Gaming off the Beaten Path

  Quick, what's the first brand you would associate with a video game? Would it be a major media franchise? There are tons of those, name a media franchise and it's had a video game made about it. Would it be a food company? That's been pretty common since the early days of gaming. A consumer goods company? Depending on the game, it could make sense. Maybe a sports league or wrestling promotion? Hell, that may be the most common situation you see, there's a new NFL, NBA, NHL and WWE game every year.  At this point, many video game franchises have become brands themselves. Mario, Sonic, Resident Evil, Street Fighter, and a host of others are essentially brands of their own at this point. Look, video games are, were and always have been great opportunities for branding, at least when the branding makes sense. But sometimes, you still find games featuring brands that shock you. If you asked me "which brands do you think would best lend themselves to video games?"...

  After a few years of doing this, I've come to realize that what constitutes "off the beaten path" is entirely subjective. There are certainly video game series' that are part of more general popular culture. I would venture a guess that most people out there have heard of Mario or Sonic, even if they've never picked up a controller in their lives. But by the same token, I'm sure there's also someone out there that's like "Shadow Madness? That's not obscure! You don't know what obscure is until you've played Kaiju No Riho: Gaijin Densetsu Gaiden: Don't Panic! without an English translation patch!" I know I've certainly played my share of games that aren't all that obscure. But some of them are really out there for me. I grew up without a Sega console, so stuff like Phantasy Star and Shining Force were completely foreign to me. And that's true of all of us. Ask an American gamer what their favorite ZX Spectrum ga...

  I swore I would never, ever play any of these Lego games, but here I am about to review my second one. The things we do for our children. I have to say, the formula leads to a lot more fun than I ever thought it would. They aren't the most varied or challenging but considering the target audience that should kind of be expected. Big budget titles certainly have their downsides, but you know with something built by a huge team at a huge developer that you are going to get some level of polish on the technical side. But you can also kind of expect all of the umphteen titles that will inevitably come out in a series to sort of run together, even if they feature different IPs. A lot of different universes have received the Lego treatment over the years. Indiana Jones was the first one I played, but now it's time to leave the Temple of Doom Behind and travel to the mean streets of Gotham City. In terms of lore, I'm going in a little less blind than I was last time. I am certa...

  As someone who plays old games almost exclusively, I'm constantly reminded of how big the jump between console generations could be. Look at a PS4 game vs. a PS5 title, or an XBox One game vs. a Series S game and it can be hard to tell they are even from different generations. Sure, if you look more closely you can see the newer consoles are superior, but the differences don't always jump off the screen at you. But compare a PS1 game to a PS2 game, or an NES game to an SNES title and you will know the difference immediately. This was a major part of Sega's marketing strategy in the late 80's and early 90's, when the 16-bit Genesis was still competing directly with the 8-bit NES. Sure, the NES may have boasted a much larger library of games featuring some classic titles, but it was much easier to point to a simple screenshot of a Genesis game and say "look." Sure, it was a lot easier to do with some games than others. I've reviewed some earlier Genesi...