Tag: Winter in Gaming

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Winter in Gaming – Day 31 // Fighting Games!!

‘Cause nothing warms you up quicker than rage right?

Ok, just hear me out…

Fighting Games are a great parallel to the New Years Resolutions that an awful lot of people will be claiming to take into the new year.

If you was take a swab of the average video game player who’s played a fighting game, their skill level will likely be the casual button basher type.  Someone with a varied level of familiarity to how these games work and just sort of mash directions and buttons in hopes of pulling off something flashy.

Whilst that might awkwardly get the job done against people who do the same thing.  In reality it’s as if you entered a Pianist competition and in between some beautifully played music by others you simply came in and started whacking keys and hoping for the best. Continue reading “Winter in Gaming – Day 31 // Fighting Games!!”

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Winter in Gaming – Day 30 // Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games

Every other year we get to witness some new advances in video game technology.  This might be in the form of a new video games console or cutting edge graphics card(s), or perhaps a new peripheral that gives us a new way to experience games such as Virtual Reality, 3D gaming, or even controller technology like motion controls, rumble packs, the analog stick, shoulder buttons…yada yada yada.

If I could time travel back to 1997 and tell that version of me about things like; PlayStation VR, the Nintendo 3DS, Steam Sales, smart phone games being better graphically than anything of that era, local multi-player becoming somewhat a rarity in place of online gaming… 

11 year old me: “Woah! No way!  I wish I could be there now!”

I’d lap it up.

Though if I was to go back to 1997 and tell that version of me that one day… Mario and Sonic will star in a series of games together, and that Sega will stop making console and go on to make a whole load of console exclusive and multi-platform titles, and start to see Nintendo as an ally and not the enemy.

11 year old me:  “AHHHH!!  Stranger Danger, get this deranged psycho away from me”

It would be entirely unthinkable… Continue reading “Winter in Gaming – Day 30 // Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games”

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Winter in Gaming – Day 29 // Scott Pilgrim vs The World*

Whilst I’ve got love for every entry I’ve put forth so far, some entries have truly warmed me to write about because they either take me back to a simpler happy time, or they just remind me why video games have never ceased to exist as my premier hobby.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game is one of those games.

Going into 2010 I was undeniably excited for the Scott Pilgrim film to be released.  It pandered to the awkward dork like me.  Once the film landed I loved it.  As a single gamer between girlfriends at the time I could relate to the character in a number of ways and the careful attention in referencing nostalgic pop culture stuff is essentially my existence.

So naturally, the geek in me lasso’d onto the franchise and get deep into the fandom.  I bought the books, I bought t-shirt’s that only fans would recognise, I showed as many friends I could the film (possibly annoying others by narrating every reference I could from the film), and…I bought the game.

Continue reading “Winter in Gaming – Day 29 // Scott Pilgrim vs The World*”

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Winter in Gaming – Day 27 // Karaoke Games

When it comes to mixing Singing + Video Games I find usually that their are 2 camps.  The “I love to sing” people, and the “I need to be a certain level of intoxication, then I will oblige”.

For me it depends where I am, and with whom as to whether or not a drink or several for dutch courage is needed for a self confidence boost.

Whilst Karaoke is roughly over half a century old now, the video game counterpart is only just about in it’s teens.  The first major home console karaoke game is Karaoke Revolution which hit Japan in 2003 Continue reading “Winter in Gaming – Day 27 // Karaoke Games”

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Winter in Gaming – Day 26 // Bully

Though European as I may be, I refuse to refer to is as it’s European title “Canis Canim Edit” which supposedly came out of pressure on Rockstar to censor the title (over informed parents and such assuming the game was promoting bullying).

“Bully” followed a train of awesome releases from Rockstar Games throughout the PlayStation 2 era.  “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas”, and “The Warriors” preceeded it in the 2 fall/ autumn release calendars in the years ahead of it, and speaking personally as a fan of both those 2 games you can certainly see the progression of certain ideas within the 3rd person gameplay.

Continue reading “Winter in Gaming – Day 26 // Bully”

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Winter in Gaming – Day 23 // Cool Cool Mountain (Super Mario 64)

Ah, Cool Cool Mountain.  My old friend.

Super Mario 64 is a game I personally revisit at least once a year just to touch base with, and every couple of years or so to actually heartily get into for a 120 star playthrough.  When games had to grow up from a 2D plain to the open world of 3D so many developers found themselves lost and how to make it work.

Continue reading “Winter in Gaming – Day 23 // Cool Cool Mountain (Super Mario 64)”

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Winter in Gaming – Day 21 // Animal Crossing (Series)

The Animal Crossing series has been offering up some fantastic choice gaming to play over Winter for over 10 years now.

If you’re unfamiliar with the franchise…  Animal Crossing is a laid back virtual life experience.  You do chores, fish, catch bugs, dig up treasures, interact with a plentiful of personalities, make friends, and in the process you earn money, items, and open up more options for what you can do, see, buy, etc.

You can then use the money in many ways to either improve your own highly customisable home, or make improvements to the town you’re surrounded in.

Continue reading “Winter in Gaming – Day 21 // Animal Crossing (Series)”

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Winter in Gaming – Day 20 // SSX (series)

For those of you following these daily posts as they come in you surely HAD to expect SSX to make the list, right?

For a good decade or so we used to live in an age were Snowboard games were a common sight.

The original PlayStation had it’s “Cool Boarders” series.  Nintendo had “1080 Snowboarding” both on Nintendo 64 and GameCube, and the XBOX had “Amped”.  Plus like with any popular game genre you had your fair share of ‘poor mans…’ attempts at some snowboard gaming recognition.

It wasn’t until “SSX” (for PlayStation 2) and it’s multi-platform (style over new substance) sequel “SSX Tricky” came along that the gaming world as a whole seemed to all agree it was favourable, similar to how the world as a whole fell in love with the Tony Hawks series a few years prior to this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnzRH35JOgQ

Continue reading “Winter in Gaming – Day 20 // SSX (series)”

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Winter in Gaming – Day 18 // Mario Party!

A week on since I suggested Mario Kart in general, but winter specifically for it’s Ice/ Snow tracks.  This week I submit Mario Party for the same reasons.

If you own Nintendo systems, and you have the luxury of having friends at your place a lot, then you owe it to yourself and your Nintendo console to have a Mario Party for it (unless the console is from a Pre-Mario Party era).

Playing it solo is pretty much always a sub par experience, but sat alongside friends the game can be a riot.  Temporary allegiances, cunning plans, constant betrayals, all common place.  The element of strategy you’re left with in Mario Party really puts the series as the number 1 party game when it comes to really testing the strength of friendship.

Continue reading “Winter in Gaming – Day 18 // Mario Party!”

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Winter in Gaming – Day 17 // Sonic 3’s Ice Cap Zone

I’d like to think this level comes to mind for most video game fans when asked to think about iconic snow/ ice stages in games.  Unless you’re a naive child with no education in 16bit or prior.

Ice Cap Zone was the point in which most kids minds were blown when it came to playing through Sonic 3 (or Sonic 3 & Knuckles). Continue reading “Winter in Gaming – Day 17 // Sonic 3’s Ice Cap Zone”