Number Two!

Pokémon SoulSilver
Released in 2010, Original release titled Pokémon Silver for Game Boy Colour in 2000

The series that absolutely dominated playgrounds and the handheld gaming scene through the turn of the millennium.

I mentioned a few posts back that I was always a social gamer from a young age. Well, as for a lot of kids in the late 90s, the Pokémon games taught me to game socially too. The Pokémon titles are a series of RPGs (Role-Playing Games) aimed for children, wherein the point is to catch every critter and become the ultimate Pokémon master. In the first two of the franchise, Red and Blue (Green was a Japan-only release), players were challenged to defeat eight “type”-specific gym leaders throughout their adventure, culminating in the confrontation of the Elite Four and your rival for the title of Pokémon League Champion. The game didn’t end there though – the real challenge came after the main adventure, where you had 151 pocket monsters to find and capture.

I mentioned earlier the phrase “game socially”. The next hook in the series is that it is impossible to catch every Pokémon in a single game version because each variation omits the ability to find every creature alone. In order to own all 151 you had to meet up with a friend and trade via link cable. This method was fine for the era, however looking back on it people would agree that this was quite arduous. Thankfully over the last decade technology evolved, and now we can connect our gaming devices wirelessly over a local connection or a global one. The games themselves also evolved; from a now-seemingly humble 151 different monsters to catch originally, we’re currently at a whopping 493 – and the roster will soon expand upon the release of versions Black and White next year.

However, of every version out to date, to me the best was SoulSilver for DS released in Australia on March 25th this year. As you could already assume it is a remake of the original Silver version (alongside HeartGold of the Gold version) of 2000, though the game is less of a rehashing and more of a vast improvement. Aside from the updated graphics the game has a completely refined user-interface over the generation before it (Pearl/Diamond/Platinum), an updated Pokédex to account for all 493 creatures, the brand new Safari Zone (located west of Cianwood City), Pokéathlon and more. One stand-out feature though is the Pokéwalker – a pedometre to clip onto your clothes that allows you to capture more Pokémon, find items and gain experience points just by walking in real life. The gadget communicates to the game cartridge via infrared located at the top of each device to exchange the earned data. The Pokéwalker acts much like a Tamagotchi, except you don’t feed your pets and they are unable to die.

HeartGold and SoulSilver also have the ability to let the Pokémon at the top of your party to follow you on foot, a feature only before seen in Pokémon Yellow over ten years ago.

The Silver and Gold generation of Pokémon games were the  most influential of the entire series due to additions like the item-hold mechanic in which Pokémon can hold equipment such as health items to automatically heal during battles and items that boost their stats, a real-time in-game clock system for night and day to adjust accordingly for certain Pokémon encounters and the Pokégear. With the Pokégear players were able to receive phone calls from encountered trainers, listen to the in-game radio stations for contests, music and information on routes for which Pokémon are herding in, and consult a map of the region. The biggest additions however were the expansion of the Pokédex from 151 monsters to 251 and the ability to venture from Johto (the region you start the game in) to Kanto (the region from the first generation of Pokémon games) upon defeating the Elite Four. Essentially this meant the main adventure was twice as big since you go from having to fight eight gym leaders to sixteen, and that you were able catch critters indigenous to each region.

This game was huge – Johto is on the left, Kanto is on the right separated by Victory Road in the middle.

SO, why is it my second favourite game of all time? Well, there’s two reasons – the first is the amount of additions to the mechanics of the game and the scope of it. It wasn’t only an improvement over Red and Blue, but it helped redefine the genre. It was the second game to completely engulf me in its world; when I wasn’t playing it, I was thinking about it. I even used to write notes to myself of which Pokémon were cross-bed from others and how to attain certain evolutions such as the whole Espeon/Umbreon thing. Also, it was the very first game to make me have a “holy crap” moment upon realising the adventure was only half-way through after beating the Elite Four. The second reason is that Lugia (featured on the game cover) is my favourite Pokémon.

Number Three!

Conker’s Bad Fur Day
Released for Nintendo 64 in 2001, re-released for Xbox in 2005

“Laughing all the way to the bank!”

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a pretty sick and twisted sense of humour. Some of that due to watching South Park since the age of 9, and some of that is thanks to this fine game by Rare. The game was originally called Twelve Tales: Conker 64 and was set to be aimed for children considering the Red Squirrel had already starred in Diddy Kong Racing for the N64 and Conker’s Pocket Tales for the Game Boy Colour. After its announcement and gameplay footage was released at E3 1998, Rare was stigmatised by fans as being another kid-friendly developer. Soon after this Rare scrapped the entire game and took their character into the complete opposite direction – instead of being geared towards young’uns it was now aimed at the mature audience. And by “mature”, I mean “immature”.

