Saturday, May 21, 2011
Gaming Reconnect 1
Hopefully one of the first of more, my friends down at Gaming Disconnect did this video especially for this blog.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
1985 in closing
Well, to be honest, the Nintendo's release titles do not, for the most part, stand the test of time. Hell, to be honest, we only played some of them because they were the only video games available for the system, and we sure as hell couldn't go back to the ATARI 2600 after seeing graphics that consisted of multiple pixels in different colors.
The Nintendo Entertainment System was probably the most important achievement of 1985! Forget Reagan meeting Gorbachev and all that other Cold-war-era BS! The Nintendo was where it's at!
Going onward from here, we have a lot more games to cover each year, and I intend to give full reviews only to those that deserve it. For most of them (those rated less than 4 and not awful or significant enough to warrant further exposition), I'll just give a couple sentences and a screencap. For some of them, it's far, far more than they deserve.
The Nintendo Entertainment System was probably the most important achievement of 1985! Forget Reagan meeting Gorbachev and all that other Cold-war-era BS! The Nintendo was where it's at!
Going onward from here, we have a lot more games to cover each year, and I intend to give full reviews only to those that deserve it. For most of them (those rated less than 4 and not awful or significant enough to warrant further exposition), I'll just give a couple sentences and a screencap. For some of them, it's far, far more than they deserve.
Super Mario Bros.
Year: 1985
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Platform
I skipped this in my alphabetical listing because, frankly, I wanted to finish 1985 with a game that did not suck. Super Mario Bros. spawned the most successful video game franchise in history. You noticed I didn't say, "probably" or "one of" anywhere in that sentence, and it isn't because I am biased (though I probably am): Mario is, empirically speaking, the greatest video game franchise of all to this day. Though its impressive 40 million units sold is due, in no small part, to it being bundled with the console, many of the sequels continue to be worldwide best-sellers to this day. To this day. When I say "to this day" I mean "it still moves preposterous numbers of units when sold without any changes on virtual console."
I could go on gushing about this. I could wax eloquent about Mario's origins, his first appearance, or any of that crap that people talk about when Mario is presented in a blog. In fact, I think I will.
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Platform
I skipped this in my alphabetical listing because, frankly, I wanted to finish 1985 with a game that did not suck. Super Mario Bros. spawned the most successful video game franchise in history. You noticed I didn't say, "probably" or "one of" anywhere in that sentence, and it isn't because I am biased (though I probably am): Mario is, empirically speaking, the greatest video game franchise of all to this day. Though its impressive 40 million units sold is due, in no small part, to it being bundled with the console, many of the sequels continue to be worldwide best-sellers to this day. To this day. When I say "to this day" I mean "it still moves preposterous numbers of units when sold without any changes on virtual console."
I could go on gushing about this. I could wax eloquent about Mario's origins, his first appearance, or any of that crap that people talk about when Mario is presented in a blog. In fact, I think I will.
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| At some point I'll also review the game. |
Monday, April 18, 2011
Wrecking Crew
Year: 1985
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Puzzle Action
Back in 1985, someone at Nintendo decided that it would be a great idea to have a Mario game wherein Mario cannot jump. Probably the sensible thing to do with someone who made that suggestion is to sit them down circle-time style and explain to them that when Mario was introduced, his name was actually "Jumpman," and that if Nintendo hadn't been late with the rent payments, they wouldn't have ever thought to name him Mario. Then, in full sight of all the other employees, that employee should have been shot in the back of the head and left there as an example.
Instead, they made the damn game.
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Puzzle Action
Back in 1985, someone at Nintendo decided that it would be a great idea to have a Mario game wherein Mario cannot jump. Probably the sensible thing to do with someone who made that suggestion is to sit them down circle-time style and explain to them that when Mario was introduced, his name was actually "Jumpman," and that if Nintendo hadn't been late with the rent payments, they wouldn't have ever thought to name him Mario. Then, in full sight of all the other employees, that employee should have been shot in the back of the head and left there as an example.
Instead, they made the damn game.
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| I consider this game a dis-continuity in the Mario universe and demand a ret-con! |
Wild Gunman
Year: 1985
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Shooting - Zapper
If a certain "certified sane" Floridian lawyer is to be understood and believed, the Nintendo Zapper was, for many children, their first taste of murder and a gateway to the immoral video-game-playing lifestyle. Thus, Wild Gunman was, without a doubt, the first TRUE Nintendo murder simulator, allowing us to finally live out our depraved fantasy of being an officer of the law and bringing violent felons to justice.
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Shooting - Zapper
If a certain "certified sane" Floridian lawyer is to be understood and believed, the Nintendo Zapper was, for many children, their first taste of murder and a gateway to the immoral video-game-playing lifestyle. Thus, Wild Gunman was, without a doubt, the first TRUE Nintendo murder simulator, allowing us to finally live out our depraved fantasy of being an officer of the law and bringing violent felons to justice.
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| This is the end of the innocence... |
Tennis
Year: 1985
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Sports - Tennis
I believe that, since my childhood, there has been not only a general tendency to make games easier (which is super-good) but also a dumbing down of expectations. Players were once required to control every aspect of the game's interaction, whereas now there exist a good many games that take parts that would have once fell out of the player's purview out of their hands. Take, for example, the Nintendo version of Tennis vs. the analogous Wii Sports subgame.
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Sports - Tennis
I believe that, since my childhood, there has been not only a general tendency to make games easier (which is super-good) but also a dumbing down of expectations. Players were once required to control every aspect of the game's interaction, whereas now there exist a good many games that take parts that would have once fell out of the player's purview out of their hands. Take, for example, the Nintendo version of Tennis vs. the analogous Wii Sports subgame.
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| I could have just reviewed Tennis, but that would almost certainly be less interesting. |
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Pinball
Year: 1985
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Pinball
Games that pretended to be something else used to be a really cool thing. "Check it out!" the game would say, "I'm a slot machine!" "I'm a pachinko machine!" "I'm a video poker game!" "I'm a monopoly simulator!"
"I'm a pinball machine," seemed to be one of the more popular choices.
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Pinball
Games that pretended to be something else used to be a really cool thing. "Check it out!" the game would say, "I'm a slot machine!" "I'm a pachinko machine!" "I'm a video poker game!" "I'm a monopoly simulator!"
"I'm a pinball machine," seemed to be one of the more popular choices.
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| This is what all pinball machines look like when you fire them up. |
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