a reason to do anything, would he?

BUT HOLD ON! Unemployment rates are ridiculous these days, meaning that there would be more than enough capable people just hanging around, ready for a chance to save a princess. Sure Link may be the Hero of Time, but with the right motivation, anyone could do what he does and restore the peace. It’s not like there’s a whole lot to do in Hyrule, anyway.

Silent Hill Subject To a Michael Moore Documentary:

Maybe this could be a good thing afterall.

If you had to pick one place of the world to avoid, it’d have to be Silent Hill. It’s a town suffering from, essentially, Hell owning all the real estate. Demons regularly appear and if you find yourself trapped within city limits you’re pretty much screwed, aren’t you?

BUT HOLD ON! What other town is best suited for a sadsack documentary ridiculing the shortcomings if the United States than a town devoid of all decency? Michael Moore would be there so fast that it’s scary, and naturally he’d go on and on until the Powers That Be intervened to shut him up. In Essence, Silent Hill would become an overnight tourist trap and eliminate any and everything that made it the place we love to fear.

Thousands of Greenhorns Attempt to Ford the River:

Why would you do that? Bunch of Greenhorns.

Ah the Oregon Trail. The promise of a better life after a trip of hardship is something we’re just programmed to love living in the land of the American Dream. Therefore, the Oregon Trail becomes a great choice, especially since Oregon is pretty danged sweet.

BUT HOLD ON! If you’ve ever played the Oregon Trail, you know the dangers of fording the river. You have to be an intelligent, experienced player even to CONSIDER fording the river. Sadly, too many fools would start fording the river willy-nilly, thinking it’s cool or something, and thousands would die. And since extra lives cost more these days, it’d be sad.

Real World Controls Enter The Gaming World:

Wouldn't it suck if this really happened? Wouldn't it?!

Video games have the advantage of being ridiculous distractions from the real world. Depending on the game, a single button press could result in you destroying the world. How cool! Precise controls are a great thing, aren’t they?

BUT HOLD ON! Next thing you know they’ll start trying to tell us the cool new thing is moving around while you’re gaming to do simple tasks and- Oh wait…

PETA Would Go Nuts About Star Fox:

Like the original space program. Except with more animals. And G-Diffusers.

If I could voice one video game character, I think I’d want to voice Fox McCloud. In fact, if I could WRITE one game, it’d be a new Star Fox game, mostly because we really need a new Star Fox game. The whole game concept is just too much fun. Animals in space? I’m there!

BUT HOLD ON! Animals in space?! You’re sending these poor creatures into almost certain DEATH?! It doesn’t matter if it’s other animals sending these animals into space, that stuff doesn’t fly with PETA. Granted, there’s a high chance these space wars won’t happen anyway due to protests, but rest assured, if that fox got into space, PETA would be there screaming about it and making their own game to mock the practice.

And I’m spent. How ridiculous of me. I’m all done thinking about the real world intersecting with video games, but what about you? Can you think of any ways the real world would ruin our lovely fantasies? Leave a comment and let me know. In the mean time, I have a river to ford.

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!

Yeah, I'd be tired of these quotes, too.

Gaming has begun moving past the point of a niche culture and broken into the mainstream. We all know this, so I’m not really covering new ground here. We’ve got a huge library of games to pluck endless references from, but something I’ve noticed is the same references come back again and again. These are some quotes that I hear people make probably a little more than they should. So here they were, the Top 10 Video Game Quotes That Need To Die.

10. “Boom headshot!”

You know what a headshot looks like, you expert snipers, you.

Anyone familiar with either First Person or Third Person Shooters are well acquainted with this little quote. Used after shooting another player in the head, this remark is typically uttered just in case someone didn’t realize their character died due to a missing head (though the missing brain could explain a lot). It may be a stretch to see this outside of the games, luckily not used during extremely serious and unfunny real-world events, but it’s getting more commonplace especially on college campuses. Yup, that’ll be a trend here.

9. “Finish him!”

Don't forget to say it with a deep, menacing voice.

Mortal Kombat introduced the gaming world to an abundance of over-the-top violence with fatality moves. Once a fighter is beaten up enough the announcer comes on and utters “Finish him!” This prompts you to, you guessed it, finish him. It’s a classic quote, but Mortal Kombat is moving past its prime to a place where it just needs to move on. I much prefer the Killer Instincts quote, “C-C-C-Combo Breaker!”

8. “Do a barrel roll!”

Thank you, Peppy. That was actually good advice.

Despite my affinity toward this Star Fox 64 classic, it has gotten heavily overdone. If any video pops up on YouTube with a roll of any sort (no one seems to understand what a “Barrel Roll” is), rest assured this comment pops up. It’s a shame since Star Fox 64 is practically a cheesy Sci-Fi action thriller with the amount of awesomely bad quotes to be pulled, such as “I can’t let you do that, Fox,” or “Something’s wrong with the G-Diffuser!” Yet only Peppy’s infamous line gets repeated in excess. What a waste.

7. “So I herd you liek Mudkipz.”