Conker begins his journey after a hard night of heavy drinking with some buddies who are off to fight in a war the following day. Hungover and completely lost Conker tries to make his way home, however it’s not as simple as it seems. He must venture passed irate Scottish dung-beetles, a giant pile of singing poo, savage cavemen, vampire bats, the Evil Panther King, an army of evil Tediz and Death himself, just to name a few things. What makes this game more appealing however is its mostly crude sense of humour – within the first couple of minutes of the introduction Conker drunkenly stumbles out of The Cock and Plucker pub only to end up vomiting all over a Lizard Monk reading a scriptured tablet. I knew after that moment that I was going to enjoy this game.

Conker was set to be a radically different game.

There still isn’t anything quite like this game out there, except of course for the Xbox remake. Apart from the hilarious antics and storyline, the game also played and performed incredibly well. Since the game was developed very late in the 64’s lifetime, Rare managed to utlilise the complete power of Nintendo’s third-generation home console. Due the beautifully rendered graphics of the time, the game did however suffer a few hiccups in terms of framerate. As for sound, the game is still renowned as a technical achievement having fully-voiced dialogue on such a constrained medium. Also, the soundtrack is fantastic and catchy.

Last up is the multiplayer. CBFD features some more humourous concepts in terms of multiplayer scenarios. For example the mode Beach has the Frenchies (refugees) trying to penetrate the boarders of a country without getting killed by Tediz (boarder patrol), and the mode Raptor features cavemen trying to steal raptor eggs for breakfast whereas the velociraptors are trying to catch the cavemen to feed to their babies.

Conker’s Bad Fur Day was Rare’s second-to-last Nintendo game, next to Starfox Adventures for the GameCube. Despite being released late into the 64’s lifespan and having taken a complete U-turn during development, Conker has amassed a large cult following across the world for its technical achievements, crude humour and memorable story. I’m excited to place it as my third favourite game of all time.

Number Four!

Donkey Kong
Released in 1994 for Game Boy

“Help! Help!”

Everyone knows that Mario’s arch nemesis is Bowser, King of the Koopas. However a lot of people fail to realise that Mario and Donkey Kong aren’t quite the best of buds either. Mario’s (at the time called Jump Man) very first appearance was in the original 1981 Donkey Kong arcade game, where the titular character kidnaps the Italian plumber’s then-love interest Pauline – not Peach or Daisy. The arcade version only had four levels; Girders, Conveyor Belts, Elevators and Rivets. Jump Man had to overcome various obstacles such as rolling barrels, balls of flame and platform gaps to reach Donkey Kong at the top of the stage, who would then grab the damsel in distress and run off to the next area.

In 1994 the arcade classic was re-imagined for the Game Boy and featured a mind-blowing ninety-seven extra stages spread across nine worlds. The original four stages were featured at the beginning of the game, however instead of Mario and Pauline falling into each other’s embrace after DK’s downfall at the end of the fourth stage, the ape awakes to make off with Pauline yet again. The game soon evolves from simple running and jumping to platform puzzles. To progress through the stages Mario must find the key and bring it back to the correct door Donkey Kong passed through to proceed. The catch however, is that after a short time the key is left idle after pick up, it returns to its resting place.

The adventure starts out easy, but soon toughens up.

Of course, there’s also the boss fights. Every fourth stage is a boss battle in which the player must best vigorous traps and platforming techniques to reach the damsel in distress. However at the end of every world is a major confrontation with DK, in which the player must dodge barrels thrown by the ape and hurl them back three times to win.

I remember spending a solid three or four months playing pretty much only this game when I was in first-grade. It then took me a good four years (of in-frequent play) to finish it, which was such a huge achievement to me since it was the first Game Boy game to have completed. I still return to it every couple of years and beat it within a week just to keep my skills sharp because this game features some of the most challenging and satisfying level design I’ve seen in a side-scroller. Also, the music is incredibly catchy.

This game has gone on to spawn the popular Mario vs Donkey Kong on GBA and Mario vs Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis for DS titles. I hope that someday Nintendo will release a handheld version of the Virtual Console for DSi Ware and add this to the catalogue.

Number Five!

Alex Kidd In Miracle World
Released in 1986 for the Sega Master System, re-released for Wii’s Virtual Console in 2008

 
Simple yet challenging. As were most platform games of the 80s and 90s.

