Super Nintendo Entertainment System

In comparison to its younger brother the SNES had a wonderful design, where as the NES looked like a cheap lunchbox with the coloured buttons and curvy design the SNES tells you immediately: “this is going to be fun” – and fun it was.  I didn’t own a SNES myself but I borrowed one for a time and had plenty of play-time on what most people regard as the classics, and two out of my three games here are all time classics irrespective of platform.

Probably the most obvious choice and a defining moment for the genre, the console  and perhaps the era is 2D fighting legend Street Fighter 2: Turbo Edition.  There were a few versions of Street Fighter released on the SNES and whilst I feel justified in combining them into one for the sake of simplicity it’s the Turbo Edition that stood out for me, never before had we seen such a fast-paced twitchy fighting game packed with special moves and combos – it was a joy to behold but a real labour of love to master.

Another clear stand-out game is Super Mario Kart, oddly I stand out as being one of the small minority of gamers who has never particularly liked the Mario Kart games but I still recognise it for the landmark it is and I am well aware of how popular the game remains up to this day (with DS and Wii versions selling like hot-cakes).  The game made good use of the common SNES graphical trick of rotating a 2D plane to give a 3D look and feel (known as Mode 7) and it pretty-much fooled everyone causing the work to fall in love with the game and the console.

Lastly is another Mode 7 masterpiece – Pilotwings.  Whilst it never really provided the ‘thrills and spills’ of more action-packed genres this parachute, gliding qnd flying simulator really opened peoples eyes to what you could do with the simplest of 3D implementations.  Even when I re-play the game today I still get that sense of airy lightness that the game gives off in a combination of perfect graphics and sound.

Sega Megadrive / Genesis

Alongside the SNES, Sega’s Megadrive (or Genesis in the US) was one of the significant era-defining consoles in video gaming history, between the two consoles they’re responsible for turning a generation of kids into gamers and despite the potential fanboy-vs-fanboy flamewar fallout I’d put them both on a par for their impact on and input to the video gaming world.  Always much more drab than the SNES, the Megadrive and Megadrive II were compact little black units that didn’t really ooze fun but provided me with some of my most fun gaming experiences.

It’s inevitable that I’m going to mention the Megadrive’s flagship game: Sonic the Hedgehog, a game I must of completed more than twenty times and I honestly don’t think that there is a more perfect example of a platform game out there.   Whilst also available on the Master System it’s the 16-bit graphics and sound that really allowed Sega to pull off one of the platform’s first truly cartoon-like games, bettered in graphical style only by the Disney games: Castle of Illusion, World of Illusion and Fantasia.

It’s difficult to stop myself from rambling on and on about Megadrive games but I’ll try to limit myself to a few more titles that I believe either defined a genre or brought about a new change in direction for gaming.  My stand-out game here is Desert Strike, a top-down isometric combat helicopter sim. that required the user not only to get to grips with a bizarre control method but also added a degree of mission planning and forethought by forcing the player to think about fuel, ammo and hostage rescue whilst trying to complete the missions handed out.

One genre that really seemed to take off in the 4th generation of consoles and I think particularly on the Megadrive was sports titles, one clearly landmark title was EA’s FIFA International Soccer – the game that started one of gaming’s most successful series.  Whilst also available on the Master System again it was really took 16-bit graphics and speed to get the genre going with the followup game FIFA Soccer 95 being a Megadrive exclusive and other franchises throwing their hats into the ring such as NBA Jam, Madden NFL, NHL Hockey, NHLPA Hockey, PGA Tour Golf and so on.

Other honourable mentions go to sideways-scrolling beat-em-ups Revenge of Shinobi and Streets of Rage II, classic 2D fighting game Mortal Kombat, mini-racer Micro Machines and the weirdo sandbox title Toejam and Earl.

Sega Add-ons: Mega-CD & 32X

One of Sega’s biggest problems and I think a major contributor to its eventual downfall is that they were always high on their on supply, they believed in their grand vision just a little too much.  This attitude led them to fragment the market by releasing the Sega-CD and later the 32X, add-ons that few people understood and which never really received enough attention from developers to build up a good library of titles.

The Mega-CD was unit that fit either underneath the original Megadrive or alongside the Megadrive II holding the main console in a sort of cradle, it provided a CD-ROM drive which would naturally allow much higher volumes of data to be stored alongside real CD-quality sounds, Full Motion Video (which was mainly grainy and pointless) and some additional graphics horsepower.  The problem was that most games of the era didn’t really need that and consequently most titles released seemed to be much more like technology showcases than decent playable games (Night Trap I’m looking at you).  This time I’m not going to pick a ‘best game’ out of the pile I’ve got because I honestly don’t believe that any of them rate higher than the standard Megadrive titles.