I prefer this version.

This little quote comes from the bowels of the Internet from a random story involving a Mudkip which you’ve either heard at this point or haven’t. For those of you not in the know, “So I herd you like Mudkipz” is an insult that roughly means, “You’re an idiot.” It was fun for the first year since it replaced one of the other quotes on the list for a while (Number 2), but now it’s lost its cleverness.

6. “All your base are belong to us.”

Of all the images I could have selected for this one, I sure went with the most boring, didn't I?

This is the original great Internet meme from long, long ago. Coming from Zero Wing, this piece of supremely poorly translated dialogue became fashionable since it was humorous to see where it could go, much like “Kilroy Wuz Here” from the past. So “All your base are belong to us” was photoshopped onto any and everything. Unsurprisingly, it had nowhere left to go, but it wouldn’t die. It’s far past its heyday, but if we’re not careful it could come right back. Better nip this one in the bud before it’s too late.

5. “Now you’re thinking with portals.”

These are portals. You, apparently, should be thinking with them.

Valve’s Portal is a Game You Should Have Played. However, it is sadly responsible for an explosion of references, specifically to the fact that the game requires you to “Think With Portals.” Suddenly every web comic around decided it was a good idea to do a comic where something goes in one portal and comes out the other, most of which were stupidly simple photoshops. Penny Arcade had a wonderful joke with a slide, but everyone else went ahead and did their free week of non-thinking for a webcomic, having their joke written for them. It was on all sorts of T-shirts and mouse pads, all because people were blown away with a simple yet brilliant concept. I’m glad I don’t get told nearly enough that all my problems boil down to me “Not thinking with portals.”

4. “Hey! Look! Listen!”

That you, Navi. That was actually good advice.

I loved Ocarina of Time. Everyone else loved Ocarina of Time as well. I never understood why, but regardless of the game’s love, people hated Navi the blue fairy, Link’s assistant and guide to the game. She was the curser to let you know what you were locked on to, and at times she’d say “Hey!” or “Look!” or “Listen!” I never found this annoying, but some people still can’t stand this. I’ll see web comics fishing for jokes with this tired one, placing Link in a straightjacket, gone mad from hearing Navi speak again and again. Leave it along already; it’s just not funny. It’s more annoying to have people draw attention to it.

3. “The Cake is a Lie”

I hate it when I'm lied to, especially if it's not a lie.

Another quote from Portal, and while it was the quote everyone seemed to glob on to like it was Shakespeare, the statement itself was a lie. You find this scribbled next to a deceased character in the game, telling you that the delicious cake GLaDOS is promising you is a lie. Suddenly this was the answer to every question ever. Princess kidnapped? Didn’t matter, the cake is a lie. Nuclear annihilation imminent? Who cares, the cake is a lie. You suck at a video game? Obviously you’re not thinking with portals since, you know, the cake is a lie. But like I said, at the end of the game you find out that the cake was real. “The cake is a lie” is a lie. Funny how that works.

2. “Take that, (Expletive Deleted)”

You probably just said this, didn't you?

Here’s one of the key reasons I rarely enjoy playing games online with people: I’m playing and either do something good or something bad, and either way someone whose maturity level is far too low decides to kill me, immediately following it up with a “Take that, (Expletive Deleted)!” Rest assured it probably has an F in there somewhere, and rest assured even more, it makes no sense on all sorts of fundamental levels. There are all sorts of variations on this quote, most of which could be lumped into “Anything Said On Xbox Live,” but we need this quote and quotes like this to pass on before it does more damage and makes the industry’s fans look like a bunch of idiots. Come on game players, we’re better than this. If you don’t say things like this online, give yourself a pat on the back. If you do say this, (Expletive Deleted).

1. “Thank you Mario, but our Princess is in another castle.”

You're darn right she better be. I didn't pay full price for a game with only one world.

The original twist in a game, after plowing through the first four levels of Super Mario Bros and beating what you think is Bowser, you discover a Toad in the next room that says, “Thank you Mario, but our Princess is in another castle!” This happens six more times, each time making you loathe Toads greater and greater. Eventually you do save Princess Peach and for your efforts you get a kiss. Now that we’re all 25 years older, the joke of the princess being in another castle doesn’t stop, nor does the joke that all Mario gets is a kiss or at times a cake if he’s really lucky (assuming the cake isn’t a lie). We’re past sexualizing Mario for a joke. It’s not funny anymore. When Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy, makes the joke, you know it’s gotten stale. Give us something new to play with already.

And that’s all the quoting I can deal with. Am I striking a cord here with anyone or am I just ticking you off like some of my previous Top 10s? Did I miss something that needed to be on the list? Or maybe you disagree with some of my choices? Comment, comment, comment. Because we can never stop hearing about these quotes.

Sure it’s almost 2010.  But more importantly, there seems to be a great schism happening between gamers on the Xbox.  Halo held the top spot and redefined First Person Shooters.  Then along came Gears of War and the bar was set for Third Person Shooters from then on out.  Gears of War 2 is out now and already being enjoyed for all the right reasons, but does it put itself above Halo as the most popular franchise on the 360?