The first game in this feature is none other than Sega’s answer to Super Mario, Alex Kidd in Miracle World. Incidentally this great little piece of history was also the first game I had ever played, back in 1991 on my little Sega Master System II. It took me seventeen years to finish this game, and even then it required the use of an emulator and save states, but every time I play this game I feel three years old again. As mentioned earlier, Miracle World was only one of Sega’s attempts at competing against the immense popularity of the Super Mario franchise during the Nintendo vs Sega days of old. Alex Kidd went on to inspire various sequels throughout the Master System’s lifetime and eventually onto the Sega MegaDrive/Genesis.

Those freakin’ dragons used to scare the hell out of me.

Though the levels were never particularly long, they became increasingly challenging. Add to this the lack of a save system – which was the norm for platformers up until perhaps the mid-90s – and you have yourself a means to play games with immense precision. See before save systems were incorporated to games gamers had to play using this thing called “skills”. Mind you, it took me a few years to finally develop these as I could never seem to pass the third or fourth level. And even then when it came to the rock-paper-scissors (or “janken” in Japanese) boss battles I would usually have to get one of my uncles or parents to figure it out for me since it was way above my comprehension.

Despite this though, I always loved returning to Miracle World knowing full-well I will eventually get a game over and start again. Either the level design was immensely compelling and the art made the game look great, or I was just a weird kid who lived a life of repetition. Hmm.

In all seriousness though, Alex Kidd in Miracle World is a fantastic little platform game and is highly regarded as one of the best titles for the system. The graphics were great, the gameplay was simple yet challenging, and the sound/music is memorable. Fun fact: For Aussies who watch Hey Hey! It’s Saturday! on Channel 9, the “fail sound” from their celebrity trivia/game segments is the death chime from this game.

Alcohol + Video Games = One of the Best Atmospheres Ever

I recently got a heads up from a friend about a little-known event called Ultracade hosted in Adelaide’s La Boheme Bar. It’s a frequent event presented by local chiptune enthusiast and all around gamer DJ TR!P who, I should add, has a brilliant taste in 8-bit music. Every Ultracade event is themed whether it be 2D Fighting Games night to Golden Era of Gaming night – this particular evening was the Sega Special Edition.

I’ve always known that house parties that involve sensible amounts of alcohol and a gaming console such as, let’s say the Wii, will always result in good times. However I wasn’t expecting anything quite like what I experienced at La Boheme tonight; the moment I walked in there was a Sega Master System, Sega MegaDrive, Sega Saturn and Dreamcast all set up in a for play, with a projector displaying Daytona USA and really up-beat chiptunes blaring in the background. I’d never felt so comfortable and happy to be in a venue full of fellow geeks and gamers – I mostly dislike contests and conventions due to the fact they attract testosterone-fueled (ha ha) obnoxious gamers all adamantly trying to out-do each other for no real reason. Some how this was completely different and made me absolutely love it!

Earlier this year Aussie game industry personalities Guy Blomberg, Shay Leighton, Pras Moorthy and Ben Croshaw collaborated to create Australia’s premier video game-centric pub The Mana Bar, allowing patrons to enjoy a couple of drinks and play the latest games on the latest consoles. Upon its opening night on March 20th 2010, it has seen enormous success receiving positive responses from the public and even some media outlets. The bar is open seven days a week and also hosts special events such as tournament nights, themes and pre-launch events. It’s also important to note that despite being a venue primarily dedicated to serving alcohol, it has not incurred a single act of violence from a customer yet.

 

 

It makes me wonder why there isn’t already at least one of these types of bars in every city that has a high number of gamers. Places like these would make huge amounts of bank catering to such a passionate and socially active audience. It’s also a great way to get gamers offline and meet other gamers face-to-face and embrace their passion in a social atmosphere. According to The Mana Bar’s Twitter feed, the proprietors are looking to franchise their business and open shop in Melbourne, Sydney and possibly over-seas. I saw screw that – bring one over to Adelaide, and let’s not forget our Western comrades in Perth!

My Top Five Games of All Time

Starting next Monday (ACST) I will be posting five consecutive entries over the week featuring my five most favourite games of all time. For each game I’m aiming to give around four hundred words containing a short review and what that game meant to me.

A bit of backstory:
I grew up as a Sega kid with my first console being the Sega Master System II (with in-built Alex Kidd: In Miracle World) in 1991. As such, I was very rarely able to play a Nintendo home console until April of 1997 when I received a Nintendo 64. Since then I’ve owned every major home console bar the original Playstation. As for handhelds, my collection started with the original GameBoy in Christmas of 1994 along with Metroid II: Return of Samus. Not very long after this I also had a Sega GameGear, however my time with it was short-lived since we sold it after around six months. Since the GameBoy Colour I’ve owned every major handheld gaming device.

