Winter in Gaming – Day 15 // Ice Type Pokémon

I still greatly remember the day after high school that my mum took me and my sister to get copies of Pokémon Red & Blue.  I’d been reading about it for ages through coverage in N64 magazine that covered things popular in Japan, and things relating to Game Boy.

The constant exposure to these strange interesting “Pocket Monsters” from Nintendo and the fact it was so seemingly infectious wherever it was to touch down made me adamant I wanted to day 1 be part of the craze when it came to England.

Comparatively Pokémon came so late to Europe, and given how awesome some of the games I had for PlayStation and Nintendo 64 were at the time it seems crazy to think such a primitive looking game captured so many in a world before cellphones.

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Winter in Gaming – Day 11 // Mario Kart

Regardless of if you’re keen for the festive season.  The majority of the world is at it’s coldest right now, so you’re more likely to be in doors.

Now you could sit and feel blue about how much money you don’t have this time of year, or the fact there’s less daylight…

or!

Why not invite a friend or 3 round and play Mario Kart.  Plan b, for those lacking a Nintendo (I feel for you) just send your Nintendo having friend a message and get some Mario Kart scheduled!

Look it’s Mario Kart.  I’d be a patronising pokey if I was to write an article explaining what Mario Kart is and why it’s good.  It’s already proven simple maths.

Mario Kart + Friends = Good times.

Their are some advanced Mario Kart math classes such as “Friend + Blue Shell = Asshole”, but I’m not here to teach math.

 

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Winter in Gaming – Day 10 // Dead Rising 4

So this past week saw the release of Dead Rising 4 on XBOX One and PC. I was going to save this game as something I’d ask my parents to get me for Christmas, but given the fact I’ve set myself this task of daily wintry gaming write ups, it made sense to find a way to buy it at release.

Well. I’m hear to tell you that if you’re asking for this game for Christmas. Show that lovely generous person this article.  This is a heads up urge by me for you to play this game on Christmas Eve at the latest!
Scroll down to the bold “FUN PART” text for the reason for saying that>
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Winter in Gaming – Day 9 // Blades of Steel (w/ Ice Hockey)

If you’re old enough to have a good recollection of the 8bit and 16bit era of sports video games specifically, then you’ll likely recall that for the most part they were pretty dire.

In fact, we specifically herald certain sports games as being legendary simply because they were the rare gems we always wanted to find.

Firstly think of any old video game console that you like a sports game on.  Now, it’s likely that if you go find a list of the games released on that console and further narrow it down to the specific genre of that sport of which your chosen game is simulating, that you’ll find a handful or more of lesser sports games.  Some of these you probably never even knew existed, and then there will be others on that list that’ll have you muttering along the lines of “oh jeez, I forgot about that game, uhh”
(sorry for undoing the memories your brain worked hard on suppressing).

Well today’s entry in Winter in Gaming is mostly focused on Blades of Steel for the NES.  In fact it was almost entirely going to be based on Blades of Steel until whilst doing a little research into this entry I came across some loyal support for Nintendo’s own “Ice Hockey”, but more on that game later… Continue reading “Winter in Gaming – Day 9 // Blades of Steel (w/ Ice Hockey)”

Winter in Gaming – Day 8 // Pikmin 2 (Valley of Repose)

Today’s entry is less about me running the memory tap on full blast about something from child hood, but more of a suggestion for a wonderful game(s) for you to acquaint yourself with over the colder side of winter.

If you’re reading this on a browser that can background Youtube then here below is the very winter-esque music to put on in the background taken from the featured stage of this article.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUT6OtEiy6Q

To the general gaming masses, Pikmin comes as a very refreshing franchise when compared to it’s video game peers.
At least unless you’re an avid PC gamer, or a player who’s long served their time within gaming and loves strategy games of yore… Continue reading “Winter in Gaming – Day 8 // Pikmin 2 (Valley of Repose)”

Winter in Gaming – Day 7 // Crash Bandicoot 2

What a more appropriate time to write about Crash Bandicoot eh?  This is assuming that you heard the news earlier this year about the remakes coming out, and more recently the new trailer for said remakes?…

On this 7th day of varying amounts of relevance Winter + Gaming I’m putting Crash Bandicoot 2 up on stage.

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Winter in Gaming – Day 6 // DuckTales

DuckTales comes twofold with why I bring this to you for this monthly gaming escapade.

Firstly.  Scrooge McDuck!

scroogedive

Named after Ebenezer Scrooge from the famous “A Christmas Carol” (which you’ve surely seen in some form or another).  Also, speaking of christmas, his debut was in 1947 in comic form for the Disney story  “A Christmas in Bear Mountain” which is available in hardbook form if you’re super keen for Disney history  [Amazon UK] [Amazon US].  The most likely scenario though, is that you’ll be aware of him and his nephews from the beloved (for darn good reason) Disney cartoon “DuckTales”.

Also, he’s SCROOGE.  So if you’re a christmas hater, he’s your man duck.

If you’re a seasoned gamer, or perhaps an avid YouTube video game content watcher, then you’ll most likely of heard about the beloved DuckTales video game too…
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Winter in Gaming – Day 4 // New Super Mario Bros.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the New Super Mario Bros. franchise in the past couple of weeks.  When the original came out on the Nintendo DS in 2006 it was highly anticipated.  It had been ages since Nintendo had release a new 2D Mario game, and surely Nintendo would knock it out the park having been behind so many great 2D platform games throughout numerous different series across a variety of different systems.

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Winter in Gaming – Day 3 // Ice Climber

You’ve either never heard of the game “Ice Climber” nor who the “Ice Climbers” are… or you heard about them from playing Super Smash Bros.
I kid, there are some true Nintendo veterans out in the world that may remember this prior to Smash Bros waking people up to it.

So how does this game relate to winter?  – said nobody

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Winter in Gaming – Day 2 // Metal Gear Solid

Today’s entry in this wintry feature is none other than Metal Gear Solid.  Whilst some days of this features will be focused on a more traditional festive jingle as you saw yesterday.  Days like today will focus on games to play over the winter if you somehow want to simulate the virtual weather you’re struggling to deal with. Continue reading “Winter in Gaming – Day 2 // Metal Gear Solid”