Who cares?

I’m not dealing with popularity here, nor am I dealing with fanboyism between Xbots and PS3 diehards.  Gears 2 is a good follow up to a good first game and I don’t mind seeing more Gears games.

For those of you who played the first Gears of War, the plot revolves around Marcus Fenix, a tough soldier fighting against The Locust, a species of…aliens or monsters or something, I don’t know, I wasn’t paying too close attention.  The important plot point to realize goes as thus: The world got annihilated by The Locust and now Marcus Fenix and a few other soldiers are one-man-armies, (well, maybe two-man-armies), about to bring the fight back to The Locust.  The second game picks up with Marcus on his wacky journey to the center of the earth.  Oh, and it’s straight-up awesome.

Gears is known for its cover system during firefights.  If you attempt to play this game like a FPS and rush into trouble, you’re probably gonna get scrubbed.  You need to stay down until the opportune moment to huck a grenade or score a headshot and the fluid cover system allows everything to play near perfectly.

Gears 2 keeps things fast-paced and interesting throughout the single player mode and makes for great co-op play with a friend.  Online multiplayer is done pretty spot on as well now that the initial release-day bugs have been repaired.

It should be obvious, but Gears of War 2 is rated M and definitely earns the rating.  The Lancer is a rifle with a chainsaw attached to it and curbstomps are mandatory moves for playing correct.  No kids allowed, please.  Especially online.

Someday I'm going to run this world while atop a noble steed and then we'll see who's laughing!

I am not very good at Risk. Ever lost Risk in two turns? I have.  I’ve seen friendships nearly break up as a result of Risk games going bad. It’s even worse than Monopoly with the amount of hate you seen thrown about. Regardless, never let your friends dissuade you from utter conquest of Asia or Europe, as you can’t take over the world without them. They’re impossible to hold onto, but still.

Risky Business

Risk was the brainchild of one French film director Albert Lamorisse who created the game in 1957 and called it something in French (or “La Conquête du Monde,” which means, naturally, “The Conquest of the World”). Why would someone decide to make a game that revolves around world domination? If you have to ask that question then you’re probably not a man. Every man hopes to someday rule the world with an iron fist and a glorious hat.

A standard game of Risk begins with a group of friends deciding their friendship has reached its limit. A few tears are shed and players are given their share of armies depending on how many total players there are. For instance, a two-player game has each player start with 40 armies, a three-player game has 35, a four-player game has 30, and so on. Each army is represented by a piece that looks like a solider. Cavalry pieces count as five armies and Artillery pieces are 10 armies.

Get used to seeing this because it's gonna be a long night.

Once everyone has their armies they take turns claiming territories to place an army on, just like in real life. Once the world is divided up, players place their remaining armies on their territories as they see fit to fortify them for the inevitable attacks from their former friends. Thus begins the bloodshed.

Like The History Channel Come Alive

The first player decides where he wishes to attack by looking at where his territory touches another and saying he’d like to attack for possession. It never sounds this formal though as most of the time they just scream, “Prepare for battle!” and toss dice in your face. Each turn you are given at least three additional armies to do what you will with, so when he means to tackle a territory, he’ll have some extra firepower to do so with.

These attacks are conducted as follows: The attacker gets up to three dice depending on how many armies he has in a territory. He can only attack with as many dice as one less than the number of armies that he has. The defender gets a die for however many armies he has, up to two. The once-friends roll their dice and compare the highest dice together. One army is lost when you lose a roll. The same goes for the second highest dice rolled. You can keep attacking as many times as you want even if your army is getting destroyed, but you have to stop when all your men are dead (unless you have necromancer powers or something, but I don’t think that applies to most games of Risk).

The rest of your turn can be spent fortifying your troops, getting Risk cards that can be turned in at the beginning of your next turn should you make a set (they give you more armies), and then apologizing to your friends. The game just keeps going until someone controls every territory in the world or someone thinks of something better to do with their time.

Maybe You Prefer Orcs

One Ring to Rule Them All!

Not everyone likes the idea of world conquest. Some people may prefer conquering a fictitious land, like Middle Earth or the Star Wars galaxies. Luckily there’s an edition for each of you as Risk has a few Lord of the Rings editions, a few Star Wars editions, a Transformers edition, and even a Halo edition. There are just too many worlds out there to be conquered, aren’t there? Better get to it.

Before you depart, let’s talk about what you’ll hear from your friends when you play. Don’t forget, they aren’t your friends anymore. So whatever they say is a dirty rotten lie. When someone says “Are you crazy? You can’t hold Asia,” make the attempt anyway. You’ll get seven additional armies at the beginning of every turn when you hold all of Asia, so you can fortify like nuts and stomp any that oppose you. But yeah, it’s easier to hole up in Australia and build a massive army to unleash during the best Blitzkrieg ever seen this side of WWII. I’ve seen it happen, and it is amazing when it does.