The 32X was a strange beast indeed, meant to up the power of the Megadrive to a 32-bit level it was a mushroom-like lump that was attached directly to the cartridge bay of the main console and in turn took specially designed cartridges itself, there were never really many games available for the 32X and I imagine the whole project lost a lot of money for Sega.  Still, some titles really showed off a level of power beyond that of any other equivalent on the standard 4th gen. consoles, found Virtua Racing Deluxe and Doom to be two of the best available.

Resistance Fall of Man
A passable FPS, would’ve stood out about 5 years ago but now feels dated. Clearly a first-cut by a developer used to creating kiddie platformers, I mean no disrespect as the Insomniac guys because they seem quite amiable but on any other console this would’ve gotten lost amongst all the other titles.

Motorstorm
I can’t say too much about this since I only played it a few times and each time I did a few laps and almost died of boredom, the feel of the game was pretty good but the arbitrarily difficult physics (‘smack into something solid and survive’ vs. ‘barely clip something and get trashed’) got on my nerves and at no point did anything make me want to persevere, hell – Need For Speed Most Wanted had me hooked for longer.

Warhawk
What can I say? After so much raving from the community I thought “this is a game I have to buy” so I did. I really should stop being so optimistic. For starters the whole SixAxis control method is way to spongy, I just seemed to flop around and not really get very far so I turned it off only to find that it’s the game that’s a bit weird and I find the third-person perspective made me feel so disconnected from the experience. On the plus side I will say that the maps are nice and big (though that seemed to make for long games with low kill counts) and the connection seemed to be very smooth even for very large matches (when managed to get into a game).

So now I’m left with my PSN titles – Super Rub-a-Dub (I love it), Tekken Dark Resurrection (I love it), Flow (it’s OK) and Calling All Cars (thoroughly disappointing). I don’t really plan to buy any more PS3 games until I’m certain that they’re any good, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune seems to be getting love from the community but the rest of the top games on the PS3 are multi-platform anyway so I’ll just stick with the 360.

This blog post has also been cross-posted on my specialist gaming blog, hosted on the Gamercast Network.

What websites do you visit every day?
Submitted by Chez Michelle.

I’m an avid gamer, techie and current-affairs junkie so I check…

• The Gamercast Network – website for a series of podcasts and a brilliant good-natured forum as well.
• Eurogamer – great news site for games and a rare gem of European based news.
• BBC News – my absolute favourite news channel and website.
• Digg – a superb social news site, excellent for highlighting the quirkier stories as well as good solid tech news.
• Xbox.com – I have a 360 but don’t use it every day, I visit the site to see who’s online, read my messages and send messages to my friends.

That’s all folks.

1. Podcasting
I had a look in 2005 and there really wasn’t any great content out there, I came back in 2006 and it was like the whole ‘industry’ had exploded with some well established shows as well as some new favourites, this was really the year the podcasting became established.

2. Video Gaming
With the Xbox 360 released in December 2005 (but generally available March 2006) and the December launch of the Wii and the PS3 (US only) this really has been the year for gaming. More than that Nintendo have performed an amazing feat by pulling games out of Geekdom and into popular culture, not only with the Wii but with this year’s release of the DS Lite and the wonderful Brain Training.

3. Beta Releases
I’m not sure what’s happened but in 2006 nobody wants to release a product without having a public Beta, this has been true for games (Phantasy Star Universe + Final Fantasy XI on the Xbox 360), PC software (Office 2007, Windows Vista) and everything regarded as Web 2.0.

4. Video & Broadcasting
This year has seen a fundamental change in the way people watch and interact with video, of course nobody missed the popularity of YouTube and its acquisition by Google for $1.65bn but the I find the complementary changes in the broadcast industry to be even more interesting. Many major players have been trying to get into the User Generated Content (UGC) market ranging from pointless attempts by people who just don’t get it (MTV Flux) to well-done but still distinctly old-media (BBC’s Your News).

5. High Definition
In 2006 we saw the launch of both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, heralding a new era of home cinema – let’s just hope that one of the two competing formats wins sooner rather than later so consumers can buy with confidence. 2006 also saw the introduction of Sky’s High Definition Satellite service, sadly it was over-priced, delivered late and has limited quantities of genuine HD content. This year also seems to be the year that people started to buy HD TVs in great quantities, at the end of 2005 I didn’t know anybody with an HD TV, now over half of my friends either own or are seriously considering an HD TV and the prices still keep on tumbling.

