Thoughts of Gaming in my Head

Christmas so soon?  That hardly seems fair.  Having just finished finals and now being forced to rush away from what I now consider home, I long for time to relax.  But then Christmas.  Family. Presents. Shopping.  Is there any other holiday that wears so many people down so quickly?  My friends, I am a simple man.  I don't need a lot to be happy and I never know what to ask for when others want to buy me gifts.  I have what I need.  If I found something I wanted, I'm sure there's some way I can get it.  I've never been a big fan of Christmas.  I do not look forward to watching Spike TV's 24 hour marathon of James Bond movies nor TBS' 24 hour marathon of A Christmas Story.  Even the games that come out at this time of year seem to lack luster.  Maybe that's just me.  Maybe one of the authors at Super Dope Gaming is a Grinch or Scrooge.  Well, Bah Humbug I say; let's talk about the great titles over the years that came out during the non-holiday season.

This won't be another holiday list like below.  I've passed that milestone.  What this is, is more like, "hey, don't worry about Christmas or New Years Eve, just think about gaming's greatest feats and take a well-deserved break from all the hustle and bustle."  Now, to start, how about we go back to when gaming was segregated from the world -- a time when people could only play games in a darkly lit building, throwing away money earned from mowing the lawn, a time when the arcade was the place to be a gamer.  Besides, I think it's appropriate with the recent release of X-Men Arcade.  If you haven't played that masterful multiplayer, then now is the time.  The game, on your own, is nothing special.  It can be completed in less than an hour and you can grow bored with the button mashing that is the side-scrolling fighter.  If you've played the game on it's original cabinet, with six or four players, then do what you can to find that cabinet again because that's where it shines.  The arcade was the era of Donkey Kong and Pac Man, but soon enough came the ability to get more and more people in on the action.  I can't think of any other game that let more than one to three other people join in, but I can definitely tell you that everybody wants to be Wolverine and no one wants to be Dazzler.

Nothing says F**k You Christmas like a tornado.

For those of you a little younger -- or just not lucky enough to have a Penny or Nickel Arcade nearby -- we can skip ahead a few years to one of the monumental strides gaming has made.  Ok, that may be pushing it.  It's just Sonic the Hedgehog.  Sonic, Sonic, Sonic.  We want so badly to like you now.  Sonic Colors is admirable.  It got good scores, seemed like a new and interesting take on a game built on running fast.  But everything else, everything else that came out recently... why would you do that to people who love you?  I don't understand?  Turning into a werewolf?  Getting a sword?  Racing in cars?  You don't need a car, Sonic, you need better games.  We love you because we remember looking for the codes in gaming magazines to enter in the sound test to skip through levels or become Super Sonic -- even though we would always fall into that pit in "Mystic Cave Zone," that had no way of getting out, because we were going too fast.  We love you because of Sonic 3 and Sonic 3 and Knuckles, which only when put together do they make a complete game.  We love you because you had the evil Dr. Robotnik as a nemesis who tried to conquer the world and turn people into robot slaves rather than just steal a princess.  I love you still, Sonic.  I will never play any of your new games, but I'm glad you were released in the summer so I don't have to relate you to Christmas.

We're gonna jump ahead here and miss a generation of consoles, but I think that's for the best.  I'm going to make the statement, and probably ruffle some feathers, when I say Ninja Gaiden (2004) was the best game to come out on the original Xbox.  Sure, there wasn't any multiplayer and it can never reach the success of Halo. But the level of difficulty, variety of weapons, non-linear story telling, crazy/bloody action, amazing boss battles and several other aspects put that game at the forefront of what to own for the Xbox.  Plus, it makes you feel like a badass every single time you get the "Master Ninja" rank.  The game calls you a Master Ninja.   That should be all the advertising it needs.  Of course, if you don't do well enough, it also calls you a "Ninja Dog," but that just makes you want to do better.  There's nothing holiday-related to remind you of Christmas in this game, other than the demons from Hell, which I guess can be seen as your extended family.  You know the ones I'm talking about.  The ones that bring fruit cakes and can't remember your name, but still refuse to leave you alone.

You are worth exactly this much to your relatives.