Video games have been such a huge part of my life since the age of three. As a matter of fact, seeing my Dad come home with the Master System II is actually my second memory – the first being when I was standing in a pair of nappies at age two receiving a bottle of milk from my grandma. Most of my important childhood memories are associated with games in some way such as going over to friends’ houses to play all day, or having a whole bunch come to mine; playing my GameBoy while driving to visit family; watching the Super Mario Brothers Super Show or Captain N cartoons in the mornings before school; staying up late with my uncles (who were teenagers at the time) trying to beat various bosses; and of course trading/battling Pokémon with friends.

It gives me great pleasure to take all these games and work out which were the most important to me and had the biggest impact on my life. I hope you will enjoy it too!

The Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) 2010 [UNFINISHED]

Or as I like to think of it, Christmas for gamers. This is my absolute favourite week of the year – yes, even more than Christ’s birthday (sorry bro). It’s a week filled with games, surprises and media mayhem. This year was particularly great because all three console juggernauts Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony showed off their new hardware. I'll start off by giving my thoughts on each company's press conferences, starting with..

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Microsoft: Okay, so apart from Metal Gear Solid: Rising (which I don't doubt will get some sort of censorship in Australia), Halo: Reach and the relatively humble display of space dogfighting, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved and Dance Central, the show was rather bland. Most of the other items presented were ones already announced at an earlier time or just had little impact at all. Well, except for the 360 Slim reveal and announcement that everyone in the audience gets a free bribe - err - I mean unit. Kinect Sports, Kinectimals, Kinect-other-stuff just looked like knock offs of other efforts (or lack of) already done on the Wii.

And I know what most people are probably thinking - "Uhh, Call of Duty: Black Ops?". Come on, it's more Call of Duty. The only impressive thing about that preview was that it looked like an Infinity Ward game rather than a Treyarch game. With the abundance of high-octane military shooters already released and the ones still on the horizon, is there really reason to keep being so excited about these games? No, no there isn't.

As for my thoughts on Kinect itself... Well... There's a lot of potential there. But then again, there's always a lot of potential with new hardware, it's just a matter of developers thinking more with their heads and less with their wallets - and in most cases that's too much of an ask. Harmonix's Dance Central looks like a great new dance game that you actually dance to. I enjoy going out with friends and dancing every now and again, but hopefully this game'll help me learn some new grooves to bust out for the chicas.

Nintendo: If you've read my rant on Nintendo from last year, then you'll know that I've grown to become really disappointed with them over the last few years. I honestly didn't know what to expect out of their upcoming conference, so judging by their efforts over the last three years I decided to go with low spirits. Passed the first twenty minutes of an incredibly awkward demo of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword by Miyamoto (God that was hard to watch...), the briefing really picked itself up and worked to be the best conference of the show. So many great announcements were made such as Donkey Kong Country Returns, Goldeneye, Kirby's Epic Yarn and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Then there was the 3DS reveal and the myriad of announcements (on and off-stage) for that console as well - Kid Icarus: Rising, Nintendogs + Cats, Metal Gear, Lylat Wars, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Resident Evil, Super Street Fighter IV, Animal Crossing, DJ Hero, Kingdom Hearts, Pilotwings, Mario Kart and Paper Mario just to name a few. There were also quite a few new features mentioned by Ninty such as 3D photos thanks to the front-loaded stereoscopic cameras, a “tag mode” not unlike bark mode in 2005’s Nintendogs, improved processing power that’s comparable, if not more powerful, than the Wii and an analogue nub. With so many titles already announced – a lot of them supposedly aiming for the launch of the handheld – the 3DS has the most potential out of the upcoming hardware list to be the best piece of gaming hardware yet.

All of my nerdgasming aside, it’s a safe bet that Nintendo “won” E3 this year. However, with such huge announcements this year, there is very little for Nintendo to expose next year other than a successor to the Wii – hopefully catching up to current-gen specs in HD performance – and franchises like Pikmin, F-Zero (please Ninty, pleeeaaase), Fire Emblem or possibly even a stand-alone Yoshi title. I’m extremely happy that they’ve decided to shine the spotlight the hardcore crowd, it’s just that I’m afraid they may have put all of their eggs into one basket.

Sony: Hoo boy, if you thought Nintendo had a lot of stuff going on during their show, Sony’s was a huge mash of content. The presentation went for over two hours and most of it was already stuff the public knew, however there were some great moments – like Kevin Butler’s “impromptu” speech.

 

[This blog-post is unfinished due the increasing lack of interest in writing it. I started it a couple of weeks after E3 had finished and at that point the news had already spread all over the interwebs so there was really no point in giving my views on it. Sorry peeps.]