Well, I’m convinced I’ve missed something but that’ll have to do, I think I’ll go to bed now and hopefully dream of 2007, if I do then you’ll have my predictions tomorrow!

I pre-ordered my Wii back months ago, from the moment the new controller was unveiled I knew I had to have one. When it got closer to launch day I booked the day off of work and confirmed with Gamestation that my order would be fulfilled, it would – all things set for happiness. Unfortunately something came up at work so I had to work on Friday but I still collected it at midnight and played Wii Sports for about an hour. Then, that weekend and the following week I was working / sleeping / Christmas shopping / socialising and didn’t really get the chance to play it (see this is the sad bit). This weekend just gone though, I got to play a little Red Steel, a little Zelda and a bit of Wii Sports and some Virtual Console games and I’m very pleased with the outcome. In brief…

Wii Sports
Very fun, quite tiring but pretty hilarious in two-player. My flatmate (a girl) an I played it for a while and the split screen mode is great fun, we got a few volleys going in Tennis and once you get the hang of it you can really control what’s going on.

Red Steel
It’s OK, because it’s not cartooney the low-res graphics on the Wii really show themselves up and I did for a few seconds think “what have I done?”, but I persevered and, well – it’s OK. I’ve not got to the sword-fighting bit yet but I do like the novelties, such as that to reload you just shake the Nun-Chuk downwards and to open a door you shake it upwards. Overall though it didn’t feel that responsive and the general sentiment of 6/10 – 7/10 is pretty justified.

Zelda Twilight Princess
My name is thirtyfootscrew, and I have never played a Zelda game before. Phew, that was hard to admit but now I’ve done it I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. It’s also a lie because now I have played Twilight Princess (though it really is the first Zelda I’ve ever played) and it seems quite good. I won’t judge the game on half-an-hour’s play as it’s not fair for such a big game but first impressions are good, I shall report back sometime in the future.

Virtual Console
I like it, though I have no real concept of what these Wii points are worth so I can’t comment on the value for money – I just went on a mini-spending spree. I loved playing Golden Axe and Columns, Mario Bros is rubbish (remember – this isn’t Super Mario Bros) and I’ve not really played Mario 64 enough to comment. The system all in all is easy to use though no better ordered than Xbox Live Arcade so will be a nightmare when it has lots of content, even though I don’t have kids I was pleased that it has ratings info for each game as it’ll help parents (something I think is good for the industry even though I’m generally anti-censorship).

General ‘ness’
I love it, I think it’s fantastic – tonight I was more excited than I have been in years about a console – I came home and it was glowing blue. I opened up the Wii Menu (basically the Wii’s OS) and found that I’d received a message from Nintendo telling me that the Forecast Channel was available. I downloaded the update and launched the channel, a brief setup tells it where you live (or nearest large town) and got stuck in, at a basic level it gives you current, 6-hour, next day and 5-day weather forecasts which seems like all you’d need. Of course, Nintendo didn’t stop there – you can zoom in and out, check other towns in the country by ‘grabbing’ the earth (zoom out enough and it is a globe), or towns in other countries.

I spent about half an hour checking weather in places like Cape Town, Baghdad, Sidney, Sri-Lanka, New York – it was great. I know this sounds trivial but the user-experience of just ‘grabbing’ the world and shifting it around really made me see what could be possible with the Wii – I believe that this is the first mass-market step in a new model of human-computer interaction and it really works. I have friends who would never consider playing on the Xbox 360 that say “that sounds fun, I’ll have to come round and try it”, my female (non-gaming) flat-mate bought herself a controller and spent an hour playing Wii Sports with one of her female non-gaming friends. Stuff like that just doesn’t happen, at least it didn’t used to – things are changing.

The one last thing I like is that whatever you’re doing it always plays soothing music to you and makes nice comforting noises when you click on things, it reminds me of the Heart of Gold from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – except less irritating, I think that might might make both Xbox360 and PS3 the Paranoid Androids.

MicroSony 0 – 1 Nintendo
An away win is always so much sweeter.

Well, now the host of the show Chris Paladino has secured a job working for Microsoft’s gaming community site Gamerscore Blog working in the community – a dream come true more-or-less. The rest of the crew have created a new podcasting network Gamercast Network to bring together a range of independent gaming podcasts, this could be good for gamers in general so watch this space.

As for DreamStation.cc, they’re continuing to podcast and will grow into their own style once more, I will definitely keep on listening and using the forums, if you’ve never tried I reccommend you have a look.