Now, even after mentioning these few games that game out in the summer or a couple months after the holiday season, you still may think that just because games come out for Christmas doesn't make them horrible.  Well, let me tell you something.  Every Mario Party game, except for the latest one (Mario Party 8), came out just in time to be picked up as a present.  I mean, I like board games, I like Mario, but that doesn't mean the two should be brought together as an excuse to shove crap into stockings.  Even the Winter Olympics are worse than the real Olympics.  Does anyone watch the winter Olympics?  Is it just snowboarding and skiing?  Maybe curling?  I have no idea, but Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games didn't win anyone over.  That game, in case you wondering, also came out a couple months before Christmas.

Time Passes But Love Never Dies

As I sit here, drinking my tall, cold, plastic cup of chocolate milk, looking through old photos of friends whom I never talk to anymore, I realize that many things have changed in my life over the years.  I've moved from the Central Valley, down to Santa Barbara and then way up to San Francisco.  I've gained and lost numerous friends, fallen in love (twice) and even got into a couple of car accidents.  All of these experiences have changed how I live my life or how I view others.  My tastes have changed as well.  I now have a much broader appreciation for films, books, music and, not surprisingly, my family.  I've heard that the only constant in life is change.  In my experience this seems about right.  Although, there is one thing that has never changed -- something I can't imagine ever changing:  my love for certain videogames.

My favorite game, which has been mentioned several times on this site, is over a decade old.  It came out on the Nintendo 64, a system with the most awkward controller and a catalog of games that comes up short when compared with its main competitor, the PlayStation 2.  Countless other games have come out on about a dozen home consoles and hand helds, but few have earned the right to be compared with that one N64 title.  At least, according to me.  The Halo series has now become a blockbuster franchise with near-perfect multi-player capabilities.  Super Mario Galaxy has redefined the platformer genre.  World of Warcraft has over 12 million people willing to pay a monthly fee in order to give up their own lives and play a game.  I wonder how many people who have played these games will name a classic throw-back title as their favorite, and possibly as the best, game of all time.  Do these titles always rest on pedestals while we maintain some kind of grand illusion about them?  Would our favorite games be worth going back to after so much time has passed?  Would they stand the test of time or fall by the wayside along with other, outdated games?

 At one time this was the pinnacle of technology in our civilization.

There are some who can call a game "great" simply because of the nostalgia it brings.  Memories of a time without paper work or dead lines.  This may be enough of a reason to play a game, but certainly not enough to judge whether or not a game is great.  I loved playing Pokemon Snap with a group of friends a couple years ago, but I know I would never play that game alone.  Not again.  We see this type of thing happen all the time.  We're probably all guilty of hearkening back to the good ol' days about something or other.  You can barely turn on the news without hearing how things have gotten so much worse over time.  Well, this is actually the best time to be alive since the beginning of time.  So grats on that.  Even with videogames, technology is racing forward.  Have you seen the Kinect hack videos?  They're amazing.  Think of the possibilities.  I get excited every time I think about the future of gaming.  I don't know what's next, but I know I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for it.

Now, with all these new fangled doohickeys coming out from the woodworks, I'd still be shocked if any of them replaced my favorite game.  Let me remind you at this point that it came out on the Nintendo 64.  Others my age, or older, have favorites from the original Nintendo Entertainment System.  What does it say about all the new hardware if they can't compete with games that came out before 3D was even an option?  I try to judge the game based on it's own merit.  When I look back, I don't focus on the good memories of my family watching me progress through each area; I look at the story, the difficulty and the gameplay.  I should try to be as objective as possible.  We all should when discussing the quality of any title.  But here's the real question, if we're so sure that nothing will compare with our old favorites, why play new games at all?  Why not just keep playing those top classics and be content appreciating the quality of an age long since passed?

And the crowd goes silent as I go for my 10,000th straight win...

I'm willing to bet that we always hope the next game will be our new favorite.  No one gets into a game with the thought of how terrible it'll turn out.  People want to be entertained.  Whether that's by some old favorite from childhood or the newest game to hit the shelves I don't think people care.  Every time I pick up a Zelda title, I want it to be better than Ocarina of Time.  I want that experience of playing a game I know is amazing from start to finish.  I want another game I would judge with a perfect score.  I hope that the games of tomorrow surpass those of yesteryear, but, knowing that the majority of games are average and good only for a week-long rental, I don't have any expectations, just memories.